"
The little character-sketch which these words drew was too faithful a
likeness not to be recognized. Mrs. Vanstone showed her appreciation of
it by a smile. "When your father returns," she said, "we will put your
account of his proceedings to the test. I think," she continued, rising
languidly from her chair, "I had better go indoors again now and rest on
the sofa till he comes back."
The little group under the portico broke up. Magdalen slipped away into
the garden to hear Frank's account of the interview with his father. The
other three ladies entered the house together. When Mrs. Vanstone was
comfortably established on the sofa, Norah and Miss Garth left her to
repose, and withdrew to the library to look over the last parcel of
books from London.
It was a quiet, cloudless summer's day. The heat was tempered by a light
western breeze; the voices of laborers at work in a field near reached
the house cheerfully; the clock-bell of the village church as it struck
the quarters floated down the wind with a clearer ring, a louder melody
than usual. Sweet odors from field and flower-garden, stealing in at the
open windows, filled the house with their fragrance; and the birds in
Norah's aviary upstairs sang the song of their happiness exultingly in
the sun.
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