Father, it seems too silly now, but I was very
angry because Aunt Lilias said she must see all my letters except yours
and Maude Sefton's, and I told Constance Hacket. She said she would
send anything for me, and I could not think of any one I wanted to
write to, so I wrote to--to him.'
'Ah! I saw you did not get on with your aunt,' was the answer, 'that
was partly what brought me home.' And either not hearing or not heeding
her exclamation, 'Oh, but now I do,' he went on to explain that on his
arrival at Fiji he had found that circumstances had altered there, and
that the person with whom he was to have been associated had died, so
that the whole scheme had been broken up. A still better appointment
had, however, been offered to him in New Zealand, on the resignation of
the present holder after a half-year's notice, and he had at once
written to accept it. A proposal had been made to him to spend the
intermediate time in a scientific cruise among the Polynesian Islands;
but the letters he had found awaiting him at Vanua Levu had convinced
him that the arrangements he had made in England had been a mistake,
and he had therefore hurried home via San Francisco, as fast as any
letter could have gone, to wind up his English affairs, and fetch his
daughter to the permanent home in Auckland, which her Aunt Phyllis
would prepare for her.
Her countenance betrayed a sudden dismay, which made him recollect that
she was a strangely undemonstrative girl; but before she had recovered
the shock so as to utter more than a long 'Oh!' they were interrupted
by the cup of tea that had been ordered for Dolores, and in a minute
more, steps were heard, and the two aunts were in the room.
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