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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Three Brides, by Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Three Brides
+
+Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+Release Date: June 1, 2004  [eBook #12485]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THREE BRIDES***
+
+
+Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
+
+
+
+
+THE THREE BRIDES
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+The Model And Her Copies
+
+
+There is sure another Flood toward, that so many couples are
+coming to the Ark.--As You Like It
+
+"Ah! it is a pitiable case!"
+
+"What case, boys?"
+
+"Yours, mother, with such an influx of daughters-in-law."
+
+"I suspect the daughters-in-law think themselves more to be pitied."
+
+"As too many suns in one sphere."
+
+"As daughters-in-law at all."
+
+"There's a ready cure for that.  Eh, Charlie?"
+
+"The sight of the mother-in-law."
+
+"Safe up on the shelf?  Ha, you flattering boys!"
+
+"Well, each of the three bridegrooms has severally told us that his
+bride was a strong likeness of the mother, so she will have the
+advantage of three mirrors!"
+
+"Ay, and each married solely for her benefit.  I wonder which is the
+truest!"
+
+"Come, Baby Charles, don't _you_ take to being cynical and
+satirical," said the mother.  "It would be more to the purpose to
+consider of the bringing them home.  Let me see, Raymond and his
+Cecil will be at Holford's Gate at 5.30.  They must have the
+carriage in full state.  I suppose Brewer knows."
+
+"Trust the ringers for scenting it out."
+
+"Julius and Rosamond by the down train at Willansborough, at 4.50.
+One of you must drive old Snapdragon in the van for them.  They will
+not mind when they understand; but there's that poor wife of
+Miles's, I wish she could have come a few days earlier.  Her friend,
+Mrs. Johnson, is to drop her by the express at Backsworth, at 3.30."
+
+"Inconvenient woman!"
+
+"I imagine that she cannot help it; Mrs. Johnson is going far north,
+and was very good in staying with her at Southampton till she could
+move.  Poor little thing! alone in a strange country!  I'll tell you
+what!  One of you must run down by train, meet her, and either bring
+her home in a fly, or wait to be picked up by Raymond's train.  Take
+her Miles's letter."
+
+The two young men glanced at one another in dismay, and the elder
+said, "Wouldn't nurse do better?"
+
+"No, no, Frank," said the younger, catching a distressed look on
+their mother's face, "I'll look up Miles's little African.  I've
+rather a curiosity that way.  Only don't let them start the bells
+under the impression that we are a pair of the victims.  If so, I
+shall bolt."
+
+"Julius must be the nearest bolting," said Frank.  "How he
+accomplished it passes my comprehension.  I shall not believe in it
+till I see him.  There, then, I'll give orders.  Barouche for the
+squire, van for the rector, and the rattling fly for the sailor's
+wife.  So wags the course of human life," chanted Frank Charnock, as
+he strolled out of the room.
+
+"Thanks, Charlie," whispered his mother.  "I am grieved for that
+poor young thing.  I wish I could go myself.  And, Charlie, would
+you cast an eye round, and see how things look in their rooms?  You
+have always been my daughter."
+
+"Ah! my vocation is gone!  Three in one day!  I wonder which is the
+best of the lot.  I bet upon Miles's Cape Gooseberry.--Tired, mother
+darling?  Shall I send in nurse?  I must be off, if I am to catch
+the 12.30 train."
+
+He bent to kiss the face, which was too delicately shaped and tinted
+to look old enough to be in expectation of three daughters-in-law.
+No, prostrate as she was upon pillows, Mrs. Charnock Poynsett did
+not look as if she had attained fifty years.  She was lady of
+Compton Poynsett in her own right; and had been so early married and
+widowed, as to have been the most efficient parental influence her
+five sons had ever known; and their beautiful young mother had been
+the object of their adoration from the nursery upwards, so that she
+laughed at people who talked of the trouble and anxiety of rearing
+sons.
+
+They had all taken their cue from their senior, who had always been
+more to his mother than all the world besides.  For several years,
+he being as old of his age as she was young, Mr. and Mrs. Charnock
+Poynsett, with scarcely eighteen years between their ages, had often
+been taken by strangers for husband and wife rather than son and
+mother.  And though she knew she ought to wish for his marriage, she
+could not but be secretly relieved that there were no symptoms of
+any such went impending.
+
+At last, during the first spring after Raymond Charnock Poynsett,
+Esquire, had been elected member for the little borough of
+Willansborough, his mother, while riding with her two youngest boys,
+met with an accident so severe, that in two years she had never
+quitted the morning-room, whither she had at first been carried.
+She was daily lifted to a couch, but she could endure no further
+motion, though her general health had become good, and her
+cheerfulness made her room pleasant to her sons when the rest of the
+house was very dreary to them.
+
+Raymond, always the home son, would never have absented himself but
+for his parliamentary duties, and vibrated between London and home,
+until, when his mother had settled into a condition that seemed
+likely to be permanent, and his two youngest brothers were at home,
+reading each for his examination, the one for a Government
+clerkship, the other for the army, he yielded to the general
+recommendation, and set out for a journey on the Continent.
+
+A few weeks later came the electrifying news of his engagement to
+his second cousin, Cecil Charnock.  It was precisely the most
+obvious and suitable of connections.  She was the only child of the
+head of the family of which his father had been a cadet, and there
+were complications of inheritance thus happily disposed of.  Mrs.
+Poynsett had not seen her since her earliest childhood; but she was
+known to have been educated with elaborate care, and had been taken
+to the Continent as the completion of her education, and there
+Raymond had met her, and sped so rapidly with his wooing, that he
+had been married at Venice just four weeks previously.
+
+Somewhat less recent was the wedding of the second son Commander
+Miles Charnock.  (The younger sons bore their patronymic alone.)
+His ship had been stationed at the Cape and there, on a hunting
+expedition up the country, he had been detained by a severe illness
+at a settler's house; and this had resulted in his marrying the
+eldest daughter, Anne Fraser.  She had spent some months at Simon's
+Bay while his ship was there, and when he found himself under orders
+for the eastern coast of Africa, she would fain have awaited him at
+Glen Fraser; but he preferred sending her home to fulfil the mission
+of daughterhood to his own mother.
+
+The passage had been long and unfavourable, and the consequences to
+her had been so serious that when she landed she could not travel
+until after a few days' rest.
+
+The marriage of the third son had been a much greater surprise.
+Compton Poynsett was not a family living; but the patron, hearing of
+Julius Charnock as a hard-working curate in a distant seaport, wrote
+to offer it to him; and the same letter to Mrs. Poynsett to offer it
+to him; and the same letter to Mrs Poynsett which conveyed this
+gratifying intelligence, also informed her of his having proposed to
+the daughter of the commanding officer of the regiment stationed at
+the town where lay his present charge.  Her father enjoyed the
+barren honours of the Earldom of Rathforlane, an unimprovable estate
+in a remote corner of Ireland, burthened with successive families of
+numerous daughters, so that he was forced to continue in the
+service, and the marriage had been hastened by the embarkation of
+the regiment for India only two days later.  The Rectory had,
+however, been found in such a state of dilapidation, that demolition
+was the only cure; and thus the Reverend Julius and Lady Rosamond
+Charnock were to begin their married life in the family home.
+
+The two youngest sons, Francis and Charles, stood on the other side
+of a gap made by the loss of two infants, and were only twenty-one
+and nineteen.  Frank had passed through Oxford with credit, and had
+been promised a Government office; while Charles was intended for
+the army; and both had been reading with a tutor who lived at
+Willansborough, and was continually employed in cramming, being
+reported of as the best 'coach' in the country.  Charlie, however,
+had passed a week previously, and was to repair to Sandhurst in
+another fortnight.
+
+At half-past four there was a light tap at Mrs. Poynsett's door, and
+Charlie announced, "Here's the first, mother!" as he brought in a
+gray-cloaked figure; and Mrs. Poynsett took a trembling hand, and
+bestowed a kiss on a cheek which had languor and exhaustion in the
+very touch.
+
+"She was tired to death, mother," said Charlie, "so we did not wait
+for the train."
+
+"Quite right!" and as the newcomer sank into the chair he offered--
+"My dear, you are sadly knocked up!  You were hardly fit to come."
+
+"Thank you, I am quite well," answered the fagged timid voice.
+
+"Hark!" as the crash of a peal of bells came up.  "Dear child, you
+will like to rest before any fresh introductions.  You shall go to
+your room and have some tea there."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"Charlie, call Susan.--She is my boys' old nurse, now mine.  Only
+tell me you have good accounts from my boy Miles."
+
+"Oh yes;" and the hand tightly clasped the closely-written letter
+for which the mother's eyes felt hungry.  "He sent you his love, and
+he will write to you next time.  He was so busy, his first
+lieutenant was down in fever."
+
+"Where was he?"
+
+"Off Zanzibar--otherwise the crew was healthy--the 12th of August,"
+she answered, squeezing out the sentences as if constrained by the
+mother's anxious gaze.
+
+"And he was quite well when you parted with him?"
+
+"Quite."
+
+"Ah! you nursed my boy, and we must nurse you for him."
+
+"Thank you, I am quite well."  But she bit her lip, and spoke
+constrainedly, as if too shy and reserved to give way to the rush of
+emotion; but the coldness pained Mrs. Poynsett, whose expansiveness
+was easily checked; and a brief silence was followed by Charlie's
+return to report that he could not find nurse, and thought she was
+out with the other servants, watching for the arrival; in another
+moment, the approaching cheers caused him to rush out; and after
+many more noises, showing the excitement of the multitude and the
+advance of the bridal pair, during which Mrs. Poynsett lay with
+deepening colour and clasped hands, her nostrils dilating with
+anxiety and suppressed eagerness, there entered a tall, dark,
+sunburnt man bringing on his arm a little, trim, upright, girlish
+figure; and bending down, he exclaimed, "There, mother, I've brought
+her--here's your daughter!"
+
+Two little gloved hands were put into hers, and a kiss exchanged,
+while Raymond anxiously inquired for his mother's health; and she
+broke in by saying, "And here is Anne--Miles's Anne, just arrived."
+
+"Ah, I did not see you in the dark," said Raymond.  "There, Cecil,
+is a sister for you--you never had one."
+
+Cecil was readier with greeting hand and cheek than was Anne, but at
+the same moment the tea equipage was brought in, and Cecil, quite
+naturally, and as a matter of course, began to preside over the low
+table, while Raymond took his accustomed chair on the further side
+of his mother's sofa, where he could lean over the arm and study her
+countenance, while she fondled the hand that he had hung over the
+back.  He was describing the welcome at the station, and all through
+the village--the triumphal arches and shouts.
+
+"But how they _did_ miss you, mother," said Charlie.  "Old Gurnet
+wrung my hand in tears as he said, 'Yes, sir, 'tis very fine, but it
+beats the heart out of it that madam bain't here to see.'"
+
+"Good old Gurnet!" responded Raymond.  "They are famously loyal.
+The J. C. P. crowned all above all the Cs and Rs, I was happy to
+see."
+
+"J. was for Julius--not Julia," said the mother.
+
+"No; J. H. C. and R. C. had a separate device of roses all to
+themselves.  Hark! is that a cheer beginning again?  Had we not
+better go into the drawing-room, mother? it will be so many for you
+all together."
+
+"Oh no, I must see you all."
+
+The brothers hurried out with their welcome; and in another minute,
+a plump soft cheek was pressed to the mother's, devouring kisses
+were hailed on her, and a fuller sweeter tone than had yet been
+heard answered the welcome.
+
+"Thank you.  So kind!  Here's Julius!  I'll not be in your way."
+
+"Dearest mother, how is it with you?" as her son embraced her.
+"Rose has been longing to be with you."
+
+"And we've all come together!  How delicious!" cried Rosamond,
+enfolding Anne in her embrace; "I didn't know you were come!--See,
+Julius!"
+
+But as Julius turned, a startled look came over Anne's face; and she
+turned so white, that Rosamond exclaimed, "My dear--what--she's
+faint!"  And while Cecil stood looking puzzled, Rosamond had her arm
+round the trembling form, and disappeared with her, guided and
+assisted by Nurse Susan.
+
+"Isn't she--?" exclaimed Julius, in a voice of triumph that made all
+smile.
+
+"Full of sweet kindness," said Mrs. Poynsett; "but I have only seen
+and heard her yet, my dear Julius.  Susan will take her to her room--
+my old one."
+
+"Oh, thank you, mother," said Julius, "but I hardly like that; it
+seems like your giving it up."
+
+"On the contrary, it proves that I do not give it up, since I put in
+temporary lodgers like you.--Now Cecil is housed as you preferred,
+Raymond--in the wainscot-rooms."
+
+"And where have you put that poor Mrs. Miles?" asked Raymond.  "She
+looks quite knocked up."
+
+"Yes, she has been very ill on the voyage, and waited at Southampton
+to gather strength for the journey.--I am so grateful to your good
+Rose, Julius.--Why, where is the boy?  Vanished in her wake, I
+declare!"
+
+"His venerable head is quite turned," said Frank.  "I had to get
+inside alone, and let them drive home outside together to avoid
+separation."
+
+Raymond repeated his question as to the quarters of Miles's wife.
+
+"I had the old schoolroom and the bedroom adjoining newly fitted
+up," answered Mrs. Poynsett.  "Jenny Bowater was here yesterday, and
+gave the finishing touches.  She tells me the rooms look very nice.--
+Cecil, my dear, you must excuse deficiencies; I shall look to you
+in future."
+
+"I hope to manage well," said Cecil.  "Had I not better go up now?
+Will you show me the way, Raymond?"
+
+The mother and her two younger sons remained.
+
+"Haven't I brought you home a splendid article?" was Frank's
+exclamation.  "Julius has got the best of it."
+
+"I back my Cape Gooseberry," returned Charles.  "She has eyes and
+hair and skin that my Lady can't match, and is a fine figure of a
+woman besides."
+
+"Much you know of Rosamond's eyes!"
+
+"Or you either, boxed up in the van."
+
+"Any way, they have made roast meat of his Reverence's heart!  The
+other two take it much more easily."
+
+"She's a mere chicken," said Charlie.  "Who would have thought of
+Raymond being caught by a callow nestling?"
+
+"And so uncommonly cool," added Frank.
+
+"It would take much to transform Raymond," interposed the mother.
+"Now, boys, away with you; I must have a little quiet, to repair
+myself for company after dinner."
+
+Charlie settled her cushions with womanly skill, and followed his
+brother.  "Well, Frank, which is the White Cat?  Ah, I thought so--
+she's yet to come."
+
+"Not one is fit to hold a candle to _her_.  You saw that as plain as
+I did, Charlie; Eleonora beats them all."
+
+"Ah, you're not the youngest brother, remember.  It was he who
+brought her home at last.  Come, you need not knock me down; I shall
+never see any one to surpass the mother, and I'll have no one till I
+do."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+The Population of Compton Poynsett
+
+
+He wanted a wife his braw hoose to keep,
+But favour wi' wooin' was fashous to seek.--Laird o' Cockpen
+
+In the bright lamplight of the dining-table, the new population
+first fully beheld one another, and understood one another's looks.
+
+There was much family resemblance between the five brothers.  All
+were well-grown well-made men, strong and agile, the countenance
+pleasing, rather square of mould, eyebrows straight and thick, nose
+well cut and short, chin firm and resolute-looking, and the
+complexion very dark in Raymond, Frank, and the absent Miles.
+Frank's eyes were soft, brown, rather pensive, and absent in
+expression; but Raymond's were much deeper and darker, and had a
+steadfast gravity, that made him be viewed as formidable, especially
+as he had lost all the youthful glow of colouring that mantled in
+his brother's olive cheek; and he had a short, thick, curly brown
+beard, while Frank had only attained to a black moustache, that
+might almost have been drawn on his lip with charcoal.
+
+Charlie was an exception--fair, blue-eyed, rosy, and with a soft
+feminine contour of visage, which had often drawn on him reproaches
+for not being really the daughter all his mother's friends desired
+for her.
+
+And Julius, with the outlines of the others, was Albino, with
+transparent skin mantling with colour that contrasted with his snowy
+hair, eyebrows, and the lashes, veiling eyes of a curious coral hue,
+really not unpleasing under their thick white fringes, but most
+inconveniently short of sight, although capable of much work; in
+fact, he was a curiously perfect pink-and-white edition of his dark
+and bronzed brother the sailor.
+
+The dark eyes came from the father's side; Cecil had them, and very
+observing orbs they seemed to be, travelling about from one face to
+another, and into every corner of the room, scrutinizing every
+picture or piece of plate, and trying to see into the conservatory,
+which had a glass door opening from one end of the room.  She was
+the youngest of the brides, and her features and form seemed hardly
+developed, nor had she attained the air of a matron; her fashionable
+dress of crisp white worked muslin with blue trimmings, and blue
+ribbons in her brown hair, only gave her the air of a young girl at
+her first party, in spite of her freedom from all shyness as she sat
+at the head of the table in contented self-possession, her little
+slender figure as upright as a perfect spine could make it.
+
+Very different was the bride on Raymond's right hand.  She was of
+middle height, soft, round, and plump, carrying her head a little
+tenderly on one side with a delightful degagee kind of ease, and air
+of vivacious indolence.  Her complexion was creamy and colourless,
+her nose rather retrousse, her lips full and parting in a delicious
+roguish smile, answering to the sleepily twinkling eyes, whose
+irides seemed to shade so imperceptibly into the palest gray, that
+there was no telling where the pupils ended, especially as the lids
+were habitually half closed, as if weighed down by the black length
+of their borders.  The habit of arching up one or other of the
+eyebrows, in surprise or interrogation, gave a drollery to the
+otherwise nonchalant sweetness of the countenance.  The mass of
+raven black hair was only adorned by a crimson ribbon, beneath which
+it had been thrust into a net, with a long thing that had once been
+a curl on the shoulder of the white tumbled bodice worn over a gray
+skirt which looked as if it had done solitary duty for the five
+weeks since the marriage, and was but slightly relieved by a crimson
+sash.
+
+Rosamond made some apology when she saw Cecil's dainty equipment.
+"Dressed, you correct little thing!  You put me to shame; but I had
+no notion which box my evening things are in, and it would have been
+serious to irritate the whole concern."
+
+"And she was some time with Anne," added Julius.
+
+"Ah! with my good will Anne should not have been here!" rejoined
+Rosamond.  "Didn't I meet old Mrs. Nurse at your threshold, with an
+invitation from Mrs. Poynsett to dine with her in her room, and
+didn't we find the bird flown at the first stroke of the gong?"
+
+"Oh, I am very well!" repeated Anne.
+
+Yet she was far more colourless than Julius, for her complexion was
+not only faded by sickness, but was naturally of the whitest blonde
+tint; the simple coils of her hair "lint white," and her eyes of the
+lightest tint of pure blue.  The features were of Scottish type, all
+the more so from being exaggerated by recent illness; but they were
+handsome enough to show that she must have been a bonnie lassie when
+her good looks were unimpaired.  Her figure far surpassed in height
+that of both the other ladies, and was very slender, bending with
+languor and fatigue in spite of her strenuous attempts to straighten
+it.  She was clad in a perfectly plain, almost quaker-looking light
+dove-coloured silk dress, fitting closely, and unrelieved by any
+ribbon or ornament of any description, so that her whole appearance
+suggested nothing but the words "washed out."
+
+It was clear that to let her alone was merciful, and there was no
+lack of mutual communications among the rest.  Frank and Charlie
+gave their account of the condition of the game.
+
+"Do you let your tenants shoot rabbits?" exclaimed Cecil, as if
+scandalized.  "We never do at Dunstone."
+
+"It prevents an immense amount of discontent and ill-will and
+underhand work," said Raymond.
+
+"My father never will listen to any nonsense about rabbits,"
+proceeded Cecil.  "If you once begin there is no end to it, they are
+sure to encroach.  He just sends them a basket of game at the
+beginning and end of the season."
+
+"By the bye," said Raymond, "I hope ours have all been sent out as
+usual."
+
+"I can answer for a splendid one at our wedding breakfast," said
+Rosamond.  "The mess-man who came to help was lost in admiration.
+Did you breakfast on ortolans, Cecil?"
+
+"Or on nightingales' tongues?" added Charlie.
+
+"You might as well say fatted dormice and snails," said Frank.  "One
+would think the event had been eighteen hundred years ago."
+
+"Poor Frank! he's stuffed so hard that it is bursting out at all his
+pores!" exclaimed Charlie.
+
+"Ah! you have the advantage of your elder, Master Charles!" said
+Raymond, with a paternal sound of approbation.
+
+"Till next time," said Frank.  "Now, thank goodness, mine is once
+for all!"
+
+The conversation drifted away to Venice and the homeward journey,
+which Raymond and Cecil seemed to have spent in unremitting sight-
+seeing.  The quantities of mountains, cathedrals, and pictures they
+had inspected was quite appalling.
+
+"How hard you must have worked!" exclaimed Rosamond.  "Had you never
+a day's rest out of the thirty?"
+
+"Had we, Cecil?  I believe not," said Raymond.
+
+"Sundays?" gasped Anne's low voice at his elbow.
+
+"Indeed," triumphantly returned Cecil, "between English service and
+High Mass, and Benediction, and the public gardens, and listening to
+the band, we had not a single blank Sunday."
+
+Anne started and looked aghast; and Raymond said, "The opportunity
+was not to be wasted, and Cecil enjoyed everything with unwearied
+vigour."
+
+"Why, what else should we have done?  It would have been very dull
+and stupid to have stayed in together," said Cecil, with a world of
+innocent wonder in her eyes.  Then turning to her neighbour,
+"Surely, Julius, you went about and saw things!"
+
+"The sea at Filey Bridge, and the Church Congress at Leeds," he
+answered, smiling.
+
+"Very shocking, is it not, Cecil?" said Rosamond, with mock gravity;
+"but he must be forgiven, for he was tired to death!  I used to
+think, for my part, that lovers were a sort of mild lunatics, never
+to be troubled or trusted with any earthly thing; but that's one of
+the things modern times have changed!  As he was to be going, all
+the clerical staff of St. Awdry's must needs have their holiday and
+leave him to do their work; indeed, one was sent off here.  For six
+weeks I never saw him, except when he used to rush in to say he
+couldn't stay; and when at last we were safe in the coupe, he fairly
+went to sleep before we got to the first station.--Hush! you _know_
+you did!  And no wonder, for he had been up two nights with some
+sort of infidel who was supposed to be dying.  Then that first week
+at Filey, he used to bring out his poetry books as the proper sort
+of thing, and try to read them to me on the sands:  but by the time
+he had got to the bottom of a page, I used to hear the words
+dragging out slower and slower--
+
+Whereon the--lily--maid--of--Astolat
+Lay--smiling--like--a--star-fish--fast--asleep."
+
+Wherewith Rosamond dropped her head and closed her eyes; while the
+brothers shouted with mirth, except Frank, whose countenance was 'of
+one hurt on a vulnerable side.'
+
+"Disrespect to Elaine?  Eh, Frank?" said Charlie; "how many pegs has
+Julius gone down in your estimation?"
+
+Frank would not commit himself, but he was evidently at the era of
+sensitiveness on the poetical side.  Cecil spoke for him.  "How very
+provoking!  What did you do to him, Rosamond?"
+
+"I kept off the sand-flies!  I can't say but I was glad of a little
+rest, for I had been packing up for the whole family for ten days
+past, with interludes of rushing out into the town; for whatever we
+had not forgotten, the shops had not sent home!  Oh! what a paradise
+of quiet it was under the rocks at Filey--wasn't it, Julius?"
+
+"We will go there again next time we have a chance," said Julius,
+looking blissful.
+
+"I would never go again to the same place," cried Cecil.  "That's
+not the way to acquire new ideas."
+
+"We are too old to acquire new ideas, my dear," drawled Rosamond,
+sleepily.
+
+"What did you go to the Church Congress for!" asked Charlie.
+
+"I hope Julius was awake by that time," said Frank.
+
+"Not if we are to have all the new ideas tried on us," said Raymond,
+dryly.
+
+"I went to a Congress once!" exclaimed Cecil.
+
+"Indeed!" said her husband, surprised.
+
+"Yes.  We thought we ought to encourage them.  It was the Congress
+of Sunday-school managers for our archdeaconry."
+
+"Did you acquire any new ideas?" asked Frank; while Rosamond's very
+eyelashes seemed to curl with suppressed diversion.
+
+"Oh yes.  We explained our system of tickets, and the Arch-deacon
+said it was a very good one, and ought to be adopted everywhere."
+
+This mode of acquisition of new ideas was quite too much for Julius
+and Charlie, who both exploded; but Frank retained composure enough
+to ask, "Did you explain it in person?"
+
+"No.  We made Mr. Venn."
+
+"The schoolmaster?" said Julius.
+
+"No.  He is _our_ clergyman, and he always does as _we_ tell him;
+and _so_ Dunstone is quite the model parish of the archdeaconry."
+
+Julius could not help making an odd little bend of the head, half
+deferential, half satirical; and Raymond said, "Cecil, I believe it
+rests with you to make the move."  An ingenuous girlish blush
+mantled on her cheek as she looked towards Rosamond and moved.
+
+The drawing-room adjoined the dining-room, and likewise had a glass
+door leading into the conservatory; but this, like the other
+windows, was concealed by the pale-blue damask curtains that
+descended from cornices gilded like the legs of the substantial
+chairs and sofas.  There was, however, no lack of modern light cane
+and basket seats round the fire, and it looked cheery and
+comfortable.  Rosamond put an arm round Anne's waist--"Poor tired
+dear, come and lie on the sofa."
+
+"Oh no, I couldn't.  The gentlemen will come in."
+
+"All brothers!  What, will you only be satisfied with an easy-chair!
+A charming room, and a charming fire!"
+
+"Not so nice as a library," said Cecil, stabbing the fire with the
+poker as a sort of act of possession.  "We always sit in the library
+at Dunstone.  State rooms are horrid."
+
+"This only wants to be littered down," said Rosamond.  "That's my
+first task in fresh quarters, banishing some things and upsetting
+the rest, and strewing our own about judiciously.  There are the
+inevitable wax-flowers.  I have regular blarney about their being so
+lovely, that it would just go to my heart to expose them to the
+boys."
+
+"You have always been on the move," said Cecil, who was standing by
+the table examining the ornaments.
+
+"You may say so! there are not many of Her Majesty's garrisons that
+I have not had experience of, except my native country that I wasn't
+born in.  It was very mean of them never once to send us to
+Ireland."
+
+"Where were you born?" said Cecil, neither of the two catching at
+the bull which perhaps Rosamond had allowed to escape by way of
+trying them.
+
+"At Plymouth.  Dick and I were both born at Plymouth, and Maurice at
+Scutari; then we were in the West Indies; the next two were born all
+up and down in Jamaica and all the rest of the Islands--Tom and
+Terry--dear boys, I've got the charge of them now they are left at
+school.  Three more are Canadians; and little Nora is the only
+Irish-born one amongst us."
+
+"I thought you said you had never been in Ireland."
+
+"Never quartered there, but on visits at Rathforlane," said
+Rosamond.  "Our ten years at home we have been up and down the
+world, till at last you see I've ended where I began--at Plymouth."
+
+"Oh, what a lovely Florentine mosaic!" exclaimed Cecil, who had
+taken but slight interest in this itinerary.  "It is just like a
+weight at Dunstone."  Then opening a miniature-case, "Who is this--
+Mrs. Poynsett when she was young?"
+
+"Most likely," said Rosamond.  "It is like her now, and very like
+Charlie."
+
+"Yes.  Charles is quite unlike the family."
+
+"What family?" said Rosamond.
+
+"The Charnocks, of course.  Raymond is a perfect Charnock!"
+
+"A vast advantage," murmured Rosamond.
+
+"Of course," said Cecil, taking it quite seriously.  "No one else
+could be the same thing to us.  Papa said there was not a match in
+the whole world that could have gratified him so much."
+
+"How old are you, Cecil?" quoth Rosamond, with a ripple in her
+voice.
+
+"Oh, his age was no matter.  I don't like young men.  That's not the
+drawback; no, it is that horrid Poynsett at the end of the name."
+
+"You see you had better have waived your objections to youth, and
+taken a younger son."
+
+"I couldn't," said this naive young person.  "Besides, there is much
+more of a field for me here than at Dunstone since papa's marriage."
+
+Whatever Rosamond had on the tip of her tongue was averted by the
+entrance of the three younger brothers.  Julius seated himself
+beside her in the cushioned fireside corner; and Cecil asked where
+Raymond was.
+
+"Just stepped in to see my mother," said Frank.  "This room opens
+into hers.  Will you come to them?"
+
+"Not yet," said Cecil.  "I want you to tell me about the
+neighbourhood."
+
+"Just what I want," said Rosamond.  "Whenever I ask, Julius always
+says there's Dr. Easterby."
+
+Frank and Charlie burst out laughing.
+
+"Dr. Easterby is one of the greatest men in the English Church,"
+said Julius.
+
+"Precisely!  But what is the regiment at Backsworth?" and as Charlie
+named it, "Oh, what fun!  That's where Laurie Cookson exchanged.  He
+will be sure to send us cards for everything."
+
+"At Dunstone we never used to go to garrison gaieties," said Cecil,
+gravely.
+
+"Oh!  I'm a military pariah," said Rosamond, hastily.
+
+"Who are the land-owners?" continued Cecil.  "There was a place I
+saw from the line, but Raymond didn't hear when I asked whose it
+was.  Close to the station, I mean."
+
+"That is Sirenwood," said Charles.  "Sir Harry Vivian's.  He is just
+come back there with his two daughters."
+
+"I thought Emily Vivian was dead," said Julius.  "You don't mean
+_that_ women!"
+
+"_That_ woman?" laughed his wife.  "What has she done to be a _that_
+woman?"
+
+"Offended his Reverence," said Frank, in that sort of jocose tone
+which betrays annoyance.
+
+"A heartless mischievous woman!" said Julius.
+
+Rosamond cocked up her left eyebrow with an ineffably droll look,
+which encouraged Charlie to say, "Such fierceness can only be
+prompted by personal experience.  Look out, Rosamond!"
+
+"Come 'fess, Julius," said she, merrily.  "'Fess and make it up."
+
+"I--I have nothing to confess," said Julius, seriously.
+
+"Hasn't he indeed?" said she, looking at the brothers.
+
+"Oh! don't ask us," said Charlie.  "His youthful indiscretions were
+over long before our eyes had risen above the horizon!"
+
+"Do you mean that they have really come home to live here?" demanded
+Julius, with singular indifference to the personal insinuations.
+
+"I am sorry it is so painful to you," said I Frank, somewhat
+ironically; "but Sir Harry thinks it right to return and end his
+days among his own people."
+
+"Is he ill, then?"
+
+"I can't gratify you so far," returned Frank; "he is a fine old
+fellow of sixty-five.  Just what humbugging papers call a regular
+specimen of an old English gentleman," he added to Cecil.
+
+"Humbugging indeed, I should hope," muttered Julius.  "The old
+English gentleman has reason to complain!"
+
+"There's the charity of the clergy!" exclaimed Frank.  "No
+forgiveness for a man who has spent a little in his youth!"
+
+"As an essential of the old English gentleman?" asked Julius.
+
+"At any rate, the poor old fellow has been punished enough," said
+Charlie.
+
+"But what is it?  Tell me all about it," said Cecil.  "I am sure my
+father would not wish me to associate with dissipated people."
+
+"Ah!  Cecil," said Rosamond.  "You'll have to take refuge with the
+military, after all!"
+
+"It is just this," said Charlie.  "Sir Harry and his only son were
+always extravagant, one as bad as the other--weren't they, Julius?
+Phil Bowater told me all about it, and how Tom Vivian lost fifteen
+thousand pounds one Derby Day, and was found dead in his chambers
+the next morning, they said from an over-dose of chloroform for
+neuralgia.  Then the estate was so dipped that Sir Harry had to give
+up the estate to his creditors, and live on an allowance abroad or
+at watering-places till now, when he has managed to come home.  That
+is to say, the house is really leased to Lady Tyrrell, and he is in
+a measure her guest--very queer it must be for him in his own
+house."
+
+"Is Lady Tyrrell _that_ woman?" asked Rosamond.
+
+"I conclude so," said Charlie.  "She was the eldest daughter, and
+married Lord Tyrrell, who died about two years ago.  She has no
+children, so she has taken the family in charge, patches up Sir
+Harry's affairs with her jointure, and chaperons her sister."
+
+"What is she like?"
+
+"Ask Frank," said Charlie, slyly.
+
+"No!" said Frank, with dignity.  "I shall say no more, I only excite
+prejudice."
+
+"You are right, Frank," said Julius, who had evidently recovered
+from the shock.  "It is not fair to judge people now from what they
+were eleven years ago.  They have had some terrible lessons, and may
+be much changed."
+
+"Ay," said Frank; "and they have been living in an atmosphere
+congenial to you, at Rockpier, and are hand and glove with all the
+St. Chrysostom folk there.  What do you say to that, Julius?  I can
+tell you they are enchanted with your curate!"
+
+"They are not in this parish."
+
+"No, but they turn up here--the ladies, at least--at all the
+services at odd times that Bindon has begun with."
+
+"Ah! by the bye, is Herbert Bowater come?"
+
+"Yes, the whole family came over to his installation in Mrs.
+Hornblower's lodgings."
+
+"I saw him this morning, poor old Herbs," added Frank, "looking
+uncommonly as if he felt himself in a strait waistcoat."
+
+"What, are there two curates?" demanded Cecil, in a tone of
+reprobation.
+
+Julius made a gesture of assent, with a certain humorous air of
+deprecation, which, however, was lost upon her.
+
+"We never let Mr. Venn have one," continued Cecil, "except one
+winter when he was ill, and then not a young one.  Papa says idle
+young clergymen are not to be encouraged."
+
+"I am entirely of Mr. Charnock's opinion.  But if I have exceeded
+the Dunstone standard, it was not willingly.  Herbert Bowater is the
+son of some old friends of my mother's, who wanted to keep their son
+near home, and made it their request that I would give him a title."
+
+"And the Bowaters are the great feature in the neighbourhood," added
+Frank.  "Herbert tells me there are wonderful designs for
+entertaining the brides."
+
+"What do they consist of?" asked Rosamond.
+
+"All the component parts of a family," said Frank.  "The eldest
+daughter is a sort of sheet-anchor to my mother, as well as her own.
+The eldest son is at home now.  He is in the army."
+
+"In the Light Dragoons?" asked Rosamond.  "Oh! then I knew him at
+Edinburgh!  A man with yellow whiskers, and the next thing to a
+stutter."
+
+"I declare, Julius, she is as good as any army list," exclaimed
+Charlie.
+
+"There's praise!" cried Frank.  "The army list is his one book!
+What a piece of luck to have you to coach him up in it!"
+
+"I dare say Rosamond can tell me lots of wrinkles for my outfit,"
+said Charles.
+
+"I should hope so, having rigged out Dick for the line, and Maurice
+for the artillery!"
+
+Charlie came and leant on the mantel-shelf, and commenced a
+conversation sotto voce on the subject nearest his heart; while
+Cecil continued her catechism.
+
+"Are the Bowaters intellectual?"
+
+"Jenny is very well read," said Julius, "a very sensible person."
+
+"Yes," said Frank; "she was the only person here that so much as
+tried to read Browning.  But if Cecil wants intellect, she had
+better take to the Duncombes, the queerest firm I ever fell in with.
+He makes the turf a regular profession, actually gets a livelihood
+out of his betting-book; and she is in the strong-minded line--
+woman's rights, and all the rest of it."
+
+"We never had such people at Dunstone," said Cecil.  "Papa always
+said that the evil of being in parliament was the having to be civil
+to everybody."
+
+Just then Raymond came back with intelligence that his mother was
+about to go to bed, and to call his wife to wish her good night.
+All went in succession to do the same.
+
+"My dear," she said to Anne, "I hoped you were in bed."
+
+"I thought I would wait for family worship."
+
+"I am afraid we don't have prayers at night, my dear.  We must
+resume them in the morning, now Raymond and Julius are come."
+
+Poor Anne looked all the whiter, and only mumbled out a few answers
+to the kind counsels lavished upon her.  Mrs. Poynsett was left to
+think over her daughters-in-law.
+
+Lady Rosamond did not occupy her much.  There was evidently plenty
+of good strong love between her and her husband; and though her
+training might not have been the best for a clergyman's wife, there
+was substance enough in both to shake down together in time.
+
+But it was Raymond who made her uneasy--Raymond, who ever since his
+father's death had been more than all her other sons to her.  She
+had armed herself against the pang of not being first with him, and
+now she was full of vague anxiety at the sense that she still held
+her old position.  Had he not sat all the evening in his own place
+by her sofa, as if it were the very kernel of home and of repose?
+And whenever a sense of duty prompted her to suggest fetching his
+wife, had he not lingered, and gone on talking?  It was indeed of
+Cecil; but how would she have liked his father, at the honeymoon's
+end, to prefer talking of her to talking with her?  "She has been
+most carefully brought up, and is very intelligent and industrious,"
+said Raymond.  His mother could not help wondering whether a Roman
+son might not thus have described a highly accomplished Greek slave,
+just brought home for his mother's use.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+Parish Explorations
+
+
+   A cry more tuneable
+Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
+In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly:
+Judge, when you hear.--But, soft; what nymphs are these?
+Midsummer Night's Dream
+
+It was quite true that Cecil Charnock Poynsett was a very
+intelligent industrious creature, very carefully brought up--nay, if
+possible, a little too much so.  "A little wholesome neglect" had
+been lacking.
+
+The only child of her parents who had lived to see a second birthday
+was sure to be the centre of solicitude.  She had not been spoilt in
+the usual acceptation of the word, for she had no liberty, fewer
+indulgences and luxuries than many children, and never was permitted
+to be naughty; but then she was quite aware that each dainty or each
+pleasure was granted or withheld from a careful consideration of her
+welfare, and that nothing came by chance with her.  And on her rare
+ebullitions of self-will, mamma, governess, nurse, nay even papa,
+were all in sorrowful commotion till their princess had been brought
+to a sense of the enormity of her fault.
+
+She lost her mother at fourteen, but the same anxious training was
+carried on by her father; and after three years he married her
+mother's most intimate friend, avowedly that the perfect system
+might be continued.  Cecil's gaieties as a come-out young lady were
+selected on the same judicious principles as her childish
+diversions; and if ever the Dunstone family favoured an
+entertainment not to their taste, it was after a debate on the need
+of condescension and good-nature.  She had, however, never had a
+season in London--a place her father hated; but she was taken abroad
+as soon as she was deemed old enough thoroughly to appreciate what
+she was to see there; and in Switzerland her Cousin Raymond, who had
+at different times visited Dunstone, overtook the party, and ere
+long made his proposals.  He was the very man to whom two or three
+centuries ago Mr. Charnock would have betrothed the heiress in her
+infancy; and Cecil had never liked any one so well, feeling that her
+destiny came to a proper culmination in bestowing her hand on the
+most eligible Charnock, an M.P., and just a step above her father in
+rank and influence.
+
+Her step-mother was under orders to spend the winter in Italy and
+the wedding had therefore taken place in Venice, so that Cecil might
+finish her journey as a wife.  She had been very happy and fully
+occupied; Raymond, being younger and stronger than her parents, was
+more competent to escort her to every height or depth to which she
+wished to go, hunted up information for her, and was her most
+obedient servant, only resisting any prolongation of the journey
+beyond the legitimate four weeks; nor indeed had Cecil been desirous
+of deferring her introduction to her new sphere.
+
+There she stood, her hair and pretty Parisian winter dress arranged
+to perfection, contemplating with approval the sitting-room that had
+been appropriated to her, the October sunshine lighting up the many-
+tinted trees around the smooth-shaven dewy lawn, and a bright fire
+on the hearth, shelves and chiffoniers awaiting her property, and
+piles of parcels, suggestive of wedding presents, awaiting her hand.
+She was standing at the table, turning out her travelling-bag with
+the comfortable sensation that it was not to be immediately re-
+packed, and had just disinterred a whole library of note-books, when
+her husband opened the door.  "I believe Jenkins is waiting for your
+appearance to bring in the urn, my dear."
+
+"I'm coming; but surely there ought to be a bell or gong to assemble
+the family."
+
+"It might disturb my mother.  What sleep she gets is in the morning.
+I never go to her till eleven o'clock, unless I am going out for the
+day."
+
+"And what will she want me to do for her?" asked Cecil, glancing at
+her empty shelves.
+
+"A woman's tact will soon find out.  All I wish is that she should
+be your first object."
+
+It was a much larger _all_ than could be realized by the son whose
+happiest moments had been spent in devotion to her, and who thought
+the motherless girl must rejoice doubly in such a mother.
+
+"But I am free till eleven," said Cecil.
+
+"Free always, I hope," he returned, with a shade of vexation.
+Therewith they descended the broad stairs into the panelled hall,
+where a great fire was blazing on the hearth, and Rosamond and the
+two young brothers were standing chatting merrily before it.
+
+Julius, she said, had his primary sermon heavy on his mind, and had
+risen before day to attack it; and she sped away to summon him from
+Mrs. Poynsett's beautiful old dressing-room, where he sat writing
+amid all the old associations.  Anne was discovered hanging over the
+dining-room fire, looking whiter and more exhausted than the night
+before, having indeed been the first to come down-stairs.  She was
+rebuked for fatiguing herself, and again murmured something about
+family worship.
+
+"We must begin to-morrow," said Raymond.  "We have got a chaplain
+now."
+
+Julius, however, on entering excused himself, saying that after
+Sunday he should be at Matins at nine o'clock; whereupon Anne looked
+at him in mute astonishment.
+
+Raymond, feeling that he ought to cultivate the solitary sister-in-
+law, began asking about Miles; but unlike the typical colonist, she
+was very silent, and her replies were monosyllabic, till Rosamond
+created a diversion by talking to Frank; and then Raymond elicited
+that Glen Fraser was far up the country--King Williamstown nearer
+than any other town.  They had sent thither for a doctor for Miles,
+and he stayed one night, but said that mother's treatment was quite
+right; and as it was thirty miles off he did not come again.  Thirty
+miles! what sort of roads?  Not bad for wagons.  It only took two
+days to get there if the river was not in flood.  Had she not been
+married there?  Yes, they all rode in thither for the purpose.  Was
+it the nearest church, then?  There was one only nine miles off, to
+which papa went when there was service--one Sunday in three, "for he
+is an Episcopalian, you know."
+
+"And not your mother?" asked Cecil.
+
+"I don't think she was at home," said Anne.
+
+"Then had you a Presbyterian Kirk?" asked Cecil, remembering that in
+Scotland gentle blood and Anglicanism did not go together as
+uniformly as she believed them to do in England.
+
+"There was one at Schneyder's Kloof, but that was Dutch."
+
+"Then did you go nowhere?" asked Cecil.
+
+"There was Mr. Pilgrim's."
+
+"A clergyman?"
+
+"No, a settler.  He used to pray and expound every Sunday."
+
+"What does he call himself?" said Cecil, growing more severe.
+
+"I don't know," said Anne.  "He gathers together a little flock of
+all denominations, who only care to hear the word."
+
+"Such a voice in the wilderness as often does good service," said
+Julius, with a perception that the side with which he least agreed
+best deserved support.
+
+He and Rosamond were bent on a tour of parochial inspection, as were
+Raymond and Cecil on a more domestic one, beginning with the
+gardens.
+
+Cecil was the first lady down-stairs, all in claret colour trimmed
+with gray fur, with a little fur and velvet cap upon her head.
+
+"There! it is a clear morning, and you can see the view," said
+Raymond, opening the hall door.
+
+"Very prettily undulating ground," she said, standing on the steps,
+and looking over a somewhat rapid slope scattered with trees to the
+opposite side of the valley, where a park with a red mansion in the
+midst gleamed out among woods of green, red, orange, and brown
+tints.  "How you are shut in!  That great Spanish chestnut must be a
+perfect block when its leaves are out.  My father would never let it
+stand so near the house."
+
+"It is too near, but it was planted at the birth of my mother's
+brother."
+
+"Who died?"
+
+"Yes, at seven years old.  It was her first grief."
+
+"Then it would vex her if you cut it."
+
+Raymond laughed.  "It is hers, not mine."
+
+"I forgot."  There was a good deal in the tone; but she added, "What
+is that place opposite?"
+
+"Sirenwood.  It belongs to Sir Harry Vivian; but he does not live
+there."
+
+"Yes, he does," said Cecil.  "Your brothers say he has come back
+with his two daughters."
+
+"There is only one unmarried."
+
+"There is a widow come to keep house for him--Lady Tyrrell."
+
+"Very likely," said Raymond; "my mother only writes with difficulty,
+so I hear little when I am from home."
+
+"Is it true that they are horrid people, very dissipated, and not
+fit for me to associate with?"
+
+"That is putting it strongly," said Raymond, quietly.  "They are not
+likely to be very desirable acquaintances for you, but there is no
+reason you should not associate with them on ordinary terms of
+courtesy."
+
+"Ah!  I understand--as member's wife."
+
+"I don't see what that has to do with it," said Raymond.  "Ah!
+Rosamond!" as she came down in a Galway cloak over her black
+velveteen, "on the way to view your domain?"
+
+"Yes, and yours," she said, nodding to Cecil.  "You appreciate such
+English apple-pie order.  It looks as if you never suffered a stray
+leaf to dance without an old woman to hunt it down.  And what's that
+red house smiling across the valley?"
+
+"Sirenwood," repeated Raymond; then to Julius he said, "Did you know
+it was inhabited again?"
+
+"Frank said so," answered Julius, without further remark, giving his
+arm to his wife, who clasped both hands on it; while the other
+couple looked on as if doubtful whether this were a trying duty
+incumbent on them.
+
+"What is it all about?" said Rosamond, as they walked down the
+avenue of walnuts leading to the iron gates in the opposite
+direction from Sirenwood.  "Which of you was _that woman's_ victim?
+Was it a sailor love of Miles's?  I hope not!  That poor little
+African might not stand a gay ghost cropping up again."
+
+"Miles is far removed from the conventional sailor."
+
+"Then it is reduced to the grave Raymond."
+
+"I wish I had betrayed nothing."
+
+"Now you may as well proceed to betray the rest, instead of leaving
+me to exercise my fancy."
+
+"It is no secret, only such things are best not brought up again.
+Camilla Vivian was poor Raymond's grande passion, and you may
+imagine what a grief that was to my mother, especially as the poor
+brother was then living--one of the most fascinating, dangerous men
+I ever saw; and the whole tone of the place was ultra gay and
+thoughtless, the most reckless extravagance.  However, he was set
+upon it, and my mother was forced to consent to the engagement.  She
+seemed equally devoted to him, till she met Lord Tyrrell at some
+country house, and then a quarrel was picked, either by her mother
+or herself, about my mother retaining the headship of her own house.
+It was a palpable excuse, but it served to break the affair off, and
+Raymond was cruelly cut up.  My mother made herself everything to
+him from that moment, gave up all her former habits to be with him,
+sent the little boys to school, and fairly dragged him through the
+trouble!"
+
+"How long ago was it?"
+
+"Ten years--yes, ten years.  So far as ceasing to care a straw for a
+heartless woman like that, he has got over it, no doubt; but it has
+made a graver man of him for life, and I doubt whether, but for my
+mother's accident, he ever would have married."
+
+"Did you marry for your mother's sake, Julius, or only tell her so?"
+
+"For shame, my Lady Mischief!"
+
+"And do you think the fair Camilla returned with plans that she
+finds disconcerted?"
+
+"How can I tell?  I have not seen her since I was a lad of
+eighteen.--Ah! how d'ye do, Betty?" in a tone of relief; "you've not
+seen my wife."
+
+This was the first of a long series of introductions.  Compton
+Poynsett was a straggling village, with the church, schools, and
+Rectory, ten minutes' walk from the park gates.  It had not been
+neglected, so that Julius had not the doubtful satisfaction of
+coming like a missionary or reformer.  The church, though not
+exactly as with his present lights he would have made it, was in
+respectable order, and contained hardly anything obnoxious to his
+taste; the schools were well built, properly officered, and the
+children under such discipline that Rosamond declared she could no
+more meddle with them than with her father's regiment.
+
+The Rectory was at that moment level with the ground, and Julius
+explaining the plans, when up came the senior curate.  Mr. Bindon,
+whom she, as well as Julius, greeted as an old friend, was the
+typical modern priest, full of his work, and caring for nothing
+besides, except a Swiss mountain once a year; a slight, spare,
+small, sallow man, but with an enormous power of untiring energy.
+
+Scarcely had Rosamond shaken hands with him, standing where her
+drawing-room rug was to be in future days, when a merry whistle came
+near, and over the wall from the churchyard leapt first a black
+retriever, secondly a Skye terrier, thirdly a bull ditto, fourthly a
+young man, or rather an enormous boy, who for a moment stood amazed
+and disconcerted at the unexpectedly worshipful society into which
+he had jumped!
+
+"Ha!  Herbert! is that you?" laughed Julius.
+
+"I beg your pardon!" he breathlessly exclaimed.  "I was just taking
+the short cut!  I had no idea--Here, Mungo, you ruffian!" as the
+Skye was investigating Lady Rosamond's boot.
+
+"Oh, I like him of all things!  I am glad to welcome you to our
+future house!" as she held out her hand to the Reverend Herbert
+Bowater, the junior curate, a deacon of a fortnight's standing,
+whose round open happy blue eyes, ruddy cheeks, merry lips, and
+curly light hair, did not seem in keeping with the rigidly straight
+collar and waistcoat, and the long black coat, at present
+plentifully streaked with green tree-moss, while his boots and
+trousers looked as if they had partaken of the mud-bath which his
+dogs had evidently been wallowing in.
+
+"Off! off!" were his words, as he shook hands with his rectoress.
+"Get away, Rollo!" with an energetic shove of the foot to the big
+dog, who was about to shake his dripping coat for the ladies'
+special benefit.  "I saw you arrive last evening," he said, in the
+conversational tone of a gentlemanly school-boy; "didn't you find it
+very cold?"
+
+"Not very.  I did not see you, though."
+
+"He was organizing the cheers," said Mr. Bindon.  "You shone in
+that, Bowater.  They kept such good time."
+
+"You were very good to cheer us at all," said Julius, "coming in the
+wake of the Squire as we did."
+
+"The best of it was," said the junior, "that Charlie was so awfully
+afraid that he and poor Miles's wife would be taken for the Squire,
+that he dashed in on his way to warn me to choke them off.  If she
+hadn't been ill, I must have set the boys on for a lark!  How is
+she, though?" he asked in a really kind tone.
+
+"She looks very ill, poor thing," said Julius.
+
+Here the bull terrier became assiduous in his attentions to
+Rosamond; and between his master's calls and apologies, and her
+caresses and excuses, not much more was heard, till Julius asked
+with mock gravity, "And are these all you've brought over, Herbert?"
+
+"Yes, all; I'd half a mind to bring the two greyhounds, but my
+father thought they would get into trouble in the preserves, and
+there isn't room at Mrs. Hornblower's place," he answered, with
+apologetic simplicity.
+
+"What a pity Durham has been reduced!" said Mr. Bindon, dryly.  "It
+would have been the right preferment for Bowater.  The Bishop was
+obliged by statute to keep a pack of hounds."
+
+"But, sir," expostulated the deacon, turning to the Rector,
+colouring all over his honest rosy face, "you don't object!  You
+know, of course, I've given up sport," he added ruefully; "but only
+just as companions!--Ain't you, Rollo?" he added, almost with tears
+in his eyes, and a hand on the smooth black head, belonging to such
+a wise benignant face, that Rosamond was tempted to pronounce the
+dog the more clerical looking of the two.
+
+"You are very welcome," said Julius, laughing, "provided you can
+manage with the old women's cats.  I should find such companions
+rather awkward in pastoral visits."
+
+"I'll teach them, sir!  You may depend on it!  We did have a little
+flare-up yesterday, but I showed them the sense of it.  You might
+teach those dogs anything!--Ha! what then, Tartar!  Halloo, Mungo!
+Rats, rats, rats!"
+
+A prodigious scratching and snorting was audible in what had been a
+cellar of the quondam Rectory; and Rollo, becoming excited, dashed
+up to the scene of action, with a deep bass war-cry, while, to
+Rosamond's great amusement, "rats" was no less a peal to Rector and
+senior; and for the next quarter of an hour the three clergymen
+moved bricks, poked with their sticks, and cheered on the chase till
+the church clock struck one, the masons began to return from dinner,
+and the sounds of the bell at the Hall recalled the party to order.
+
+"There, Rose!  Our first day!" said Julius, aghast.
+
+"You'd better come to lunch at my rooms," said the young curate,
+eagerly.  "Do!  Mother has brought the jolliest hamper!  Game-pie,
+and preserved magnum-bonums, and pears off the old jargonelle.--
+Come, Lady Rosamond, do.--Come along, Bindon!  There's such a dish
+of damson-cheese!  Do!"
+
+That "_do_," between insinuation and heartiness, was so boyish, that
+it was quite irresistible to the lady, who consented eagerly, while
+Julius wrote a word or two on a card, which he despatched to the
+Hall by the first child he encountered.  In a few minutes they
+reached the nice clean bay-windowed room over the village shop,
+comically like an undergraduate's, in spite of the mother's and
+sister's recent touches.
+
+There ensued a resolute quieting of the dogs, and a vigorous
+exertion of hospitality, necessitating some striding up and down
+stairs, and much shouting to Mrs. Hornblower and her little niece,
+who rejoiced in the peculiar name of Dilemma; while Rosamond petted
+Tartar upon her lap, and the two elder clergymen, each with an elbow
+against the window-frame and a knee on the seat, held council, based
+on the Rector's old knowledge of the territory and the curate's
+recent observations during his five weeks' sojourn.
+
+The plans to be put in force next week were arranged during the
+meal, and the junior observed that he would walk home to-night and
+back on Saturday evening, since after that he should be tied pretty
+fast.
+
+And he started with Julius and Rosamond on their further progress,
+soon, however, tumbling over another stone wall with all his dogs,
+and being only heard hallooing to them as they yelped after the
+larks.
+
+"That is a delicious boy!" said Rosamond, laughing merrily.  "A nice
+fellow--but we mustn't make it a custom to be always going in to
+partake of his hampers, or we shall prey inordinately on Mrs.
+Bowater's preserves."
+
+"He was just like the hero of
+
+"Oh, I have a plum-cake,
+And a rare feast I'll make."
+
+I do like a boy with a sweet tooth!"
+
+"Like him!  Of course I do.  The Bowaters are like one's own
+kindred!  I only hope I shall not spoil him."
+
+"Hasn't his mother done that for you?"
+
+"I wish he had spent a year or two at Cuddesdon!  I ought to have
+seen him before consenting to give him a title at once, but his
+father and Jenny wished it so much.  Ah! come in here.  Bindon said
+Lucy Martin was a case for a lady."
+
+Rosamond's hearty good-nature was much more at ease among ailing old
+women than prim school-children, and she gave great satisfaction in
+the cottages.
+
+Julius did not of course come as a stranger, and had a general
+impression as to names and families; but he had been absent, except
+on short visits, for five years, so that Rosamond declared that this
+was a staple of his conversation:  "Then it was Tom Deane--no, it
+was John Deane that married Blake's son--no, it was Blake's daughter
+that died who is living in the next house."
+
+They finished with a long and miry lane, lying along the valley, and
+leading to the cottages of a little clan, the chief of whom seemed
+to be a large-boned lively-eyed old dame, who, after minute
+inquiries after "the Lady Poynsett," went on, "And be it true,
+Master Julius, as that young gentleman of Squire Bowater's is one of
+your passons?"
+
+Julius admitted the fact.
+
+"And be ye going to put he up in the pulpit to preach to we?  'Pon
+my word of honour, says I to Sally when her telled I, we shall have
+little Dick out of the infant-school next!"
+
+"We're all young, Betty!  Can't you put up with any one that is not
+older than yourself!  I'm afraid he would hardly be able to get up
+the pulpit stair."
+
+The Rector's reply delighted Betty; but she returned to the charge.
+"No, no, sir, I be coming to hear ye next Sunday.  Sally have turned
+my black bonnet a purpose.  It be one of the Lady Poynsett's, as her
+gave I when my old gentleman was took two years after the Squire--
+when bonnets was bonnets, you know, ma'am.  Now tell me true, be ye
+to preach morning or arternoon, sir?"
+
+"In the morning, I hope, Betty."
+
+"Then I'll be there, Master Julius, to the third seat from the
+front; but it ain't becoming for a woman of my age, seventy-nine
+come Christmas, to sit under a slip of a lad as hasn't got the taste
+of the birch off his back."
+
+"That's too bad, Betty," broke in Rosamond, speaking out of
+conviction.  "Mr. Bowater isn't so young as he looks, and he was too
+good a boy ever to need the birch."
+
+"All the wuss for he," retorted the undaunted Betty.  "Spare the
+rod, and spile the child."
+
+The village wit was left triumphant, and Julius proposed to return
+by a cross-road leading into the plantations.  Suddenly a scud of
+rain mixed with whirling yellow leaves sent them hurrying into a
+cart-shed, where, with a sudden start, they found themselves rushing
+in on some one.  Who was it?  A girl--a young lady.  That was
+evident, as Rosamond panted out, "I beg your pardon!" and the next
+moment there was the exclamation, "Mr. Julius Charnock!  You don't
+remember me?  Eleonora Vivian!"
+
+"Miss Vivian! you have the advantage of me," said Julius, a little
+stiffly.  "Let me introduce my wife."
+
+The hands met, and Rosamond perceived in the failing light a very
+fine-looking maiden, with a superbly carried head and neck, simply
+dressed in gray cloth.  "Are you sheltering here, or are you
+sketching?" she asked, seeing some paper and drawing materials.
+
+"I was giving a lesson.  See," exhibiting some bold outlines on
+large paper.  "Does not my pupil do me credit?"
+
+"Very spirited," said Rosamond.  "Where is she?"
+
+"_He_ is gone to fetch me his grandmother's umbrella.  He is the
+little Gurth of these parts."
+
+"Of whom you are making a Giotto?" asked Julius, thawing a little.
+
+"Exactly; I found him drawing on a barn-door with such zeal and
+spirit, that I could not help offering him some lessons.  Only see,
+does he not get on?  I wish I could get him to the school of
+design."
+
+"May I ask what becomes of his pigs?" demanded Julius.
+
+"Don't you hear?" as sundry grunts and squeals of those eminently
+conversational animals were audible through the walls.  "They are
+driven home to this rick-yard, so here I meet the boy."
+
+"Who is he?" asked the Rector.
+
+"I only know that he answers to the name of Joe.  And here he
+comes," as a boy about ten years old came lumbering up in big boots,
+with a heavy plaid shawl on one arm, and an immense green umbrella
+in the other.
+
+"Thank you, Joe.  Make your bow to the lady and gentleman."
+
+This was a pull of the flaxen forelock; for Joe was a slender,
+pretty, fair boy, of that delicately-complexioned English type which
+is not roughened till after many years of exposure.
+
+"That's right, my man," said Julius, kindly.  "What is your name?"
+
+"Please, sir, Joshua Reynolds."
+
+"Instinct," whispered Rosamond.
+
+"Or influence of a name," returned Miss Vivian.
+
+"Are you one of Dan Reynolds's boys, or Tim's?" proceeded
+
+"No, I bides with granny."
+
+Julius made no further attempt at disentangling the pedigree but
+inquired about his employments.  Did he go to school?
+
+"When there ain't nothing to be done."
+
+"And what can be done by such a mite?" asked Rosamond.
+
+"Tell the lady," said the Rector; "what work can you do?"
+
+"Bird-starving."
+
+"Well!"
+
+"And stoon-picking, and cow-herding, and odd jobs up at Farmer
+Light's; but they won't take I on for a carter-boy not yet 'cause I
+bean't not so lusty as some on 'em."
+
+"Have you learnt to read?"
+
+"Oh yes, very nicely," interposed Miss Vivian.
+
+"Did you teach him?" said Rosamond.
+
+"No!  He could read well before I came to the place.  I have only
+been at home six weeks, you know, and I did not know I was poaching
+on your manor," she added sotto voce to Julius, who could not but
+answer with warm thanks.
+
+It was discovered that the rain had set in for the night, and an
+amicable contest ensued between the ladies as to shawl and umbrella,
+each declaring her dress unspoilable, till it ended in Eleonora
+having the shawl, and both agreeing to share the umbrella as far as
+the Sirenwood lodge.
+
+However, the umbrella refused to open, and had to be given to the
+boy, who set his teeth into an extraordinary grin, and so dealt with
+the brazen gear as to expand a magnificent green vault, with a
+lesser leathern arctic zone round the pole; but when he had handed
+it to Miss Vivian, and she had linked her arm in Lady Rosamond's, it
+proved too mighty for her, tugged like a restive horse, and would
+fairly have run away with her, but for Rosamond's holding her fast.
+
+"Lost!" they cried.  "Two ladies carried away by an umbrella!"
+
+"Here, Julius, no one can grapple with it but you," called Rosamond.
+
+"I really think it's alive!" panted Eleonora, drawn up to her tip-
+toes before she could hand it to Julius, who, with both clinging to
+his arm, conducted them at last to the lodge, where Julius could
+only come in as far as it would let him, since it could neither be
+let down nor left to itself to fly to unknown regions.
+
+A keeper with a more manageable article undertook to convey Miss
+Vivian home across the park; and with a pleasant farewell, husband
+and wife plodded their way home, along paths the mud of which could
+not be seen, only heard and felt; and when Rosamond, in the light of
+the hall, discovered the extent of the splashes, she had to leave
+Julius still contending with the umbrella; and when, in spite of the
+united efforts of the butler and footman, it still refused to come
+down, it was consigned to an empty coach-house, with orders that
+little Joe should have a shilling to bring it down and fetch it home
+in the morning!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+Shades In Sunshine
+
+
+My friends would be angered,
+   My minnie be mad.--Scots Song
+
+"Whom do you think we met, mother?" said Julius, coming into her
+room, so soon as he had made his evening toilette, and finding there
+only his two younger brothers.  "No other than Miss Vivian."
+
+"Ah! then," broke in Charlie, "you saw what Jenkins calls the
+perfect picture of a woman."
+
+"She is very handsome," soberly returned Julius.  "Rose is quite
+delighted with her.  Do you know anything of her?"
+
+"Jenny Bowater was very fond of poor Emily," rejoined the mother.
+"I believe that she had a very good governess, but I wish she were
+in better hands now."
+
+"I cannot think why there should be a universal prejudice for the
+sake of one early offence!" exclaimed Frank.
+
+"Oh, indeed!" said Julius, amazed at such a tone to his mother.
+
+"I only meant--mother, I beg your pardon--but you are only going by
+hearsay," answered Frank, in some confusion.
+
+"Then you have not seen her?" said Julius.
+
+"I!  I'm the last person she is likely to seek, if you mean
+Camilla."
+
+"She inquired a great deal after you, mother," interposed Frank,
+"and said she longed to call, only she did not know if you could see
+her.  I do hope you will, when she calls on Cecil.  I am sure you
+would think differently.  Promise me, mother!"
+
+"If she asks for me, I will, my boy," said Mrs. Poynsett, "but let
+me look!  You aren't dressed for dinner!  What will Mistress Cecil
+say to you!  Ah! it is time you had ladies about the house again."
+
+The two youths retreated; and Julius remained, looking anxiously and
+expressively at his mother.
+
+"I am afraid so," she said; "but I had almost rather he were
+honestly smitten with the young one than that he believed in
+Camilla."
+
+"I should think no one could long do that," said Julius.
+
+"I don't know.  He met them when he was nursing that poor young
+Scotsman at Rockpier, and got fascinated.  He has never been quite
+the same since that time!" said the mother anxiously.  "I don't
+blame him, poor fellow!" she added eagerly, "or mean that he has
+been a bit less satisfactory--oh no!  Indeed, it may be my fault for
+expressing my objection too' plainly; he has always been reserved
+with me since, and I never lost the confidence of one of my boys
+before!"
+
+That Julius knew full well, for he--as the next eldest at home--had
+been the recipient of all his mother's perplexities at the time of
+Raymond's courtship.  Mrs. Poynsett had not been a woman of intimate
+female friends.  Her sons had served the purpose, and this was
+perhaps one great element in her almost unbounded influence with
+them.  Julius was deeply concerned to see her eyes glistening with
+tears as she spoke of the cloud that had risen between her and
+Frank.
+
+"There is great hope that this younger one may be worthy," he said.
+"She has had a very different bringing up from her sister, and I did
+not tell you what I found her doing.  She was teaching a little pig-
+herd boy to draw."
+
+"Ah!  I heard Lady Tyrrell was taking to the education of the people
+line."
+
+"I want to know who the boy is," said Julius.  "He called himself
+Reynolds, and said he lived with granny, but was not a son of
+Daniel's or Timothy's.  He seemed about ten years old."
+
+"Reynolds?  Then I know who he must be.  Don't you remember a
+pretty-looking girl we had in the nursery in Charlie's time?  His
+'Fan-fan' he used to call her."
+
+"Ah, yes, I remember; she was a Reynolds, for both the little boys
+could be excited to fury if we assumed that she was a fox.  You
+don't mean that she went wrong?"
+
+"Not till after she had left us, and seemed to be doing well in
+another place; but unfortunately she was allowed to have a holiday
+in the race week, and a day at the course seems to have done the
+mischief.  Susan can tell you all about it, if you want to know.
+She was as broken-hearted as if Fanny had been her own child--much
+more than the old mother herself, I fear."
+
+"What has become of the girl?"
+
+"Gone from bad to worse.  Alas!  I heard a report that she had been
+seen with some of the people who appear on the race-course with
+those gambling shooting-galleries, or something of that sort."
+
+"Ah! those miserable races!  They are the bane of the country.  I
+wish no one would go near them."
+
+"They are a very pleasant county gathering."
+
+"To you, mother, and such as you; but you could have your county
+meeting without doing quite so much harm.  If Raymond would only
+withdraw his subscription."
+
+"It would be as much as his seat is worth!  Those races are the one
+great event of Wil'sbro' and Backsworth, the harvest of all the
+tradespeople.  Besides, you know what is said of their expedience as
+far as horses are concerned."
+
+"I would sacrifice the breed of horses to prevent the evils," said
+Julius.
+
+"_You_ would, but--My boy, I suppose this is the right view for a
+clergyman, but it will never do to force it here.  You will lose all
+influence if you are over-strained."
+
+"Was St. Chrysostom over-strained about the hippodrome?" said
+Julius, thoughtfully.
+
+Mrs. Poynsett looked at him as he leant upon the chimney-piece.
+Here was another son gone, in a different way, beyond her reach.
+She had seen comparatively little of him since his University days;
+and though always a good and conscientious person, there had been
+nothing to draw her out of secular modes of thought; nor had she any
+connection with the clerical world, so that she had not, as it were,
+gone along with the tone of mind that she had perceived in him.
+
+He did not return to the subject, and they were soon joined by his
+elder brother.  At the first opportunity after dinner, Frank got
+Rosamond up into a corner with a would-be indifferent "So you met
+Miss Vivian.  What did you think of her?"
+
+Rosamond's intuition saw what she was required to think, and being
+experienced in raving brothers, she praised the fine face and figure
+so as to find the way to his heart.
+
+"I am so glad you met her in that way.  Even Julius must be
+convinced.  Was not he delighted?"
+
+"I think she grew upon him."
+
+"And now neither of you will be warped.  It is so very strange in my
+mother, generally the kindest, most open-hearted woman in the world,
+to distrust and bear a grudge against them all for the son's
+dissipation--just as if that affected the ladies of a family!"
+
+"I did not think it was entirely on his account," said Rosamond.
+
+"Old stories of flirtation!" said Frank, scornfully; "but what are
+they to be cast up against a woman in her widowhood?  It is so
+utterly unlike mother, I can't understand it."
+
+"Would not the natural conclusion be that she knew more, and had her
+reasons?"
+
+"I tell you, Rosamond, I know them infinitely better than she does.
+She never saw them since Lady Tyrrell's marriage, when Eleonora was
+a mere child; now I saw a great deal of them at Rockpier last year.
+There was poor Jamie Armstrong sent down to spend the winter on the
+south coast; and as none of his own people could be with him, we--
+his Oxford friends, I mean--took turns to come to him; and as I had
+just gone up for my degree, I had the most time.  The Vivians had
+been living there ever since they went on poor Emily's account.
+They did not like to leave the place where she died you see; and
+Lady Tyrrell had joined them after her husband's death.  Such a
+pleasant house! no regular gaieties, of course, but a few friends in
+a quiet way--music and charades, and so forth.  Every one knew
+everybody there; not a bit of our stiff county ways, but meeting all
+day long in the most sociable manner."
+
+"Oh yes, I know the style of place."
+
+"One gets better acquainted in a week than one does in seven years
+in a place like this," proceeded Frank.  "And you may tell Julius to
+ask any of the clerics if Lenore was not a perfect darling with the
+Vicar and his wife, and her sister too; and Rockpier is a regular
+tip-top place for Church, you know.  I'm sure it was enough to make
+a fellow good for life, just to see Eleonora walking up the aisle
+with that sweet face of hers, looking more like heaven than earth."
+
+Rosamond made reply enough to set him off again.  "Lady Tyrrell
+would have been content to stay there for ever, she told me, but she
+thought it too confined a range for Eleonora; there was no formation
+of character, though I don't see how it could have formed better;
+but Lady Tyrrell is a thoroughly careful motherly sister, and
+thought it right she should see a little of the world.  So they
+broke up from Rockpier, and spent a year abroad; and now Lady
+Tyrrell is making great sacrifices to enable her father to come and
+live at home again.  I must say it would be more neighbourly to
+welcome them a little more kindly!"
+
+"I should think such agreeable people were sure to win their way."
+
+"Ah! you don't know how impervious our style of old squire and
+squiress can be!  If even mother is not superior to the old
+prejudice, who will be?  And it is _very_ hard on a fellow; for
+three parts of my time is taken up by this eternal cramming--I
+should have no heart for it but for her--and I can't be going over
+to Sirenwood as I used to go to Rockpier, while my mother vexes
+herself about it, in her state.  If she were up and about I should
+not mind, or she would know better; but what can they--Lenore, I
+mean--think of me, but that I am as bad as the rest?"
+
+"Do you mean that anything has passed between you?"
+
+"No, not with Lenore.  Her sister spoke to me, and said it was not
+right when she had seen nothing but Rockpier; but she as good as
+promised to stand my friend.  And when I get to the office, in two
+years, I shall have quite enough to begin upon, with what my mother
+allows us."
+
+"Then you hope she will wait for that?"
+
+"I feel sure of it--that is, if she is not annoyed by this
+abominable usage from my family.  Oh! Rosamond, you will help us
+when you get into your own house, and you will get Julius to see it
+in a proper light.  Mother trusts to him almost as much as to
+Raymond; but it is our misfortune to be so much younger that she
+can't believe us grown up."
+
+"O, Frank," said Charlie, coming in, "here's Price come up about the
+puppies.--What, Rosamond, has he got hold of you?  What a blessing
+for me! but I pity you."
+
+Frank and Charlie went off together; and Julius was in the act of
+begging Cecil to illuminate a notice of the services, to be framed
+and put into the church porch, when Raymond came in from the other
+room to make up a whist-table for his mother.  Rosamond gladly
+responded; but there was a slight accent of contempt in Cecil's
+voice, as she replied, "I never played a game at cards in my life."
+
+"They are a great resource to my mother," said Raymond.  "Anne, you
+are too tired to play?--No, Julius, the pack is not there; look in
+the drawer of the chiffonier."
+
+Julius handed the list he had been jotting down to Cecil, and
+followed his brother, with his hands full of cards, unconscious of
+the expression of dismay, almost horror, with which Anne was gazing
+after him.
+
+"Oh! let us be resolute!" she cried, as soon as the door was shut.
+"Do not let us touch the evil thing!"
+
+"Cards?" said Cecil.  "If Mrs. Poynsett cannot be amused without
+them, I suppose we shall have to learn.  I always heard she was such
+an intellectual woman."
+
+"But we ought to resist sin, however painful it may be," said Anne,
+gathering strength; "nay, even if a minister sets the example of
+defection."
+
+"You think it wicked," said Cecil.  "Oh no, it is stupid and silly,
+and an absurd waste of time, but no more."
+
+"Yes, it is," said Anne.  "Cards are the bane of thousands."
+
+"Oh yes, gambling and all that; but to play in the evening to amuse
+an invalid can have no harm in it."
+
+"An invalid and aged woman ought to have her mind set upon better
+things," said Anne.  "I shall not withdraw my testimony, and I hope
+you will not."
+
+"I don't know," said Cecil.  "You see I am expected to attend to
+Mrs. Poynsett; and I have seen whist at Dunstone when any dull old
+person came there.  What a troublesome crooked hand Julius writes--
+just like Greek!  What's all this?  So many services--four on
+Sunday, two every day, three on Wednesdays and Fridays!  We never
+had anything like this at Dunstone."
+
+"It is very superstitious," said Anne.
+
+"Very superfluous, I should say," amended Cecil.  "I am sure my
+father would consent to nothing of the kind.  I shall speak to
+Raymond about it."
+
+"Yes," said Anne; "it does seem terrible that a minister should try
+to make up for worldly amusements by a quantity of vain ceremonies."
+
+"I wish you would not call him a minister, it sounds like a
+dissenter."
+
+"I think ministers their best name, except pastors."
+
+"Both are horrid alike," said Cecil.  "I shall teach all the people
+to call Julius the Rector.  That's better than Mr. Charnock--what
+Raymond ought to be."
+
+Anne was struck dumb at this fearful display of worldliness; and
+Cecil betook herself to the piano, but the moment her husband
+appeared she showed him the list.
+
+"He has cut out plenty of work," said Raymond, "but three of them
+must want a field for their energies."
+
+"It is preposterous.  I want you to speak to him about it."
+
+"You are not expected to go to them all," Raymond made answer.
+
+"Then there's no sense in having them," responded Cecil.  "Evening
+services are very bad for the people, bringing them out late.  You
+ought to tell him so."
+
+"He is Rector, and I am not," said Raymond.
+
+"Mr. Venn did nothing without papa's consent," exclaimed
+
+"My dear Cecil, don't let your loyalty make a Harry the Eighth of
+your father," said Raymond; "the clergyman ought to be a free
+agent."
+
+"You don't approve?"
+
+"I don't approve or disapprove.  It is not a matter I know anything
+about."
+
+"But I assure you it has been all thought over at Dunstone."
+
+"Come, my mother wants to go to bed, and you are keeping her
+waiting."
+
+Cecil was silenced for the moment, but not daunted; for was it not
+the foremost duty of the lady of the manor to keep the clergyman in
+order, more especially when he was her own husband's younger
+brother? so she met her brother-in-law with "Julius, when I
+undertook that notice, I had no notion you were going to have so
+many services."
+
+"Is there more than you have time to paint?  Then Bindon can do it,
+or Jenny Bowater."
