"_Dec. 19, 1850._--Lyncombe is done with! my own Mother, and oh! I
cannot say how delightful it was, in parting with so many persons
terribly familiar through two years and a half of misery, to know
that I should never see them again.
"At Stroud Lady Paul's pony-carriage was waiting, and we drove
swiftly through some deep valleys, the old coachman, twenty-five
years in the family, telling me how he had seen and nursed me when
a baby, and how glad he was that I was come to see my grandfather.
We turned up by a house which he said was my 'Aunt Jane's,'[57]
through a steep lane overhung by magnificent beech-trees, and then
round a drive to this hill-set mansion, which has a fine view over
wood and valley on one side, and on the other a garden with
conservatories and fountains.
"As the bell rang, a good-natured, foreign-looking man came out to
welcome me, and told me he was my Uncle Wentworth,[58] introduced
me to his boy Johnnie, and took me into a large cheerful room
(like the chintz room at Eridge), where the bright-eyed old Sir
John was sitting with Lady Paul and my aunt Minnie Bankhead. Lady
Paul kissed me, and it was not half so formidable as I expected....
Aunt Minnie is very handsome, and amuses everybody with her
stories. She has just brought back His Excellency her husband from
Mexico, where she has had the most wonderful adventures."
V