Matilda, picking up my bonnet from the bottom of that remarkably
musty carriage--Matilda came and woke me as usual, and I hadn't
an idea in my head, I assure you, till she began to brush my
hair. Can you account for it?--I can't--but she seemed, somehow,
to brush a sudden fancy for coming here into my head. When I went
down to breakfast, I said to my aunt, 'Darling, I have an
irresistible impulse to go to Wales at once, instead of waiting
till the twentieth.' She made all the necessary objections, poor
dear, and my impulse got stronger and stronger with every one of
them. 'I'm quite certain,' I said, 'I shall never go at all if I
don't go now.' 'In that case,' says my aunt, 'ring the bell, and
have your trunks packed. Your whole future depends on your going;
and you terrify me so inexpressibly that I shall be glad to get
rid of you.' You may not think it, to look at her--but Matilda is
a treasure; and in three hours more I was on the Great Western
Railway. I have not the least idea how I got here--except that
the men helped me everywhere. They are always such delightful
creatures! I have been casting myself, and my maid, and my trunks
on their tender mercies at every point in the journey, and their
polite attentions exceed all belief. I slept at your horrid
little county town last night; and the night before I missed a
steamer or a train, I forget which, and slept at Bristol; and
that's how I got here. And, now I am here, I ought to give my
guardian a kiss--oughtn't I? Shall I call you papa? I think I
will. And shall I call _you_ uncle, sir, and give you a kiss too?
We shall come to it sooner or later--shan't we?--and we may as
well begin at once, I suppose."

Her fresh young lips touched my old withered cheek first, and
then Owen's; a soft, momentary shadow of tenderness, that was