Altogether, the neat freshness of the room, the urbanity of Mr.
Mauleverer, the shy grief of the matron, all left a most pleasant
impression. Rachel was full of delight and triumph, and Grace and
Fanny quite enthusiastic; the latter even to the being sure that the
Colonel would be delighted, for the Colonel was already beginning to
dawn on the horizon, and not alone. He had written, in the name of
his brother, to secure a cottage of gentility of about the same
calibre as Myrtlewood, newly completed by a speculator on one of the
few bits of ground available for building purposes. A name was yet
wanting to it; but the day after the negotiation was concluded, the
landlord paid the delicate compliment to his first tenant by painting
"Gowanbrae" upon the gate-posts in letters of green. "Go and bray,"
read Bessie Keith as she passed by; "for the sake of the chief of my
name, I hope that it is not an omen of his occupations here."

The two elder boys were with her; and while Francis, slowly
apprehending her meaning in part, began to bristle up with the
assurance that "Colonel Keith never brayed in his life," Conrade
caught the point with dangerous relish, and dwelt with colonial
disrespect, that alarmed his mother, on the opinion expressed by some
unguarded person in his hearing, that Lord Keith was little better
than an old donkey. "He is worse than Aunt Rachel," said Conrade,
meditatively, "now she has saved Don, and keeps away from the
croquet."

Meantime Rachel studied her own feelings. A few weeks ago her heart
would have leapt at the announcement; but now her mission had found
her out, and she did not want to be drawn aside from it. Colonel
Keith might have many perfections, but alike as Scotsman, soldier,
and High-Churchman, he was likely to be critical of the head of the