Frostham, encircled by Will's protecting arm, was led across the
threshold of her own new home, to the sound of music and rejoicing.

The home was quickly divided, though without unkind intent. Will and
Alice had their own talk, their own hopes and plans, and Aspatria and
Brune generally felt that their entrance interfered with some
discussion. So Aspatria and Brune began to sit a great deal in
Aspatria's room, and by and by to discuss, in a confidential way, what
they were to do with their future. Brune had no definite idea.
Aspatria's intents were clear and certain. But she knew that she must
wait until the spring brought her majority and her freedom.

One frosty day, near Christmas, as Brune was returning from Dalton, he
heard himself called in a loud, cheerful voice. He was passing
Seat-Ketel, and he soon saw Harry Ketel coming quickly toward him.
Harry wore a splendid scarlet uniform; and the white snow beneath his
feet, and the dark green pines between which he walked, made it all
the more splendid by their contrast. Brune had not seen Harry for
five years; but they had been companions through their boyhood, and
their memories were stored with the pleasant hours they had spent
together.

Brune passed that night, and many subsequent ones, with his old
friend; and when Harry went back to his regiment he took with him a
certainty that Brune would soon follow. In fact, Harry had found his
old companion in that mood which is ready to accept the first opening
as the gift of fate. Brune found there was a commission to be bought
in the Household Foot-Guards, and he was well able to pay for it.
Indeed, Brune was by no means a poor man; his father had left him
seven thousand pounds, and his share of the farm's proceeds had been
constantly added to it.

Aspatria was delighted. She might now go to London in Brune's care.
They discussed the matter constantly, and began to make the
preparations necessary for the change. But affairs were not then
arranged by steam and electricity, and the letters relating to the
purchase and transfer of Brune's commission occupied some months in
their transit to and fro; although Brune did not rely upon the
postman's idea of the practicability of the roads.

Aspatria's correspondence was also uncertain and unsatisfactory
for some time. She had at first no guide to a school but the
advertisements in the London papers which Harry sent to his friend.
But one night Brune, without any special