Jessie always had her full share, not indeed
appreciating the intellect, but possessing beauty and charm enough to
be always appreciated there. "Sweetly pretty," as Mrs. Coffinkey
called her, was exactly what she was, for she was thoroughly good and
unselfish, and a happy, simple nature looked out through her brown
smiling eyes. She was very fond of her cousins, had shared all the
anxieties of the last fortnight to the utmost, and was a good deal
disappointed at being baulked of the walk with her brother, in which
she would have heard so much more about Armine, Jock, and Aunt
Caroline, than would be communicated in public.
Johnny, however, was glad of the invitation, even though a little shy
of it. The tete-a-tete drive was an approach to the serious business
of life, since it was evidently designed to give opportunity for
answering a letter which he had thought out and written while laid up
at Leukerbad by a bad cold and the reaction from his exertions at
Schwarenbach.
Still his father did not speak till they had driven up the hill, and
were near the gates of Belforest. Then he said—-
"That was not a bad letter that you wrote me, Johnny."
Johnny flushed with pleasure. The letter had cost him much thought
and pains, and commendation from his father was rare.
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