d with it the ten years,
which sorrow and regret had laid upon him, had fallen off; for,
although his habits of seclusion and quiet had caused him to be
regarded as quite an old man by his neighbours, he was still three
years short of sixty, while the sergeant was two years younger.

It was a happy morning for them, all three; and when John Petersham
went in, after lunch, to the kitchen, he assured his fellow servants
that it was as much as he could do to keep from crying with joy, at the
sight of the squire's happy face, and to hear him laugh and joke, as he
had not done for eight years now.

The sergeant had stopped to that meal, for he saw, by the manner in
which the squire asked him, that he should give pain if he refused; and
there was a simple dignity about the old soldier, which would have
prevented his appearing out of place at the table of the highest in the
land.

"Now, pussy," the squire said, when they had finished, "you must amuse
yourself for a bit. You can go in the garden again, or sit with Mrs.
Morcombe in her room. She will look you out some picture books from the
library. I am afraid there is nothing very suited to your reading, but
we will soon put all that right. Your grandfather and I want to have
another quiet chat together."

"Now I want your advice," he said when they were both comfortably
seated in the study. "You see, you have been thinking and planning
about the child for years, while it has all come new upon me, so I must
rely upon you entirely. Of course, the child must have a governess,
that is the first thing; not so much for the sake of teaching her,
though, of course, she must be taught, but as a companion for her."

"Yes," the sergeant assented, "she must have a governess."

"It will be a troublesome matter to find one to suit," the squire said
thoughtfully. "I don't want a harsh sort of Gorgon, to repress her
spirits and bother her life out with rules and regulations; and I won't
have a giddy young thing, because I should like to have the child with
me at breakfast and lunch, and I don't want a fly-away young woman who
will expect all sorts of attention. Now, what is your idea? I have no
doubt you have, pictured in your mind, the exact sort of woman you
would like to have over her."

"I have," the sergeant answered quietly. "I don't know whether it would
suit you, squire, or whether it could be managed; but it does seem, to
me, that you have got the very woman close at hand. A