+
+"No! it is not time or trouble; but I do not think such a number of
+services desirable."
+
+"Indeed!" said he, looking amused.
+
+"Yes.  An over number of services frequented by no one only brings
+the Church into contempt.  I heard papa say so.  We only had regular
+Sunday and Saint's Day services, and I am sure Dunstone was quite as
+religious a place as there is any need to be."
+
+"I am glad to hear it," said Julius, an odd look flickering about
+his face; "but as I am afraid Compton is not as religious a place as
+there is need to be, I must try, by your leave, all means of making
+it so.  Good night."
+
+He was gone, and Cecil was not sure that he had not presumed to
+laugh at her.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+A Sunday of Excitement
+
+
+Strangers in court do take her for the queen.--Shakespeare
+
+The first Sunday of Julius Charnock's ministry was spent in an
+unexpected manner.  In the darkness of the autumn morning there was
+a knock at the door, and a low hurried call in Anne's voice at the
+bedroom door:  "Rosamond!  Julius, pray look out!  Isn't there a
+great fire somewhere?"
+
+"Fire!  Here?" cried Rosamond, springing up.
+
+"No, not here.  A great way off.  You could beat it back."
+
+Rosamond had by this time rushed to the window which looked out the
+wrong way, found her dressing-gown, and scrambled into it in the
+dark ere joining Anne in the gallery, from the end window of which
+the lurid light in the sky, with an occasional flame leaping up, was
+plainly visible.  When Julius joined them he declared it to be at
+Willansborough, and set off to call up the coachman and despatch the
+fire-engine, his wife calling after him to send for the soldiers at
+Backsworth.
+
+Frank and Charlie came rushing down in gratified excitement,
+declaring that it was tremendous--the church at least--and exulting
+in the attainment of their life-long ambition, the riding out on the
+fire-engine.  Servants bustled about, exclaiming, tramping, or
+whisking on the stairs; and Raymond presently appeared to ask
+whether his mother were ill, and, when reassured on that score,
+hurrying to ascertain whether she were alarmed, before he started
+for the scene of action.
+
+"Let me come and stay with her," said Rosamond, a striking figure,
+in a scarlet dressing-gown, with a thick plait of black hair hanging
+down to her waist on either side.
+
+"Thank you, it will be very kind," said Raymond, running down before
+her, and meeting Susan waddling out in a fringe of curl-papers, for
+some mysterious instinct or echo had conveyed to her and her
+mistress that there was fire somewhere--perhaps at home.  Mrs.
+Poynsett was not a nervous woman, and from the time she saw her
+eldest son come in, all fright was over, and she could have borne to
+hear that the house over her head was burning, in the perfect trust
+that he would save her from all peril; nor had he any difficulty in
+committing her to Rosamond, when he hurried away to finish dressing
+and repair to the spot.
+
+Nothing could be seen from her room, but the little ante-room
+between it and the drawing-room had an excellent view, as the ground
+fell away from it, and there was an opening among the trees.
+
+"We must get you there!" exclaimed Rosamond, in her excitement,
+helping her into some garments, and then running out as she heard a
+step--"Here, Julius, help me;" and without more ado, the mother was
+transported between them to the broad low couch under the window,
+and there bestowed in a nest of pillows, shawls, and rugs, that
+seemed to grow up under Rosamond's touch.
+
+Then following Julius out into the hall as he met his brother,
+Rosamond clung to him, entreating, "Please, please don't run into
+any dangerous places."
+
+"Never fear, dearest; I am not likely."
+
+"Don't let him, pray!" she said, turning to Raymond.  "Make him
+remember how blind he is."
+
+"I'll take good care of him, Rosamond," said the elder brother
+kindly; "I'm used to it."
+
+"And send for the ---th," she added.  "There is nothing like
+soldiers at a fire."
+
+"The glare must have given notice," said Julius, "but we'll send if
+needful.  Let go, you foolish girl; I'm not leading a forlorn hope."
+
+Did Raymond, as he mounted his horse, turning from the contact of
+the white and black heads, admire the reasonableness of the Cecil
+who had never shown any fears for his safety, nor any tendency to
+run about the passages in her robe de chambre, though she was now
+dressing with all speed?
+
+The women-folk had to depend on their own eyes for intelligence, for
+every male, not only of the household but of the village, between
+the ages of five and seventy, started for Wil'sbro', and a good many
+females followed their example, including the cook and her suite.
+
+However, Susan remained, to find her mistress flown, and in her
+fright, give Lady Rosamond as round a scolding as if she had been
+Charlie, for her rashness in attempting a transit, which Dr. Hayter
+had pronounced to be as much as her mistress's life was worth.
+Having thus relieved her mind, and finding that Mrs. Poynsett was
+really very comfortable, or else too eager and anxious to find out
+if she was not, the good woman applied herself to the making of
+coffee.
+
+Anne and Cecil had found their way to the leads, and were thence
+summoned to partake of this hasty meal, after which they proposed
+going to look from the brow of the hill; and Mrs. Poynsett insisted
+that Rosamond should not stay behind on her account; and, glad to
+appease the restlessness of anxiety, out went the ladies, to find
+the best view of the town,--usually a white object in the distance,
+but now blurred by smoke thick and black in the daylight, and now
+and then reddened by bursts of flame.
+
+Anne had been reassured as to the need of beating out the fire and
+trampling down a place to isolate it, as in the bush-fires of her
+experience; and Rosamond related the achievements of the regiment in
+quenching many a conflagration in inflammable colonial cities.
+
+It occurred to her that the best place whence to see it was the
+tower of the church, which, placed upon a little knoll, was standing
+out in full relief against the lurid light.  She found the key at
+the sexton's, and led the way up the broken stone stair to the trap-
+door, where they emerged on the leads, and, in spite of the cold
+wind and furious flapping of the flag above their heads, stood
+absorbed in the interest of the sight.
+
+There was a black mass in the open space, whence rose fitful clouds
+of smoke, the remnants of the fire, which had there done its worst;
+and beyond was a smoky undefined outline, with tongues of flame
+darting up, then volumes of dense white smoke, denoting a rush of
+water from the engines.  Black beings flitted about like ants round
+a disturbed nest; Rosamond hoped she detected some scarlet among
+them, and Cecil lamented over not having brought her opera-glass.
+Even without this, it was possible to make out two long lines of men
+between the fire and the river, and at times they fancied they heard
+the shouting, but the wind generally carried it away.  The cold was
+bitter, and they had to hold together and keep a tight grip upon
+their garments against the gusts that seemed to rock the tower; but
+they could not bear to turn away, though the clock beneath pealed
+out hour after hour; for still, as the flames were subdued in one
+place they broke out in another; but gradually smoke became
+predominant, and then grew thinner, and as some of the black specks
+began to straggle into the road as if returning to Compton, the
+desire to hear became more pressing than that to see, and the three
+ladies began to descend--a slow and weary process, cutting them off
+from the view, and lasting so long, that the road was no longer
+deserted when they finally emerged into the churchyard.
+
+Young Mr. Bowater, grimed, dusty, hatless, and his hair on end, and
+Rollo following with his feathery tail singed, hurried up at once.
+"I'm not fit to touch, Lady Rosamond," as he showed a black hand,
+and bowed to the others.
+
+"Where's Ju--where's my husband?" exclaimed Rosamond.
+
+"Just behind, riding home with Raymond and the rest of them.  Wasn't
+it a magnificent flare-up?  But there was no loss of life; and this
+dog was of as much use as two men--carried whatever I told him."
+
+"Good old man!  You've suffered too!" said Rosamond.  "Pah! you're
+like a singed horse; but never mind, you're a hero."
+
+"And where is Mr. Charnock Poynsett?" said Cecil, retreating from
+the dog, which her sisters-in-law were vehemently patting.
+
+"He was arranging with the mayor.  Church, paper-mills, and town-
+hall got the worst of it.  It was well he came down; old Briggs, the
+mayor, lost his head, and Fuller never had one.  Every one gave
+contrary orders till he came down, and then, didn't we work!"
+
+The curate stretched his stalwart limbs, as if they were becoming
+sensible of the strain they had undergone.
+
+"Did you say the church was burnt?" asked Cecil.
+
+"Yes; and a very good thing too!  Hideous place, where you couldn't
+do right if you died for it!  The fire began there--stoves no doubt--
+and there it would have stopped if any one had had any sense; but
+there they would run and gape, and the more I tried to get them to
+form a chain and drench the warehouses, the more they wouldn't do
+it.  And when the flame once got hold of the paper--did you see it?--
+it was not a thing to forget.  I verily believe the whole town
+would have gone if the Charnocks hadn't come and got a little
+discipline into the asses.  It was just life and death work,
+fighting the fire to hinder it from getting across Water Lane, and
+then it would have been all up with High Street.  The tongues broke
+out like live things ready to lick up everything; and it was like
+killing dragons to go at them with the hose and buckets.  I declare
+my arms are fit to drop out of their sockets.  And the Rector
+devoted himself to carrying out bed-ridden old women.  I forgot to
+tell you, Lady Rosamond, he has broken his--There now, I never meant
+to frighten you--broken his spectacles."
+
+"You did it on purpose," she said, laughing at her own start.
+
+"No, indeed, I did not."
+
+"And is it quite out now?"
+
+"Yes; when the Backsworth engines and the soldiers came up, it was
+like the Prussians at Waterloo."
+
+"Oh, then it was done," said Rosamond.  "Take care! my grandfather
+was in the Light Division."
+
+"And my uncle in the Guards," said the curate.  But before the
+Waterloo controversy could be pursued, four or five figures on
+horseback came round the knoll, and Raymond and Julius sprang off
+their horses, introducing the three officers who followed their
+example.
+
+One was Rosamond's old acquaintance, the Colonel, a friend of her
+father; but she had little attention to spare for them till she had
+surveyed her husband, who looked nothing worse than exceedingly
+dusty, and at fault without his spectacles.
+
+Inquiries were made for Frank and Charlie.  They were walking home.
+They had worked gallantly.  The flames were extinguished, but the
+engines must go on playing on them for some time longer.  No lives
+lost, and very few casualties, but the paper-mills were entirely
+destroyed, and about twenty tenements, so that great distress was to
+be apprehended.
+
+Such intelligence was being communicated as the party stood together
+in a group, when there was a light tinkling of bells, and two ladies
+in a light open carriage, drawn by two spirited ponies, dashed round
+the knoll; and at the moment something must have gone wrong with
+them, for there was a start, a pull, a call of "Raymond!  Raymond!"
+
+Throwing his bridle to Herbert Bowater, he sprang to the horses'
+heads.
+
+"Mr. Poynsett!  Thank you!  I beg your pardon," said the lady,
+recovering herself; and Rosamond instantly perceived that she must
+be Lady Tyrrell, for she was young-looking, very handsome, and in
+slight mourning; and her companion was Miss Vivian.  Julius, holding
+his surviving glass to his eye, likewise stepped forward.  "Thank
+you, it was so stupid," the lady ran on.  "Is not there something
+wrong with the traces?  I don't know how they got themselves
+harnessed, but there was no keeping at home."
+
+"I think all is right," said Raymond, gravely, making the
+examination over to a servant.  "Let me introduce my wife, Lady
+Tyrrell."
+
+The lady held out her hand.  "I hope we shall be excellent
+neighbours.--My sister.--You remember little Lena," she added to the
+brothers.  "She stole a march on us, I find.  I heard of your
+encounter on Friday.  It was too bad of you not to come in and let
+us send you home; I hope you did not get very wet, Lady Rosamond.--
+Ah!  Mr. Strangeways, I did not know you were there," she proceeded,
+as the youngest of the officers accosted her; "come over and see us.
+You're better provided now; but come to luncheon any day.  I am sure
+to be at home at half-past one; and I want so much to hear of your
+mother and sisters."  And with a universal bow and smile she
+nourished her whip, her ponies jangled their bells, and the ladies
+vanished.
+
+"Stunning pair that!" was young Strangeways' exclamation.
+
+"Most beautiful!" murmured Cecil, in a low voice, as if she was
+quite dazzled.  "You never said she was like that," she added
+reproachfully to Julius.
+
+"Our encounter was in the dark," he answered.
+
+"Oh, I did not mean the young one, but Lady Tyrrell.  She is just
+like a gem we saw at Firenze--which was it?"
+
+"Where?" said Raymond, bewildered.
+
+"Firenze--Florence," she said, deigning to translate; and finding
+her own reply.  "Ah, yes, the Medusa!" then, as more than one
+exclaimed in indignant dismay, she said, "No, not the Gorgon, but
+the beautiful winged head, with only two serpents on the brow and
+one coiled round the neck, and the pensive melancholy face."
+
+"I know," said Julius, shortly; while the other gentlemen entered
+into an argument, some defending the beauty of the younger sister,
+some of the elder; and it lasted till they entered the park, where
+all were glad to partake of their well-earned meal, most of the
+gentlemen having been at work since dawn without sustenance, except
+a pull at the beer served out to the firemen.
+
+Cecil was not at all shy, and was pleased to take her place as
+representative lady of the house; but somehow, though every one was
+civil and attentive to her, she found herself effaced by the more
+full-blown Rosamond, accustomed to the same world as the guests; and
+she could not help feeling the same sense of depression as when she
+had to yield the head of her father's table to her step-mother.
+
+Nor could she have that going to church for the first time in state
+with her bridegroom she had professed to dread, but had really
+anticipated with complacency; for though Julius had bidden the bells
+to be rung for afternoon service, Raymond was obliged to go back to
+Wil'sbro' to make arrangements for the burnt-out families, and she
+had to go as lonely as Anne herself.
+
+Lady Tyrrell and her sister were both at Compton Church, and
+overtook the three sisters-in-law as they were waiting to be joined
+by the Rector.
+
+"We shall have to take shelter with you," said Lady Tyrrell, "poor
+burnt-out beings that we are."
+
+"Do you belong to Wil'sbro'?" said Rosamond.
+
+"Yes; St. Nicholas is an immense straggling parish, going four miles
+along the river.  I don't know how we shall ever be able to go back
+again to poor old Mr. Fuller.  You'll never get rid of us from
+Compton."
+
+"I suppose they will set about rebuilding the church at once," said
+Cecil.  "Of course they will form a committee, and put my husband on
+it."
+
+"In the chair, no doubt," said Lady Tyrrell, in a tone that sounded
+to Rosamond sarcastic, but which evidently gratified Cecil.  "But we
+will have a committee of our own, and you will have to preside, and
+patronize our bazaar.  Of course you know all about them."
+
+"Oh yes!" said Cecil, eagerly.  "We have one every year for the
+Infirmary, only my father did not approve of my selling at a stall."
+
+"Ah! quite right then, but you are a married woman now, and that is
+quite a different thing.  The stall of the three brides.  What an
+attraction!  I shall come and talk about it when I make my call in
+full form!  Good-bye again."
+
+Cecil's balance was more than restored by this entire recognition to
+be prime lady-patroness of everything.  To add to her satisfaction,
+when her husband came home to dinner, bringing with him both the
+curates, she found there was to be a meeting on Tuesday in the
+Assembly-room, of both sexes, to consider of the relief of the work-
+people, and that he would be glad to take her to it.  Moreover, as
+it was to be strictly local, Rosamond was not needed there, though
+Raymond was not equally clear as to the Rector, since he believed
+that the St. Nicholas parishioners meant to ask the loan of Compton
+Poynsett Church for one service on a Sunday.
+
+"Then I shall keep out of the way," said Julius.  "I do not want to
+have the request made to me in public."
+
+"You do not mean to refuse?" said Cecil, with a sort of self-
+identification with her constituents.
+
+"The people are welcome to attend as many of our services as they
+like; but there is no hour that I could give the church up to Mr.
+Fuller on a Sunday."
+
+"Nor would the use of St. Nicholas be very edifying for our people,"
+added Mr. Bindon.
+
+His junior clenched it by saying with a laugh, "I should think not!
+Fancy old Fuller's rusty black gown up in our pulpit!"
+
+"I rejoice to say that is burnt," rejoined Mr. Bindon.
+
+"What bet will you take that a new one will be the first thing
+subscribed for?" said the deacon, bringing a certain grave look on
+the faces of both the elder clergy, and a horror-stricken one upon
+Anne's; while Cecil pronounced her inevitable dictum, that at
+Dunstone Mr. Venn always preached in a gown, and "we" should never
+let him think of anything nonsensical.
+
+Rosamond was provoked into a display of her solitary bit of
+ecclesiastical knowledge--"A friar's gown, the most Popish vestment
+in the church."
+
+Cecil, thoroughly angered, flushed up to the eyes and bit her lips,
+unable to find a reply, while all the gentlemen laughed.  Frank
+asked if it were really so, and Mr. Bindon made the well-known
+explanation that the Geneva gown was neither more nor less than the
+monk's frock.
+
+"I shall write and ask Mr. Venn," gasped Cecil; but her husband
+stifled the sound by saying, "I saw little Pettitt, Julius, this
+afternoon, overwhelmed with gratitude to you for all the care you
+took of his old mother, and all his waxen busts."
+
+"Ah! by the bye!" said Charlie, "I did meet the Rector staggering
+out, with the fascinating lady with the long eyelashes in one arm,
+and the moustached hero in the other."
+
+"There was no pacifying the old lady without," said Julius.  "I had
+just coaxed her to the door, when she fell to wringing her hands.
+Ah! those lovely models, that were worth thirty shillings each, with
+natural hair--that they should be destroyed!  If the heat or the
+water did but come near them, Adolphus would never get over it.  I
+could only pacify her by promising to go back for these idols of his
+heart as soon as she was safe; and after all, I had to dash at them
+through the glass, and that was the end of my spectacles."
+
+"Where was Pettitt himself?"
+
+"Well employed, poor little fellow, saving the people in those three
+cottages of his.  No one supposed his shop in danger, but the fire
+took a sudden freak and came down Long Street; and though the house
+is standing, it had to be emptied and deluged with water to save it.
+I never knew Pettitt had a mother till I found her mounting guard,
+like one distracted, over her son's bottles of perfumery."
+
+"And dyes?" murmured Raymond under his breath; but Frank caught the
+sound, and said, "Ah, Julius! don't I remember his inveigling you
+into coming out with scarlet hair?"
+
+"I don't think I've seen him since," said Julius, laughing.  "I
+believe he couldn't resist such an opportunity of practising his
+art.  And for my part, I must say for myself, that it was in our
+first holidays, and Raymond and Miles had been black and blue the
+whole half-year from having fought my battles whenever I was called
+either 'Bunny' or 'Grandfather.'  So when he assured me he could
+turn my hair to as sweet a raven-black as Master Poynsett's, I
+thought it would be pleasing to all, forgetting that he could not
+dye my eyes, and that their effect would have been some degrees more
+comical."
+
+"For shame, Julius!" said Rosamond.  "Don't you know that one
+afternoon, when Nora had cried for forty minutes over her sum, she
+declared that she wanted to make her eyes as beautiful as Mr.
+Charnock's.  Well, what was the effect?"
+
+"Startling," said Raymond.  "He came down in shades of every kind of
+crimson and scarlet.  A fearful object, with his pink-and-white face
+glowing under it."
+
+"And what I had to undergo from Susan!" added Julius.  "She washed
+me, and soaped me, and rubbed me, till I felt as if all the
+threshing-machines in the county were about my head, lecturing me
+all the time on the profanity of flying against Scripture by trying
+to alter one's hair from what Providence had made it.  Nothing would
+do; her soap only turned it into shades of lemon and primrose.  I
+was fain to let her shave my head as if I had a brain fever; and I
+was so horribly ashamed for years after, that I don't think I have
+set foot in Long Street since till to-day."
+
+"Pettitt is a queer little fellow," said Herbert.  "The most
+truculent little Radical to hear him talk, and yet staunch in his
+votes, for he can't go against those whose hair he has cut off from
+time immemorial."
+
+"I hope he has not lost much," said Julius.
+
+"His tenements are down, but they were insured; and as to his stock,
+he says he owes its safety entirely to you, Julius.  I think he
+would present you with both his models as a testimonial, if you
+could only take them," said Raymond.
+
+Cecil had neither spoken nor laughed through all this.  She was
+nursing her wrath; and after marching out of the dining-room, lay in
+wait to intercept her husband, and when she had claimed his
+attention, began, "Rosamond ought not to be allowed to say such
+things."
+
+"What things?"
+
+"Speaking in that improper way about a gown."
+
+"She seems to have said what was the fact."
+
+"It can't be!  It is preposterous!  I never heard it before."
+
+"Nor I; but Bindon evidently is up in those matters."
+
+"It was only to support Rosamond; and I am quite sure she said it
+out of mere opposition to me.  You ought to speak to Julius."
+
+"About what?" said Raymond.
+
+"Her laughing whenever I mention Dunstone, and tell them the proper
+way of doing things."
+
+"There may be different opinions about the proper way of doing
+things."  Then as she opened her eyes in wonder and rebuke, he
+continued, in his elder-brotherly tone of kindness, "You know I told
+you already that you had better not interfere in matters concerning
+his church and parish."
+
+"We always managed things at Dunstone."
+
+Hang Dunstone! was with some difficulty suppressed; but in an extra
+gentle voice Raymond said, "Your father did what he thought his
+duty, but I do not think it mine, nor yours, to direct Julius in
+clerical matters.  It can only lead to disputes, and I will not have
+them."
+
+"It is Rosamond.  I'm sure I don't dispute."
+
+"Listen, Cecil!" he said.  "I can see that your position may be
+trying, in these close quarters with a younger brother's wife with
+more age and rank than yourself."
+
+"That is nothing.  An Irish earl, and a Charnock of Dunstone!"
+
+"Dunstone will be more respected if you keep it in the background,"
+he said, holding in stronger words with great difficulty.  "Once for
+all, you have your own place and duties, and Rosamond has hers.  If
+you meddle in them, nothing but annoyance can come of it; and
+remember, I cannot be appealed to in questions between you and her.
+Julius and I have gone on these nine-and-twenty years without a
+cloud between us, and I'm sure you would not wish to bring one now."
+
+Wherewith he left her bewildered.  She did not perceive that he was
+too impartial for a lover, but she had a general sense that she had
+come into a rebellious world, where Dunstone and Dunstone's daughter
+were of no account, and her most cherished notions disputed.  What
+was the lady of the manor to do but to superintend the church,
+parsonage, and parish generally?  Not her duty?  She had never heard
+of such a thing, nor did she credit it.  Papa would come home, make
+these degenerate Charnocks hear reason, and set all to rights.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+Wedding Visits
+
+
+Young Mrs. Charnock Poynsett had plenty of elasticity, and her
+rebuffs were less present to her mind in the morning than to that of
+her husband, who had been really concerned to have to inflict an
+expostulation; and he was doubly kind, almost deferential, giving
+the admiration and attention he felt incumbent on him to the
+tasteful arrangements of her wedding presents in her own sitting-
+room.
+
+"And this clock I am going to have in the drawing-room, and these
+Salviati glasses.  Then, when I have moved out the piano, I shall
+put the sofa in its place, and my own little table, with my pretty
+Florentine ornaments."
+
+Raymond again looked annoyed.  "Have you spoken to my mother?" he
+said.
+
+"No; she never goes there."
+
+"Not now, but if ever she can bear any move it will be her first
+change, and I should not like to interfere with her arrangements."
+
+"She could never have been a musician, to let the piano stand
+against the wall.  I shall never be able to play."
+
+"Perhaps that might be contrived," said Raymond, kindly.  "_Here_
+you know is your own domain, where you can do as you please."
+
+"Yes; but I am expected to play in the evening.  Look at all those
+things.  I had kept the choicest for the drawing-room, and it is
+such a pity to hide them all up here."
+
+Raymond felt for the mortification, and was unwilling to cross her
+again, so he said, "I will ask whether my mother would object to
+having the piano moved."
+
+"This morning?"
+
+"After eleven o'clock--I never disturb her sooner; but you shall
+hear before I go to Backsworth."
+
+"An hour lost," thought Cecil; but she was too well bred to grumble,
+and she had her great work to carry on of copying and illustrating
+her journal.
+
+Mrs. Poynsett readily consented.  "Oh yes, my dear, let her do
+whatever she likes.  Don't let me be a bugbear.  A girl is never at
+home till she has had her will of the furniture.  I think she will
+find that moving out the piano betrays the fading of the rest of the
+paper, but that is her affair.  She is free to do just as she likes.
+I dare say the place does look antediluvian to young eyes."
+
+So Raymond was the bearer of his mother's full permission; and Cecil
+presided with great energy over the alterations, which she carried
+out by the aid of the younger servants, to the great disgust of
+their seniors.  She expected the acclamations of her contemporaries;
+but it happened that the first of them to cross the room was Julius,
+on his way to his mother's room after luncheon, and he, having on a
+pair of make-shift glasses, till the right kind could be procured
+from London, was unprepared for obstacles in familiar regions,
+stumbled over an ottoman, and upset a table with the breakage of a
+vase.
+
+He apologized, with much regret; but the younger brothers made an
+outcry.  "What has come to the place?  Here's the table all over
+everything!"
+
+"And where are the bronzes?"
+
+"And the humming-birds?  Miles's birds, that he brought home after
+his first voyage."
+
+"And the clock with the two jolly little Cupids?  Don't you remember
+Miles and Will Bowater dressing them up for men-of-war's men?
+Mother could not bring herself to have them undressed for a year,
+and all the time the clock struck nohow!"
+
+"This is an anatomical study instead of a clock," lamented Frank.
+"I say, Cecil, do you like your friends to sit in their bones, like
+Sydney Smith?"
+
+"I never saw such a stupid old set of conservatives!" broke in
+Rosamond, feeling for Cecil's mortification.  "In an unprejudiced
+eye the room looks infinitely better, quite revivified!  You ought
+to be much obliged to Cecil for letting you see all her beautiful
+things."
+
+"Why don't you favour us with yours?" said Charlie.
+
+"I know better!  Mine aren't fit to wipe the shoes of Cecil's!  When
+I get into the Rectory you'll see how hideous they are!" said
+Rosamond, with the merriest complacency.  "Couvre-pieds to set your
+teeth on edge, from the non-commissioned officers' wives; and the
+awfullest banner-screen you ever saw, worked by the drum-major's own
+hands, with Her Majesty's arms on one side, and the De Courcy ones
+on the other, and glass eyes like stuffed birds' to the lion and
+unicorn.  We nearly expired from suppressed laughter under the
+presentation."
+
+Then she went round, extorting from the lads admiration for Cecil's
+really beautiful properties, and winning gratitude for her own
+cordial praise, though it was not the artistic appreciation they
+deserved.  Indeed, Cecil yielded to the general vote for the
+restoration of the humming-birds, allowing that, though she did not
+like stuffed birds in a drawing-room, she would not have banished
+them if she had known their history.
+
+This lasted till Charlie spied a carriage coming up the drive, which
+could be seen a long way off, so that there was the opportunity for
+a general sauve qui peut.  Cecil represented that Rosamond ought to
+stay and receive her bridal visits; but she was unpersuadable.  "Oh
+no!  I leave all that for you!  My time will come when I get into
+the Rectory.  We are going in the dog-cart to the other end of the
+parish.--What's its name--Squattlesea Marsh, Julius?"
+
+"Squattlesford!" said Charlie.  "If Julius means to drive you, look
+out for your neck!"
+
+"No, it's the other way, I'm going to drive Julius!--Come along, or
+we shall be caught!"
+
+Cecil stood her ground, as did Anne, who was too weary and
+indifferent to retreat, and Frank, who had taken another view of the
+carriage as it came nearer.
+
+"I must apologize for having brought nothing but my father's card,"
+said Lady Tyrrell, entering with her sister, and shaking hands:
+"there's no such thing as dragging him out for a morning call."
+
+"And Mr. Charnock Poynsett is not at home," replied Cecil.  "He
+found so much county business waiting for him, that he had to go to
+Backsworth."
+
+"It is the better opportunity for a little private caucus with you,"
+returned Lady Tyrrell, "before the meeting to-morrow.  I rather
+fancy the gentlemen have one of their own."
+
+"Some are to dine here to-night," said Cecil.
+
+"We ladies had better be prepared with our proposals," said Lady
+Tyrrell.
+
+At the same time Frank drew near Miss Vivian with a large book,
+saying, "These are the photographs you wished to see."
+
+He placed the book on the ottoman, and would thus have secured a
+sort of tete-a-tete; but Eleonora did not choose to leave Mrs Miles
+Charnock out, and handed her each photograph in turn, but could only
+elicit a cold languid "Thank you."  To Anne's untrained eye these
+triumphs of architecture were only so many dull representations of
+'Roman Catholic churches,' and she would much rather have listened
+to the charitable plans of the other two ladies, for the houseless
+factory women of Wil'sbro'.
+
+The bazaar, Lady Tyrrell said, must be first started by the Member's
+wife; and there should be an innermost committee, of not more than
+three, to dispose of stalls and make arrangements.
+
+"You must be one," said Cecil.  "I know no one yet."
+
+"You will, long before it comes off.  In fact, I am as great a
+stranger as yourself.  Ah! there's an opportunity!" as the bell
+pealed.  "The Bowaters, very likely; I saw their Noah's ark as I
+passed the Poynsett Arms, with the horses taken out.  I wonder how
+many are coming--worthy folks!"
+
+Which evidently meant insufferable bores.
+
+"Is there not a daughter?" asked Cecil.
+
+"You need not use the singular, though, by the bye, most of them are
+married."
+
+"Oh, pray stay!" entreated Cecil, as there were signs of leave-
+taking.
+
+"I should do you no good.  You'll soon learn that I am a sort of
+Loki among the Asagotter."
+
+Cecil laughed, but had time to resume her somewhat prim dignity
+before the lengthened disembarkation was over, and after all,
+produced only four persons; but then none were small--Mrs. Bowater
+was a harsh matron, Mr. Bowater a big comely squire, the daughters
+both tall, one with an honest open face much like Herbert's, only
+with rather less youth and more intelligence, the other a bright
+dark glowing gipsy-faced young girl.
+
+Eleonora Vivian, hitherto gravely stiff and reserved, to poor
+Frank's evident chagrin, at once flashed into animation, and met the
+elder Miss Bowater with outstretched hands, receiving a warm kiss.
+At the same time Mr. Bowater despatched Frank to see whether his
+mother could admit a visitor; and Lady Tyrrell observed, "Ah!  I was
+about to make the same petition; but I will cede to older friends,
+for so I suppose I must call you, Mr. Bowater--though my
+acquaintance is of long standing enough!"
+
+And she put on a most charming smile, which Mr. Bowater received
+with something inarticulate that might be regarded as a polite form
+of 'fudge,' which made Cecil think him a horribly rude old man, and
+evidently discomposed his wife very much.
+
+Frank brought back his mother's welcome to the Squire; but by this
+time Eleonora and Miss Bowater had drawn together into a window, in
+so close and earnest a conversation that he could not break into it,
+and with almost visible reluctance began to talk to the younger
+sister, who on her side was desirous of joining in the bazaar
+discussion, which had been started again in full force; until there
+was a fresh influx of visitors, when Lady Tyrrell decidedly took
+leave with her sister, and Frank escorted them to their carriage,
+and returned no more.
+
+In the new shuffling of partners, the elder Miss Bowater found
+herself close to Anne, and at once inquired warmly for Miles, with
+knowledge and interest in naval affairs derived from a sailor
+brother, Miles's chief friend and messmate in his training and
+earlier voyages.  There was something in Joanna Bowater's manner
+that always unlocked hearts, and Anne was soon speaking without her
+fence of repellant stiffness and reserve.  Certainly Miles was loved
+by his mother and brothers more than he could be by an old
+playfellow and sisterly friend, and yet there was something in
+Joanna's tone that gave Anne a sense of fellow-feeling, as if she
+had met a countrywoman in this land of strangers; and she even told
+how Miles had thought it right to send her home, thinking that she
+might be a comfort to his mother.  "And not knowing all that was
+going to happen!" said poor Anne, with an irrepressible sigh, both
+for her own blighted hopes, and for the whirl into which her sore
+heart had fallen.
+
+"I think you will be," said Joanna, brightly; "though it must be
+strange coming on so many.  Dear Mrs. Poynsett is so kind!"
+
+"Yes," said Anne, coldly.
+
+"Ah! you don't know her yet.  And Lady Rosamond!  She is
+delightful!"
+
+"Have you seen her!"
+
+"We met them just now in the village, but my brother is enchanted.
+And do you know what was Julius's first introduction to her?  It was
+at a great school-feast, where they had the regimental children as
+well as the town ones.  A poor little boy went off in an epileptic
+fit, and Julius found her holding him, with her own hand in his
+mouth to hinder the locking of the teeth.  He said her fingers were
+bitten almost to the bone, but she made quite light of it."
+
+"That was nice!" said Anne; but then, with a startled glance, and in
+an undertone, she added, "Are they Christians?"
+
+Joanna Bowater paused for a moment between dismay and desire for
+consideration, and in that moment her father called to her, "Jenny,
+do you remember the dimensions of those cottages in Queckett's
+Lane?" and she had to come and serve for his memory, while he was
+indoctrinating a younger squire with the duties of a landlord.
+
+Meanwhile Mrs. Bowater was, for the tenth time, consulting her old
+friend upon Mrs. Hornblower's capabilities of taking care of
+Herbert, and betraying a little disappointment that his first sermon
+had not yet been heard; and when his voice was complimented, she
+hoped Julius would spare it--too much exertion could not be good for
+so young a man, and though dear Herbert looked so strong, no one
+would believe how much sleep he required.  Then she observed, "We
+found Camilla Vivian--Lady Tyrrell I mean--calling.  Have you seen
+her?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, she really seems improved!"
+
+"Mr. Bowater has been telling me she is handsomer than ever!"
+
+"Oh yes!  That's all gentlemen think of; but I meant in other ways.
+She seems full of the rebuilding of St. Nicholas, and to be making
+great friends with your new daughter.  You don't think," lowering
+her voice, "that Raymond would have any objection to meeting her?"
+
+"Certainly not!"
+
+"I did not suppose he would, but I thought I would just ask you.  It
+would be rather marked not to invite him for the 3rd, you know; and
+Jenny was always so fond of poor Emily, kept up a correspondence
+with her to the last.  It was the first time she had met the little
+one since they came back.  Not that she is little now, she is very
+tall and quite handsome _even_ by the side of Edith.  We just saw
+Lady Rosamond--a sweet face--and Herbert perfectly raves about her!"
+
+"She is a most unselfish warm-hearted creature!" said Mrs. Poynsett.
+
+"I am so glad!  And Miles's wife, I hope she will come.  Poor thing,
+she looks very poorly."
+
+"Yes, I am very anxious about her.  If she is not better in a day or
+two, I shall insist on her having advice."
+
+"Poor dear, I don't wonder!  But she had better come to Strawyers;
+Jenny will cheer her if any one can, and we shall have a nice lively
+party, I hope!  She will only mope the more if she never goes out."
+
+"I am afraid she is hardly equal to it; besides, poor child," added
+Mrs. Poynsett, "she seems to have been strictly brought up, and to
+think our ways rather shocking; and Miles wrote to me not to press
+her to go into society till he comes home."
+
+"Ah! well, I call that a mistake!" puffed out good-humoured Mrs.
+Bowater.  "Very bad for the poor girl's spirits.  By the bye, I hope
+Julius does not object to Herbert's dancing--not at a public ball,
+you know, but at home--for if he did, I would try to arrange
+something else, it would be so hard for the poor boy to have to look
+on."
+
+"I don't know, I don't think he could," said the mother,
+considering.
+
+"You see, we thought of a dinner-party for as many as possible.
+Frank and Charlie won't mind dining in the schoolroom, I know, and
+having the rest for a dance in the evening; but if Julius did think
+it unclerical--Jenny says he won't, and papa laughs, and says, 'Poh!
+poh!  Julius is no fool;' but people are so much more particular
+than they used to be, and I would not get the dear boy into a scrape
+for the world."
+
+Mrs. Poynsett undertook to ascertain his opinions on this knotty
+point, and to let her know if they were adverse; and then she begged
+for a visit from Jenny, whose brother had no accommodation for her
+in his lodgings.  She could not be spared till after the
+entertainment on the 3rd, nor till a visit from her married sister
+was over; but afterwards, her mother was delighted that she should
+come and look after Herbert, who seemed as much on the maternal mind
+as if he had not batted his way through Eton, and boated it through
+Oxford.
+
+Mrs. Poynsett obtained her word with Julius in good time that
+evening.  He laughed a little.  "Poor Herbs! when will people
+understand that it is the spirit of the thing, the pursuit, not the
+individual chance participation in any particular amusement, that is
+unclerical, as they are pleased to call it?"
+
+"What do you think of Herbert?"
+
+"A boy, and a very nice boy; but if he doesn't get his healthful
+play somehow, he will burst out like a closed boiler some day."
+
+"A muscular Christian on your hands?"
+
+"Not theoretically, for he has been well taught; but it's a great
+animal that needs to work off its steam, and if I had known it, I
+would not have undertaken the problem of letting him do that,
+without setting up bad habits, or scandalizing the parish and
+Bindon--who is young the other way, and has no toleration.  We had
+this morning's service in a state of siege from all the dogs.
+Herbert thought he had shut them safely up, but they were all at his
+heels in the churchyard; and though he rated them home, and shut all
+the doors, we heard them whining and scratching at each in turn."
+
+"I thought I should have died of it," said Rosamond, entering.  "His
+face grew red enough to set his surplice on fire, and Mr. Bindon
+glared at him, and he missed his verse in the Psalm; for there was
+the bull terrier, crouching and looking abject at the vestry-door,
+just restrained by his eye from coming further."
+
+"What shall you do about it, Julius?" asked his mother, much amused.
+
+"Oh, that will remedy itself.  All dogs learn to understand the
+bell."
+
+And then the others began to drop in, and were told of the
+invitation that was coming.
+
+"I say, Rosamond," cried Charlie, "can brothers and sisters-in-law
+dance together?"
+
+"That depends on how the brothers-in-law dance," returned Rosamond.
+"Some one, for pity's sake, play a waltz!--Come along Charlie! the
+hall is a sweet place for it!--Whistle, Julius!--Frank, whistle!"
+
+And away she whirled.  Frank, holding out his hands, was to his
+surprise accepted by Cecil, and disappeared with her into the hall.
+Julius stood by the mantelpiece, with the first shadow on his brow
+his mother had seen since his arrival.  Presently he spoke in a
+defensive apologetic tone:  "She has always been used to this style
+of thing."
+
+"Most naturally," said the mother.
+
+"Not that they ever did more than their position required, and Lady
+Rathforlane is a truly careful mother.  Of course some things might
+startle you stay-at-home people; but in all essentials--"
+
+"I see what you mean."
+
+"And what seems like rattle is habit."
+
+"Simple gaiete de coeur!"
+
+"So it is better to acquiesce till it subsides of itself.  You see
+it is hard, after such a life of change and variety, to settle down
+into a country parsonage."
+
+"What are you saying there?" said Rosamond, tripping in out of
+breath.
+
+"That I don't know how you are to put up with a pink-eyed parson,
+and a hum-drum life," said Julius, holding out a caressing hand.
+
+"Now that's hard," pleaded she; "only because I took a frolic with
+Baby Charles!  I say, Julius, shall we give it up altogether and
+stay at home like good children?  I believe that is what would suit
+the told Rabbit much better than his kid gloves,"--and her sweet
+face looked up at him with a meek candid gaze.
+
+"No," he said, "that would not do.  The Bowaters are our oldest
+friends.  But, Rosie, as you _are_ a clergyman's wife, could you not
+give up round dances?"
+
+"Oh no, no!  That's too bad.  I'd rather never go to a dance at all,
+than sit still, or be elbowed about in the square dances.  You never
+told me you expected that!"--and her tones were of a child petulant
+at injustice.
+
+"Suppose," he said, as a delightful solution, "you only gratified
+Frank and Charlie by waltzing with them."
+
+She burst into a ringing laugh.  "My brothers-in-law!  How very
+ridiculous!  Suppose you included the curates?"
+
+"You know what I mean," he said gravely.
+
+"Oh, bother the parson's wife!  Haven't I seen them figuring away by
+scores?  Did we ever have a regimental ball that they were not the
+keenest after?"
+
+"So they get themselves talked of!" said Julius, as Anne's quiet
+entrance broke up the dialogue.
+
+Mrs. Poynsett had listened, glad there was no appeal to her,
+conscious that she did not understand the merits of the case, and
+while she doubted whether her eldest son had love enough, somewhat
+afraid lest his brother had not rather too much for the good of his
+lawful supremacy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+Unfruitful Suggestions
+
+
+"Raymond!  Can you spare me a moment before you go into your
+mother's room?"
+
+It was Rosamond who, to his surprise, as he was about to go down-
+stairs, met him and drew him into her apartment--his mother's own
+dressing-room, which he had not entered since the accident.
+
+"Is anything the matter?" he said, thinking that Julius might have
+spared him from complaints of Cecil.
+
+"Oh no! only one never can speak to you, and Julius told me that you
+could tell me about Mrs. Poynsett.  I can't help thinking she could
+be moved more than she is."  Then, as he was beginning to speak, "Do
+you know that, the morning of the fire, I carried her with only one
+of the maids to the couch under the tent-room window?  Susan was
+frightened out of her wits, but she was not a bit the worse for it."
+
+"Ah! that was excitement."
+
+"But if it did not hurt her then, why should it hurt her again?
+There's old General M'Kinnon, my father's old friend, who runs about
+everywhere in a wheeled-chair with a leg-rest; and I can't think why
+she should not do the same."
+
+Raymond smiled kindly on her, but rather sadly; perhaps he was
+recollecting his morning's talk about the occupancy of the drawing-
+room.  "You know it is her spine," he said.
+
+"So it is with him.  His horse rolled over him at Sebastopol, and he
+has never walked since.  I wanted to write to Mary M'Kinnon; but
+Julius said I had better talk to you, because he was only at home
+for a fortnight, when she was at the worst, and you knew more about
+it."
+
+"Yes," said Raymond, understanding more than the Irish tongue fully
+expressed.  "I never saw a woman sit better than she did, and she
+looked as young and light in the saddle as you could, till that day,
+when, after the rains, the bank where the bridle-path to Squattles
+End was built up, gave way with the horse's feet, and down she went
+twenty feet, and was under the horse when Miles and I got down to
+her!  We brought her on a mattress to that room, not knowing whether
+she were alive; and she has never moved out of it!  It was agony to
+her to be touched."
+
+"Yes but it can't be that now.  Was not that three years ago?"
+
+"Not so much.  Two and a half.  We had Hayter down to see her, and
+he said perfect rest was the only chance for her."
+
+"And has not he seen her lately?"
+
+"He died last winter; and old Worth, who comes in once a week to
+look at her, is not fit for more than a little watching and
+attention.  I dare say we all have learnt to acquiesce too much in
+her present state, and that more might be done.  You see she has
+never had a lady's care, except now and then Jenny Bowater's."
+
+"I do feel sure she could bear more now," said Rosamond, eagerly.
+"It would be such a thing if she could only be moved about that
+down-stairs floor."
+
+"And be with us at meals and in the evening," said Raymond, his face
+lightening up.  "Thank you, Rosamond!"
+
+"I'll write to Mary M'Kinnon to-morrow, to ask about the chair,"
+cried Rosamond; and Raymond, hearing the door-bell, hurried down, to
+find his wife standing alone over the drawing-room fire, not very
+complacent.
+
+"Where have you been, Raymond?"
+
+"I was talking to Rosamond.  She has seen a chair on which it might
+be possible to move my mother about on this floor."
+
+"I thought--" Cecil flushed.  She was on the point of saying she
+thought Rosamond was not to interfere in her department any more
+than she in Rosamond's; but she kept it back, and changed it into
+"Surely the doctor and nurses must know best."
+
+"A fresh eye often makes a difference," said Raymond.  "To have her
+among us again--!" but he was cut short by the announcement of Mr.
+and Miss Fuller.
+
+"Poor Mr. Fuller," as every one called him, was the incumbent of St.
+Nicholas, Willansborough, a college living always passed by the
+knowing old bachelor fellows, and as regularly proving a delusion to
+the first junior in haste for a wife.  Twenty-five years ago Mr.
+Fuller had married upon this, which, as Mr. Bindon said, was rather
+a reason for not marrying--a town with few gentry, and a petty
+unthriving manufacture, needing an enormous amount of energy to work
+it properly, and getting--Mr. Fuller, with force yearly decreasing
+under the pressure of a sickly wife, ill-educated, unsatisfactory
+sons, and unhealthy, aimless daughters.  Of late some assistance had
+been obtained, but only from Mr. Driver, the 'coach' or cramming
+tutor, who was directing the studies of Frank and half a dozen more
+youths, and his aid was strictly limited to a share in the Sunday
+services.
+
+The eldest daughter accompanied the Vicar.  Her mother had not
+health (or perhaps clothes) for a dinner-party, and it was the first
+time she had ever been in the house.  Very shy and in much awe she
+was!  Cecil viewed her as a constituent, and was elaborately civil
+and patronizing, doing the honours of all the photographs and
+illustrations on which she could lay hands, and only eliciting
+alternately 'Very nice,' and 'How sweet!'  A little more was made of
+the alarms of the fire, and the preparations for clearing the house,
+and there was a further thaw about the bazaar.  It would be such a
+relief from plain work, and she could get some lovely patterns from
+her cousin who had a missionary basket; but as to the burnt-out
+families, the little knowledge or interest she seemed to have about
+them was rather astounding, unless, as Rosamond suspected, she
+thought it 'shop,' and uninteresting to the great ladies of Compton-
+Poynsett Hall.
+
+Meanwhile, her father made the apprehended request for the loan of
+Compton Church during the intervals of services, and when the Rector
+explained how brief those intervals would be, looked astonished, and
+dryly complimented him on his energy and his staff, somewhat as if
+the new broom were at the bottom of these congratulations.
+
+The schools were to be used for services until a temporary iron
+church could be obtained, for which Julius, to make up for his
+churlishness in withholding his own church, made the handsomer
+donation, and held out hopes of buying it afterwards for the use of
+Squattles End.  Then, having Mr. Fuller's ear to himself, he
+ventured to say, though cautiously, as to one who had been a
+clergyman before he was born, "I wish it were possible to dispense
+with this bazaar."
+
+Mr. Fuller shrugged his shoulders.  "If every one subscribed in the
+style of this family."
+
+"They would be more likely to do so, without the appeal to secondary
+motives."
+
+"Try them," said the elder man.
+
+"Exactly what I want to do.  I would put up the four walls, begin
+with what you get from the insurance, a weekly offertory, and add
+improvements as means came in.  This is not visionary.  I have seen
+proof of its success."
+
+"It may serve in new-fashioned city missions, but in an old-
+established place like this it would create nothing but offence.
+When you have been in Orders as long as I have, you will find that
+there is nothing for it but to let people do what they will, not
+what one thinks best."
+
+"Mr. Fuller," said Julius, eagerly, "will you try an experiment?
+Drop this bazaar, and I promise you our collection every Sunday
+evening for the year, giving notice of it to my people, and to such
+of yours as may be present."
+
+"I do not despise your offer," said Mr. Fuller, laying his hand upon
+his arm.  "You mean it kindly, and if I were in your place, or had
+only my own feelings to consider, I might attempt it.  But it would
+be only mischievous to interfere with the bazaar.  Lady Tyrrell--all
+the ladies, in fact--have set their minds on it, and if I objected
+there would instantly be a party cry against me, and that is the one
+thing I have always avoided."
+
+His tone of superior wisdom, meek and depressed as he always was,
+tried the Rector's patience enough to make his forehead burn and
+bring out his white eyebrows in strong relief.  "How about a
+blessing on the work?" he asked, suppressing so much that he hardly
+knew this was spoken aloud.
+
+Again Mr. Fuller smiled.  He had been a bit of a humorist when he
+was an Oxford don.  "Speak of that to Briggs," he said, "and he
+would answer, 'Cash for me, and the blessing may take care of
+itself.'  As to the ladies--why, they deafen you about blessings on
+their humble efforts, and the widow's mite."
+
+"Simply meaning that they want their amusement a little--"
+
+"Buttered over," said Mr. Fuller, supplying the word.  "Though you
+are hard on them, Charnock--I don't know about the fine ladies; but
+there are quiet folk who will work their fingers to the bone, and
+can do nothing else."
+
+"That's true," said Julius; "and one would gladly find a safe outlet
+for their diligence."
+
+"You do not trust to it for bringing the blessing," said Mr. Fuller
+in a tone that Julius liked even less than the mere hopeless faint-
+heartedness, for in it there was sarcasm on faith in aught but
+pounds s. d.
+
+The two brothers held another discussion on this matter later that
+night, on the stairs, as they were on their way to their rooms.
+
+"Won't you come to this meeting to-morrow, Julius?" asked Raymond.
+
+"I don't see that I should be of any use, unless--"
+
+"Unless what?"
+
+"Unless you would make what seems to me the right proposal, and I
+could be any support in it."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"To use the insurance to put up the mere shells and plain
+indispensable fittings of the church and town-hall, then make the
+drainage of Water Lane and Hall Street the first object for the
+rates, while the church is done by subscription and voluntary
+effort."
+
+"You put the drainage first--even before the church?" said Raymond,
+smiling, with an elder brother's satisfaction in such an amount of
+common sense.
+
+"Of course I do," said Julius.  "An altar and four walls and chairs
+are all that ought to be sought for.  Little good can be done to
+people's souls while their bodies are in the feverish discomfort of
+foul air and water.  This is an opportunity not to be wasted, while
+all the houses are down, town-hall and all."
+
+"The very thing I told Briggs and the others this morning," said
+Raymond; "but I could not get a hearing; they said there never had
+been any illness worth mentioning, and in fact scouted the whole
+matter, as people always do."
+
+"Yes, they take it as a personal insult when you mention the
+odorous--or odious, savours sweet," said Julius.  "I heard a good
+deal of that when we had the spell of cholera at St. Awdry's."
+
+"I shall work on at it, and I trust to get it done in time," said
+Raymond; "but it will not be at once.  The subject is too new to
+them, and the irritation it produces must subside before they will
+hear reason.  Besides, the first thing is to employ and feed these
+paper-makers."
+
+"Of course."
+
+"That will pretty well absorb this first meeting.  The ladies will
+manage that, I think; and when this is provided for, I will try what
+I can do at the committee; but there is no good in bringing it
+forward at this great public affair, when every ass can put in his
+word.  Everything depends on whom they choose for the new mayor.  If
+Whitlock comes in, there is some chance of sense and reason being
+heard.  Good night."
+
+As Raymond said, the more immediate object of the meeting fixed for
+the ensuing day, was to provide for the employment of the numerous
+women thrown out of employment by the destruction of the paper-
+mills.  A subscription was in hand, but not adequate to the need;
+and moreover, it was far more expedient to let them maintain
+themselves.
+
+How this was to be done was the question.  Cecil told her husband
+that at Dunstone they made the women knit stockings; and he replied
+by recommending the suppression of Dunstone.  How strange it was
+that what she had been used to consider as the source of honour
+should be here held in what seemed to her disesteem!
+
+Lady Tyrrell's ponies were tinkling up to the door of the hotel
+where the meeting was to be held, and her gracious smile recalled
+Cecil's good-humour; Raymond saw them to their seats, and then had
+to go and take the chair himself on the platform--first, however,
+introducing his wife to such of the ladies present as he
+recollected.
+
+She thought he wanted her to sit between melancholy white faced Mrs.
+Fuller and a bony spinster in a poke-bonnet whom he called Miss
+Slater; but Cecil, concluding that this last could have no vote, and
+that the Vicarage was secure, felt free to indulge herself by
+getting back to Lady Tyrrell, who had scarcely welcomed her before
+exclaiming, "Mrs. Duncombe, I did not know you were returned."
+
+"I came back on the first news of your flare-up," said the newcomer.
+"I only came down this morning.  I would not have missed this
+meeting for anything.  It is a true woman's question.  A fair
+muster, I see," looking round with her eye-glass, and bowing to
+several on the platform, especially to Raymond, who returned the bow
+rather stiffly.
+
+"Ah! let me introduce you," said Lady Tyrrell.  "Mrs. Raymond
+Charnock Poynsett."
+
+"I am very glad to see you embarked in the cause," said the lady,
+frankly holding out her hand.  "May we often meet in the same
+manner, though I honestly tell you I'm not of your party; I should
+go dead against your husband if we only had a chance."
+
+"Come, you need not be so aggressive," laughed Lady Tyrrell; "you
+haven't a vote yet.  You are frightening Mrs. Poynsett."  It was
+true.  Even Cecil Charnock was born too late to be one of the young
+ladies who, in the first decades of the reformed Parliament, used to
+look on a Liberal as a lusus naturae, whom they hardly believed to
+be a gentleman.  But a lady who would openly accost the Member's
+bride with a protest against his politics, was a being beyond her
+experience, and the contemplation fairly distracted her from her
+husband's oratory.
+
+She would have taken Miss Slater for the strong-minded female far
+rather than this small slim person, with the complexion going with
+the yellower species of red hair and chignon, not unlike a gold-
+pheasant's, while the thin aquiline nose made Cecil think of Queen
+Elizabeth.  The dress was a tight-fitting black silk, with a
+gorgeous many-coloured gold-embroidered oriental mantle thrown
+loosely over it, and a Tyrolean hat, about as large as the
+pheasant's comb, tipped over her forehead, with cords and tassels of
+gold; and she made little restless movements and whispered remarks
+during the speeches.
+
+There was to be a rate to renew the town-hall.  The rebuilding of
+the paper-mills and dwelling-houses was fairly covered by the
+insurance; but the Vicar, in his diffident apologetic voice, stated
+that the church had been insufficiently insured, and moreover, that
+many more sittings were needed than the former building had
+contained.  He then read the list of subscriptions already promised,
+expressed hopes of more coming in, invited ladies to take collecting
+cards, and added that he was happy to announce that the ladies of
+the congregation had come forward with all the beneficence of their
+sex, and raised a sum to supply a new set of robes.
+
+Here the chairman glanced at his wife, but she was absorbed in
+watching Mrs. Duncombe's restless hands; and the look was
+intercepted by Lady Tyrrell's eyes, which flashed back sympathetic
+amusement, with just such a glance as used to pass between them in
+old times; but the effect was to make the Member's face grave and
+impassive, and his eyes fix on the papers before him.
+
+The next moment Cecil was ardently gazing at Mr. Fuller as he
+proceeded to his hopes of the bazaar to be held under the most
+distinguished patronage, and of which he spoke as if it were the
+subject of anticipations as sanguine as any the poor man could ever
+appear to indulge in.  And there was, in fact, the greatest stamping
+and cheering there had yet been, perhaps in compliment to the M.P.'s
+young bride--at least, so Lady Tyrrell whispered, adding that
+everybody was trying to see her.
+
+Then Mr. Charnock Poynsett himself took up the exposition of the
+third branch of the subject, the support of the poor families thrown
+out of work at the beginning of winter.  There could be no
+employment at the paper-mills till they were repaired; and after the
+heavy losses, they could not attempt to keep their people together
+by any payment.  It had been suggested that the readiest way of
+meeting the difficulty, would be to employ the subscriptions already
+promised in laying in a stock of material to be made up into
+garments, and then dispose of them out to the women at their homes;
+and appointing a day once a week when the work should be received,
+the pay given, and fresh material supplied, by a party of volunteer
+ladies.
+
+This was, in fact, what he had been instructed to propose by the
+kindly souls who ordinarily formed the St. Nicholas bureau de
+charite, who had instructed him to be their mouthpiece.  There was
+due applause as the mayor seconded his resolution; but in the midst
+a clear, rather high-pitched voice rose up close to Cecil, saying,
+"Mr. Chairman, allow me to ask what sale is anticipated for these
+garments?"
+
+"I am told that there is a demand for them among the poor
+themselves," said Raymond, judiciously concealing how much he was
+taken aback by this female interference.
+
+"Allow me to differ.  A permanent work society numbering a few women
+otherwise unemployed may find a sufficient sale in the neighbourhood
+under the patronage of charitable ladies; but when you throw in
+ninety-five or one hundred pair of hands depending on their work for
+their livelihood, the supply must necessarily soon go beyond any
+demand, even fictitious.  It will not do to think of these women
+like fancy knitters or embroiderers whose work is skilled.  Most of
+them can hardly mend their own clothes, and the utmost that can be
+expected of them is the roughest slop work."
+
+"Do you wish any expedient to be proposed?" asked the chairman, in a
+sort of aside.
+
+"Yes, I have one.  I spent yesterday in collecting information."
+
+"Will Captain Duncombe move it?" suggested Raymond.
+
+"Oh no! he is not here.  No, it is no use to instruct anybody; I
+will do it myself, if you please."
+
+And before the astonished eyes of the meeting, the gold-pheasant
+hopped upon the platform, and with as much ease as if she had been
+Queen Bess dragooning her parliament, she gave what even the
+astounded gentlemen felt to be a sensible practical exposition of
+ways and means.
+
+She had obtained the address of a warehouse ready to give such rough
+work as the women could be expected to do; but as they were
+unaccustomed to work at home, and were at present much crowded from
+the loss of so many houses, and could besides be little depended on
+for working well enough without superintendence, her plan was to
+hire a room, collect the women, and divide the superintendence
+between the ladies; who should give out the work, see that it was
+properly done, keep order, and the like.  She finished off in full
+order, by moving a resolution to this effect.
+
+There was a pause, and a little consultation among the gentlemen,
+ending by Raymond's absolutely telling Mr. Fuller that it was a very
+sensible practical arrangement, and that it _must_ be seconded;
+which the Vicar accordingly did, and it was carried without
+opposition, as in truth nothing so good had been thought of; and the
+next thing was to name a committee of ladies, a treasurer and
+auditor of accounts.  There would be no work on Saturdays, so if the
+ladies would each undertake half a day once a fortnight, the
+superintendence need not be a burthen.
+
+Mrs. Duncombe and Miss Slater undertook the first start and
+preliminary arrangements, then each would take her half day in
+rotation.  Lady Tyrrell and her sister undertook two, Cecil two
+more, and others were found to fill up the vacant space.  The
+chairman moved a vote of thanks to the lady for her suggestion,
+which she acknowledged by a gracious bow, not without triumph; and
+the meeting broke up.
+
+Some one asked after Captain Duncombe as she descended into private
+life.  "There's a wonderful filly that absorbs all his attention.
+All Wil'sbro' might burn as long as Dark Hag thrives!  When do I
+expect him?  I don't know; it depends on Dark Hag," she said in a
+tone of superior good-natured irony, then gathered up the radiant
+mantle and tripped off along the central street of the little old-
+fashioned country town, with gravelled not paved side-walks.
+
+"Isn't she very superior?" said Cecil, when her husband had put her
+on horseback.
+
+"I suppose she is very clever."
+
+"And she spoke capitally."
+
+"If she were to speak.  What would your father think of her?"
+
+But for the first time Cecil's allegiance had experienced a certain
+shock.  Some sort of pedestal had hitherto been needful to her
+existence; she was learning that Dunstone was an unrecognized
+elevation in this new country, and she had seen a woman attain to a
+pinnacle that almost dazzled her, by sheer resource and good sense.
+
+All the discussion she afterwards heard did not tend to shake her
+opinion; Raymond recounted the adventure at his mother's kettle-
+drum, telling of his own astonishment at the little lady's
+assurance.
+
+"I do not see why she should be censured," said Cecil.  "You were
+all at a loss without her."
+
+"She should have got her husband to speak for her," said Mrs.
+Poynsett.
+
+"He was not there."
+
+"Then she should have instructed some other gentleman," said Mrs.
+Poynsett.  "A woman spoils all the effect of her doings by putting
+herself out of her proper place."
+
+"Perfectly disgusting!" said Julius.
+
+Cecil had decidedly not been disgusted, except by the present strong
+language; and not being ready at repartee, she was pleased when
+Rosamond exclaimed, "Ah! that's just what men like, to get
+instructed in private by us poor women, and then gain all the credit
+for originality."
+
+"It is the right way," said the mother.  "The woman has much power
+of working usefully and gaining information, but the one thing that
+is not required of her is to come forward in public."
+
+"Very convenient for the man!" laughed Rosamond.
+
+"And scarcely fair," said Cecil.
+
+"Quite fair," said Rosamond, turning round, so that Cecil only now
+perceived that she had been speaking in jest.  "Any woman who is
+worth a sixpence had rather help her husband to shine than shine
+herself."
+
+"Besides," said Mrs. Poynsett, "the delicate edges of true womanhood
+ought not to be frayed off by exposure in public."
+
+"Yes," said Raymond.  "The gain of an inferior power of man in
+public would be far from compensated by the loss in private of that
+which man can never supply."
+
+"Granted," said Rosamond slyly though sleepily, "that it always is
+an inferior power of man, which it does not seem to have been in the
+actual case."
+
+"It was a point on which she had special knowledge and information,"
+said Mrs. Poynsett.
+
+"And you were forced to thank her," said Cecil.
+
+"Yes, in common civility," said Raymond; "but it was as much as I
+could do to get it done, the position was a false one altogether."
+
+"In fact, you were all jealous," said Rosamond.
+
+At which everybody laughed, which was her sole intention; but Cecil,
+who had said so much less, really thought what Rosamond said in mere
+play.  Those extorted thanks seemed to her a victory of her sex in a
+field she had never thought of; and though she had no desire to
+emulate the lady, and felt that a daughter of Dunstone must remember
+noblesse oblige, the focus of her enthusiasm was in an odd state of
+shifting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+Unsatisfactory
+
+
+On the evening of the party at Strawyers, Mrs. Poynsett lay on her
+sofa, thinking, with a trying recurrence, of that unfortunate and
+excellent German Dauphine, who was pronounced by the Duchess of
+Orleans to have died of her own stupidity.
+
+After a fortnight had brought no improvement, but rather the
+reverse, to poor Anne's wan looks and feeble languid deportment,
+Mrs. Poynsett had insisted on her seeing the doctor; and had been
+assured by him that there was nothing amiss, and that if Mrs Miles
+Charnock could only be roused and occupied she would be perfectly
+well, but that her pining and depression might so lower her tone as
+to have a serious effect on her health.
+
+There was no hope of her husband's return for at least a year,
+likely eighteen months.  What was to be done with her?  What could
+be a more unpropitious fate than for a Colonial girl, used to an
+active life of exertion and usefulness, and trained to all domestic
+arts, to be set down in a great English household where there was
+really nothing for her to do, and usefulness or superintendence
+would have been interfering; besides, as Miles had thoughts of
+settling at the Cape, English experience would serve her little.
+
+She had not cultivation enough for any pursuit to interest her.  She
+was not musical, could not draw; and when Mrs. Poynsett had, by way
+of experiment, asked her to read aloud an hour a day, and selected
+the Lives of the Lindsays, as an unexceptionable and improving book,
+full of Scottish history, and even with African interest, she
+dutifully did her task as an attention to her invalid mother-in-law,
+but in a droning husky tone, finding it apparently as severe a
+penance as it was to her auditor.
+
+The doctor's chief prescription was horse exercise; but what would a
+constitutional canter be to one accustomed to free rides through the
+Bush?  And she would generally be alone; for even if Charlie, her
+nearest approach to an ally, had not been going away from home in a
+few weeks, it could not be expected that he could often ride with
+her.
+
+It was plain that every one of the whole family was giving continual
+shocks to Mr. Pilgrim's disciple, even when they felt most innocent;
+and though the mother was sometimes disposed to be angry, sometimes
+to laugh at the little shudder and compression of the lips she began
+to know, she perceived what an addition this must be to the
+unhappiness of the poor lonely stranger.
+
+"She must be set to some good work," thought Mrs. Poynsett; "Julius
+might let her go to his old women.  She might get on with them
+better than with the old women here.  And there's Cecil's working
+affair, it would be just the thing to give her an object.  I think I
+can get through this evening.  I've made Susan bring my desk, with
+all Miles's letters from his first voyage.  Shall I suppress the
+ball?"
+
+Therewith Cecil made her entrance, in glossy white satin and deep
+lace, beautiful to behold, set off with rainbow glistening opals.
+She made a quiet complacent show of herself, as one not vain of fine
+clothes, but used to an affectionate family appreciation of her best
+attire; and it was the most friendly childlike bit of intimacy that
+had yet been attained between her and Mrs. Poynsett.
+
+And when she sat down to wait for the others, Mrs. Poynsett ventured
+on telling her the prescription and her own perplexity, hoping for a
+voluntary offer to employ Anne at Willansborough; but Cecil only
+pitied her for having 'no resources'; and when Mrs. Poynsett
+ventured to suggest finding a niche for her in the work-room, the
+answer was--"Our days are all disposed of."
+
+"You have two, I think?"
+
+"True; but it would never do for me to give up one of my times.  If
+I seemed to slacken, every one else would."
+
+"What will you do when the Session begins?"
+
+"I shall make some arrangement.  I do not think Anne could ever take
+my place; she would have no authority."
+
+Anne herself here entered, took her knitting, and sat down,
+apparently unaware of the little pluming gesture by which Cecil
+unconsciously demanded attention to her bridal satin.  One white-
+gloved gentleman after another dropped in, but none presumed on a
+remark; Jenkins announced the carriages; but Rosamond had not
+appeared, and after an excursion up-stairs, Julius returned,
+declaring that the first carriage must not wait for her, they would
+come afterwards in the van, for there was something amiss in the
+dress, she had not had it on since the wedding.
+
+"And she came in so late," said Cecil.
+
+"That was my fault," he said.  "We came through the village to leave
+a message at the doctor's;" and he then insisted that the other pair
+should set off, taking Frank and Charlie, and prevent dinner from
+being kept waiting; at which the boys made faces, and declared that
+it was a dodge of his to join Jenny's party in the schoolroom,
+instead of the solemn dinner; but they were obliged to submit; and
+it was not till twenty minutes later, that in glided something
+white, with blue cashmere and swan's-down over it, moving, as usual,
+with languid grace.
+
+"Poor Julius!" smiled Rosamond with her dawdling dignity.  "Every
+single thing turned out a misfit!  As it is, there's a monstrous
+hole in my glove, which demands the benevolent fiction of my having
+torn it by the way.  There, one second for the effect!--Good-bye,
+dear Mrs. Poynsett;--good-bye, Anne.  Come, you monument of patience
+and resignation!"
+
+For one moment she had slipped back her little mantle, then drawn it
+on, as, taking her husband's arm, she left the room; but that moment
+had set Anne's cheeks aflame, and left Mrs. Poynsett in a startled
+state of uncertainty, hoping her glance had been mistaken, wondering
+what could have been _more_ amiss, and feeling incapable of entering
+on the subject with that severe young judge, of narrow experience.
+
+Never had her eldest son failed to come and bid her good night on
+his way to his own room:  it was the great break in her long
+sleepless hours, and she used to call it a reversal of the relations
+of those days when he used to watch for her kiss on her way to bed.
+Nor did he fail her now, but came and stood over her with his
+fragmentary tidings.
+
+"An immense party--oh yes, there was he persuading them not to wait.
+Mr. Bowater took Rosamond in to dinner, Cecil went with Sir Harry
+Vivian.  Yes, Lady Tyrrell was there, wonderfully handsome, but her
+expression strikes me as altered; there is the sort of pathetic look
+that, as Cecil said, is like the melancholy Medusa--I wonder if it
+is genuine.  She seems greatly disposed to cultivate Cecil--I wonder
+what she does it for."
+
+"Is Cecil attracted?  I fancied she was."
+
+"Yes, a good deal; and I fear the Wil'sbro' business will throw them
+together.  It is unlucky on Frank's account likewise.  I see we
+shall have it all over again there."
+
+"I have great hope in his office taking him away.  How was it with
+them to-night?"
+
+"What I should call arrant coquetry, such as even Camilla never
+indulged in.  The girl kept out of his way--was absolutely chill and
+repelling half the evening--throwing herself at the officers from
+Backsworth, till at last Frank obtained a waltz, and after that they
+were perfectly inseparable."
+
+"If she coquets, she will soon disgust him!  Did Cecil enjoy
+herself?"
+
+"Oh yes:  Phil Bowater opened the ball with her, and she dances very
+nicely--so quietly, Mrs. Bowater remarked it.  As to Rosamond, she
+was in her native element--_is_ indeed, for she would not hear of
+coming away when we did."
+
+"And Julius?"
+
+"Standing in a doorway, with others of his kind, absently talking,
+and watching Rosamond out of the tail of his eye.  I say, mother,"
+lowering his voice, "can't you give Rosamond a hint about her dress?
+Cecil says she can't go out with her again like _that_.  Ah," as he
+heard a sigh, "I should not have worried you at night."
+
+"No, you have not.  Tell Cecil I will see about it.  Rosamond will
+take it best from an old woman like me."
+
+Mrs. Poynsett was quite conscious that Cecil had more high breeding
+and refinement than Rosamond, who was essentially the Irish
+Colonel's daughter, and that the cold temperament of the one
+irritated the warm nature of the other.  More than one flash had
+revealed Rosamond's contempt for Cecil's assumptions and intolerance
+for her precision--besides, she was five years older, and had not an
+ideal in Dunstone.
+
+After revolving what form of remonstrance would be least offensive
+during half the night and day, Mrs. Poynsett was not prepared for
+the appearance, about noon, of her son Julius, when, coming to what
+she termed the confidential side of her couch, he asked
+hesitatingly, and colouring, "Mother, I want you to tell me, was
+there anything amiss in Rose's dress last night?"
+
+"You did not perceive--"
+
+"I'm not used to the style of thing.  Is it not the way with what
+you call full dress?"
+
+"To a certain degree--" she began.
+
+He caught her up.  "And here has Cecil been putting my poor Rose
+into a perfect agony!  It is only woman's censorious nonsense, isn't
+it, mother?  Mere folly to think otherwise!  I knew you would set my
+mind at rest; and if you would tell Cecil that you will not have
+Rosamond insulted, it would be as well."
+
+"Stay, Julius," as he was walking off complacently, "I grieve, but I
+must confess that I was going to speak to Rosamond myself."
+
+He looked very blank.
+
+"Mind, I am certain that it is only an innocent following of what
+she has been brought up to;" and as he signed a sort of hurt
+acquiescence, as if trying to swallow the offence, she added, "When
+do you go out again?"
+
+"Not till Monday, when we dine at Colonel Ross's.  He is an old
+friend of Lord Rathforlane."
+
+"Then I am inclined to let it cool.  Sometimes advice that has been
+resented does its work."
+
+"You don't think the interference justifiable?"
+
+"Not from that quarter."
+
+"And can it be needful to attend to it?"
+
+"My dear Julius, it is not a style of dress I could ever have worn,
+nor have let my daughters have worn, if I had had any."
+
+"Conclusive, that!" said Julius, getting up, more really angered
+with his mother than he had been since his childhood.
+
+However, he conquered himself by the time he had reached the door,
+and came back to say, "I beg your pardon, mother, I know you would
+not say so without need."
+
+"Thank you, my boy!" and he saw tears in her eyes, the first time he
+was conscious of having brought them.  As he bent down to kiss her,
+she rallied, and cheerfully said, "I have no doubt it will all come
+right--Rosamond is too nice not to feel it at once."
+
+No such thing; Rosamond was still furious.  If he disapproved, she
+would submit to him; but he had seen nothing wrong, had he?
+
+"My dear Rose, I told you I was no judge:  you forget what my eyes
+are; and my mother--"
+
+"You have been to your mother?"
+
+"My dear, what could I do?"
+
+"And you think I am going to insult my own mother and sisters to
+please any woman's finical prudish notions'?  Pray what did Mrs.
+Poynsett say?"
+
+The excuse of custom, pleaded by Mrs. Poynsett, only made Rosamond
+fiercer.  She wished she had never come where she was to hear that
+her own mother was no judge of propriety, and her husband could not
+trust her, but must needs run about asking everybody if she were fit
+to be seen.  Such a tempest Julius had never seen outside a back
+street in the garrison town.  There seemed to be nothing she would
+not say, and his attempts at soothing only added to her violence.
+Indeed, there was only one thing which would have satisfied her, and
+that was, that she had been perfectly right, and the whole world
+barbarously wrong; and she was wild with passion at perceiving that
+he had a confidence in his own mother which he could not feel in
+hers.
+
+Nor would he insist that Raymond should force Cecil to apologize.
+"My dear," he said, "don't you know there are things easier to ask
+than to obtain?"
+
+To which Rosamond replied, in another gust, that she would never
+again sit down to table with Cecil until she had apologized for the
+insult, not to herself, she did not care about that, but to the
+mother who had seen her dresses tried on:  Julius must tell Raymond
+so, or take her away to any cottage at once.  She would not stay
+where people blamed mamma and poisoned his mind against her!  She
+believed he cared for them more than for her!
+
+Julius had sympathized far longer with her offended feeling than
+another could have done; but he was driven to assert himself.
+"Nonsense, Rose, you know better," he said, in a voice of
+displeasure; but she pouted forth, "I don't know it.  You believe
+every one against me, and you won't take my part against that nasty
+little spiteful prig!"
+
+"Cecil has behaved very ill to you," said Julius, granting her
+rather over much; "but she is a foolish conceited child, who does
+not deserve that Raymond should be worried about her.  I foresee
+plenty of grievances from her; but, Rosie, we must and will not let
+her come between us and Raymond.  You don't know what a brother he
+has been to me--I hardly think I could have got through my first
+year at school but for him; and I don't think my sweet Rose could
+wish to do me such an ill turn as to stir up a feud with such a
+brother because his wife is provoking."
+
+The luncheon-bell began to sound, and she sobbed out, "There then,
+go down, leave me alone!  Go to them, since you are so fond of them
+all!"
+
+"I don't think you could come down as you are," said Julius,
+gravely; "I will bring you something."
+
+"It would choke me--choke me!" she sobbed out.
+
+Julius knew enough of the De Lancy temperament to be aware that
+words carried them a long way, and he thought solitude would be so
+beneficial, that he summoned resolution to leave her; but he had not
+the face to appear alone, nor offer fictions to excuse her absence,
+so he took refuge in his dressing-room, until he had seen Cecil and
+Anne ride away from the hall door together.
+
+For the two sisters-in-law had held a little indignation meeting,
+and Rosamond's misdemeanour had so far drawn them together, that
+Cecil had offered to take Anne to see the working party, and let her
+assist thereat.
+
+The coast being clear, Julius went down, encountering nothing worse
+than the old butler, who came in while he was cutting cold beef, and
+to whom he said, "Lady Rosamond is rather knocked up; I am going to
+take her something up-stairs."
+
+Jenkins received this as the result of a dance, but much wanted to
+fetch a tray, which Julius refused, and set off with an ale-glass in
+one hand, and in the other the plates with the beef and appliances,
+Jenkins watching in jealous expectation of a catastrophe, having no
+opinion of Mr. Julius's powers as a waiter.  He was disappointed.
+The downfall was deferred till the goal was reached, and was then
+most salutary, for Rosamond sprang to pick up the knife and fork,
+laughed at his awkwardness, refused to partake without him, produced
+implements from her travelling-bag, and was as merry as she had been
+miserable.
