"It was lucky I came through these fields," says Mr. Vasher "for I was going to the Manor House to see you."
"If you want to find me of afternoons," I say, laughing, "you must scour the country and look under every hedge and tree; I live out of doors in the summer. And were you coming to see me so soon? That was good of you."
"Will you believe," he says, looking down on me (my head barely reaches his shoulder, and yet I am a very decent height, five feet four inches), "that you were the first person I thought of when I came back to England? I only arrived at The Towers yesterday, and, as you see, have set out to visit you to-day. And, after all, you are a disappointment," he says, with a queer smile. "Somehow I always thought of finding you a bright, frank-faced, honest little girl, just as I left you, and now———" (he scans me slowly from head to foot) "I find you grown up and———"
"I wish you had come back sooner," I say, interrupting, "for do you know, I am getting beyond gooseberries, and can exist without apples!"
We are passing through the orchard now, and several of the fry are standing about in the distance, distinctly marvelling who on earth sister Nell has got hold of. In the garden we meet the governor, and, to my amazement, instead of Mr. Vasher being ignominiously ordered off the premises, papa welcomes him with much politeness, speaks with respect of Mr. Vasher's defunct father, and finally floats him away in a stream of amicable conversation. Verily, this is a world of change!
