Keep up your spirits, and--but here comes
Dance, who will cheer you up far better than I can."
As the Major went out, Dance came in. The good soul seemed quite
unchanged, except that she had grown older and mellower, and seemed to
have sweetened with age like an apple plucked unripe. A little cry of
delight burst from her lips the moment she saw Janet. But in the very
act of rushing forward with outstretched arms, she stopped. She stopped,
and stared, and then curtsied as though involuntarily. "If the dead are
ever allowed to come back to this earth, there is one of them before me
now!" she murmured.
Janet caught the words, but her heart was too full to notice them just
then. She had her arms round Dance's neck in a moment, and her bright
young head was pressed against the old servant's faithful breast.
"Oh, Dance, Dance, I am so glad you are come!"
"Hush, dear heart! hush, my poor child! you must not take on in that
way. It seems a poor coming home for you--for I suppose Deepley Walls is
to be your home in time to come--but there are those under this roof
that love you dearly.
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