+
+Not a word on the feud was uttered; and the pair walked down to the
+village, where she was exemplary, going into all those more
+distasteful parts of her duties there, which she sometimes shirked.
+
+And on her return, finding her long-expected letter from Miss
+M'Kinnon awaiting her, she forgot all offences in her ardour to
+indoctrinate everybody with the hopes it gave of affording Mrs.
+Poynsett a change of room, if not even greater variety.
+Unfortunately, this eagerness was not met with a corresponding
+fervour.  There was in the household the acquiescence with long-
+established invalidism, that sometimes settles down and makes a
+newcomer's innovations unwelcome.  Raymond had spoken to the old
+doctor, who had been timid and discouraging; Susan resented the
+implication that the utmost had not been done for her dear mistress;
+and Mrs. Poynsett herself, though warmly grateful for Rosamond's
+affection, was not only nervously unwilling to try experiments, but
+had an instinctive perception that there was one daughter-in-law to
+whom her increased locomotion would scarcely be welcome, and by no
+means wished to make this distaste evident to Raymond.  Cecil would
+not have been so strong against the risk and imprudence, if her
+wishes had been the other way.  Moreover, she had been warned off
+from interference with the Rector's wife in the village, and she did
+not relish Rosamond's making suggestions as to her province, as she
+considered the house--above all, when she viewed that lady as in a
+state of disgrace.  It was nothing less than effrontery; and Cecil
+became stiffer and colder than ever.  She demanded of her mother-in-
+law whether there had been any promise of amendment.
+
+"Oh!  Julius will see to all that," said Mrs. Poynsett.
+
+"It is a woman's question," returned Cecil.
+
+"Not entirely."
+
+"Fancy a clergyman's wife!  It Mrs. Venn had appeared in that way at
+Dunstone!"
+
+"You would have left it to Mr. Venn!  My dear, the less said the
+sooner mended."
+
+Cecil was silenced, but shocked, for she was far too young and
+inexperienced to understand that indecorous customs complied with as
+a matter of course, do not necessarily denote lack of innate
+modesty--far less, how they could be confounded with home
+allegiance; and as to Anne, poor Rosamond was, in her eyes, only too
+like the ladies who impeded Christiana on her outset.
+
+So her ladyship retreated into languid sleepy dignity towards both
+her sisters-in-law; and on Monday evening showed herself, for a
+moment, more decolletee, if possible, than before.  Mrs. Poynsett
+feared lest Julius were weak in this matter; but at night she had a
+visit from him.
+
+"Mother," he said, "it will not happen again.  Say no more."
+
+"I am only too thankful."
+
+"What do you think settled it?  No less than Lady Tyrrell's
+admiration."
+
+"What could she have said?"
+
+"I can't make out.  Rose was far too indignant to be comprehensible,
+when she told me on the way home; but there was something about
+adopting the becoming, and a repetition of--of some insolent
+praise."  And his mother felt his quiver of suppressed wrath.  "If
+Rose had been what that woman took her for, she would have been
+delighted," he continued; "but--"
+
+"It was horrible to her!" said his mother.  "And to you.  Yes, I
+knew it would right itself, and I am glad nothing passed about it
+between us."
+
+"So am I; she quite separates you from Cecil and Anne, and indeed
+all her anger is with Lady Tyrrell.  She will have it there was
+malice in inciting her to shock old friends and annoy you--a sort of
+attempt to sympathize her into opposition."
+
+"Which had a contrary effect upon a generous nature."
+
+"Exactly!  She thinks nothing too bad for that woman, and declares
+she is a serpent."
+
+"That's dear Rosamond's anger; but I imagine that when I occur to
+Camilla's mind, it is as the obstructive old hag, who once stood in
+her way; and so, without any formed designs, whatever she says of me
+is coloured by that view."
+
+"Quite possible; and I am afraid the sister is just such another.
+She seems quite to belong to Mrs. Duncombe's set.  I sat next her at
+dinner, and tried to talk to her, but she would only listen to that
+young Strangeways."
+
+"Strangeways!  I wonder if that is Susan Lorimer's son?"
+
+"Probably, for his Christian name is Lorimer."
+
+"I knew her rather well as a girl.  She was old Lord Lorimer's
+youngest daughter, and we used to walk in the Square gardens
+together; but I did not see much of her after I married; and after a
+good while, she married a man who had made a great fortune by
+mining.  I wonder what her son is like?"
+
+"He must be the man, for he is said to be the millionaire of the
+regiment.  Just the match that Lady Tyrrell would like."
+
+"Ah! that's well," said Mrs. Poynsett.
+
+"From your point of view," said Julius, smiling.
+
+"If he will only speak out before it has had time to go deep with
+Frank!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+Cold Heart
+
+
+At that very moment the two sisters in question were driving home in
+the opposite corners of the carriage in the dark.
+
+"Really, Lenore," was Lady Tyrrell saying, "you are a very
+impracticable girl."
+
+There was a little low laugh in answer.
+
+"What blast has come and frozen you up into ice?" the elder sister
+added caressingly; but as she felt for Eleonora's hand in the dark,
+she obtained nothing but the cold handle of a fan.  "That's just
+it!" she said, laughing; "hard ivory, instead of flesh and blood."
+
+"I can't help it!" was the answer.
+
+"But why not?  I'm sure you had admiration enough to turn any girl's
+head."
+
+No answer.
+
+Lady Tyrrell renewed her address still more tenderly--"Lenore,
+darling, it is quite needful that you should understand your
+position."
+
+"I am afraid I understand it only too well," came in a smothered
+voice.
+
+"It may be very painful, but it ought to be made clear before you
+how you stand.  You know that my father was ruined--there's no word
+for it but ruined."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He had to give up the property to the creditors, and live on an
+allowance."
+
+"I know that."
+
+"And, of course, I can't bear speaking of it; but the house is
+really let to me.  I have taken it as I might any other house to
+let."
+
+"Yes," again assented Eleonora.
+
+"And do you know why?"
+
+"You said it was for the sake of the old home and my father!" said
+the girl, with a bitter emphasis on the _said_.
+
+"So it was!  It was to give you the chance of redeeming it, and
+keeping it in the family.  It is to be sold, you know, as soon as
+you are of age, and can give your consent.  I can't buy it.  Mine is
+only a jointure, a life income, and you know that you might as well
+think of Mary buying Golconda; but you--you--with such beauty as
+yours--might easily make a connection that would save it."
+
+There was only a choked sound.
+
+"I know you feel the situation painfully, after having been mistress
+so long."
+
+"Camilla, you _know_ it is not that!"
+
+"Ah, my dear, I can see farther than you avow.  You can't marry till
+you are twenty-one, you know; but you might be very soon engaged,
+and then we should see our way.  It only depends on yourself.
+Plenty of means, and no land to tie him down, ready to purchase and
+to settle down.  It would be the very thing; and I see you are a
+thoroughly sensible girl, Lena."
+
+"Indeed!  I am not even sensible enough to know who is to be this
+purchaser."
+
+"Come, Lena, don't be affected.  Why! he was the only poor creature
+you were moderately gracious to."
+
+"I! what do you mean?"
+
+Lady Tyrrell laughed again.
+
+"Oh!" in a tone of relief, "I can explain all that to you.  All the
+Strangeways family were at Rockpier the winter before you came, and
+I made great friends with Margaret Strangeways, the eldest sister.
+I wanted very much to hear about her, for she has had a great deal
+of illness and trouble, and I had not ventured to write to her."
+
+"Oh! was that the girl young Debenham gave up because her mother
+worried him so incessantly, and who went into a Sisterhood?"
+
+"It was she who broke it off.  She found he had been forced into it
+by his family, and was really attached elsewhere.  I never knew the
+rights of it till I saw the brother to-night."
+
+"Very praiseworthy family confidence!"
+
+"Camilla, you know I object to that tone."
+
+"So do most young ladies, my dear--at least by word."
+
+"And once for all, you need have no fancies about Mr. Lorimer
+Strangeways.  I am civil to him, of course, for Margaret's sake; and
+Lady Susan was very kind to me; but if there were nothing else
+against him, he is entirely out of the question, for I know he runs
+horses and bets on them."
+
+"So does everybody, more or less."
+
+"And you! you, Camilla, after what the turf has cost us, can wish me
+to encourage a man connected with it."
+
+"My dear Lena, I know you had a great shock, which made the more
+impression because you were such a child; but you might almost as
+well forswear riding, as men who have run a few horses, or staked a
+few thousands.  Every young man of fortune has done so in his turn,
+just by way of experiment--as a social duty as often as not."
+
+"Let them," said Eleonora, "as long as I have nothing to do with
+them."
+
+"What was that pretty French novel--Sybille, was it?--where the
+child wanted to ride on nothing but swans?  You will be like her,
+and have to condescend to ordinary mortals."
+
+"She did not.  She died.  And, Camilla, I would far rather die than
+marry a betting man."
+
+"A betting man, who regularly went in for it!  You little goose, to
+think that I would ask you to do that!  As you say we have had
+enough of that!  But to renounce every man who has set foot on a
+course, or staked a pair of gloves, is to renounce nine out of ten
+of the world one lives in."
+
+"I do renounce them.  Camilla, remember that my mind is made up for
+ever, and that nothing shall ever induce me to marry a man who
+meddles with the evils of races."
+
+"Meddles with the evils?  I understand, my dear Lena."
+
+"A man who makes a bet," repeated Eleonora.
+
+"We shall see," was her ladyship's light answer, in contrast to the
+grave tones; "no rules are without exceptions, and I only ask for
+_one_."
+
+"I shall make none."
+
+"I confess I thought you were coming to your senses; you have been
+acting so wisely and sensibly ever since you came home, about that
+young Frank Charnock."
+
+Lady Tyrrell heard a little rustle, but could not see that it was
+the clasping of two hands over a throbbing heart.  "I am very glad
+you are reasonable enough to keep him at a distance.  Poor boy, it
+was all very well to be friendly with him when we met him in a place
+like Rockpier, and you were both children; but you are quite right
+not to let it go on.  It would be mere madness."
+
+"For him, yes," murmured the girl.
+
+"And even more so for you.  Why, if he had any property worth
+speaking of, it would be a wretched thing to marry into that family!
+I am sure I pity those three poor girls!  Miles's wife looks
+perfectly miserable, poor thing, and the other two can't conceal the
+state of things.  She is just the sort of woman who cannot endure a
+daughter-in-law."
+
+"I thought I heard Lady Rosamond talking very affectionately of
+her."
+
+"Very excitedly, as one who felt it her duty to stand up for her
+out-of-doors, whatever she may do indoors.  I saw victory in those
+plump white shoulders, which must have cost a battle; but whatever
+Lady Rosamond gains, will make it all the worse for the others.  No,
+Eleonora, I have known Mrs. Poynsett's rancour for many years, and I
+would wish no one a worse lot than to be her son's fiancee, except
+to be his wife."
+
+"She did not seem to object to these marriages."
+
+"The sons took her by surprise.  Besides, Raymond's was the very
+parti mothers seek out for their sons.  Depend upon it, she sent him
+off with her blessing to court the unexceptionable cousin with the
+family property.  Poor Raymond, he is a dutiful son, and he has done
+the deed; but, if I am not much mistaken the little lady is made of
+something neither mother nor son is prepared for, and he has not
+love enough to tame her with."
+
+"That may be seen at a glance.  He can't help it, poor fellow; he
+would have had it if he could, like anything else that is proper."
+
+There was a moment's silence; then the exclamation, "Just look
+there!"
+
+One of the hats was nodding on the box in a perilous manner.
+
+"It is _only_ James," said Lady Tyrrell; "as long as it is not the
+coachman, it matters the less.  There's no danger."
+
+"You will not keep him, though!"
+
+"I don't know.  He is much the best looking and handiest of the men;
+and your page, Master Joshua, is no great acquisition yet."
+
+"I wish you would not call him mine; I wish you would send him back
+to his grandmother.  I can't bear his being among those men."
+
+"Very complimentary to my household!  They are not a bit worse than
+the company he came from!  You don't believe in rural simplicity,
+eh?"
+
+"I believe that taking that boy from his home makes us responsible."
+
+"And do I hinder you from catechizing him to your heart's content?
+or sending him to the school of design?"
+
+Again Eleonora was silent.  Perhaps the balancing of the footman's
+head occupied her mind.  At any rate, no more was said till the
+sisters had reached their home.  Then, at the last moment, when
+there was no time left for a reply, Eleonora cleared and steadied
+her voice, and said, "Camilla, understand two things for truth's
+sake.  First, I mean what I say.  Nothing shall ever induce me to
+marry a man who bets.  Next, I never have forgotten Frank Charnock
+for one moment.  If I have been cold and distant to him, it is
+because I will not draw him near me to be cruelly scorned and
+disappointed!"
+
+"I don't mind the why, if the effect is the same," were Lady
+Tyrrell's last words, as the door opened.
+
+Eleonora's little white feet sped quickly up the steps, and with a
+hasty good night, she sped across the hall, but paused at the door.
+"Papa must not be disappointed," she whispered to herself, and
+dashed her hand over her eyes; and at the moment the lock turned,
+and a gray head appeared, with a mighty odour of smoke.  "Ah!  I
+thought my little Lena would not pass me by!  Have you had a
+pleasant party, my dear?  Was young Strangeways there?"
+
+She had nestled in his arms, and hoped to avoid notice by keeping
+her head bent against him, as she hastily responded to his
+questions; but he detected something.
+
+"Eh?  Camilla been lecturing?  Is that it?  You've not been crying,
+little one?  It is all right, you know!  You and I were jolly enough
+at Rockpier; but it was time we were taken in hand, or you would
+have grown into a regular little nun, among all those black coats."
+
+"I wish I were."
+
+"Nonsense!  You don't know life!  You'll tell another story one of
+these days; and hark childie, when you've married, and saved the old
+place, you'll keep the old room for the old man, and we'll have our
+own way again."
+
+She could but kiss him, and hide her agitation in caresses, ere
+hurrying up the stairs she reached her own rooms, a single bed-
+chamber opening into a more spacious sitting-room, now partially
+lighted by the candles on the toilette-table within.
+
+She flung herself down on a chair beyond the line of light, and
+panted out half aloud, "Oh!  I am in the toils!  Oh for help!  Oh
+for advice!  Oh! if I knew the right!  Am I unfair? am I cold and
+hard and proud?  Is she telling me true?  No, I know she is not--not
+the whole truth, and I don't know what is left out, or what is
+false!  And I'm as bad--making them think I give in and discard
+Frank!  Oh! is that my pride--or that it is too bad to encourage him
+now I know more?  He'll soon scorn me, and leave off--whatever he
+ever thought of me.  She has taken me from all my friends--and she
+will take him away!  No one is left me but papa; and though she
+can't hurt his love, she has got his confidence away, and made him
+join against me!  But that one thing I'll never, never do!"
+
+She started up, and opened a locked purple photograph-album, with
+'In Memoriam' inscribed on it--her hands trembling so that she could
+hardly turn the key.  She turned to the likeness of a young man--a
+painful likeness of a handsome face, where the hard verities of sun-
+painting had refused to veil the haggard trace of early dissipation,
+though the eyes had still the fascinating smile that had made her
+brother Tom, with his flashes of fitful good-nature, the idol of his
+little sister's girlhood.  The deadly shock of his sudden death had
+been her first sorrow; and those ghastly whispers which she had
+heard from the servants in the nursery, and had never forgotten,
+because of the hushed and mysterious manner, had but lately started
+into full force and meaning, on the tongues of the plain-spoken
+poor.
+
+She gazed, and thought of the wrecked life that might have been so
+rich in joys; nay, her tenderness for her father could not hide from
+her how unlike his old age was from that of Mr. Bowater, or of any
+men who had done their service to their generation in all noble
+exertion.  He had always indeed been her darling, her charge; but
+she had never known what it was to look up to him with the fervent
+belief and enthusiasm she had seen in other girls.  To have him
+amused, loitering from reading-room to parade or billiard-room, had
+been all that she aspired to, and only lately had she unwillingly
+awakened to the sense how and why this was--and why the family were
+aliens in their ancestral home.
+
+"And Camilla, who knew all--knew, and lived through the full force
+of the blight and misery--would persuade me that it all means
+nothing, and is a mere amusing trifle!  Trifle, indeed, that breaks
+hearts and leads to despair and self-destruction and dishonour!  No,
+no, no--nothing shall lead me to a gamester! though Frank may be
+lost to me!  He will be! he will be!  We deserve that he should be!
+I deserve it--if family sins fall on individuals--I deserve it!  It
+is better for him--better--better.  And yet, can he forget--any more
+than I--that sunny day--?  Oh! was she luring him on false
+pretences?  What shall I do?  How will it be?  Where is my
+counsellor?  Emily, Emily, why did you die?"
+
+Emily's portrait--calm, sweet, wasted, with grave trustful eyes--was
+in the next page.  The lonely girl turned to it, and gazed, and
+drank in the soothing influence of the countenance that had never
+failed to reply with motherly aid and counsel.  It rested the
+throbbing heart; and presently, with hands clasped and head bent,
+Eleonora Vivian knelt in the little light closet she had fitted as
+an oratory, and there poured out her perplexities and sorrows.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+A Truant
+
+
+Since for your pleasure you came here,
+   You shall go back for mine.--COWPER
+
+"How like Dunstone you have made this room!" said Raymond, entering
+his wife's apartment with a compliment that he knew would be
+appreciated.
+
+Cecil turned round from her piano, to smile and say, "I wish papa
+could see it."
+
+"I hope he will next spring; but he will hardly bring Mrs. Charnock
+home this winter.  I am afraid you are a good deal alone here,
+Cecil.  Is there no one you would like to ask?"
+
+"The Venns," suggested Cecil; "only we do not like them to leave
+home when we are away; but perhaps they would come."
+
+Raymond could not look as if the proposal were a very pleasing one.
+"Have you no young-lady friends?" he asked.
+
+"We never thought it expedient to have intimacies in the
+neighbourhood," said Cecil.
+
+"Well, we shall have Jenny Bowater here in a week or two."
+
+"I thought she was your mother's friend."
+
+"So she is.  She is quite young enough to be yours."
+
+"I do not see anything remarkable about her."
+
+"No, I suppose there is not; but she is a very sensible superior
+person."
+
+"Indeed!  In that commonplace family."
+
+"Poor Jenny has had an episode that removes her from the
+commonplace.  Did you ever hear of poor Archie Douglas?"
+
+"Was not he a good-for-nothing relation of your mother?"
+
+"Not that exactly.  He was the son of a good-for-nothing, I grant,
+whom a favourite cousin had unfortunately married, but he was an
+excellent fellow himself; and when his father died, she had Mrs.
+Douglas to live in that cottage by the Rectory, and sent the boy to
+school with us; then she got him into Proudfoot's office--the
+solicitor at Backsworth, agent for everybody's estates hereabouts.
+Well, there arose an attachment between him and Jenny; the Bowaters
+did not much like it, of course; but they are kind-hearted and good-
+natured, and gave consent, provided Archie got on in his profession.
+It was just at the time when poor Tom Vivian was exercising a great
+deal more influence than was good among the young men in the
+neighbourhood; and George Proudfoot was rather a joke for imitating
+him in every respect--from the colour of his dog-cart to the curl of
+his dog's tail.  I remember his laying a wager, and winning it too,
+that if he rode a donkey with his face to the tail, Proudfoot would
+do the same; but then, Vivian did everything with a grace and
+originality."
+
+"Like his sister."
+
+"And doubly dangerous.  Every one liked him, and we were all more
+together than was prudent.  At last, two thousand pounds of my
+mother's money, which was passing through the Proudfoots' hands,
+disappeared; and at the same time poor Archie fled.  No one who knew
+him could have any reasonable doubt that he did but bear the blame
+of some one else's guilt, most likely that of George Proudfoot; but
+he died a year or two back without a word, and no proof has ever
+been found; and alas! the week after Archie sailed, we saw his name
+in the list of sufferers in a vessel that was burnt.  His mother
+happily had died before all this, but there were plenty to grieve
+bitterly for him; and poor Jenny has been the more like one of
+ourselves in consequence.  He had left a note for Jenny, and she
+always trusted him; and we all of us believe that he was innocent."
+
+"I can't think how a person can go about as usual, or ever get over
+such a thing as that."
+
+"Perhaps she hasn't," said Raymond, with a little colour on his
+brown cheek.  "But I'm afraid I can't make those visits with you to-
+day.  I am wanted to see the plans for the new town-hall at
+Wil'sbro'.  Will you pick me up there?"
+
+"There would be sure to be a dreadful long waiting, so I will
+luncheon at Sirenwood instead; Lady Tyrrell asked me to come over
+any day."
+
+"Alone?  I think you had better wait for me."
+
+"I can take Frank."
+
+"I should prefer a regular invitation to us both."
+
+"She did not mean to make a formal affair."
+
+"Forms are a protection, and I do not wish for an intimacy there,
+especially on Frank's account."
+
+"It would be an excellent match for Frank."
+
+"Indeed, no; the estate is terribly involved, and there are three
+daughters; besides which, the family would despise a younger son.
+An attachment could only lead to unhappiness now, besides the
+positive harm of unsettling him.  His tutor tells me that as it is
+he is very uneasy about his examination--his mind is evidently
+preoccupied.  No, no, Cecil, don't make the intercourse
+unnecessarily close.  The Vivians have not behaved well to my
+mother, and it is not desirable to begin a renewal.  But you shall
+not lose your ride, Cecil; I'll ask one of the boys to go with you
+to the Beeches, and perhaps I shall meet you there."
+
+"He talks of my lonely life," said Cecil, to herself, "and yet he
+wants to keep me from the only person who really understands me, all
+for some rancorous old prejudice of Mrs. Poynsett's.  It is very
+hard.  There's no one in the house to make a friend of--Rosamond, a
+mere garrison belle; and Anne, bornee and half a dissenter; and as
+soon as I try to make a friend, I am tyrannized over, and this Miss
+Bowater thrust on me."
+
+She was pounding these sentiments into a sonata with great energy,
+when her door re-opened, and Raymond again appeared.  "I am looking
+for two books of Mudie's.  Do you know where they can be?  I can't
+make up the number."
+
+"They are here," said Cecil; "Lanfrey's Vie de Napoleon; but I have
+not finished them."
+
+"The box should have gone ten days ago.  My mother has nothing to
+read, and has been waiting all this time for the next part of
+Middlemarch," said Raymond.
+
+"She said there was no hurry," murmured Cecil.
+
+"No doubt she did; but we must not take advantage of her
+consideration.  Reading is her one great resource, and we must so
+contrive that your studies shall not interfere with it."
+
+He waited for some word of regret, but none came; and he was obliged
+to add, "I must deprive you of the books for the present, for she
+must not be kept waiting any longer; but I will see about getting
+them for you in some other way.  I must take the box to the station
+in the dog-cart."  He went without a word from her.  It was an
+entirely new light to her that her self-improvement could possibly
+be otherwise than the first object with everyone.  At home, father
+and mother told one another complacently what Cecil was reading, and
+never dreamt of obstructing the virtuous action.  Were her studies
+to be sacrificed to an old woman's taste for novels?
+
+Cecil had that pertinacity of nature that is stimulated to
+resistance by opposition; and she thought of the Egyptian campaign,
+and her desire to understand the siege of Acre.  Then she
+recollected that Miss Vivian had spoken of reading the book, and
+this decided her.  "I'll go to Sirenwood, look at it, and order it.
+No one can expect me to submit to have no friends abroad nor books
+at home.  Besides, it is all some foolish old family feud; and what
+a noble thing it will be for my resolution and independence to force
+the two parties to heal the breach, and bridge it over by giving
+Miss Vivian to Frank."
+
+In this mood she rang the bell, and ordered her horses; not however
+till she had reason to believe the dog-cart on the way down the
+avenue.  As she came down in her habit, she was met by Frank,
+returning from his tutor.
+
+"Have I made a mistake, Cecil!  I thought we were to go out together
+this afternoon!"
+
+"Yes; but Raymond was wanted at Willansborough, and I am going to
+lunch at Sirenwood.  I want to borrow a book."
+
+"Oh, very well, I'll come, if you don't mind.  Sir Harry asked me to
+drop in and look at his dogs."
+
+This was irresistible; and Frank decided on riding the groom's
+horse, and leaving him to conduct Anne to the rendezvous in the
+afternoon--for Charlie had been at Sandhurst for the last week--
+running in first to impart the change of scheme to her, as she was
+performing her daily task of reading to his mother.
+
+He did so thus:  "I say, Anne, Cecil wants to go to Sirenwood first
+to get a book, so Lee will bring you to meet us at the Beeches at
+2.30."
+
+"Are you going to luncheon at Sirenwood?" asked Mrs. Poynsett.
+
+"Yes; Cecil wants to go," said the dutiful younger brother.
+
+"I wish you would ask Cecil to come in.  Raymond put himself into
+such a state of mind at finding me reading Madame de Sevigne, that I
+am afraid he carried off her books summarily, though I told him I
+was glad of a little space for my old favourites."
+
+Cecil was, however, mounted by the time Frank came out, and they
+cantered away together, reaching the portico of Sirenwood in about
+twenty minutes.
+
+Cecil had never been in the house before, having only left her card,
+though she had often met the sisters.  She found herself in a
+carpeted hall, like a supplementary sitting-room, where two
+gentlemen had been leaning over the wide hearth.  One, a handsome
+benignant-looking old man, with a ruddy face and abundant white
+whiskers, came forward with a hearty greeting.  "Ah! young Mrs.
+Poynsett!  Delighted to see you!--Frank Charnock, you're come in
+good time; we are just going down to see the puppies before
+luncheon.  Only I'll take Mrs. Poynsett to the ladies first.
+Duncombe, you don't know Mrs. Raymond Poynsett--one must not say
+senior bride, but the senior's bride.  Is that right?"
+
+"No papa," said a bright voice from the stairs, "you haven't it at
+all right; Mrs. Charnock Poynsett, if you please--isn't it?"
+
+"I believe so," replied Cecil.  "Charnock always seems my right
+name."
+
+"And you have all the right to retain it that Mrs. Poynsett had to
+keep hers," said Lady Tyrrell, as they went up-stairs to her
+bedroom.  "How is she?"
+
+"As usual, thank you; always on the sofa."
+
+"But managing everything from it?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"Never was there such a set of devoted sons, models for the
+neighbourhood."
+
+Cecil felt a sense of something chiming in with her sources of
+vexation, but she only answered, "They are passionately fond of
+her."
+
+"Talk of despotism!  Commend me to an invalid!  Ah! how delightfully
+you contrive to keep your hair in order!  I am always scolding
+Lenore for coming in dishevelled, and you look so fresh and compact!
+Here is my sanctum.  You'll find Mrs. Duncombe there.  She drove
+over in the drag with her husband on their way to Backsworth.  I am
+so glad you came, there is so much to talk over."
+
+"If our gentlemen will give us time," said Mrs. Duncombe; "but I am
+afraid your senator will not be as much absorbed in the dogs as my
+captain."
+
+"I did not come with my husband," said Cecil; "he is gone to
+Willansborough to meet the architect."
+
+"Ah, about the new buildings.  I do hope and trust the opportunity
+will not be wasted, and that the drainage will be provided for."
+
+"You are longing to have a voice there," said Lady Tyrrell,
+laughing.
+
+"I am.  It is pre-eminently a woman's question, and this is a great
+opportunity.  I shall talk to every one.  Little Pettitt, the hair-
+dresser, has some ground there, and he is the most intelligent of
+the tradesmen.  I gave him one of those excellent little hand-bills,
+put forth by the Social Science Committee, on sanitary arrangements.
+I thought of asking you to join us in ordering some down, and never
+letting a woman leave our work-room without one."
+
+"You couldn't do better, I am sure," said Lady Tyrrell; "only,
+what's the use of preaching to the poor creatures to live in good
+houses, when their landlords won't build them, and they must live
+somewhere?"
+
+"Make them coerce the landlords," said Mrs. Duncombe; "that's the
+only way.  Upheave the masses from beneath."
+
+"But that's an earthquake," said Cecil.
+
+"Earthquakes are sometimes wholesome."
+
+"But the process is not so agreeable that we had not rather avert
+it," said Lady Tyrrell.
+
+"All ours at Dunstone are model cottages," said Cecil; "it is my
+father's great hobby."
+
+"Squires' hobbies are generally like the silver trough the lady gave
+her sow," said Mrs. Duncombe; "they come before the poor are
+prepared, and with a spice of the autocrat."
+
+"Come, I won't have you shock Mrs. Charnock Poynsett," said Lady
+Tyrrell.  "You illogical woman!  The poor are to demand better
+houses, and the squires are not to build them!"
+
+"The poor are to be fitly housed, as a matter of right, and from
+their own sense of self-respect," returned Mrs. Duncombe; "not a few
+favourites, who will endure dictation, picked out for the model
+cottage.  It is the hobby system against which I protest."
+
+"Without quite knowing what was conveyed by it in this instance?"
+said Lady Tyrrell.  "I am sure there is nothing I wish more than
+that we had any power of improvement of the cottages here; but
+influence is our only weapon."
+
+"By the bye, Mrs. Poynsett," continued Mrs. Duncombe, "will you give
+a hint to Mrs. Miles Charnock that it will never do to preach to the
+women at the working-room?  I don't mean holding forth," she added,
+seeing Cecil's look of amazement; "but improving the occasion,
+talking piously, giving tracts, and so forth."
+
+"I thought you gave sanitary tracts!" said Lady Tyrrell.
+
+"That is quite different."
+
+"I doubt whether the women would see the distinction.  A little book
+_is_ a tract to them."
+
+"I would abstain rather than let our work get a goody reputation for
+indoctrinating sectarianism.  It would be all up with us; we might
+as well keep a charity school."
+
+"I don't think the women dislike it," said Cecil.
+
+"Most likely they think it the correct thing, the grain which they
+must swallow with our benefits; but for that very reason it injures
+the whole tone, and prevents them learning independence.  Put it in
+that light; I know you can."
+
+"I don't think Anne would understand," said Cecil, somewhat
+flattered.
+
+"I doubt whether there are three women in the neighbourhood who
+would," said Lady Tyrrell.
+
+"People always think charity--how I hate the word!--a means of
+forcing their own tenets down the throats of the poor," said Mrs.
+Duncombe.  "And certainly this neighbourhood is as narrow as any I
+ever saw.  Nobody but you and--shall I say the present company?--has
+any ideas.  I wonder how they will receive Clio Tallboys and her
+husband?"
+
+"Ah! you have not heard about them," said Lady Tyrrell.  "Most
+delightful people, whom Mrs. Duncombe met on the Righi.  He is a
+Cambridge professor."
+
+"Taillebois--I don't remember the name," said Cecil, "and we know a
+great many Cambridge men.  We went to a Commencement there."
+
+"Oh, not Cambridge on the Cam! the American Cambridge," said Mrs.
+Duncombe.  "He is a quiet, inoffensive man, great on political
+economy; but his wife is the character.  Wonderfully brilliant and
+original, and such a lecturer!"
+
+"Ladies' lectures _would_ startle the natives," said Lady Tyrrell.
+
+"Besides, the town-hall is lacking," said Mrs. Duncombe; "but when
+the Tallboys come we might arrange a succession of soirees, where
+she might gather her audience."
+
+"But where?" said Lady Tyrrell.  "It would be great fun, and you
+might reckon on me; but where else?  Mrs. Charnock Poynsett has to
+think of la belle mere."
+
+"She has given up the management of all matters of society to me,"
+said Cecil with dignity; "you may reckon on me."
+
+"No hope of the Bowaters, of course," said Mrs. Duncombe.
+
+"Miss Bowater is coming to stay with us," volunteered Cecil.
+
+"To be near that unlucky Life Guardsman manque," said Mrs. Duncombe.
+
+"Come, I'll not have honest Herbert abused," said the other lady.
+"He is the only one of the Bowaters who has any go in him."
+
+"More's the pity, if he can't use it.  Is his sister coming to help
+the Reverend Julius to drill him?"
+
+"On Mrs. Poynsett's account too, I fancy," said Lady Tyrrell; "Jenny
+Bowater is her amateur companion.  Indeed, I believe it was no
+slight disappointment that her sons' appreciation did not quite
+reach the pitch of the mother's."
+
+"Indeed!" asked Mrs. Duncombe; "I thought there had been a foolish
+affair with poor young Douglas."
+
+"Cela n'empeche pas.  By the bye, have you finished Fleurange?"
+
+"Oh, you are quite welcome to it.  It is quite as goody as an
+English tale in one volume."
+
+This opened the way to Cecil's desire to borrow Lanfrey, not
+concealing the reason why; and she was gratified by the full
+sympathy of both ladies, who invited her in self-defence to join in
+their subscription to Rolandi, to which she eagerly agreed, and
+would have paid her subscription at once if there had not been a
+term to be finished off first.
+
+The gong summoned them to luncheon, and likewise brought down Miss
+Vivian, who shook hands rather stiffly, and wore a cold, grave
+manner that did not sit badly on her handsome classical features.
+The countenance was very fine, but of the style to which early youth
+is less favourable than a more mature development; and she was less
+universally admired than was her sister.  Her dress was a dark
+maroon merino, hanging in simple, long, straight folds, and there
+was as little distortion in her coiffure as the most moderate
+compliance with fashion permitted; and this, with a high-bred,
+distinguished deportment, gave an air almost of stern severity.
+This deepened rather than relaxed at the greeting from Frank--who,
+poor fellow! had an uncontrollably wistful eager look in his face, a
+sort of shy entreaty, and was under an incapacity of keeping up a
+conversation with anybody else, while trying to catch the least word
+of hers.
+
+She, however, seemed to have more eyes and ears for her father than
+for any one else, and he evidently viewed her as the darling and
+treasure of his life.  His first question, after performing the
+duties of a host, was, "Well, my little Lenore, what have you been
+doing?"
+
+"The old story, papa," raising her clear, sweet voice to reach his
+rather deaf ears.
+
+"Got on with your drawing?--The child is competing with a club, you
+must know."
+
+"Not exactly, papa:  it is only a little society that was set on
+foot at Rockpier to help us to improve ourselves."
+
+"What is your subject this month?" Frank asked.
+
+"A branch of blackberries," she answered briefly.
+
+"Ah!" said Lady Tyrrell, "I saw your pupil bringing in a delicious
+festoon--all black and red fruit and crimson and purple leaves.  He
+is really a boy of taste; I think he will do you credit."
+
+"The new Joshua Reynolds," said Frank, glad of an excuse to turn
+towards Eleonora.  "Rosamond mentioned her discovery."
+
+"You might have seen him just now figuring as Buttons," said Lady
+Tyrrell.  "Degradation of art, is it not?  But it was the only way
+to save it.  Lenore is teaching him; and if his talent prove worth
+it we may do something with him.  Any way, the produce of native
+genius will be grand material for the bazaar."
+
+"Card-board prettinesses!" said Mrs. Duncombe; "you spoil him with
+them; but that you'll do any way--make him fit for nothing but a
+flunkey."
+
+"Unappreciated zeal!" said Lady Tyrrell, glancing at her sister, who
+flushed a little, and looked the more grave.
+
+"Eh, Lenore," said her father, "wasn't it to please you that Camilla
+made me take your pet to make havoc of my glasses?"
+
+"You meant it so, dear papa," said Eleonora, calling up a smile that
+satisfied the old gentleman.  "It was very kind in you."
+
+Fresh subjects were started, and on all the talk was lively and
+pleasant, and fascinated Cecil, not from any reminiscence of
+Dunstone--for indeed nothing could be more unlike the tone that
+prevailed there:  but because it was so different from that of
+Compton Poynsett, drifting on so unrestrainedly, and touching so
+lightly on all topics.
+
+By the close of the meal, rain had set in, evidently for the
+afternoon.  Frank offered to ride home, and send the carriage for
+Cecil; but the Duncombes proposed to take her and drop her at home;
+and to this she consented, rather to Frank's dismay, as he thought
+of their coach appearing at his mother's door.
+
+Lady Tyrrell took her up to resume her hat; and on the way, moved by
+distaste to her double surname, and drawn on by a fresh access of
+intimacy, she begged to be called Cecil--a privilege of which she
+had been chary even in her maiden days; but the caressing manner had
+won her heart, and spirit of opposition to the discouragement at
+home did the rest.
+
+The request was reciprocated with that pensive look which was so
+touching.  "I used to be Camilla to all the neighbourhood, and here
+I find myself--miles'--no, leagues further off--banished to
+Siberia."
+
+"How unjust and unkind!" cried Cecil.
+
+"My dear, you have yet to learn the gentle uncharitableness of
+prejudice.  It is the prevailing notion that my married life was a
+career of dissipation.  Ah! if they only knew!"
+
+"The drag is round," said Mrs. Duncombe's voice at the door, in all
+its decisive abruptness, making both start.
+
+"Just ready," called Lady Tyrrell; adding, in a lower tone, "Ah! she
+is startling, but she is genuine!  And one must take new friends
+when the old are chilly.  She is the only one--"
+
+Cecil's kiss was more hearty than any she had given at Compton, and
+she descended; but just as she came to the door, and was only
+delaying while Frank and Captain Duncombe were discussing the merits
+of the four horses, the Compton carriage appeared in the approach,
+and Raymond's head within.  Lady Tyrrell looked at Cecil, and saw it
+was safe to make a little gesture with the white skin of her fair
+brow, expressing unutterable things.
+
+Mrs. Duncombe lost no time in asking if any steps were being taken
+for improving the drainage; to which Raymond replied, "No, that was
+not the business in hand.  This was the architecture of the town-
+hall."
+
+"Splendour of municipality above, and fever festering below," said
+Mrs. Duncombe.
+
+"Wilsborough is not unhealthy," said Raymond.
+
+She laughed ironically.
+
+"The corporation have been told that they have an opportunity," said
+Raymond; "but it takes long to prepare people's minds to believe in
+the expedience of such measures.  If Whitlock could be elected mayor
+there would be some chance, but I am afraid they are sure to take
+Truelove; and as things are at Wilsborough, we must move all at once
+or not at all.  Individual attempts would do more harm than good."
+
+"Ah! you fear for your seat!" said the plain-spoken lady.
+
+Raymond only chose to answer by a laugh, and would not pursue the
+subject so treated.  He was politeness itself to all; but he
+withstood Lady Tyrrell's earnest entreaties to come in and see some
+Florentine photographs, growing stiffer and graver each moment,
+while his wife waxed more wrathful at the treatment which she knew
+was wounding her friend, and began almost to glory in having
+incurred his displeasure herself.  Indeed, this feeling caused the
+exchange of another kiss between the ladies before Sir Harry handed
+Cecil into the carriage, and Raymond took the yellow paper books
+that were held out to her.
+
+Looking at the title as they drove off, he said quietly, "I did not
+mean to deprive you, Cecil; I had ordered Lanfrey from Bennet for
+you."
+
+She was somewhat abashed, but was excited enough to answer, "Thank
+you.  I am going to join Lady Tyrrell and Mrs. Duncombe in a
+subscription to Rolandi's."
+
+He started, and after a pause of a few moments said gently, "Are you
+sure that Mr. and Mrs. Charnock would like to trust your choice of
+foreign books to Mrs. Duncombe?"
+
+Taking no notice of the point of this question, she replied, "If it
+is an object to exchange books at home faster than I can read them
+properly, I must look for a supply elsewhere."
+
+"You had better subscribe alone," he replied, still without manifest
+provocation.
+
+"That would be uncivil now."
+
+"I take that upon myself."
+
+Wherewith there came a silence; while Cecil swelled as she thought
+of the prejudice against her friend, and Raymond revolved all he had
+ever heard about creatures he knew so little as women, to enable him
+to guess how to deal with this one.  How reprove so as not to make
+it worse?  Ought not his silent displeasure to suffice?  And in such
+musings the carriage reached home.
+
+It had been an untoward day.  He had been striving hard against the
+stream at Willansborough.  The drainage was not only scouted as an
+absurd, unreasonable, and expensive fancy, but the architect whom he
+had recommended, in the hope that he would insist on ground-work
+which might bring on the improvement, had been rejected in favour of
+a kinsman of Mr. Briggs, the out-going mayor, a youth of the lower
+walk of the profession--not the scholar and gentleman he had
+desired, for the tradesman intellect fancied such a person would be
+expensive and unmanageable.
+
+Twin plans for church and town-hall had been produced, which to
+Raymond's taste savoured of the gimcrack style, but which infinitely
+delighted all the corporation; and where he was the only cultivated
+gentleman, except the timid Vicar, his reasonings were all in vain.
+The plan was accepted for the town-hall, and the specifications were
+ordered to be made out for competition, and a rate decided on.  The
+church was to wait for subscription and bazaar; the drains, for
+reason in Wil'sbro', or for the hope of the mayoralty of Mr.
+Whitlock, a very intelligent and superior linendraper.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+Rosamond's Apologue
+
+
+Pray, sir, do you laugh at me?--Title of Old Caricature
+
+Was Cecil's allegiance to Dunstone, or was it to the heiress of
+Dunstone?  Tests of allegiance consist in very small matters, and it
+is not always easy to see the turning-point.  Now Cecil had always
+stood on a pinnacle at Dunstone, and she had found neither its
+claims nor her own recognized at Compton.  One kind of allegiance
+would have remained on the level, and retained the same standard,
+whether accepted or not.  Another would climb on any pinnacle that
+any one would erect for the purpose, and become alienated from
+whatever interfered with such eminence.
+
+So as nobody seemed so willing to own Cecil's claims to county
+supremacy as Lady Tyrrell, her bias was all towards Sirenwood; and
+whereas such practices as prevailed at Dunstone evidently were
+viewed as obsolete and narrow by these new friends, Cecil was
+willing to prove herself superior to them, and was far more
+irritated than convinced when her husband appealed to her former
+habits.
+
+The separation of the welfare of body and soul had never occurred to
+the beneficence of Dunstone, and it cost Cecil a qualm to accept it;
+but she could not be a goody in the eyes of Sirenwood; and besides,
+she was reading some contemporary literature, which made it plain
+that any religious instruction was a most unjustifiable interference
+with the great law, "Am I my brother's keeper?" and so, when she met
+Anne with a handful of texts neatly written out in printing letters,
+she administered her warning.
+
+Cecil and Anne had become allies to a certain extent, chiefly
+through their joint disapproval of Rosamond, not to say of Julius;
+and the order was so amazing that Anne did not at first take it in;
+and when she understood that all mention of religion was forbidden,
+she said, "I do not think I ought to yield in this."
+
+"Surely," said Cecil, "there is no connection between piety and
+cutting out."
+
+"I don't know," said Anne; "but it does not seem to me to be right
+to go on with a work where my Master's Name is forbidden."
+
+"Religion ought never to be obtruded," said Cecil.
+
+"The Word ought to flavour everything, in season or out of season,"
+said Anne, thoughtfully.
+
+"Oh! that's impossible.  It's your narrow view.  If you thrust
+preaching into everything, we can never work together."
+
+"Oh, then," said Anne, quickly, "I must give it up!"  And she turned
+away with a rapid step, to carry her texts back to her room.
+
+"Anne!" called Cecil, "I did not mean _that_!"
+
+Anne paused for a moment, looked over the baluster, and repeated
+firmly, "No, Cecil; it would be denying Christ to work where His
+Name is forbidden."
+
+Perhaps there was something in the elevation and the carved rail
+that gave the idea of a pulpit, for Cecil felt as if she was being
+preached at, and turned her back, indignant and vexed at what she
+had by no means intended to incur--the loss of such a useful
+assistant as she found in Anne.
+
+"Such nonsense!" she said to herself, as she crossed the hall alone,
+there meeting with Rosamond, equipped for the village.  "Is not Anne
+going to-day?" she said, as she saw the pony-carriage at the door.
+
+"No.  It is so vexatious.  She is so determined upon preaching to
+the women, that I have been obliged to put a stop to it."
+
+"Indeed!  I should not have thought it of poor Anne; but no one can
+tell what those semi-dissenters think right."
+
+"When she declared she ought to do it in season or out of season,
+what was one to do?" said Cecil.
+
+"I thought that was for clergymen," said Rosamond, hitting the right
+nail on the head in her ignorance, as so often happened.
+
+"She sees no difference," said Cecil.  "Shall I drive you down?" she
+added graciously, according to the fashion of uniting with one
+sister-in-law against the other; and Rosamond not only accepted, but
+asked to be taken on to Willansborough, to buy a birthday present
+for her brother Terry, get stamps for an Indian letter, and perform
+a dozen more commissions that seemed to arise in her mind with the
+opportunity.  Her two brothers were to spend the Christmas holidays
+with her, and she was in high spirits, and so communicative about
+them that she hardly observed how little interest Cecil took in
+Terry's achievements.
+
+"Who is that," she presently asked, "with those red-haired children?
+It looked like Miss Vivian's figure."
+
+"I believe it was.  Julius and I often see her walking about the
+lanes; but she passes like--like a fire-flaught, whatever that is--
+just bows, and hardly ever speaks."
+
+"She is a strange girl," said Cecil.  "Lady Tyrrell says she cannot
+draw her into any of her interests, but she will go her own way."
+
+"Like poor Anne?"
+
+"No, not out of mere moping and want of intellect, like Anne.  But
+Lady Tyrrell says she feels for her; she was brought a great deal
+too forward, and was made quite mistress of the house at Rockpier,
+being her father's darling and all, and now it is trying to her,
+though it is quite wholesome, to be in her proper place.  It is a
+pity she is so bitter over it, and flies off her own way."
+
+"That boy!" said Rosamond; "I hope she does something for his good."
+
+"She teaches him, I believe; but there's another instance of her
+strange ways.  She was absolutely vexed when Lady Tyrrell took him
+into the house, though he was her protege, only because it was not
+done in _her_ way.  It is a great trial to Camilla."
+
+"I could fancy a reason for that," said Rosamond.  "Julius does not
+like the tone of the household at all."  But she added hastily, "Who
+could those children be?  They did not look _quite_ like poor
+children."
+
+"Ah! she is always taking up with some odd person in her own away,"
+said Cecil.  "But here we are.  Will you drive on to the hotel, or
+get out here?"
+
+When, at the end of two hours, the sisters-in-law met at the work-
+room, and Rosamond had taken a survey of the row of needle-women,
+coming up one by one to give their work, be paid and dismissed,
+there was a look of weariness and vexation on Cecil's face.  She had
+found it less easy to keep order and hinder gossip, and had hardly
+known how to answer when that kind lady, Mrs. Miles Charnock, had
+been asked after; but she would have scorned to allow that she had
+missed her assistant, and only politely asked how Rosamond had sped.
+
+"Oh! excellently.  People were so well advised as to be out, so I
+paid off all my calls."
+
+"You did not return your calls without Julius?"
+
+"There's nothing he hates so much.  I would not have dragged him
+with me on any account."
+
+"I think it is due to one's self."
+
+"Ah! but then I don't care what is due to myself.  I saw a friend of
+yours, Cecil."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Mrs. Duncombe," said Rosamond.  "I went to Pettitt's--the little
+perfumer, you know, that Julius did so much for at the fire; and
+there she was, leaning on the counter, haranguing him confidentially
+upon setting an example with sanatory measures."
+
+"Sanitary," corrected Cecil; "sanitas is health, sano to cure.
+People never know the difference."
+
+"Certainly I don't," said Rosamond.  "It must be microscopic!"
+
+"Only it shows the difference between culture and the reverse," said
+Cecil.
+
+"Well, you know, I'm the reverse," said Rosamond, leaning sleepily
+back, and becoming silent; but Cecil was too anxious for
+intelligence to let her rest, and asked on what Mrs. Duncombe was
+saying.
+
+"I am not quite sure--she was stirring up his public spirit, I
+think, about the drainage; and they were both of them deploring the
+slackness and insensibility of the corporation, and canvassing for
+Mr. Whitlock, as I believe.  It struck me as a funny subject for a
+lady, but I believe she does not stick at trifles."
+
+"No real work can be carried out by those who do," said Cecil.
+
+"Oh!" added Rosamond, "I met Mrs. and Miss Bowater, and they desired
+me to say that Jenny can't come till the dinner-party on the 20th,
+and then they will leave her."
+
+"How cool to send a message instead of writing!"
+
+"Oh! she has always been like one of themselves, like a sister to
+them all."
+
+"I can't bear that sort of people."
+
+"What sort?"
+
+"Who worm themselves in."
+
+"Miss Bowater could have no occasion for worming.  They must be
+quite on equal terms."
+
+"At any rate, she was only engaged to their poor relation."
+
+"What poor relation?  Tell me!  Who told you?"
+
+"Raymond.  It was a young attorney--a kind of cousin of the Poynsett
+side, named Douglas."
+
+"What?  There's a cross in the churchyard to Elizabeth Douglas,
+daughter of Francis Poynsett, and wife of James Douglas, and at the
+bottom another inscription to Archibald Douglas, her son, lost in
+the Hippolyta."
+
+"Yes, that must be the man.  He was flying from England, having been
+suspected of some embezzlement."
+
+"Indeed!  And was Jenny engaged to him?  Julius told me that Mrs.
+Douglas had been his mother's dearest friend, and that this Archie
+had been brought up with them, but he did not say any more."
+
+"Perhaps he did not like having had a cousin in an attorney's
+office.  I am sure I had no notion of such a thing."
+
+Rosamond laughed till she was exhausted at the notion of Julius's
+sharing the fastidious objections she heard in Cecil's voice; and
+then, struck by the sadness of the story, she cried, "And that makes
+them all so fond of Miss Bowater.  Poor girl, what must she not have
+gone through!  And yet how cheerful she does look!"
+
+"People say," proceeded Cecil, unable to resist the impulse to
+acquire a partaker in her half-jealous aversion, "that it was a
+great disappointment that Mrs. Poynsett could not make her sons like
+her as much as she did herself."
+
+"Oh!" cried Rosamond, "how little peace we should have if we always
+heeded what people say!"
+
+"People that know," persisted Cecil.
+
+"Not very wise or very kind people to say so," quoth Rosamond;
+"though, by the bye, the intended sting is happily lost, considering
+that it lies among five."
+
+"Why should you assume a sting?"
+
+"Because I see you are stung, and want to sting me," said Rosamond,
+in so merry a tone that the earnestness was disguised.
+
+"I!  I'm not stung!  What Mrs. Poynsett or Miss Bowater may have
+schemed is nothing to me," said Cecil, with all her childish
+dignity.
+
+"People talk of Irish imagination," said Rosamond in her lazy
+meditative tone.
+
+"Well?" demanded Cecil, sharply.
+
+"Only it is not _my_ Irish imagination that has devised this
+dreadful picture of the artful Jenny and Mrs. Poynsett spinning
+their toils to entrap the whole five brothers.  Come, Cecil, take my
+advice and put it out of your head.  Suppose it were true, small
+blame to Mrs. Poynsett."
+
+"What do you mean?" said Cecil, in a voice of hurt dignity.
+
+"I may mean myself."  And Rosamond's peal of merry laughter was most
+amazing and inexplicable to her companion, who was not sure that she
+was not presuming to laugh at her.
+
+There was a silence, broken at last by Rosamond.  "Cecil, I have
+been tumbled about the world a good deal more than you have, and I
+never found that one got any good by disregarding the warnings of
+the natives.  There's an immense deal in the cat and the cock."
+
+"I do not understand, said Cecil.
+
+Whereupon Rosamond, in a voice as if she were telling the story to a
+small child, began:  "Once upon a time there was a wee bit
+mousiekie, that lived in Giberatie O--that trotted out of her hole
+upon an exploring expedition.  By and by she came scuttling back in
+a state of great trepidation--in fact, horribly nervous.  'Mother,
+mother!' said the little mouse, 'I've seen a hideous monster, with a
+red face, and a voice like a trumpet, and a pair of spurs.'"
+
+"Of course, I know that," broke in Cecil.
+
+"Ah, you haven't heard all.  'I should have died of terror,' said
+the little mouse, 'only that I saw a dear sweet graceful creature,
+with a lovely soft voice, and a smooth coat, and the most beautiful
+eyes, and the most exquisite pathetic expression in her smile; and
+she held out her velvet paw to me, and said, 'Dear little mousiekie-
+pousie, you're the loveliest creature I ever met, quite
+unappreciated in these parts.  That horrid old cock is terribly
+vulgar and commonplace; and never you believe your mother if she
+tells you he is better worth cultivating than one who has such a
+deep genuine love and appreciation of all the excellences of all
+mice, and of you in particular with your dun fur.'"
+
+Rosamond could not for her very life help putting in that word dun;
+and Cecil, who had been driving straight on with her eyes fixed on
+her pony's ears, and rather a sullen expression of forced endurance,
+faced about.  "What you mean by all this I don't know; but if you
+think it applies to me or my friends, you are much mistaken."
+
+"I told you," said Rosamond, with the same languor, looking out
+under her half-shut eyes, "that I apply things to myself.  I've met
+both sorts in my time."
+
+And silence reigned for the rest of the way.  Cecil had read many
+more books, knew much more, and was altogether a far more cultivated
+personage than the Lady Rosamond; but she was not half so ready in
+catching the import of spoken words; and all this time she was by no
+means certain whether all this meant warning or meant mockery,
+though either was equally impertinent, and must be met with the same
+lady-like indifference, which Cecil trusted that she had never
+transgressed.
+
+Neither of them, nor indeed any other living creature, knew of a
+little episode which had occurred about eighteen months previously,
+when Joanna Bowater had been taking care of Mrs Poynsett during
+Raymond's first absence from home after her accident.  Of course he
+took her back to Strawyers as soon as he arrived; and about half-
+way, after a prolonged and unusual silence, he said, "Jenny, I
+believe we know one another's histories pretty well.  It would be a
+great happiness and blessing if you could bring yourself to sink the
+past so far as to take me, and become indeed my mother's daughter.
+Do not answer me in haste.  Think it over, and tell me if it is
+possible."
+
+Jenny let him drive on more than a mile before she spoke; and when
+she did, the tears stood on her cheek, and it was quite an effort
+that her voice was made steady.  "No, Raymond, I am very sorry, but
+it will not do.  Two griefs will not make one joy."
+
+"Yes, they would, to my mother."
+
+"Ah! there it lies!  Indeed, Raymond, I do feel for you all so much,
+especially your dear mother, that I would bring myself to it, if I
+could; but the very thought brings Archie up so vividly before me
+that I cannot!  He has almost seemed to be sitting by me all this
+time.  It seems as though beginning again would kill my right to
+think of him foremost of all."
+
+"I could bear with that and trust to time," said Raymond.  "Think it
+over, Jenny.  I will be candid with you.  The old delusion was too
+strong for any repetition of that kind, as you may see by the lame
+performance I am making now."
+
+Jenny gave a little agitated laugh, and ejaculated, "Dear Raymond!"
+then added, "It is not on your account, but mine."
+
+"But," he added, "my marriage is becoming a necessity, if only for
+my mother's sake; and you stand far before any other woman with me,
+if that would but satisfy you.  I verily believe that in a short
+time we should be just as comfortable together as if we could start
+with more romance."
+
+"I dare say we should, dear Raymond," said Jenny; "but I cannot feel
+that it is the right thing, while I have not _that_ feeling for you
+which overpowers everything else; it seems to me that I ought not to
+give up my place at home.  Papa depends on me a good deal, and they
+both will want me more and more."
+
+"Less than my mother."
+
+"I don't know; and they are my first duty.  I can always come to
+your mother when I am wanted, and I know in your secret soul you
+prefer me on those terms."
+
+He made no answer, only when passing the lodge he said, "Will you
+consider it a little longer, Jenny?"
+
+But this only resulted in a note:--
+
+"DEAR RAYMOND,--Considering only shows me that I must be Archie
+Douglas's now and for ever.  I can't help it.  It is better for
+you; for you can find some young girl who can wake your heart
+again, as never could be done by your still affectionate J. B."
+
+Raymond and Jenny had met so often since, that the matter was
+entirely past, and no one ever guessed it.
+
+At any rate, Rosamond, the most ready to plunge into counsel to
+Cecil, was the least likely to have it accepted; Rosamond had
+foibles of her own that Cecil knew of, and censured freely enough
+within herself.
+
+That never-ending question, whether what became the Colonel's
+daughter became the clergyman's wife, would crop up under endless
+forms.  Rosamond, in all opinions, was good-natured and easy, and
+always for pardon and toleration to an extent that the Compton code
+could not understand.  She could not bear that anybody should be
+punished or shut out of anything; while there was no denying that,
+now the first novelty was passing, she was very lazy as to her
+parochial work, and that where her feelings were not stirred she was
+of little use.
+
+Julius seemed shamefully tolerant of her omissions, and likewise of
+her eagerness for all gaieties.  He would not go himself, would not
+accept a dinner invitation for any of the three busy nights of the
+week, and refused all those to dances and balls for himself, though
+he never hindered Rosamond's going.
+
+She used absolutely to cry with passionate entreaties that he would
+relent and come with her, declaring that he was very unkind, he knew
+it took away all her pleasure--he was a tyrant, and wanted her not
+to go.  And then he smiled, and owned that he hoped some day she
+would be tired of it; whereat she raged, and begged him to forbid
+her, if he really thought her whole life had been so shocking,
+declaring in the same breath that she would never disown her family,
+or cast a slur on her mother and sisters.
+
+It always ended in her going, and though never again offending as by
+her bridal gown, she seldom failed to scandalize Cecil by an excess
+of talking and of waltzing, such as even Raymond regretted, and
+which disabled her for a whole day after from all but sofa, sleep,
+novels, and yawns.
+
+Was this the person whose advice the discreet heiress of Dunstone
+was likely to follow?
+
+It may be mentioned here, among other elements of difficulty, that
+Cecil's maid Grindstone was a thorough Dunstonite, who 'kept herself
+to herself,' was perfectly irreproachable, lived on terms of distant
+civility with the rest of the household, never complained, but
+constantly led her young mistress to understand that she was
+enduring much for her sake.
+
+Cecil was too well trained, and so was she, for a word of gossip or
+censure to pass between them; but the influence was not the less
+strong.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+Pastoral Visiting
+
+
+A finger's breadth at hand may mar
+A world of light in heaven afar;
+A mote eclipse a glorious star,
+   An eyelid hide the sky.--KEBLE.
+
+The dinner was over, and Cecil was favouring the audience with a
+severely classical piece of music, when, under cover thereof, a low
+voice said to Julius, "Now, really and truly, tell me how he is
+getting on?"
+
+"Really and truly, Jenny?"
+
+"Well, not as you would tell mamma, for instance; but as you think
+in your secret soul."
+
+"I am sorry you think me so duplex."
+
+"Come, you understand how anxious I am about the boy."
+
+"Exactly."  And they both laughed.
+
+"Is that all?" said Joanna Bowater.
+
+"_Really and truly_ it is!  Rose can manage him much better than I
+can."
+
+"He is very fond of her; but does he--is he--is his heart in his
+work?" asked the sister, looking with her honest eyes earnestly at
+Julius, her contemporary and playfellow as a child, and afterwards
+the companion with whom she had worked out many a deep problem,
+rendering mutual assistance that made each enter in no common degree
+into the inner thoughts of the other.
+
+Julius smiled.  "I doubt whether he has come to his heart yet."
+
+"Why should he be so young?  Think what you were at twenty-three."
+
+"I never had Herbert's physique; and that makes an immense
+difference.  I had no taste or capacity for what is a great
+privation to a fine young fellow like him.  Don't look startled!  He
+attempts nothing unfitting; he is too good and dutiful, but--"
+
+"Yes, I know what that _but_ means."
+
+"Nothing to be unhappy about.  You know how blameless he has always
+been at Eton and Oxford; and though he may view his work rather in a
+school-boy aspect, and me as a taskmaster, as long as he is doing
+right the growth is going on.  Don't be unhappy, Jenny!  His great
+clear young voice is delightful to hear; he is capital at choral
+practices, and is a hero to all the old women and boys, the more so
+for the qualities that earnestness cannot give, but rather detracts
+from."
+
+"You mean that he is not in earnest?"
+
+"Don't pervert all I say!  He is not past the time of life when all
+appointed work seems a task, and any sort of excuse a valid cause
+against it; but he is conscientious, and always good-humoured under
+a scolding,--and Rosamond does not spare him," he added, laughing.
+
+"Then you don't think there has been a mistake about him?" said
+Jenny, in a low voice of alarm.
+
+"I have little doubt that when anything develops his inner life, so
+as to overcome the great strong animal that demands play and
+exercise, he will be a most useful clergyman."
+
+"Perhaps he is too young, though I don't see how it could be helped.
+Papa always intended it, because of the living; and Herbert never
+wished anything else.  I thought he really desired it, but now I
+don't know whether he did not only take it as a matter of course."
+
+"Obedience is no unwholesome motive.  As things stood, to delay his
+ordination would have been a stigma he did not deserve; and though
+he might have spent a year with advantage in a theological college,
+pupilage might only have prolonged his boyhood.  It must be
+experience, not simply years of study, that deepens him."
+
+"Ah, those studies!"
+
+"To tell the truth, that's what I am most uneasy about.  I take care
+he should have two hours every forenoon, and three evenings every
+week, free; but when a man is in his own neighbourhood, and so
+popular, I am afraid he does not get many evenings at home; and I
+can't hinder Bindon from admonishing him."
+
+"No," said the sister; "nothing will stir him till the examination
+is imminent; but I will try what I can do with him for the present.
+Here he comes, the dear old idle fellow!"
+
+"Joanie, here you are at last, in conclave with the Rector.  Lady
+Rose wants me to sing, and you must accompany me.  No one is so
+jolly for picking one up."
+
+'Picking one up' was apt to be needed by Herbert, who had a good ear
+and voice, but had always regarded it as 'bosh' to cultivate them,
+except for the immediately practical purposes that had of late been
+forced on him.  The choral society had improved him; but Jenny was
+taken aback by being called on to accompany him in Mrs. Brown's
+Luggage; and his father made his way up to him, saying, "Eh,
+Herbert! is that the last clerical fashion?"
+
+"'Tis my Rectoress who sets me on, sir," was Herbert's merry answer,
+looking at her.  "Now, Lady Rose, you'll keep me in countenance!  My
+father has never heard you sing Coming through the Rye."
+
+"No, no, Herbert, my singing is only to amuse little boys.  Here's
+the higher order of art!"
+
+For Cecil was leading a young lady to the piano, and looking as if
+she by no means approved of such folly, though everybody had
+listened to the Poor Old Cockatoo, laughed and applauded heartily;
+and the ensuing performance seemed to be unappreciated by any one
+except Raymond and Cecil themselves.
+
+Anne was sitting in a corner of the sofa, with a straight back and
+weary face, having been driven out into the throng by the old
+friends who came to sit with Mrs. Poynsett; but she brightened as
+Miss Bowater took a seat beside her, and accepted her inquiries for
+Captain Charnock far more graciously than the many which had
+preceded them.  Was not her likeness in his album?  And had he not
+spoken of her as one whom Anne would like?
+
+Soon Joanna had led her to tell not only of Miles's last letter, but
+of those from Glen Fraser, of which she had spoken to no one, under
+the impression that nobody cared.  She even spoke of the excellent
+farm and homestead which Mr. Van Dorp wanted to sell before going to
+the Free State, and which her father thought would exactly suit
+Miles.
+
+"Does he mean to settle there?"
+
+"Oh, yes; he promised me to leave the navy and take me home as soon
+as this voyage is over," said Anne, eagerly.  "If the Salamanca only
+puts in for long enough, he might run up to Glen Fraser, and see
+Bocksfeld Stoop, and settle it all at once.  I am sure he would be
+delighted with it, and it is only two miles from Mr. Pilgrim's."
+
+"I'm afraid you can never feel this like home," said Jenny.
+
+"Miles wanted me to know his family, and thought I should be useful
+to his mother," said Anne; "but she does not want anything I could
+do for her.  If she has Raymond, she seems to need nobody else."
+
+"And have you nothing to do?"
+
+"I have letters to write to Miles and to them all at home; and I am
+making a whole set of shirts and stockings for papa and the boys--it
+will spare mamma and Jeanie, and I have plenty of time."
+
+"Too much, I am afraid!  But Herbert said you were very useful at
+the Work Society at Wil'sbro'."
+
+"Not now."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"No," in the old cold dry tone.  But while Jenny was doubting
+whether to inquire further, innate sympathy conquered, and Anne
+added, "I wonder whether I did wrong!"
+
+"As how?" asked Joanna, kindly.
+
+"They said"--she lowered her voice--"I must never speak on religious
+subjects."
+
+"How do you mean?  What had you done?"
+
+"One day I found a woman crying because her husband had gone away to
+seek work, so I told her my husband was further away and repeated
+the texts I like.  She was so much comforted that I printed them on
+a card for her."
+
+"Was that all?"
+
+"No; there was another poor dear that was unhappy about her baby;
+and when I bade her pray for it, she did not know how, so I had to
+tell her a little.  There is one who does know her Saviour, and I
+did love to have a few words of peace with her."
+
+"And was that what was objected to?"
+
+"Yes; they said it would change the whole character of the
+institution."
+
+"Who did?"
+
+"Cecil--Mrs. Charnock Poynsett.  I think Lady Tyrrell and Mrs.
+Duncombe desired her.  I thought it was no place for me where I
+might not speak one word for Christ, and I said so; but since I have
+wondered whether the old Adam did not speak in me, and I ought to
+have gone on."
+
+"My wonder," said Jenny, indignantly, "would be what right they had
+to stop you.  This was private interference, not from the Vicar or
+the committee."
+
+"But I am not a real visiting lady.  I only go to help Cecil."
+
+"I see; but why didn't you ask Julius what was right?  He would have
+told you."
+
+"Oh, no, I could not."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"It would seem like a complaint of Cecil.  Besides--"
+
+"Besides?"
+
+"I don't think Julius is a Christian."
+
+The startling announcement was made in so humble and mournful a
+voice as almost to disarm Jenny's resentment; and before she had
+recovered enough for a reply, she was called to take leave of her
+parents.
+
+Her brother was the professed object of her visit, and she was only
+at the Hall because there was no accommodation at his lodgings, so
+that she had no scruple in joining the early breakfast spread for
+the Rector and his wife, so as to have the morning free for him; but
+she found Julius alone, saying that his wife was tired after the
+party; and to Jenny's offer to take her class, he replied, "Thank
+you, it will be a great kindness if you will teach; but Rose has no
+regular class.  Teaching is not much in her line; and it is a pity
+she should have to do it, but we have to make the most of the single
+hour they allow us for godliness."
+
+"Don't you utilize Mrs. Charnock? or is she not strong enough for
+early hours?"
+
+"Poor Anne!  The truth is, I am afraid of her.  I fancy all her
+doctrine comes out of the Westminster Catechism."
+
+"Could Calvinism be put in at seven years old?  Would not it be a
+pouring of stiff glue into a narrow-necked phial?"
+
+"Result--nil."
+
+"A few pure drops might got in--and you could give her books."
+
+"It had struck me that it might be wholesome work for her; but the
+children's good must stand first.  And, timid and reserved as she
+seems, she insisted on preaching at the work-room, so that Cecil had
+to put a stop to it."
+
+"Are you certain about that preaching?"
+
+"Rose heard of it from Cecil herself."
+
+"Did she ask what it amounted to?"
+
+"I don't know; perhaps I had better find out.  I remember it came
+after that ride to Sirenwood.  By the bye, Jenny, I wish Cecil could
+be hindered from throwing herself into that oak of Broceliande!"
+
+"Are not you so suspicious that you see the waving arms and magic
+circles everywhere?"
+
+"A friendship with any one here is so unnatural, that I can't but
+think it a waving of hands boding no good.  And there is worse than
+friendship in that quarter too."
+
+"Oh, but Lenore is quite different!"
+
+"A Vivienne still!" said Julius, bitterly.  "If she costs poor Frank
+nothing more than his appointment, it will be well."
+
+"I don't understand!"
+
+"She caught him in her toils two years ago at Rockpier; and now she
+is playing fast and loose with him--withdrawing, as I believe; and
+at any rate keeping the poor foolish boy in such an agitation, that
+he can't or won't settle to his reading; and Driver thinks he will
+break down."
+
+"I can't think it of Lenore.--Oh! good morning, Raymond!"
+
+"Good morning!  May I come to breakfast number one?  I have to go to
+Backsworth."
+
+"Yes," said Jenny; "we told papa it was too bad to put you on the
+Prison Committee.  What does your wife say?"
+
+"My wife has so many occupations, that she is very sufficient for
+herself," said Raymond.  "I hope you will get on with her, Jenny.
+If she could only be got to think you intellectual!"
+
+"Me?  O, Raymond! you've not been telling her so?" exclaimed Jenny,
+laughing heartily.
+
+"A very superior coach in divinity, &c.," said Julius, in a tone
+half banter, half earnest.
+
+But Jenny exclaimed in distress, "No, no, no; say nothing about
+that!  It would never do for Herbert to have it known.  Don't let
+him guess that you know."
+
+"Quite right, Jenny; never fear," said Julius; "though it is
+tempting to ask you to take Frank in hand at the same time."
+
+"Have you seen anything of the Vivians?" asked Raymond.
+
+"Very little.  I hoped to see something of Eleonora from hence."
+
+"I can't understand that young lady," said Julius.  "She was very
+friendly when first we met her; but now she seems absolutely
+repellant."
+
+"Tant mieux," Raymond
+
+"They seem inclined to take up all the good works in hand," said
+Jenny.  "By the bye, what is all this story about Raymond affronting
+Wil'sbro' by stirring up their gutters?  Papa has been quite in a
+state of mind for fear they should take offence and bring in Mr.
+Moy."
+
+"Julius only thinks I have not stirred the gutters enough," said
+Raymond.  "And after all, it is not I, but Whitlock.  I was in hopes
+that matters might have been properly looked after if Whitlock had
+been chosen mayor this year; but, somehow, a cry was got up that he
+was going to bring down a sanitary commission, and put the town to
+great expense; and actually, this town-council have been elected
+_because_ they are opposed to drainage."
+
+"And Truelove, the grocer, is mayor?"
+
+"Yes; one of the most impracticable men I ever encountered.  One
+can't get him so much as to understand anything.  Now Briggs does
+understand, only he goes by pounds s. d."
+
+"Posterity has done nothing for me, and I will do nothing for
+posterity, is his principle," said Julius.  "Moreover, he is a
+Baptist."
+
+"No chance for the Church in his time," said Jenny.
+
+"There's the less harm in that," said Raymond, "that the plan is
+intolerable.  Briggs's nephew took the plan of what he calls a
+German Rat-house, for the town-hall, made in gilt gingerbread; and
+then adapted the church to a beautiful similarity.  If that could be
+staved off by waiting for the bazaar, or by any other means, there
+might be a chance of something better.  So poor Fuller thinks,
+though he is not man enough to speak out at once."
+
+"Then the bazaar is really fixed?"
+
+"So far as the resolution goes of the lady population, though Julius
+is sanguine, and hopes to avert it.  After all, I believe the
+greatest obstructive to improvement is Moy."
+
+"Old Mr. Proudfoot's son-in-law?" said Jenny.  "I know he has
+blossomed out in great splendour on our side of the county, and his
+daughter is the general wonder.  Papa is always declaring he will
+set up in opposition to you."
+
+"Not much fear of that," said Raymond.  "But the man provokes me, he
+has so much apparent seriousness."
+
+"Even to the persecution of Dr. Easterby," put in Julius.  "And yet
+he is the great supporter of that abominable public-house in Water
+Lane, the Three Pigeons--which, unluckily, escaped the fire.  He
+owns it, and all those miserable tenements beyond it, and nothing
+will move him an inch towards doing any good there!"
+
+"I remember," said Jenny, "papa came home very angry on the
+licensing day; the police had complained of the Three Pigeons, and
+the magistrates would have taken away the license, but that Mr. Moy
+made such a personal matter of it."
+
+"You don't mean that he is a magistrate!" exclaimed Julius.
+
+"Yes," said Raymond.  "He got the ear of the Lord-Lieutenant."
+
+"And since he has lived at the Lawn, they have all quite set up for
+county people or anything you please," said Jenny, a little
+bitterly.  "Mrs. Moy drives about with the most stylish pair of
+ponies; and as to Miss Gussie, she is making herself into a proverb!
+I can't bear them."
+
+"Well done, Jenny!" exclaimed Julius.
+
+"Perhaps it is wrong," said Jenny, in a low voice.  "I dare say I am
+not just.  You know I always did think Mr. Moy could have cleared
+Archie if he would," she added, with a slightly trembling tone.
+
+"So did I," said Raymond.  "I gave him the opportunity after George
+Proudfoot's death; but when the choice lay between two memories, one
+could hardly wonder if he preferred to shield his brother-in-law."
+
+"Or himself!" said Jenny, under her breath.
+
+"Come, Jenny," said Julius, feeling that the moment for interruption
+had come, "it is time we should be off.  Methinks there are sounds
+as if the whole canine establishment at Mrs. Hornblower's were
+prancing up to meet us."
+
+So it proved; and Jenny had to run the gauntlet through the
+ecstasies of all the dogs, whose ecclesiastical propriety was quite
+overthrown, for they danced about her to the very threshold of the
+church, and had to have the door shut on their very noses.  That
+drop of bitterness, which her sad brief story could not fail to have
+left in poor Joanna's heart, either passed out of mind in what
+followed, or was turned into the prayer, "And to turn their hearts;"
+and she was her bright self again for her promised assistance at the
+school.
+
+Then Herbert's address was, "Come, Joan, I promised to take you to
+see the Reeves's pheasant at the Outwood Lodge.  Such a jolly old
+woman!"
+
+"The pheasant?"
+
+"No; the keeper's mother.  Tail a yard long!  I don't see why we
+shouldn't turn them out at home.  If father won't take it up, I
+shall write to Phil."
+
+"Thank you, Herbs.  Hadn't you better secure a little reading first?
+I could wait; I've got to write to Will."
+
+"The post doesn't go till five."
+
+"But I want to get it done.  The mail goes to-morrow."
+
+"You'll do it much better after a walk.  I can't understand anything
+after the fumes of the school, unless I do a bit of visiting first;
+and that pheasant is a real stunner.  It really is parish work,
+Jenny.  Look here, this is what I'm reading her."
+
+"_Learn to die_!" said Jenny, laughing heartily.  "Nothing could be
+more appropriate, only you should have begun before October."
+
+"You choose to make fun of everything!" answered Herbert, gruffly;
+and Jenny, deciding that she would see a specimen day, made her
+peace by consenting to share in the pastoral visit, whether to
+pheasant or peasant.  Indeed, a walk with Herbert was one of the
+prime pleasures of her life--and this was delightful, along broad
+gravelled drives through the autumnal woods with tinted beech-leaves
+above, and brackens of all shades of brown, green, and yellow
+beneath.  And it was charming to see Herbert's ways with the old
+woman--a dainty old dame, such as is grown in the upper ranks of
+service, whom he treated with a hearty, bantering, coaxing manner,
+which she evidently enjoyed extremely.  His reading, for he _did_
+come to more serious matters, was very good--in a voice that without
+effort reached deaf ears, and with feeling about it that did a great
+deal to reassure his sister that there was something behind the big
+bright boy.
