Then he paid a flying visit to Sister Agnes, for
whom he had a great reverence and admiration, and ended by carrying off
Janet in triumph.
The park of Deepley Walls extends almost to the suburbs of Eastbury, a
town of eight thousand inhabitants, but of such small commercial
importance that the nearest railway station is three miles away across
country and nearly five miles from Deepley Walls.
Major Strickland no longer resided at Rose Cottage, but at a pretty
little villa just outside Eastbury. Some small accession of fortune had
come to him by the death of a relative; and an addition to his family in
the person of Aunt Felicite, a lady old and nearly blind, the widow of a
kinsman of the Major. Besides its tiny lawn and flower-beds in front,
the Lindens had a long stretch of garden ground behind, otherwise the
Major would scarcely have been happy in his new home. He was secretary
to the Eastbury Horticultural Society, and his fame as a grower of prize
roses and geraniums was in these latter days far sweeter to him than any
fame that had ever accrued to him as a soldier.
Janet found Aunt Felicite a most quaint and charming old lady, as
cheerful and full of vivacity as many a girl of seventeen. She kissed
Janet on both cheeks when the Major introduced her; asked whether she
was fiancee; complimented her on her French; declaimed a passage from
Racine; put her poodle through a variety of amusing tricks; and pressed
Janet to assist at her luncheon of cream cheese, French roll,
strawberries and white wine.
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