She had been
expecting to go there in two months' time. Her mother
disappeared from her life at that time. A fortnight later Leonora
came to the convent and told her that her mother was dead.
Perhaps she was. At any rate, I never heard until the very end what
became of Mrs Rufford. Leonora never spoke of her.
And then Major Rufford went to India, from which he returned
very seldom and only for very short visits; and Nancy lived herself
gradually into the life at Branshaw Teleragh. I think that, from
that time onwards, she led a very happy life, till the end. There
were dogs and horses and old servants and the Forest. And there
were Edward and Leonora, who loved her.
I had known her all the time--I mean, that she always came to the
Ashburnhams' at Nauheim for the last fortnight of their stay--and I
watched her gradually growing. She was very cheerful with me.
She always even kissed me, night and morning, until she was
about eighteen. And she would skip about and fetch me things and
laugh at my tales of life in Philadelphia. But, beneath her gaiety, I
fancy that there lurked some terrors. I remember one day, when
she was just eighteen, during one of her father's rare visits to
Europe, we were sitting in the gardens, near the iron-stained
fountain.
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