+
+But by the time he had done the honours of all the pheasants, and
+all the dogs, and all the ferrets, and all the stuffed birds, and
+all the eggs (for the keeper was a bit of a naturalist), and had
+discussed Mr. Frank's last day's shooting, it was so late, that
+Jenny had only just time to walk back to the Hall at her best pace,
+to see Mrs. Poynsett for a few minutes before luncheon; and her
+reception was, "Is that Herbert's step?  Call him in, my dear!--You
+must make the most of your sister, Herbert.  Come in to all meals
+while she is here."
+
+He heard with gratitude--his sister with consternation.  If forenoon
+pastoral visits were to be on that scale, and he dined out whenever
+he was not at school or at church, how would his books fare? and yet
+she could not grudge his pleasure.  She could not help looking half
+foolish, half sad, when she met the Rector's eye.
+
+Julius thought so much of her advice, as to knock at Cecil's
+sitting-room door, and beg to ask her a question; and as she liked
+to be consulted, she welcomed him hospitably into that temple,
+sacred to culture and to Dunstone--full of drawings, books, and
+china.
+
+"I was thinking," he said, "of offering Anne some parish work.  I
+wanted to know if you saw any objection?"
+
+"Certainly not; I have not been able to make acquaintance yet with
+all our tenants, but they seem quite to understand the difference in
+our positions," said Cecil, with due deliberation.
+
+Julius choked his amusement, and waived that point.  "But did you
+not feel obliged to decline her services at the Wil'sbro' work-
+room?"
+
+"That was quite another thing.  What was most undesirable in such an
+institution would be all very well for your old women."
+
+"What kind of thing?"
+
+"Talking piously, giving away texts, and so on; just the way to make
+the women think we intended to impose religious instruction and give
+a sectarian character, defeating our own object."
+
+"Was there any flaw in what she said?"
+
+"I can't tell what she said.  It was just a little murmur over the
+work."
+
+"Not preaching?"
+
+"Not in that sense," said Cecil, with a little compunction.
+
+"I am glad to hear it; it makes a great difference."
+
+"You see," said the lady, "our institution is merely intended to
+support these women in the time of want; and if we were to couple
+our assistance with religion we should just sink into a mothers'
+meeting, and make the women think--"
+
+"Think that you prize the soul more than the body," said Julius, as
+she halted in search of a word.  "I understand, Cecil; you would not
+be in the prevailing fashion.  I don't want to argue that point,
+only to understand about Anne."
+
+So saying, he went at once to Anne's abode, the old schoolroom,
+which, like everything else belonging to Mrs. Miles Charnock, had a
+sad-coloured aspect, although it had been fitted up very prettily.
+The light was sombre, and all the brighter pictures and ornaments
+seemed to have been effaced by a whole gallery of amateur
+photographs, in which the glories of the African bush were
+represented by brown masses of shade variegated by blotches of
+white.  Even in Miles's own portrait on the table, the gold seemed
+overwhelmed by the dark blue; and even as Julius entered, she shut
+it up in its brown case, as too sacred for even his brother's eyes.
+
+However, a flush of pleasure came to her pale face at the invitation
+to take a class, and to read to a good old woman, whom in his secret
+soul he thought so nearly a dissenter, that she could not be made
+more so.  She promised her help with some eagerness for as long as
+she should remain in England, and accepted the books he gave her
+without protest.  Nay, that same evening she took Jenny off into her
+gray abode, to consult her whether, since she must now join the
+early breakfast, she could go to daily service without becoming
+formal.
+
+She even recurred to her question, whether Julius was a Christian,
+without nearly as much negation in her tones as before; and Jenny,
+taking it as it was meant, vouched for his piety, so as might render
+it a little more comprehensible to one matured on Scottish Calvinism
+and English Methodism, diluted in devout undogmatic minds, with no
+principle more developed than horror of Popery and of worldliness.
+Turned loose in solitude, reserve, and sadness, on her husband's
+family, who did nothing but shock her with manifestations of the
+latter, she could hardly turn even to the clerical portion of it,
+while Julius, as well as his curates, bore all the tokens by which
+she had been taught to know a Papist.  Daily intercourse was perhaps
+drawing her a little towards her brother-in-law; but Herbert Bowater
+united these obnoxious externals to a careless tongue, and joyous
+easy-going manner, and taste for amusement, which so horrified Anne,
+that she once condoled with his sister, and proposed to unite in
+prayer for his conversion; but this was more than Joanna could bear,
+and she cried, "I only wish I were as good a Christian as dear
+Herbert!"
+
+For indeed, the sister's heart intensely esteemed his sweetness,
+honesty, and simplicity, even while she found it an uphill task to
+coax him to steady work.  After that first morning he was indeed
+ashamed to let her see the proportion between his pastoral visits
+and his theological reading; but the newspapers (he had two or three
+weekly ones) had a curious facility of expansion, and there was a
+perilous sound in "I'll just see where the meet is,"--not that he
+had the most distant idea of repairing thither; it was pure filial
+interest in learning where his father and Edith would be.
+
+Jenny could not tell whether her presence conduced to diligence or
+to chatter, but he minded her more than any one else, and always
+stuck close to her, insisting on her admiring all his proteges.
+There was one with whom he was certainly doing a work, which, as
+Julius truly said, no one more clerical could have done so well--
+namely, the son of his landlady, a youth who held a small clerkship
+in an office at Willansborough, and who had fallen this year under
+the attraction of the Backsworth races, so as to get into serious
+difficulties with his master, and narrowly escape dismissal for the
+sake of his mother.
+
+The exceeding good-nature and muscular Christian side of the
+lodger's character was having a most happy effect on the lad.  He
+had set up a regular hero-worship, which Herbert encouraged by
+always calling for him when going to the choral practices, getting
+him into the choir, lending him books, and inviting him to read in
+his room in the evening.  How much they played with the dogs was not
+known; but at any rate, Harry Hornblower was out of mischief, and
+his mother was so grateful to Mr. Bowater, that she even went the
+length of preferring his sermons to those of both his seniors.
+
+The discovery that most vexed Jenny was that Sirenwood had so much
+of his time.  He seemed to be asked to come to dinner whenever Sir
+Harry saw him, or a chair was left vacant at a party; and though his
+Rector was inexorable as to releasing him on casual notice from the
+parish avocations of three nights in the week, the effect was
+grumbling as savage as was possible from so good-humoured a being;
+and now and then a regular absence without leave, and a double growl
+at the consequent displeasure.  It was true that in ten minutes he
+was as hearty and friendly as ever to his colleagues, but that might
+be only a proof of his disregard of their reproofs, and their small
+effect.
+
+Eleonora Vivian was not the attraction.  No; Herbert thought her a
+proud, silent, disagreeable girl, and could see no beauty in her;
+but he had a boy's passion for the matured splendour of her sister's
+beauty; and she was so kind to him!
+
+What could Jenny mean by looking glum about it?  She was stunningly
+good, and all that.  She had done no end of good with clubs and
+mothers' meetings at her married home; and it was no end of a pity
+she was not in Compton parish, instead of under poor wretched old
+Fuller, whom you could not stir--no, not if you tied a firebrand to
+his tail.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+Withered Leaves and Fresh Buds
+
+
+Lady Rosamond and Joanna Bowater could not fail to be good friends;
+Herbert was a great bond of union, and so was Mrs. Poynsett.
+Rosamond found it hard to recover from the rejection of her scheme
+of the wheeled-chair, and begged Jenny to become its advocate; but
+Mrs. Poynsett listened with a smile of the unpromising kind--"You
+too, Jenny?"
+
+"Why not, dear Mrs. Poynsett?  How nice it would be to see you in
+your own corner again!"
+
+"I don't think my own corner remains."
+
+"Oh! but it could be restored at once."
+
+"Do you think so?  No, no, Jenny my dear; cracked china is better
+left on the shelf out of the way, even if it could bear the move,
+which it can't."
+
+Then Jenny understood, and advised Rosamond to bide her time, and
+wait till the session of parliament, when the house would be
+quieter; and Rosamond nodded and held her peace.
+
+The only person who held aloof was Cecil, who would not rise to the
+bait when Raymond tried to exhibit Miss Bowater as a superior
+intellectual woman.
+
+Unluckily, too, Jenny observed one evening at the five o'clock tea,
+"I hear that Mrs. Duncombe has picked up some very funny people--a
+lady lecturer, who is coming to set us all to rights."
+
+"A wonderful pair, I hear!" said Frank.  "Mrs. Clio Tallboys, she
+calls herself, and a poor little husband, whom she carries about to
+show the superiority of her sex."
+
+"A Cambridge professor and a great political economist!" observed
+Cecil, in a low but indignant voice.
+
+"The Yankee Cambridge!" quoth Frank.
+
+"The American Cambridge is a distinguished university," returned
+Cecil.
+
+"Cecil is right, Master Frank," laughed his mother; "Cam and Isis
+are not the only streams of learning in the world."
+
+"I never heard of him," said Jenny; "he is a mere satellite to the
+great luminary."
+
+"They are worth seeing," added Frank; "she is one of those regular
+American beauties one would pay to get a sight of."
+
+"Where did you get all this information?" asked Cecil.
+
+"From Duncombe himself.  They met on the Righi; and nothing is more
+comical than to near him describe the ladies' fraternization over
+female doctors and lawyers, till they rushed into each other's arms,
+and the Clio promised to come down on a crusade and convert you
+all."
+
+"There are two ways of telling a story," said Cecil.
+
+"No wonder the gentlemen quake!" said Mrs. Poynsett.
+
+"I don't," said Frank, boyishly.
+
+"Because you've no wife to take you in hand," retorted Jenny.
+
+"For my part," said Mrs. Poynsett, "I can't see what women want.  I
+have always had as many rights as I could exercise."
+
+"Ah! but we are not all ladies of the manor," said Jenny, "nor do we
+all drive coaches."
+
+"I observe," said Cecil, with dignity, "that there is supposed to be
+a license to laugh at Mrs. Duncombe and whatever she does."
+
+"She would do better to mind her children," said Frank.
+
+"Children!  Has she children?" broke in Anne and Rosamond, both at
+once.
+
+"Didn't you know it?" said Jenny.
+
+"No, indeed!  I didn't think her the sort of woman," said Rosamond.
+"What does she do with them?"
+
+"Drops them in the gutter," said Frank.  "Literally, as I came home,
+I heard a squeak, and found a child flat in a little watercourse.  I
+picked it out, and the elder one told me it was Ducky Duncombe, or
+some such word.  Its little boots had holes in them, mother; its
+legs were purple, and there was a fine smart foreign woman flirting
+round the corner with young Hornblower."
+
+"Boys with long red hair, and Highland dresses?" exclaimed Rosamond.
+"Yes, the same we saw with Miss Vivian!"
+
+"Exactly!" said Frank, eagerly.  "She is quite a mother to those
+poor little wretches; they watch for her at the Sirenwood gate, and
+she walks with them.  The boy's cry was not for mother or nurse, but
+for Lena!"
+
+"Pray, did she come at his call?"
+
+"No; but when I carried the brat home, poor Duncombe told me almost
+with tears, how good she is to them.  I fancy he feels their
+mother's neglect of them."
+
+"I'm sure I gave her credit for having none," said Rosamond.
+
+"Ah!" said Jenny, "you should have heard her condolences with my
+sister Mary on her last infliction.  Fancy Mary's face!"
+
+"No doubt it was to stem a torrent of nursery discussions," said
+Cecil.  "Such bad taste!"
+
+"Which?" murmured Rosamond under her breath, with an arched eyebrow.
+
+"Plain enough," said Frank:  "if a woman is a woman, the bad taste
+is to be ashamed of it."
+
+"Yes," said Cecil, "that is the way with men; they would fain keep
+us down to the level of the nursery."
+
+"I thought nurseries were usually at the top of the house."
+
+"Perhaps," said Mrs. Poynsett, disregarding this mischievous
+suggestion, "they mean that organization, like charity, should begin
+at home."
+
+"You say that meaningly," said Rosamond.  "I have heard very odd
+stories of domestic affairs at Aucuba Villa, and that she can't get
+a servant to stay there."
+
+"That man, Alexander, has always been there," said Frank.
+
+"Yes; but he has occasionally to do all the work of the house.  Yes,
+I can't help it, Cecil, Susan will regale me with cook-stories
+sometimes; and I have heard of the whole establishment turning out
+on being required to eat funguses."
+
+"I shall beware of dining there!" said Rosamond.
+
+"Don't they dine here to-morrow?" asked Frank.
+
+"No, they are engaged to the Moys," said Cecil.
+
+"But the Vivians come?"
+
+"Oh yes."
+
+Every one knew that already; but Frank could not help having it
+repeated.  It was a mere formal necessity to ask them, and had been
+accepted as such; but there was some amazement when Cecil brought
+home Lady Tyrrell and Miss Vivian to lunch and spend the afternoon.
+It might be intended as one of her demonstrations; for though it was
+understood that any of the inmates were free to bring home friends
+to luncheon, it was not done--except with a casual gentleman--
+without notice to the mistress of the house.  Cecil, however,
+comported herself entirely as in that position, explaining that Lady
+Tyrrell was come to give her advice upon an intended fernery, and
+would perform her toilette here, so as to have plenty of time.
+Frank, little knowing what was passing, was working the whole day at
+his tutor's for the closely imminent examination; Julius and Raymond
+were gravely polite; Eleonora very silent; and as soon as the meal
+was over, Rosamond declared that she should not come out to stand
+planning in the cold; and though Herbert would have liked nothing
+better in that company, his Rector carried him off to arrange an
+Advent service in a distant hamlet; Anne's horse came to the door;
+and only Joanna remained to accompany the gardening party, except
+that Raymond came out with them to mark the limits of permissible
+alteration.
+
+"How unchanged!" exclaimed Lady Tyrrell.  "Time stands still here;
+only where is the grand old magnolia?  How sweet it used to be!"
+
+"Killed by the frost," said Raymond, shortly, not choosing to
+undergo a course of reminiscences, and chafing his wife by his
+repressive manner towards her guest.  When he had pointed out the
+bed of Americans that were to be her boundary, he excused himself as
+having letters to finish; and as he went away Cecil gave vent to her
+distaste to the old shrubs and borders, now, of course, at their
+worst--the azaleas mere dead branches, the roses with a few yellow
+night-capped buds still lingering, and fuchsias with a scanty bell
+or two.
+
+Jenny fought for their spring beauty, all the more because Lady
+Tyrrell was encouraging the wife to criticize the very things she
+had tried to sentimentalize over with the husband; but seeing that
+she was only doing harm, she proposed a brisk walk to Eleonora, who
+gladly assented, though her sister made a protest about damp, and
+her being a bad walker.  The last things they heard was Cecil's
+sigh, "It is all so shut in, wherever there is level ground, that
+the bazaar would be impossible."
+
+"I should hope so!" muttered Jenny.
+
+"What do you mean to do about this bazaar?" asked Eleonora, as they
+sped away.
+
+"I don't know.  Those things so often go off in smoke, that I don't
+make up my mind till they become imminent."
+
+"I am afraid this will go on," said Eleonora.  "Camilla means it and
+she always carries out her plans; I wish I saw the right line."
+
+"About that?"
+
+"About everything.  It seems to me that there never was any one so
+cut off from help and advice as I am;" then, as Joanna made some
+mute sign of sympathy, "I knew you would understand; I have been
+longing to be with you, for there has been no one to whom I could
+speak freely since I left Rockpier."
+
+"And I have been longing to have you.  Mamma would have asked you to
+stay with us before, only we had the house full.  Can't you come
+now?"
+
+"You will see that I shall not be allowed.  It is of no use to think
+about it!" said the girl, with a sigh.  "Here, let us get out of
+this broad path, or she may yet come after us--persuade Mrs.
+Charnock Poynsett it is too cold to stand about--anything to break
+up a tete-a-tete."
+
+Jenny saw she really was in absolute fear of pursuit; but hardly yet
+understood the nervous haste to turn into a not very inviting side-
+path, veiled by the trees, whose wet leaves were falling.
+
+"Do you mind the damp?" asked the girl, anxiously.
+
+"No, not at all; but--"
+
+"You don't know what it is never to feel free, but be like a French
+girl, always watched--at least whenever I am with any one I care to
+speak to."
+
+"Are you quite sure it is not imagination?"
+
+"O, Joanna, don't be like all the rest, blinded by her!  You knew
+her always!"
+
+"Only from below.  I am four years younger; you know dear Emily was
+my contemporary."
+
+"Dear Emily!  I miss her more now than even at Rockpier.  But you,
+who were her friend, and knew Camilla of old, I know you can help me
+as no one else can."
+
+Jenny returned a caress; and Eleonora spoke on.  "You know I was
+only eight years old when Camilla married, and I had scarcely seen
+her till she came to us at Rockpier, on Lord Tyrrell's death, and
+then she was most delightful.  I thought her like mother and sister
+both in one, even more tender than dear Emily.  How could I have
+thought so for a moment?  But she enchanted everybody.  Clergy,
+ladies, and all came under the spell; and I can't get advice from
+any of them--even from Miss Coles--you remember her?"
+
+"Your governess?  How nice she was!"
+
+"Emily and I owed everything to her!  She was as near being a mother
+to us as any one could be; and Camilla could not say enough of
+gratitude, or show esteem enough, and fascinated her like all the
+rest of us; but she never rested till she had got her off to a
+situation in Russia.  I did not perceive the game at the time, but I
+see now how all the proposals for situations within reach of me were
+quashed."
+
+"But you write to her?"
+
+"Yes; but as soon as I showed any of my troubles she reproved me for
+self-will and wanting to judge for myself, and not submit to my
+sister.  That's the way with all at Rockpier.  Camilla has gone
+about pitying me to them for having to give way to my married
+sister, but saying it was quite time that she took charge of us; and
+on that notion they all wrote to me.  Then she persuaded papa to go
+abroad; and I was delighted, little thinking she never meant me to
+go back again."
+
+"Did she not?"
+
+"Listen!  I've heard her praise Rockpier and its church to the skies
+to one person--say Mr. Bindon.  To another, such as our own Vicar,
+she says it was much too ultra, and she likes moderation; she tells
+your father that she wants to see papa among his old friends; and to
+Mrs. Duncombe, I've heard her go as near the truth as is possible to
+her, and call it a wearisome place, with an atmosphere of incense,
+curates, and old maids, from whom she had carried me off before I
+grew fit for nothing else!"
+
+"I dare say all these are true in turn, or seem so to her, or she
+would not say them before you."
+
+"She has left off trying to gloss it over with me, except so far as
+it is part of her nature.  She did at first, but she knows it is of
+no use now."
+
+"Really, Lenore, you must be going too far."
+
+"I have shocked you; but you can't conceive what it is to live with
+perpetual falsity.  No, I can't use any other word.  I am always
+mistrusting and being angered, and my senses of right and wrong get
+so confused, that it is like groping in a maze."  Her eyes were full
+of tears, but she exclaimed, "Tell me, Joanna, was there ever
+anything between Camilla and Mr. Poynsett?"
+
+"Why bring that up again now?"
+
+"Why did it go off?" insisted Lenore.
+
+"Because Mrs. Poynsett could not give up and turn into a dowager, as
+if she were not the mistress herself."
+
+"Was that all?"
+
+"So it was said."
+
+"I want to get to the bottom of it.  It was not because Lord Tyrrell
+came in the way."
+
+"I am afraid they thought so here."
+
+"Then," said Eleonora, in a hard, dry way, "I know the reason of our
+being brought back here, and of a good deal besides."
+
+"My dear Lena, I am very sorry for you; but I think you had better
+keep this out of your mind, or you will fall into a hard, bitter,
+suspicious mood."
+
+"That is the very thing.  I am in a hard, bitter, suspicious mood,
+and I can't see how to keep out of it; I don't know when opposition
+is right and firm, and when it is only my own self-will."
+
+"Would it not be a good thing to talk to Julius Charnock?  You would
+not be betraying anything."
+
+"No!  I can't seem to make up to the good clergyman!  Certainly not.
+Besides, I've heard Camilla talking to his wife!"
+
+"Talking?"
+
+"Admiring that dress, which she had been sneering at to your mother,
+don't you remember?  It was one of her honey-cups with venom below--
+only happily, Lady Rosamond saw through the flattery.  I'm ashamed
+whenever I see her!"
+
+"I don't think that need cut you off from Julius."
+
+"Tell me _truly_," again broke in Lenore, "what Mrs. Poynsett really
+is.  She is a standing proverb with us for tyranny over her sons;
+not with Camilla alone, but with papa."
+
+"See how they love her!" cried Jenny, hotly.
+
+"Camilla thinks that abject; but I can't forget how Frank talked of
+her in those happy Rockpier days."
+
+"When you first knew him?" said Jenny.
+
+They must have come at length to the real point, for Eleonora began
+at once--"Yes; he was with his sick friend, and we were so happy;
+and now he is being shamefully used, and I don't know what to do!"
+
+"Indeed, Lenore," said Jenny, in her downright way, "I do not
+understand.  You do not seem to care for him."
+
+"Of course I am wrong," said the poor girl; "but I hoped I was doing
+the best thing for him."  Then, as Jenny made an indignant sound,
+"See, Jenny, when he came to Rockpier, Camilla had been a widow
+about three months.  She never had been very sad, for Lord Tyrrell
+had been quite imbecile for a year, poor man!  And when Frank came,
+she could not make enough of him; and he and I both thought the two
+families had been devotedly fond of each other, and that she was
+only too glad to meet one of them."
+
+"I suppose that was true."
+
+"So do I, as things stood then.  She meant Frank to be a sort of
+connecting link, against the time when she could come back here; but
+we, poor children, never thought of that, and went on together, not
+exactly saying anything, but quite understanding how much we cared.
+Indeed, I know Camilla impressed on him that, for his mother's sake,
+it must go no farther then, while he was still so young; and next
+came our journey on the Continent, ending in our coming back here
+last July."
+
+Jenny remembered that Raymond's engagement had not been made known
+till August, and Frank had only returned from a grouse-shooting
+holiday a week or two before the arrival of the brides.
+
+"Now," added Eleonora, "Camilla has made me understand that nothing
+will induce her to let papa consent; and though I know he would, if
+he were left to himself, I also see how all this family must hate
+and loathe the connection."
+
+"May I ask, has Frank ever spoken?"
+
+"Oh no!  I think he implied it all to Camilla when she bade him wait
+till our return, fancying, I suppose, that one could forget the
+other."
+
+"But why does she seem so friendly with him?"
+
+"It is her way; she can't be other than smooth and caressing, and
+likes to have young men about; and I try to be grave and distant,
+because--the sooner he is cured of me the better for him," she
+uttered, with a sob; "but when he is there, and I see those grieved
+eyes of his, I can't keep it up!  And papa does like him!  Oh! if
+Camilla would but leave us alone!  See here, Jenny!" and she showed,
+on her watch-chain, a bit of ruddy polished pebble.  "Is it wrong to
+keep this?  He and I found the stone in two halves, on the beach,
+the last day we were together, and had them set, pretending to one
+another it was only play.  Sometimes I think I ought to send mine
+back; I know he has his, he let me see it one day.  Do you think I
+ought to give it up?"
+
+"Why should you?"
+
+"Because then he would know that it must be all over."
+
+"But _is_ it all over?  Within, I mean?"
+
+"Jenny, you know better!"
+
+"Then, Lenore, if so, and it is only your sister who objects, not
+your father himself, ought you to torment poor Frank by acting
+indifference when you do not feel it?"
+
+"Am I untrue?  I never thought of that.  I thought I should be
+sacrificing myself for his good!"
+
+"His good?  O, Lenore, I believe it is the worst wrong a woman can
+do a man, to let him think he has wasted his heart upon her, and
+that she is trifling with him.  You don't know what a bad effect
+this is having, even on his prospects.  He cannot get his brain or
+spirits free to work for his examination."
+
+"How hard it is to know what is right!  Here have I been thinking
+that what made me so miserable must be the best for him, and would
+it not make it all the worse to relax, and let him see?"
+
+"I do not think so," returned Jenny.  "His spirits would not be worn
+by doubt of _you_--the worst doubt of all:  and he would feel that
+he had something to strive for."
+
+Eleonora walked on for some steps in silence, then exclaimed, "Yes,
+but there's his family.  It would only stir up trouble for them
+there.  They can't approve of me."
+
+"They don't know you.  When they do, they will.  Now they only see
+what looks like--forgive me, Lena--caprice and coquetry; they will
+know you in earnest, if you will let them."
+
+"You don't mean that they know anything about it!" exclaimed
+Eleonora.
+
+Jenny almost laughed.  "Not know where poor Frank's heart is?  You
+don't guess how those sons live with their mother!"
+
+"I suppose I have forgotten what sincerity and openness are," said
+Eleonora, sadly.  "But is not she very much vexed?"
+
+"She was vexed to find it had gone so deep with him," said Jenny;
+"but I know that you can earn her affection and trust by being
+staunch and true yourself--and it is worth having, Lena!"
+
+For Jenny knew Eleonora of old, through Emily's letters, and had no
+doubt of her rectitude, constancy, and deep principle, though she
+was at the present time petrified by constant antagonism to such
+untruthfulness as, where it cannot corrupt, almost always hardens
+those who come in contact with it.  And this cruel idea of self-
+sacrifice was, no doubt, completing the indurating process.
+
+Jenny knew the terrible responsibility of giving such advice.  She
+had not done it lightly.  She had been feeling for years past that
+"'Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at
+all;" and she knew that uncertainty of the right to love and trust
+would have been a pang beyond all she had suffered.  To give poor
+Eleonora, situated as she now was, admission to the free wholesome
+atmosphere of the Charnock family, was to her kind heart
+irresistible; and it was pleasant to feel the poor girl clinging to
+her, as people do to those who have given the very counsel the heart
+craved for.
+
+It was twilight when the walk was over, and the drawing-room was
+empty; but Anne came to invite them to Mrs. Poynsett's tea, saying
+that Cecil had Lady Tyrrell in her own sitting-room.  Perhaps Mrs.
+Poynsett had not realized who was Jenny's companion, for she seemed
+startled at their entrance; and Jenny said, "You remember Lenore
+Vivian?"
+
+"I must have seen you as a child," said Mrs. Poynsett, courteously.
+"You are very like your sister."
+
+This, though usually a great compliment, disappointed Eleonora, as
+she answered, rather frigidly, "So people say."
+
+"Have you walked far?"
+
+"To the Outwood Lodge."
+
+"To-day?  Was it not very damp in the woods?"
+
+"Oh no, delightful!"
+
+"Lena and I are old friends," said Jenny; "too glad to meet to heed
+the damp."
+
+Here Raymond entered, with the air of a man who had just locked up a
+heavy post-bag at the last possible moment; and he too was amazed,
+though he covered it by asking why the party was so small.
+
+"Rosamond has gone to meet her husband, and Cecil has her guest in
+her own domains."
+
+Then Jenny asked after his day's work--a county matter, interesting
+to all the magistracy, and their womankind in their degree; and
+Eleonora listened in silence, watching with quiet heedfulness
+Frank's mother and brother.
+
+When Frank himself came in, his face was a perfect study; and the
+colour mantled in her cheeks, so that Jenny trusted that both were
+touched by the wonderful beauty that a little softness and timidity
+brought out on the features, usually so resolutely on guard.  But
+when, in the later evening, Jenny crept in to her old friend, hoping
+to find that the impression had been favourable, she only heard,
+"Exactly like her sister, who always had the making of a fine
+countenance."
+
+"The mask--yes, but Lena has the spirit behind the mask.  Poor girl!
+she is not at all happy in the atmosphere her sister has brought
+home."
+
+"Then I wish they would marry her!"
+
+"Won't you believe how truly nice and good she is?"
+
+"That will not make up for the connection.  My heart sank, Jenny,
+from the time I heard that those Vivians were coming back.  I kept
+Frank away as long as I could--but there's no help for it.  It seems
+the fate of my boys to be the prey of those sirens."
+
+"Well, then, dear Mrs. Poynsett, do pray believe, on my word, that
+Eleonora is a different creature!"
+
+"Is there no hope of averting it?  I thought Camilla would--poor
+Frank is such insignificant game!"
+
+"And when it does come, don't be set against her, please, dear Mrs.
+Poynsett.  Be as kind to her--as you were to me," whispered Jenny,
+nestling up, and hiding her face.
+
+"My dear, but I knew you!  You were no such case."
+
+"Except that you all were horribly vexed with us, because we
+couldn't help liking each other," said Jenny.
+
+"Ah! my poor child!  I only wish you could have liked any one else!"
+
+"Do you?" said Jenny, looking up.  "Oh no, you don't!  You would not
+have me for your supplementary child, if I had," she added
+playfully; then very low--"It is because the thought of dear Archie,
+even ending as it did, is my very heart's joy, that I want you to
+let them have theirs!"
+
+And then came a break, which ended the pleading; and Jenny was
+obliged to leave Compton without much notion as to the effect of her
+advice, audacious as she knew it to have been.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+Neither Land Nor Water
+
+
+A light that never was on sea or land.--WORDSWORTH
+
+Nothing could be prettier than Rosamond's happiness in welcoming her
+school-boy brothers, and her gratitude to Mrs. Poynsett for inviting
+them, declaring that she liked boys.  Her sons, however, dreaded the
+inroad of two wild Irish lads, and held council what covers and what
+horses could most safely be victimized to them, disregarding all
+testimony in their favour from interested parties.  When, therefore,
+Terence and Thomas de Lancey made their appearance, and were walked
+in for exhibition by their proud and happy sister, there was some
+surprise at the sight of two peculiarly refined, quiet boys, with
+colourless complexions, soft, sleepy, long-lashed, liquid brown
+eyes, the lowest of full voices, and the gentlest of manners, as if
+nothing short of an explosion could rouse them.
+
+And it was presently manifest that their sister had said rather too
+little than too much of Terry's abilities.  Not only had he brought
+home a huge pile of prizes, but no sooner was the seance after
+dinner broken up, than he detained Julius, saying, in a very meek
+and modest tone, "Rose says you know all the books in the library."
+
+"Rose undertakes a great deal for me.  What is this the prelude to?"
+
+"I wanted to ask if I might just look at any book about the physical
+geography of Italy, or the History of Venice, or the Phoenicians."
+
+"Why, Terry?"
+
+"It is for the Prize Essay," explained the boy; "the subject is the
+effect of the physical configuration of a country upon the character
+of a nation."
+
+Julius drew a long breath, astounded at the march of intellect since
+his time.  "They don't expect such things of fellows like you!" he
+said.
+
+"Only of the sixth, but the fifth may go in for it, and I want to
+get up to the Doctor himself; I thought, as I was coming to such a
+jolly library, I might try; and if I do pretty well, I shall be put
+up, if any more fellows leave.  Do you think I may use the books?
+I'm librarian, so I know how to take care of them."
+
+"You can be trusted for that, you book-worm," said Julius; "here's
+the library, but I fear I don't know much about those modern
+histories.  My mother is a great reader, and will direct us.  Let us
+come to her."
+
+Quiet as Terry was, he was neither awkward nor shy; and when Julius
+had explained his wishes, and Mrs. Poynsett had asked a few good-
+natured questions, she was charmed as well as surprised at the
+gentle yet eager modesty with which the low-pitched tones detailed
+the ideas already garnered up, and inquired for authorities, in
+which to trace them out, without the least notion of the remarkable
+powers he was evincing.  She was delighted with the boy; Julius
+guided his researches; and he went off to bed as happy as a king,
+with his hands full of little dark tarnished French duodecimos, and
+with a ravenous appetite for the pasture ground he saw before him.
+Lower Canada had taught him French, and the stores he found were
+revelry to him.
+
+Cecil's feelings may be better guessed than described when the
+return of Mudie's box was hastened that he might have Motley's Dutch
+Republic.  She thought this studiousness mere affectation; but it
+was indisputable that Terry's soul was in books, and that he never
+was so happy as when turned loose into the library, dipping here and
+there, or with an elbow planted on either side of a folio.
+
+Offers of gun or horse merely tormented him, and only his sister
+could drag him out by specious pleas of need, to help in those
+Christmas works, where she had much better assistance in Anne and
+the curates--the one for clubs and coals, the other for decorations.
+
+Mrs. Poynsett was Terry's best friend.  He used to come to her in
+the evening and discuss what he had been reading till she was almost
+as keen about his success as Frank's.  He talked over his ambition,
+of getting a scholarship, becoming a fellow, and living for ever
+among the books, for which the scanty supply in his wandering
+boyhood had but whetted his fervour.  He even confided to her what
+no one else knew but his sister Aileen, his epic in twenty-four
+books on Brian Boromhe and the Battle of Clontarf; and she was
+mother enough not to predict its inevitable fate, nor audibly to
+detect the unconscious plagiarisms, but to be a better listener than
+even Aileen, who never could be withheld from unfeeling laughter at
+the touching fate of the wounded warriors who were tied to stakes
+that they might die fighting.
+
+Tom was a more ordinary youth, even more lazy and quiet in the
+house, though out of it he amazed Frank and Charlie by his dash,
+fire, and daring, and witched all the stable-world with noble
+horsemanship.  Hunting was prevented, however, by a frost, which
+filled every one with excitement as to the practicability of
+skating.
+
+The most available water was a lake between Sirenwood and Compton;
+and here, like eagles to the slaughter, gathered, by a sort of
+instinct, the entire skating population of the neighbourhood on the
+first day that the ice was hard enough.  Rosamond was there, of
+course, with both her brothers, whom she averred, by a bold figure
+of speech, to have skated in Canada before they could walk.  Anne
+was there, studying the new phenomena of ice and snow under good-
+natured Charlie's protection, learning the art with unexpected
+courage and dexterity.  Cecil was there but not shining so much, for
+her father had been always so nervous about his darling venturing on
+the ice, that she had no skill in the art; and as Raymond had been
+summoned to some political meeting, she had no special squire, as
+her young brother-in-law eluded the being enlisted in her service;
+and she began to decide that skating was irrational and unwomanly;
+although Lady Tyrrell had just arrived, and was having her skates
+put on; and Eleonora was only holding back because she was taking
+care of the two purple-legged, purple-faced, and purple-haired
+little Duncombes, whom she kept sliding in a corner, where they
+could hardly damage themselves or the ice.
+
+Cecil had just thanked Colonel Ross for pushing her in a chair, and
+on his leaving her was deliberating whether to walk home with her
+dignity, or watch for some other cavalier, when the drag drew up on
+the road close by, and from it came Captain and Mrs. Duncombe, with
+two strangers, who were introduced to her as 'Mrs. Tallboys and the
+Professor, just fetched from the station.'
+
+The former was exquisitely dressed in blue velvet and sealskin, and
+had the transparent complexion and delicate features of an American,
+with brilliant eyes, and a look of much cleverness; her husband,
+small, sallow, and dark, and apparently out of health.  "Are you
+leaving off skating, Cecil?" asked Mrs. Duncombe; "goodness me, I
+could go on into next year!  But if you are wasting your privileges,
+bestow them on Mrs. Tallboys, for pity's sake.  We came in hopes
+some good creature had a spare pair of skates.  Gussie Moy offered,
+but hers were yards too long."
+
+"I hope mine are not too small," said Cecil, not quite crediting
+that an American foot could be as small as that of a Charnock; but
+she found herself mistaken, they were a perfect fit; and as they
+were tried, there came a loud laugh, and she saw a tall girl
+standing by her, whom, in her round felt hat and thick rough coat
+with metal buttons, she had really taken for one of the Captain's
+male friends.
+
+"I wouldn't have such small feet," she said; "I shouldn't feel
+secure of my understanding."
+
+"Mrs. Tallboys would not change with you, Gussie," said Captain
+Duncombe.  "I'd back her any day--"
+
+"What odds will you take, Captain--"
+
+But Mrs. Duncombe broke in.  "Bless me, if there aren't those little
+dogs of mine!  Lena Vivian does spoil them.  Send them home, for
+pity's sake, Bob."
+
+"Poor little kids, they are doing no harm."
+
+"We shall have them tumbling in, and no end of a row!  I can't stand
+a swarm of children after me, and they are making a perfect victim
+of Lena.  Send them home, Bob, or I shall have to do it."
+
+The Captain obeyed somewhat ruefully.  "Come, my lads, Bessie says
+you must go home, and leave Miss Vivian in peace."
+
+"O, Bob, please let us stay; Lena is taking care of us--"
+
+"Indeed I like nothing so well," protested Lenore; but the Captain
+murmured something about higher powers, and cheerfully saying he
+would give the boys a run, took each by an unwilling hand, and raced
+them into a state of frightened jollity by a short cut, by which he
+was able to dispose of them in the drag.
+
+The Professor, meanwhile, devoted himself to Mrs. Charnock Poynsett,
+took her chair for a whirl on the ice; described American sleighing
+parties; talked of his tour in Europe.  He was really a clever,
+observant man, and Cecil had not had any one to talk Italy to her
+for a long time past, and responded with all her full precision.
+The Professor might speak a little through his nose, but she had
+seldom met any one more polite and accomplished.
+
+Meantime, a quadrille was being got up.  Such a performance and such
+partners had never been seen in light that shone on water or on
+land, being coupled by their dexterity in the art.  They were led
+off by Mrs. Duncombe and the Reverend James Bindon.  Mrs. Tallboys
+paired with Terry De Lancey, Lady Tyrrell with Herbert Bowater, Lady
+Rosamond with one of the officers.  Tom was pounced on by the great
+'Gussy Moy,' who declared, to his bitter wrath, that she preferred
+little boys, turning her back on Mr. Strangeways and two or three
+more officers, as she saw them first solicitous to engage Eleonora
+Vivian--who, however, was to skate with Charlie.
+
+A few wistful glances were cast towards the Wil'sbro' road, for
+Frank had been obliged by the cruel exigencies of the office to
+devote this magnificent frosty day to the last agonies of cram.
+This, however, had gone on better for the last fortnight--owing,
+perhaps, to some relaxation of Eleonora's stern guard over her
+countenance in their few meetings since Jenny's departure.
+
+"And after all," as Charlie said, with the cheeriness of one who has
+passed his own ordeal, "a man who had taken such a degree as Frank
+could not depend on a few weeks of mere cramming."
+
+Frank did come speedily up the road just as the quadrille was in
+full force; and perhaps the hindrance had stood him in good stead;
+for when the performance ceased in the twilight, and voices were
+eagerly talking of renewing it as a fackel-tanz in the later
+evening, and only yielding at the recollection of dinner
+engagements, it was not Charlie who was taking off Eleonora's
+skates; and when, after fixing grand plans for the morrow, Lady
+Tyrrell mounted her pony-carriage and looked for her sister, she
+heard that Miss Vivian was walking home.
+
+Yes, Miss Vivian was walking home; and there was a companion by her
+side feeling as if that dark, hard gravelled road were the pebbly
+beach of Rockpier.
+
+"When do you go to London?" she asked.
+
+"To-morrow afternoon.  Wish me well through, Lenore."
+
+"Indeed I do."
+
+"Say it again, Lenore!  Give me the elixir that will give me power
+to conquer everything."
+
+"Don't say such exaggerated things."
+
+"Do you think it is possible to me to exaggerate what a word from
+you is to me?" said Frank, in a low voice of intense feeling.
+
+"O Frank! it is wiser not to say such things."
+
+"Wise! what is that to me?  It is true, and you have known it--and
+why will you not allow that you do, as in those happy old days--"
+
+"That's what makes me fear.  It would be so much better for you if
+all this had never begun."
+
+"It has begun, then!" murmured Frank, with joy and triumph in the
+sound.  "As long as you allow that, it is enough for me."
+
+"I must!  It is true; and truth must be somewhere!" was whispered in
+a strange, low, resolute whisper.
+
+"True! true that you can feel one particle of the intensity--Oh!
+what words can I find to make you understand the glow and tenderness
+the very thought of you has been!"
+
+"Hush, hush!--pray, Frank.  Now, if I do own it--"
+
+"It--what?  Let me hear!  I'm very stupid, you know!" said Frank, in
+a voice of exulting comprehension, belying his alleged stupidity.
+
+"What you have been to me--"
+
+"Have been--eh?" said this cruel cross-examiner.
+
+"Do not let us waste time," said Eleonora, in a trembling voice;
+"you know very well."
+
+"Do I?"
+
+"Now, Frank!"
+
+"If you only knew what it would be worth to me to hear you say it!"
+
+"I'm afraid it would be only worth pain and grief to you, and anger
+from every one," said she, in a low dejected voice, "far more than I
+am worth."
+
+"You?  Trust me to judge of that, Lenore.  Would not you be worth
+all, and more than all, that flesh or spirit could feel!  I could
+face it all for one look from you!" said Frank, with fervour from
+his heart of hearts.
+
+"You make me more and more afraid.  It is all too wretched to lead
+any one into.  Since I knew the whole truth, I have tried to spare
+you from it."
+
+"That is why you have been so cold, and held so cruelly aloof all
+this time, so that if I had not caught one ray now and then, you
+would have broken my heart, Lenore; as it is, I've been wretched
+beyond description, hardly able to sleep by night or speak
+rationally by day.  How had you the heart to serve me so, like a
+stony Greek statue?"
+
+"I thought it must be right.  It seemed to break my own heart too."
+
+"That's the woman's way of showing a thing is right; but why I can't
+see.  If you did hate me, it might be all very well to throw me
+over; but if not, why torture two as well as one?  Are you afraid of
+my people?  I'll manage them."
+
+"You little know--"
+
+"Know what?"
+
+"All that made it cruel in Camilla to throw us together."
+
+"Cruel! when it was the crowning joy of my past life, and is to be
+the crowning joy of the future?"
+
+"How can it?  Frank, you must know the causes your mother has for
+abhorring any connection with our unhappy family."
+
+"My mother has too much sense to think a little extravagance among
+the men of a family can affect the daughters.  I know the outer
+world is afraid of her, but she is the tenderest and most indulgent
+of mothers to us.  No fear of her!"
+
+"Ah! but that's not all."
+
+"You mean that she has not taken much to your sister.  I know; and
+I'm very sorry; but bring them together, and it would soon be got
+over.  Besides, it is not your sister, but you.  What do you mean?"
+rather disconcerted.
+
+"Then you really did not know of the old engagement between Camilla
+and your eldest brother?"
+
+"Oh, oh!  So she consented once!  Then she will do so again."
+
+"Listen!  Camilla broke it off because your mother could not resign
+her position to her."
+
+He gave a whistle of dismay, then recovering himself with a laugh,
+said, "Fourth sons don't have such expectations founded on them.
+Don't fear, dearest; that can't be all the story, though no doubt it
+was part of it.  My mother would rather go into a hermitage than
+stand in the way of Raymond's happiness.  Some one must have made
+mischief."
+
+"It was not all," said the girl; "it was Lord Tyrrell's coming in
+the way.  Yes, my father told me so; he held it up to me as an
+example of what one ought to do for one's family."
+
+"Then she was coerced?"
+
+"I don't know; but such a marriage for me, with some one who would
+redeem the property, is their scheme for me.  Even if your mother
+and brother could tolerate the thought of one of us, my poor dear
+father will never dare to consent as long as she is with him."
+
+"Nay, Lenore; have I not often heard her say she prefers happiness
+to ambition?  Whatever she may have done, she has come to think
+differently.  She has well-nigh told me so."
+
+"Yes, at Rockpier," sighed Eleonora.  "Hark!"  The sound of the
+ponies' bells and hoofs was heard; Lenore put her hand on his arm,
+and drew him aside on the grass, behind a clump of trees, hushing
+him by a silent pressure as he tried to remonstrate.  He clasped her
+hand, and felt her trembling till the tinkling and tramp were gone
+by.
+
+"You frightened darling!" were his first words, when she let him
+speak.  "Who would have thought you would be so shy?  But we'll have
+it out, and--"
+
+"It is not that," interrupted Lenore, "not maidenly shyness.  That's
+for girls who are happy and secure.  No; but I don't want to have it
+all overthrown at once--the first sweetness--"
+
+"It can't be overthrown!" he said, holding arm and hand in the
+intense grasp.
+
+"Not really, never; but there is no use in attempting anything till
+I am of age--next autumn, the 7th of November."
+
+"Say nothing till then!" exclaimed Frank, in some consternation.
+
+"We are only where we were before!  We are sure of each other now.
+It will be only vexation and harass," said she, with the instinct of
+a persecuted creature.
+
+"I couldn't," said Frank.  "I could not keep it in with mother!  It
+would not be right if I could, nor should I feel as if I were acting
+fairly by your father."
+
+"You are right, Frank.  Forgive me!  You don't know what it is to
+have to be always saving one's truth only by silence.  Speak when
+you think right."
+
+"And I believe we shall find it far easier than you think.  I'm not
+quite a beggar--except for you, my Lena.  I should like to go home
+this minute, and tell mother and Charlie and Rose, that I'm--I'm
+treading on air; but I should only be fallen upon for thinking of
+anything but my task-work.  So I'll take a leaf out of your book,
+you cautious Lenore, and wait till I come down victorious, happy and
+glorious--and I shall now.  I feel as if you had given me power to
+scale Olympus, now I know I may carry your heart with me.  Do you
+remember this, Lena?"  He guided her hand to the smooth pebble on
+his chain.  She responded by putting her own into his.
+
+"My talisman!" he said.  "It has been my talisman of success many a
+time.  I have laid my hand on it, and thought I was working for you.
+Mine! mine! mine!  Waters cannot quench love--never fear."
+
+"Hush!" as the light of the opening hall door was seen, and Lady
+Tyrrell's voice was heard, saying, "I thought we passed her; I am
+sure she was near."
+
+Eleonora withdrew her arm, patted Frank back, waved him into
+silence, and went forward, saying, "Here I am, Camilla; I walked
+home."
+
+Her voice was calm and self-contained as ever--the unassailable
+dignity just as usual.  The hall was full of officers, standing
+about the fire and drinking tea, and Eleonora's well-worn armour was
+instantly on, as her sister asked where she had been, since others
+had walked home and had not overtaken her.
+
+"I came by the lower road," said she.
+
+"Indeed!  I never saw you."
+
+"I saw you pass--or rather heard you."
+
+"And did not let me pick you up!  Did you hide yourself?"
+
+"It was much warmer to walk."
+
+"So you seem to have found it, to judge by your cheeks," said Lady
+Tyrrell.
+
+And Mr. Strangeways and one or two others could not restrain a
+murmured exclamation on the exceeding loveliness of that deepened
+colour and brightened eye; but Lenore only knew that an equally
+bright and keen eye was watching her heedfully, and knew that she
+was suspected, if not read through and through.
+
+She mingled in the discussion of the skating, with those outward
+society-senses that she learnt to put on, and escaped as soon as
+possible to her own room.
+
+Again she almost fell on the ground in her own little oratory
+chamber, in a tumult of gladness that was almost agony, and fear
+that was almost joy.
+
+She wanted to give thanks that Frank had become so wholly and
+avowedly hers, and for that deep intense affection that had gone on,
+unfed, uncherished, for years; but the overflow of delight was
+checked with foreboding--there was the instinctive terror of a
+basilisk eye gazing into her paradise of joy--the thanksgiving ran
+into a half-despairing deprecation.
+
+And she knew that Frank was under Camilla's spell, and admired and
+trusted her still; nor had she been able to utter a word of caution
+to undeceive him.  Should she have the power on the morrow?  Camilla
+really loved skating, and surrounded as she was sure to be, there
+was hope of escaping her vigilant eye once more.  To-morrow there
+would be another meeting with Frank! perhaps another walk with him!
+
+That anticipation was soothing enough to bring back the power of
+joyful gratitude, and therewith of hopeful prayer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+Plot and Counterplot
+
+
+A lady a party of pleasure made,
+   And she planned her scheme full well,
+And day and night the party filled
+   The head of the demoiselle.--FABER
+
+Though Frank had no reason to expect that the tidings of his success
+would be hailed with much satisfaction at home, yet his habit of
+turning to his mother for sympathy would have been too much for his
+prudence, but for the fact that Terry De Lancey had dragged into her
+room a massive volume of prints from the Uffizi Gallery, and was
+looking it over with her, with a zest she had not seen since the
+days when her father gloried in his collection.
+
+His victory could only be confided to Charlie, who might laugh, but
+fully appreciated the repose of mind with which he could now
+encounter the examiners, and promised to do his part to cover the
+meetings of the lovers the next day.  But even then the chances of
+another performance on the lake, or of a walk among the icicles
+afterwards, were departing.  Thaw was setting in and by breakfast-
+time there was a down-pouring rain.  Frank lingered about Cecil in
+hopes of a message to serve as an excuse for a rush to Sirenwood;
+but she proved to be going to drive to the working-room, and then to
+lunch at Mrs. Duncombe's, to meet the Americans and the ladies from
+Sirenwood, according to a note sent over in early morning at first
+sight of the wet.
+
+Thereupon Frank found he had a last reference to make to his tutor,
+and begged for a lift.  A touch of warmth in Cecil would have opened
+the flood-gates of his confidence, but she was exercised about a
+mistake in the accounts, and claimed his aid in tracking a defective
+seven-pence.  When she heard him utter the monstrous statement that
+a hundred and five farthings were almost nine shillings, she looked
+at him with withering compassion, as sure to fail, and a small loss
+to Her Majesty; nor would she listen to any of his hints that he was
+very curious to see her working-room.
+
+His question to the tutor judiciously lasted till twelve, when he
+dropped in to consult Captain Duncombe about horse-hire in London;
+and that gentleman, who had been undergoing a course of political
+economy all the morning, eagerly pounced on him for a tour of his
+stables, which lasted till luncheon was due, and he could casually
+enter the dining-room, where Lady Tyrrell held out her hand good-
+naturedly to him, laughing at the blankness he could not entirely
+conceal.  "Only me!" she said.  "It can't be helped!  Poor Lenore
+caught such a dreadful sore throat last night, that I have shut her
+up in her room with a mustard poultice."
+
+"Indeed!  I am very sorry."
+
+"You may well look horrified!  You were the guilty party, I suspect.
+Taking her all across the park under those dank trees!"
+
+He coloured up to the eyes, little expecting to be thus convicted;
+but Mrs. Duncombe came to his aid.  "My impartiality would impute
+the damage to her standing about with those wretched little dogs of
+mine."
+
+"It is your climate," said Mrs. Tallboys.  "In our dry atmosphere
+there would be no risk with a far lower temperature."
+
+"I hope it is nothing serious," said Frank, anxiously.
+
+"I hope so too," said Lady Tyrrell, looking archly into his face,
+which had not learnt such impenetrability as poor Lenore's.
+
+"No; but really?" he said, in anxiety that would not be rallied
+away.
+
+"This is the way," said Lady Tyrrell.  "Young gentlemen persuade
+young ladies to do the most imprudent things--saunter about in the
+cold after skating, and dawdle under trees, and then wonder when
+they catch cold.--Do they do such things in your country, Mrs.
+Tallboys, and expect the mammas and elder sisters to be gratified?"
+
+"Mammas and elder sisters are at a discount with you, are not they?"
+said Mrs. Duncombe.
+
+"Our young women are sufficient to protect themselves without our
+showing tacit distrust, and encumbering them with guardianship,"
+returned the Professor.
+
+"Mr. Charnock wishes we had reached that point," said Lady Tyrrell.
+
+She had put him completely out of countenance.  He had not supposed
+her aware of his having been Lenore's companion, and was not certain
+whether her sister had not after all confided in her, or if he
+himself had not been an unconscious victim.  The public banter
+jarred upon him; and while Cecil was making inquiries into the
+extent of the young ladies' privileges in America, he was mentally
+calculating the possibilities of rushing up to Sirenwood, trying to
+see Lenore in spite of her throat, and ascertaining her position,
+before his train was due; but he was forced to resign the notion,
+for Raymond had made an appointment for him in London which must not
+be missed; and before luncheon was over the dog-cart, according to
+agreement with Charlie, called for him.
+
+"Good-bye, Mr. Frank," said Mrs. Duncombe; "will you have an old
+shoe thrown after you for luck?"
+
+"The time is not come for that yet," said Cecil, gravely.
+
+"Tending in that direction.  Eh, Charnock?" said the Captain.
+"Here's to your success--now, and in what's to come!"
+
+"Thank you, Captain," said Frank, shaking his hand, liking the
+hearty voice.  "Lady Tyrrell, won't you give me your good wishes?"
+he asked, half diffidently.
+
+"For the examination--yes, certainly," she replied.  "It is safer
+not to look too far into your wishing-well."
+
+"And--and will you give my--my best regards to Le--to Miss Vivian,
+and say I grieve for her cold, and trust to her--to her good wishes--
+" he uttered, quick and fast, holding her hand all the time.
+
+"Yes, yes," she said quickly; "but last messages won't do when
+trains are due."
+
+"Not due yet," said Frank; "but I must go home.  I've not seen my
+mother to-day, and I shall not have a moment.--Good-bye, Cecil; have
+you any commands for Raymond?"
+
+"No, thank you," said Cecil, gravely; and with a bow to the
+Americans, he was gone.
+
+"That is one of your products of the highest English refinement?"
+said Mrs. Tallboys, whom in his preoccupation he had scarcely
+noticed.
+
+"How does he strike you?" said Cecil.  "He is my brother-in-law, but
+never mind that."
+
+"He looks fitted for the hero of a vapid English novel.  I long to
+force him to rough it, and to rub off that exquisite do-nothing air.
+It irritates me!"
+
+"Frank Charnock has done a good deal of hard work, and is not to
+lead the life of an idle man," said Captain Duncombe.  "I know I
+should not like to be in his shoes if he succeeds--grinding away in
+an office ten months out of the twelve."
+
+"In an office!  I should like to set him to work with an axe!"
+
+"Well, those dainty-looking curled darlings don't do badly in the
+backwoods," said Lady Tyrrell.
+
+"Ah!  I understand!  You stand up for him because there's a little
+tendresse for your sister," said the plain-spoken American.
+
+"Poor fellow!  I am afraid he is far gone.  It is an impossible
+thing, though, and the sooner he can be cured of it the better,"
+said Lady Tyrrell.  "I am sorry that walk took place yesterday.--Did
+he mention it at home, Cecil?"
+
+"You are a very inconsistent woman, Lady Tyrrell," broke in Mrs.
+Duncombe in her abrupt way.  "Here you are come to uphold the
+emancipation of woman, and yet, when we come to your own sister
+taking one poor walk--"
+
+"I beg your pardon, Bessie," said Lady Tyrrell, with her most
+courteous manner.  "I never said I was come to uphold the
+emancipation of woman; only to subject myself to Mrs. Tallboys'
+influence--she has to make a convert of me."
+
+For, of course, Lady Tyrrell was only drawn into the controversy as
+a matter of amusement, and possibly as something specially
+distasteful to the house of Charnock Poynsett; and Cecil was a good
+deal influenced by the fascination of her example, as well as by the
+eagerness of Mrs. Duncombe and the charms of the Americans; and
+above all, they conspired in making her feel herself important, and
+assuming that she must be foremost in all that was done.  She did
+not controvert the doctrines of Dunstone so entirely as to embrace
+the doctrines of emancipation, but she thought that free ventilation
+was due to every subject, most especially when the Member's wife was
+the leading lady in bringing about such discussion.  The opposition
+made in the town to Mrs. Duncombe's sanitary plans, and the contempt
+with which they had been treated as ladies' fancies, had given a
+positive field of battle, with that admixture of right and wrong on
+either side which is essential to championship.  And in truth Cecil
+was so much more under the influence of Camilla Tyrrell and Bessie
+Duncombe than under that of any other person, that she was ready to
+espouse any cause that they did.
+
+How to arrange for the intended instruction was the difficulty,
+since Wil'sbro' was without a town-hall, and, moreover, the
+inhabitants were averse to all varieties of change, either as to the
+claims of women, the inequality of social laws, the improvement of
+education, or the comprehension of social science--the regular
+course which Mrs. Clio W. Tallboys was wont to lecture.
+
+The matter could only be managed by arranging a series of soirees at
+different houses.  Mrs. Duncombe's rooms were far too small; but if
+some person of more note--'some swell' as she said--would make the
+beginning, there would be no difficulty in bringing others to follow
+suit.
+
+"You must do it, Lady Tyrrell," said Mrs. Duncombe.
+
+"I!  If there's nobody else; but it would come much better from
+another quarter," nodding at Cecil.
+
+"Don't you wish you may get it?" muttered the slang-loving Bessie.
+
+"That's one point in which we leave you far behind," said Mrs.
+Tallboys.  "We issue our invitations quite independently of the
+other members of the household.  Each has a separate visiting list."
+
+"There need be no difficulty," said Cecil; "all matters of visiting
+are in my hands.  It is necessary in our position; and if Lady
+Tyrrell thinks it proper that I should give the first party, I will
+do so."
+
+"Bravo, what fun!" cried Mrs. Duncombe, clapping her hands.  "You
+won't get into a jolly row, though?" she added, anxiously.
+
+"I am perfectly sure of my ground," said Cecil, with the dignity of
+one to whom a 'row' was unheard of.  "It is the simple duty of a
+Member to come forward in promoting free discussion of opinions."
+
+"You are a public-spirited woman, Cecil," said Lady Tyrrell.  "When
+you have made the first move, I'll follow.  Then whom shall we ask
+next?"
+
+"Mrs. Moy," said Bessie.  "She is a nonentity herself, but if Gussie
+were to be strongly bitten she could do more than any one else, and
+make her father reform that nest of horrors in Water Lane!"
+
+"I'm afraid the freedom side will bite her more than the sanitary
+side," said Lady Tyrrell.
+
+"She is capital fun, though, and a great ally of ours," said Mrs.
+Duncombe; "and the rooms at Proudfoot Lawn are worth anything!"
+
+Other details were fixed, even to the day of Cecil's opening party,
+which must take place on the first practicable day; but there was
+none to be found till the Wednesday week, the day before Raymond
+would return home.  Cecil did not recollect this till the day had
+been unanimously agreed on, and it was with a little alarm; but
+after what she had asserted about her freedom of action, she could
+not retract before the eyes of the American lady; and, as she said
+to herself, she could receive her own ladies' party, without
+interfering with any one else, in the library, so that no one had a
+right to object.  However, she had a certain anticipation of
+opposition, which caused her to act before announcing her intention;
+and thus it was that Rosamond found her dropping a number of notes
+through the slit in the lid of the post-box.  "Another dinner?" was
+the question.
+
+"No, this is a soiree in the library, entirely for ladies; Mrs.
+Tallboys is to explain her views in the evenings at the Principal
+houses in the neighbourhood.  She will begin here on Wednesday
+week."
+
+"Why, that's before Raymond comes back!"
+
+"This is entirely for women."
+
+"Women! women's rights!  How have you got Mrs. Poynsett to consent?"
+
+"I have carte blanche in these matters."
+
+"Do you mean that you have not consulted her?  Does Raymond know?
+Oh!  Yes, I see I have no right to ask; but, Cecil, for your own
+sake, I entreat you to consider what you are about, before running
+into such a frightful scrape!" and Rosamond impulsively caught the
+hand that was still putting in a letter; but Cecil stood still, not
+withdrawing or moving a muscle, perfectly impassive.  Rosamond went
+on more eagerly, "Oh yes, I know you don't like me--I'm only a poor
+battered soldier's daughter, quite an unworthy associate for a
+Charnock of the Charnocks; but I can't help begging you to consider
+the consequences of sending out invitations to hear this strange
+woman hold forth in Mrs. Poynsett's own house, in your husband's
+absence."
+
+"Thank you for your solicitude," said Cecil, dropping in her
+envelope the instant the obstructive hand was removed, and going on
+her way with dignified self-possession; while Rosamond, in a tumult
+of indignation, which made her scarcely comprehensible, rushed up to
+her husband at his writing, and poured out her story.
+
+Clio advocating female supremacy in Mrs. Poynsett's own house,
+without notice to her!  Should she be warned in time to stop the
+letters?  Should Raymond be written to?  Rosamond was for both,
+Julius for neither.  He said that either way would begin a system
+that could never be forgiven; and that they had better consider
+themselves as practically at the Rectory, and not interfere.
+
+"How can you be so cold-blooded?" cried she.
+
+"I do not want to do worse harm.  My mother will learn what is to
+happen sooner or later; and then she can put a stop to it in any way
+she chooses."
+
+"I wish she would send in Mrs. Crabtree with her tawse!" said
+Rosamond.  "But is it right by Raymond to let his wife bring this
+Yankee muse to talk her nonsense in his very rooms?"
+
+"You have argued with her?"
+
+"Or with a block--a stock--a stone!" raved Rosamond.
+
+"Then depend upon it, to inform against her would be far worse than
+letting any amount of absurdity be talked.  I should like to know
+how you would get over being so served!"
+
+"Don't make comparisons, sir!  Poor things! they would not be the
+worse for a little of our foolishness!"
+
+Things settled themselves according to Julius's prediction; for Mr.
+Bowater, coming up with his son Herbert to see his old friend, said,
+"What grand doings are you having here?  What is Raymond's wife up
+to?  Ladies' conversazione--that's a new thing in these parts!"
+
+"I gave such matters up to her," said Mrs. Poynsett.  "Young people
+like a little freedom of action; and there are changes in the
+neighbourhood since I was laid up."  It was a temporizing speech, to
+avoid showing her total ignorance.
+
+Mr. Bowater cleared his throat.  "Young folk may like freedom of
+action, but it don't always follow that it is good for them.  I hope
+she won't get Raymond into a scrape, that's all--committing him and
+herself to a course of lectures by that Yankee woman on woman's
+rights."
+
+"It does not commit him; it is before he comes home, on Wednesday,"
+said Herbert.
+
+"Never mind that; what a woman does her husband does.  Look here,
+Mrs. Poynsett, I brought over Jenny's note in my pocket; see, here
+are two--one to accept, and one to refuse, just as you choose."
+
+"Oh! accept, by all means," cried Mrs. Poynsett; "don't leave the
+wrong one!"
+
+Then she changed the conversation, so decidedly, that Mr. Bowater
+could not resume his warning; but after taking leave of her, he met
+Rosamond in the avenue, and could not help saying, "Pray, was my old
+friend aware of Mrs. Raymond's doings?"
+
+"Have you told her?  Oh! I am so glad!"
+
+"Then it is as you said, Herbert.  Mrs. Raymond had left her in
+ignorance!  The impudent baggage!  That's what the world is coming
+to!"
+
+"But what regular game Mrs. Poynsett was!" said Herbert.  "You could
+not make out in the least that she had been left in the lurch; and
+I'm sure she has a plan, by the way in which she desired Jenny and
+Edie to come."
+
+"Only make her understand that the Wil'sbro' folks are in a ticklish
+state," said Mr. Bowater; "they are sulking already, because they
+say the ladies have been stirring him up to put them to expense
+about the drains."
+
+"Wil'sbro' isn't sweet," said Herbert.
+
+"There's been nothing amiss in my time," returned his father.
+"Perfectly healthy in all reason!  Ay! you may laugh, young folks,
+but I never heard of any receipt to hinder people from dying; and
+let well alone is a safe maxim."
+
+"If it be well," said Rosamond.  "However, Raymond says whatever is
+done must be by general consent, and that small private attempts do
+more harm than good."
+
+"He had better take care what he says.  If they fancy he is in
+league with that ridiculous Duncombe woman against their pockets,
+Moy is on the watch to take advantage of it; and all the old family
+interest will not save his seat."
+
+When Rosamond reached home she found Anne beside her mother-in-law,
+provided with a quire of note-paper and pile of envelopes.  "My
+dear, I want your help," she said.  "Till my accident I always had a
+children's party at Christmas; and now I have so many young people
+to manage it for me, I think we might try again, and combine it with
+Cecil's ladies' party, on Wednesday."
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Rosamond.  "You mean that we should have plenty of
+fun--and, in fact, drum out the rights of woman."
+
+"At any rate, present a counter attraction.  You and Charlie and
+your brothers, with the Bowaters, might do something?"
+
+"Trust me!" cried Rosamond.  "Oh! I am so thankful to Mr. Bowater.
+Julius and I had our blood boiling; and I said as much or more to
+Cecil than woman could, but she minded me no more than the old white
+cockatoo; and Julius said our telling would only make more
+mischief."
+
+"He was quite right," said his mother.  "Let there not be one word
+of opposition, you know; only swamp it.  You could get up some
+charades, and have something going on all the evening."
+
+"Trust me for that!  Oh! if my darling Aileen were but here!  But
+Tom is the very model of an actor, and Terry is grand, if only we
+can keep him out of the high tragedy line.  King Lear is the mildest
+thing he condescends to!"
+
+"Could you manage a Christmas-tree?  The taking up a room beforehand
+is inconvenient; but I should like to offer some little substantial
+bait, even to the grown-up;" and her eyes twinkled merrily.
+
+"I know a better thing," said Rosamond; "an enchanted grove with a
+beneficent witch.  We did it at St. Awdry's, with bon-bons and
+trumpery, in a little conservatory, hardly large enough to turn
+round in.  If I may have the key of the conservatory, I'll manage."
+
+"You shall have what you please; and perhaps you would kindly go and
+choose the things at Backsworth.  There is a very good fancy shop
+there."
+
+"Thank you, thank you!  How sweet!--Now, Anne, you will see what you
+shall see!"
+
+"Is there to be dancing?" asked Anne, humbly yet resolutely.
+
+"There shall not be, my dear, if it will spoil the evening for you,"
+said Mrs. Poynsett.
+
+"I promised," said Anne.
+
+At that moment the servants came in with the preparations for the
+afternoon tea, closely followed by the ever punctual Cecil.
+
+Mrs. Poynsett asked her whether she would require the barouche on
+the morrow, since Rosamond and Anne would want it to go to
+Backsworth, to obtain requisites for a children's entertainment to
+take place on Wednesday.
+
+"Some friends of mine are coming on Wednesday," said Cecil
+
+"Indeed!  In Raymond's absence?"
+
+"This is not a dinner, but a ladies' party."
+
+"Then it will combine the better."
+
+"Certainly not," replied Cecil.  "Mine is simply intellectual--only
+a few intelligent women to meet Mrs. Tallboys in the library.  It
+will be quite apart from any amusements Rosamond may like to have
+for the children in the drawing-room."
+
+"Pray, will they require nothing but this feast of reason and flow
+of soul?--for the housekeeper will need warning."
+
+"They will have dined.  Nothing but coffee will be wanted."
+
+"For how many?"
+
+"About twelve or fourteen, thank you.  Excuse me--I have something
+to finish in my own room."
+
+They were very glad to excuse her, and the following note was
+concocted to serve both for those she might have invited and those
+she might not; and it was copied by the two daughters for all the
+acquaintance who had young folks in their houses.  An appearance of
+want of unanimity was carefully avoided, and it stood thus:--
+
+"I am desired by Mrs. Poynsett to say that the ladies' party already
+proposed for the 3rd is to undergo a little expansion, and that she
+much hopes to see you and ---, at 7 p.m., disposed for a few
+Christmas amusements."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+The Drive To Backsworth
+
+
+She was betrothed to one now dead,
+Or worse, who had dishonoured fled.--SCOTT
+
+The party set out for Backsworth early in the day.  It included
+Julius, who had asked for a seat in the carriage in order to be able
+to go on to Rood House, where lived Dr. Easterby, whom he had not
+seen since he had been at Compton.
+
+"The great light of the English Church," said Rosamond, gaily; while
+Anne shuddered a little, for Miss Slater had told her that he was
+the great fountain-head of all that distressed her in Julius and his
+curates.  But Julius merely said, "I am very glad of the
+opportunity;" and the subject dropped in the eager discussion of the
+intended pastimes, which lasted beyond the well-known Wil'sbro'
+bounds, when again Julius startled a Anne by observing, "No dancing?
+That is a pity."
+
+"There, Anne!" exclaimed Rosamond.
+
+"It was out of kindness to me," said Anne:  and then, with a
+wonderful advance of confidence, she added, "Please tell me how you,
+a minister, can regret it?"
+
+"Because I think it would be easier to prevent mischief than when
+there has to be a continual invention of something original.  There
+is more danger of offence and uncharitableness, to speak plainly."
+
+"And you think that worse than dancing?" said Anne, thoughtfully.
+
+"Why is dancing bad at all, Anne?" asked Rosamond.
+
+Anne answered at once, "It is worldly."
+
+"Not half so worldly as driving in a carriage with fine horses, and
+liveries, and arms, and servants, and all," said Rosamond from her
+comfortable corner, nestling under Miles's racoon-skin rug; "I
+wonder you can do that!"
+
+"The carriage is not mine," said Anne.
+
+"The worldliness would be in sacrificing a duty to the luxury and
+ostentation of keeping one," said Julius.  "For instance, if I
+considered it due to my lady in the corner there to come out in this
+style, and put down a curate and a few such trifles with that
+object.  To my mind, balls stand on the same ground; they are
+innocent as long as nothing right is given up for them."
+
+"You would not dance?" said Anne.
+
+"Wouldn't he?" said Rosamond.  "I've seen him.  It was at St.
+Awdry's at a Christmas party, in our courting days.  No, it wasn't
+with me.  Oh no!  That was the cruel cut!  It was with little Miss
+Marks, whose father had just risen from the ranks.  Such a figure
+she was, enough to set your teeth on edge; when, behold! this
+reverend minister extracts her from the wall-flowers, and goes
+through the Lancers with her in first-rate style, I assure you.  It
+had such an effect, do you know, that what does my father do but go
+and ask her next; and I heard an old lady remarking that there were
+only two gentlemen in the room, Mr. Charnock and Lord Rathforlane.
+So you see it was all worldliness after all, Anne."
+
+"I suppose it was good-nature," said Anne.
+
+"Indignation, I fancy," said Julius.
+
+"Now, was he very wicked for it, Anne?"
+
+"N--no, if dancing be not wrong."
+
+"But why should it?"
+
+"All the bad people danced in the Bible."
+
+"Miriam--King David, eh?"
+
+"That was part of their religious service."
+
+"The welcome to the prodigal son?" further suggested Julius.  "Does
+not this prove that the exercise is not sinful in itself?"
+
+"But you would not do it again?" repeated Anne.
+
+"I certainly should not make a practice of it, nor go to balls any
+more than I would be a sportsman or a cricketer, because I am bound
+to apply my whole self to the more direct service; but this does not
+show that there is evil necessarily connected with these amusements,
+or that they may not safely be enjoyed by those who have time, and
+who need an outlet for their spirits, or by those who wish to guard
+these pleasures by presiding over them."
+
+"Don't persuade me!" exclaimed Anne.  "I gave my word to Mr. Pilgrim
+that nothing should induce me to dance or play at cards."
+
+"Mr. Pilgrim had no right--" began Rosamond; but Julius hushed her,
+saying, "No one wishes to persuade you, Anne.  Your retirement
+during Miles's absence is very suitable and becoming."
+
+"Till we live in the Bush, out of the way of it all," said Anne.
+
+"I wish you could have seen one of our real old Christmas parties;
+but those can never be again, without mother herself or Mrs.
+Douglas."
+
+"Do tell me about those Douglases," said Rosamond.  "Cecil hinted at
+some romance, but seemed to think you had suppressed the connection
+because he was an attorney."
+
+"Not exactly," said Julius, smiling; "but it is a sad story, though
+we have no doubt he bore the guilt of others."
+
+"Something about two thousand pounds!"
+
+"Yes.  It was the year that my mother and Raymond were abroad.  She
+had been buying some property near, and sent home an order from
+Vevay.  It did not come, and was inquired for; but as it was an
+order, not a draft, it was not stopped at the bank; and in about a
+fortnight more it was presented by a stranger, and paid without
+hesitation, as it was endorsed "Proudfoot and Moy."  Old Proudfoot
+was away at Harrogate, and came home to investigate; young Proudfoot
+denied all knowledge of it, and so did his brother-in-law Moy; but
+Raymond, working at the other end, found that the waiter at the
+hotel at Vevay had forgotten to post the letter for more than a
+week, and it was traced through the post to Wil'sbro', where the
+postman remembered delivering a foreign-looking letter to Archie
+Douglas at the door of the office.  It came alone by the afternoon
+post.  His account was this:  They were all taking it rather easy in
+old Proudfoot's absence; and when a sudden summons came to take the
+old farmer's instructions for his will, Archie, as the junior, was
+told off to do it.  He left George Proudfoot and Moy in a private
+room at the office, with Tom Vivian leaning over the fire talking,
+as he had a habit of doing in old Proudfoot's absence.  As he opened
+the office door the postman put the letter into his hand; and
+recognizing the writing, he ran back, and gave it in triumph to
+George Proudfoot, exclaiming that there it was at last, but he was
+in danger of being late for the train, and did not wait to see it
+opened; and when he came back he was told that it had been merely a
+letter of inquiry, with nothing in it, and destroyed at once.  That
+was his account; but Proudfoot, Moy, and Vivian all denied any
+knowledge of this return of his, or of the letter.  The night of
+this inquiry he was missing.  Jenny Bowater, who was with an aunt in
+London, heard that a gentleman had called to see her while she was
+out for a couple of days; and a week later we saw his name among the
+passengers lost in the Hippolyta off Falmouth."
+
+"Poor Jenny!  Was she engaged to him?"
+
+"On sufferance.  On her death-bed Mrs. Douglas had wrung from Mr.
+Bowater a promise that if Archie did well, and ever had means
+enough, he would not refuse consent; but he always distrusted poor
+Archie, because of his father, and I believe he sent Jenny away to
+be out of his reach.  If any of us had only been near, I think we
+could have persuaded him to face it out, and trust to his innocence;
+but Raymond was abroad, Miles at sea, I at Oxford, and nothing like
+a counsellor was near.  If Jenny had but seen him!"
+
+"And has nothing happened to clear him?"
+
+"No.  Raymond hurried home, and did his best, but all in vain.
+George Proudfoot was indeed known to have been in debt to Vivian;
+but Moy, his brother-in-law, an older man, was viewed as a person
+whose word was above all question, and they both declared the
+signature at the back of the order not to be genuine.  Archie's
+flight, you see, made further investigation impossible; and there
+was no putting on oath, no cross-examination."
+
+"Then you think those three had it?"
+
+"We can think nothing else, knowing Archie as we did.  Raymond
+showed his suspicions so strongly, that old Proudfoot threw up all
+agencies for our property, and there has been a kind of hostility
+ever since.  Poor Vivian, as you know, came to his sad end the next
+year, but he had destroyed all his papers; and George Proudfoot has
+been dead four or five years, but without making any sign.  Moy has
+almost risen above the business, and--see, there's Proudfoot Lawn,
+where he lives with the old man.  He claims to compete with the
+county families, and would like to contest Wils'bro' with Raymond."
+
+"And Jenny?" asked Anne.  "Did she bear it as a Christian?  I know
+she would."
