ek later it happened that Esther bethought her to open the
Encyclopaedia again, to look at _the marks her flowers had left_ on the
pages. For they _had_ stained the book a little, and here and there she
could discern the outline of a sprig, and trace a faint dash of colour
left behind by the petals of some flower rich in its dyes. If it
appears from this that the colonel was right in checking the feeling
which ran to such extremes, I cannot help that; I am reporting the
facts. Esther turned over the book from one place to another where her
flowers had lain. Here had been heath; there coronilla; here--oh, here
was _still_ the wallflower! Dried beautifully; delicate and unbroken,
and perfect and sweet. There was nothing else left, but here was the
wallflower. A great movement of joy filled Esther's heart; then came a
doubt. Must this be burned too? Would this one little sprig matter? She
had obeyed her father, and destroyed all the rest of the bouquet; and
this wallflower had been preserved without her knowledge. Since it had
been saved, might it not be saved? Esther looked, studied, hesitated;
and finally could not make up her mind without further order to destroy
this last blossom. She never thought of asking her father's mind about
it. The child knew instinctively that he would not understand her; a
sorrowful thing for a child to know; it did not occur to her that if he
_had_ understood her feeling, he would have been still less likely to
favour it. She kept the wallflower, took it away from its exposed
situation in the Encyclopaedia, and put it in great safety among her
own private possessions.

CHAPTER IX.

_WANT OF COMFORT_.

The months were many and long before there came another break in the
monotony of Esther's life. The little girl was thrown upon her own
ressources, and that is too hard a position for her years, or perhaps
for any years. She had literally no companion but her father, and it is
a stretch of courtesy to give the name to him. Another child would have
fled to the kitchen for society, at least to hear human voices. Esther
did not. The instincts of a natural high breeding restrained her, as
well as the habits in which she had been brought up. Mrs. Barker waited
upon her at night and in the morning, at her dressing and undressing:
sometimes Esther went for a walk, attended by Christopher; the rest of
the time she was either alone, or in the large, orderly room where
Colonel Gainsborough lay