And yet, when the visitor rose at last to go, Alison was almost
unwilling to be alone with her sister, and have that power of sympathy
put to the test by those clear eyes that were wont to see her through
and through. She went with Rachel to the door, and stood taking a last
instruction, hearing it not at all, but answering, and relieved by the
delay, hardly knowing whether to be glad or not that when she returned
Rose was leaning on the arm of her aunt's chair with the most eager
face. But Rose was to be no protection, for what was passing between her
and her aunt?
"O auntie, I am go glad he is coming back. He is just like the picture
you drew of Robert Bruce for me. And he is so kind. I never saw any
gentleman speak to you in such: a nice soft voice."
Alison had no difficulty in smiling as Ermine stroked the child's hair,
kissed her, and looked up with an arch, blushing, glittering face that
could not have been brighter those long twelve years ago.
And then Rose turned round, impatient to tell her other aunt her story.
"O aunt Ailie, we have had such a gentleman here, with a great brown
beard like a picture. And he is papa's old friend, and kissed me because
I am papa's little girl, and I do like him so very much. I went where I
could look at him in the garden, when you sent me out, aunt Ermine."
"You did, you monkey?" said Ermine, laughing, and blushing again. "What
will you do if I send you out next time? No, I won't then, my dear, for
all the time, I should like you to see him and know him."
"Only, if you want to talk of anything very particular," observed Rose.
"I don't think I need ask many questions," said Alison, smiling being
happily made very easy to her. "Dear Ermine, I see you are perfectly
satisfied--"
"O Ailie, that is no word for it! Not only himself, but to find him
loving Rose for her father's sake, undoubting of him through all. Ailie,
the thankfulness of it is more than one can bear."
"And he is the same?" said Alison.
"The same--no, not the same. It is more, better, or I am able to feel
it more. It was just like the morrow of the day he walked down the lane
with me and gathered honeysuckles, only the night between has been a
very, very strange time."
"I hope the interruption did not come very soon."
"I thought it was directly, but it could not have been so soon, since
you are come home. We had just had time to tell what we most wanted to
know, and I know a little more of what he is. I feel as if it were not
only Colin again, but ten times Colin. O Ailie, it must be a little bit
like the meetings in heaven!"