and
pepper, from the one table to the other, which, by the way, had first
to be cleared of its own load of books and writing materials. Esther
deposited these on the floor and on chairs, and arranged the table for
tea, and pushed it into the position her father was accustomed to like.
The tea-kettle she left on its trivet before the grate in the other
room; and now made journeys uncounted between that room and this, to
take and fetch the tea-pot. Talk languished meanwhile, for the spirit
of talk was gone from Esther, and the colonel, in spite of his
discomfiture, developed a remarkably good appetite. When he had done,
Esther carried everything back again.

'Why do you do that? Where is Barker?' her father demanded at last.

'Barker has been exceedingly busy all day, putting down carpets and
arranging her storeroom. I am sure she is tired.'

'I suppose you are tired too, are you not?'

'Yes, papa.'

He said no more, however, and Esther finished her work, and then sat
down on a cushion at the corner of the fireplace, in one of those moods
belonging to tired mind and body, in which one does not seem at the
moment to care any longer about anything. The lively, blazing coal fire
shone on a warm, cosy little room, and on two somewhat despondent
figures. For his supper had not brightened the colonel up a bit. He sat
brooding. Perhaps his thoughts took the road that Esther's had often
followed lately, for he suddenly came out with a name now rarely spoken
between them.

'It is a long while that we have heard nothing from the Dallases!'

'Yes,' Esther said apathetically.

'Mr. Dallas used to write to me now and then.'

'They are busy with their own concerns, and we are out of sight; why
should they remember us?'

'They used to be good neighbours, in Seaforth.'

'Pitt. Papa, I do not think his father and mother were ever specially
fond of us.'

'Pitt never writes to me now,' the colonel went on, after a pause.

'He is busy with _his_ concerns. He has forgotten us too. I suppose he
has plenty of other things to think of. Oh, I have given up Pitt long
ago.'

The colonel brooded over his thoughts a while, then raised his head and
looked again over the small room.

'My dear, it would have been better to stay where we were,' he said
regretfully.

Esther could not bear to pain him by again reminding him that their
means would not allow it; and as her father lay back upon the sofa and
closed his eyes, she went awa