Thistle and Rose | Page 4

no judge of that."
These new things were quite confusing to Anna; it was difficult to
realise them all at once. The beautiful, fair-haired mother, whose
picture she held in her hand, was not so strange. But her grandfather!
She had never even heard of his existence, and now she would very
soon see him and talk to him. Her thoughts, hitherto occupied with
Waverley and the Rectory, began to busy themselves with the town of
Dornton, the church where her mother had been married, and the house
where she had lived.
"Aunt Sarah knows my grandfather, of course," she said aloud. "He
will come to Waverley, and I shall go sometimes to see him at
Dornton?"
"Oh, no doubt, no doubt, your aunt will arrange all that," said Mr
Forrest wearily. "And now you must leave me, Anna; I've no time to
answer any more questions. Tell Mary to take a lamp into the study,
and bring me coffee. I have heaps of letters to write, and people to see
this evening."
"Your aunt will arrange all that!" What a familiar sentence that was.

Anna had heard it so often that she had come to look upon Aunt Sarah
as a person whose whole office in life was to arrange and settle the
affairs of other people, and who was sure to do it in the best possible
way.
When she opened her eyes the next morning, her first movement was to
feel under her pillow for the case which held the picture of her mother.
She had a half fear that she might have dreamt all that her father had
told her. No. It was real. The picture was there. The gentle face seemed
to smile at her as she opened the case. How nice to have such a
beautiful mother! As she dressed, she made up her mind that she would
go to see her grandfather directly she got to Waverley. What would he
be like? Her father had spoken of his musical talent in a half-pitying
sort of way. Anna was not fond of music, and she very much hoped that
her grandfather would not be too much wrapped up in it to answer all
her questions. Well, she would soon find out everything about him. Her
reflections were hurried away by the bustle of departure, for Mr Forrest,
though he travelled so much, could never start on a journey without
agitation and fuss, and fears as to losing his train. So, for the next hour,
until Anna was safely settled in a through carriage for Dornton, with
her ticket in her purse, a benevolent old lady opposite to her, and the
guard prepared to give her every attention, there was no time to realise
anything, except that she must make haste.
"Well, I think you're all right now," said Mr Forrest, with a sigh of
relief, as he rested from his exertions. "Look out for your aunt on the
platform at Dornton; she said she would meet you herself.--Why,"
looking at his watch, "you don't start for six minutes. We needn't have
hurried after all. Well, there's no object in waiting, as I'm so busy; so
I'll say good-bye now. Remember to write when you get down. Take
care of yourself."
He kissed his daughter, and was soon out of sight in the crowded
station. Anna had now really begun her first journey out into the world.
CHAPTER TWO.

DORNTON.
A bird of the air shall carry the matter.
On the same afternoon as that on which Anna was travelling towards
Waverley, Mrs Hunt, the doctor's wife in Dornton, held one of her
working parties. This was not at all an unusual event, for the ladies of
Dornton and the neighbourhood had undertaken to embroider some
curtains for their beautiful old church, and this necessitated a weekly
meeting of two hours, followed by the refreshment of tea, and
conversation. The people of Dornton were fond of meeting in each
other's houses, and very sociably inclined. They met to work, they met
to read Shakespeare, they met to sing and to play the piano, they met to
discuss interesting questions, and they met to talk. It was not, perhaps,
so much what they met to do that was the important thing, as the fact of
meeting.
"So pleasant to meet, isn't it?" one lady would say to the other. "I'm not
very musical, you know, but I've joined the glee society, because it's an
excuse for meeting."
And, certainly, of all the houses in Dornton where these meetings were
held, Dr Hunt's was the favourite. Mrs Hunt was so amiable and
pleasant, the tea was so excellent, and the conversation of a most
superior flavour. There was always the chance, too, that the doctor
might look in for