While she smiled now she said: "We must remember that until a year ago Terry was brought up in Africa, was accustomed to perfect freedom, to long rides with her father, and all kinds of adventures." "And so was little Turly, madam.

Not that he isn't as brave as anything, little darlin'; he'd follow Terry through thick an' thin, if it was through the fire.

But still an' all it never does be him that sets the mischief goin'." "But Turlough is only eight years old.

Terry is ten, and two years of a bush life at that age make a great deal more difference than the count of the days," said Madam musingly.
Madam Trimleston was a pretty old lady who had soft white hair and sweet blue eyes, and wore handsome lace caps with peachy ribbons in them; and she usually sat in a high-backed arm-chair either at the fire or the window in her own room with Nurse Nancy attending on her.

For Madam was very delicate, and since she had been left alone in old Trimleston House she rarely went down into the great rooms below.
"It would make you cry," Nancy would say, "to see her sittin' there all by herself, afther the family she rared, an' them all scatthered about over the four corners of the earth; an' the rest o' them in heaven!" It is true that Madam had sons holding posts in different lands, but her daughters had "all died on her", as Nancy lamented.