ce. Dr. May who had led her into the light, seemed to be
looking her all over, while Richard was taking the wraps from her, and
Ethel tried to encourage herself to go forward.

"Ay!" said the doctor, kissing her. "I see you, Flora, now. I have found
you again."

"I found you as soon as I heard your voice, Richard," said she. "And now
for the bairnies."

"Here is one, but there is but a poor show forthcoming to-night. Do you
know her?"

There was an unspeakable joy in being pressed in Aunt Flora's arms, like
a returning beam from the sunshine of seven years ago.

"This must be Ethel! My dear, how you tower above me--you that I left in
arms! And," as she advanced into the drawing-room--"why, surely this is
not Margaret!"

"A Margaret--not the Margaret. I wish I were," said Meta, as Mrs. Arnott
stood with an arm on her shoulder, in the midst of an embrace, Dr. May
enjoying her perplexity and Meta's blushes. "See, Flora, these black
locks never belonged to Calton Hill daisies, yet a daisy of my own she
is. Can't you guess?"

"Miss Rivers!" exclaimed Mrs. Arnott; and though she kissed her
cordially, Meta suspected a little doubt and disappointment.

"Yes," said Dr. May. "We change Mary for this little woman as Flora's
lady-in-waiting, when she and her husband go out yachting and shooting."

"Flora and her husband! There's a marvellous sound! Where are they?"

"They are staying at Eccleswood Castle," said Ethel; "and Mary with
them. They would have been at home to receive you, but your note
yesterday took us all by surprise. Norman is away too, at a college
meeting."

"And Margaret--my Margaret! Does not she come downstairs?"

"Ah! poor dear," said Dr. May, "she has not been in this room since that
sultry day in July."

"The eighteenth," said Richard; the precision of the date marking but
too well the consciousness that it was an epoch.

"We can keep her quieter upstairs," said Dr. May; "but you must not see
her to-night. She will enjoy you very much to-morrow; but excitement at
night always does her harm, so we put her to bed, and told her to think
about no one."

Mrs. Arnott looked at him as if longing, but dreading, to ask further,
and allowed her nephew and niece to seat her at the table, and attend to
her wants, before she spoke again. "Then the babies."

"We don't keep babies, Gertrude would tell you," said Dr. May. "There
are three great creatures, whom Ethel barbarously ordered off to bed.
Ethel i