Freda had always had a pleasant recollection of him. He had been very
kind to her when she was a child, and an occasional letter to her
father, or the intelligence, through the papers, of his distinguishing
himself in India, or his gradual rise in the army, had kept alive a
certain amount of interest in her mind for this old friend.
She showed it at once, and delighted Colonel Vaughan by the perfectly
natural manner with which she welcomed him, and the frank heartiness of
her expressed wish that he should remain in the country now he had
returned to it.
'We have never had any one we cared for at Abertewey,' she said.
'Sometimes it was an English family who came to ruin themselves in
mining speculations; sometimes a sporting man who came for the hunting,
shooting, and fishing; and now, if you don't stay, I daresay it will be
a Manchester mill owner or some such person.'
'Much nearer home, I fancy; but I believe it is a kind of secret, only I
am so much like a woman that I cannot keep a secret. To my utter
astonishment I find it is to be a son of old Jenkins, the miser! I
remember the father, but the son was some years my junior. You need not
mention this, however, as it may fall to the ground. He wanted to buy
the place, but I am too patriotic still to wish to sell.
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