d the three
tall, well-grown children; and when the two ladies were alone in the
drawing-room she broke into helpless sobbings.

"Oh, how happy you are! How I envy you! Husband, children,--all beside
you. Oh, never, never let one of your girls marry a man who lives
abroad. My heart is torn in two; I have no rest. I am always longing
for the one who is not there. I must go back,--the major needs me; but
my Peggy,--my own little girl! It is like death to leave her behind!"

Mrs Asplin put her arms round the tall figure, and rocked her gently to
and fro.

"I know! I know!" she said brokenly. "I _ache_ for you, dear; but I
understand! I have parted with a child of my own--not for a few years,
but for ever, till we meet again in God's heaven. I'll help you every
way I can. I'll watch her night and day; I'll coddle her when she's
ill; I'll try to make her a good woman. I'll _love_ her, dear, and she
shall be my own special charge. I'll be a second mother to her."

"You dear, good woman! God bless your kind heart!" said Mrs Saville
brokenly. "I can't help breaking down, but indeed I have much to be
thankful for. I can't tell you what a relief it is to feel that she is
in this house. The principals of that school at Brighton were all that
is good and excellent, but they did not understand my Peggy." The tears
were still in her eyes, but she broke into a flickering smile at the
last word. "My children have such spirits! I am afraid they really do
give more trouble than other boys and girls, but they are not really
naughty. They are truthful and generous, and wonderfully warm-hearted.
I never needed to punish Peg when she was a little girl; it was enough
to show that she had grieved me. She never did the same thing again
after that; but--oh, dear me!--the ingenuity of that child in finding
fresh fields for mischief! Dear Mrs Asplin, I am afraid she will try
your patience. You must be sure to keep a list of all the breakages and
accidents, and charge them to our account. Peggy is an expensive little
person. You know what Arthur was."

"Bless him--yes! I had hardly a tumbler left in the house," said Mrs
Asplin, with gusto. "But I don't grieve myself about a few breakages.
I have had too much to do with schoolboys for that!--And now give me all
the directions you can about this precious little maid, while we have
the room to ourselves."

For the next hour there the two ladies sat in conclave about