Have you really been worse off lately?'

'My dear, for twelve months I have not had a creature in my house,' said Madame Bonnemain, and her face grew graver and older in its outline,--'positively not a creature. Bruges has gone down as a place for English residents, and I don't wonder at it.'

'It is very beautiful, Henrietta,' said Mrs. Fordyce quickly,--'so quaint; everything about it a picture.'

'People can't live on quaintness, my love, and the narrowness and tyranny of it is intolerable. I hate it. When I go away from Bruges I never want to set eyes on it again as long as I live.'

Her eyes shone, her cheeks grew red, her little mouth set itself in quite a determined curve. Mrs. Fordyce perceived that she had some serious umbrage against the old Flemish town--a grudge which would never be wiped away. And yet it _was_ very picturesque, with its grey old houses, its quaint spires, its flat fields spreading away from the ca.n.a.l, its rows of stately poplar trees.

'There is nothing really more terrible, Isabel, than the English life in a foreign town. It is so narrow, so petty--I had almost said so degraded. I should not have taken your pretty ward into my house here suppose you had prayed me to do it. Nothing could possibly be worse for a young girl; she could not escape its influence. No, I should never have taken her here.'

'Why have you stayed so long, then, Henrietta, among such undesirable surroundings?'

'Because it is cheap. There is no other reason in this world would keep anybody in Bruges,' replied Madame promptly.

'But you have not yet told me why you cannot take the position offered you.'

Then Madame turned her bright eyes, over-running with laughter, to her friend, and there was a blush, faint and rosy as a girl's, on her cheek.

'Because, my dear, I have accepted another situation--a permanent one. I am going to marry again.'

'Oh, Henrietta, impossible!'

'Quite true, my dear.'

'Another foreign gentleman, of course?'

'Why of course? No, I am going to rise in the world. I am going to marry an English colonel, Isabel, and return to my own land. I believe I told him that was my chief reason for accepting him at first.'

'But not at last?' hazarded Mrs. Fordyce, with a teasing smile.

'Well, no; romance is not dead yet, Isabel. But I shall tell you my story by and by. Here we are.'

The carriages rattled across the market-place, and drew up before one of the quaint, grey, green-shuttered houses. The _concierge_ rose lazily from his chair within the shadow of the court, and showed himself at the door. The ladies alighted, and were ushered into the small plain abode where Madame Bonnemain had so long struggled for existence. All were charmed with it and with her. She made them feel at home at once. Often Gladys looked at her, and felt her heart drawn towards her. Yes, with that bright, sympathetic little woman, she could be happy at Bourhill.

But somewhat late that night Mrs. Fordyce came into her room and sat down by her bed.

'My dear, are you asleep? We have come on a fruitless errand; Madame Bonnemain cannot come to you. She is going to be married almost immediately, so what are we to do now?'

'It is a great disappointment,' said Gladys. 'I like her so much. Yes, what are we to do now?'

'You must just come to us for another winter, Gladys; there is nothing else for it.'

Gladys lay still a moment, revolving something in her mind.

'Would it be proper for me to have an unmarried lady to live with me, Mrs. Fordyce?' she asked suddenly.

'Quite, if she were old enough.'

'How old?'

'Middle-aged, at least.'

'Then I know somebody who will do; it is a beautiful arrangement,' cried Gladys joyfully. 'In the little fen village where we lived, my father and I, there is a lady, Miss Peck--we lived in her house. She was very kind to us, and yet so poor; yes, I think she would come.'

'Is she a lady, Gladys?'

'If to be a lady is to have a heart of gold, which never thinks one unselfish thought, she is one, Mrs. Fordyce,' said Gladys warmly.

'These are the attributes of a lady, of course, Gladys, but there are other things, my dear, which _must_ be considered. If this Miss Peck is to sit at your table, help you to guide your household, and be your constant companion, she must be a very superior person.'

'She was well brought up. I think her father was a surgeon in Boston,'

said Gladys; and these words at once relieved the lawyer's wife.

'If that is so, she may be the very person for whom we are seeking. You are sure she is still there?'

'Yes,' replied Gladys reluctantly. 'I wrote to her in the summer. Mr.

Fordyce allowed me to send her some money,--not in charity, it was the payment of a just debt,--and when she replied I knew by her letter that she was still very poor. I have always meant to have her come to me at Bourhill, but it will be delightful if she can come altogether.'

'You have a good heart, Gladys; you will not forget those who have befriended you.'

'I hope not, I pray not; only sometimes I am afraid it is harder for some reasons to be rich than poor.'

These words slightly surprised Mrs. Fordyce, though she did not ask an explanation of them.

'Try to sleep, my child, and don't worry your dear brain with plans,'

she said, and, with a motherly kiss, returned to the little _salon_ to enjoy the rare luxury of recalling old memories she had shared with the friend of her youth. They sat far on into the night, and before they parted Mrs. Fordyce was in full possession of the whole story of these weary and sordid years through which Henrietta Bonnemain had uncomplainingly borne her burden of poverty and care.

'Then the Colonel turned up,' she concluded, with a curious little tender smile; 'just when my affairs were at the lowest ebb he came here to visit an old regimental friend who lives over the way. So we met, and both being unattached, we drew to each other, and next month we are to be married.'

'Tell me about him, Henrietta, tell me all about him. I declare I am as silly and curious as a school-girl--far more curious about this new lover of yours than I ever was about the old.'

'There is no comparison between the two, Isabel--none at all. Captain Bonnemain was a good man, and he loved me dearly, but it is nearly always a mistake to marry a foreigner. It seems a cruel thing to say, but I never felt to poor Louis as I felt to the n.o.ble Englishman who has done me so great an honour.'

Her eyes were full of tears. Mrs. Fordyce saw that she was deeply moved.

'I do not know what he sees in me. He is so handsome, so n.o.ble, and so rich, he might marry whom he willed. He has no relatives to be angry over it; and he says, if it pleases me, we can buy a place in Scotland, on the very sh.o.r.es of the Gairloch. Think of that, Isabel; think of your exiled Henrietta returning to _that_. G.o.d is too good, and I am too happy.'

She bent her head and wept, and these tears betrayed what her exile had been to the Scotchwoman's heart. Mrs. Fordyce was scarcely less moved.

It was a pathetic and beautiful romance.

The Scotch travellers spent a happy week in the old Flemish town; and Gladys, who had the artist's quick eye for beauty of colour and picturesqueness of detail, carried away with her many little 'bits,' to be finished and perfected at home.

Madame Bonnemain journeyed with them to Brussels many times, but declined their invitation to accompany them to Paris. They would all meet, she said, after a certain happy event was over, in the dear land over the sea.

George Fordyce alone joined them in Paris, and, somewhat to his aunt's distress, const.i.tuted himself at once as cavalier to Gladys. Often, very often, the good lady was on the point of speaking plainly to him, but, remembering her husband's warning, decided to let matters take their course. She watched Gladys narrowly, however, but could discover nothing in her demeanour but a frank kindliness, almost such as she might have displayed towards a brother. George Fordyce, who had really learned to care for the girl, felt that the close companionship of these days in Paris had not advanced his cause. He did not know that her mind was so engrossed by great plans and high ideals for the life of the coming winter that she had no time to bestow on nearer interests. He was a prudent youth, and decided to bide his time.

After a month's pleasant loitering abroad, they returned to London.

George took his cousins home, and Mrs. Fordyce went with Gladys into Lincolnshire.