+
+"She did indeed--most nobly, most patiently.  Poor girl! at her own
+home she knew she stood alone in her faith in Archie's innocence;
+but they were kind and forbearing, and kept silence, and the
+knowledge of our trust in him has bound her very close to us."
+
+"Was that call, when she did not see him, all she ever heard of
+him?"
+
+"All! except that he left a fragment of paper with the servant, with
+the one pencil scrawl, 'A Dieu!'--a capital D to mark the full
+meaning.  She once showed it to me--folded so as to fit into the
+back of a locket with his photograph."
+
+"Dear Jenny!  And had you traced him on board this ship?"
+
+"No, but his name was in the list; and we knew he had strong fancy
+for South Africa, whither the Hippolyta was bound.  In fact he ought
+to have been a sailor, and only yielded to his mother's wishes."
+
+"We knew a Mr. Archibald Douglas once," said Anne; "he came and
+outspanned by us when he was going north after elephants.  He stayed
+a fortnight, because his wagon had to be mended."
+
+"O, Julius! if we could but find him for her again!" cried Rosamond.
+
+"I am afraid Archibald Douglas is not much more individual a name
+than John Smith," said Julius, sadly.
+
+"That tells as much against the Hippolyta man," said Rosamond.
+
+"Poor Archie would not be difficult to identify," said Julius; "for
+his hair was like mine, though his eyes were blue, and not short-
+sighted."
+
+"That is all right, then," cried Anne; "for we had a dispute whether
+he were young or old, and I remember mamma saying he had a look
+about him as if his hair might have turned white in a single night."
+
+"Julius!  Now won't you believe?" cried Rosamond.
+
+"Had he a Scotch accent?" said Julius.
+
+"No; I recollect papa's telling him he never should have guessed him
+to be a Scot by his tongue; and he said he must confess that he had
+never seen Scotland."
+
+"Now, Julius!" pleaded Rosamond, with clasped hands, as if Jenny's
+fate hung on his opinion.
+
+"How long ago was this?" asked he.
+
+"Four years," said Anne, with a little consideration.  "He came both
+in going and returning, and Alick was wild to join him if he ever
+passed our way again.  My father liked him so much that he was
+almost ready to consent; but he never came again.  Ivory hunters go
+more from Natal now."
+
+"You will trace him!  There's a dear Anne!" exclaimed Rosamond.
+
+"I will write to them at home; Alick knows a good many hunters, and
+could put Miles into the way of making inquiries, if he touches at
+Natal on his way home."
+
+"Miles will do all he can," said Julius; "he was almost broken-
+hearted when he found how Archie had gone.  I think he was even more
+his hero than Raymond when we were boys, because he was more
+enterprising; and my mother always thought Archie's baffled passion
+for the sea reacted upon Miles."
+
+"He will do it!  He will find him, if he is the Miles I take him
+for!  How old was he--Archie, I mean?"
+
+"A year older than Raymond; but he always seemed much younger, he
+was so full of life and animation--so unguarded, poor fellow!  He
+used to play tricks with imitating hand-writing; and these, of
+course, were brought up against him."
+
+"Thirty-four!  Not a bit too old for the other end of the romance!"
+
+"Take care, Rosie.  Don't say a word to Jenny till we know more.
+She must not be unsettled only to be disappointed."
+
+"Do you think she would thank you for that, you cold-blooded
+animal?"
+
+"I don't know; but I think the suspense would be far more trying
+than the quiet resigned calm that has settled down on her.  Besides,
+you must remember that even if Archie were found, the mystery has
+never been cleared up."
+
+"You don't think that would make any difference to Jenny?"
+
+"It makes all the difference to her father; and Jenny will never be
+a disobedient daughter."
+
+"Oh! but it will--it must be cleared!  I know it will!  It is
+faithless to think that injustice is not always set right!"
+
+"Not always here," said Julius, sadly.  "See, there's the Backsworth
+race-ground, the great focus of the evil."
+
+"Were racing debts thought to have any part in the disaster?"
+
+"That I can't tell; but it was those races that brought George
+Proudfoot under the Vivian influence; and in the absence of all of
+us, poor Archie, when left to himself after his mother's death, had
+become enough mixed up in their amusements to give a handle to those
+who thought him unsteady."
+
+"As if any one must be unsteady who goes to the races!" cried
+Rosamond.  "You were so liberal about balls, I did expect one little
+good word for races; instead of which, you are declaring a poor
+wretch who goes to them capable of embezzling two thousand pounds,
+and I dare say Anne agrees with you!"
+
+"Now, did I ever say so, Anne?"
+
+"You looked at the course with pious horror, and said it justified
+the suspicion!" persisted Rosamond.
+
+"That's better," said Julius; "though I never even said it justified
+the suspicion, any more than I said that balls might not easily be
+overdone, especially by _some_ people."
+
+"But you don't defend races?" said Anne.
+
+"No; I think the mischief they do is more extensive, and has less
+mitigation than is the case with any other public amusement."
+
+"H'm!" said Rosamond.  "Many a merry day have I had on the top of
+the regimental drag; so perhaps there's nothing of which you would
+not suspect me."
+
+"I'll tell you what I more than suspect you of," said Julius, "of
+wearing a gay bonnet to be a bait and a sanction to crowds of young
+girls, to whom the place was one of temptation, though not to you."
+
+"Oh, there would be no end to it if one thought of such things."
+
+"Or the young men who--"
+
+"Well," broke in Rosamond, "it was always said that our young
+officers got into much less mischief than where there was a
+straight-laced colonel, who didn't go along with them to give them a
+tone."
+
+"That I quite believe.  I remember, too, the intense and breathless
+sense of excitement in the hush and suspense of the multitude, and
+the sweeping by of the animals--"
+
+"Then you've been!" cried his wife.
+
+"As a boy, yes."
+
+"Not since you were old enough to think it over?" said Anne eagerly.
+
+"No.  It seemed to me that the amount of genuine interest in the
+sport and the animals was infinitesimal compared with the fictitious
+excitement worked up by betting."
+
+"And what's the harm of betting when you've got the money?"
+
+"And when you haven't?"
+
+"That's another question."
+
+"Do you approve it at the best?"
+
+"It's a man's own concern."
+
+"That's arguing against your better sense."
+
+"Can't be helped, with two such solemn companions!  There would be
+no bearing you if I didn't take you down sometimes, when you get so
+didactic, and talk of fictitious excitement, indeed!  And now you
+are going to Rood House, what will you be coming back?"
+
+Rood House stood about two miles on the further side of Backsworth.
+It was an ancient almshouse, of which the mastership had been wisely
+given to Dr. Easterby, one of the deepest theological scholars,
+holiest men, and bravest champions of the Church, although he was
+too frail in health to do much, save with his pen, and in council
+with the numerous individuals who resorted to him from far and wide,
+and felt the beautiful old fragment of a monastic building where he
+dwelt a true court of peace and refreshment, whence they came forth,
+aided by prayer and counsel, for their own share of the combat.
+
+Julius Charnock had, happily for himself, found his way thither when
+his character and opinions were in process of formation, and had
+ever since looked to Rood House for guidance and sympathy.  To be
+only fourteen miles distant had seemed to him one great perfection
+of Compton Poynsett; but of course he had found visits there a far
+more possible thing to an unoccupied holiday son of the great house
+than to a busy parish priest, so that this opportunity was very
+valuable to him.
+
+And so it proved; not so much for the details as for the spirit in
+which he was aided in looking at everything, from the mighty
+questions which prove the life of the Church by the vehement emotion
+they occasion, down to the difficulties of theory and practice that
+harassed himself--not named, perhaps, but still greatly unravelled.
+
+Those perpetual questions, that have to be worked out again and
+again by each generation, were before him in dealing with his
+parish; and among them stood in his case the deeper aspects of the
+question that had come forward on the drive, namely, the lawfulness
+and expedience of amusement.
+
+Granting the necessity of pastimes and recreation for most persons,
+specially the young, there opened the doubtful, because ever-
+varying, question of the kind and the quantity to be promoted or
+sanctioned, lest restraint should lead to reaction, and lest
+abstinence should change from purity and spirituality to moroseness
+or hypocrisy.  And if Julius found one end of the scale represented
+by his wife and his junior curate, his sister-in-law and his senior
+curate were at the other.  Yet the old recluse was far more inclined
+to toleration than he had been in principle himself, though the spur
+of the occasion had led him to relaxations towards others in the
+individual cases brought before him, when he had thought opposition
+would do more harm than the indulgence.  His conscience had been
+uneasy at this divergence, till he could discuss the subject.
+
+The higher the aspiration of the soul, the less, of course, would be
+the craving for diversion, the greater the shrinking from those evil
+accompaniments that soon mar the most innocent delights.  Some
+spirits are austere in their purity, like Anne; some so fervent in
+zeal, as to heed nothing by the way, like Mr. Bindon; but most are
+in an advanced stage of childhood, and need play and pleasure almost
+as much as air or food; and these instincts require wholesome
+gratification, under such approval as may make the enjoyment bright
+and innocent; and yet there should be such subduing of their excess,
+such training in discipline, as shall save them from frivolity and
+from passing the line of evil, prevent the craving from growing to a
+passion, and where it has so grown, tone it back to the limits of
+obedience and safety.
+
+Alas! perhaps there lay the domestic difficulty of which Julius
+could not speak; yet, as if answering the thought, Dr. Easterby
+said, "After all, charity is the true self-acting balance to many a
+sweet untaught nature.  Self-denials which spring out of love are a
+great safeguard, because they are almost sure to be both humble and
+unconscious."
+
+And Julius went away cheered as he thought of his Rosamond's wells
+of unselfish affection, confident that all the cravings for variety
+and excitement, which early habit had rendered second nature, would
+be absorbed by the deeper and keener feelings within, and that these
+would mount higher as time went on, under life's great training.
+
+Pleasant it was to see the triumphant delight of the two sisters
+over their purchases.  Such a day's English shopping was quite a new
+experience to Anne; and she had not been cautioned against it, so
+her enjoyment was as fresh and vivid as a child's; and they both
+chattered all the way home with a merriment in which Julius fully
+shared, almost surprised to see Anne so eager and lively, and--as
+her cheeks glowed and her eyes brightened--beginning to understand
+what had attracted Miles.
+
+Mrs. Poynsett had not had quite so pleasant a day, for Cecil knocked
+at her door soon after luncheon with an announcement that Lady
+Tyrrell wished for admission.  Expecting an exposition of the Clio
+scheme, she resigned herself, looking with some curiosity at the
+beautiful contour of face and drooping pensive loveliness, that had
+rather gained than lost in grace since the days when she had deemed
+them so formidable.
+
+"This is kind, dear Mrs. Poynsett," said the soft voice, while the
+hand insisted on a pressure.  "I have often wished to come and see
+you, but I could not venture without an excuse."
+
+"Thank you," was the cold reply.
+
+"I have more than an excuse--a reason, and I think we shall be fully
+agreed; but first you must let me have the pleasure of one look to
+recall old times.  It is such a treat to see you so unchanged.  I
+hope you do not still suffer."
+
+"No, thank you."
+
+"And are you always a prisoner here?  Ah!  I know your patience."
+
+"What was the matter on which you wanted to speak to me?" said Mrs.
+Poynsett, fretted beyond endurance by the soft, caressing tone.
+
+"As I said, I should hardly venture if I did not know we agreed--
+though perhaps not for the same reasons.  We do agree in our love
+and high opinion of your dear Frank!"
+
+"Well!" repressing a shudder at the 'dear.'
+
+"I am afraid we likewise agree that, under all circumstances, our
+two young people are very unfortunately attached, and that we must
+be hard-hearted, and let it go no further."
+
+"You mean your sister?"
+
+"My dear Lena!  I cannot wonder!  I blame myself excessively, for it
+was all through my own imprudence.  You see, when dear Frank came to
+Rockpier, it was so delightful to renew old times, and they both
+seemed such children, that I candidly confess I was off my guard;
+but as soon as I had any suspicion, I took care to separate them,
+knowing that, in the state of my poor father's affairs, it would be
+most unjustifiable to let so mere a youth be drawn into an
+attachment."
+
+"Frank is no prize," said his mother with some irony.
+
+"I knew you would say that, dear Mrs. Poynsett.  Pecuniarily
+speaking, of course, he is not; though as to all qualities of the
+heart and head, he is a prize in the true sense of the word.  But,
+alas! it is a sort of necessity that poor Lena, if she marry at all,
+should marry to liberal means.  I tell you candidly that she has not
+been brought up as she ought to have been, considering her
+expectations or no expectations.  What could you expect of my poor
+father, with his habits, and two mere girls?  I don't know whether
+the governess could have done anything; but I know that it was quite
+time I appeared.  I tell you in confidence, dear Mrs. Poynsett,
+there was a heavy pull on my own purse before I could take them away
+from Rockpier; and, without blaming a mere child like poor dear Lena
+you can see what sort of preparation she has had for a small
+income."
+
+It is hard to say which tried Mrs. Poynsett's patience most, the
+'dears' or the candour; and the spirit of opposition probably
+prompted her to say, "Frank has his share, like his brothers."
+
+"I understand, and for many girls the provision would be ample; but
+poor Lena has no notion of economizing--how should she?  I am afraid
+there is no blinking it, that, dear children as they both are,
+nothing but wretchedness could result from their corning together;
+and thus I have been extremely sorry to find that the affair has
+been renewed."
+
+"It was not an unnatural result of their meeting again."
+
+"Ah! there I was to blame again; but no one can judge whether an
+attachment be real between such children.  I thought, too, that
+Frank would be gone out into the world, and I confess I did not
+expect to find that he had absolutely addressed her, and kept it
+secret.  That is what my poor father feels so much.  Eleonora is his
+special darling, and he says he could have overlooked anything but
+the concealment."
+
+Maternal affection assumed the defensive; and, though the idea of
+concealment on the part of one of her sons was a shock, Mrs.
+Poynsett made no betrayal of herself, merely asking, "How did it
+come to light?"
+
+"I extorted the confession.  I think I was justified, standing in a
+mother's position, as I do.  I knew my vigilance had been eluded,
+and that your son had walked home with her after the skating; and
+you know very well how transparent young things are."
+
+The skating!  The mother at once understood that Frank was only
+postponing the explanation till after his examination; and besides,
+she had never been ignorant of his attachment, and could not regard
+any display thereof more or less as deception towards herself.  The
+very fact that Lady Tyrrell was trying to prejudice her beforehand,
+so as to deprive him of the grace of taking the initiative towards
+his own mother, enlisted her feelings in his defence, so she coldly
+answered, "I am sorry if Sir Harry Vivian thinks himself unfairly
+treated; but I should have thought my son's feelings had been as
+well known in the one family as in the other."
+
+"But, _dear_ Mrs. Poynsett," exclaimed Lady Tyrrell, "I am sure you
+never encouraged them.  I am quite enough aware--whatever I may once
+have been--of the unfortunate contrast between our respective
+families."
+
+Certainly there was no connection Mrs. Poynsett less wished to
+encourage; yet she could not endure to play into Camilla' hands, and
+made reply, "There are many matters in which young men must judge
+for themselves.  I have only once see Miss Vivian, and have no means
+of estimating my son's chance of happiness with her."
+
+Her impenetrability ruffled Lady Tyrrell; but the answer was softer
+than ever.  "Dear Mrs. Poynsett, what a happy mother you are, to be
+able so freely to allow your sons to follow their inclinations!
+Well! since you do not object, my conscience is easy on that score;
+but it was more than I durst hope."
+
+To have one's approval thus stolen was out of the question and Mrs.
+Poynsett said, "Regret is one thing, opposition another.  Sir Harry
+Vivian need not doubt that, when my son's position is once fixed, he
+will speak openly and formally, and it will then be time to judge."
+
+"Only," said Lady Tyrrell, rising, "let this be impressed on your
+son.  Eleonora cannot marry till she is of age, and my father cannot
+sanction any previous entanglement.  Indeed it is most unfortunate,
+if her affections have been tampered with, for me, who have outgrown
+romance, and know that, in her position, a wealthy match is a
+necessity.  I have spoken candidly," she repeated; "for I like Frank
+too well to bear that he should be trifled with and disappointed."
+
+"Thank you!"
+
+The ladies parted, liking one another, if possible, less than
+before.
+
+Mrs. Poynsett's instinct of defence had made her profess much less
+distaste to the marriage than she really felt; she was much
+concerned that another son should be undergoing Raymond's sad
+experiences, but she had no fear that Lady Tyrrell would ever allow
+it to come to a marriage, and she did not think Frank's poetical
+enthusiasm and admiration for beauty betokened a nature that would
+suffer such an enduring wound as Raymond's had done.
+
+So she awaited his return, without too much uneasiness for amusement
+in Rosamond's preparations.  One opening into the conservatory was
+through her room, so that every skilful device, or gay ornament,
+could be exhibited to her; and she much enjoyed the mirth that went
+on between the queen of the revels and her fellow-workers.
+
+Cecil did not interfere, being indeed generally with her friends at
+Sirenwood, Aucuba Villa, or the working-room, in all of which she
+had the pleasure of being treated as a person of great
+consideration, far superior to all her natural surroundings, and on
+whom hinged all the plans for the amelioration of Willansborough.
+
+Sometimes, however, it happens that the other side of a question is
+presented; and thus it was on the day before the entertainment, when
+Rosamond had taken her brother Tom to have his hair cut, and to
+choose some false moustaches, and the like requisites for their
+charades.
+
+They went first to Pettitt's, the little hair-dresser, where Tom was
+marvellously taken with the two Penates, and could hardly be dragged
+into the innermost recesses, where in the middle of a sheet, with a
+peignoir on his shoulders, he submitted to the clipping of his
+raven-black locks, as Mr. Pettitt called them, on the condition of
+his sister looking on.
+
+Presently they heard some feet enter the outer shop, and Mrs.
+Duncombe's voice asking for Mr. Pettitt; while his mother replied
+that he would wait on her immediately, but that he was just now
+engaged with the Honourable Mr. De Lancey.  "Could she show them
+anything?"
+
+"Oh no, thank you, we'll wait!  Don't let us keep you, Mrs. Pettitt,
+it is only on business."
+
+"Ay!" said the other voice--female, and entirely untamed.  "He's
+your great ally about your gutters and drains, isn't he?"
+
+"The only landowner in Wil'sbro' who has a particle of public
+spirit!" said Mrs. Duncombe.
+
+Whereat good-natured Lady Rosamond could not but smile
+congratulation to the hair-cutter, who looked meekly elevated, while
+Tom whispered, "Proverb contradicted."
+
+But the other voice replied, "Of course--he's a perfumer, learned in
+smells!  You'd better drop it, Bessie! you'll never make anything of
+it."
+
+"I'll never drop what the health and life of hundreds of my fellow-
+creatures depend on!  I wish I could make you understand, Gussie!"
+
+"You'll never do anything with my governor, if that's your hope--you
+should hear him and the mum talking!  'It's all nonsense,' he says;
+'I'm not going to annoy my tenants, and make myself unpopular, just
+to gratify a fashionable cry.'  'Well,' says mumsey, 'it is not what
+was thought the thing for ladies in my time; but you see, if Gussie
+goes along with it, she will have the key to all the best county
+society.'  'Bother the county society!' says I.  'Bessie Duncombe's
+jolly enough--but such a stuck-up set as they all are at Compton,
+I'll not run after, behaving so ill to the governor, too!'  However--"
+
+"There's a proverb about listeners!" said Rosamond, emerging when
+she felt as if she ought to hearken no longer, and finding Mrs.
+Duncombe leaning with her back to the counter, and a tall girl, a
+few degrees from beauty, in a riding-habit, sitting upon it.
+
+They both laughed; and the girl added, "If you had waited a moment,
+Lady Rosamond, you would have heard that you were the only jolly one
+of all the b'iling!"
+
+"Ah! we shall see where you are at the end of Mrs. Tallboys'
+lectures!" said Mrs. Duncombe.
+
+"On what?" asked Rosamond.  "Woman's rights, or sanitary measures?
+for I can't in the least understand why they should be coupled up
+together."
+
+"Nor I!" said Miss Moy.  "I don't see why we shouldn't have our own
+way, just as well as the men; but what that has to do with drains
+and gutters, I can't guess."
+
+"I'm the other way," said Rosamond.  "I think houses and streets
+ought to be made clean and healthy; but as for woman's rule, I fancy
+we get more of it now than we should the other way."
+
+"As an instance," said Mrs. Duncombe, "woman is set on cleansing
+Wil'sbro'.  Man will not stir.  Will it ever be done till woman has
+her way?"
+
+"Perhaps, if woman would be patient, man would do it in the right
+way, instead of the wrong!" quoth Rosamond.
+
+"Patient!  No, indeed!  Nothing is to be done by that!  Let every
+woman strive her utmost to get the work done as far as her powers
+go, and the crusade will be accomplished for very shame!"
+
+Just then Tom, looking highly amused, emerged, followed by Mr.
+Pettitt, the only enlightened landlord on whom Mrs. Duncombe had
+been able to produce the slightest impression.  He had owned a few
+small tenements in Water Lane, which he was about to rebuild, and
+which were evidently the pivot of operations.
+
+At the door they met Cecil, and Rosamond detained her a moment in
+the street to say, "My dear Cecil, is _that_ Miss Moy coming on
+Wednesday?"
+
+"Of course she is.  We greatly want to move her father.  He has the
+chief house property there."
+
+"It is too late now," said Rosamond; "but do you think it can be
+pleasant to Jenny Bowater to meet her?"
+
+"I know nothing of the old countrified animosities and gossipings,
+which you have so heartily adopted," replied Cecil, proudly.
+"Firstly, I ignore them as beneath me; secondly, I sacrifice them
+all to a great cause.  If Miss Bowater does not like my guests, let
+her stay away."
+
+Here Mrs. Duncombe stood on the step, crying out, "Well, Cecil, how
+have you sped with Mrs. Bungay?"
+
+"Horrid woman!" and no more was heard, as Cecil entered Mr.
+Pettitt's establishment.
+
+"That might be echoed," said Tom, who was boiling over at the speech
+to his sister.  "I knew that ape was an intolerable little prig of a
+peacock, but I didn't think she could be such a brute to you, Rosie!
+Is she often like that, and does your parson stand such treatment of
+you?"
+
+"Nonsense, Tom!" said Rosamond; "it doesn't often happen, and breaks
+no bones when it does.  It's only the ignorance of the woman, and
+small blame to her--as Mrs. M'Kinnon said when Corporal Sims's wife
+threw the red herring's tail at her!"
+
+"But does Julius stand it?" repeated Tom, fiercely, as if hesitating
+whether to call out Julius or Mrs. Charnock Poynsett.
+
+"Don't be so ridiculous, Tom!  I'd rather stand a whole shower of
+red herrings' tails at once than bother Julius about his brother's
+wife.  How would you and Terry like it, if your wives took to
+squabbling, and setting you together by the ears?  I was demented
+enough to try it once, but I soon saw it was worse than anything."
+
+"What?  He took her part?"
+
+"No such thing!  Hold your tongue, Tommy, and don't talk of married
+folk till you're one yourself!"
+
+"Papa never meant it," repeated the indignant Tom.  "I've a great
+mind to write and tell him how you are served!"
+
+"Now, Tom," cried Rosamond, stopping short, "if you do that, I
+solemnly declare I'll never have you here again!  What could papa
+do?  Do you think he could cure Raymond's wife of being a ridiculous
+little prig?  And if he could--why, before your letter got to
+Meerut, she will be gone up to London; and by the time she comes
+back we'll be safe in our own Rectory.  Here, come in, and get our
+string and basket at Mrs. Bungay's."
+
+"I'll pay her out!" muttered Tom, as he followed his sister into
+Mrs. Bungay's shop, one of much smaller pretensions, for the sale of
+baskets, brushes, mats, &c.
+
+The mistress, a stout, red-faced woman, looked as if she had been
+'speaking a bit of her mind,' and was at first very gruff and
+ungracious, until she found they were real customers; and moreover,
+Tom's bland Irish courtesy perfectly disarmed her, when Rosamond,
+having fixed her mind on a box in the very topmost pigeon-hole, they
+not only apologized for the trouble they were giving, but Tom
+offered to climb up and bring it down, when she was calling for the
+errand-boy in vain.
+
+"It's no trouble, sir, thank you; I'd think nothing of that for you,
+my lady, nor for Mr. Charnock--which I'm sure I'll never forget all
+he did for us at the fire, leading my little Alferd out like a lamb!
+I beg your ladyship's pardon, ma'am, if I seemed a bit hasty; but
+I've been so put about--and I thought at first you'd come in on the
+same matter, which I'm sure a lady like you wouldn't ever do--about
+the drains, and such like, which isn't fit for no lady to speak of!
+As if Water Lane weren't as sweet and clean as it has any call to
+be, and as if we didn't know what was right by our tenants, which
+are a bad lot, and don't merit no money to be laid out on them!"
+
+"So you have houses in Water Lane, Mrs. Bungay?  I didn't even know
+it!"
+
+"Yes, Lady Rosamond!  My husband and I thought there was no better
+investment than to buy a bit of land, when the waste was inclosed,
+and run 'em up cheap.  Houses always lets here, you see, and the
+fire did no damage to that side.  But of course you didn't know,
+Lady Rosamond; a real lady like you wouldn't go prying into what
+she's no call to, like that fine decked-out body Duncombe's wife,
+which had best mind her own children, which it is a shame to see
+stravaging about the place!  I know it's her doing, which I told
+young Mrs. Charnock Poynsett just now, which I'm right sorry to see
+led along by the like of her, and so are more of us; and we all wish
+some friend would give her a hint, which she is but young--and 'tis
+doing harm to Mr. Charnock Poynsett, Lady Rosamond, which all of us
+have a regard for, as is but right, having been a good customer, and
+friend to the town, and all before him; but we can't have ladies
+coming in with their fads and calling us names for not laying out on
+what's no good to nobody, just to satisfy them!  As if Wil'sbro'
+hadn't been always healthy!"
+
+Tom was wicked enough to put in a good many notes of sympathy, at
+the intervals of the conjunctive whiches, and to end by declaring,
+"Quite right, Mrs. Bungay!  You see how much better we've brought up
+my sister!  I say--what's the price of that little doll's broom?"
+
+"What do you want of it, Tom?"
+
+"Never you mind!"
+
+"No mischief, I hope?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+The Enchantments
+
+
+"It seems a shame," the Walrus said,
+   "To play them such a trick,
+After we've brought them out so far,
+   And made them trot so quick."
+The carpenter said nothing, but
+   "The butter's spread too thick."--LEWIS CARROLL
+
+A telegram arrived from Frank, in the midst of the preparations on
+Wednesday, announcing that 'he was all right, and should be at
+Hazlitt's Gate at 8.10 p.m.'
+
+At 6.30 children of all sizes, with manes of all colours, were
+arriving, and were regaled in the dining-room by Anne, assisted by
+Jenny and Charlie.  Anne had a pretty pink colour in her cheeks, her
+flaxen locks were bound with green ribbons, and green adorned her
+white dress, in which she had a gracious, lily-like look of
+unworldly purity.  She thoroughly loved children, was quite equal to
+the occasion, and indeed enjoyed it as much as the recent Christmas-
+tree in the village school.
+
+Such of Cecil's guests as were mothers for the most part came with
+their children; but Lady Tyrrell, her sister, and others, who were
+unattached, arrived later, and were shown to the library, where she
+entertained them on the specified refreshment, biscuits and coffee,
+and enthroned Mrs Tallboys in the large arm-chair, where she looked
+most beautiful and gorgeous, in a robe of some astonishing sheeny
+sky-blue, edged with paly gold, while on her head was a coronal of
+sapphire and gold, with a marvellous little plume.  The cost must
+have been enormous, and her delicate and spirituelle beauty was
+shown to the greatest advantage; but as the audience was far too
+scanty to be worth beginning upon, Cecil, with a sigh at the folly
+of maternal idolatry, went to hunt up her ladies from gazing at the
+babyish amusements of their offspring; and Miss Moy, in spite of her
+remonstrance, jumped up to follow her; while Mrs. Duncombe, the only
+_good_ mother in this new sense, remained, keeping guard lest
+curiosity, and the echo of piano music, which now began to be heard,
+should attract away any more of the ladies.
+
+Cecil was by no means prepared for the scene.  The drawing-room was
+crowded--chiefly indeed with ladies and children, but there was a
+fair sprinkling of gentlemen--and all had their faces turned towards
+the great glass doors opening into the conservatory, which was
+brilliantly lighted and echoing with music and laughter.  Cecil
+tried to summon some of the ladies of her own inviting, announcing
+that Mrs. Tallboys was arrived; but this appeared to have no effect.
+"Yes, thank you," was all she heard.  Penetrating a little farther,
+"Mrs. Tallboys is ready."  "Thank you, I'll come; but my little
+people are so anxious to have me with them."--"Mrs. Tallboys is
+waiting!" to the next; who really did not hear, but only responded,
+"Did you ever see anything more charming?"
+
+By this time Cecil could see over the heads of the front rank of
+children.  She hardly knew the conservatory.  All the veteran
+camellia and orange-trees, and a good many bay and laurel boughs
+besides, were ranged along the central alley, gorgeous with fairy
+lamps and jewels, while strains of soft music proceeded from some
+unseen quarter.  "Very pretty!" said Cecil, hastily, trying another
+of her intended guests with her intelligence.  "Really--yes,
+presently, thank you," was the absent answer.  "There is some
+delightful mystery in there."
+
+Cecil found her attempts were vain, and was next asked, as one of
+the household, what delicious secret was going on there; and as it
+hurt her feelings to be left out, she pressed into the conservatory,
+with some vague intention of ordering Anne, if not Rosamond, to
+release her grown-up audience, and confine their entertainment to
+the children; but she found herself at once caught by the hand by a
+turbaned figure like a prince in the Arabian Nights, who, with a low
+salaam, waved her on.
+
+"No, thank you.  I'm looking for--"
+
+But retreat was impossible, for many were crowding up in eager
+curiosity; moreover, a muslin bandage descended-on her eyes.
+"Don't!" she expostulated; "I'm not at play--I'm--" but her words
+were lost.
+
+"Hush! the Peri's cave is near,
+No one enters scatheless here;
+Lightly tread and lowly bend,
+Win the Peri for your friend,"
+
+sung a voice to the mysterious piano accompaniment; and Cecil found
+both hands taken, and was forced to move on, as she guessed the
+length of the conservatory, amid sounds of suppressed laughter that
+exceedingly annoyed her, till there was a pause and repetition of
+the two last lines with an attempt to make her obey them.  She was
+too impatient and angry to perceive that it would have been much
+better taste to enter into the humour of the thing; and she only
+said with all her peculiar cold petulance, just like sleet, "Let me
+go, if you please; I am engaged.  I am waited for."
+
+"Peri gracious,
+She's contumacious;
+Behold, every hair shall bristle
+When she hears the magic whistle!"
+
+and a whistle, sharp, long, and loud, sounded behind her, amid peals
+of merriment.  She turned sharply round, but still the whistle was
+behind her, and rang out again and again, till she was half
+deafened, and wholly irate; while the repetition of
+
+"Bend, bend, lowly bend,
+Win the Peri for your friend,"
+
+forced on her the conviction that on no other condition should she
+be set free, though the recognition of Terry's voice made the
+command doubly unpalatable, and as she made the stiffest and most
+reluctant of courtesies, a voice said,
+
+"Homage done, you may be
+Of this merry company;"
+
+and with a last blast of the whistle the bandage was removed, and
+she found herself in the midst of a half circle of laughing children
+and grown people; in front of her a large opening, like a cavern,
+hung with tiny lamps of various colours, in the midst of which stood
+the Peri, in a Persian pink robe, white turban, and wide white
+trousers, with two oriental genies attendant upon her.
+
+A string was thrust into Cecil's hand, apparently fastened to her,
+and accounting for some sharp pulls she had felt during the
+whistling.  She drew it in front in sharp haste, to be rid of the
+obnoxious instrument; but instead of a whistle, she found in her
+hand a little dust-pan and brush, fit for a baby-house, drawn
+through a ring, while the children eagerly cried, "What have you
+got?  What have you got?"
+
+"Some nonsense.  I do not approve of practical jokes," began Cecil;
+but the song only replied,
+
+"Away, away,
+In the cave no longer stay;
+Others come to share our play;"
+
+and one of the genies drew her aside, while another blindfolded
+victim was being introduced with the same rites, only fare more
+willingly.  The only way open to here was that which led to the
+window of the dining-room, where she found Anne with the children
+who had had their share, and were admiring their prizes.  Anne tried
+to soothe her by saying, "You see every one is served alike.  They
+thought it would be newer than a tree."
+
+"Did you mean to _give_ me _this_?" asked a little girl, in whose
+hands Cecil had thrust her dust-pan, without a glance at it.
+
+"Oh the ring!" said Anne.  "You must keep that, Mrs. Poynsett
+thought you would like it.  It is a gem--some Greek goddess, I
+think."
+
+"Is this her arrangement?" asked Cecil, pointing to the dust-pan.
+
+"Oh no! she knew nothing about that, nor I; but you see every one
+has something droll.  See what Mr. Bowater has!"
+
+And Herbert Bowater showed that decidedly uncomplimentary penwiper,
+where the ass's head declares "There are two of us;" while every
+child had some absurdity to show; and Miss Moy's shrieks of delight
+were already audible at a tortoise-shell pen-holder disguised as a
+hunting-whip.
+
+"I must go to my friends," said Cecil, vouchsafing no admiration of
+the ring, though she had seen enough to perceive that it was a
+beautifully engraved ruby; and she hurried back to the library, but
+only to find all her birds flown, and the room empty!  Pursuing them
+to the drawing-room, she saw only the backs of a few, in the
+rearmost rank of the eager candidates for admission to the magic
+cave.
+
+Lady Tyrrell alone saw her, and turned back from the eager
+multitude, to say in her low, modulated voice, "Beaten, my dear.
+Able strategy on la belle mere's part."
+
+"Where's Mrs. Tallboys?"
+
+"Don't you see her blue feather, eagerly expectant?  Just after you
+were gone, Edith Bowater came in, and begged us to come and see the
+conservatory lighted up; and then came a rush of the Brenden
+children after their aunt, exclaiming wildly it was delicious--
+lights, and a fairy, and a secret, and every one got something, if
+they were ever so old.  Of course, after that there was nothing but
+to follow the stream."
+
+"It is a regular plot for outwitting us!  Rosamond is dressed up for
+the fairy.  They are all in league."
+
+"Well, we must put a good face on it for the present," said Lady
+Tyrrell.  "Don't on any account look as if you were not in perfect
+accordance.  You can show your sentiments afterwards, you know."
+
+Cecil saw she must acquiesce, for Mrs. Tallboys was full in the
+midst.  With an infinitely better grace than her hostess, she
+yielded herself to the sports, bowed charmingly to the Peri, whirled
+like a fairy at the whistling, and was rewarded with a little enamel
+padlock as a brooch, and two keys as ear-rings; indeed she
+professed, with evident sincerity, that she was delighted with these
+sports of the old country, and thought the two genies exquisite
+specimens of the fair, useless, gentle English male aristocracy.
+
+Mrs. Duncombe, too, accepted the inevitable with considerable spirit
+and good-humour, though she had a little passage-at-arms with
+Julius; when showing him the ivory card-case that had fallen to her
+lot, she said, "So this is the bribe!  Society stops the mouth of
+truth."
+
+"That is as you choose to take it," he said.
+
+"Exactly.  When we want to go deep into eternal verities you silence
+us with frivolous din and dainty playthings for fear of losing your
+slaves."
+
+"I don't grant that."
+
+"Then why hinder an earnest discussion by all this hubbub?"
+
+"Because this was not the right place or time."
+
+"It never is the right time for the tyrants to let their slaves
+confer, or to hear home-truths."
+
+"On the contrary, my curiosity is excited.  I want to hear Mrs.
+Tallboys' views."
+
+"Then when will you dine with us?  Next Wednesday?"
+
+"Thank you.  Wednesday has an evening service."
+
+"Ah!  I told you it was never the right time!  Then Thursday?  And
+you'll trust your wife with us?"
+
+"Oh yes, certainly."
+
+"It is a bargain, then?  Seven o'clock, or there will be no time."
+
+Julius's attention suddenly wandered.  Was not a whisper pervading
+the room of a railway accident?  Was not Frank due by that night's
+train?
+
+There were still so many eager to visit the magic cave, that Julius
+trusted his wife would remain there sheltered from the report; Jenny
+Bowater was behind a stand of trees, acting orchestra; but when
+Terry came to the outskirts of the forest in search of other knights
+of the whistle, Julius laid a hand on him, and gave instructions in
+case any rumour should reach Rosamond to let her know how vague it
+was, tell her that he was going to ascertain the truth, and beg her
+to keep up the game and cause no alarm.
+
+Next encountering Anne, he begged her to go to his mother and guard
+her from any alarm, until there was some certainty.
+
+"Can't we send all these people away?" she asked.
+
+"Not yet.  We had better make no unnecessary disturbance.  There
+will be time enough if anything be amiss.  I am going down to
+Hazlitt's Gate."
+
+Anne was too late.  Charlie had not outgrown the instinct of rushing
+to his mother with his troubles; and he was despairingly telling the
+report he had heard of a direful catastrophe, fatal to an unknown
+quantity of passengers, while she, strong and composed because he
+gave way, was trying to sift his intelligence.  No sooner did he
+hear from Anne that Julius was going to the station, than he started
+up to accompany him--the best thing he could do in his present
+state.  Hardly, however, had he closed the door, before he returned
+with fresh tears in his eyes, leading in Eleonora Vivian, whom he
+had found leaning against the wall outside, white and still, scarce
+drawing her breath.
+
+"Come," he said; and before she knew what he was doing, she was at
+Mrs. Poynsett's side.  "Here, mother," he said, "take her."  And he
+was gone.
+
+Mrs. Poynsett stretched out her arms.  The hearts of the two women
+who loved Frank could not help meeting.  Eleonora sank on her knees,
+hiding her face on the mother's breast, with two tender arms clasped
+round her.
+
+Anne was kneeling too, but she was no longer the meek, shy stranger.
+Now, in the hour of trouble, she poured forth, in a voice fervent
+and sweet, a prayer for protection and support for their beloved
+one, so that it might be well with him, whatever might be his
+Heavenly Father's Will.
+
+As she paused, Mrs. Poynsett, in a choked voice, said, "Thank you,
+dear child;" when there were steps in the hall.  Anne started up,
+Lenore buried her face on Mrs. Poynsett's bosom, the mother clasped
+her hands over her convulsively, then beheld, as the door opened, a
+tall figure, with a dark bright face full of ineffable softness and
+joy.  Frank himself, safe and sound, with his two brothers behind
+him.  They stayed not to speak, but hastened to spread the glad
+tidings; while he flung himself down, including both his mother and
+Lenore in one rapturous embrace, and carrying his kiss from one to
+the other--conscious, if no one else was, that this first seal of
+his love was given in his mother's arms.
+
+Lenore did indeed extricate herself, and stand up as rosy red as she
+had been pale; but she had no room for any thought beyond his
+mother's trembling "Not hurt, my dear?"
+
+"Not hurt!  Not a scratch!  Thank God!  Oh! thank God!" answered
+Frank, quivering all over with thankfulness, though probably far
+more at the present joy than the past peril.
+
+"Yes--oh, thanks for His mercy!" echoed Anne, giving fervent hand
+and tearful cheek to the eager salutation, which probably would have
+been as energetic to Clio or old Betty at that moment!
+
+"But there's blood on your wristband," cried the mother.  "You are
+hurt!"
+
+"No; it's not mine.  I didn't know it.  It is from the poor fellow I
+helped to carry into the public-house at Knoll, just this side
+Backsworth, a good deal hurt, I'm afraid.  Something had got on the
+lines, I believe.  I was half asleep, and knew nothing till I found
+ourselves all crushed up together in the dark, upside-down, my feet
+above my head.  There was but one man in my carriage, and we didn't
+get foul of one another, and found we were all right, when we
+scrambled out of the window.  So we helped out the others, and found
+that, besides the engineer and stoker--who I don't suppose can live,
+poor fellows!--there was only this man much damaged.  Then, when
+there seemed no more to be done, I took my bag and walked across
+country, to reach home before you heard.  But oh, this is worth
+anything!"
+
+He had to bend down for another embrace from his mother whose heart
+was very full as she held his bright young healthful face between
+her hands, though all she said was, "You have walked eleven miles
+and more!  You must be half starved!--Anne, my dear, pray let him
+have something.  He can eat it here."
+
+"I'll see," said Anne, hastening away.
+
+"Oh, don't go, Lenore," cried Frank, springing up.  "Stay, I've not
+seen you!--Mother, how sweet of you!  But I forgot!  You don't know!
+I was only waiting till I was through."
+
+"I understand, my dear boy."
+
+"But how?  How did you find out?  Was it only that you knew she was
+the precious darling of my heart? and now you see and own why,"
+cries Frank, almost beside himself with excitement and delight.
+
+"It was Lady Tyrrell who told me," said Mrs. Poynsett, sympathizing
+too much with the lovers to perceive that her standpoint of
+resistance was gone from her.
+
+"Yes," said Lenore.  "She knew of our walk, and questioned me so
+closely that I could not conceal anything without falsehood."
+
+"After she met me at Aucuba Villa?" asked Frank.
+
+"Yes.  Did you tell her anything?"
+
+"I thought she knew more than I found afterwards that she did," said
+Frank; "but there's no harm done.  It is all coming now."
+
+"She told my father," said Eleonora, sadly, "and he cannot
+understand our delay.  He is grieved and displeased, and thinks I
+have not been open with him."
+
+"Oh! that will be all right to-morrow," said Frank.  "I'll have it
+out with a free heart, now there's no fear but that I have passed;
+and I've got the dearest of mothers!  I feel as if I could meet him
+if he were a dozen examiners rolled into one, instead of the good
+old benevolent parent that he is!  Ha!  Anne--Susan--Jenkins--thank
+you--that's splendid!  May I have it here?  Super-excellent!  Only
+here's half the clay-pit sticking to me!  Let me just run up and
+make myself decent.  Only don't let her run away."
+
+Perhaps Clio would have scorned the instinct that made a Charnock
+unable to enjoy a much-needed meal in the presence of mother and of
+love till the traces of the accident and the long walk had been
+removed.  His old nurse hurried after--ostensibly to see that his
+linen was at hand, but really to have her share of the petting and
+congratulation; and Lenore stood a little embarrassed, till Mrs.
+Poynsett held out her arms, with the words, "My dear child!" and
+again she dropped on her knee by the couch, and nestled close in
+thankful joy.
+
+Presently however, she raised herself, and said sadly, almost
+coldly, "I am afraid you have been surprised into this."
+
+"I must love one who so loves my boy," was the ardent answer.
+
+"I couldn't help it!" said the maiden, again abandoning herself to
+the tenderness.  "Oh! it is so good of you!"
+
+"My dear, dear daughter!"
+
+"Only please give me one mother's kiss!  I have so longed for one."
+
+"Poor motherless child!  My sweet daughter!"
+
+Then after a pause Eleonora said, "Indeed, I'll try to deserve
+better; but oh! pray forgive me, if I cost him much more pain and
+patience than I am worth."
+
+"He thinks you well worth anything, and perhaps I do," said Mrs
+Poynsett, who was conquered, won over, delighted more than by either
+of the former brides, in spite of all antecedents.
+
+"Then will you always trust me?" said Eleonora, with clasped hands,
+and a wondrous look of earnest sincerity on her grave open brow and
+beautiful pensive dark blue eyes.
+
+"I _must_, my dear."
+
+"And indeed I don't think I could help holding to _him_, because he
+seems my one stay and hope here; and now I know it is all right with
+you, indeed it is such happiness as I never knew."
+
+She laid her head down again in subdued joy and rest:  but the pause
+was broken by Frank's return; and a moment after, in darted the Peri
+in her pink cashmere costume, with a glow transforming her usually
+colourless face.  "Dear, dear Frank, I'm so glad!" she cried,
+bestowing her kiss; while he cried in amazement, "Is it Rose?  Is
+there a fancy ball?"
+
+"Only Aladdin's Cave.  I'm just out of it; and while Jenny is
+keeping up games, and Edith is getting up a charade, I could dash in
+to see that Frank was all there, and more too.  The exam, is safe,
+eh?"
+
+"I trust so," said Frank; "the list will not come just yet; but I am
+told I am certain of a pass--indeed, that I stand high as to
+numbers."
+
+"That's noble!--Now, Mrs. Poynsett, turn him out as soon as he has
+eaten his dinner.  We want any one who can keep up a respectable
+kind of a row.  I say, will you two do Ferdinand and Miranda playing
+at chess?  You look just like it."
+
+"Must we go?" asked Frank, reluctantly; and there was something in
+the expression of his face, a little paler than usual, that reminded
+his mother that the young man had for the first time seen sudden and
+violent death that day, and that though his present gladness was so
+great, yet that he had gone through too much in body and mind for
+the revels of the evening not either to jar, or to produce a
+vehement reaction, if he were driven into them.  So she answered by
+pleading the eleven miles' walk; and the queen of the sports was
+merciful, adding, "But I must be gone, or Terry will be getting up
+his favourite tableau of the wounded men of Clontarf, or Rothesay,
+or the Black Bull's Head, or some equally pleasing little incident."
+
+"Is it going on well?" asked Mrs. Poynsett.
+
+"Sweetly!  Couldn't be better.  They have all amalgamated and are in
+the midst of the 'old family coach,' with Captain Duncombe telling
+the story.  He is quite up to the trick, and enjoys turning the
+tables on his ladies."
+
+"And Camilla?" asked Lenore, in a hesitating, anxious tone
+
+"Oh! she's gone in for it.  I think she is the springs!  I heard her
+ask where you were, and Charley told her; so you need not be afraid
+to stay in peace, if you have a turn that way.  Good-bye; you'd
+laugh to see how delighted people are to be let off the lecture."
+And she bent over Lenore with a parting kiss, full of significance
+of congratulation.
+
+She returned, after changing her dress, to find a pretty fairy
+tableau, contrived by the Bowater sisters, in full progress, and
+delighting the children and the mothers.  Lady Vivian contrived to
+get a word with her as she returned.
+
+"Beautifully managed, Lady Rosamond.  I tell Cecil she should enjoy
+a defeat by such strategy."
+
+"It is Mrs. Poynsett's regular Christmas party," said Rosamond, not
+deigning any other reply.
+
+"I congratulate her on her skilful representatives," said Lady
+Tyrrell.  "May I ask if we are to see the hero of the day?  No?
+What! you would say better employed?  Poor children, we must let
+them alone to-night for their illusion, though I am sorry it should
+be deepened; it will be only the more pain by and by."
+
+"I don't see that," said Rosamond, stoutly.
+
+"Ah!  Lady Rosamond, you are a happy young bride, untaught what is
+l'impossible."  Rosamond could not help thinking that no one
+understood it better than she, as the eldest of a large family with
+more rank and far more desires than means; but she disliked Lady
+Tyrrell far too much for even her open nature to indulge in
+confidences, and she made a successful effort to escape from her
+neighbourhood by putting two pale female Fullers into the place of
+honour in front of the folding doors into the small drawing-room,
+which served as a stage, and herself hovered about the rear, wishing
+she could find some means of silencing Miss Moy's voice, which was
+growing louder and more boisterous than ever.
+
+The charade which Rosamond had expected was the inoffensive, if
+commonplace, Inspector, and the window she beheld, when the curtain
+drew up, was, she supposed, the bar of an inn.  But no; on the board
+were two heads, ideals of male and female beauty, one with a waxed
+moustache, the other with a huge chignon, vividly recalling Mr.
+Pettitt's Penates.  Presently came by a dapper professor, in blue
+spectacles and a college cap, who stood contemplating, and indulging
+in a harangue on entities and molecules, spirit and matter,
+affinities and development, while the soft deep brown eyes of the
+chignoned head languished, and the blue ones of the moustached one
+rolled, and the muscles twitched and the heads turned till, by a
+strong process of will explained by the professor, they bent their
+necks, erected themselves, and finally started into life and the
+curtain fell on them with clasped hands!
+
+It rose to show the newly-animated pair, Junius Brutus and Barberina
+his wife, at the breakfast table, with a boar's head of brawn before
+them, while the Lady Barberina boldly asserted her claims to the
+headship of the house.  Had she not lately been all head?
+
+The pathetic reply was, "Would it were so still, my dear.  All head
+and no tongue, like our present meal."
+
+The lady heaved up the boar's head to throw at him, and the scene
+closed.
+
+Next, Brutus was seen awkwardly cleaning his accoutrements, having
+enlisted, as he soliloquized, to escape from woman.
+
+Enter a sergeant with a rich Irish brogue, and other recruits,
+forming the awkward squad.  The drill was performed with immense
+spirit, but only one of the soldiers showed any dexterity; but while
+the sergeant was upholding him as 'the very moral of a patthern to
+the rest,' poor Brutus was seized with agonizing horror at the
+recognition of Barberina in this disguise!
+
+"Why not?" she argued.  "Why should not woman learn to use the arms
+of which man has hitherto usurped the use?"
+
+Poor Brutus stretched out his arms in despair, and called loudly for
+the professor to restore him to his original state of silent
+felicity in the barber's window.
+
+"Ye needn't do that, me boy," quoth the sergeant with infinite
+scorn.  "Be ye where ye will, ye'll never be aught but a blockhead."
+
+Therewith carriages were being announced to the heads of families;
+and with compliments and eager thanks, and assurances that nothing
+could have been more delightful, the party broke up.
+
+Captain Duncombe, while muffling his boys, declared that he never
+saw a cleverer hit in his life, and that those two De Lancey
+brothers ought to be on the stage; while Miss Moy loudly demanded
+whether he did not feel it personal; and Mrs. Tallboys, gracefully
+shaking hands with Anne and Rosamond, declared it a grand challenge
+where the truth had been unconsciously hit off.  Cecil was nowhere
+to be seen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+Demonstrations
+
+
+Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.--BURNS
+
+The hours of the soiree had been early; but the breakfast was so
+irregular and undecided as to time, that no one took much notice of
+an intimation which Jenkins had received from the grim Mrs.
+Grindstone that Mrs, Charnock Poynsett would take breakfast in her
+own room.  Indeed, they all felt glad that her views of etiquette
+did not bind them to their places; for Frank was burning to be off
+to Sirenwood, forgetting that it was far easier to be too early than
+too late for Sir Harry Vivian, who was wont to smoke till long after
+midnight, and was never visible till the midday repast.
+
+And thus it was Lady Tyrrell who came to Frank alone.  "Early
+afoot," she said; "you foolish, impatient fellow!  You _will_ outrun
+my best advice."
+
+"Ah! but I'm armed.  I always told you we might trust to my mother,
+and it is all right.  She loves Lenore with all her heart, and
+consents freely and gladly."
+
+"Indeed!  Well, the dear child has made her conquest!"
+
+"I always knew she would when once reserve was broken down."
+
+"Did you get up the alarm on purpose?"
+
+"Really, one would think I had done so.  One such moment was worth
+years of ordinary meetings!  Half the battle is won!"
+
+"Have you seen your mother this morning?"
+
+"No; but she knew I was coming."
+
+"Then you do not know what her feelings are on cooler reflection?"
+
+"My mother would never retract what she has once assured me of,"
+said Frank, haughtily.
+
+"Forgive me--of what has she assured you?"
+
+"That she regards Eleonora as a dear daughter, and that implies
+doing the same for me as for my brothers.  If Sir Harry would but be
+so good as to come and see her--'
+
+"Stay, Frank, you have not come that length.  You forget that if you
+have, as you say, gained half the battle, there is another half; and
+that my father very reasonably feels hurt at being the last to be
+favoured with the intelligence."
+
+"Dear Lady Tyrrell, you can see how it was.  There was no helping it
+when once I could speak to Lenore; and then no one would have let me
+utter a word till I had gone through the examination.  We never
+meant to go on a system of concealment; but you know how every one
+would have raved and stormed if I had betrayed a thought beyond old
+Driver, and yet it was only being at rest about Lenore that carried
+me through without breaking down.  Can't you see?"
+
+"You special pleader!  May you win over my father; but you must
+remember that we are a fallen house, unable to do all we wish."
+
+"If I might see Sir Harry!  I must make him forgive me."
+
+"I will see whether he is ready."
+
+Could Frank's eyes have penetrated the walls, he would have seen
+Lady Tyrrell received with the words, "Well, my dear, I hope you
+have got rid of the young man--poor fellow!"
+
+"I am afraid that cannot be done without your seeing him yourself."
+
+"Hang it!  I hate it!  I can't abide it, Camilla.  He's a nice lad,
+though he is his mother's son; and Lenore's heart is set on him, and
+I can't bear vexing the child."
+
+"Lena cares for him only because she met him before she knew what
+life is like.  After one season she will understand what five
+hundred a year means."
+
+"Well, you ought to know your sister best; but if the lad has spoken
+to her, Lena is not the girl to stand his getting his conge so
+decidedly."
+
+"Exactly; it would only lead to heroics, and deepen the mischief."
+
+"Hang it!  Then what do you want me to say?"
+
+"Stand up for your rights, and reduce him to submission by
+displeasure at not having been consulted.  Then explain how there
+can be no engagement at once; put him on his honour to leave her
+free till after her birthday in November."
+
+"What! have him dangling after her?  That's no way to make her
+forget him."
+
+"She never will under direct opposition--she is too high-spirited
+for that; but if we leave it alone, and they are unpledged, there is
+a fair chance of her seeing the folly both for her and for him."
+
+"I don't know that.  Lena may be high-flown; but things go deep with
+the child--deeper than they did with you, Camilla!"
+
+Perhaps this was a stab, for there was bitterness in the answer.
+"You mean that she is less willing to give up a fancy for the family
+good.  Remember, it is doubly imperative that Lena should marry a
+man whose means are in his own power, so that he could advance
+something.  This would be simply ruin--throwing up the whole thing,
+after all I have done to retrieve our position."
+
+"After all, Camilla, I am growing an old man, and poor Tom is gone.
+I don't know that the position is worth so much to me as the
+happiness to her, poor child!" said Sir Harry, wistfully.
+
+"Happiness!" was the scornful answer.  "If you said 'her own way,'
+it would be nearer the truth.  A back street in London--going about
+in a cab--and occasional holidays on sufferance from Mrs. Poynsett."
+
+However little happiness either father or daughter had derived from
+their chosen ways, this idea was abhorrent to both; and Lady Tyrrell
+pressed her advantage.  "If we keep him waiting much longer he will
+be rushing after Lena, and if you show the least sign of relenting
+he will insist on dragging you to an interview with his mother."
+
+The threat was effectual; for Sir Harry had had passages-at arms
+enough with Mrs. Poynsett to make him dread her curt dry civility
+far more than either dun or bailiff, and he was at once roused to
+the determination to be explicit.
+
+Frank met him, with crimson face and prepared speech.  "Good
+morning, Sir Harry!  I am afraid you may think that you have reason
+to complain of my not having spoken to you sooner; but I trusted to
+your previous knowledge of my feelings, and I was anxious to
+ascertain my position before laying it before you, though I don't
+believe I should have succeeded unless my mind had been set at
+rest."
+
+Soft-hearted Sir Harry muttered, "I understand, but--"
+
+The pause at that 'but' was so long that Frank ventured on going on.
+"I have not had an official communication, but I know privately that
+I have passed well and stand favourably for promotion, so that my
+income will go on increasing, and my mother will make over to me
+five thousand pounds, as she has done to Miles and Julius, so that
+it can be settled on Eleonora at once."
+
+"There, there, that's enough!" said Sir Harry, coerced by his
+daughter's glances; "there's plenty of time before coming to all
+that!  You see, my dear boy, I always liked you, and had an immense
+respect for your--your family; but, you see, Eleonora is young, and
+under the circumstances she ought not to engage herself.  She can't
+any way marry before coming of age, and--considering all things--I
+should much prefer that this should go no further."
+
+"You ought both to be free!" said Lady Tyrrell.
+
+"That I can never be!"
+
+"Nor do you think that she can--only it sounds presumptuous," smiled
+Lady Tyrrell.  "Who can say?  But things have to be proved; and
+considering what young untried hearts are, it is safer and happier
+for both that there should be perfect freedom, so that no harm
+should be done, if you found that you had not known your own minds."
+
+"It will make no difference to me."
+
+"Oh yes, we know that!" laughed Sir Harry.  "Only suppose you
+changed your mind, we could not be angry with you."
+
+"You don't think I could!"
+
+"No, no," said Lady Tyrrell; "we think no such thing.  Don't you
+see, if we did not trust your honour, we could not leave this in
+suspense.  All we desire is that these matters may be left till it
+is possible to see our way, when the affairs of the estate are wound
+up; for we can't tell what the poor child will have.  Come, don't
+repeat that it will make no difference.  It may not to you; but it
+must to us, and to your mother."
+
+"My mother expects nothing!" said Frank, eagerly; but it was a false
+step.
+
+Sir Harry bristled up, saying, "Sir, my daughter shall go into no
+family that--that has not a proper appreciation of--and expectations
+befitting her position."
+
+"Dear papa," exclaimed Lady Tyrrell, "he means no such thing.  He is
+only crediting his mother with his own romantic ardour and
+disinterestedness.--Hark! there actually is the gong.  Come and have
+some luncheon, and contain yourself, you foolish boy!"
+
+"I am sorry I said anything that seemed unfitting," said Frank,
+meekly.  "You know I _could_ not mean it!"
+
+"Yes, yes, yes, I bear no malice; only one does not like to see
+one's own child courted without a voice in the matter, and to hear
+she is to be taken as a _favour_, expecting nothing.  But, there,
+we'll say no more.  I like you, Frank Charnock! and only wish you
+had ten thousand a year, or were any one else; but you see--you see.
+Well, let's eat our luncheon."
+
+"Does she know this decision?" asked Frank, aside, as he held open
+the door for Lady Tyrrell.
+
+"Yes, she knows it can go no further; though we are too merciful to
+deny you the beatific vision, provided you are good, and abstain
+from any more little tendresses for the present.--Ah!"--enter Cecil--
+"I thought we should see you to-day, my dear!"
+
+"Yes; I am on my way to meet my husband at the station," said Cecil,
+meeting her in the hall, and returning her kiss.
+
+"Is Raymond coming home to-day?" said Frank, as he too exchanged
+greetings.  "Ah!  I remember; I did not see you at breakfast this
+morning."
+
+"No!" and there was signification in the voice; but Frank did not
+heed it, for coming down-stairs was Eleonora, her face full of a
+blushing sweetness, which gave it all the beauty it had ever lacked.
+
+He could do no more than look and speak before all the rest; the
+carriage was ordered for the sisters to go out together, and he
+lingered in vain for a few words in private, for Sir Harry kept him
+talking about Captain Duncombe's wonderful colt, till Cecil had
+driven off one way, and their two hostesses the other; and he could
+only ride home to tell his mother how he had sped.
+
+Better than Rosamond, better even than Charlie, was his mother as a
+confidante; and though she had been surprised into her affectionate
+acceptance of Eleonora, it was an indescribable delight to mother
+and son to find themselves once more in full sympathy; while he
+poured out all that had been pent up ever since his winter at
+Rockpier.  She almost made common cause with him in the question,
+what would Raymond say?  And it proved to be news to her that her
+eldest son was to be immediately expected at home.  Cecil had not
+come to see her, and had sent her no message; but ungracious
+inattention was not so uncommon as to excite much remark from one
+who never wished to take heed to it; and it was soon forgotten in
+the praise of Eleonora.
+
+Cecil meanwhile was receiving Raymond at the station.  He was
+pleased to see her there in her pony-carriage, but a little startled
+by the brief coldness of her reply to his inquiry after his mother,
+and the tight compression of her lips all the time they were making
+their way through the town, where, as usual, he was hailed every two
+or three minutes by persons wanting a word with him.  When at last
+there was a free space, she began:  "Raymond, I wish to know whether
+you mean me to be set at naught, and my friends deliberately
+insulted?"
+
+"What?"
+
+A gentleman here hurried up with "I'll not detain you a minute."
+
+He did, however, keep them for what seemed a great many, to the
+chafing spirit which thought a husband should have no ears save for
+his wife's wrongs; so she made her preface even more startling--
+"Raymond, I cannot remain in the house any longer with Lady Rosamond
+Charnock and those intolerable brothers of hers!"
+
+"Perhaps you will explain yourself," said Raymond, almost relieved
+by the evident exaggeration of the expressions.
+
+"There has been a conspiracy to thwart and insult me--a regular
+conspiracy!"
+
+"Cecil! let me understand you.  What can have happened?"
+
+"When I arranged an evening for my friends to meet Mrs. Tallboys, I
+did not expect to have it swamped by a pack of children, and noisy
+nonsensical games, nor that both she and I should be insulted by
+practical jokes and a personal charade."
+
+"A party to meet Mrs. Tallboys?"
+
+"A ladies' party, a conversazione."
+
+"What--by my mother's wish?"
+
+"I was given to understand that I had carte blanche in visiting
+matters."
+
+"You did not ask her consent?"
+
+"I saw no occasion."
+
+"You did not?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then, Cecil, I must say that whatever you may have to complain of,
+you have committed a grave act of disrespect."
+
+"I was told that I was free to arrange these things!"
+
+"Free!" said Raymond, thoroughly roused; "free to write notes, and
+order the carriage, and play lady of the house; but did you think
+that made you free to bring an American mountebank of a woman to
+hold forth absurd trash in my mother's own drawing-room, as soon as
+my back was turned?"
+
+"I should have done the same had you been there."
+
+"Indeed!" ironically; "I did not know how far you had graduated in
+the Rights of Women.  So you invited these people?"
+
+"Then the whole host of children was poured in on us, and everything
+imaginable done to interrupt, and render everything rational
+impossible.  I know it was Rosamond's contrivance, she looked so
+triumphant, dressed in an absurd fancy dress, and her whole train
+doing nothing but turning me into ridicule, and Mrs. Tallboys too.
+Whatever you choose to call her, you cannot approve of a stranger
+and foreigner being insulted here.  It is that about which I care--
+not myself; I have seen none of them since, nor shall I do so until
+a full apology has been made to my guest and to myself."
+
+"You have not told me the offence."
+
+"In the first place, there was an absurd form of Christmas-tree, to
+which one was dragged blindfold, and sedulously made ridiculous; and
+I--I had a dust-pan and brush.  Yes, I had, in mockery of our
+endeavours to purify that unhappy street."
+
+"I should have taken it as a little harmless fun," said Raymond.
+"Depend on it, it was so intended."
+
+"What, when Mrs. Tallboys had a padlock and key?  I see you are
+determined to laugh at it all.  Most likely they consulted you
+beforehand."
+
+"Cecil, I cannot have you talk such nonsense.  Is this all you have
+to complain of?"
+
+"No.  There was a charade on the word Blockhead, where your brother
+Charles and the two De Lanceys caricatured what they supposed to be
+Mrs. Tallboys' doctrines."
+
+"How did she receive it?"
+
+"Most good-humouredly; but that made it no better on their part."
+
+"Are you sure it was not a mere ordinary piece of pleasantry, with
+perhaps a spice of personality, but nothing worth resenting?"
+
+"You did not see it.  Or perhaps you think no indignity towards me
+worth resentment?"
+
+"I do not answer that, Cecil; you will think better of those words
+another time," said Raymond, sternly.  "But when you want your cause
+taken up, you have to remember that whatever the annoyance, you
+brought it upon yourself and her, by your own extraordinary
+proceeding towards my mother--I will not say towards myself.  I will
+try to smooth matters.  I think the De Lanceys must have acted
+foolishly; but the first step ought to be an expression of regret
+for such conduct towards my mother."
+
+"I cannot express regret.  I ought to have been told if there were
+things forbidden."
+
+"Must I forbid your playing Punch and Judy, or dancing on the tight-
+rope?" cried Raymond, exasperated.
+
+Cecil bit her lip, and treated the exclamation with the silent
+dignity of a deeply injured female; and thus they reached home, when
+Raymond said, "Come to your senses, Cecil and apologize to my
+mother.  You can explain that you did not know the extent of your
+powers."
+
+"Certainly not.  They all plotted against me, and I am the person to
+whom apology is due."
+
+Wherewith she marched up-stairs, leaving Raymond, horribly
+perplexed, to repair at once to his mother's room, where Frank still
+was; but after replying about his success in the examination, the
+younger brother retreated, preferring that his story should be told
+by his mother; but she had not so much as entered on it when Raymond
+demanded what had so much disturbed Cecil.
+
+"I was afraid she would be vexed," said Mrs. Poynsett; "but we were
+in a difficulty.  We thought she hardly knew what she had been led
+into, and that as she had invited her ladies, it would do less harm
+to change the character of the party than to try to get it given
+up."
+
+"I have no doubt you did the best you could," said Raymond, speaking
+with more like censure of his mother than he had ever done since the
+hot days of his love for Camilla Vivian; "and you could have had
+nothing to do with the personalities that seem to have been the
+sting."
+
+Mrs. Poynsett, true boy-lover that she was, had been informed of the
+success of Tom's naughtiness--not indeed till after it was over,
+when there was nothing to be done but to shake her head and laugh;
+and now she explained so that her son came to a better understanding
+of what had happened.
+
+As to the extinguishing Women's Rights in child's play, he saw that
+it had been a wise manoeuvre of his mother, to spare any appearance
+of dissension, while preventing what she disapproved and what might
+have injured his interests; but he was much annoyed with the De
+Lanceys for having clogged the measure with their own folly; and
+judging of cause by effect, he would hear of no excuse for Rosamond
+or her brothers, and went away resolved that though nothing should
+induce him to quarrel with Julius, yet he should tell him plainly
+that he must restrain his wife and her brothers from annoying Cecil
+by their practical jokes.  He was, as usual, perfectly gentle to his
+mother, and thanked her for her arrangement.  "It was not her fault
+that it had not turned out better," he said; and he did not seem to
+hear her exoneration of Rosamond.
+
+He had scarcely gone when Rosamond came in from the village, asking
+whether he had arrived, as she had seen his hat in the hall.
+
+"Yes, Rosamond.  You did not tell me of Cecil's vexation!"
+
+"Cecil?  Have I seen her since?  No, I remember now.  But is she
+angry?  Was it the dust-pan?  Oh! Tom, Tom!"
+
+"That and the Blockhead.  Did Tom say anything very cutting?"
+
+"Why it was an old stock charade they acted two years ago!  I had
+better tell her so."
+
+"If you would it would be an immense relief, my dear.  Raymond is
+very much annoyed; she says she will speak to nobody till she has
+had an apology."
+
+"Then she can be as great a goose as I!  Why, the Yankee muse and
+Mrs. Duncombe took all in good part; but Cecil has not atom of fun
+in her.  Don't you think that was the gift the fairies left out at
+the christening of the all-endowed princess?"
+
+Mrs. Poynsett laughed, but anxiously.  "My dear, if you can make
+peace, it will be a family blessing."
+
+"I!  I'll eat any dirt in the world, and make Tom eat it too, rather
+than you should be vexed, or make discord in the house," cried
+Rosamond, kissing her, and speeding away to Cecil's door.
+
+It was Raymond who opened it, looking perturbed and heated, but a
+good deal amazed at seeing his intended scapegoat coming thus boldly
+to present herself.
+
+"Let me in," she breathlessly said.  "I am come to tell Cecil how
+sorry I am she was so much vexed; I really did not know it before."
+
+"I am ready to accept any proper apology that is offered me," said
+Cecil, with cold dignity; "but I cannot understand your profession
+that you did not know I was vexed.  You could have intended nothing
+else."
+
+"But, Cecil, you misunderstood--" began Rosamond.
+
+"I never misunderstand--"
+
+"No human creature can say that!" interposed Raymond, immensely
+thankful to Rosamond--whatever her offence--for her overtures, and
+anxious they should be accepted.
+
+"I could not," continued Cecil, "misunderstand the impertinent
+insults offered to my friends and to myself; though if Lady Rosamond
+is willing to acknowledge the impropriety I will overlook it."
+
+Raymond's face and neck crimsoned, but Raymond's presence helped her
+to rein in her temper; and she thought of Julius, and refrained from
+more than a "Very well.  It was meant as a harmless joke, and--and
+if you--you did not take it so, I am very sorry."
+
+Raymond saw the effort, and looked at his wife for softening; but as
+he saw none, he met the advance by saying kindly, "I am sure it was
+so meant, though the moment was unfortunate."
+
+"Indeed it was so," cried Rosamond, feeling it much easier to speak
+to him, and too generous to profess her own innocence and give up
+Tom.  "It was just a moment's idle fancy--just as we've chaffed one
+another a hundred times; and for the Blockhead, it is the boys' pet
+old stock charade that they've acted scores of times.  It was mere
+thoughtlessness; and I'll do or say anything Cecil pleases, if only
+she won't bother Julius or Mrs. Poynsett about our foolishness."
+And the mist of tears shone in the dark lashes as she held out her
+hand.
+
+"I cannot suppose it mere thoughtlessness--" began Cecil; but
+Raymond cut her short with angry displeasure, of which she had not
+supposed him capable.  "This is not the way to receive so kind an
+apology.  Take Rosamond's hand, and respond properly."
+
+To respond _properly_ was as little in Cecil's power as her will;
+but she had not been an obedient daughter for so large a proportion
+of her life without having an instinct for the voice of real
+authority, and she did not refuse her hand, with the words, "If you
+express regret I will say no more about it."
+
+And Rosamond, thinking of Julius and his mother, swallowed the
+ungraciousness, and saying "Thank you," turned to go away.
+
+"Thank you most heartily for this, my dear Rosamond," said Raymond,
+holding out his hand as he opened the door for her; "I esteem it a
+very great kindness."
+
+Rosamond, as she felt the strong pressure of his hand, looked up in
+his face with a curious arch compassion in her great gray eyes.  He
+shut the door behind her, and saw Cecil pouting by the mantelpiece,
+vexed at being forced into a reconciliation, even while she knew she
+could not persist in sending all the family except Frank to
+Coventry.  He was thoroughly angry at the dogged way in which she
+had received this free and generous peace-making, and he could not
+but show it.  "Well," he said, "I never saw an apology made with a
+better grace nor received with a worse one."
+
+Cecil made no reply.  He stood for a minute looking at her with eyes
+of wondering displeasure, then, with a little gesture of amazement,
+left the room.
+
+Cecil felt like the drowning woman when she gave the last scissor-
+like gesture with her fingers.  She was ready to fall into a chair
+and cry.  A sense of desolateness was very strong on her, and that
+look in his dark eyes had seemed to blast her.
+
+But pride came to her aid.  Grindstone was moving about ready to
+dress her for dinner.  No one should see that she was wounded, or
+that she took home displeasure which she did not merit.  So she held
+up her head, and was chilling and dignified all dinner-time; after
+which she repaired to Lady Tyrrell's conversazione.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+The Monstrous Regiment of Women
+
+
+Descend, my muse!
+
+Raymond had been invited by one of his fellow-guests to make a visit
+at his house, and this was backed up on the morning after his return
+by a letter containing a full invitation to both himself and his
+wife.  He never liked what he called "doing nothing in other
+people's houses," but he thought any sacrifice needful that might
+break up Cecil's present intimacies, and change the current of her
+ideas; and his mother fully agreed in thinking that it would be well
+to being a round of visits, to last until the Session of Parliament
+should have begin.  By the time it was over Julius and Rosamond
+would be in their own house, and it might be easier to make a new
+beginning.
+
+The friends whom he could reckon on as sure to welcome him and his
+bride were political acquaintances of mark, far above the Dunstone
+range, and Cecil could not but be gratified, even while Mrs.
+Duncombe and her friend declared that they were going to try to
+demoralize her by the seductions of the aristocracy.
+
+After all, Cecil was too much of an ingrained Charnock to be very
+deeply imbued with Women's Rights.  All that she wanted was her own
+way, and opposition.  Lady Tyrrell had fascinated her and secured
+her affection, and she followed her lead, which was rather that of
+calm curiosity and desire to hear the subject ventilated than actual
+partisanship, for which her ladyship was far too clever, as well as
+too secure in her natural supremacy.  They had only seemed on that
+side because other people were so utterly alien to it, and because
+of their friendship with the really zealous Mrs. Duncombe.
+
+The sanitary cause which had become mixed with it was, however,
+brought strongly before their minds by Mrs. Tallboys' final lecture,
+at which she impressed on the ladies' minds with great vehemence
+that here they might lead the way.  If men would not act as a body,
+the ladies should set the example, and shame them, by each doing her
+very utmost in the cleansing of the nests of disease that reeked in
+the worn-out civilization of the cities of the old country.  The
+ladies listened:  Lady Tyrrell, with a certain interest in such an
+eager flow of eloquence; Eleonora, with thoughts far away.  Bessie
+Duncombe expressed a bold practical determination to get one
+fragment, at least, of the work done, since she knew Pettitt, the
+hair-dresser, was public-spirited enough to allow her to carry out
+her ideas on his property, and Cecil, with her ample allowance, as
+yet uncalled for, in the abundance of her trousseau, promised to
+supply what the hair-dresser could not advance, as a tangible proof
+of her sincerity.
+
+She held a little council with Mrs. Duncombe at the working society,
+when she resigned her day into that lady's hands on going away.  "I
+shall ask Mrs. Miles Charnock," said that lady.  "You don't object?"
+
+"Oh no, only don't ask her till I'm gone, and you know she will only
+come on condition of being allowed to expound."
+
+"We must have somebody, and now the thing has gone on so long, and
+will end in three months, the goody element will not do much harm,
+and, unluckily, most women will not act without it."
+
+"You have been trying to train Miss Moy."
+
+"I shall try still, but I can't get her to take interest in anything
+but the boisterous side of emancipation."
+
+"I can't bear the girl," said Cecil; "I am sure she comes only for
+the sake of the horses."
+
+"I'm afraid so; but she amuses Bob, and there's always a hope of
+moving her father through her, though she declares that the Three
+Pigeons is his tenderest point, and that he had as soon meddle with
+it as with the apple of his eye.  I suppose he gets a great rent
+from that Gadley."
+
+"Do you really think you shall do anything with her?" said Cecil,
+who might uphold her at home, but whose taste was outraged by her.
+
+"I hope so!  At any rate, she is not conventional.  Why, when I was
+set free from my school at Paris, and married Bob three months
+later, I hadn't three ideas in my head beyond horses and balls and
+soldiers.  It has all come with life and reading, my dear."
+
+And a very odd 'all' it was, so far; but there was this difference
+between Bessie Duncombe and Cecil Charnock Poynsett, that the
+'gospel of progress' was to the one the first she had ever really
+known, and became a reaching forward to a newly-perceived standard
+of benevolence and nobleness:  to the other it was simply
+retrograding, and that less from conviction than from the spirit of
+rivalry and opposition.
+
+Lady Tyrrell with her father and sister were likewise going to leave
+home, to stay among friends with whom Sir Harry could hunt until the
+London campaign, when Eleonora was to see the world.  Thus the
+bazaar was postponed until the return of the ladies in the summer,
+when the preparations would be more complete and the season more
+suitable.  The church must wait for it, for nothing like a
+sufficient amount of subscription had been as yet promised.
