We heard wheels and thought it was the carriage come for Viola, much
too soon, when out ran one of the maids, crying, "Oh! Miss Alison, he
is come. There's ever so many of them!"
I believe we caught hold of one another in our fright, and were
almost surprised when, outstripping lame old Richardson, as he
announced "Mr. Alison!" there came only three persons. They were the
two tallest men I had ever seen, and a little girl of eight years
old. I found my hand in a very large one, and with the words "Are
you my aunt Lucy?" I was, as it were, gathered up and kissed. The
voice, somehow, carried a comfortable feeling in the kindness of its
power and depth; and though it was a mouth bristly with yellow
bristles, such as had never touched me before, the honest friendly
eyes gave me an indescribable feeling of belonging to somebody, and
of having ceased to be alone in the world.
"Here is Eustace," he said, "and little Dora," putting the child
forward as she backed against him, most unwilling to let me kiss her.
"And, I did not know I had another aunt."
"No," I said, starting between, for what would Lady Diana's feelings
have been if Viola had carried home an Australian kiss? "This is
Miss Tracy."
Viola's carriage was now actually coming, and as I went into the
house with her, she held me, whispering to me to come home at once
with her, but I told her I could not leave them in that way, and they
were really my nephews.
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