CHAPTER XXIV.
AT HOME IN LONDON.
Every summer Phebe went down to her own home on the uplands, according to her promise to the Nixeys.

Felix and Hilda always accompanied her, for a change was necessary for the children, and Felicita seldom cared to go far from London, and then only to some sea-side resort near at hand, when Madame always went with her.

Every summer Simon Nixey repeated his offer the first evening of Phebe's residence under her own roof; for, as Mrs.Nixey said, as long as she was wed to nobody else there was a chance for him.

Though they could see with sharp and envious eyes the change that was coming over her, transforming her from the simple, untaught country girl into an educated and self-possessed woman, marking out her own path in life, yet the sweetness and the frankness of Phebe's nature remained unchanged.
"She's growing a notch or two higher every time she comes down," said Mrs.Nixey regretfully; "she'll be far above thee, lad, next summer." "She's only old Dummy's daughter after all," answered Simon; "I'll never give her up." To Phebe they were always old friends, whom she must care for as long as she lived, however far she might travel from them or rise above them.
The free, homely life on the hills was as dear to her and the children as their life in London.

The little house, with its beautiful and curious decorations; the small fields and twisted trees surrounding it; the wide, purple moors, and all the associations Phebe conjured up for them connected with their father, made the dumb old wood-carver's place a second home to them.
The happiest season of the year to Mr.Clifford was that when Phebe and Roland Sefton's children were in his neighborhood.