+
+There was still, however, to come that select dinner-party at Mrs.
+Duncombe's, to which Julius, moved by her zeal and honesty, as well
+as by curiosity, had promised his presence with Rosamond, "at his
+peril," as she said.
+
+They were kept so long at the door of Aucuba Villa that they had
+begun to doubt if they had not mistaken the day, until the Sirenwood
+carriage crashed up behind them; and after the third pull at the
+bell they were admitted by an erect, alert figure,--a remnant of
+Captain Duncombe's military life.
+
+He marshalled them into the drawing-room, where by dim firelight
+they could just discern the Professor and a certain good-natured
+horsey friend of the Captain's, who sprang up from easy-chairs on
+the opposite sides of the fire to greet them, while the man hastily
+stirred up the fire, lighted the gas, dashed at the table, shutting
+up an open blotting-book that lay on it, closing an ink-bottle, and
+gathering up some torn fragments or paper, which he would have
+thrown into the scrap-basket but that it was full of little books on
+the hundred ways of dressing a pumpkin.  Then he gave a wistful look
+at the ami de la maison, as if commending the guests to him, and
+receiving a nod in return, retired.
+
+"I fear we are too early," said Lady Tyrrell.
+
+"Fact is," said the familiar, whose name Julius was trying to
+remember, "there's been a catastrophe; cook forgot to order the
+turkey, went to bed last night in hysterics, and blew out the gas
+instead of turning it off.  No, no"--as the guests expecting fatal
+consequences, looked as if they thought they had better remove
+themselves:  "she came round, and Duncombe has driven over to
+Backsworth to bring home the dinner.  He'll soon be back."
+
+This not appearing greatly to reassure the visitors, the Professor
+added, "No, no, ladies.  Mrs. Duncombe charged me to say that she
+will be perfectly fixed in a short time, and I flatter myself that
+my wife is equal to any emergency."
+
+"It is very kind in her," said Lady Tyrrell.
+
+"I confess," said Professor Tallboys, "that I am not sorry that such
+an occasion should occur of showing an American lady's domestic
+powers.  I flatter myself they do not discredit her cause."
+
+Just then were heard the wheels of the drag, and in rushed one of
+the boys, grasping Eleonora's skirts, and proclaiming, "We've got
+the grub!  Oysters and a pie!  Oh my!"
+
+"Satisfactory!" said the friend.  "But let go, Ducky, you are
+rumpling Miss Vivian."
+
+"She's coming to see the quarion!  You promised, Lena!  Here's a
+jolly crayfish!  He'll pinch!"
+
+There was a small conservatory or glazed niche on one side of the
+room, into which the boy dragged Lenore, and Julius followed, dimly
+sensible of what the quarion might be, and hoping for a word with
+the young lady, while he trusted to his wife to occupy her sister.
+
+The place contained two desolate camellias, with leaves in the same
+proportion as those on trees in the earlier ages of illumination,
+and one scraggy, leafless geranium, besides a green and stagnant
+tank, where a goldfish moved about, flapping and gasping, as the boy
+disturbed it in his search for the crayfish.  He absorbed all the
+conversation, so that Julius could only look back into the room,
+where an attempt at artistic effect was still dimly visible through
+accumulated litter.  The Venus of Milo stood on a bracket, with a
+riding-whip in her arms, and a bundle of working society tickets
+behind her, and her vis-a-vis, the Faun of Praxiteles, was capped by
+a glove with one finger pointing upwards, and had a ball of worsted
+tangled about his legs; but further observation was hindered by the
+man-servant's voice at the outer door, "Master Ducky, where are you?
+Your ma says you are to go to bed directly."
+
+"No, no, I'll put myself to bed!"
+
+"Come, sir, please do, like a good boy--Master Pinney won't go
+without you, and I must put him to bed while they are dishing up.
+Come, sir, I've got a mince-pie for you."
+
+"And some oysters--Bobby said I should have some oysters!"
+
+"Yes, yes; come along, sir."
+
+And Master Ducky submitted to his fate, while Julius looked his
+wonder, and asked, "Is he nursery-maid?"
+
+"Just now, since the bonne went," said Lenore.  "He is a most
+faithful, attached servant, who will do anything for them.  _She_
+does attach people deeply when the first shock is over."
+
+"I am coming to believe so," he answered.  "There seem to me to be
+excellent elements."
+
+"I am so glad!" said Lenore; "she is so thorough, so true and frank;
+and much of this oddness is really an inconsistent struggle to keep
+out of debt."
+
+"Well! at any rate I am thankful to her for this opportunity of
+seeing you," said Julius.  "We have both been longing to speak our
+welcome to you."
+
+"Thank you.  It is so kind," she fervently whispered; "all the
+kinder for the state of things that is insisted on--though you know
+that it can make no real difference," she added, apparently
+addressing the goldfish.
+
+"Frank knows it," said Julius, in a low voice.
+
+"I trust he does, though I cannot see him to assure him--you will?"
+she added, looking up at him with a shy brightness in her eye and a
+flush on her cheek.
+
+"Yes, indeed!" he said, laying his hand on hers for a moment.  "I
+fear you may both have much to pull through, but I think you are of
+a steadfast nature."
+
+"I hope so--I think I am, for none of my feelings seem to me ever to
+change, except that I get harder, and, I am afraid, bitterer."
+
+"I can understand your feeling that form of trial."
+
+"Oh, if you could, and would help me!"
+
+"As a brother; if I may."
+
+Again she laid a hand on his, saying, "I have longed to talk openly
+to you ever since we met in the cow-shed; but I could not make any
+advance to any of you, because," she whispered in haste, "I thought
+it my duty to hold back from Frank.  And now, till we go away,
+Camilla watches me and occupies me every minute, will not even let
+me ride out with papa.  I wonder she lets me talk to you now."
+
+"We know each other," said Julius, shortly.
+
+It was so.  Once, in the plain-spoken days of childhood, Miles and
+Julius had detected Camilla Vivian in some flagrant cheating at a
+game, and had roundly expressed their opinion.  In the subsequent
+period of Raymond's courtship, Miles had succumbed to the
+fascination, but Julius had given one such foil, that she had never
+again attempted to cajole him.
+
+"I have seen that you did from the first," said Lenore.  "And it
+would make it much easier to talk to you than to any outsider, who
+would never understand, even if it were possible for me to explain,
+how hard it is to see which way my duty lies--especially filial."
+
+"Do you mean in general, or in this special matter?"
+
+"Both.  You see, in her hands he is so different from what he was
+before she came home, that I don't feel as if I was obeying him--
+only her; and I don't think I am bound to do that.  Not in the great
+matter, I am clear.  Nobody can meddle with my real sincere pledge
+of myself to Frank, nobody!" she spoke as if there was iron in her
+lips.  "But as far as overt acts go, they have a right to forbid me,
+till I am of age at least, and we must bear it."
+
+"Yes, you are right there."
+
+"But there are thousands of other little cases of right and wrong,
+and altogether I have come to such a spirit of opposition that I
+find it easier to resist than to do anything with a good grace."
+
+"You cannot always tell when resistance is principle, and when
+temper or distaste."
+
+"There's distaste enough always," said poor Lenore.
+
+"To gaieties?" he said, amazed as one habituated to his wife's
+ravenous appetite for any sort of society or amusement.
+
+"Of course," she answered sadly.  "A great deal of trouble just for
+a little empty babble.  Often not one word worth remembering, and a
+general sense of having been full of bad feelings."
+
+"No enjoyment?" he asked in surprise.
+
+"Only by the merest chance and exception," she answered, surprised
+at his surprise; "what is there to enjoy?"
+
+The peculiar-looking clergyman might have seemed more likely to ask
+such a question than the beautiful girl, but he looked at her
+anxiously and said, "Don't nourish morbid dislike and contempt, my
+dear Lena, it is not a safeguard.  There are such things as perilous
+reactions.  Try to weigh justly, and be grateful for kindness, and
+to like what is likeable."
+
+At that moment, after what had been an interval of weary famine to
+all but these two, host and hostess appeared, the lady as usual,
+picturesque, though in the old black silk, with a Roman sash tied
+transversely, and holly in her hair; and gaily shaking hands--
+"That's right, Lady Rosamond; so you are trusted here!  Your husband
+hasn't sent you to represent him?"
+
+"I'm afraid his confidence in me did not go so far," said Rosamond.
+
+"Ah!  I see--Lady Tyrrell, how d'ye do--you've brought Lena?  Well,
+Rector, are you prepared?"
+
+"That depends on what you expect of me."
+
+"Have you the convinceable spot in your mind?"
+
+"We must find it.  It is very uncommon, and indurates very soon, so
+we had better make the most of our opportunity," said the American
+lady, who had entered as resplendent as before, though in so
+different a style that Rosamond wondered how such a wardrobe could
+be carried about the world; and the sporting friend muttered,
+"Stunning! she has been making kickshaws all day, and looks as if
+she came out of a bandbox!  If all women were like that, it might
+pay."
+
+It was true.  Mrs. Tallboys was one of those women of resource whose
+practical powers may well inspire the sense of superiority, and with
+the ease and confidence of her country.
+
+The meal was a real success.  That some portion had been procured,
+ready dressed, at Backsworth, was evident, but all that had been
+done at home had a certain piquant Transatlantic flavour, in which
+the American Muse could be detected; and both she and her husband
+were polished, lively, and very agreeable, in spite of the twang in
+their voices.  Miss Moy, the Captain and his friend, talked horses
+at one end of the table, and Rosamond faltered her woman's horror
+for the rights of her sex, increased by this supposed instance.
+
+When the ladies rose at dessert, Mrs. Duncombe summoned him:  "Come,
+Rector!--come, Professor! you're not to sit over your wine."
+
+"We rise so far above the ordinary level of manhood!" said Julius,
+obediently rising.
+
+"Once for all, Mr. Charnock," said Mrs. Duncombe, turning on him
+with flashing eyes and her Elizabethan majesty, "if you come
+prepared to scoff, we can have nothing to do with you."
+
+Rosamond's eyes looked mischievous, and her brow cocked, but Julius
+answered in earnest, "Really, I assure you I have not come in a
+spirit of sarcasm; I am honestly desirous of hearing your
+arguments."
+
+"Shall I stay in your stead?" added Miss Moy.  "They'll be much more
+amusing here!"
+
+"Come, Gussie, you're on your good behaviour," said Mrs. Duncombe.
+"Bob kept you to learn the right way of making a sensation."
+
+As they entered the drawing-room two more guests arrived, namely,
+Joanna Bowater, and Herbert, who walked in with a kind of grim
+submission, till he saw Lady Tyrrell, when he lighted up, and, on a
+little gracious gesture with her hand, he sat down on the sofa
+beside her; and was there solaced by an occasional remark in an
+undertone; for indeed the boy was always in a trance wherever she
+was, and she had a fair amount of by-play wherewith to entertain
+herself and him during the discussion.
+
+"You are just in time, Jenny," said Rosamond; "the great question is
+going to be started."
+
+"And it is--?"
+
+"The Equality of the Sexes," pronounced Mrs. Duncombe.
+
+"Ex cathedra?" said Julius, as the graceful Muse seated herself in a
+large red arm-chair.  "This scene is not an easy one in which to
+dispute it."
+
+"You see, Bessie," said Mrs. Tallboys, "that men are so much afraid
+of the discussion that they try to elude it with empty compliment
+under which is couched a covert sneer."
+
+"Perhaps," returned Julius, "we might complain that we can't open
+our lips without compliments and sneers being detected when we were
+innocent of both."
+
+"Were you?" demanded Mrs. Tallboys.
+
+"Honestly, I was looking round and thinking the specimens before us
+would tell in your favour."
+
+"What a gallant parson!" cried Miss Moy.
+
+But a perfect clamour broke out from others.
+
+"Julius, that's too bad! when you know--"
+
+"Mr Charnock, you are quite mistaken.  Bob is much cleverer than I,
+in his own line--"
+
+"Quite true, Rector," affirmed Herbert; "Joan has more brains than
+all the rest of us--for a woman, I mean."
+
+"For a woman!" repeated Mrs. Tallboys.  "Let a human being do or be
+what she will, it is disposed of in a moment by that one verdict,
+'Very well for a woman!'"
+
+"How is it with the decision of posterity?" said Jenny.  "Can you
+show any work of woman of equal honour and permanence with that of
+men?"
+
+"Because her training has been sedulously inferior."
+
+"Not always," said Jenny; "not in Italy in the cinque cento, nor in
+England under Elizabeth."
+
+"Yes, and there were names--!"
+
+"Names, yes, but that is all.  The lady's name is remembered for the
+curiosity of her having equalled the ordinary poet or artist of her
+time, but her performances either are lost or only known to curious
+scholars.  They have not the quality which makes things permanent."
+
+"What do you say to Sappho?"
+
+"There is nothing of her but a name, and fragments that curious
+scholars read."
+
+"Worse luck to her if she invented Sapphics," added Herbert.
+
+"One of womankind's torments for mankind, eh?" said his neighbour.
+
+"And there are plenty more such," asserted Mrs. Duncombe, boldly
+(for these were asides).  "It is only that one can't recollect--and
+the men have suppressed them."
+
+"I think men praised them," said Jenny, "and that we remember the
+praise, not the works.  For instance, Roswitha, or Olympia Morata,
+or Vittoria Colonna.  Vittoria's sonnets are extant, but we only
+value them as being hers, more for what she _was_ than for their
+intrinsic merit."
+
+"And," added Eleonora, "men did not suppress Hannah More, or Joanna
+Baillie.  You know Scott thought Miss Baillie's dramas would rank
+with Shakespeare's."
+
+Mrs. Tallboys was better read in logic and mathematics than in
+history, and did not follow Jenny, but she turned her adversary's
+argument to her own advantage, by exclaiming, "Are the gentlemen
+present familiar with these bright lights?"
+
+"I confess my ignorance of some of them," said Julius.
+
+"But my youngest brother knows all that," said Rosamond at a brave
+venture.
+
+"Macaulay's school-boy," murmured Lady Tyrrell, softly.
+
+"Let us return to the main point," said Mrs. Tallboys, a little
+annoyed.  "It is of the present and future that I would speak, not
+of the past."
+
+"Does not the past give the only data on which to form a
+conclusion?" said Julius.
+
+"Certainly not.  The proposition is not what a woman or two in her
+down-trodden state may have exceptionally effected, but her natural
+equality, and in fact superiority, in all but the physical strength
+which has imposed an unjust bondage on the higher nature."
+
+"I hardly know where to meet you if you reject all arguments from
+proved facts," said Julius.
+
+"And the Bible.  Why don't you say the Bible?" exclaimed his wife in
+an undertone; but Mrs. Tallboys took it up and said, "The precepts
+of Scripture are founded on a state of society passed away.  You may
+find arguments for slavery there."
+
+"I doubt that," said Julius.  "There are practical directions for an
+existing state of things, which have been distorted into sanction
+for its continuance.  The actual precepts are broad principles,
+which are for all times, and apply to the hired servant as well as
+to the slave.  So again with the relations of man and wife; I can
+nowhere find a command so adapted to the seclusion and depression of
+the Eastern woman as to be inapplicable to the Christian matron.
+And the typical virtuous woman, the valiant woman, is one of the
+noblest figures anywhere depicted."
+
+"I know," said Mrs. Tallboys, who had evidently been waiting
+impatiently again to declaim, "that men, even ministers of religion,
+from Paul if you like downwards, have been willing enough to exalt
+woman so long as they claim to sit above her.  The higher the
+oppressed, so much higher the self-exaltation of the oppressor.
+Paul and Peter exalt their virtuous woman, but only as their own
+appendage, adorning themselves; and while society with religious
+ministers at the head of it call on woman to submit, and degrade the
+sex, we shall continue to hear of such disgraces to England as I see
+in your police reports--brutal mechanics beating their wives."
+
+"I fear while physical force is on the side of the brute," said
+Julius, "no abstract recognition of equality would save her."
+
+"Society would take up her cause, and protect her."
+
+"So it is willing to do now, if she asks for protection."
+
+"Yes," broke in Rosamond, "but nothing would induce a woman worth
+sixpence to take the law against her husband."
+
+"There I think Lady Rosamond has at once demonstrated the higher
+nature of the woman," said Mrs. Tallboys.  "What man would be
+capable of such generosity?"
+
+"No one denies," said Julius, "that generous forbearance, patience,
+fortitude, and self-renunciation, belong almost naturally to the
+true wife and mother, and are her great glory; but would she not be
+stripped of them by self-assertion as the peer in power?"
+
+"Turning our flank again with a compliment," said Mrs. Duncombe.
+"These fine qualities are very convenient to yourselves, and so you
+praise them up."
+
+"Not so!" returned Julius, "because they are really the higher
+virtues!"
+
+"Patience!" at once exclaimed the American and English emancipators
+with some scorn.
+
+"Yes," said Julius, in a low tone of thorough earnest.  "The
+patience of strength and love is the culmination of virtue."
+
+Jenny knew what was in his mind, but Mrs. Tallboys, with a curious
+tone, half pique, half triumph, said, "You acknowledge this which
+you call the higher nature in woman--that is to say, all the passive
+qualities,--and you are willing to allow her a finer spiritual
+essence, and yet you do not agree to her equal rights.  This is the
+injustice of the prejudice which has depressed her all these
+centuries."
+
+"Stay," broke in Jenny, evidently not to the lady's satisfaction.
+"That does not state the question.  Nobody denies that woman is
+often of a higher and finer essence, as you say, than man, and has
+some noble qualities in a higher degree than any but the most
+perfect men; but that is not the question.  It is whether she have
+more force and capacity than man, is in fact actually able to be on
+an equality."
+
+"And, I say," returned Mrs. Tallboys, "that man has used brute force
+to cramp woman's intellect and energy so long, that she has learnt
+to acquiesce in her position, and to abstain from exerting herself,
+so that it is only where she is partially emancipated, as in my own
+country, that any idea of her powers can be gained."
+
+"I am afraid," said Julius, "that more may be lost to the world than
+is gained!  No; I am not speaking from the tyrant point of view.  I
+am thinking whether free friction with the world way not lessen that
+sweetness and tender innocence and purity that make a man's home an
+ideal and a sanctuary--his best earthly influence."
+
+"This is only sentiment.  Innocence is worthless if it cannot stand
+alone and protect itself!" said Mrs. Tallboys.
+
+"I do not mean innocence unable to stand alone.  It should be strong
+and trustworthy, but should have the bloom on it still, not rubbed
+off by contact or knowledge of evil.  Desire of shielding that bloom
+from the slightest breath of contamination is no small motive for
+self-restraint, and therefore a great preservative to most men."
+
+"Women purify the atmosphere wherever they go," said the lady.
+
+"Many women do," returned Julius; "but will they retain that power
+universally if they succeed in obtaining a position where there will
+be less consideration for them, and they must be exposed to a
+certain hardening and roughening process?"
+
+"If so," exclaimed Mrs. Tallboys, "if men are so base, we would soon
+assert ourselves.  We are no frail morning glories for you to guard
+and worship with restraint, lest forsooth your natural breath should
+wither us away."
+
+As she spoke the door opened, and, with a strong reek of tobacco, in
+came the two other gentlemen.  "Well, Rector, have you given in?"
+asked the Captain.  "Is Lady Rosamond to mount the pulpit
+henceforth?"
+
+"Ah! wouldn't I preach you a sermon," returned Rosamond.
+
+"To resume," said Mrs. Tallboys, sitting very upright.  "You still
+go on the old assumption that woman was made for you.  It is all the
+same story:  one man says she is for his pleasure, another for his
+servant, and you, for--for his refinement.  You would all have us
+adjectives.  Now I defy you to prove that woman is not a
+substantive, created for herself."
+
+"If you said 'growed,' Mrs. Tallboys, it would be more consistent,"
+said Jenny.  "Her creation and her purpose in the world stand upon
+precisely the same authority."
+
+"I wonder at you, Miss Bowater," said Mrs. Tallboys.  "I cannot
+understand a woman trying to depreciate her sex."
+
+"No," thrust in Gussie Moy; "I want to know why a woman can't go
+about without a dowager waddling after her" ("Thank you," breathed
+Lady Tyrrell into Herbert's ear), "nor go to a club."
+
+"There was such a club proposed in London," said Captain Duncombe,
+"and do you know, Gussie, the name of it?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"The Middlesex Club!"
+
+"There! it is just as Mrs. Tallboys said; you will do nothing but
+laugh at us, or else talk sentiment about our refining you.  Now, I
+want to be free to amuse myself."
+
+"I don't think those trifling considerations will be great
+impediments in your way," said Lady Tyrrell in her blandest tone.
+"Is that actually the carriage?  Thank you, Mrs. Tallboys.  This is
+good-bye, I believe.  I am sorry there has not been more time for a
+fuller exposition to-night."
+
+"There would have been, but I never was so interrupted," said Mrs.
+Tallboys in an undertone, with a displeased look at Jenny at the
+other end of the room.
+
+Declamation was evidently more the Muse's forte than argument, but
+her aside was an aside, and that of the jockey friend was not.  "So
+you waited for us to give your part of the lecture, Miss Moy?"
+
+"Of course.  What's the use of talking to a set of women and
+parsons, who are just the same?"
+
+Poor Herbert's indignant flush infinitely amused the party who were
+cloaking in the hall.  "Poor Gussie; her tongue runs fast," said
+Mrs. Duncombe.
+
+"Emancipated!" said Jenny.  "Good-bye, Mrs. Duncombe.  Please let us
+be educated up to our privileges before we get them."
+
+"A Parthian shot, Jenny," said Julius, as they gave her a homeward
+lift in the carriage.  "You proved yourself the fittest memberess
+for the future parliament to-night."
+
+"To be elected by the women and parsons," said Jenny, with little
+chuckle of fun.  "Poor Herbert!"
+
+"I only wish that girl was a man that I might horsewhip her," the
+clerical sentiment growled out from Herbert's corner of the
+carriage.  "Degradation of her sex!  She's a standing one!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+Vivienne
+
+
+Of all the old women that ever I saw,
+Sweet bad luck to my mother in law.--Irish Song
+
+The Parliamentary Session had reached the stage that is ended by no
+power save that of grouse, and the streets were full of vans
+fantastically decorated with baths, chairs, bedsteads, and nursery
+gear.
+
+Cecil could see two before different house-doors as she sat behind
+her muslin curtains, looking as fresh and healthful as ever, and
+scarcely more matronly, except that her air of self-assertion had
+become more easy and less aggressive now that she was undisputed
+mistress of the house in London.
+
+There was no concern on her part that she was not the mother of
+either of the two latest scions of the house of Charnock.  Certainly
+she did not like to be outdone by Rosamond; but then it was only a
+girl, and she could afford to wait for the son and heir; indeed, she
+did not yet desire him at the cost of all the distinguished and
+intellectual society, the concerts, soirees, and lectures that his
+non-arrival left her free to enjoy.  The other son and heir
+interested her nearly, for he was her half-brother.  There had been
+something almost ludicrous in the apologies to her.  His mother
+seemed to feel like a traitor to her, and Mr. Charnock could hardly
+reconcile his darling's deposition with his pride in the newcomer.
+Both she and Raymond had honestly rejoiced in their happiness and
+the continuance of the direct line of Dunstone, and had completed
+the rejoicing of the parents by thorough sympathy, when the party
+with this unlooked-for addition had returned home in the spring.
+Mrs. Charnock had insisted on endowing his daughter as largely as he
+justly could, to compensate for this change in her expectations, and
+was in doubt between Swanmore, an estate on the Backsworth side of
+Willansborough, and Sirenwood itself, to purchase and settle on her.
+Raymond would greatly have preferred Sirenwood, both from its
+adjoining the Compton property and as it would be buying out the
+Vivians; but there were doubts about the involvements, and nothing
+could be done till Eleonora's majority.  Mr. Charnock preferred
+Swanmore as an investment, and Raymond could, of course, not press
+his wishes.
+
+A short visit had been made at Dunstone to join in the festivities
+in honour of the little heir, but Cecil had not been at Compton
+since Christmas, though Raymond had several times gone home for a
+Sunday when she had other companionship.  Charlie had been with them
+preparing his outfit for India whither he had been gone about a
+month; and Frank, though living in lodgings, was the more frequently
+at his sister-in-law's service, because wherever she was the Vivian
+sisters might be looked for.
+
+No sooner had Raymond taken the house in --- Square than Lady
+Tyrrell had engaged the opposite one, so that one household could
+enjoy evening views of the other's interior, and Cecil had chiefly
+gone into society under her friend's auspices.  Her presentation at
+Court had indeed been by the marchioness; she had been staying with
+an old friend of Mrs. Poynsett's, quite prepared to be intimate with
+Raymond Poynsett's wife, if only Cecil would have taken to her.  But
+that lady's acceptance of any one recommended in this manner was not
+to be thought of, and besides, the family were lively, merry people,
+and Cecil was one of those who dislike and distrust laughter, lest
+it should be at themselves.  So she remained on coldly civil terms
+with that pleasant party, and though to a certain degree following
+her husband's lead as to her engagements, all her ways were moulded
+by her friend's influence.  Nor was the effect otherwise than
+becoming.  Nothing could be in better taste than all in Mrs.
+Charnock Poynsett's establishment, and London and Lady Tyrrell
+together had greatly improved her manners.  All her entertainments
+went off well, and she filled her place in the world with grace and
+skill, just as she had always figured herself doing.
+
+Yet there was a sense of disappointment and dissatisfaction, which
+increased upon her as the time drew nearer for returning to be again
+only a guest in her married home.  It was a tangible grievance on
+which her mind could fix itself.  Surely it was hard on her that her
+husband should require it of her, and yet she perceived that he
+could not avoid it, since his mother was mistress.  She knew too
+that he was unfailingly kind, attentive, and indulgent, except on
+that one occasion when he had sharply reproved her for her behaviour
+in the Tallboys matter; and strange to say, a much stronger feeling
+towards him had been setting in ever since that one time when she
+had seen him thoroughly angry.  She longed and craved to stir that
+even, gentle courtesy to frowns or smiles; and yet there was a
+perversity in her nature that seem to render it impossible to her to
+attempt to win a smile from him, far more so to lay aside any device
+or desire of her own to gratify him.  All she did know was, that to
+be all that her ambition had sought, a Charnock by marriage as well
+as birth, and with a kind, considerate husband, was not enough to
+hinder a heartsickness she had never known or supposed possible.
+
+Presently, through the flowers in her balcony, Cecil saw the opening
+and closing of the opposite house-door, and a white parasol
+unfurled, and she had only time to finish and address her letter to
+Mrs. Duncombe before Lady Tyrrell was announced.
+
+"Here I am after a hard morning's work, winding up accounts, &c."
+
+"You go to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes, trusting that you will soon follow; though you might be a
+cockney born, your bloom is town-proof."
+
+"We follow as soon as the division on the Education Question is
+over, and that will not be for ten days.  You are come to look at my
+stores for the bazaar; but first, what are you going to do this
+afternoon?"
+
+"What are your plans?"
+
+"I must leave cards at half-a-dozen people's at the other end of the
+park.  Will you come with me?  Where is Lenore?"
+
+"She is gone to take leave of the Strangeways' party; Lady Susan
+insisted on having her for this last day.  Poor Frank!  I confess
+impartially that it does not look well for him."
+
+"Poor Frank!" repeated Cecil, "he does look very forlorn when he
+hears where she is."
+
+"When, after all, if the silly boy could only see it, it is the most
+fortunate thing that could happen to him, and the only chance of
+keeping his head above water.  I have made Lady Susan promise me two
+of her daughters for the bazaar.  They thoroughly know how to make
+themselves useful.  Oh, how pretty!"
+
+For Cecil was producing from the shelves of various pieces of
+furniture a large stock of fancy articles--Swiss carvings, Spa toys,
+Genevese ornaments, and Japanese curiosities, which, as Lady Tyrrell
+said, "rivalled her own accumulation, and would serve to carry off
+the housewives and pen-wipers on which all the old maids of
+Wil'sbro' were employed."
+
+"We must put out our programmes," Cecil added; "people will not work
+in earnest till the day is fixed and they know the sellers."
+
+"Yes, the lady patronesses are most important," said Lady Tyrrell,
+writing them down:  "Mrs. Raymond Charnock Poynsett; Lady Rosamond,
+eh?"
+
+"Oh no, Julius won't hear of it."
+
+"And opposition is sweet:  so we lose her romantic name, and the
+stall of the three brides.  Mrs. Miles Charnock is too much out of
+the world to be worth asking.  Then myself--Mrs. Duncombe, Mrs.
+Fuller, as a matter of necessity, Mrs. Moy."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"Needful, my dear, to propitiate that set.  Also that mayoress, Mrs.
+Truelove, isn't she?  Six.  We'll fill up with country people!"
+
+Six more distinguished names were soon supplied of ladies who would
+give their patronage, provided neither toil nor care was required of
+them; and still consulting, the two friends took their seats in the
+carriage.  The time of the bazaar was to be fixed by the opening of
+the town-hall, which was to take place on the 12th of September--a
+Thursday, the week before the races; and the most propitious days
+appeared to be the Tuesday and Wednesday before the Great Backsworth
+Cup Day, since the world would then be in an excited, pleasure-
+seeking state, favourable to their designs.
+
+"I shall have a party in the house," said Lady Tyrrell:  "shall you
+be able?"
+
+"I can't tell; you know it does not depend on me, and I certainly
+shall not ask it as a favour.  Camilla, did I tell you that I tried
+to make my father understand the state of things, and speak to
+Raymond?  But he would only say, that while I am so young and
+inexperienced, it is a great advantage for me to live with Mrs.
+Poynsett, and that I must be the greatest comfort to her.  Papa is
+an intense believer in Mrs. Poynsett, and when he once has taken up
+a notion nothing will convince him."
+
+"You can't even make capital of this purchase of a house of your
+own?"
+
+"I don't like to do that."
+
+"My dear, I see your delicacy and forbearance, and I would not urge
+you, if I did not see how deeply your happiness is concerned.  Of
+course I don't mean merely the authority over the wirthschaft,
+though somehow the cares of it are an ingredient in female
+contentment; but forgive me, Cecil, I am certain that you will never
+take your right place--where you care for it more--till you have a
+home of your own."
+
+"Ah!"  The responsive sound burst from the very depths of Cecil's
+heart, penetrated as they had never been before; but pride and
+reserve at once sprang up, and she answered coldly, "I have no
+reason to complain."
+
+"Right, my dear Cecil, I like you the better;" and she pressed her
+hand.
+
+"It is quite true," said Cecil, withdrawing hers.
+
+"Quite, absolutely true.  He would die rather than give you any
+reason for the slightest murmur; but, Cecil, dearest, that very
+heedfulness shows there is something he cannot give you."
+
+"I don't know why you should say so," answered a proud but choked
+voice.
+
+"I say so," replied the clear tones, firmly, though with a touch of
+pity, "because I see it.  Cecil, poor child, they married you very
+young!"
+
+"I missed nothing," exclaimed Cecil; but she felt that she could
+only say so in the past, and her eyes burnt with unshed tears.
+
+"No, my dear, you were still a girl, and your deeper woman's heart
+had not grown to perceive that it was not met."
+
+"He chose me," she faintly said.
+
+"His mother needed a daughter.  It was proper for him to marry, and
+you were the most eligible party.  I will answer for it that he
+warned you how little he could give."
+
+"He did," cried Cecil.  "He did tell me that he could not begin in
+freshness and warmth, like a young man; but I thought it only meant
+that we were too sensible to care about nonsense, and liked him for
+it.  He always must have been staid and reserved--he could never
+have been different, Camilla.  Don't smile in that way!  Tell me
+what you mean."
+
+"My dear Cecil, I knew Raymond Poynsett a good many years before you
+did."
+
+"And--well?  Then he had a first love?" said Cecil, in a voice
+schooled into quiet.  "Was he different then?  Was he as desperate
+as poor Frank is now?"
+
+"Frank is a very mild copy of him at that age.  He overbore every
+one, wrung consent from all, and did everything but overcome his
+mother's calm hostility and self-assertion."
+
+"Did that stop it?  She died of course," said Cecil.  "She could not
+have left off loving him."
+
+"She did not die, but her family were wearied out by the continual
+objections to their overtures, and the supercilious way of treating
+them.  They thought it a struggle of influence, and that he was too
+entirely dominated for a daughter-in-law to be happy with her.  So
+they broke it off."
+
+"And she--" Cecil looked up with searching eyes.
+
+"She had acutely felt the offence, the weakness, the dutifulness,
+whatever you may choose to call it, and in the rebound she married."
+
+"Who is she?" gasped Cecil.
+
+"It is not fair to tell you," was the gentle answer, with a shade of
+rebuke.  "You need not look for her.  She is not in the county."
+
+"I hope I shall never see her!"
+
+"You need not dread doing so if you can only have fair play, and
+establish the power that belongs rightly to you.  She would have no
+chance with you, even if he had forgiven her."
+
+"Has not he?"
+
+"Never!"
+
+"And he used up all his heart?" said Cecil in a low, musing tone.
+
+"All but what his mother absorbed.  She was a comparatively young
+and brilliant woman, and she knew her power.  It is a great
+ascendancy, and only a man's honest blindness could suppose that any
+woman would be content under it."
+
+Cecil's tongue refused to utter what oppressed her heart--those
+evenings beside the sofa, those eager home expeditions for Sunday,
+the uniform maintenance of his mother's supremacy.
+
+"And you think absence from her would lessen her influence?"
+
+"I am sure of it.  There might be a struggle, but if I know Mr.
+Charnock Poynsett rightly, he is too upright not to be conscious of
+what is due to you, and be grieved not to be able to give you more--
+that is, when his mother is not holding him in her grasp.  Nor can
+there be any valid objection, since Mrs Miles Charnock is always at
+her service."
+
+"She will return to Africa.  I don't know why she and Rosamond have
+been always so much more acceptable."
+
+"They are not her rivals; besides, they have not your strength.  She
+is a woman who tries to break whatever she cannot bend, and the
+instant her son began to slip from her grasp the contest necessarily
+began.  You had much better have it over once and for ever, and have
+him on your side.  Insist on a house of your own, and when you have
+made your husband happy in it, then, then--Ah!  Good morning--Sir
+George!"
+
+She had meant to say, "Then you win his heart," but the words would
+not come, and a loathing hatred of the cold-hearted child who had a
+property in Raymond so mastered her that she welcomed the
+interruption, and did not return to the subject.
+
+She knew when she had said enough, and feared to betray herself; nor
+could Cecil bear to resume the talk, stunned and sore as she was at
+the revelation, though with no suspicion that the speaker had been
+the object of her husband's affection.  She thought it must have
+been the other sister, now in India, and that this gave the key to
+many allusions she had heard and which she marvelled at herself for
+not having understood.  The equivocation had entirely deceived her,
+and she little thought she had been taking counsel with the rival
+who was secretly triumphing in Raymond's involuntary constancy, and
+sowing seeds of vengeance against an ancient enemy.
+
+She could not settle to anything when she came home.  Life had taken
+a new aspect.  Hitherto she had viewed herself as born to all
+attention and deference, and had taken it as a right, and now she
+found herself the victim of a mariage de convenance to a man of
+exhausted affections, who meant her only to be the attendant of his
+domineering mother.  The love that was dawning in her heart did but
+add poignancy to the bitterness of the revelation, and fervour to
+her resolve to win the mastery over the heart which was her lawful
+possession.
+
+She was restless till his return.  She was going to an evening
+party, and though usually passive as to dress, she was so changeable
+and difficult to satisfy that Grindstone grew cross, and showed it
+by stern, rigid obedience.  And Cecil well knew that Grindstone; who
+was in authority in the present house, hated the return to be merely
+the visitor of Alston and Jenkins.
+
+In the drawing-room Cecil fluttered from book to window, window to
+piano again, throwing down her occupation at every sound and taking
+up another; and when at last Raymond came in, his presence at first
+made her musings seem mere fancies.
+
+Indeed it would have been hard to define what was wanting in his
+manner.  He lamented his unavoidable delay, and entertained her with
+all the political and parliamentary gossip he had brought home, and
+which she always much enjoyed as a tribute to her wisdom, so much
+that it had been an entire, though insensible cure for the Rights of
+Woman.  Moreover, he was going with her to this 'drum,' though he
+would greatly have preferred the debate, and was to be summoned in
+case of a division.  She knew enough of the world to be aware that
+such an attentive and courteous husband was not the rule.  But what
+was courtesy to one who longed for unity?
+
+"Is Frank to be there this evening?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, I believe so."
+
+"I thought he was to have gone with us."
+
+"He told me not to depend on him.  He had made an engagement to ride
+into the country with Sir Harry Vivian."  And she added, though the
+proud spirit so hated what seemed to her like making an advance that
+it sounded like a complaint, "So you can't avoid going with me?"
+
+"I should any way have gone with you, but I may have to leave you to
+Frank to see you away," he said.  "And I had rather have Frank here
+than with that set."
+
+"Breaking up one of our few tete-a-tete evenings, and they are
+becoming few enough!"
+
+This murmur gratified him, and he said, "We shall be more alone
+together now.  The Rectory is almost ready, and Julius means to move
+in another week, and I suppose Miles will carry Anne off before the
+year is over."
+
+"Yes, we are the only ones with no home."
+
+"Rather, we hold fast to the old home."
+
+"Not my old home."
+
+"Does not mine become yours?"
+
+"Not while--."  She paused and started afresh.  "Raymond, could we
+not live at Swanslea, if it is bought for us?"
+
+"Swanslea!  Five miles off!  Impossible."
+
+Cecil was silent.
+
+"My dear Cecil," he said, after a few moments' consideration, "I can
+understand that you felt unfortunately crowded last year, but all
+that is over, and you must see that we are necessary to my mother,
+and that all my duties require me to live at home."
+
+"You could attend to the property from Swanslea."
+
+"The property indeed!  I meant my mother!"
+
+"She has Anne."
+
+"Anne will soon be in Africa--even if she were more of a companion.
+I am sorry it is a trial to you; for my proper place is clearly with
+my mother, the more in her helpless state, and with my brothers gone
+out into the world.  Now that the numbers are smaller, you will find
+it much easier to take the part that I most earnestly wish should be
+yours."
+
+"I cannot get on with her."
+
+"Do not say so!  Do not think so!  To have Rosamond there with her
+Irish ease, and her reserve, kept you in the background before; I
+say it, but I could not help it; and now there will be no hindrance
+to your drawing together.  There is nothing I so desire."
+
+If the carriage had not stopped as he spoke Cecil would not have
+uttered the thought that smote her, namely, that his desire was on
+behalf, not of his wife, but of his mother, to whom he was ready to
+sacrifice her happiness without a pang.  She did not see that he
+could imagine no greater happiness for her than a thorough love of
+his mother.
+
+They certainly were not the happiest couple present as they walked
+up-stairs, looking like a model husband and wife, with their name
+echoing from landing to landing.
+
+If any expression savouring of slang could possibly be applied to
+Raymond, he might be said to be struck all of a heap by his wife's
+proposition.  He had never even thought of the possibility of making
+a home anywhere but at Compton Poynsett, or of his wife wishing that
+he should do so; and proverbial sayings about the incompatability of
+relatives-in-law suddenly assumed a reasonableness that he could not
+bear to remember.
+
+But his courtesy and sense of protection, trained by a woman of the
+old school, would not suffer him to relax his attention to his wife.
+Though he was very anxious to get back to the house, he would not
+quit her neighbourhood till he had found Frank and intrusted her to
+him.
+
+He was not happy about Frank.  The youth was naturally of an
+intellectual and poetical temperament, and had only cared for horses
+and field-sports as any healthy lad growing up in a country house
+must enjoy them; and Raymond had seen him introduced to the style of
+men whom he thought would be thoroughly congenial to him, and not
+unlikely to lead him on to make a mark in the world.
+
+But that unfortunate Vivian attachment stood in the way; Sir Harry
+and his elder daughter ignored it entirely, but did not forbid Frank
+the house; though Lady Tyrrell took care, as only she could do, that
+Eleonora should never have ten minutes private conversation with
+him, either at home or abroad.  Even in a crowd, a ball, or garden-
+party, the vigilant sister had her means of breaking into any kind
+of confidence; and Frank was continually tantalized by the pursuit.
+It could not but unsettle him, and draw him into much more gaiety
+than was compatible with the higher pursuits his mother had expected
+of him; and what was worse, it threw him into Sir Harry Vivian's
+set, veteran roues, and younger men who looked up to their
+knowingness and listened to their good stories.
+
+What amount of harm it was doing Raymond could not guess.  He had
+known it all himself, and had escaped unscathed, but he did not fear
+the less for his younger brother, and he only hoped that the
+inducement to mingle with such society would be at an end before
+Frank had formed a taste for the habits that there prevailed.
+
+Eleonora Vivian had been much admired at first, but her cold manner
+kept every one at a distance, and her reserve was hardly ever seen
+to relax.  However, her one friendship with the Strangeways family
+gave Raymond hopes that her constancy was not proof against the
+flattering affection, backed by wealth, that seemed to await her
+there.  The best he could wish for Frank was that the infatuation
+might be over as soon as possible, though he pitied the poor fellow
+sincerely when he saw him, as he did to-night, waiting with scarcely
+concealed anxiety while Miss Vivian stood listening to a long
+discourse about yachting from an eager pair of chattering girls.
+
+Then some break occurred, and Frank moved up to her.  "Your last
+evening!  How little I have seen of you!"
+
+"Little indeed!"
+
+"I called, but you were at the Strangeways'."
+
+"They are very kind to me.  When is your holiday?"
+
+"Not till spring, but I may get a few days in the autumn:  you will
+be at home?"
+
+"As far as I know."
+
+"If I thought for a moment you cared to see me; but you have shown
+few signs of wishing it of late."
+
+"Frank--if I could make you understand--"
+
+They were walking towards a recess, when Lady Tyrrell fastened upon
+Raymond.  "Pray find my sister; she forgets that we have to be at
+Lady Granby's--Oh! are you there, Lenore!  Will you see her down,
+Mr. Poynsett?  Well, Frank, did you get as far as you intended?"
+
+And she went down on his arm, her last words being, "Take care of
+yourself till we meet at home.  For this one year I call Sirenwood
+home--then!"
+
+Raymond and Lenore said no more to one another.  The ladies were put
+into the carriage.  The elder brother bade Frank take care of Cecil,
+and started for Westminster with the poor lad's blank and
+disappointed face still before his eyes, hoping at least it was well
+for him, but little in love with life, or what it had to offer.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+Awfully Jolly
+
+
+When life becomes a spasm,
+   And history a whiz,
+If that is not sensation,
+   I don't know what it is.--LEWIS CARROLL
+
+"Is Lady Rosamond at home?"
+
+"No, ma'am."
+
+"Nor Mrs. Charnock?"
+
+"No, ma'am; they are both gone down to the Rectory."
+
+"Would you ask whether Mrs. Poynsett would like to see me?"
+
+"I'll inquire, ma'am, if you will walk in," said Mr. Jenkins moved
+by the wearied and heated looks of Miss Vivian, who had evidently
+come on foot at the unseasonable visiting hour of 11.15 a.m.
+
+The drawing-room was empty, but, with windows open on the shady
+side, was most inviting to one who had just become unpleasantly
+aware that her walking capacity had diminished under the stress of a
+London season, and that a very hampering one.  She was glad of the
+rest, but it lasted long enough to be lost in the uncomfortable
+consciousness that hers was too truly a morning call, and she would
+have risen and escaped had not that been worse.
+
+At last the door of communication opened, and to her amazement Mrs.
+Poynsett was pushed into the room by her maid in a wheeled chair.
+"Yes, my dear," she said, in reply to Eleonora's exclamation of
+surprise and congratulation, "this is my dear daughters'
+achievement; Rosamond planned and Anne contrived, and they both
+coaxed my lazy bones."
+
+"I am so very glad!  I had no notion I should see you out of your
+room."
+
+"Such is one's self-importance!  I thought the fame would have
+reached you at least."
+
+"Ah, you don't know how little I see of any one I can hear from!
+And now I am afraid I have disturbed you too early."
+
+"Oh no, my dear; it was very good and kind, and I am only grieved
+that you had so long to wait; but we will make the most of each
+other now.  You will stay to luncheon?"
+
+"Thank you, indeed I am afraid I must not:  papa would not like it,
+for no one knows where I am."
+
+"You have taken this long walk in the heat, and are going back!  I
+don't like it, my dear; you look fagged.  London has not agreed with
+you."
+
+Mrs. Poynsett rang her little hand-bell, and ordered in biscuits and
+wine, and would have ordered the carriage but for Lenore's urgent
+entreaties to the contrary, amounting to an admission that she
+wished her visit to be unnoticed at home.  This was hardly settled
+before there was a knock at the door, announcing baby's daily visit;
+and Miss Julia was exhibited by her grandmamma with great
+satisfaction until another interruption came, in a call from the
+doctor, who only looked in occasionally, and had fallen on this
+unfortunate morning.
+
+"Most unlucky," said Mrs. Poynsett.  "I am afraid you will doubt
+about coming again, and I have not had one word about our Frankie."
+
+"He is very well.  I saw him at a party the night before we left
+town.  Good-bye, dear Mrs. Poynsett."
+
+"You will come again?"
+
+"If I can; but the house is to be full of visitors.  If I don't, you
+will know it is because I can't."
+
+"I shall be thankful for whatever you can give me.  I wish I could
+save you that hot walk in the sun."
+
+But as Mrs. Poynsett was wheeled into her own room some compensation
+befell Eleonora, for she met Julius in the hall, and he offered to
+drive her to the gates of Sirenwood in what he called 'our new
+plaything, the pony carriage,' on his way to a clerical meeting.
+
+"You are still here?" she said.
+
+"Till Tuesday, when we go to the Rectory to receive the two De
+Lancey boys for the holidays."
+
+"How Mrs. Poynsett will miss you."
+
+"Anne is a very efficient companion," said Julius, speaking to her
+like one of the family; "the pity is that she will be so entirely
+lost to us when Miles claims her."
+
+"Then they still mean to settle in Africa?"
+
+"Her heart has always been there, and her father is in treaty for a
+farm for him, so I fear there is little hope of keeping them.  I
+can't think what the parish will do without her.  By the bye, how
+does Joe Reynolds get on with his drawings?"
+
+"I must show them to you.  He is really very clever.  We sent him to
+the School of Art twice a week, and he has got on wonderfully.  I
+begin to believe in my academician."
+
+"So you don't repent?"
+
+"I think not.  As far as I can judge he is a good boy still.  I make
+him my escort to church, so that I am sure of him there.  Renville
+would have taken him for a boy about his studio, and I think he will
+go there eventually; but Camilla thinks he may be an attraction at
+the bazaar, and is making him draw for it."
+
+"I was in hopes that the bazaar would have blown over, but the
+Bishop has been demanding of Fuller and his churchwardens how soon
+they mean to put the building in hand, and this seems to be their
+only notion of raising money."
+
+"I am very glad of this opportunity of asking what you think I had
+better do about it.  Your wife takes no part in it?"
+
+"Certainly not; but I doubt whether that need be a precedent for
+you.  I am answerable for her, and you could hardly keep out of it
+without making a divided household."
+
+"I see the difference, and perhaps I have made myself quite
+unpleasant enough already."
+
+"As the opposition?"
+
+"And Camilla has been very kind in giving me much more freedom than
+I expected, and pacifying papa.  She let me go every Friday evening
+to help Lady Susan Strangeways at her mothers' meeting."
+
+"Lady Susan Strangeways!  I have heard of her."
+
+"She has been my comforter and help all this time.  She is all
+kindness and heartiness,--elbow-deep in everything good.  She got up
+at five o'clock to finish the decorations at St. Maurice's, and to-
+day she is taking five hundred school-children to Windsor forest."
+
+"Is she the mother of the young man at Backsworth?"
+
+"Yes," said Eleonora, in rather a different tone.  "Perhaps she goes
+rather far; and he has flown into the opposite extreme, though they
+say he is improving, and has given up the turf, and all that sort of
+thing."
+
+"Was he at home?  I heard he was on leave."
+
+"He was said to be at home, but I hardly ever saw him.  He was
+always out with his own friends when I was there."
+
+"I should not suppose Lady Susan's pursuits were much in his line.
+Is not one of the daughters a Sister?"
+
+"Yes, at St. Faith's.  She was my great friend.  The younger ones
+are nice girls, but have not much in them.  Camilla is going to have
+them down for the bazaar."
+
+"What, do they patronize bazaars?"
+
+"Everything that is _doing_ they patronize.  I have known them be
+everywhere, from the Drawing-room to a Guild-meeting in a back slum,
+and all with equal appetite.  That is one reason why I fear I shall
+not see much of your mother; they are never tired, and I shall never
+get out alone.  The house is to be full of people, and we are to be
+very gay."
+
+She spoke with a tone that betrayed how little pleasure she
+expected, though it strove to be uncomplaining; and Julius, who had
+learnt something of poor Frank's state of jealous misery, heartily
+wished the Strangeways family further, regarding the intimacy as a
+manoeuvre of Lady Tyrrell's, and doubting how far all Eleonora's
+evident struggles would keep her out of the net; and though while
+talking to her he had not the slightest doubt of her sincerity, he
+had not long set her down at the lodge before he remembered that she
+was a Vivian.
+
+Meantime Rosamond, carrying some medicament to old Betty Reynolds,
+found the whole clan in excitement at the appearance of Joe in all
+his buttons, looking quite as honest and innocent, though a good
+deal more civilized, than when he was first discovered among the
+swine.
+
+"Only to think," said his great-grandmother, "that up in London all
+they could gie to he was a bad penny."
+
+"It is the bronze medal, my lady," said Joshua, with a blush; "the
+second prize for crayons in our section."
+
+"Indeed," cried Rosamond.  "You are a genius, Joe, worthy of your
+namesake.  There are many that would be proud to have the grandson
+you have, Betty."
+
+"Tubby sure," added an aunt-in-law, "'tis cheap come by.  Such
+things to make a young lad draught.  They ought to be ashamed of
+themselves, they did oughter.  Shut it up, Josh; don't be showing it
+to the lady--'tis nothing but the bare back of a sweep."
+
+"My lady and Miss Vivian have seen it," said Joshua, blushing.
+"'Tis torso, my lady, from a cast from the museum."
+
+"A black-looking draught," repeated the grandmother.  "I tells Joe
+if he drawed like King Geaarge's head up at Wil'sbro' on the sign,
+with cheeks like apples, and a gould crown atop, he'd arn his
+bread."
+
+"All in good time, Betty.  He can't colour till he can draw.  I'm
+glad to see him looking so well."
+
+"Yes, my lady, he do have his health torrablish, though he lives in
+a underground sort of a place; and they fine servants puts upon he
+shameful."
+
+"Granny!" muttered Joshua, in expostulation.
+
+"He's a brave boy, and does not mind roughing it, so he can get on,"
+said Rosamond.
+
+"And the ladies are very good to me," said the boy.
+
+"Show Lady Rosamond the draught you did of Miss Vivian, like a
+hangel," suggested the aunt.
+
+The rising artist coloured, saying, "Please, my lady, don't name it
+to no one.  I would not have shown it, but little Bess, she pulled
+down all my things on the floor when I was not looking.  It is from
+memory, my lady, as she looks when she's doing anything for Sir
+Harry."
+
+It was a very lovely sketch--imperfect but full of genius, and
+wonderfully catching, the tender, wistful look which was often on
+Eleonora's face, as she waited on her father.  Rosamond longed that
+Frank should see it; but the page was very shy about it, and his
+grandmother contrasted it with the performances of the painter 'who
+had draughted all the farmers' wives in gould frames for five pound
+a head; but satin gownds and gold chains was extry.'
+
+But Joe had brought her a pound of tea, and an 'image' for her
+mantelpiece, which quite satisfied her, though the image, being a
+Parian angel of Thorwaldsen's, better suited his taste than its
+surroundings.
+
+The whole scene served Rosamond for a narrative in her most lively
+style for Mrs. Poynsett's amusement that evening.  There was the
+further excitement of a letter from Miles, and the assurance that he
+would be at home in November.  Anne had become far less chary of
+communications from his letters than she had at first been, but of
+this one she kept back so large a portion in public, that the
+instant Mrs. Poynsett had bidden them good night and been wheeled
+away, Rosamond put a hand on each shoulder, and looking into her
+face, said, "Now, Anne, let us hear!  Miles has found Archie
+Douglas.  It is no use pretending.  Fie, Mrs. Anne, why can't you
+tell me?"
+
+"I was not to tell any one but Julius."
+
+"Well, I'm Julius.  Besides, wasn't I at the very bottom of the
+tracing him out?  Haven't I the best right to know whether it is bad
+or good?"
+
+"Not bad, I am sure," said Julius, quickly and anxiously.
+
+"Oh, no, not bad," answered Anne.  "He has seen him--had him on
+board for a night."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Off Durban.  But this whole sheet about it is marked 'Private--only
+for Julius,' so I could say nothing about it before your mother.  I
+have hardly glanced at it myself as yet, but I think he says Mr.
+Douglas made him promise not to tell her or Joanna Bowater."
+
+"Not tell Jenny!" cried Rosamond.  "And you said it was not bad.  He
+must have gone and married!"
+
+"I do not think that is it," said Anne; "but you shall hear.  Miles
+says:--'I have at last seen our poor Cousin Archie.  I told you I
+was following up your brother Sandie's hint about the agents for the
+hunters; and at last I fell in with a merchant, who, on my inquiry,
+showed me an invoice that I could have sworn to as in Archie's hand,
+and described his white hair.  It seems he has been acting as
+manager on an ostrich farm for the last three years, far up the
+country.  So I lost no time in sending up a note to him, telling
+him, if he had not forgotten old times, to come down and see me
+while I was lying off Durban Bay.  I heard no more for ten days, and
+had got in the stores and was to sail the next day, thinking he had
+given us all up, when a boat hailed us just come over the bar.  I
+saw Archie's white head, and in ten minutes I had him on deck.  'For
+Heaven's sake--am I cleared, Miles?' was the first thing he said;
+and when I could not say that he was, it went to my heart to see how
+the eager look sank away, and he was like a worn-down man of fifty.
+Poor fellow, I found he had ridden two hundred miles, with the hope
+that I had brought him news that his innocence was proved, and the
+revulsion was almost more than he could bear.  You see, he had no
+notion that we thought him dead, and so he took the entire absence
+of any effort to trace him as acquiescence in his guilt; and when he
+found out how it was, he laid me under the strongest injunctions to
+disclose to no one that he is living--not that he fears any results,
+but that he says it would only disturb every one and make them
+wretched--"
+
+"He must have gone and married.  The wretch!" broke in Rosamond.
+
+"No, oh no!" cried Anne.  "Only hear the rest.  'I told him that I
+could not see that at all, and that there was a very warm and tender
+remembrance of him among us all, and he nearly broke down and said,
+'For Heaven's sake then, Miles, let them rest in that!  There's more
+peace for them so.'  I suppose I looked--I am sure I did not speak--
+as though I were a little staggered as to whether he were ashamed to
+be known; for he drew himself up in the old way I should have known
+anywhere, and told me there was no reason I should fear to shake
+hands with him; however his name might be blasted at home, he had
+done nothing to make himself unworthy of his mother and Jenny--and
+there was a sob again.  So I let him know that up to my last letters
+from home Jenny was unmarried.  I even remembered those descriptive
+words of yours, Nannie, 'living in patient peacefulness and
+cheerfulness on his memory.'"
+
+"I was called on deck just then, so I gave him my home photograph-
+book, and left him with it.  I found him crying like a child over it
+when I came back; I was obliged to strip it of all my best for him,
+for I could not move him.  We went through the whole of the old
+story, to see if there were any hope; and when he found that Tom
+Vivian was dead, and George Proudfoot too, without a word about him,
+he seemed to think it hopeless.  He believes that Proudfoot at
+least, if not Moy, was deeply in debt to Vivian, though not to that
+extent, and that Vivian probably incited them to 'borrow' from my
+mother's letter.  He was very likely to undertake to get the draft
+cashed for them, and not to account for the difference.  It may have
+helped to hasten his catastrophe.  Moy I never should have
+suspected; Archie says he should once have done so as little; but he
+was a plausible fellow, and would do things on the sly, while all
+along appearing to old Proudfoot as a mentor to George.  Archie
+seemed to feel his prosperity the bitterest pill of all--reigning
+like one of the squirearchy at Proudfoot Lawn--a magistrate
+forsooth, with his daughter figuring as an heiress.  One thing worth
+note--Archie says, that when it was too late, he remembered that the
+under-clerk, Gadley, might not have gone home, and might have heard
+him explain that the letter had turned up.'"
+
+"Gadley?  Why that's the landlord of the 'Three Pigeons!'" exclaimed
+Rosamond.  "It is Mr. Moy's house, and he supports him through thick
+and thin."
+
+"Yes," said Julius, "the magistrates have been on the point of
+taking away his license, but Moy always stands up for him.  There is
+something suspicious in that."
+
+"I heard Miss Moy, with my own ears, tell Mrs. Duncombe that he was
+the apple of her father's eye," cried Rosamond.
+
+"He's bribed! he's bribed!  Oh, I see it all.  Well, go on, Anne.
+If Archie isn't at home before he is a year older--"
+
+Anne went on.  "'He allowed that he would have done more wisely in
+facing it out and standing his trial; but he said, poor fellow, that
+he felt as if the earth had given way under him.  There was not a
+soul near who believed him; they brought his father's history
+against him, and moreover he had been at the races, and had been
+betting, though in fact he had won, and not lost, and the 201. he
+had become possessed of was his capital, besides the little he could
+draw out of the bank
+
+"'If he could only have seen Jenny in London she would have turned
+him back.  Indeed, that first stage was to consult her, but he
+fancied he saw the face of the Wil'sbro' Superintendent in a cab,
+and the instinct of avoiding arrest carried him to Southampton,
+where he got a steerage berth in a sailing vessel, and came out to
+the Cape.  He has lived hard enough, but his Scots blood has stood
+him in good stead, and he has made something as an ivory-hunter, and
+now has a partnership in an ostrich farm in the Amatongula country.
+Still he held to it that it was better he should continue dead to
+all here, since Mr. Bowater would never forgive him; and the
+knowledge of his existence would only hinder Jenny's happiness.  You
+should have seen the struggle with which he said that!  He left me
+no choice, indeed; forbade a word to any one, until I suggested that
+I had a wife, and that my said wife and Julius had put me on the
+scent.  He was immensely struck to find that my sweet Nan came from
+Glen Fraser.  He said the evenings he spent there had done more to
+renew his home-sickness, and made him half mad after the sight or
+sound of us, than anything else had done, and I got him to promise
+to come and see us when we are settled in the bush.  What should you
+say to joining him in ostrich-hatching? or would it be ministering
+too much to the vanities of the world?  However, I'll do something
+to get him cleared, if it comes to an appeal to old Moy himself,
+when I come home.  Meantime, remember, you are not at liberty to
+speak a word of this to any one but Julius, and, I suppose, his
+wife.  I hope--'  There, Rose, I beg your pardon."
+
+"What does he hope?" asked Rosamond.
+
+"He only hopes she is a cautious woman."
+
+"As cautious as his Nan, eh?  Ah, Anne! you're a canny Scot, and
+maybe think holding your tongue as fine a thing as this Archie does;
+but I can't bear it.  I think it is shocking, just wearing out the
+heart of the best and sweetest girl in the world."
+
+"At any rate," said Julius, "we must be silent.  We have no right to
+speak, however we may feel."
+
+"You don't expect it will stay a secret, or that he'll go and pluck
+ostriches like geese, with Miles and Anne, and nobody know it?
+'Twould be taking example by their ostriches, indeed!"
+
+"I think so," said Julius, laughing; "but as it stands now, silence
+is our duty by both Miles and Archie, and Anne herself.  We must not
+make her repent having told us."
+
+"It's lucky I'm not likely to fall in with Jenny just yet," said
+Rosamond.  "Don't leave me alone with her, either of you; if you do,
+it is at your peril.  It is all very well to talk of honour and
+secrets, but to see the look in her eyes, and know he is alive,
+seems to me rank cruelty and heartlessness.  It is all to let Miles
+have the pleasure of telling when he comes home."
+
+"Miles is not a woman, nor an Irishwoman," said Julius.
+
+"But he's a sailor, and he's got a feeling heart," said Rosamond;
+"and if he stands one look of Jenny, why, I'll disown him for the
+brother-in-law I take him for.  By the bye, is not Raymond to know?"
+
+"No," said Anne; "here is a postscript forbidding my telling him or
+Mrs. Poynsett."
+
+"Indeed!  And I suppose Herbert knows nothing?"
+
+"Nothing.  He was a boy at school at the time.  Say nothing to him,
+Rose."
+
+"Oh, no; besides, his brain is all run to cricket."
+
+It was but too true.  When the sun shone bright in April, and the
+wickets were set up, Herbert had demonstrated that his influence was
+a necessity on the village green; and it was true that his goodly
+and animated presence was as useful morally to the eleven as it was
+conducive to their triumphs; so his Rector suppressed a few sighs at
+the frequency of the practices and the endless matches.  Compton had
+played Wil'sbro' and Strawyers, Duddingstone and Woodbury; the choir
+had played the school, the single the married; and when hay and
+harvest absorbed the rustic eleven, challenges began among their
+betters.  The officers played the county--Oxonians, Cantabs--
+Etonians, Harrovians--and wherever a match was proclaimed, that
+prime bowler, the Reverend Herbert Bowater, was claimed as the
+indispensable champion of his cause and country.
+
+If his sister had any power to moderate his zeal, she had had little
+chance of exercising it; for Mrs. Bowater had had a rheumatic fever
+in March, and continued so much of an invalid all the summer that
+Jenny seldom went far from home, only saw her brother on his weekly
+visits to the sick-room, and was, as Rosamond said, unlikely to
+become a temptation to the warm heart and eager tongue.
+
+* * * * *
+
+The week-day congregation were surprised one August morning at eight
+o'clock by the entrance of three ladies in the most recent style of
+fashionable simplicity, and making the most demonstrative tokens of
+reverence.  As the Rector came out he was seized upon at once by the
+elder lady.
+
+"Mr. Charnock!  I must introduce myself; I knew your dear mother so
+well when we were both girls.  I am so delighted to find such a
+church--quite an oasis; and I want to ascertain the best hour for
+calling on her.  Quite an invalid--I was so shocked to hear it.
+Will the afternoon suit her?  I am only here for three days to
+deposit these two girls, while I take the other on a round of
+visits.  Three daughters are too great an affliction for one's
+friends, and Bee and Conny are so delighted to be near their brother
+and with dear Lena Vivian, that I am very glad above all, since I
+find there are real church privileges--so different from the Vicar
+of Wil'sbro'.  Poor man; he is a great trial."
+
+All this was said between the church and the lych-gate, and almost
+took Julius's breath away; but Mrs. Poynsett was prepared to welcome
+her old friend with some warmth and more curiosity.
+
+Lady Susan Strangeways was a high-bred woman, but even high breeding
+could not prevent her from being overwhelming, especially as there
+was a great deal more of her than there had been at the last meeting
+of the friends, so that she was suggestive of Hawthorne's inquiry,
+whether a man is bound to so many more pounds of flesh than he
+originally wedded.  However, it was prime condition, and activity
+was not impeded, but rather received impetus.  She had already,
+since her matutinal walk of more than a mile and back, overhauled
+the stores for the bazaar, inspected the town-hall, given her
+advice, walked through the ruins for the church, expressed herself
+strongly on the horrors of the plan, and begun to organize shilling
+cards, all before Sir Harry had emerged from his room.
+
+She was most warm-hearted and good-natured, and tears glistened in
+her honest gray eyes as she saw her old friend's helpless state.
+"You don't know how much I have improved," said Mrs. Poynsett; "I
+feel quite at liberty in this chair, all owing to my good daughters-
+in-law."
+
+"Ah!  I have so pitied you for having no girls!  My dear daughters
+have been so entirely one with me--such a blessing in all I have
+gone through."
+
+Mrs. Poynsett of course declared her complete comfort in her five
+sons, but Lady Susan was sure that if she had had as many boys,
+instead of one son and four daughters, she should have been worn
+out.  Lorimer was a dear, affectionate fellow.  Those he loved could
+guide him with a leash of gossamer, but young men in his position
+were exposed to so many temptations!  There ensued a little sighing
+over the evils of wealth; and to see and hear the two ladies, no one
+would have thought that Julia Poynsett had married a young man for
+love--Susan Lorimer an old man for independence.
+
+Possibly with her present principles she would not have done so; but
+through the vista of a long and prosperous widowhood deficiencies in
+the courtship were easily forgotten; and perhaps there was the more
+romance and sentiment now because she had been balked of it in her
+youth.  She had freely allowed her eldest daughter to enter a
+sisterhood from the purest, most unselfish motives, but there was
+compensation in talking of her Margaret as a Sister of Mercy.
+
+And ere long she was anxiously inquiring Mrs. Poynsett's opinion of
+Eleonora Vivian, and making confidences somewhat trying to the
+mother of the young lady's ardent lover.
+
+She was quite aware that as to fortune there could hardly be a worse
+match than Miss Vivian; but she was sensible enough to see that her
+son had a sufficiency, and generous enough to like the idea of
+redeeming the old estate.  Her husband had spent his latter years in
+a vain search for a faultless property, and his wealth was waiting
+for Lorimer's settling down.  She had always regretted the having no
+vassals rightfully her own, and had felt the disadvantages of being
+Lady Bountiful only by tenant right.  To save an old estate from
+entirely passing out of a family, and relieve 'a noble old wreck,'
+like Sir Harry, seemed to her so grand a prospect that she could not
+but cast a little glamour over the manner of the shipwreck.  Still,
+to do her justice, her primary consideration was the blessing such a
+woman as Lenore might be to her son.
+
+She had not fathomed Lady Tyrrell.  No woman could do so without
+knowing her antecedents, but she understood enough to perceive that
+Eleonora was not happy with her, and this she attributed to the
+girl's deep nature and religious aspirations.  Rockpier was an
+ecclesiastical paradise to Lady Susan, and a close bond with Lenore,
+to whom in London she had given all the facilities that lay in her
+power for persevering in the observances that were alien to the gay
+household at home.  She valued this constancy exceedingly, and
+enthusiastically dilated on the young lady's goodness, and
+indifference to the sensation she had created.  "Lorimer allows he
+never saw her equal for grace and dignity."
+
+Allows!  Fancy Frank _allowing_ any perfection in his Lenore!  Was
+it not possible that a little passing encomium on unusual beauty was
+being promoted and magnified by the mother into a serious
+attachment?  But Lady Tyrrell was playing into her hands, and
+Lenore's ecclesiastical proclivities were throwing her into the arms
+of the family!
+
+It hardly seemed fair to feign sympathy, yet any adverse hint would
+be treason, and Mrs. Poynsett only asked innocently whether her
+friend had seen her son Frank.
+
+"Oh yes, often; the handsomest of all your sons, is he not?"
+
+"Perhaps he is _now_."
+
+"My girls rave about his beautiful brown eyes, just as you used to
+do, Julia, five-and-thirty years ago."
+
+Mrs. Poynsett was sure that whatever she had thought of Miles
+Charnock's eyes five-and-thirty years ago, she had never raved about
+them to Susan Lorimer, but she only said, "All my boys are like
+their father except Charlie."
+
+"But Master Frank has no eyes for any one but Miss Vivian.  Oh yes,
+I see the little jealousies; I am sorry for him; but you see it
+would be a shocking bad thing for a younger son like him; whereas
+Lory could afford it, and it would be the making of him."
+
+Mrs. Poynsett held her peace, and was not sorry that her visitor was
+called away while she was still deliberating whether to give a hint
+of the state of the case.
+
+Lady Susan was, however, more aware of it than she knew; Lady
+Tyrrell had 'candidly' given her a hint that there had been 'some
+nonsense about Frank Charnock,' but that he could never afford such
+a marriage, even if his mother would allow it, all which she never
+would.  Besides, he had not fallen into a satisfactory set in
+London--why, it was not needful to tell.
+
+When, after the drive, Lady Tyrrell, fairly tired out by her
+visitor's unfailing conversation and superabundant energy, had gone
+to lie down and recruit for the evening, Lady Susan pressed on
+Eleonora a warm invitation to the house in Yorkshire which she was
+renting, and where Lorimer would get as much shooting as his colonel
+would permit.  The mention of him made Lenore blush to the ears, and
+say, "Dear Lady Susan, you are always so kind to me that I ought to
+be open with you.  Don't fancy--"
+
+"I understand, I understand, my dear," broke in Lady Susan.  "You
+shall not be teased.  Do not the girls and I care for you for your
+own sake?"
+
+"I hope so."
+
+The elder lady sprang up and embraced her.  Affection was very
+pleasant to the reserved nature that could do so little to evoke
+caresses.  Yet Eleonora clasped her Rockpier charm in her hand, and
+added, "I must tell you that so far as I can without disobedience, I
+hold myself engaged to Frank Charnock."
+
+"To Frank Charnock?" repeated Lady Susan, startled at this positive
+statement.  "My dear, are you quite sure of his ways?--since he has
+been in town I mean."
+
+"I know him, and I trust him."
+
+"I'm sure he is a fine-looking young man, and very clever, they say;
+dear Julia Poynsett's son too, and they have all turned out so
+well," said honest Lady Susan; "but though you have been used to it
+all your life, my dear, a taste for horses is very dangerous in a
+young man who can't afford to lose now and then, you know."
+
+"I have seriously made up my mind never to marry a man who has
+anything to do with the turf," said Eleonora.
+
+"Ah, my poor dear, I can understand that," said Lady Susan, aware
+how ill this told for her Lory.  "May I ask, does he know it?"
+
+"It would insult him to say it.  None of the Charnocks ever meddle
+with those things.  Ah! I know your son saw him on the Derby-day;
+but he went down with his eldest brother and his wife--and _that_ is
+a very different thing!  I stayed at home, you remember--papa had a
+fit of the gout."
+
+"My dear, I don't want to accuse him.  Don't bristle up; only I am
+sorry, both for my own little plan of having you for my _very_ own,
+and because I fear there is trouble in store for you.  It can't be
+palatable."  Here Eleonora shook her head, and her worn, wearied
+look went to the good-natured heart.  "Dear child, you have gone
+through a great deal.  You shan't be worried or fretted about
+anybody or anything at Revelrig."
+
+"I should be very glad," said Lenore, who had no fears of Lory
+personally, though she could not be invited on false pretences.
+
+"You had better come when Bee and Conny meet me.  Let me see--will
+the retreat be over by that time?  Are you going to it?  You are an
+associate of St. Faith."
+
+"Yes, but I don't see how I could go to the retreat.  Oh, what a
+relief it would be to have such a week!"
+
+"Exactly what I feel," said Lady Susan, somewhat to her surprise.
+"It strengthens and sets me right for the year.  Dr. Easterby
+conducts this one.  Do you not know him?  Is not Rood House near
+Backsworth?"
+
+"Yes on the other side, but he is utterly out of my reach.  Julius
+Charnock looks up to him so much; but his name--even more than St.
+Faith's--would horrify my father."
+
+"You could not go direct there," said Lady Susan; "but when once you
+are with me you are my charge, and I could take you."
+
+She considered a little.  Both she and her friend knew that all her
+religious habits were alien to Sir Harry, and that what he had
+freely permitted, sometimes shared at Rockpier, was now only winked
+at, and that if he had guessed the full extent of her observances he
+would have stormily issued a prohibition.  Could it be wrong to
+spend part of her visit to Lady Susan with her hostess in a
+sisterhood, when she had no doubt as to attending services which he
+absolutely never dreamt of, and therefore did not forbid?  The
+sacred atmosphere and holy meditations, without external strife and
+constant watchfulness, seemed to the poor girl like water to the
+thirsty; and she thought, after all the harass and whirl of the
+bazaar and race week, she might thus recruit her much-needed
+strength for the decisive conflicts her majority would bring.
+
+Lady Susan had no doubts.  The 'grand old wreck' was in his present
+aspect a hoary old persecutor, and charming Lady Tyrrell a worldly,
+scheming elder sister.  It was as much an act of charity to give
+their victim an opportunity of devotion and support as if she had
+been the child of abandoned parents in a back court in East London.
+Reserve to prevent a prohibition was not in such cases treachery or
+disobedience; and she felt herself doing a mother's part, as she
+told her daughters, with some enjoyment of the mystery.  Eleonora
+made no promise, hoping to clear her mind by consideration, or to
+get Julius's opinion.  He and his wife dined at Sirenwood, and found
+Joe Reynolds's drawings laid out for inspection, while Lady Susan
+was advising that, instead of selling them, there should be an
+industrial exhibition of all curiosities of art and nature to be
+collected in the neighbourhood, and promising her own set of foreign
+photographs and coloured costumes, which had served such purposes
+many and many a time.
+
+After dinner the good dame tried to talk to Rosamond on what she
+deemed the most congenial subjects; but my Lady Rose had no notion
+of 'shop' at a dinner-party, so she made languid answer that she
+'left all that to the curates,' and escaped to a frivolous young
+matron on the other side of the room, looking on while her husband
+was penned in and examined on his services, and his choir, and his
+system, and his decorations, and his classes, and his schools, for
+all or any of which Lady Susan pressed on him the aid of the two
+daughters she was leaving at Sirenwood; and on his hint that this
+was beyond his parish, she repeated her strong disapproval of the
+Vicar of Wil'sbro', whom she had met at dinner the night before, and
+besides, the school there had numerous Sunday teachers.
+
+Julius assented, for he had no redundance of the article, and his
+senior curate had just started on a vacation ramble with a brother;
+but a sort of misgiving crossed him as he heard Herbert Bowater's
+last comic song pealing out, and beheld the pleasingly plain face of
+a Miss Strangeways on either side of him.  Had he not fought the
+Eton and Harrow match over again with one of them at dinner? and had
+not a lawn tennis challenge already passed?
+
+For Lady Tyrrell and Mrs. Charnock Poynsett were to have garden-
+parties on alternate Wednesdays, and the whole neighbourhood soon
+followed suit.
+
+"You'll find nobody at home, Jenny," said Julius, coming out of a
+cottage opposite, as she rode up to Mrs. Hornblower's, on one of the
+last days of August.  "Nobody--that is, but my mother.  Can you come
+up and see her?"
+
+"With all my heart; but I must get down here; I'm sent for one of
+Herbert's shirts.  The good boy lets mamma and aunty manage them
+still!  I believe their hearts would break outright if he took to
+shop ones, like the rest of them.  Hush, Tartar, for shame! don't
+you know me?  Where's your master?"
+
+"At a garden-party at Duddingstone.  Your mother is better, I see."
+
+"Yes, thank you--out driving with papa.  Good Rollo!" as the
+dignified animal rose from the hearthrug to greet her, waving his
+handsome tail, and calmly expelled a large tabby cat from the easy-
+chair, to make room for his friends.  "Well done, old Roll!  Fancy a
+cat in such company."
