Ermine had dropped all scruples about Rose's intercourse with other
children, and the feeling that she might associate with them on equal
terms, perhaps, was the most complete assurance of Edward's restoration.
She was glad that companionship should render the little maiden more
active and childlike, for Edward's abstraction had made her believe that
there might be danger in indulging the dreaminess of the imaginative
child.
No one welcomed the removal of these restraints more warmly than Lady
Temple. She was perhaps the happiest of the happy, for with her there
was no drawback, no sorrow, no parting to fear. Her first impulse, when
Colonel Keith came to tell her his plans, was to seize on hat and shawl,
and rush down to Mackarel Lane to kiss Ermine with all her heart, and
tell her that "it was the most delightful thing of her to have consented
at last, for nobody deserved so well to be happy as that dear Colonel;"
and then she clung to Alison, declaring that now she should have her all
to herself, and if she would only come to Myrtlewood, she would do her
very best to make her comfortable there, and it should be her home--her
home always.
"In fact," said Ermine, afterwards to the Colonel, "when you go to
Avoncester, I think you may as well get a licence for the wedding of
Alison Williams and Fanny Temple at the same time. There has been quite
a courtship on the lady's part."
The courtship had been the more ardent from Fanny's alarm lest the
brother should deprive her of Alison; and when she found her fears
groundless, she thanked him with such fervour, and talked so eagerly of
his sister's excellences that she roused him into a lucid interval, in
which he told Colonel Keith that Lady Temple might give him an idea of
the style of woman that Lucy had been. Indeed, Colin began to think that
it was as well that he was so well wrapped up in smoke and chemistry,
otherwise another might have been added to the list of Lady Temple's
hopeless adorers. The person least satisfied was Tibbie, who could not
get over the speediness of the marriage, nor forgive the injury to Miss
Williams, "of bringing her hame like any pleughman's wife, wantin' a
honeymoon trip, forbye providin' hersel' with weddin' braws conformable.
Gin folk tak' sic daft notions aff the English, they'd be mair wise like
to bide at hame, an' that's my way o' thinkin'."
Crusty as she was, there was no danger of her not giving her warmest
welcome, and thus the morning came. Tibbie had donned her cap, with
white satin ribbons, and made of lace once belonging to the only heiress
who had ever brought wealth to the Keiths. Edward Williams, all his
goods packed up, had gone to join his sisters, and the Colonel, only
perceptibly differing from his daily aspect in having a hat free from
crape, was opening all the windows in hopes that a thorough draft would
remove the last of the tobacco, when the letters were brought in, and
among them one of the black bordered bulletins from Littleworthy, which
ordinarily arrived by the second post. It was a hurried note, evidently
dashed off to catch the morning mail.