. I understood what
she meant, and I had a feeling of pride about it, too, and I was very
pleased to have some new dresses and hats and other things. But with me
there was no good feeling to my cousin mixed up in all this. I now know
that there was reason for grandmamma's wish to gratify him; he behaved
most generously and thoughtfully about everything, sending her more than
sufficient money for all we needed, and doing it in such a nice
way--just as a son who had grown rich might take pleasure in helping a
mother to whom he owed more than mere money could ever repay.

But though grandmamma read out to me bits of his letters in which he was
always repeating how grateful he was to her for coming to his aid in his
difficulties, she did not tell me the whole particulars of her
arrangements with him. He would not have liked it, and I was really too
young to have been told all these money-matters.

I did notice that there was never any mention of me in what she read to
me. And now I know that Mr. Vandeleur did _not_ particularly rejoice at
the prospect of my living with them too. He had proposed that I should
be sent to some very good school, for he knew nothing of children,
especially of little girls. I think he believed they were even more
tiresome and mischievous and bothering in every way than boys.

Grandmamma would not listen for an instant to this proposal. Her first
and greatest duty in life was her granddaughter, 'Paul's little girl,'
and she would do _anything_ rather than be separated from me, especially
as I was delicate and required care. In reality I was not nearly as
delicate as she thought. But I daresay it did not add to my cousin's
wish to have me in his house to hear that I was considered so.

Among the other things that grandmamma had to arrange about was what to
do with Windy Gap. In her heart I believe she thought it very unlikely
that it would ever be our home again, but she did not say anything of
this kind to me. She went off one day to Mr. Timbs to ask him to try to
let it as it was, with our furniture in. He promised to do his best, but
did not think it likely it would let in the winter.

'And by the spring we shall be coming back again,' I said, when granny
told me this. I had not gone with her to Mr. Timbs; she had made some
little excuse for not taking me.

To this she did not reply, and I thought no more about it, but I was
glad to hear that Kezia was to stay on in the cottage to keep it a