+
+"Herbert's dogs partake his good-nature."
+
+"Mungo seems to be absent too."
+
+"Gone with him no doubt.  He is the great favourite with one of the
+Miss Strangeways."
+
+"Which--Herbert or Mungo?"
+
+"Both!  I might say, I know the young ladies best by one being
+rapturous about Tartar and the other about Mungo.  Rollo treats both
+with equally sublime and indifferent politeness, rather as Raymond
+does."
+
+"What sort of girls are they?  Herbert calls them 'awfully jolly.'"
+
+"I'm sorry to say I never can think of any other epithet for them.
+For once it is really descriptive."
+
+"Is it either of them in particular?"
+
+"Confess, Joan, that's what brought you over."
+
+"Perhaps so.  Edith heard some nonsense at Backsworth, and mamma
+could not rest till she had sent me over to see about it; but would
+there be any great harm in it if it were true?  Is not Lady Susan a
+super-excellent woman?"
+
+"You've hit it again, Jenny.  Couple the two descriptions."
+
+"I gather that you don't think the danger great."
+
+"Not at present.  The fascination is dual, and is at least a
+counteraction to the great enchantress."
+
+"That _is_ well!  It was not wholesome!"
+
+"Whereas, these two are hearty, honest, well-principled girls, quite
+genuine."
+
+"Yet you don't say it with all your heart."
+
+"I own I should like to find something they had left undone."
+
+"What, to reduce them to human nature's daily food?"
+
+"Daily indeed!  There's just no escaping them.  There they are at
+matins and evensong."
+
+"How shocking!  What, gossip afterwards?"
+
+"Ask Rollo whether Mungo and Tartar don't stand at the lych-gate,
+and if he finds it easy to put an end to the game at play."
+
+"Oh! and he said they never missed a Sunday service, or the school.
+Do they distract him?"
+
+"Whom would it not distract to see two figures walking in with
+hunches on their backs like camels, and high-heeled shoes, and hats
+on the back of their heads, and chains and things clattering all
+over them?"
+
+"Aren't they lady-like?"
+
+"Oh! they are quite that.  Rose says it is all the pink of fashion--
+only coming it strong--I declare they are infectious!"
+
+"I believe so.  I never heard so many nibbles at slang from any of
+you five, as from the Rector of Compton in the last five minutes.  I
+gather that he is slightly bothered."
+
+"There's so much of it.  We are forced to have them to all the meals
+on Sunday, and their lectures on functions have nearly scared poor
+Anne to the Pilgrim level again.  They have set upon me to get up a
+choir-concert and a harvest-feast; but happily no one has time for
+the first at this season, and as to the other, I doubted whether to
+make this first start after such a rainy summer, and they decide me
+against it.  To have them decorating the church!"
+
+"Awfully jolly," suggested Jenny.
+
+"Even so.  They are, if you understand me, technically reverent;
+they have startled the whole place with their curtsies and crossings
+in church; but they gabble up to the very porch; and the familiarity
+with which they discuss High Mass, as they are pleased to call it!
+I was obliged to silence them, and I must say they took it nicely."
+
+"How do they suit Lena?"
+
+"She likes them.  Lady Susan was a great help to her in London, and
+she feels the comfort of their honesty.  They brought her to church
+with them one or two mornings, but it knocked her up to walk so
+early.  Insensibly, I think they do Lady Tyrrell's work in shutting
+her up from any of us."
+
+"Spite of croquet, which seems perpetual."
+
+"Chronic and sporadic parties make it so.  There are few days
+without that or something else.  Cricket or the band at the
+barracks."
+
+"People say the neighbourhood has never been so gay since Camilla
+Vivian's marriage.  I sometimes wonder whether anything can be going
+to happen," said Jenny with a sigh, not guessing at what Julius was
+thinking of; then changing her tone:  "Surely Herbert does not go to
+it all, and leave you alone?  O, Julius! you should not let him."
+
+"Never mind, Jenny, there's no more work now in the holidays than I
+am sufficient for; and for him, it is quite as guileless play as
+ever he had twenty years ago.  It will soon be over, or I should
+take it more seriously."
+
+"But it is at such a time!"
+
+"Yes, that is the worst of it.  I have thought it over; but while he
+is in this mood, the making him feel victimized and interfered with
+has a worse effect than the letting him have his swing."
+
+"What is he doing now, I wonder?  Here's his sermon-paper on the
+table, and a Greek Testament, and Hints on Decorating Churches, with
+'Constance Strangeways' on the first leaf--no other book.  How long
+will this saturnalia last?"
+
+"Up to the Ordination, I fear.  You know the good people have
+contrived to put bazaar, races, and ball, all into the Ember Week,
+and they are the great object of the young ladies' visit.  Could you
+have him home for a quiet week first?"
+
+"It would not be a quiet week; Edith is in the way of most of these
+affairs; besides, to open fire about these young ladies might just
+be putting nonsense into an innocent head.  Now, I've not seen your
+Rectory!"
+
+The said Rectory was in a decided state of fresh, not to say raw,
+novelty outside, though the old trees and garden a little softened
+its hard grays and strong reds; but it promised to look well when
+crumbling and weather-stain had done their work.  At the door they
+met the pretty young nurse, with a delicate sea-green embroidered
+cashmere bundle in her arms.
+
+"Little Lady Green Mantle," exclaimed Jenny.
+
+"Erin-go-bragh," said Julius.  "Rose clung to her colours in spite
+of all predictions about 'the good people.'  Asleep of course," as
+Jenny took her and uncovered her face.  "She won't exhibit her eyes,
+but they are quite _proper_ coloured."
+
+"Yes, I see she is like Raymond!"
+
+"Do you?  They all say she is a perfect Charnock, though how they
+know I can't guess.  There," after a little more baby-worship, "you
+may take her Emma."
+
+"Is that the under-nurse?" asked Jenny, rather surprised by her
+juvenility.
+
+"The sole one.  My mother and Susan are rather concerned, but Rose
+asserts that experience in that department is always associated with
+gin; and she fell in love with this girl--a daughter of John
+Gadley's, who is much more respectable than he of the 'Three
+Pigeons.'  I suppose it is not in the nature of things for two women
+to have the same view of nursery matters, unless one have brought up
+the other."
+
+"Or even if she have.  Witness mamma's sighs over Mary's nurses."
+
+"I thought it was the common lot.  You've not seen the dining-room."
+And the full honours were done.  They were pleasant rooms, still
+unpapered, and the furniture chiefly of amber-coloured varnished
+deal; the drawing-room, chiefly with green furniture, with only a
+few brighter dashes here and there, and a sociable amount of
+comfortable litter already.  The study was full of new shelves and
+old books, and across the window-sill lay a gray figure, with a book
+and a sheet of paper.
+
+"You here, Terry!  I thought you were gone with Rose," said Julius,
+as the boy rose to greet Miss Bowater.
+
+"She said I need not, and I hate those garden-parties," said Terry;
+and they relieved him of their presence as soon as Jenny had paid
+her respects to the favourite prints and photographs on the walls.
+
+"He has a passion for the history of Poland just now," said Julius.
+"Sobieski is better company than he would meet at Duddingstone, I
+suspect--poor fellow!  Lord Rathforlane has been so much excited by
+hearing of Driver's successes as a coach, as to desire Terry to read
+with him for the Royal Engineers.  The boys must get off his hands
+as soon as possible, he says, and Terry, being cleverest, must do so
+soonest; but the boy has seen the dullest side of soldiering, and
+hates it.  His whole soul is set on scholarship.  I am afraid it is
+a great mistake."
+
+"Can't you persuade him?"
+
+"We have both written; but Rose has no great hopes of the result.  I
+wish he could follow his bent."
+
+"Yes," said Jenny, lingering as she looked towards Church-house,
+"the young instinct ought not to be repressed."
+
+Julius knew that she was recollecting how Archie Douglas had
+entreated to go to sea, and the desire had been quashed because he
+was an only son.  His inclination to speak was as perilous as if he
+had been Rosamond herself, and he did not feel it unfortunate that
+Jenny found she must no longer stay away from home.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+Times Out of Joint
+
+
+Alte der Meere,
+Komm und hore;
+Meine Frau, die Ilsebill,
+Will nicht als ich will!
+
+Life at Compton Poynsett was different from what it had been when
+the two youngest sons had been at home, and Julius and Rosamond in
+the house.  The family circle had grown much more stiff and quiet,
+and the chief difference caused by Mrs. Poynsett's presence was that
+Raymond was deprived of his refuge in her room.  Cecil had taken a
+line of polite contempt.  There was always a certain languid amount
+of indifferent conversation, 'from the teeth outward,' as Rosamond
+said.  Every home engagement was submitted to the elder lady with
+elaborate scrupulousness, almost like irony.  Visitors in the house
+or invitations out of it, were welcome breaks, and the whirl of
+society which vaguely alarmed Joanna Bowater was a relief to the
+inhabitants of the Hall.
+
+Anne's companionship was not lively for her mother-in-law, but she
+was brightening in the near prospect of Miles's return, and they had
+established habits that carried them well through the evening.  Anne
+covered screens and made scrap-books, and did other work for the
+bazaar; and Mrs. Poynsett cut out pictures, made suggestions, and
+had associations of her own with the combinations of which Anne had
+little notion.  Or she dictated letters which Anne wrote, and
+through all these was a kindly, peaceful spirit, most unlike the
+dreary alienation in which Cecil persevered.
+
+To Cecil this seemed the anxious desire for her lawful rights.  She
+had been used to spend the greater part of the evening at the piano,
+but her awakened eyes perceived that this was a cover to Raymond's
+conversations at his mother's sofa; so she sat tying knots in stiff
+thread at her macrame lace pillow, making the bazaar a plea for
+nothing but work.  Raymond used to arm himself with the newspapers
+as the safest point d'appui, and the talk was happiest when it
+_only_ languished, for it could do much worse.
+
+"Shall you be at Sirenwood to-morrow, Cecil?" asked Mrs. Poynsett,
+as she was wheeled to her station by the fire after dinner.  "Will
+you kindly take charge of a little parcel for me?  One of the Miss
+Strangeways asked me to look for some old franks, so Anne and I have
+been turning out my drawers."
+
+"Are they for sale?" asked Raymond.
+
+"Yes," said Cecil.  "Bee Strangeways is collecting; she will pay for
+all that are new to her, and sell any duplicates."
+
+"Has she many?" asked Mrs. Poynsett, glad of this safe subject.
+
+"Quantities; and very valuable ones.  Her grandfather knew
+everybody, and was in the Ministry."
+
+"Was he?" said Raymond, surprised.
+
+"Lord Lorimer?" said Mrs. Poynsett.  "Not when I knew them.  He was
+an old-fashioned Whig, with some peculiar crotchets, and never could
+work with any Cabinet."
+
+"Beatrice told me he was," said Cecil, stiffly.
+
+"I rather think he was Master of the Buckhounds for a little while
+in the Grey Ministry," said Mrs. Poynsett, "but he gave it up
+because he would not vote with ministers on the poor laws."
+
+"I knew I was not mistaken in saying he was in the Ministry," said
+Cecil.
+
+"The Master of the Buckhounds is not in the Cabinet, Cecil," said
+her husband.
+
+"I never said he was.  I said he was in office," returned the
+infallible lady.
+
+Mrs. Poynsett thought it well to interrupt by handing in an envelope
+franked by Sir Robert Peel; but Cecil at once declared that the
+writing was different from that which Bee already owned.
+
+"Perhaps it is not the same Sir Robert," said Mrs. Poynsett.
+
+"She got it from the Queen, and they are all authenticated.  The
+Queen newspaper, of course" (rather petulantly).
+
+"Indisputable," said Raymond; "but this frank contained a letter
+from the second Sir Robert to my father."
+
+Mrs. Poynsett made a sign of acquiescence, and Cecil pouted in her
+dignified way, though Mrs. Poynsett tried to improve matters by
+saying, "Then it appears that Miss Strangeways will have a series of
+Peel autographs, all in fact but the first generation."
+
+Common sense showed she was right, but Cecil still felt
+discontented, for she knew she had been resisted and confuted, and
+she believed it was all Mrs. Poynsett's doing instead of Raymond's.
+
+And she became as mute as Anne for the next half-hour, nor did
+either Raymond or his mother venture on starting any fresh topic,
+lest there might be fresh jarring.
+
+Only Anne presently came up to Mrs. Poynsett and tenderly purred
+with her over some little preparation for Miles.
+
+Certainly Anne was the most improved in looks of all the three
+brides, who had arrived just a year ago.  The thin, scraggy Scotch
+girl, with the flabby, washed-out look alternating with angular
+rigidity was gone, but the softening and opening of her expression,
+the light that had come into her eyes, and had made them a lovely
+blue instead of pale gray; the rose-tint on her cheeks, the delicate
+rounded contour of her face, the improved carriage of her really
+fine figure, the traces of style in the braiding of her profuse
+flaxen hair, and the taste that was beginning to conquer in the
+dress, were all due to the thought that the Salamanca might soon be
+in harbour.  She sat among them still as a creature whose heart and
+spirit were not with them.
+
+That some change must come was felt as inevitable by each woman, and
+it was Mrs. Poynsett who began, one forenoon when her son had
+brought a lease for her to sign.  "Raymond," said she, "you know
+Church-house is to be vacant at Michaelmas.  I wish you would look
+at it, and see what repairs it wants, and if the drawing-room
+windows could be made to open on the lawn."
+
+"Are you hoping to tempt Miles to settle there?"
+
+"No, I fear there is no hope of that; but I do not think an old
+broken-backed invalid ought to engross this great house."
+
+"Mother, I cannot hear you say so!  This is your own house!"
+
+"So is the other," she said, trying to smile, "and much fitter for
+my needs, with Susan and Jenkins to look after me."
+
+"There is no fit place for you but this.  You said that once."
+
+"Under very different circumstances.  All the younger boys were
+still under my wing, and needed the home, and I was strong and
+vigorous.  It would not have been acting right by them to have given
+up the place; but now they are all out in the world, and I am laid
+by, my stay here only interferes with what can be much better
+managed without me or my old servants."
+
+"I do not see that.  If any one moves, it should be ourselves."
+
+"You are wanted on the spot continually.  If Sirenwood were in the
+market, that might not be so much amiss."
+
+"I do not think that likely.  They will delay the sale in the hope
+of Eleonora's marrying a rich man; besides, Mr. Charnock has set his
+mind upon Swanslea.  I hope _this_ is from nothing Cecil has said or
+done!"
+
+"Cecil wishes to part then?  She has said nothing to me, but I see
+she has to you.  Don't be annoyed, Raymond; it is in the nature of
+things."
+
+"I believe it is all Lady Tyrrell's doing.  The mischief such a
+woman can do in the neighbourhood!"
+
+"Perhaps it is only what any friend of Cecil would advise."
+
+"It is the very reverse of what I intended," said Raymond, shading
+his face.
+
+"My dear Raymond, I know what you meant, and what you wish; but I am
+also certain it is for no one's happiness to go on in this way."
+
+He groaned.
+
+"And the wife's right comes first."
+
+"Not to this house."
+
+"But to this man.  Indeed I see more hope of your happiness now than
+I did last year."
+
+"What, because she has delivered herself over bound hand and foot to
+Camilla Vivian?"
+
+"No, because she is altered.  Last year she was merely vexed at my
+position in the house.  Now she is vexed at my position with you."
+
+"Very unjustly."
+
+"Hardly so.  I should not have liked your father to be so much
+devoted to his mother.  Remember, jealousy is a smoke that cannot
+exist without some warmth."
+
+"If she had any proper feeling for me, she would show it by her
+treatment of you."
+
+"That would be asking too much when she thinks I engross you."
+
+"Mother, while you show such marvellous candour and generosity, and
+she--"
+
+"Hush!  Raymond, leave it unsaid!  We cannot expect her to see more
+than her own side of the question.  She has been put into an
+avowedly trying position, and does not deserve hard judgment for not
+being happy in it.  All that remains is to relieve her.  Whether by
+my moving or yours is the question.  I prefer the Church-house
+plan."
+
+"Either way is shame and misery to me," broke out Raymond in a
+choked voice.
+
+"Nonsense," said his mother, trying to be cheerful.  "You made an
+impracticable experiment, that's all.  Give Cecil free scope, let
+her feel that she has her due, and all will come right."
+
+"Nothing can be done till after the Wil'sbro' business," said
+Raymond, glad of the reprieve.  He could not bear the prospect of
+banishment for his mother or himself from the home to which both
+were rooted; and the sentence of detachment from her was especially
+painful when she seemed his only consolation for his wife's
+perverseness.  Yet he was aware that he had been guilty of the
+original error, and was bound to give such compensation to his wife
+as was offered by his mother's voluntary sacrifice.  He was slow to
+broach the subject, but only the next morning came a question about
+an invitation to a dull house.
+
+"But," said Cecil, "it is better than home."  She spoke on purpose.
+
+"I am sorry to hear you say so."
+
+"I can't call it home where I am but a guest."
+
+"Well, Cecil, my mother offers to leave the home of her life and
+retire into Church-house."
+
+Cecil felt as if the screw she had been long working had come off in
+her hands.  She frowned, she gazed, collecting her senses, while
+Raymond added, "It is to my intense grief and mortification, but I
+suppose you are gratified."
+
+"Uh, it would never do!" she exclaimed, to his surprise and
+pleasure.
+
+"Quite right," he returned.  "Just what I felt.  Nothing can make me
+so glad as to see that you think the idea as socking as I do."
+
+"Our going to Swanslea would be much better--far more natural, and
+no one could object.  We could refurnish, and make it perfect;
+whereas nothing can be done to this place, so inconveniently built
+and buried in trees.  I should feel much freer in a place of my
+own."
+
+"So that is what you meant when I thought you were thinking of my
+mother?"
+
+"I am obliged to take thought for myself when you take heed to no
+one but her," said Cecil; and as the carriage was at that moment
+announced, she left him.  Which was the most sick at heart it would
+be hard to say, the wife with the sense that she was postponed in
+everything to the mother, the husband at the alienation that had
+never before been so fully expressed.  Cecil's errand was a council
+about the bazaar; and driving round by Sirenwood, Lady Tyrrell
+became her companion in the carriage.  The quick eyes soon perceived
+that something had taken place, and confidence was soon drawn forth.
+
+"The ice is broken; and by whom do you think?"
+
+"By la belle mere?  Skilful strategy to know when the position is
+not tenable."
+
+"She wants to retreat to Church-house."
+
+"Don't consent to that."
+
+"I said I should prefer Swanslea for ourselves."
+
+"Hold to that, whatever you do.  If she moves to the village you
+will have all the odium and none of the advantages.  There will be
+the same daily haunt; and as to your freedom of action, there are no
+spies like the abdicated and their dependents.  A very clever plan,
+but don't be led away by it."
+
+"No," said Cecil, resolutely; but after a moment:  "It would be
+inconvenient to Raymond to live so far away from the property."
+
+"Swanslea will be property too, and a ride over on business is not
+like strolling in constantly."
+
+"I know I shall never feel like my own mistress in a house of hers."
+
+"Still less with her close by, with the Rectory family running in
+and out to exchange remarks.  No, no, hold fast to insisting that
+she must not leave the ancestral halls.  That you can do dutifully
+and gracefully."
+
+Cecil knew she had been betrayed into the contrary; but they were by
+this time in the High Street, bowing to others of the committee on
+their way to the town-hall, a structure of parti-coloured brick in
+harlequin patterns, with a peaked roof, all over little sham domes,
+which went far to justify its title of the Rat-house, since nothing
+larger could well use them.  The facade was thus somewhat imposing;
+of the rear the less said the better; and as to the interior, it was
+at present one expanse of dust, impeded by scaffold-poles, and all
+the windows had large blotches of paint upon them.
+
+It required a lively imagination to devise situations for the
+stalls; but Mrs. Duncombe valiantly tripped about, instructing her
+attendant carpenter with little assistance except from the well-
+experienced Miss Strangeways.  The other ladies had enough to do in
+keeping their plumage unsoiled.  Lady Tyrrell kept on a little
+peninsula of encaustic tile, Cecil hopped across bird-like and
+unsoiled, Miss Slater held her carmelite high and dry, but poor Miss
+Fuller's pale blue and drab, trailing at every step, became
+constantly more blended!
+
+The dust induced thirst.  Lady Tyrrell lamented that the Wil'sbro'
+confectioner was so far off and his ices doubtful, and Miss Slater
+suggested that she had been making a temperance effort by setting up
+an excellent widow in the lane that opened opposite to them in a
+shop with raspberry vinegar, ginger-beer, and the like mild
+compounds, and Mrs. Duncombe caught at the opportunity of exhibiting
+the sparkling water of the well which supplied this same lane.  The
+widow lived in one of the tenements which Pettitt had renovated
+under her guidance, and on a loan advanced by Cecil, and she was
+proud of her work.
+
+"Clio Tallboys would view this as a triumph," said Mrs. Duncombe,
+as, standing on the steps of the town-hall, she surveyed the four
+tenements at the corner of the alley.  "Not a man would stir in the
+business except Pettitt, who left it all to me."
+
+"Taking example by the Professor," said Lady Tyrrell.
+
+"It is strange," said Miss Slater, "how much illness there has been
+ever since the people went into those houses.  They are in my
+district, you know."
+
+"You should make them open their windows," said Mrs. Duncombe.
+
+"They lay it on the draughts."
+
+"And stuff up my ventilators.  That is always the way they begin."
+
+The excellent widow herself had a bad finger, which was a great
+impediment in administering the cooling beverages, but these were so
+excellent as to suggest the furnishing of a stall therewith for the
+thirsty, as something sure to be popular and at small expense.
+Therewith the committee broke up, all having been present but Miss
+Moy, whose absence was not regretted, though apologized for by Mrs.
+Duncombe.  "I could not get her away from the stables," she said.
+"She and Bob would contemplate Dark Hag day and night, I believe."
+
+"I wouldn't allow it," said Lady Tyrrell.
+
+Mrs. Duncombe shrugged her shoulders and laughed.  "That's Mr. Moy's
+look-out," she said.
+
+"You don't choose to interfere with her emancipation," said Lady
+Tyrrell.
+
+"Clio would tell you she could take care of herself at the stables
+as well as anywhere else."
+
+"Query?" said Lady Tyrrell.  "Don't get into a scrape, Bessie.  Does
+your Captain report on the flirtation with young Simmonds?"
+
+"Who is he?" asked Cecil
+
+"The trainer's son," said Bessie.  "It is only a bit of imitation of
+Aurora Floyd."
+
+"You know she's an heiress," said Lady Tyrrell.  "You had better
+take care how you put such a temptation in his way."
+
+"I don't suppose the Moys are anybody," said Cecil.
+
+"Not in your sense, my dear," said Lady Tyrrell, laughing; "but from
+another level there's a wide gap between the heiress of Proudfoot
+Lawn and the heir of the training stables."
+
+"Cecil looks simply disgusted," said Bessie.  "She can't bear the
+Moys betwixt the wind and her nobility."
+
+"They are the great drawback to Swansea, I confess," said Cecil.
+
+"Oh! are you thinking of Swanslea?" cried Mrs Duncombe.
+
+"Yes," said Lady Tyrrell, "she is one to be congratulated on
+emancipation."
+
+"Well can I do so," said Mrs. Duncombe.  "Don't I know what mothers-
+in-law are?  Mine is the most wonderful old Goody, with exactly the
+notions of your meek Mrs. Miles."
+
+"Incompatibility decidedly," said Lady Tyrrell.
+
+"Only she was the Spartan mother combined with it," continued Mrs.
+Duncombe.  "When Bob was a little urchin, he once, in anticipation
+of his future tastes, committed the enormity of riding on a stick on
+Sunday; so she locked him up till he had learnt six verses of one of
+Watts's hymns about going to church being like a little heaven
+below, isn't it?"
+
+"Increasing his longing that way," said Lady Tyrrell.
+
+"She doesn't even light the drawing-room fire on Sunday, for fear
+people should not sit in their rooms and meditate," continued Mrs.
+Duncombe.  "Bob manages to be fond of her through all; but she
+regularly hates me."
+
+"Not very wonderful," said Lady Tyrrell, laughing.  "I suppose there
+is a charming reciprocity of feeling."
+
+"I think I can afford to pity her," said Mrs. Duncombe, lightly.
+"Just fancy what I must have been to her!  You know I was brought up
+in a convent at Paris.  The very bosom of the scarlet woman."
+
+"But," interrupted Cecil, "you were never a Roman Catholic, Bessie!"
+
+"Oh dear, no; the Protestant boarders were let entirely alone.
+There were only two of us, and we lay in bed while the others went
+to mass, and played while they went to confession, that was all.  I
+was an orphan; never remember my mother, and my father died abroad.
+Luckily for me, Bob was done for by my first ball.  Very odd he
+should have liked a little red-haired thing like me; but every one
+is ticketed, I believe.  My uncle was glad enough to get rid of me,
+and poor old Mrs. Duncombe was unsuspecting till we went home--and
+then!"
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Cecil may have some faint idea."
+
+"Of what you underwent?"
+
+"She wanted to begin on me as if I were a wild savage heathen, you
+know!  I believe she nearly had a fit when I declined a prayer-
+meeting, and as to my walking out with Bob on Sunday evening!"
+
+"Did she make you learn Watts's hymns?"
+
+"No! but she did what was much worse to poor Bob.  She told him she
+had spent the time in prayer and humiliation, and the poor fellow
+very nearly cried."
+
+"Ah, those mothers have such an advantage over their sons," said
+Lady Tyrrell.
+
+"I determined I would never go near her again after that," said Mrs.
+Duncombe.  "Bob goes; he is really fond of her; but I knew we should
+keep the peace better apart.  I let her have the children now and
+then, when it is convenient, and oddly enough they like it; but I
+shall soon have to stop that, for I won't have them think me a
+reprobate; and she has thought me ten times worse ever since I found
+out that I had brains and could use them."
+
+"Quite true," said Camilla; "there's no peacemaker like absence."
+
+"The only pity is that Swanslea is no further off," returned Bessie.
+
+And so it was that Cecil, backed by her two counsellors, held her
+purpose, and Raymond sadly spoke of the plan of separation to
+Julius.  Both thought Mrs. Poynsett's own plan the best, though they
+could not bear the idea of her leaving her own house.  Raymond was
+much displeased.
+
+"At least," he said, "there is a reprieve till this frantic
+fortnight is over.  I envy your exemption from the turmoil."
+
+"I wish you would exempt yourself from the races," said Julius.
+"The mischief they have done in these villages is incalculable!  The
+very men-servants are solicited to put into sweepstakes, whenever
+they go into Wil'sbro'; and only this morning Mrs. Hornblower has
+been to me about her son."
+
+"I thought he was the great feather in Herbert Bowater's cap."
+
+"Showing the direction of the wind only too well.  Since Herbert has
+been infected with the general insanity, poor Harry Hornblower has
+lapsed into his old ways, and is always hanging about the 'Three
+Pigeons' with some of the swarm of locusts who have come down
+already to brawl round the training stables.  This has come to
+Truelove's ears, and he has notice of dismissal.  At the mother's
+desire I spoke to Truelove, but he told me that at last year's races
+the lad had gambled at a great rate, and had only been saved from
+dishonesty by detection in time.  He was so penitent that Truelove
+gave him another trial, on condition that he kept out of temptation;
+but now he has gone back to it, Mr. Truelove thinks it the only way
+of saving him from some fresh act of dishonesty.  'It is all up with
+them,' he says, 'when once they take that turn.'"
+
+"You need not speak as if I were accountable for all the
+blackguardism."
+
+"Every man is accountable who lends his name and position to bolster
+up a field of vice."
+
+"Come, come, Julius.  Remember what men have been on the turf."
+
+"If those men had withheld their support, fashion would not have led
+so many to their ruin."
+
+"Hundreds are present without damage.  It is a hearty out-of-doors
+country amusement, and one of the few general holidays that bring
+all ranks together."
+
+"You speak of racing as it has been or might be in some golden age,"
+said Julius.  "Of course there is no harm in trying one horse's
+speed against another; but look at the facts and say whether it is
+right to support an amusement that becomes such an occasion of
+evil."
+
+"Because a set of rascals choose to bring their villainies there you
+would have the sport of the whole neighbourhood given up.  'No cakes
+and ale' with a vengeance!"
+
+"The cakes and ale that make a brother offend ought to be given up."
+
+"That sentences all public amusements."
+
+"Not necessarily.  The question is of degree.  Other amusements may
+have evil incidentally connected with them, and may lead to
+temptation, but it is not their chief excitement.  The play or the
+opera is the prime interest, and often a refined and elevated one,
+but at races the whole excitement depends upon the horses, and is so
+fictitious that it needs to be enhanced by this betting system.  No
+better faculty is called into play.  Some few men may understand the
+merits of the horse; many more, and most of the ladies, simply like
+the meeting in numbers; but there is no higher faculty called out,
+and in many cases the whole attraction is the gambling, and the
+fouler wickedness in the background."
+
+"Which would be ten thousand times worse if all gentlemen stood
+aloof."
+
+"What good do these gentlemen do beyond keeping the contest
+honourable and the betting in which they are concerned?  Do not they
+make themselves decoys to the young men on the border-land who would
+stay away if the turf were left to the mere vulgar?  Why should they
+not leave it to drop like bull-baiting or cock-fighting?"
+
+"Well done, Julius!" said Raymond.  "You will head a clerical
+crusade against the turf, but I do not think it just to compare it
+with those ferocious sports which were demoralizing in themselves;
+while this is to large numbers simply a harmless holiday and excuse
+for an outing, not to speak of the benefit to the breed of horses."
+
+"I do not say that all competitions of speed are necessarily wrong,
+but I do say that the present way of managing races makes them so
+mischievous that no one ought to encourage them."
+
+"I wonder what Backsworth and Wil'sbro' would say to you!  It is
+their great harvest.  Lodgings for those three days pay a quarter's
+rent; and where so many interests are concerned, a custom cannot
+lightly be dropped."
+
+"Well," said Raymond with a sigh, "it is not pleasure that takes me.
+I shall look on with impartial eyes, if that is what you wish."
+
+Poor Raymond! it was plain that he had little liking for anything
+that autumn.  He rode over to Swanslea with Cecil, and when he said
+it was six miles off, she called it four; what he termed bare,
+marshy, and dreary, was in her eyes open and free; his swamp was her
+lake; and she ran about discovering charms and capabilities where he
+saw nothing but damp and dry rot, and, above all, banishment.
+
+Would she have her will?  Clio would have thought her lecture had
+taken effect, and mayhap, it added something to the general temper
+of self-assertion, but in fact Cecil had little time to think, so
+thickly did gaieties and preparations crowd upon her.  It was the
+full glory and importance of the Member's wife, her favourite ideal,
+but all the time her satisfaction was marred by secret heartache as
+she saw how wearily and formally her husband dragged through
+whatever fell to his lot, saw how jaded and depressed he looked, and
+heard him laugh his company laugh without any heart in it.  She
+thought it all his mother's fault, and meant to make up for
+everything when she had him to herself.
+
+Julius had his troubles.  When Rosamond found that races were what
+she called his pet aversion, she resisted with all her might.  Her
+home associations were all on fire again.  She would not condemn the
+pleasures she had shared with her parents, by abstinence from them,
+any more than she would deviate from Lady Rathforlane's nursery
+management to please Mrs. Poynsett and Susan.  A bonnet, which
+Julius trusted never to see in church, was purchased in the face of
+his remark that every woman who carried her gay attire to the stand
+made herself an additional feather on the hook of evil.  At first
+she laughed, and then grew tearfully passionate in protests that
+nothing should induce her to let her brothers see what their own
+father did turned into a crime; and if they went without her to take
+care of them, and fell into mischief, whose fault would that be?
+
+It was vain to hint that Tom was gone back to school, and Terry
+cared more for the Olympic dust than that of Backsworth.  She had
+persuaded herself that his absence would be high treason to her
+father, whom she respected far more at a distance than when she had
+been struggling with his ramshackle, easy-going ways.  Even now, she
+was remonstrating with him about poor Terry's present misery.  His
+last half year had been spent under the head-master, who had
+cultivated his historical and poetical intelligence, whereas Mr.
+Driver was nothing but an able crammer; and the moment the lad
+became interested and diverged from routine, he was choked off
+because such things would not 'tell.'  If the 'coach' had any
+enthusiasm it was for mathematics, and thitherwards Terry's brain
+was undeveloped.  With misplaced ingenuity, he argued that sums came
+right by chance and that Euclid was best learnt by heart, for 'the
+pictures' simply confused him; and when Julius, amazed at finding so
+clever a boy in the novel position of dunce, tried to find out what
+he did know of arithmetic, his ignorance and inappreciation were so
+unfathomable that Julius doubted whether the power or the will was
+at fault.  At any rate he was wretched in the present, and dismal as
+to the future, and looked on his brother-in-law as in league with
+the oppressors for trying to rouse his sense of duty.
+
+Remonstrance seemed blunted and ineffective everywhere.  When
+Herbert Bowater tried to reclaim Harry Hornblower into giving up his
+notorious comrades, he received the dogged reply, "Why should not a
+chap take his pleasure as well as you?"  With the authority at once
+of clergyman and squire's son, he said, "Harry, you forget yourself.
+I am not going to discuss my occupations with you."
+
+"You know better," rudely interrupted the lad.  "Racketing about all
+over the country, and coming home late at night.  You'd best not
+speak of other folks!"
+
+As a matter of fact, Herbert had never been later than was required
+by a walk home from a dinner, or a very moderate cricket supper; and
+his conscience was clear as to the quality of his amusements; but
+instead of, as hitherto, speaking as youth to youth, he used the
+language of the minister to the insulting parishioner.  "I am sorry
+I have disturbed Mrs. Hornblower, but the case is not parallel.
+Innocent amusement is one thing--it is quite another to run into
+haunts that have _already_ proved dangerous to your principles."
+
+Harry Hornblower laughed.  "It's no go coming the parson over me,
+Mr. Bowater!  It's well known what black coats are, and how they
+never cry out so loud upon other folks as when they've had a jolly
+lark among themselves.  No concealment now, we're up to a thing or
+two, and parsons, and capitalists, and squires will have to look
+sharp."
+
+This oration, smacking of 'The Three Pigeons,' was delivered so loud
+as to bring the mother on the scene.  "O, Harry, Harry, you aren't
+never speaking like that to Mr. Bowater!"
+
+"When folks jaw me about what's nothing to them I always give them
+as good as they bring.  That's my principle," said Harry, flinging
+out of the house, while the curate tried to console the weeping
+mother, and soon after betook himself to his Rector with no mild
+comments on the lad's insolence.
+
+"Another warning how needful it is for us to avoid all occasion for
+misconstruction," said Julius.
+
+"We do, all of us," said Herbert.  "Even that wretched decoction,
+Fuller, and that mere dictionary, Driver, never gave cause for
+imputations like these.  What has the fellow got hold of?"
+
+"Stories of the last century 'two-bottle men,'" said Julius,
+"trumped up by unionists now against us in these days.  The truth is
+that the world triumphs and boasts whenever it catches the ministry
+on its own ground.  Its ideal is as exacting as the saintly one."
+
+"I say Rector," exclaimed the curate, after due pause, "you'll be at
+Evensong on Saturday?  The ladies at Sirenwood want me to go to
+Backsworth with them to hear the band."
+
+"Cannot young Strangeways take care of his sisters?"
+
+"I would not ask it, sir, but they have set their heart on seeing
+Rood House, and want me to go with them because of knowing Dr.
+Easterby.  Then I'm to dine with them, and that's the very last of
+it for me.  There's no more croquet after this week."
+
+"I am thankful to hear it," said Julius, suppressing his distaste
+that the man he most reverenced, and the place which was his haven
+of rest, should be a mere lion for Bee and Conny, a slight pastime
+before the regimental band!
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+The Apple of Ate
+
+
+Oh mirror, mirror on the wall,
+Who is the fairest of us all?--The Three Bears
+
+"I do really think Terry has found the secret of happiness, for a
+_little_ while at least," said Rosamond, entering Mrs. Poynsett's
+room.  "That funny little man in the loan museum has asked him to
+help in the arrangement."
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+"The little watchmaker, or watch cobbler, in the old curiosity
+shop."
+
+"Yes; Terry calls him a descendant of the Genoese Frescobaldi, and
+I'm sure his black eyes were never made for an English head.  Terry
+has always haunted those uncanny wares of his, and has pursued them
+to the museum.  ''Tis not every young gentleman I would wish to see
+there,' says the old man, 'but the Honourable Mr. De Lancey has the
+soul of an antiquarian.'"
+
+"They say the old man is really very clever and well read."
+
+"He looks like an old magician, with his white cap and spectacles,
+and he had need to have a wand to bring order out of that awful
+chaos.  Everybody all round has gone and cleared out their rubbish-
+closet.  Upon my word, it looks so.  There are pictures all one
+network of cracks, and iron caps and gauntlets out of all the halls
+in every stage of rust, and pots and pans and broken crocks, and
+baskets of coin all verdigris and tarnish!--Pah!"
+
+"Are Miles's birds safe?"
+
+"Oh yes, with a swordfish's sword and a sawfish's saw making a
+trophy on the top.  Terry is in the library, hunting material for a
+dissertation upon the ancient unicorn, which ought to conclude with
+the battle royal witnessed by Alice in Wonderland.  The stuffed
+department is numerous but in a bad way as to hair, and chiefly
+consists of everybody's grandmother's old parrots and squirrels and
+white rats.  Then, every boy, who ever had a fit of birds' eggs or
+butterflies, has sent in a collection, chiefly minus the lower
+wings, and with volunteer specimens of moth; but luckily some give
+leave to do what they please with them, so the magician is making
+composition animals with the debris."
+
+"Not really!"
+
+"I made a feeble attempt with an admiral's wings and an orange tip,
+but I was scouted.  About four dilapidated ones make up a proper
+specimen, and I can't think how it is all to be done in the time;
+but really something fit to be seen is emerging.  Terry is sorting
+the coins, a pretty job, I should say; but felicity to him.  But oh!
+the industrial articles!  There are all the regalia, carved out of
+cherry-stones, and a patchwork quilt of 5000 bits of silk each no
+bigger than a shilling.  And a calculation of the middle verse in
+the Bible, and the longest verse, and the shortest verse, and the
+like edifying Scriptural researches, all copied out like flies'
+legs, in writing no one can see but Julius with his spectacles off,
+and set in a brooch as big as the top of a thimble, all done by a
+one-legged sergeant of marines.  So that the line might not be out
+done, I offered my sergeant-major's banner-screen, but I am sorry to
+say they declined it, which made me jealous."
+
+"Are there any drawings of the Reynolds' boy?"
+
+"Yes, Lenore Vivian brought them down, and very good they are.
+Every one says he has the making of a genius, but he does not look
+as if it agreed with him; he is grown tall, and thin, and white, and
+I should not wonder if those good-for-nothing servants bullied him."
+
+"Did you see anything of Eleonora?"
+
+"Nothing so impossible.  I meet her every day, but she is always
+beset with the Strangeways, and I think she avoids me."
+
+"I can hardly think so."
+
+"I don't like it!  That man is always hanging about Sirenwood, and
+Lenore never stirs an inch without one of those girls.  I wish Frank
+could see for himself, poor fellow."
+
+"He does hope to run down next week.  I have just heard from him in
+high spirits.  One of his seniors has come into some property,
+another is out of health and retires, so there is some promotion in
+view."
+
+"I wish it would make haste then.  I don't like the look of things."
+
+"I can hardly disbelieve in the dear girl herself; yet I do feel as
+if it were against nature for it to succeed.  Did you hear anything
+of Mrs. Bowater to-day?"
+
+"Yes, she is much better, and Edith is coming to go into the gallery
+with me on Tuesday when they inaugurate the Rat-house.  Oh! did you
+hear of the debate about it?  You know there's to be a procession--
+all the Volunteers, and all the Odd Fellows, and all the Good
+Templars, and all the school-children of all denominations--whatever
+can walk behind a flag.  Our choir boys grew emulous, and asked
+Herbert to ask the Rector to let them have our lovely banner with
+the lilies on it; but he declined, though there's no choice but to
+give the holiday that will be taken."
+
+"Was that the debate?"
+
+"Oh no! that was among the higher powers--where the procession
+should start from.  The precedent was an opening that began with
+going to church, and having a sermon from the Bishop; but then
+there's no church, and after that spur the Bishop gave them they
+can't ask him without one; besides, the mayor dissents, and so do a
+good many more of them.  So they are to meet at the Market Cross,
+and Mr. Fuller, in the famous black gown, supported by Mr. Driver,
+is to head them.  I'm not sure that Julius and Herbert were not in
+the programme, but Mr. Truelove spoke up, and declared that Mr.
+Flynn the Wesleyan Methodist, and Mr. Howler the Primitive
+Methodist, and Mr. Riffell the Baptist, had quite as good a right to
+walk in the foreground and to hold forth, and Mr. Moy supported
+him."
+
+"Popularity hunting against Raymond."
+
+"Precisely.  But Howler, Flynn, and Co. were too much for Mr.
+Fuller, so he seceded, and the religious ceremonies are now to be
+confined to his saying grace at the dinner.  Raymond thinks it as
+well, for the inaugural speech would only have been solemn mockery;
+but Julius thinks it a sad beginning for the place to have no
+blessing because of our unhappy divisions.  Isn't that like Julius?"
+
+"Exactly, though I see it more from Raymond's point of view.  So you
+are going to the dinner?"
+
+"Oh yes.  Happily my Rector has nothing to say against that, and I
+am sure he owes me something for keeping me out of the bazaar.  In
+fact, having avoided the trouble, I _couldn't_ take the pleasure!
+and he must set that against the races."
+
+"My dear, though I am not set against races like Julius, I think,
+considering his strong feelings on the subject--"
+
+"My dear Mrs. Poynsett, it would be very bad for Julius to give in
+to his fancies.  The next thing would be to set baby up in a little
+hood and veil like a nun!"
+
+Rosamond's winsome nonsense could not but gain a smile.  No doubt
+she was a pleasant daughter-in-law, though, for substantial care,
+Anne was the strength and reliance.  Even Anne was much engrossed by
+preparations for the bazaar.  It had been a great perplexity to her
+that the one thing she thought not worldly should be condemned by
+Julius, and he had not tried to prevent her from assisting Cecil,
+thinking, as he had told Eleonora, that the question of right and
+wrong was not so trenchant as to divide households.
+
+The banquet and inauguration went off fairly well.  There was
+nothing in it worth recording, except that Rosamond pronounced that
+Raymond only wanted a particle of Irish fluency to be a perfect
+speaker; but every one was observing how ill and depressed he
+looked.  Even Cecil began to see it herself, and to ask Lady Tyrrell
+with some anxiety whether she thought him altered.
+
+"Men always look worn after a Session," said Lady Tyrrell.
+
+"If this really makes him unhappy!"
+
+"My dear Cecil, that's the very proof of the necessity.  If it makes
+him unhappy to go five miles away with his wife, it ought not.  You
+should wean him from such dependence."
+
+Cecil had tears in her eyes as she said, "I don't know!  When I hear
+him sighing in his sleep, I long to give it up and tell him I will
+try to be happy here."
+
+"My dear child, don't be weak.  If you give way now, you will rue it
+all your life."
+
+"If I could have taken to his mother, I think he would have cared
+more for me."
+
+"No.  The moment her jealousy was excited she would have resumed
+him, and you would have been the more shut out in the cold.  A
+little firmness now, and the fresh start is before you."
+
+Cecil sighed, feeling that she was paying a heavy price for that
+fresh start, but her hands were too full for much thought.  Guests
+came to dinner, Mrs. Poynsett kept more to her own room, and Raymond
+exerted himself to talk, so that the blank of the evenings was less
+apparent.  The days were spent at the town-hall, where the stalls
+were raised early enough for all the ladies, their maids and
+footmen, to buzz about them all day, decking them out.
+
+Mrs. Duncombe was as usual the guiding spirit, contriving all with a
+cleverness that made the deficiencies of her household the more
+remarkable.  Conny and Bee Strangeways were the best workers, having
+plenty of experience and resource, and being ready to do anything,
+however hard, dusty, or disagreeable; and to drudge contentedly,
+with plenty of chatter indeed, but quite as freely to a female as to
+a male companion; whereas Miss Moy had a knot of men constantly
+about her, and made a noise which was a sore trial to Cecil's heavy
+spirit all the first day, exclusive of the offence to her native
+fastidiousness.  She even called upon Lady Tyrrell and Mrs. Duncombe
+to hold a council whether all gentlemen should not be excluded the
+next day, as spoiling the ladies' work, and of no use themselves;
+but there were one or two who really did toil, and so well that they
+could not be dispensed with, and Mrs. Duncombe added that it would
+not do to give offence.
+
+There was a harassed look about Mrs. Duncombe herself, for much
+depended on the success of her husband's filly, Dark Hag.  The
+Captain had hitherto been cautious, and had secured himself against
+heavy loss, so as to make the turf a tolerable speculation, on but
+the wonderful perfections of this animal had led him to stake much
+more on her than had been his wont; and though his wife was assured
+of being a rich woman in another week, she was not sorry for the
+multiplicity of occupations which hindered her mind from dwelling
+too much on the chances.
+
+"How calm you look,--how I envy you!" she said, as she came to
+borrow some tape of Eleonora Vivian, who was fastening the pendent
+articles to the drapery of her sister's stall.  Eleonora gave a
+constrained smile, feeling how little truth there was in her
+apparent peace, wearied out as she was with the long conflict and
+constant distrust.  She was the more anxious to be with Lady Susan,
+whose every word she could believe, and she finally promised to
+leave home with Bee and Conny the day after the ball, and to meet
+their mother in London.  They knew there was no chance for Lorimer,
+but they took her on her own terms, hoping something perhaps, and at
+any rate glad to be a comfort to one whom they really loved, while
+Lady Tyrrell was delighted to promote the visit, seeing that the
+family did more for Lorimer's cause than he did for himself; and in
+his own home who could guess the result, especially after certain
+other manoeuvres of her ladyship had taken effect?
+
+Lady Tyrrell did not know, nor indeed did Conny or Bee, that, though
+they would meet their mother in London, she would not at once go
+into Yorkshire with them, but would send them to their uncle's,
+while she repaired to the retreat at St. Faith's.  The harass of
+these last few weeks, especially the endeavour to make her go to the
+races, had removed all scruples from Lenore's mind as to leaving her
+home in ignorance of her intentions.  To her mind, the circumstances
+of her brother's death had made a race-course no place for any of
+the family, especially that of Backsworth; gout coming opportunely
+to disable her father in London, and one or two other little
+accidents, had prevented the matter from coming to an issue while
+she had been in London, and the avowal of her intention to keep away
+had filled her father with passion at her for her absurd scruples
+and pretences at being better than other people.  It had been Lady
+Tyrrell who pacified him with assurances that she would soon do
+better; no one wished to force her conscience, and Lenore, always on
+the watch, began to wonder whether her sister had any reason for
+wishing to keep her away, and longed the more for the house of truth
+and peace.
+
+So came on the bazaar day, which Mrs. Poynsett spent in solitude,
+except for visits from the Rectory, and one from Joanna Bowater, who
+looked in while Julius was sitting with her, and amused them by her
+account of herself as an emissary from home with ten pounds to be
+got rid of from her father and mother for good neighbourhood's sake.
+She brought Mrs. Poynsett a beautiful bouquet, for the elderly
+spinsters, she said, sat on the stairs and kept up a constant
+supply; and she had also some exquisite Genoese wire ornaments from
+Cecil's counter, and a set of studs from a tray of polished pebbles
+sent up from Vivian's favourite lapidary at Rockpier.  She had been
+amused to find the Miss Strangeways hunting over it to match that
+very simple-looking charm which Lena wore on to her watch, for, as
+she said, "the attraction must either be the simplicity of it, or
+the general Lena-worship in which those girls indulge."
+
+"How does that dear child look?"
+
+"Fagged, I think, but so does every one, and it was not easy to keep
+order, Mrs. Duncombe's counter was such a rendezvous for noisy
+people, and Miss Moy was perfectly dreadful, running about forcing
+things on people and refusing change."
+
+"And how is poor Anne enduring?"
+
+"Like Christian in Vanity Fair as long as she did endure, for she
+retired to the spinsters on the back stairs.  I offered to bring her
+home, and she accepted with delight, but I dropped her in the
+village to bestow her presents.  I was determined to come on here;
+we go on Monday."
+
+"Shall you be at the Ordination?"
+
+"I trust so.  If mamma is pretty well, we shall both go."
+
+"Is Edith going to the ball on Thursday?"
+
+"No, she has given it up.  It seems as if we at least ought to
+recollect our Ember days, though I am ashamed to think we never did
+till this time last year."
+
+"I confess that I never heard of them," said Mrs. Poynsett.  "Don't
+look shocked, my dear; such things were not taught in my time."
+
+Julius showed her the rubric and the prayer from the book in his
+pocket, knowing that the one endeared to her by association was one
+of the Prayer-books made easy by omission of all not needed at the
+barest Sunday service.
+
+"I see," she said, "it seems quite right.  I wish you had told me
+before you were ordained, my dear."
+
+"You kept your Ember days for me by instinct, dear mother."
+
+"Don't be too sure, Julius.  One learns many things when one is laid
+on one's back."
+
+"Think of Herbert now," whispered Jenny.  "I am glad he is sheltered
+from all this hubbub by being at the palace.  I suppose you cannot
+go to the Cathedral, Julius?"
+
+"No, Bindon will not come back till his brother's holiday is over,
+nor do I even know where to write to him.  Oh! here comes Anne.  Now
+for her impressions."
+
+Anne had brought her little gift for Mrs. Poynsett, and displayed
+her presents for Glen Fraser, but as to what she had seen it made
+her shudder and say, "You were right, Julius, I did not know people
+could go on so!  And with all those poor people ill close by.  Miss
+Slater, who sat on the stairs just below me tying up flowers, is
+much grieved about a lad who was at work there till a fortnight ago,
+and now is dying of a fever, and harassed by all the rattling of the
+carriages."
+
+"What! close by!  Nothing infectious, I hope?"
+
+"The doctor called it gastric fever, but no one was to hear of it
+lest there should be an alarm; and it was too late to change the
+place of the bazaar, though it is so sad to have all that gaiety
+close at hand."
+
+If these were the impressions of Anne and Joanna early in the day,
+what were they later, when, in those not sustained by excitement,
+spirit and energy began to flag?  Cecil's counter, with her
+excellent and expensive wares, and her own dignified propriety, was
+far less popular than those where the goods were cheaper and the
+saleswomen less inaccessible, and she was not only disappointed at
+her failure, but vexed when told that the articles must be raffled
+for.  She could not object, but it seemed an unworthy end for what
+had cost her so much money and pains to procure, and it was not
+pleasant to see Mrs. Duncombe and Miss Moy hawking the tickets
+about, like regular touters, nor the most beautiful things drawn by
+the most vulgar and tasteless people.
+
+Miss Moy had around her a court of 'horsey' men who were lounging
+away the day before the races, and who had excited her spirits to a
+pitch of boisterousness such as dismayed Mrs. Duncombe herself when
+her attempts at repression were only laughed at.
+
+Somehow, among these adherents, there arose a proposal for the
+election of a queen of beauty, each gentleman paying half-a-crown
+for the right of voting.  Miss Moy bridled and tried to blush.  She
+was a tall, highly-coloured, flashing-eyed brunette, to whom a
+triumph would be immense over the refined, statuesque, severe Miss
+Vivian, and an apple-blossom innocent-looking girl who was also
+present, and though Lady Tyrrell was incontestably the handsomest
+person in the room, her age and standing had probably prevented her
+occurring to the propounders of the scheme.
+
+The design was taking shape when young Strangeways, who was willing
+to exchange chaff with Gussie Moy, but was gentleman enough to feel
+the indecorum of the whole thing, moved across to his sister, and
+muttered, "I say, Con, they are getting up that stupid trick of
+election of a queen of beauty.  Does Lady Tyrrell know it?"
+
+"Wouldn't it be rather fun?"
+
+"Horrid bad form, downright impudence.  Mother would squash it at
+once.  Go and warn one of them," signing with his head.
+
+Constance made her way to Eleonora, who had already been perplexed
+and angered by more than one critical stare, as one and another man
+loitered past and gazed intrepidly at her.  She hurried at once to
+her sister, who was sitting passively behind her counter as if
+wearied out, and who would not be stirred to interference.  "Never
+mind, Lenore, it can't be helped.  It is all for the cause, and to
+stop it would be worse taste, fitting on the cap as an acknowledged
+beauty, and to that I'm not equal."
+
+"It is an insult."
+
+"Never fear, they'll never choose you while you look so forbidding,
+though perhaps it is rather becoming.  They have not the taste."
+
+Eleonora said no more, but went over to the window where Raymond was
+keeping his guard, with his old-fashioned sense of protection.  She
+had no sooner told him than he started into incredulous indignation,
+in which he was joined by his wife who only wished him to dash
+forward to prevent the scheme before he would believe it real.
+
+However, when the ballot-box came his way, and a simpering youth
+presented him with a card, begging for his opinion, he spoke so as
+to be heard by all, "No, thank you, sir.  I am requested by the
+ladies present to state that such competition was never contemplated
+by their committee and would be repugnant to all their sentiments.
+They beg that the election may be at once dropped and the money
+returned."
+
+Mr. Charnock Poynsett had a weight that no one resisted.  There was
+a moment's silence, a little murmur, apologetic and remonstrant, but
+the deed was done.
+
+Only a clear voice, with the thrillings of disappointed vanity and
+exultation scarcely disguised by a laugh, was heard saying, louder
+than the owner knew, "Oh, of course Mr. Charnock Poynsett spoiled
+sport.  It would have been awkward between his wife and his old
+flame."
+
+"For shame, Gussie," hushed Mrs. Duncombe, "they'll hear."
+
+"I don't care!  Let them!  Stuck-up people!"
+
+Whoever heard, Cecil Charnock Poynsett did, and felt as if the
+ground were giving way with her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+The Lady Green Mantle
+
+
+The night, just like the night before,
+   In terrors passed away,
+Nor did the demons vanish thence
+   Before the dawn of day.--MOORE
+
+The turmoil was over, the gains had been emptied into bags to be
+counted at leisure, the relics of the sale left to be disposed of
+through the Exchange and Mart.  Terry, looking tired to death,
+descended from his post as assistant showman; and, with some
+gentlemen who were to dine at Compton Poynsett, Cecil drove home to
+dress in haste, and act hostess to a large dinner-party.  All the
+time she felt giddy at the words she had heard--"Mr. Poynsett's old
+flame."  It was constantly ringing in her ears, and one conviction
+was before her mind.  Her cheeks burnt like fire, and when she
+reached her own room at night, and leant from the window to cool
+them, they only burnt the more.
+
+Had she been wilfully deceived? had she been taking the counsel of a
+jealous woman about her husband?  Had not Camilla assured her that
+the object of his first love was not in the country?  Ay; but when
+that was spoken Camilla herself was in London, and Cecil knew enough
+of her friend to be aware that she viewed such a subterfuge as
+ingenious.  Even then she had perceived that the person alluded to
+could only have been a Vivian, and the exclamation of careless spite
+carried assurance to her that she had been tricked into confidence,
+and acceptance of the advice of a rival.  She had a feverish longing
+to know more, and obtain explanation and external certainty.  But
+how?
+
+Raymond was one of the very tired that night.  He fell asleep the
+instant his head touched the pillow; but it was that sobbing,
+sighing sleep which had before almost swept away, from very ruth,
+her resolution; and on this night there were faltering words,
+strangely, though unconsciously, replying to her thoughts.
+"Camilla, a cruel revenge!"  "Poor child! but for you she might have
+learnt."  "My mother!"  "Why, why this persistent hatred?"  "Cannot
+you let us alone?"  "Must you destroy our home?"
+
+These were the mutterings at intervals.  She listened, and in the
+darkness her impulse was to throw herself on her husband, tell him
+all, show him how she had been misled, and promise to give up all to
+which that true Vivienne had prompted her.  She did even try to wake
+him, but the attempt caused only a more distinct expostulation of
+"Cannot you let her alone?"  "Cannot you let us learn to love one
+another?"  "It may be revenge on me or my mother; but what has she
+done?"  "Don't!--oh, don't!"
+
+The distress she caused forced her to desist, and she remembered how
+Raymond had always warned her.  The intimacy with Lady Tyrrell had
+been in the teeth of his remonstrances.  He had said everything to
+prevent it short of confessing his former attachment, and though
+resentful that the warning had been denied her, she felt it had been
+well that she had been prevented from putting the question on her
+first impulse.  Many ways of ascertaining the fact were revolved by
+her as with an aching head she lay hopelessly awake till morning,
+when she fell into a doze which lasted until she found that Raymond
+had risen, and that she must dress in haste, unless she meant to
+lose her character for punctuality.  Her head still ached, and she
+felt thoroughly tired; but when Raymond advised her to stay at home,
+and recruit herself for the ball, she said the air of the downs
+would refresh her.  Indeed, she felt as if quiet and loneliness
+would be intolerable until she could understand herself and what she
+had heard.
+
+Raymond took the reins of the barouche, and a gentleman who had
+slept at the Hall went on the box beside him, leaving room for
+Rosamond and her brother, who were to be picked up at the Rectory;
+but when they drew up there, only Rosamond came out in the wonderful
+bonnet, just large enough to contain one big water-lily, which
+suited well with the sleepy grace of her movements, and the glossy
+sheen of her mauve silk.
+
+"Terry is not coming.  He has a headache, poor boy," she said, as
+Julius shut her into the barouche.  "Take care of him and baby."
+
+"Take care of yourself, Madam Madcap," said Julius, with a smile, as
+she bent down to give him a parting kiss, with perhaps a little
+pleading for forgiveness in it.  But instead of, as last year,
+shuddering, either at its folly or publicity, Cecil felt a keen pang
+of desire for such a look as half rebuked, while it took a loving
+farewell of Rosamond.  Was Camilla like that statue which the
+husband inadvertently espoused with a ring, and which interposed
+between him and his wife for ever?
+
+Rosamond talked.  She always had a certain embarrassment in tete-a-
+tetes with Cecil, and it took form in a flow of words.  "Poor Terry!
+he turned faint and giddy at breakfast.  I thought he had been
+indulging at the refreshment-stall, but he says he was saving for a
+fine copy of the Faerie Queen that Friskyball told him of at a book-
+stall at Backsworth, and existed all day on draughts of water when
+his throat grew dry as showman; so I suppose it is only inanition,
+coupled with excitement and stuffiness, and that quiet will repair
+him.  He would not hear of my staying with him."
+
+"I suppose you do not wish to be late?"
+
+"Certainly not," said Rosamond, who, indeed, would have given up
+before, save for her bonnet and her principle; and whatever she said
+of Lady Rathforlane's easy management of her nurslings, did not
+desire to be _too_ many hours absent from her Julia.
+
+"I only want to stay till the Three-year-old Cup has been run for,"
+said Cecil.  "Mrs. Duncombe would feel it unkind if we did not."
+
+"You look tired," said Rosamond, kindly; "put your feet upon the
+front seat--nobody will look.  Do you know how much you cleared?"
+
+"Not yet," said Cecil.  "I do not know what was made by the raffles.
+How I do hate them!  Fancy that lovely opal Venetian vase going to
+that big bony Scotswoman, Mr. M'Vie's mother."
+
+"Indeed!  That is a pity.  If I had known it would be raffled for, I
+would have sent a private commission, though I don't know if Julius
+would have let me.  He says it is gambling.  What became of the Spa
+work-box, with the passion-flower wreath?"
+
+"I don't know.  I was so disgusted, that I would not look any more.
+I never saw such an obnoxious girl as that Miss Moy."
+
+"_That_ she is," said Rosamond.  "I should think she was acting the
+fast girl as found in sensation novels."
+
+"Exactly," said Cecil, proceeding to narrate the proposed election;
+and in her need of sympathy she even told its sequel, adding,
+"Rosamond, do you know what she meant?"
+
+"Is it fair to tell you?" said Rosamond, asking a question she knew
+to be vain.
+
+"I must know whether I have been deceived."
+
+"Never by Raymond!" cried Rosamond.
+
+"Never, never, never!" cried Cecil, with most unusual excitement.
+"He told me all that concerned himself at the very first.  I wish he
+had told me who it was.  How much it would have saved!  Rosamond,
+you know, I am sure."
+
+"Yes, I made Julius tell me; but indeed, Cecil, you need not mind.
+Never has a feeling more entirely died out."
+
+"Do you think I do not know that?" said Cecil.  "Do you think my
+husband could have been my husband if he had not felt _that_?"
+
+"Dear Cecil, I am so glad," cried impulsive Rosamond; her gladness,
+in truth, chiefly excited by the anger that looked like love for
+Raymond.  "I mean, I am glad you see it so, and don't doubt him."
+
+"I hope we are both above that," said Cecil.  "No, it is Camilla
+that I want to know about.  I _must_ know whether she told me
+truth."
+
+"She told! what did she tell you?"
+
+"That _he_--Raymond--had loved some one," said Cecil in a stifled
+voice; "that I little knew what his love could be.  I thought it had
+been for her sister in India.  She told me that it was nobody in the
+country.  But then we were in town."
+
+"Just like her!" cried Rosamond, and wondered not to be
+contradicted.
+
+"Tell me how it really was!" only asked Cecil.
+
+"As far as I know, the attachment grew up with Raymond, but it was
+when the brother was alive, and Sir Harry at his worst; and Mrs.
+Poynsett did not like it, though she gave in at last, and tried to
+make the best of it; but then she--Camilla--as you call her--met the
+old monster, Lord Tyrrell, made up a quarrel, because Mrs. Poynsett
+would not abdicate, and broke it off."
+
+"She said Mrs. Poynsett only half consented, and that the family
+grew weary of her persistent opposition."
+
+"And she made you think it Mrs. Poynsett's doing, and that she is
+not possible to live with!  O, Cecil! you will not think that any
+longer.  Don't you see that it is breaking Raymond's heart?"
+
+Cecil's tears were starting, and she was very near sobbing as she
+said, "I thought perhaps if we were away by ourselves he might come
+to care for me.  _She_ said he never would while his mother was by--
+that she would not let him."
+
+"That's not a bit true!" said Rosamond, indignantly.  "Is it not
+what she has most at heart, to see her sons happy?  When has she
+ever tried to interfere between Julius and me?  Not that she could,"
+added Rosamond to herself in a happy little whisper, not meant to be
+heard, but it was; and with actual though suppressed sobs, Cecil
+exclaimed--
+
+"O, Rose, Rose! what do you do to make your husband love you?"
+
+"Do?  Be very naughty!" said Rosamond, forced to think of the
+exigencies of the moment, and adding lightly, "There! it won't do to
+cry.  Here are the gentlemen looking round to see what is the
+matter."
+
+Ardently did she wish to have been able to put Cecil into Raymond's
+arms and run out of sight, but with two men-servants with crossed
+arms behind, a strange gentleman in front, the streets of Wil'sbro'
+at hand, and the race-ground impending, sentiment was impossible,
+and she could only make herself a tonic, and declare nothing to be
+the matter; while Cecil, horrified at attracting notice, righted
+herself and made protest of her perfect health and comfort.  When
+Raymond, always careful of her, stopped the carriage and descended
+from his perch to certify himself whether she was equal to going on,
+his solicitude went to her heart, and she gave his hand, as it lay
+on the door, an affectionate thankful pressure, which so amazed him
+that he raised his eyes to her face with a softness in them that
+made them for a moment resemble Frank's.
+
+That was all, emotion must be kept at bay, and as vehicles thickened
+round them as they passed through Wil'sbro', the two ladies betook
+themselves to casual remarks upon them.  Overtaking the Sirenwood
+carriage just at the turn upon the down, Raymond had no choice but
+to take up his station with that on one side, and on the other
+Captain Duncombe's drag, where, fluttering with Dark Hag's colours,
+were perched Mrs. Duncombe and Miss Moy, just in the rear of the
+like conveyance from the barracks.
+
+Greetings, and invitations to both elevations were plentiful, and
+Rosamond would have felt in her element on the military one.  She
+was rapidly calculating, with her good-natured eye, whether the
+choice her rank gave her would exclude some eager girl, when Cecil
+whispered, "Stay with me pray," with an irresistibly beseeching
+tone.  So the Strangeways sisters climbed up, nothing loth; Lady
+Tyrrell sat with her father, the centre of a throng of gentlemen,
+who welcomed her to the ground where she used to be a reigning
+belle; and the Colonel's wife, Mrs. Ross, came to sit with Lady
+Rosamond.  The whole was perfect enjoyment to the last.  She felt it
+a delightful taste of her merry old Bohemian days to sit in the
+clear September sunshine, exhilarated by the brilliancy and life
+around, laughing with her own little court of officers, exclaiming
+at every droll episode, holding her breath with the thrill of
+universal expectation and excitement, in the wonderful hush of the
+multitude as the thud of the hoofs and rush in the wind was heard
+coming nearer, straining her eyes as the glossy creatures and their
+gay riders flashed past, and setting her whole heart for the moment
+on the one she was told to care for.
+
+Raymond, seeing his ladies well provided for, gave up his reins to
+the coachman, and started in quest of a friend from the other side
+of the county.  About an hour later, when luncheon was in full
+progress, and Rosamond was, by Cecil's languor, driven into doing
+the honours, with her most sunshiny drollery and mirth, Raymond's
+hand was on the carriage door, and he asked in haste, "Can you spare
+me a glass of champagne?  Have you a scent-bottle?"
+
+"An accident?"
+
+"Yes, no, not exactly.  She has been knocked down and trampled on."
+
+"Who?  Let me come!  Can't I help?  Could Rosamond?"
+
+"No, no.  It is a poor woman, brutally treated.  No, I say, I'll
+manage.  It is a dreadful scene, don't."
+
+But there was something in his tone which impelled Rosamond to open
+the carriage door and spring out.
+
+"Rose, I say it is no place for a lady.  I can't answer for it to
+Julius."
+
+"I'll do that.  Take me."
+
+There was no withstanding her, and, after all, Raymond's tone
+betrayed that he was thankful for her help, and knew that there was
+no danger for her.
+
+He had not many yards to lead her.  The regions of thoughtless
+gaiety were scarcely separated from the regions of undisguised evil,
+and Raymond, on his way back from his friend, had fallen on a
+horrible row, in which a toy-selling woman had been set upon, thrown
+down and trodden on, and then dragged out by the police, bleeding
+and senseless.  When he brought Rosamond to the spot, she was lying
+propped against a bundle, moaning a little, and guarded by a young
+policeman, who looked perplexed and only equal to keeping back the
+crowd, who otherwise, with better or worse purposes, would have
+rushed back in the few minutes during which Mr. Poynsett had been
+absent.
+
+They fell back, staring and uttering expressions of rough wonder at
+the advance of the lady in her glistening silk, but as she knelt
+down by the poor creature, held her on her arm, bathed her face with
+scent on her own handkerchief, and held to her lips the champagne
+that Raymond poured out, there was a kind of hoarse cheer.
+
+"I think her arm is put out," said Rosamond; "she ought to go to the
+Infirmary."
+
+"Send for a cab," said Raymond to the policeman; but at that moment
+the girl opened her eyes, started at the sight of him and tried to
+hide her face with her hand.
+
+"It is poor Fanny Reynolds," said he in a low voice to Rosamond,
+while the policeman was gruffly telling the woman she was better,
+and ought to get up and not trouble the lady; but Rosamond waved off
+his too decided assistance, saying:
+
+"I know who she is; she comes from my husband's parish; and I will
+take her home.  You would like to go home, would you not, poor
+Fanny?"
+
+The woman shuddered, but clung to her; and in a minute or two an
+unwilling fly had been pressed into the service, and the girl lifted
+into it by Raymond and the policeman.
+
+"You are really going with her?" said the former.  "You will judge
+whether to take her home; but she ought to go to the Infirmary
+first."
+
+"Tell Cecil I am sorry to desert her," said Rosamond, as he wrung
+her hand, then paid the driver and gave him directions, the
+policeman going with them to clear the way through the throng to the
+border of the down.
+
+The choice of the cabman had not been happy.  He tried to go towards
+Backsworth, and when bidden to go to Wil'sbro', growled out an
+imprecation, and dashed off at a pace that was evident agony to the
+poor patient; but when Rosamond stretched out at the window to
+remonstrate, she was answered with rude abuse that he could not be
+hindered all day by whims.  She perceived that he was so much in
+liquor that their connection had better be as brief as possible; and
+the name on the door showed that he came from beyond the circle of
+influence of the name of Charnock Poynsett.  She longed to assume
+the reins, if not to lay the whip about his ears; but all she could
+do was to try to lessen the force of the jolts by holding up the
+girl, as the horse was savagely beaten, and the carriage so swayed
+from side to side that she began to think it would be well if there
+were not three cases for the Infirmary instead of one.  To talk to
+the girl or learn her wishes was not possible, among the moans and
+cries caused by the motion; and it was no small relief to be safely
+at the Infirmary door, though there was no release till after a
+fierce altercation with the driver, who first denied, and then
+laughed to scorn the ample fare he had received, so that had any
+policeman been at hand, the porter and house surgeon would have
+given him in charge, but they could only take his number and let him
+drive off in a fury.
+
+Poor Fanny was carried away fainting to the accident ward, and
+Rosamond found it would be so long before she would be visible
+again, that it would be wiser to go home and send in her relations,
+but there was not a fly or cab left in Wil'sbro', and there was
+nothing for it but to walk.
+
+She found herself a good deal shaken, and walked fast because thus
+her limbs did not tremble so much, while the glaring September
+afternoon made her miss the parasol she had left in the carriage,
+and find little comfort in the shadeless erection on her head.  It
+was much further than she had walked for a long time past, and she
+had begun to think she had parted with a good deal of her strength
+before the Compton woods grew more defined, or the church tower came
+any nearer.
+
+Though the lane to the Reynolds' colony was not full in her way, she
+was glad to sit down in the shade to speak to old Betty, who did not
+comport herself according to either extreme common to parents in
+literature.
+
+"So Fanny, she be in the 'firmary, be her?  I'm sure as 'twas very
+good of the young Squire and you, my lady; and I'm sorry her's bin
+and give you so much trouble."
+
+Everybody was harvesting but the old woman, who had the inevitable
+bad leg.  All men and beasts were either in the fields or at the
+races, and Rosamond, uncertain whether her patient was not in a
+dying state, rejoiced in her recent acquisition of a pony carriage,
+and speeding home with renewed energy, roused her 'parson's man'
+from tea in his cottage, and ordered him off to take Betty Reynolds
+to see her daughter without loss of time.
+
+Then at length she opened her own gate and walked in at the drawing-
+room window.  Terry started up from the sofa, and Anne from a chair
+by his side, exclaiming at her appearance, and asking if there had
+been any accident.
+
+"Not to any of us, but to a poor woman whom I have been taking to
+the Infirmary," she said, sinking into a low chair.  "Where's
+Julius?"
+
+"He went to see old George Willett," said Anne.  "The poor old man
+has just heard of the death of his daughter at Wil'sbro'."
+
+"And you came to sit with this boy, you good creature.  How are you,
+master?"
+
+"Oh, better, thanks," he said, with a weary stretch.  "How done up
+you look, Rose!  How did you come?"
+
+"I walked from Wil'sbro'."
+
+"Walked!" echoed both her hearers.
+
+"Walked!  I liked my two legs better than the four of the horse that
+brought me there, though 'twasn't his fault, poor beast, but the
+brute of a driver, whom we'll have up before the magistrate.  I've
+got the name; doing his best to dislocate every bone in the poor
+thing's body.  Well, and I hope baby didn't disturb you?"
+
+"Baby has been wonderfully quiet.  Julius went to see after her
+once, but she was out."
+
+"I'll go and see the young woman, and then come and tell my story."
+
+But Rosamond came back almost instantly, exclaiming, "Emma must have
+taken the baby to the Hall.  I wish she would be more careful.  The
+sun is getting low, and there's a fog rising."
+
+"She had not been there when I came down an hour ago," said Anne;
+"at least, not with Mrs. Poynsett.  They may have had her in the
+housekeeper's room.  I had better go and hasten her home."
+
+Julius came in shortly after, but before he had heard the tale of
+Fanny Reynolds, Anne had returned to say that neither child nor
+nurse had been at the Hall, nor passed the large gate that morning.
+It was growing rather alarming.  The other servants said Emma had
+taken the baby out as usual in the morning, but had not returned to
+dinner, and they too had supposed her at the Hall.  None of the
+dependants of the Hall in the cottages round knew anything of her,
+but at last Dilemma Hornblower imparted that she had seen my lady's
+baby's green cloak atop of a tax-cart going towards Wil'sbro'.
+
+Now Emma had undesirable relations, and Rosamond had taken her in
+spite of warning that her uncle was the keeper of the 'Three
+Pigeons.'  The young parents stood looking at one another, and
+Rosamond faintly said, "If that girl has taken her to the races!"
+
+"I'm more afraid of that fever in Water Lane," said Julius.  "I have
+a great mind to take the pony carriage and see that the girl does
+not take her there."
+
+"Oh!  I sent it with Betty Reynolds," cried Rosamond in an agony.
+
+"At that moment the Hall carriage came dashing up, and as Raymond
+saw the three standing in the road, he called to the coachman to
+stop, for he and his friend were now within, and Cecil leaning back,
+looking much tired.  Raymond's eager question was what Rosamond had
+done with her charge.
+
+"Left her at the Infirmary;--but, oh! you've not seen baby?"
+
+"Seen--seen what! your baby?" asked Raymond, as if he thought
+Rosamond's senses astray, while his bachelor friend was ready to
+laugh at a young mother's alarms, all the more when Julius answered,
+"It is too true; the baby and her nurse have not been seen here
+since ten o'clock; and we are seriously afraid the girl may have
+been beguiled to those races.  There is a report of the child's
+cloak having been seen on a tax-cart."
+
+"Then it was so," exclaimed Cecil, starting forward.  "I saw a
+baby's mantle of that peculiar green, and it struck me that some
+farmer's wife had been aping little Julia's."
+
+"Where?  When?" cried Rosamond.
+
+"They passed us, trying to find a place.  I did not show it to you
+for you were talking to those gentlemen."
+
+"Did you see it, Brown?" asked Julius, going towards the coachman.
+"Our baby and nurse, I mean."
+
+"I can't tell about Miss Charnock, sir," said the coachman, "but I
+did think I remarked two young females with young Gadley in a tax-
+cart.  I would not be alarmed, sir, nor my lady," he added, with the
+freedom of a confidential servant, who, like all the household,
+adored Lady Rosamond.  "It was a giddy thing in the young woman to
+have done; and no place to take the young lady to.  But there--there
+were more infants there than a man could count, and it stands to
+reason they come to no harm."
