from nursery authority and childish frocks, Fatima and I found
ourselves grown-up young ladies, free to fashion our costume to our
own tastes, and far from Reka Dom. Yes, we had changed our home again.
The River House was ours no longer. Childhood also had slipped from
our grasp, but slowly as the years had seemed to pass, they had not
sufficed to accomplish every project we had made in them. Not one of
those long summers by the river had seen that gorgeous display of
flowers in our garden which in all good faith and energy we planned
with every spring. I had not learnt Russian. Years had gone by since I
first took up the fat grammar, but I had acquired little since that
time beyond the familiar characters of the well-beloved name, Reka
Dom.

"The country town that circumstances had now made our home possessed
at least one attraction for us. It was here that our old friends the
Misses Brooke had settled when their brother's death broke up the
quiet little household. I was very fond of the good ladies; not less
so now than I had been as a child, when their home-made buns and faded
albums made an evening festive, and were looked forward to as a treat.
They were good women, severe to themselves and charitable to others,
who cultivated the grace of humility almost in excess. One little
weakness, however, in their otherwise estimable characters had at
times disturbed the even course of our friendship. I hardly know what
to call it. It was not want of candour. More truthful women do not
exist than they were, and I believe they never wilfully deceived
anyone. I can only describe it as a habit of indulging in small plots
and suspicions; a want of trust in other people, partly traceable,
perhaps, to a lack of due confidence in themselves, but which was very
provoking to one as young, eager, and sincerely affectionate as I was.
I was indignant to discover little plots laid to test my sincerity;
and to find my genuine (if not minutely measured) expressions of
feeling doubted. If this peculiarity had been troublesome in the early
stages of our acquaintance, it was doubly so when we met again, after
the lapse of some years. For one thing, the dear ladies were older,
and fidgety, foolish little weaknesses of this kind sometimes increase
with years. Then I was older also, and if they had doubted their own
powers of entertainment when I was a child, they would still less
believe that I could enjoy their society now that I was a 'young