She put it slowly back,
touching it with a kind of tender respect; and then the two girls went
home. In the green aisles of the park the nightingales were singing,
and the sweet strength of the stars and the magic of the moon touched
each heart with a thoughtful melancholy. Richard and Antony joined
them, and they talked softly of the tragedy, with eloquent pauses of
silence between.
On the lowest terrace they found the squire--Fanny walking with quiet
dignity beside him. He joined Elizabeth and Richard, and discussed
with them the plans he had been forming for the unraveling of the
mystery. He had thought of every thing, even to the amount of money
necessary.
"Have they no relations?" asked Richard, a little curiously. It seemed
to him that the squire's kindness was a trifle officious. However lowly
families might be, he believed that in trouble a noble independence
would make them draw together, just as birds that scatter wide in the
sunshine nestle up to each other in storm and cold. So he asked, "Have
they no relatives?"
"She has two brothers Ilkley way," said the squire, with a dubious
smile. "I nivver reckoned much on them."
"Don't you think she ought to send for them?"
"Nay, I don't. You're young, Richard, lad, and you'll know more some
day; but I'll tell you beforehand, if you iver hev a favor to ask,
ask it of any body but a relation--you may go to fifty, and not find
one at hes owt o' sort about 'em.
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