CHAPTER IX.
JESSIE LINDSAY'S DECLARATION AND ITS RECEPTION.
The prospect of going home to England was also agreeable to Mrs. Hammond, because it would put a stop to Louis' and Fred's frequent rides to Branxholm, and prevent her making herself odious by laying her commands on them that they were to discontinue the practice. She disliked giving orders that she could not enforce, and she was very anxious to retain the love and confidence of her boys, so she put a constraint on herself and listened to what they said on their return from their visits without making much objection, lest they should get in the habit of going there and not telling her. But Amy Staunton was still a mere child, and no positive harm could be done yet. It had been one of the contingencies that the mother had dreaded in case of receiving Amy as an inmate that one of
