t to be with--you
understand, don't you?"

Yes, Cousin Charlotte understood. They all felt the same; but when the
three had left their old home for the new one it was only, as one might
say, to live in two houses instead of one, for never a day passed but what
they were down at Miss Charlotte's, and so the change was not such a
wrench as all had feared. Miss Charlotte insisted on continuing to teach
them all--at any rate, she said, until they were obliged to go away to
school.

Mademoiselle Leperier, who actually went to call on Mrs. Carroll, declared
her health and spirits were so much improved by the new interest the
children had provided her with that she begged to be allowed to give them
all lessons in French, and singing, too.

"I foresee that I shall have no housekeeper after all," said Mrs. Carroll
with a sigh, "but I suppose I shall manage somehow, and the children are
being educated, which is something. One must think of them first, I
suppose."

Esther felt a pang of doubt when she heard the words. Ought she not,
after all, to give up her happy home with Cousin Charlotte, where by this
time she had completely settled down, and come up to take care of her
mother? She would see but little of Mademoiselle if she did, she saw that
plainly, and there would be very little time for study, but there was her
father to think of, and his comfort.

But when she laid her doubts before her father and Cousin Charlotte,
they bade her put them out of her head. She tried to, though she doubted
their advice; and it was only years later, when she was a well-educated,
cultured woman, full of interests and good aims, that she understood the
wisdom of Cousin Charlotte's plan in taking her away, at least until her
education was complete, from where she would have become little but a
household drudge, worked beyond her strength, her talents, her greatest
interests undeveloped, her temper irritated and ruined as it was when
first she came to Dorsham; and she felt deeply grateful for the
understanding and loving care which had surrounded her at so critical a
time.

CHAPTER XIX.

Five years have gone by since Mr. and Mrs. Carroll returned from Canada to
the little house on the moor which they have never left, or desired to
leave, since.

Mr. Carroll's health suffered severely from the long strain and the
rigour of his life abroad, and he was never again fit for hard work.
But grandpapa Carroll, recognising the brave