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would not let me telegraph word of our changed plans, for
his wish was to surprise you."
CHAPTER II.
TAKING SHAPE.
She was an only child, about nine years old, of tall and slim
make, with a straight back and a well-balanced head. The
face was oval, but too thin for prettiness; indeed, nobody
called Jean pretty. She had a pale complexion, light hair cut
short like a boy's, and odd greenish-brown eyes, in
sunshine yellowish like a topaz, and capable of expression
to any degree. Jean wore a loose brown holland frock, and
held in one hand a brown hat, round the crown of which a
brown ribbon was tied. Simplicity could not further go.
No answer came.
Marie Collier had been tossed early upon her own feet, and
forced to stand alone, if she would stand at all. This was
bracing, to begin with! Probably she could never, under any
conditions, have been turned into a helpless young (?) lady
of thirty-nine, unable to endorse a cheque, but no doubt a
somewhat different creature might under differing
influences have emerged from the chrysalis stage of
existence.
Here was the rough ore of the nature, out of which the
future character had to be formed. The main question was—
which of the opposing elements would be fostered, which
would be crushed or starved out of existence? A child of
nine has begun to take shape, but the materials are soft,
and malleable by a touch.
Jean did not call again, after her aunt's rebuke. She stood
and watched with craving eyes, into which a look of
loneliness had crept. Jean was always lonely when not with
her brother Oswald. She loved Oswald with an absorbing
devotion.
"You don't say so! Dear me!" Madame Collier adjusted the
big white skewer in her shawl, thereby showing that her
feelings were not deeply stirred. "Dear, how unfortunate!
But I never liked the accounts of his state."
"Too late now! When a woman is going on for fifty, she can't
be remade."
Jean reached the level belt beside the river, where a ghost
of a path might be found amid coarse grass and weeds. A
rough but easy descent led thence to the stepping-stones.
On one of the stones, near the middle of the stream, sat a
small boy, lifting up a thin and high-pitched voice of dire
tribulation.
The sobbing lessened, but the boy did not move. Jean
cleared the lower bank at a run, and tripped over the stones
till she reached him.
But the tender and pitying side of her nature asserted itself,
when she looked at the little fellow's white cheeks; not pale
only, but dead-white, as with abject terror; and at the small
shaking hands.
"Come!" she said gently. "I'll take care of you. I won't let
you slip. Stand up, and hold me tight. I'll take you across."
She put a protecting arm round him, and guided his steps
with a mother-like care, droll yet pretty in one so young.
Jean had all the instincts of womanhood, though her
recollections of a mother's love were dim.
His face having been turned that way, Jean had taken it for
granted that he wished to cross.
"Now you are all right. You see how easy the stones are, so
you won't be frightened again. Boys never ought to be
afraid. Oswald isn't!" proudly, with a gleam in her greenish-
brown eyes. "But you are such a mite! Where do you want
to go?"
"Over there."
A pause of astonishment.
Cyril obeyed.
"A man!" Jean looked him all over again, disdainful and
compassionate. "What a pity you weren't made a girl!"
"Oh, I can't wait. I'm forgetting," she cried. "I must find
Oswald."
"Is he nice? Is he like you?" The violet eyes were fixed upon
Jean with unspeakable admiration.
Cyril glanced at the river and shivered, tears filling his eyes.
"I can't," he said.
"I can't," she said; "he doesn't know the way round by the
bridge. I must show him."
"Was that boy cross with you?" demanded Cyril, as they set
off. He clenched his tiny hand, and the blue eyes sparkled.
"If anybody is cross with you, I'd like—I'd like to fight him."
CHAPTER III.
"DEAR AUNT."
"EVELYN!"
"Yes, aunt."
"No, indeed. The dew was quite heavy last night. And I
heard you cough yesterday."
"I don't."
"My dear, I cannot let you risk it. I really cannot. And,
besides—"
"The children—" there was the rub! If it had but been only
"the child!" Miss Devereux' whole heart went out from the
first towards the gentle boy, who was always ready to
respond to her caresses, always eager to give love for love.
Every day the fascination grew upon her. From early
morning till late at night her one idea was "Cyril." She
dressed him in the daintiest garments compatible with
mourning; she cultivated each curl and wave of his brown
hair; she revelled in her new charge.
Evelyn came, though not too willingly. She was not broken-
hearted; and anybody less sentimental than Sybella would
hardly have expected her to be so, for a father whom she
had not seen during ten years. The loss was a loss, and
Evelyn knew it; nevertheless she grudged missing the final
examination before leaving school.
For the maiden lady of forty, with her unpractical ways, her
pseudo-poetical tastes, her tendency to overstrained
sentiment, her generally old fashioned ideas, never had
"got on well," as the saying is, with the brilliant yet sensible
and practical niece. Miss Devereux was secretly proud of
Evelyn, but scarcely fond of her.