+
+"The most sensible thing that has been said yet," muttered the
+friend; but Rosamond was by no means pacified.  "Gadley's cart!
+They'll go to that horrid public-house in Water Lane where there's
+typhus and diphtheria and everything; and there's this fog--and that
+girl will never wrap her up.  Oh! why did I ever go?"
+
+"My dear Rose," said Julius, trying to speak with masculine
+composure, "this is nonsense.  Depend upon it, Emma is only anxious
+to get her home."
+
+"I don't know, I don't know!  If she could take her to the races,
+she would be capable of taking her anywhere!  They all go and drink
+at that beer-shop, and catch--Julius, the pony carriage!  Oh! it's
+gone!"
+
+"Yes," said Julius in explanation.  "She sent Betty Reynolds into
+Wil'sbro' in it."
+
+"Get in, Rosamond," cried Cecil, "we will drive back till we find
+her."
+
+But this was more than a good coachman could permit for his horses'
+sake, and Brown declared they must be fed and rested before the
+ball.  Cecil was ready to give up the ball, but still they could not
+be taken back at once; and Rosamond had by this time turned as if
+setting her face to walk at once to the race-ground until she found
+her child, when Raymond said, "Rose! would you be afraid to trust to
+King Coal and me?  I would put him in at once and drive you till you
+find Julia."
+
+"Oh!  Raymond, how good you are!"
+
+The coachman, glad of this solution, only waited to pick up Anne,
+and hurried on his horses, while the bachelor friend could not help
+grunting a little, and observing that it was plain there was only
+one child in the family, and that he would take any bet 'it' was at
+home all right long before Poynsett reached the parsonage.
+
+"Maybe so," said Raymond, "but I would do anything rather than leave
+her mother in the distress you take so easily."
+
+"Besides, there's every chance of her being taken to that low
+public-house," said Cecil.  "One that Mr. Poynsett would not allow
+our servants to go to during the bazaar, though it is close to the
+town-hall, and all the others did."
+
+"Let us hope that early influence may prevent contamination,"
+solemnly said the friend.
+
+Cecil turned from him.  "I still hope she may be at home," she said;
+"it is getting very chill and foggy.  Raymond, I hope you may not
+have to go."
+
+"You must lie down and get thoroughly rested," he said, as he helped
+her out; and only waiting to equip himself for the evening dance, he
+hurried to the stables to expedite the harnessing of the powerful
+and fiery steed which had as yet been only experimentally driven by
+himself and the coachman.
+
+Rosamond was watching, and when King Coal was with difficulty pulled
+up, she made but one spring to the seat of the dog-cart; and Julius,
+who was tucking in the rug, had to leap back to save his foot, so
+instantaneous was the dash forward.  They went like the wind,
+Rosamond not caring to speak, and Raymond had quite enough on his
+hands to be glad not to be required to talk, while he steered
+through the numerous vehicles they met, and she scanned them
+anxiously for the outline of Emma's hat.  At last they reached
+Wil'sbro', where, as they came to the entrance of Water Lane,
+Rosamond, through the hazy gaslight, declared that she saw a tax-
+cart at the door of the 'Three Pigeons,' and Raymond, albeit
+uncertain whether it were _the_ tax-cart, could only turn down the
+lane at her bidding, with difficulty preventing King Coal from
+running his nose into the vehicle.  Something like an infant's cry
+was heard through the open door, and before he knew what she was
+about, Rosamond was on the pavement and had rushed into the house;
+and while he was signing to a man to take the horse's head, she was
+out again, the gaslight catching her eyes so that they glared like a
+tigress's, her child in her arms, and a whole Babel of explaining
+tongues behind her.  How she did it neither she nor Raymond ever
+knew, but in a second she had flown to her perch, saying hoarsely,
+"Drive me to Dr. Worth's.  They were drugging her.  I don't know
+whether I was in time.  No, not a word"--(this to those behind)--
+"never let me see any of you again."
+
+King Coal prevented all further words of explanation by dancing
+round, so that Raymond was rejoiced at finding that nobody was run
+over.  They were off again instantly, while Rosamond vehemently
+clasped the child, which was sobbing out a feeble sound, as if quite
+spent with crying, but without which the mother seemed dissatisfied,
+for she moved the poor little thing about if it ceased for a moment.
+They were soon within Dr. Worth's iron gates, where Raymond could
+give the horse to a servant, help his sister-in-law down, and speak
+for her; for at first she only held up the phial she had clutched,
+and gazed at the doctor speechlessly.
+
+He looked well both at the bottle and the baby while Raymond spoke,
+and then said, "Are you sure she took any, Lady Rosamond?"
+
+"Quite, quite sure!" cried Rosamond.  "The spoon was at her lips,
+the dear little helpless darling!"
+
+"Well, then," said the doctor, dryly, "it only remains to be proved
+whether an aristocratic baby can bear popular treatment.  I dare say
+some hundred unlucky infants have been lugged out to the race-course
+to-day, and come back squalling their hearts out with fatigue and
+hunger, and I'll be bound that nine-tenths are lulled with this very
+sedative, and will be none the worse."
+
+"Then you do not think it will hurt her?"
+
+"So far from it, that, under the circumstances, it was the best
+thing she could have.  She has plainly been exhausted, and though I
+would not exactly recommend the practice in your nursery, I doubt if
+she could have taken nourishment till she had been composed.  She
+will sleep for an hour or two, and by that time you can get her
+home, and feed her as usual.  I should be more anxious about Lady
+Rosamond herself," he added, turning to Raymond.  "She looks
+completely worn out.  Let me order you a basin of soup."
+
+But Rosamond would not hear of it, she must get baby home directly.
+Raymond advised a fly, but it was recollected that none was
+attainable between the races and the ball, so the little one was
+muffled in shawls and cloaks almost to suffocation, and the doctor
+forced a glass of wine on her mother, and promised to look in the
+next day.  Still they had a delay at the door, caused by the
+penitent Emma and her aunt, bent on telling how far they had been
+from intending any harm; how Emma, when carrying the baby out, had
+been over-persuaded by the cousins she had never disappointed
+before; how they had faithfully promised to take her home early,
+long before my lady's return; how she had taken baby's bottle, but
+how it had got broken; how impossible it had been to move off the
+ground in the throng; and how the poor baby's inconsolable cries had
+caused the young nurse to turn aside to see whether her aunt could
+find anything to prevent her from screaming herself into
+convulsions.
+
+Nothing but the most determined volubility on Mrs. Gadley's part
+could have poured this into the ears of Raymond; Rosamond either
+could not or would not heed, pushed forward, past the weeping Emma,
+and pulled away her dress with a shudder, when there was an attempt
+to draw her back and make her listen.
+
+"Don't, girl," said Raymond.  "Don't you see that Lady Rosamond
+can't attend to you?  If you have anything to say, you must come
+another time.  You've done quite enough mischief for the present."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, "tell your brother to put them both to bed,
+and keep them quiet.  I should like to prescribe the same for you,
+Mr. Poynsett; you don't look the thing, and I suppose you are going
+to take the ball by way of remedy."
+
+Raymond thanked the doctor, but was too much employed in enveloping
+his passengers to make further reply.
+
+It was quite dark, and the fog had turned to misty rain, soft and
+still, but all pervading, and Rosamond found it impossible to hold
+up an umbrella as well as to guard the baby, who was the only
+passenger not soaked and dripping by the time they were among the
+lighted windows of the village.
+
+"Oh, Raymond!  Raymond!" she then said, in a husky dreamy voice,
+"how good and kind you have been.  I know there was something that
+would make you very, very glad!"
+
+"Is there?" he said.  "I have not met with anything to make me glad
+for a long time past!"
+
+"And I don't seem able to recollect what it was, or even if I ought
+to tell," said Rosamond, in the same faint, bewildered voice, which
+made Raymond very glad they were at the gate, where stood Julius.
+
+But before Rosamond would descend into her husband's arms, she
+opened all her child's mufflings, saying, "Kiss her, kiss her,
+Raymond--how she shall love you!"  And when he had obeyed, and
+Rosamond had handed the little one down to her father, she pressed
+her own wet cheek against his dripping beard and moustache, and
+exclaimed, "I'll never forget your goodness.  Have you got her safe,
+Julius?  I'll never, never go anywhere again!"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+The Pebbles
+
+
+O no, no, no; 'tis true.  Here, take this too;
+It is a basilisk unto mine eye,
+Kills me to look on't.  Let there be no honour,
+Where there is beauty; truth, where semblance; love,
+Where there's another man.--Cymbeline
+
+When Julius, according to custom, opened his study shutters, at
+half-past six, to a bright sunrise, his eldest brother stood before
+the window.  "Well, how are they?" he said.
+
+"All right, thank you; the child woke, had some food, and slept well
+and naturally after it; and Rose has been quite comfortable and at
+rest since midnight.  You saved us from a great deal, Raymond."
+
+"Ah!" with a sound of deep relief; "may Julia only turn out as sweet
+a piece of womanhood as her mother.  Julius, I never understood half
+what that dear wife of yours was till yesterday."
+
+"I was forced to cut our gratitude very short," said Julius, laying
+his hand on his brother's shoulder.  "You know I've always taken
+your kindness as a matter of course."
+
+"I should think so," said Raymond, the more moved of the two.  "I
+tell you, Julius, that Rosamond was to me the only redeeming element
+in the day.  I wanted to know whether you could walk with me to ask
+after that poor girl; I hear she came home one with her
+grandmother."
+
+"Gladly," said Julius.  "I ought to have gone last night; but what
+with Rose, and the baby, and Terry, I am afraid I forgot
+everything."  He disappeared, and presently issued from the front
+door in his broad hat, while Raymond inquired for Terry.
+
+"He is asleep now, but he has been very restless, and there is
+something about him I don't like.  Did not Worth say he would come
+and look at the baby?"
+
+"Yes, but chiefly to pacify Rosamond, about whom he was the most
+uneasy."
+
+"She is quite herself now; but you look overdone, Raymond.  Have you
+had any sleep?"
+
+"I have not lain down.  When we came home at four o'clock, Cecil was
+quite knocked up, excited and hysterical.  Her maid advised me to
+leave her to her; so I took a bath, and came down to wait for you."
+
+Julius would have liked to see the maid who could have soothed his
+Rosamond last night without him!  He only said, however, "Is Frank
+come down?  My mother rather expected him."
+
+"Yes, he came to the race-ground."
+
+"Indeed!  He was not with you when you came back, or were we not
+sufficiently rational to see him?"
+
+"Duncombe gave a dinner at the hotel, and carried him off to it.
+I'm mortally afraid there's something amiss in that quarter.  What,
+didn't you know that Duncombe's filly failed?"
+
+"No, indeed, I did not."
+
+"The town was ringing with it.  Beaten out-and-out by Fair Phyllida!
+a beast that took them all by surprise--nothing to look at--but
+causing, I fancy, a good deal of distress.  They say the Duncombes
+will be done for.  I only wish Frank was clear; but that unhappy
+engagement has thrown him in with Sir Harry's set, and he was with
+them all day--hardly spoke to me.  To a fellow like him, a veteran
+scamp like old Vivian, with his benignant looks, is ten times more
+dangerous than men of his own age.  However, having done the damage,
+they seem to have thrown him off.  Miss Vivian would not speak to
+him at the ball."
+
+"Eleonora!  I don't know how to think it!"
+
+"What you cannot _think_, a Vivian can _do_ and does!" said Raymond,
+bitterly.  "My belief is that he was decoyed into being fleeced by
+the father, and now they have done their worst, he is cast off.  He
+came home with us, but sat outside, and I could not get a word out
+of him."
+
+"I hope my mother may."
+
+"If he be not too far gone for her.  I always did expect some such
+termination, but not with this addition."
+
+"I don't understand it now--Lena!"
+
+"I only wonder at your surprise.  The girl has been estranged from
+us all for a long time.  If it is at an end, so much the better.  I
+only wish we were none of us ever to see the face of one of them
+again."
+
+Julius knew from his wife that there were hopes for Raymond, but of
+course he might not speak, and he was revolving these words, which
+had a vehemence unlike the wont of the speaker, when he was startled
+by Raymond's saying, "Julius, you were right.  I have come to the
+conclusion that no consideration shall ever make me sanction races
+again."
+
+"I am glad," began Julius.
+
+"You would not be glad if you had seen all I saw yesterday.  You
+must have lent me your eyes, for when you spoke before of the evils,
+I thought you had picked up a Utopian notion, and were running a-
+muck with it, like an enthusiastic young clergyman.  For my own part
+I can't say I ever came across anything offensive.  Of course I know
+where to find it, as one does wherever one goes, but there was no
+call to run after it; and as we were used to the affair, it was a
+mere matter of society--"
+
+"No, it could never be any temptation to you," said Julius.
+
+"No, nor to any other reasonable man; and I should add, though
+perhaps you might not allow it, that so long as a man keeps within
+his means, he has a right to enhance his excitement and amusement by
+bets."
+
+"Umph!  He has a right then to tempt others to their ruin, and
+create a class of speculators who live by gambling."
+
+"You need not go on trying to demolish me.  I was going to say that
+I had only thought of the demoralization, from the betting side; but
+yesterday it was as if you had fascinated my eyes to look behind the
+scenes.  I could not move a step without falling on something
+abominable.  Roughs, with every passion up to fever-pitch, ferocity
+barely kept down by fear of the police, gambling everywhere,
+innocent young things looking on at coarseness as part of the humour
+of the day, foul language, swarms of vagabond creatures, whose trade
+is to minister to the license of such occasions.  I declare that
+your wife was the only being I saw display a spark of any sentiment
+human nature need not blush for!"
+
+"Nay, Raymond, I begin to wonder whose is the exaggerated feeling
+now."
+
+"You were not there," was the answer; and they were here interrupted
+by crossing the path of the policeman, evidently full of an official
+communication.
+
+"I did not expect to see you so early, sir," he said.  "I was coming
+to the Hall to report to you after I had been in to the
+superintendent."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"There has been a burglary at Mrs. Hornblower's, sir.  If you
+please, sir," to Julius, "when is the Reverend Mr. Bowater expected
+home?"
+
+"Not before Monday.  Is anything of his taken?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  A glass case has been broken open, and a silver cup and
+oar, prizes for sports at college, I believe, have been abstracted.
+Also the money from the till below; and I am sorry to say, young
+Hornblower is absconded, and suspicion lies heavy on him.  They do
+say the young man staked heavily on that mare of Captain
+Duncombe's."
+
+"You had better go on to the superintendent now," said Raymond.
+"You can come to me for a summons if you can find any traces."
+
+Poor Mrs. Hornblower, what horror for her! and poor Herbert too who
+would acutely feel this ingratitude.  The blackness of it was beyond
+what Julius thought probable in the lad, and the discussion of it
+occupied the brothers till they reached the Reynolds colony, where
+they were received by the daughter-in-law, a much more civilized
+person than old Betty.
+
+After Fanny's dislocated arm had been set, the surgeon had sent her
+home in the Rectory carriage, saying there was so much fever in
+Wil'sbro', that she would be likely to recover better at home; but
+she had been suffering and feverish all night, and Dan Reynolds was
+now gone in quest of 'Drake,' for whom she had been calling all
+night.
+
+"Is he her husband?" asked Julius.
+
+"Well, I don't know, sir; leastways, Granny says he ought to be
+answerable for what's required."
+
+Mrs. Reynolds further betrayed that the family had not been ignorant
+of Fanny's career since she had run away from home, leaving her
+child on her grandmother's hands.  She had made her home in one of
+the yellow vans which circulate between fairs and races, driving an
+ostensible trade in cheap toys, but really existing by setting up
+games which were, in fact, forms of gambling, according to the taste
+of the people and the toleration of the police.  From time to time,
+she had appeared at home, late in the evening, with small sums of
+money and presents for her boy; and Mrs. Dan believed that she
+thought herself as good as married to 'that there Drake.'  She was
+reported to be asleep, and the place 'all of a caddle,' and Julius
+promised to call later in the day.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Mrs. Reynolds; "it would be a right good thing,
+poor girl.  She've a kind heart, they all do say; not as I know, not
+coming here till she was gone, nor wanting to know much on her, for
+'twas a right bad way she was in, and 'twere well if them nasty
+races were put down by Act of Parliament, for they be the very ruin
+of the girls in these parts."
+
+"There's a new suggestion, Raymond," said Julius as he shut the
+garden gate.
+
+Raymond was long in answering, and when he spoke, it was to say, "I
+shall withdraw from the subscription to the Wil'sbro' Cup."
+
+"So much the better."
+
+Then Raymond began discussing the terms of the letter in which he
+would state his reasons, but with an amount of excitement that made
+Julius say, "I should think it better not to write in this first
+heat.  It will take more effect if it is not so visibly done on the
+spur of the moment."
+
+But the usually deliberate Raymond exclaimed, "I cannot rest till it
+is done.  I feel as if I must be like Lady Macbeth, continually
+washing my hands of all this wreck and ruin."
+
+"No wonder; but I should think there was great need of caution--to
+use your own words."
+
+"My seat must go, if this is to be the price," said Raymond.  "I
+felt through all the speeches at that gilt-gingerbread place, that
+it was a monument of my truckling to expediency.  We began the whole
+thing at the wrong end, and I fear we are beginning to see the
+effects."
+
+"Do you mean that you are anxious about that fever in Water Lane?"
+
+"There was an oppressive sickly air about everything, strongest at
+the ball.  I can't forget it," said Raymond, taking off his hat, so
+that the morning air might play about his temples.  "We talked about
+meddling women, but the truth was that they were shaming us by doing
+what they could."
+
+"I hope others will see it so.  Is not Whitlock to be mayor next
+time?"
+
+"Yes.  He may do something.  Well, they will hardly unseat me!  I
+should not like to see Moy in my place, and it would be a sore thing
+for my mother; but," he continued, in the same strange, dreamy
+manner, "everything has turned out so wretchedly that I hardly know
+or care how it goes."
+
+"My dear old fellow!"
+
+Raymond had stopped to lean over a gate, where he could look up to
+the old red house in the green park, set in brightly-tinted trees,
+all aglow in the morning sunshine.  Tears had sprung on his cheeks,
+and a suppressed sob heaved his chest.  Julius ventured to say,
+"Perhaps there may yet be a change of mind."
+
+"No!" was the answer.  "In the present situation there is nothing
+for it but to sacrifice my last shred of peace to the one who has
+the chief right--in a certain way."
+
+They walked on, and he hardly spoke again till, as they reached the
+Rectory, Julius persuaded him to come in and have a cup of tea; and
+though he said he must go back and see his friend off, he could not
+withstand the sight of Rosamond at the window, fresh and smiling,
+with her child in her arms.
+
+"Not a bit the worse for her dissipation," she merrily said.  "Oh,
+the naughty little thing!--to have begun with the turf, and then the
+'Three Pigeons'!  Aren't you ashamed of her, papa?  Sit down,
+Raymond; how horribly tired you do look."
+
+"Ha!  What's this?" exclaimed Julius, who had been opening the post-
+bag.  "Here's a note from the Bishop, desiring me to come to the
+palace to-day, if possible."
+
+"Oh!" cried Raymond.  "Where is there vacant--isn't there a canonry
+or a chaplaincy?"
+
+"Or an archbishopric or two?" said Julius.  "The pony can do it, I
+think, as there will be a long rest.  If he seems fagged, I can put
+up at Backsworth and take a fly."
+
+"You'll let James drive you," said Rosamond.
+
+"I had rather not," said Julius.  "It may be better to be alone."
+
+"He is afraid of betraying his elevation to James," laughed
+Rosamond.
+
+"Mrs. Daniel Reynolds to see you, sir."
+
+This was with the information that that there trapezing chap, Drake,
+had fetched off poor Fanny in his van.  He had been in trouble
+himself, having been in custody for some misdemeanour when she was
+thrown down; but as soon as he was released, he had come in search
+of her, and though at first he seemed willing to leave her to be
+nursed at home, he had no sooner heard of the visitors of that
+morning than he had sworn he would have no parson meddling with his
+poor gal! she was good enough for him, and he would not have a pack
+of nonsense put in her head to set her against him.
+
+"He's good to her, sir," said Mrs. Reynolds, "I think he be; but he
+is a very ignorant man.  He tell'd us once as he was born in one of
+they vans, and hadn't never been to school nor nothin', nor heard
+tell of God, save in the way of bad words:  he've done nothin' but
+go from one races and fairs to another, just like the gipsies,
+though he bain't a gipsy neither; but he's right down attacted to
+poor Fanny, and good to her."
+
+"Another product of the system," said Raymond.
+
+"Like the gleeman, whom we see through a picturesque medium," said
+Julius; "but who could not have been pleasant to the mediaeval
+clergyman.  I have hopes of poor Fanny yet.  She will drift home one
+of these days, and we shall get hold of her."
+
+"What a fellow you are for hoping!" returned Raymond, a little
+impatiently.
+
+"Why not?" said Julius.
+
+"Why!  I should say--" replied Raymond, setting out to walk home,
+where he presided over his friend's breakfast and departure, and
+received a little banter over his solicitude for the precious
+infant.  Cecil was still in bed, and Frank was looking ghastly, and
+moved and spoke like one in a dream, Raymond was relieved to hear
+him pleading with Susan for to his mother's room much earlier than
+usual.
+
+Susan took pity and let him in; when at once he flung himself into a
+chair, with his face hidden on the bed, and exclaimed, "Mother, it
+is all over with me!"
+
+"My dear boy, what can have happened?"
+
+"Mother, you remember those two red pebbles.  Could you believe that
+she has sold hers?"
+
+"Are you sure she has?  I heard that they had a collection of such
+things from the lapidary at Rockpier."
+
+"No, mother, that is no explanation.  When I found that I should be
+able to come down, I sent a card to Lady Tyrrell, saying I would
+meet them on the race-ground--a post-card, so that Lena might see
+it.  When I came there was no Lena, only some excuse about resting
+for the ball--lying down with a bad headache, and so forth--making
+it plain that I need not go on to Sirenwood.  By and by there was
+some mild betting with the ladies, and Lady Tyrrell said, 'There's a
+chance for you, Bee; don't I see the very fellow to Conny's charm?'
+Whereupon that girl Conny pulled out the very stone I gave Lena
+three years ago at Rockpier.  I asked; yes, I asked--Lena had sold
+it; Lena, at the bazaar; Lena, who--"
+
+"Stay, Frank, is this trusting Lena as she bade you trust her?  How
+do you know that there were no other such pebbles?"
+
+"You have not seen her as I have done.  There has been a gradual
+alienation--holding aloof from us, and throwing herself into the
+arms of those Strangeways.  It is no fault of her sister's.  She has
+lamented it to me."
+
+"Or pointed it out.  Did she know the history of these pebbles?"
+
+"No one did.  Lena was above all reserved with her."
+
+"Camilla Tyrrell knows a good deal more than she is told.  Where's
+your pebble?  You did not stake that?"
+
+"Those who had one were welcome to the other."
+
+"O, my poor foolish Frank!  May it not be gone to tell the same tale
+of you that you think was told of her?  Is this all?"
+
+"Would that it were!"
+
+"Well, go on, my dear.  Was she at the ball?"
+
+"Surrounded by all that set.  I was long in getting near her, and
+then she said her card was full; and when I made some desperate
+entreaty, she said, in an undertone that stabbed me by its very
+calmness, 'After what has passed to-day, the less we meet the
+better.'  And she moved away, so as to cut me off from another
+word."
+
+"After what had passed!  Was it the parting with the stone?"
+
+"Not only.  I got a few words with Lady Tyrrell.  She told me that
+early impressions had given Lena a kind of fanatical horror of
+betting, and that she had long ago made a sort of vow against a
+betting man.  Lady Tyrrell said she had laughed at it, but had no
+notion it was seriously meant; and I--I never even heard of it!"
+
+"Nor are you a betting man, my Frank."
+
+"Ay! mother, you have not heard all."
+
+"You are not in a scrape, my boy?"
+
+"Yes, I am.  You see I lost my head after the pebble transaction.  I
+couldn't stand small talk, or bear to go near Raymond, so I got
+among some other fellows with Sir Harry--"
+
+"And excitement and distress led you on?"
+
+"I don't know what came over me.  I could not stand still for fear I
+should feel.  I must be mad on something.  Then, that mare of
+Duncombe's, poor fellow, seemed a personal affair to us all; and Sir
+Harry, and a few other knowing old hands, went working one up, till
+betting higher and higher seemed the only way of supporting
+Duncombe, besides relieving one's feelings.  I know it was being no
+end of a fool; but you haven't felt it, mother!"
+
+"And Sir Harry took your bets?"
+
+"One must fare and fare alike," said Frank.
+
+"How much have you lost?"
+
+"I've lost Lena, that's all I know," said the poor boy; but he
+produced his book, and the sum appalled him.  "Mother," he said in a
+broken voice, "there's no fear of its happening again.  I can never
+feel like this again.  I know it is the first time one of your sons
+has served you so, and I can't even talk of sorrow, it seems all
+swallowed up in the other matter.  But if you will help me to meet
+it, I will pay you back ten or twenty pounds every quarter."
+
+"I think I can, Frankie.  I had something in hand towards my own
+possible flitting.  Here is the key of my desk.  Bring me my
+banker's book and my cheque book."
+
+"Mother! mother!" he cried, catching her hand and kissing it, "what
+a mother you are!"
+
+"You understand," she said, "that it is because I believe you were
+not master of yourself, and that this is the exception, not the
+habit, that I am willing to do all I can for you."
+
+"The habit!  No, indeed!  I never staked more than a box of gloves
+before; but what's the good, if she has made a vow against me?"
+
+Mrs. Poynsett was silent for a few moments, then she said, "My poor
+boy, I believe you are both victims of a plot.  I suspect that
+Camilla Tyrrell purposely let you see that pebble-token and be
+goaded into gambling, that she might have a story to tell her
+sister, when she had failed to shake her constancy and principle in
+any other way."
+
+"Mother, that would make her out a fiend.  She has been my good and
+candid friend all along.  You don't know her."
+
+"What would a friend have done by you yesterday?"
+
+"She neither saw nor heard my madness.  No, mother, Lenore's heart
+has been going from me for months past, and she is glad of this plea
+for release, believing me unworthy.  Oh! that stern face of hers!
+set like a head of Justice with not a shade of pity--so beautiful--
+so terrible!  It will never cease to haunt me."
+
+He sat in deep despondency, while Mrs. Poynsett overlooked her
+resources; but presently he started up, saying, "There's one shadow
+of a hope.  I'll go over to Sirenwood, insist on seeing one her and
+having an explanation.  I have a right, whatever I did yesterday;
+and you have forgiven me for that, mother!"
+
+"I think it is the most hopeful way.  If you can see her without
+interposition, you will at least come to an understanding.  Here,
+you had better take this cheque for Sir Harry."
+
+When he was gone, she wondered whether she had been justified in
+encouraging him in defending Eleonora.  Was this not too like
+another form of the treatment Raymond had experienced?  Her heart
+bled for her boy, and she was ready to cry aloud, "Must that woman
+always be the destroyer of my sons' peace?"
+
+When Frank returned, it was with a face that appalled her by its
+blank despair, as he again flung himself down beside her.
+
+"She is gone," he said.
+
+"Gone!"
+
+"Gone, and with the Strangeways.  I saw her."
+
+"Spoke to her?"
+
+"Oh no.  The carriage turned the corner as I crossed the road.  The
+two girls were there, and she--"
+
+"Going with them to the station?"
+
+"I thought so; I went to the house, meaning to leave my enclosure
+for Sir Harry and meet her on her way back; but I heard she was gone
+to stay with Lady Susan in Yorkshire.  Sir Harry was not up, nor
+Lady Tyrrell."
+
+Mrs. Poynsett's hope failed, though she was relieved that Camilla's
+tongue had not been in action.  She was dismayed at the prone
+exhausted manner in which Frank lay, partly on the floor, partly
+against her couch, with his face hidden.
+
+"Do you know where she is gone?"
+
+"Yes, Revelrig, Cleveland, Yorkshire."
+
+"I will write to her.  Whatever may be her intentions, they shall
+not be carried out under any misrepresentation that I can
+contradict.  You have been a foolish fellow, Frankie; but you shall
+not be painted worse than you are.  She owes you an explanation, and
+I will do my best that you shall have it.  My dear, what is the
+matter?"
+
+She rang her bell hastily, and upheld the sinking head till help
+came.  He had not lost consciousness, and called it giddiness, and
+he was convicted of having never gone to bed last night, and having
+eaten nothing that morning; but he turned against the wine and soup
+with which they tried to dose him, and, looking crushed and
+bewildered, said he would go and lie down in his own room.
+
+Raymond went up with him, and returned, saying he only wanted to be
+alone, with his face from the light; and Mrs. Poynsett, gazing at
+her eldest son, thought he looked as ill and sunken as his younger
+brother.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+A Stickit Minister
+
+
+And the boy not out of him.--TENNYSON'S Queen Mary
+
+Julius had only too well divined the cause of his summons.  He found
+Herbert Bowater's papers on the table before the Bishop, and there
+was no denying that they showed a declension since last year, and
+that though, from men without his advantages they would have been
+passable, yet from him they were evidences of neglect of study and
+thought.  Nor could the cause be ignored by any one who had kept an
+eye on the cricket reports in the county paper; but Herbert was such
+a nice, hearty, innocent fellow, and his father was so much
+respected, that it was with great reluctance that his rejection was
+decided on and his Rector had been sent for in case there should be
+any cause for extenuation.
+
+Julius could not say there was.  He was greatly grieved and
+personally ashamed, but he could plead nothing but his own failure
+to influence the young man enough to keep him out of a rage for
+amusement, of which the quantity, not the quality, was the evil.  So
+poor Herbert was sent for to hear his fate, and came back looking
+stunned.  He hardly spoke till they were in the fly that Julius had
+brought from Backsworth, and then the untamed school-boy broke
+forth:  "What are you doing with me?  I say, I can't go back to
+Compton like a dog in a string."
+
+"Where will you go?"
+
+"I don't care.  To Jericho at once, out of the way of every one.  I
+tell you what, Rector, it was the most ridiculous examination I ever
+went up for, and I'm not the only man that says so.  There was
+Rivers, of St. Mary's at Backsworth,--he says the questions were
+perfectly unreasonable, and what no one could be prepared for.  This
+fellow Danvers is a new hand, and they are always worst, setting one
+a lot of subjects of no possible use but to catch one out.  I should
+like to ask him now what living soul at Compton he expects to be the
+better for my views on the right reading of--"
+
+Julius interrupted the passionate tones at the lodge by saying, "If
+you wish to go to Jericho, you must give directions."
+
+Herbert gave something between a laugh and a growl.
+
+"I left the pony at Backsworth.  Will you come with me to Strawyers
+and wait in the park till I send Jenny out to you?"
+
+"No, I say.  I know my father will be in a greater rage than he ever
+was in his life, and I won't go sneaking about.  I'd like to go to
+London, to some hole where no one would ever hear of me.  If I were
+not in Orders already, I'd be off to the ivory-hunters in Africa,
+and never be heard of more.  If this was to be, I wish they had
+found it out a year ago, and then I should not have been bound,"
+continued the poor young fellow, in his simplicity, thinking his
+thoughts aloud, and his sweet candid nature beginning to recover its
+balance.  "Now I'm the most wretched fellow going.  I know what I've
+undertaken.  It's not your fault, nor poor Joanna's.  You've all
+been at me, but it only made me worse.  What could my father be
+thinking of to make a parson of a fellow like me?  Well, I must face
+it out sooner or later at Compton, and I had better do it there than
+at home, even if my father would have me."
+
+"I must go to Strawyers.  The Bishop gave me a letter for your
+father, and I think it will break it a little for your mother.
+Would you wait for me at Rood House?  You could go into the chapel,
+and if they wish for you, I could return and fetch you."
+
+Herbert caught at this as a relief, and orders were given
+accordingly.  It seemed a cruel moment to tell him of young
+Hornblower's evasion and robbery, but the police wanted the
+description of the articles; and, in fact, nothing would have so
+brought home to him that, though Compton might not appreciate
+minutiae of Greek criticism, yet the habit of diligence, of which it
+was the test, might make a difference there.  The lingering self-
+justification was swept away by the sense of the harm his pleasure-
+seeking had done to the lad whom he had once influenced.  He had
+been fond and proud of his trophies, but he scarcely wasted a
+thought on them, so absorbed was he in the thought of how he had
+lorded it over the youth with that late rebuke.  The blame he had
+refused to take on himself then came full upon him now, and he
+reproached himself too much to be angered at the treachery and
+ingratitude.
+
+"I can't prosecute," he said, when Julius asked for the description
+he had promised to procure.
+
+"We must judge whether it would be true kindness to refrain, if he
+is captured," said Julius.  "I had not time to see his mother, but
+Rosamond will do what she can for her, poor woman."
+
+"How shall I meet her?" sighed Herbert; and so they arrived at the
+tranquil little hospital and passed under the deep archway into the
+gray quadrangle, bright with autumn flowers, and so to the chapel.
+As they advanced up the solemn and beautiful aisle Herbert dropped
+on his knees with his hands over his face.  Julius knelt beside him
+for a moment, laid his hand on the curly brown hair, whispered a
+prayer and a blessing, and then left him; but ere reaching the door,
+the low choked sobs of anguish of heart could be heard.
+
+A few steps more, and in the broad walk along the quadrangle, Julius
+met the frail bowed figure with his saintly face, that seemed to
+have come out of some sacred bygone age.
+
+Julius told his errand.  "If you could have seen him just now," he
+said, "you would see how much more hope there is of him than of many
+who never technically fail, but have not the same tender, generous
+heart, and free humility."
+
+"Yes, many a priest might now be thankful if some check had come on
+him."
+
+"And if he had met it with this freedom from bitterness.  And it
+would be a great kindness to keep him here a day or two.  Apart from
+being with you, the showing himself at Compton or at Strawyers on
+Sunday would be hard on him."
+
+"I will ask him.  I will gladly have him here as long as the quiet
+may be good for him.  My nephew, William, will be here till the end
+of the Long Vacation, but I must go to St. Faith's on Monday to
+conduct the retreat."
+
+"I leave him in your hands then, and will call as I return to see
+what is settled, and report what his family wish.  I grieve more for
+them than for himself."
+
+Julius first encountered Jenny Bowater in the village making
+farewell calls.  He stopped the carriage and joined her, and not a
+word was needed to tell her that something was amiss.  "You have
+come to tell us something," she said.  "Herbert has failed?"
+
+"Prayers are sometimes answered as we do not expect," said Julius.
+"I believe it will be the making of him."
+
+"Oh, but how will mamma ever bear it!" cried Jenny.
+
+"We must remind her that it is only a matter of delay, not
+rejection," said Julius.
+
+"Have you seen him?"
+
+"Yes, the Bishop sent for me, and asked me to see your father.  It
+was partly from slips in critical knowledge, which betrayed the want
+of study, and the general want of thought and progress, and all the
+rest of it, in his papers--"
+
+"Just the fact--"
+
+"Yes, which a man of less reality and more superficial quickness
+might have concealed by mere intellectual answers, though it might
+have been much worse for him in the end."
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"At Rood House.  Unless your mother wishes for him here, he had
+better stay there till he can bear to come among us again."
+
+"Much better, indeed," said Jenny.  "I only hope papa and mamma will
+see how good it is for him to be there.  O, Julius, if he is taking
+it in such a spirit, I can think it all right for him; but for them--
+for them, it is very hard to bear.  Nothing ever went wrong with
+the boys before, and Herbert--mamma's darling!"  Her eyes were full
+of tears.
+
+"I wish he had had a better Rector," said Julius.
+
+"No, don't say that.  It was not your fault."
+
+"I cannot tell.  An older man, or more truly a holier man, might
+have had more influence.  We were all in a sort of laissez-aller
+state this autumn, and now comes the reckoning."
+
+"There's papa," said Jenny.  "Had you rather go to him alone, or can
+I do any good?"
+
+"I think I will go alone," said Julius.
+
+Mr. Bowater, who had grown up in a day when examinations were much
+less earnest matters, never guessed what brought Julius over, but
+simply thought he had come to wish them good-bye; then believed in
+any accident rather than in failure, and finally was exceedingly
+angry, and stormed hotly, first at examinations and modern Bishops,
+then at cricket and fine ladies, then at Julius, for not having
+looked after the lad better, and when this was meekly accepted,
+indignation took a juster direction, and Herbert's folly and
+idleness were severely lashed more severely than Julius thought they
+quite deserved, but a word of pleading only made it worse.  Have him
+home to take leave?  No, indeed, Mr. Bowater hoped he knew his duty
+better as father of a family, when a young man had publicly
+disgraced himself.  "I'll tell you what, Julius Charnock, if you
+wish him to forget all the little impression it may have made, and
+be ready to run after any amount of folly, you'd make me have him
+home to be petted and cried over by his mother and sisters.  He has
+been their spoilt pet too long, and I won't have him spoilt now.
+I'll not see him till he has worked enough to show whether there's
+any real stuff in him."
+
+Mr. Bowater never even asked where his son was, probably taking it
+for granted that he was gone back to Compton; nor did Julius see
+Jenny again, as she was trying to comfort her mother under the
+dreadful certainty that poor dear Herbert was most cruelly treated,
+and that the examining chaplain came of a bad stock, and always had
+had a dislike to the family.  It was to be hoped that Mr. Bowater
+would keep to his wise resolution, and not send for Herbert, for
+nothing could be worse for him than the sympathy he would have met
+with from her.
+
+What with looking in to report at Rood House and finding Herbert
+most grateful for leave to remain there for a few days, Julius did
+not reach home till long after dark.  Pleasantly did the light greet
+him from the open doorway where his Rosamond was standing.  She
+sprang at once into his arms, as if he had been absent a month, and
+cried, "Here you are, safe at last!"  Then, as she pulled off his
+wraps, "How tired you must be!  Have you had any food?  No--it's all
+ready;" and he could see 'high tea' spread, and lighted by the first
+fire of the season.  "Come and begin!"
+
+"What, without washing my hands?"
+
+"You are to do that in the study; it is all ready."  He did not
+exactly see why he should be too tired to mount to his dressing-
+room; but he obeyed, not ungratefully, and his chair was ready, his
+plate heaped with partridge and his tumbler filled with ale almost
+before his eyes had recovered the glare of light.  The eagerness and
+flutter of Rosamond's manner began to make him anxious, and he began
+for the third time the inquiries she had always cut short--"Baby all
+right?  Terry better?"
+
+"Baby--oh yes, a greater duck than ever.  I put her to bed myself,
+and she was quite delicious.  Eat, I say; go on."
+
+"Not unless you eat that other wing."
+
+"I'll help myself then.  You go on.  I don't see Herbert, so I
+suppose it is all right.  Where's your canonry?"
+
+"Alas! poor Herbert is plucked.  I had to go round by Strawyers to
+tell them."
+
+"Plucked!  I never heard of such a thing.  I think it is a great
+shame such a nice honest fellow should be so ill-used, and when all
+his pretty things have been stolen too!  Do you know, they've taken
+up young Hornblower; but his friends have made off with the things,
+and they say they are in the melting-pot by this time, and there's
+no chance of recovering them."
+
+"I don't think he cares much now, poor fellow.  Did you see Mrs.
+Hornblower?"
+
+"No; by the time I could get my hat on she had heard it, poor thing,
+and was gone to Backsworth; for he's there, in the county gaol; was
+taken at the station, I believe; I don't half understand it."
+
+Her manner was indeed strange and flighty; and though she recurred
+to questions about the Ordination and the Bowaters, Julius perceived
+that she was forcing her attention to the answers as if trying to
+stave off his inquiries, and he came to closer quarters.  "How is
+Terry?  Has Dr. Worth been here?"
+
+"Yes; but not till very late.  He says he never was so busy."
+
+"Rosamond, what is it?  What did he say of Terry?"
+
+"He said"--she drew a long breath--"he says it is the Water Lane
+fever."
+
+"Terry, my dear--"
+
+She held him down with a hand on his shoulder--
+
+"Be quiet.  Finish your dinner.  Dr. Worth said the great point was
+to keep strong, and not be overdone, nor to go into infected air
+tired and hungry.  I would not have let you come in if there had
+been any help for it; and now I'll not have you go near him till
+you've made a good meal."
+
+"You must do the same then.  There, eat that slice, or I won't;" and
+as she allowed him to place it on her plate, "What does he call it--
+not typhus?"
+
+"He can't tell yet; he does not know whether it is infectious or
+only epidemic; and when he heard how the dear boy had been for days
+past at the Exhibition at the town-hall, and drinking lots of iced
+water on Saturday, he seemed to think it quite accounted for.  He
+says there is no reason that in this good air he should not do very
+well; but, oh, Julius, I wish I had kept him from that horrid place.
+They left him in my charge!"
+
+"There is no reason to distress yourself about that, my Rose.  He
+was innocently occupied, and there was no cause to expect harm.
+There's all good hope for him, with God's blessing.  Who is with him
+now?"
+
+"Cook is there now.  Both the maids were so kind and hearty,
+declaring they would do anything, and were not afraid; and I can
+manage very well with their help.  You know papa had a low fever at
+Montreal, and mamma and I nursed him through it, so I know pretty
+well what to do."
+
+"But how about the baby?"
+
+"Emma came back before the doctor came, crying piteously, poor
+child, as if she had had a sufficient lesson; so I said she might
+stay her month on her good behaviour, and now we could not send her
+out of the house.  I have brought the nursery down to the spare
+room, and in the large attic, with plenty of disinfecting fluid, we
+can, as the doctor said, isolate the fever.  He is quiet and sleepy,
+and I do not think it will be hard to manage, if you will only be
+good and conformable."
+
+"I don't promise, if that means that you are to do everything and I
+nothing.  When did Worth see him?"
+
+"Not till five o'clock:  and he would not have come at all, if Anne
+had not sent in some one from the Hall when she saw how anxious I
+was.  He would not have come otherwise; he is so horribly busy, with
+lots of cases at Wil'sboro'.  Now, if you have done, you may come
+and see my boy."
+
+Julius did see a flushed sleeping face that did not waken at his
+entrance; and as his wife settled herself for her watch, he felt as
+if he could not leave her after such a day as she had had, but an
+indefinable apprehension made him ask whether she would spare him to
+run up to the Hall to see his mother and ask after Raymond, whose
+looks had haunted him all day.  She saw he would not rest otherwise,
+and did not show how unwilling was her consent, for though she knew
+little, her mind misgave her.
+
+He made his way into the Hall by the back door, and found his mother
+still in the drawing-room, and Raymond dozing in the large arm-chair
+by the fire.  Mrs. Poynsett gave a warning look as Julius bent over
+her, but Raymond only opened his eyes with a dreamy gaze, without
+speaking.  "Why, mother, where are the rest?"
+
+"Poor Frank--I hope it is only the shock and fatigue; but Dr. Worth
+wished him to be kept as quiet as possible.  He can't bear to see
+any one in the room, so that good Anne said she would sit in
+Charlie's room close by."
+
+"Then he is really ill?" said Julius.
+
+"He nearly fainted after walking over to Sirenwood in vain.  I don't
+understand it.  There's something very wrong there, which seems
+perfectly to have crushed him."
+
+"I'll go up and see him," said Julius.  "You both of you look as if
+you ought to be in bed.  How is Cecil, Raymond?"
+
+"Quite knocked up," he sleepily answered.  "Here's Susan, mother."
+
+Susan must have been waiting till she heard voices to carry off her
+mistress.  Raymond pushed her chair into her room, bent over her
+with extra tenderness, bade her good night; and when Julius had done
+the same they stood by the drawing-room fire together.
+
+"I've been trying to write that letter, Julius," said Raymond, "but
+I never was so sleepy in my life, and I can't get on with it."
+
+"What letter?"
+
+"That letter.  About the races."
+
+"Oh!  That seems long ago!"
+
+"So it does," said Raymond, in the same dreamy manner, as if trying
+to shake something off.  "Some years, isn't it?  I wanted it done,
+somehow.  I would sit down to it now, only I have fallen asleep a
+dozen times over it already."
+
+"Not very good for composition," said Julius, alarmed by something
+indefinable in his brother's look, and by his manner of insisting on
+what was by no means urgent.  "Come, put it out of your head, and go
+to bed."
+
+"How did you find the boy Terry?" asked Raymond, again as if in his
+sleep.
+
+"I scarcely saw him.  He was asleep."
+
+"And Worth calls it--?"
+
+"The same fever as in Water Lane."
+
+"I thought so.  We are in for it," said Raymond, now quite awake.
+"He did not choose to say so to my mother, but I gathered it from
+his orders."
+
+"But Frank only came down yesterday."
+
+"Frank was knocked down and predisposed by the treatment he met
+with, poor boy.  They say he drank quarts of iced things at the
+dinner and ball, and ate nothing.  This may be only the effect of
+the shock, but his head is burning, and there is a disposition to
+wander.  However, he has had his coup de grace, and that may account
+for it.  It is Cecil."
+
+"Cecil!"
+
+"Cecil, poor child.  She has been constantly in that pestiferous
+place.  All Worth would say was that she must be kept quiet and
+cool, but he has sent the same draughts for all three.  I saw, for
+Terry's came here.  I fancy Worth spoke out plainly to that maid of
+Cecil's, Grindstone; but she only looks bitter at me, says she can
+attend to her mistress, and has kept me out of the room all day.
+But I will go in to-night before I go to bed," added Raymond,
+energetically.  "You are ready to laugh at me, Julius.  No one has
+meddled between you and Rosamond."
+
+"Thank God, no!" cried Julius.
+
+"Friend abroad, or you may leave out the r," said Raymond, "maid at
+home.  What chance have I ever had?"
+
+"I'll tell you what I should do, Raymond," said Julius, "turn out
+the maid, keep the field, nurse her myself."
+
+"Yes," said Raymond, "that's all very well if--if you haven't got
+the fever yourself.  There, you need say nothing about it, nobody
+would be of any use to me to-night, and it may be only that I am
+dead beat."
+
+But there was something about his eyes and his heavy breath which
+confirmed his words, and Julius could only say, "My dear Raymond!"
+
+"It serves us right, does not it?" said his brother, smiling.  "I
+only wish it had not fixed on the one person who tried to do good."
+
+"If I could only stay with you; but I must tell Rosamond first."
+
+"No, indeed.  I want no one to-night, no one; after that you'll look
+after my mother, that's the great thing."  He spoke steadily, but
+his hand trembled so that he could not light his candle, and Julius
+was obliged to do it, saying wistfully, "I'll come up the first
+thing in the morning and see how you are."
+
+"Do, and if there is need, you will tell my mother.  A night's rest
+may set me right, but I have not felt well these three or four days--
+I shall be in my own old room."
+
+He leant heavily on the balusters, but would not take his brother's
+arm.  He passed into his dressing-room, and thus to the open door of
+the room where he heard his wife's voice; and as Mrs. Grindstone
+came forward to warn him off, he said, "She is awake."
+
+"Yes, sir; but she must not be excited."
+
+"Raymond!"
+
+"How are you now?" he asked, coming up to the bed.
+
+"Oh! it is very hot and heavy," said Cecil wearily, putting her hand
+into his; "I'm aching all over."
+
+"Poor child!" he said softly.
+
+She lifted her eyes to his face.  "I wanted to tell you all day,"
+she said.  "Didn't you come to the door?"
+
+"Many times, my dear."
+
+"And now! oh dear!  I don't recollect.  Don't go, please."
+
+He sat down by her; she held his hand and dozed again.
+
+"You had best leave her now, sir," said the maid; "she will only go
+on in this way, and I can tend her."
+
+He would have given a great deal to have been sure that he could
+hold up his head ten minutes longer and to venture to send the woman
+away.  Cecil muttered "Stay," and he sat on till her sleep seemed
+deeper, and he felt as if a few moments more might disable him from
+crossing the room, but his first movement again made her say
+"Don't."
+
+"Mr. Poynsett cannot stay, ma'am," said Grindstone, in a persuasive
+tone.  "He is very tired, and not well, and you would not wish to
+keep him."
+
+"Give me a kiss," she said, like a tired child.  It was not like the
+shy embrace with which they had sometimes met and parted, but he
+knew he must not rouse her, and only said very low, "Good night, my
+poor dear; God bless you, and grant us a happy meeting, whenever it
+is."
+
+Tears were flowing down his cheeks when Julius presently came to him
+again, and only left him when settled for the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER, XXVII
+The Water Lane Fever
+
+
+The Water Lane Fever.  People called it so, as blinking its real
+name, but it was not the less true that it was a very pestilence in
+the lower parts of Wil'sbro'; and was prostrating its victims far
+and wide among the gentry who had resorted to the town-hall within
+the last few weeks.
+
+Cases had long been smouldering among the poor and the workmen
+employed, and several of these were terminating fatally just as the
+outbreak was becoming decisive.
+
+On Monday morning Julius returned from visits to his brothers to
+find a piteous note from Mrs. Fuller entreating him to undertake two
+funerals.  Her husband had broken down on Sunday morning and was
+very ill, and Mr. Driver had merely read the services and then
+joined his pupils, whom he had sent away to the sea-side.  He had
+never been responsible for pastoral care, and in justice to them
+could not undertake it now.  "Those streets are in a dreadful
+state," wrote the poor lady, "several people dying; and there is
+such a panic in the neighbourhood that we know not where to turn for
+help.  If you could fix an hour we would let the people know.  The
+doctor insists on the funerals being immediate."
+
+Julius was standing in the porch reading this letter, and thinking
+what hour he could best spare from nearer claims, when he heard the
+gate swing and beheld his junior curate with a very subdued and
+sobered face, asking, "Is it true?"
+
+"That the fever is here?  Yes, it is."
+
+"And very bad?"
+
+"Poor Frank is our worst case as yet.  He is constantly delirious.
+The others are generally sensible, except that Terry is dreadfully
+haunted with mathematics."
+
+"Then it is all true about the Hall.  Any one else ill?"
+
+"Only the two Willses.  They were carousing at the 'Three Pigeons.'
+I hope that Raymond's prohibition against that place may have been
+the saving of the Hall servants.  See here," and he gave the note.
+
+"I had better take those two funerals.  I can at least do that,"
+said Herbert.  "That Driver must be a regular case of a hireling."
+
+"He never professed that the sheep were his," said Julius.
+
+"Then I'll go to the Vicarage and get a list of the sick, and see
+after them as far as I can," said Herbert, in a grave, humble tone,
+showing better than a thousand words how he felt the deprivation he
+had brought on himself; and as to shame or self-consciousness, the
+need had swallowed them all.
+
+"It will be a great act of kindness, Herbert.  The point of
+infection does not seem clear yet, but I am afraid it will be a
+serious outbreak."
+
+"I did not believe it could all be true when the report came to Rood
+House, but of course I came to hear the truth and see what I could
+do.  How is Mrs. Poynsett bearing up?"
+
+"Bravely.  Anne contrived our carrying her up-stairs, and it is the
+greatest comfort to Raymond to lie and look at her, and Susan looks
+after them both."
+
+"Then he can't be so very ill."
+
+"Not so acutely, but there are symptoms that make Worth anxious.
+Shall I give you a note for Mrs. Fuller?"
+
+"Do, and put me at your disposal for all you can spare for, or I can
+do.  Have you written to Bindon?"
+
+"I don't know where, within some hundred miles.  But, Herbert, I
+think we ought to undertake the help that is wanted at Wil'sbro'.
+Smith of Duddingstone is too weakly, and poor old Mr. Moulden
+neither could nor would.  We are the nearest, and having it here
+already, do not run the risk of spreading it.  As things are, I
+cannot be very long away from home, but I would come in for an hour
+or so every day, if you could do the rest."
+
+"Yes, that was what I meant," said Herbert.
+
+"Worth says the best protection is never to go among the sick hungry
+or exhausted.  He says he keeps a biscuit in his pocket to eat
+before going into a sick house.  I shall make Rosamond keep you
+supplied, and you must promise to use them."
+
+"Oh yes, I promise."
+
+"And never drink anything there.  There is to be a public meeting
+to-morrow, to see whether the cause of this outbreak is not
+traceable to the water down there."
+
+"Mrs. Duncombe's meddling?"
+
+"Don't judge without evidence.  But it does seem as if the water at
+the well at Pettitt's houses had done much of the harm.  Terry was
+drinking it all that hot day, and to-day we hear that Lady Tyrrell
+and two of the servants are ill, besides poor little Joe Reynolds."
+
+"It is very terrible," said Herbert.  "Lady Tyrrell, did you say?"
+
+"Yes.  She was there constantly, like Raymond's wife.  Happily there
+is not much fear for your people, Herbert.  Your father was at the
+dinner, but he is not a water drinker, and Jenny only just came to
+the bazaar, that was all.  Edith happily gave up the ball."
+
+"I know," said Herbert, colouring.  "Jenny persuaded her to give it
+up because of--me.  Oh, how I have served them all!"
+
+"I told Jenny that perhaps her Ember prayers had been met in the
+true way."
+
+"Yes," said Herbert.  "I can't understand now how I could have been
+such an audacious fool as to present myself so coolly after the year
+I had spent.  God forgive me for it!  Rector, thank you for leaving
+me at Rood House.  It was like having one's eyes opened to a new
+life.  I say, do you know anything about Harry Hornblower?  Is he
+come home?"
+
+"Yes.  You wouldn't prosecute?"
+
+"Happily I couldn't.  The things were gone and could not be
+identified, and there was nothing about him.  So, though they had me
+over to Backsworth, they could not fall foul of me for refusing to
+prosecute.  Have you seen him?"
+
+"No, I tried, but he had got out of my way.  You've not been there?"
+seeing that Herbert had brought back his bag.
+
+"No; I will not till I come back;" and as he took the note he added,
+"Rector, I do beg your pardon with all my might."  Then, after a
+strong clasp of the hand, he sped away with a long, manful,
+energetic stride, which made Julius contrast his volunteer courage
+with the flight of the man who, if not pledged to pastoral care at
+Wil'sbro', still had priestly vows upon him.
+
+Julius had no scruples about risking this favourite home child.  If
+he thought about it at all, it was to rejoice that Mrs. Bowater was
+safely gone, for he had passed unscathed through scenes at St.
+Awdry's that would have made his mother tremble, and he had little
+fear of contagion, with reasonable care.  Of course the doctors had
+the usual debate whether the fever were infectious or epidemic, but
+it made little difference.  The local ones, as well as an authority
+from London, had an inspection previous to the meeting, which took
+place in the school, whose scholars were dispersed in the panic.  No
+ladies were admitted.  "We have had enough of them," quoted
+Worshipful Mayor Truelove.  Mr. Briggs, the ex-mayor, was at the
+bedside of his son, and there were hardly enough present to make
+decisions.
+
+The focus of the disease was in Pettitt's well.  The water, though
+cold, clear, and sparkling, was affected by noxious gases from the
+drains, and had become little better than poison; the air was not
+much better, and as several neighbouring houses, some swarming with
+lodgers, used this water, the evil was accounted for.  The 'Three
+Pigeons' had been an attraction to the servants waiting with their
+ladies' carriages during the entertainments, and though they had not
+meddled much with the simple element, spirits had not neutralized
+the mischief.  Thence too had come water for the tea and iced
+beverages used at the bazaar and ball.  Odours there had been in
+plenty from the untouched drainage of the other houses, and these,
+no doubt, enhanced the evil; but every one agreed that the bad
+management of the drains on Mr. Pettitt's property had been the main
+agency in the present outbreak.
+
+The poor little perfumer had tears of grief and indignation in his
+eyes, but he defended his cause and shielded the ladies with
+chivalry worthy of his French ancestry.  He said he had striven to
+do his duty as a proprietor, and if other gentlemen had done the
+same, and the channels could have had a free outlet, this misfortune
+would never have occurred.  He found himself backed up by Mr. Julius
+Charnock, who rose to declare that what Mr. Pettitt had said was
+just what his brother, Mr. Charnock Poynsett, had desired should be
+stated as his own opinion, namely, that the responsibility rested,
+not with those who had done all within their power or knowledge for
+the welfare of their tenants, but with those whose indifference on
+the score of health had led them to neglect all sanitary measures.
+
+"He desires me to say," added Julius, "that being concerned both in
+the neglect and in the unfortunate consequences, he is desirous to
+impress his opinion on all concerned."
+
+Future prevention was no longer in the hands of the Town Council,
+for a sanitary commission would take that in hand; but in the
+meantime it was a time of plague and sickness, and measures must be
+taken for the general relief.  Mr. Moy, to whom most of the houses
+belonged, was inquired for; but it appeared that he had carried off
+his wife and daughter on Saturday in terror when one of his servants
+had fallen ill, and even his clerks would not know where to write to
+him till he should telegraph.  The man Gadley was meantime driving
+an active trade at the 'Three Pigeons,' whither the poor, possessed
+with the notion that spirits kept out the infection, were resorting
+more than ever, and he set at defiance all the preventives which
+doctors, overseer, and relieving officer were trying to enforce,
+with sullen oaths against interference.
+
+Two deaths yesterday, one to-day, three hourly apprehended; doctors
+incessantly occupied, nurses, however unfit, not to be procured by
+any exertion of the half-maddened relieving-officer; bread-winners
+prostrated; food, wine, bedding, everything lacking.  Such was the
+state of things around the new town-hall of Wil'sbro', and the
+gentry around were absorbed by cases of the same epidemic in their
+own families.
+
+To telegraph for nurses from a hospital, to set on foot a
+subscription, appoint a committee of management, and name a
+treasurer and dispenser of supplies, were the most urgent steps.
+Julius suggested applying to a Nursing Sisterhood, but Mr. Truelove,
+without imputing any motives to the reverend gentleman, was
+unwilling to insert the thin end of the wedge; so the telegram was
+sent to a London Hospital, and Mr. Whitlock, the mayor-elect,
+undertook to be treasurer, and to print and circulate an appeal for
+supplies of all sorts.  Those present resolved themselves into a
+committee, and consulted about a fever hospital, since people could
+hardly be expected to recover in the present condition of Water
+Lane; but nothing was at present ready, and the question was
+adjourned to the next day.  As Julius parted with Mr. Whitlock he
+met Herbert Bowater returning from the cemetery in search of him,
+with tidings of some cases where he was especially needed.  As they
+walked on together Mrs. Duncombe overtook them with a basket on her
+arm.  She held out her hand with an imploring gesture.
+
+"Mr. Charnock, it can't be true, can it?--they only say so out of
+ignorance--that it was Pettitt's well, I mean?"
+
+In a few words Julius made it clear what the evil had been and how
+it arose.
+
+She did not dispute it, she merely grew sallower and said:
+
+"God forgive us!  We did it for the best.  I planned.  I never
+thought of that.  Oh!"
+
+"My brother insists that the mischief came of not following the
+example you set."
+
+"And Cecil!"
+
+"Cecil is too much stupefied to know anything about it."
+
+"You are helping here?  Make me all the use you can.  Whatever has
+to be done give it to me."
+
+"Nay, you have your family to consider."
+
+"My boys are at their grandmother's.  My husband is gone abroad.
+Give me work.  I have brought some wine.  Who needs it most?"
+
+"Wine?" said Herbert.  "Here?  I was going back for some, but half
+an hour may make all the difference to the poor lad in here."
+
+Mrs. Duncombe was within the door in a moment.
+
+"There has been an execution in her house," said Herbert, as they
+went home.  "That fellow went off on Saturday, and left her alone to
+face it."
+
+"I thought she had striven to keep out of debt."
+
+"What can a woman do when a man chooses to borrow?  That horse
+brought them to more unexpected smash.  They say that after the
+ball, where she appeared in all her glory, as if nothing had
+happened, she made Bob give her a schedule of his debts, packed his
+portmanteau, sent him off to find some cheap hole abroad, and stayed
+to pick up the pieces after the wreck."
+
+"She is a brave woman," said Julius.
+
+Therewith they plunged into the abodes of misery, where the only
+other helper at present was good old Miss Slater, who was going from
+one to another, trying to show helpless women how to nurse, but able
+only to contribute infinitesimal grains of aid or comfort at immense
+cost to herself.  Julius insisted on taking home with him his
+curate, who had been at work from ten o'clock that morning till six,
+when as Julius resigned the pony's reins to him, he begged that they
+might go round and inquire at Sirenwood, to which consent was the
+more willingly given because poor Frank's few gleams of
+consciousness were spent in sending his indefatigable nurse Anne to
+ask whether his mother had 'had that letter,' and in his delirium he
+was always feeling his watch-chain for that unhappy pebble, and
+moaning when he missed it.  Mrs. Poynsett's letter had gone on
+Friday, and still there was no answer, and this was a vexation,
+adding to the fear that the poor fellow's rejection had been final.
+Yet she might have missed the letter by being summoned home.  Close
+to the lodge, they overtook Sir Harry, riding dejectedly homewards,
+and, glad to be saved going up to the house, they stopped and
+inquired for Lady Tyrrell.
+
+"Very low and oppressed," he said.  "M'Vie does not give us reason
+to expect a change just yet.  Do they tell you the same?  Worth
+attends you, I think?"
+
+"He seems to think it must run on for at least three weeks," said
+Julius.
+
+"You've been to the meeting, eh?  Was it that well of Pettitt's?
+Really that meddling wife of Duncombe's ought to be prosecuted.  I
+hope she'll catch the fever and be served out."
+
+"She tried to prevent it," said Julius.
+
+"Pshaw! women have no business with such things, they only put their
+foot in it.  Nobody used to trouble themselves about drains, and one
+never heard of fevers."
+
+Instead of contesting the point, Julius asked whether Miss Vivian
+were at home.
+
+"No; that's the odd thing.  I wrote, for M'Vie has no fear of
+infection, and poor Camilla is always calling for her, and that
+French maid has thought proper to fall ill, and we don't know what
+to do.  Upper housemaid cut and run in a panic, cook dead drunk last
+night, not a servant in the house to be trusted.  If it were not for
+my man Victor I don't know where I should be.  Very odd what that
+child is about.  Lady Susan can't be keeping it from her.
+Unjustifiable!"
+
+"She is with Lady Susan Strangeways?"
+
+"Yes.  Went with Bee and Conny.  I was glad, for we can't afford to
+despise a good match, though I _was_ sorry for your brother."
+
+"Do I understand you that she is engaged to Mr. Strangeways?"
+
+"No, no; not yet.  One always hears those things before they are
+true, and you see they are keeping her from us as if she belonged to
+them already.  I call it unfeeling!  I have just been to the post to
+see if there's a letter!  Can't be anything wrong in the address,--
+Revelrig, Cleveland, Yorkshire."
+
+"Why don't you telegraph?"
+
+"I shall, if I don't hear to-morrow morning."
+
+But the morning's telegrams were baffling.  None came in answer to
+Sir Harry, though he had bidden his daughter to telegraph back
+instantly; and two hospitals replied that they had no nurses to
+spare!  This was the first thing Julius heard when he came to the
+committee-room.  The second was that the only parish nurse had been
+found asleep under the influence of the port-wine intended for her
+patients, the third that there were five more deaths, one being Mrs.
+Gadley, of the 'Three Pigeons,' from diphtheria, and fourteen more
+cases of fever were reported.  Julius had already been with the
+schoolmistress, who was not expected to live through the day.  He
+had found that Mrs. Duncombe had been up all night with one of the
+most miserable families, and only when her unpractised hands had
+cared for a little corpse, had been forced home by good Miss Slater
+for a little rest.  He had also seen poor Mr. Fuller, who was too
+weak and wretched to say anything more than 'God help us, Charnock:
+you will do what you can;' and when Julius asked for his sanction to
+sending for Sisters, he answered, "Anything, anything."
+
+The few members who had come to the committee were reduced to the
+same despairing consent, and Julius was allowed to despatch a
+telegram to St. Faith's, which had sent Sisters in the emergency at
+St. Awdry's.  He likewise brought an offer, suggested by Raymond, of
+a great old tithe barn, his own property, but always rented by Mrs.
+Poynsett, in a solitary field, where the uninfected children might
+be placed under good care, and the houses in Water Lane thus
+relieved.  As to a fever hospital, Raymond had sent his advice to
+use the new town-hall itself.  A word from him went a great way just
+then with the Town Council, and the doctors were delighted with the
+proposal.
+
+Funds and contributions of bedding, clothing, food and wine were
+coming in, but hands were the difficulty.  The adaptations of the
+town-hall and the bringing in of beds were done by one strong
+carpenter and Mrs. Duncombe's man Alexander, whom she had brought
+with her, and who proved an excellent orderly; and the few who would
+consent, or did not resist occupying the beds there, were carried in
+by Herbert Bowater and a strapping young doctor who had come down
+for this fever pasture.  There Mrs. Duncombe and Miss Slater
+received them.  No other volunteer had come to light willing to
+plunge into this perilous and disgusting abyss of misery; and among
+the afflicted families the power of nursing was indeed small.
+
+However, the healthy children were carried away without much
+resistance, and established in the great barn under a trustworthy
+widow; and before night, two effective-looking Sisters were in
+charge at the hospital.
+
+Still, however, no telegram, no letter, came from Eleonora Vivian.
+Mr. M'Vie had found a nurse for Lady Tyrrell, but old Sir Harry rode
+in to meet every delivery of the post, and was half distracted at
+finding nothing from her; and Frank's murmurs of her name were most
+piteous to those who feared that, if he were ever clearly conscious
+again, it would only be to know how heavy had been the meed of his
+folly.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+The Retreat
+
+
+What dost thou here, frail wanderer from thy task?--Christian
+Year
+
+Eleonora Vivian was trying to fix her attention on writing out the
+meditation she had just heard from Dr. Easterby.
+
+It had been a strange time.  All externally was a great hush.  There
+was perfect rest from the tumult of society, and from the harassing
+state of tacit resistance habitual to her.  This was the holy
+quietude for which she had longed, yet where was the power to feel
+and profit by it?  Did not the peace without only make her hear the
+storm within all the more?
+
+A storm had truly been raging within ever since Conny Strangeways
+had triumphantly exhibited the prize she had won from Frank Charnock
+at the races; and Camilla had taken care that full and undeniable
+evidence should prove that this was not all that the young man had
+lost upon the Backsworth race-ground.
+
+Lenore might guess, with her peculiarly painful intuition, who had
+been the tempter, but that did not lessen her severity towards the
+victim.  In her resolution against a betting man, had she not
+trusted Frank too implicitly even to warn him of her vow?  Nay, had
+she not felt him drifting from her all through the season, unjustly
+angered, unworthily distrustful, easily led astray?  All the
+misgivings that had fretted her at intervals and then cleared away
+seemed to gather into one conviction--Frank had failed her!
+
+Eleonora's nature was one to resent before grieving.  Her spirit was
+too high to break down under the first shock, and she carried her
+head proudly to the ball, betraying by no outward sign the stern
+despair of her heart, as she listened to the gay chatter of her
+companions, and with unflinching severity she carried out that
+judicial reply to Frank which she had already prepared, and then
+guarded herself among numerous partners against remonstrance or
+explanation.  It had been all one whirl of bewilderment; Lady
+Tyrrell tired, and making the girls' intended journey on the morrow
+a plea for early departure; and the Strangeways, though dancing
+indefatigably, and laughing at fatigue, coming away as soon as they
+saw she really wished it.  All said good night and good-bye
+together, both to Lady Tyrrell and Sir Harry, and Lenore started at
+ten o'clock without having seen either.  Her sense of heroism lasted
+till after the glimpse of Frank on the road.  Her mood was of bitter
+disappointment and indignation.  Frank was given up, but not less so
+were her father, her sister, and the world.  Sir Harry had made
+Camilla suffice to him, he did not want her.  He had been the means
+of perverting Frank, and Lenore could not see that she need any
+longer be bound for his sake to the life she detested.  In a few
+weeks she would be of age, and what would then prevent her from
+finding a congenial home in the Sisterhood, since such kindred could
+have no just claim to her allegiance?  It was the hasty
+determination of one who had suffered a tacit persecution for three
+years, and was now smarting under the cruellest of blows.  Her lover
+perverted, her conditions broken, her pledge gambled away, and all
+this the work of her father and sister!
+
+Conny and Bee thought her grave and more silent than usual, and when
+Lady Susan met them in London there was no time for thought.
+Saturday was spent on a harvest festival at a suburban church, after
+which the daughters were despatched to their uncle's by a late
+train.  Sunday was spent in the pursuit of remarkable services; and
+on Monday Lady Susan and Eleonora had gone to St. Faith's and the
+Retreat began.
+
+Here was to be the longed-for rest, for which she had thirsted all
+the more through those days of hurry and of religious spectacles, as
+she felt that, be they what they might to their regular attendants,
+to her, as an outsider, they could be but sights, into whose spirit
+her sick and wearied soul could not enter.
+
+Here was no outward disturbance, no claim from the world, no
+importunate chatter, only religious services in their quietest, most
+unobtrusive form; and Dr. Easterby's low tender tones, leading his
+silent listeners to deep heart-searchings, earnest thoughts, and
+steadfast resolutions.
+
+Ah! so no doubt it was with many; but Lena, with book and pen, was
+dismayed to find that the one thing she recollected was the
+question, "Friend, how camest thou in hither?"  After that, she had
+only heard her own thoughts.  Her mind had lapsed into one vague
+apprehension of the effects of having cut off all communication with
+home, imaginings of Frank's despair, relentings of pity, all broken
+by dismay at her own involuntary hypocrisy in bringing such thoughts
+into the Retreat.  Had she any right to be there at all?  Was not a
+thing that should have been for her peace become to her an occasion
+of falling?
+
+It was Thursday evening, and on the morrow there would be the
+opportunity of private interviews with Dr. Easterby.  She longed for
+the moment, chiefly to free herself from the sense of deception that
+had all this time seemed to vitiate her religious exercises, deafen
+her ears, and blow aside her prayers.  There was a touch on her
+shoulder, and one of the Sisters who had received the ladies said,
+interrogatively, "Miss Vivian?  The Mother would be obliged if you
+would come to her room."
+
+The general hush prevented Lenore from manifesting her extreme
+agitation, and she moved with as quiet a step as she could command,
+though trembling from head to foot.  In the room to which she came
+stood the Superior and Dr. Easterby, and a yellow telegram-paper lay
+on the table.
+
+"My father?" she asked.
+
+"No," said the Superior, kindly, "it is your sister, who is ill.
+Here is the telegram--"
+
+"Sister Margaret to the Mother Superior, St. Faith's, Dearport.
+Lady Tyrrell has the fever.  Miss Vivian much needed.
+
+"Wils'bro, Sept. 26th, 5.30."
+
+"The fever!"  She looked up bewildered, and the Superior added--
+
+"You did not know of a fever at Wil'sbro'?  Some of our nursing
+Sisters were telegraphed for, and went down yesterday.  I was sorry
+to send Sister Margaret away just when her mother and you are here;
+but she was the only available head, and the need seemed great."
+
+"I have heard nothing since I left home on Friday," said Eleonora,
+hoarsely.  "It is my own fault.  They think I am at Revelrig."
+
+"Your family do not know you are here?" said the Superior, gravely.
+
+"It was very wrong," she said.  "This is the punishment.  I must go.
+Can I?"
+
+"Surely, as soon as there is a train," said the Superior, beginning
+to look for a Bradshaw; while Dr. Easterby gave Lenore a chair, and
+bade her sit down.  She looked up at his kind face, and asked
+whether he had heard of this fever.
+
+"On Sunday evening, some friends who came out from Backsworth to our
+evening service spoke of an outbreak of fever at Wil'sbro', and said
+that several of the Charnock family were ill.  I have had this card
+since from young Mr. Bowater:--
+
+"T. F. in severe form.  J. C. well, but both his brothers are
+down in it, and Lady K.'s brother, also Lady T. and the Vicar.
+No one to do anything; we have taken charge of Wil'sbro'.  I have
+no time to do more than thank you for unspeakable kindness.  H.
+B."
+
+"You knew?" exclaimed Lenore, as she saw her sister's initial.
+
+"I knew Lady Tyrrell was ill, but I do not know who the ladies are
+whom I address.  I did not guess that you were here," said Dr.
+Easterby, gently.
+
+No one living near Backsworth could fail to know Sir Harry Vivian's
+reputation, so that the master of Rood House knew far better than
+the Superior of St. Faith's how much excuse Lenore's evasion might
+have; but whatever could seem like tampering with young people was
+most distressing to the Sisters, and the Mother was more grave than
+pitiful.
+
+There was no train till the mail at night, and there would be two
+hours to wait in London; but Lenore would listen to no entreaties to
+wait till morning, and as they saw that she had plenty of health and
+strength, they did not press her, though the Superior would send a
+nurse with her, who, if not needed at Sirenwood, might work in Water
+Lane.  It was thought best not to distract Lady Susan, and Lenore
+was relieved not to have her vehement regret and fussy cares about
+her; but there were still two hours to be spent before starting, and
+in these Dr. Easterby was the kindest of comforters.
+
+Had she erred in her concealment?  He thought she had, though with
+much excuse.  A Retreat was not like a sacrament, a necessity of a
+Christian's life; and no merely possible spiritual advantage ought
+to be weighed against filial obedience.  It was a moment of
+contrition, and of outpouring for the burthened heart, as Lenore was
+able to speak of her long trial, and all the evil it had caused in
+hardening and sealing up her better nature.  She even told of her
+unsanctioned but unforbidden engagement, and of its termination;
+yearning to be told that she had been hasty and hard, and to be
+bidden to revoke her rejection.
+
+She found that Dr. Easterby would not judge for her, or give her
+decided direction.  He showed her, indeed, that she had given way to
+pride and temper, and had been unjust in allowing no explanation;
+but he would not tell her to unsay her decision, nor say that it
+might not be right, even though the manner had been wrong.  While
+the past was repented, and had its pardon, for the future he would
+only bid her wait, and pray for guidance and aid through her trial.
+
+"My child," he said, "chastening is the very token of pardon, and
+therein may you find peace, and see the right course."
+
+"And you will pray for me--that however it may be, He may forgive
+me?"
+
+"Indeed, I will.  We all will pray for you as one in sorrow and
+anxiety.  And remember this:  There is a promise that a great
+mountain shall become a plain; and so it does, but to those who
+bravely try to climb it in strength not their own, not to those who
+try to go round or burrow through."
+
+"I see," was all she answered, in the meek submissive tone of a
+strong nature, bent but not daring to break down.  She could not
+shed tears, deeply as she felt; she must save all her strength and
+bear that gnawing misery which Herbert Bowater's mention of J. C.'s
+brothers had inflicted upon her--bear it in utter uncertainty
+through the night's journey, until the train stopped at Wil'sbro' at
+eleven o'clock, and her father, to whom she had telegraphed, met
+her, holding out his arms, and absolutely crying over her for joy.
+
+"My dear, my dear, I knew you would come; I could trust to my little
+Lena.  It was all some confounded mistake."
+
+"It was my fault.  How is she?"
+
+"Does nothing but ask for you.  Very low--nasty fever at night.
+What's that woman?  M'Vie sent a nurse, who is awfully jealous;
+can't have her in to Camilla:  but there's plenty to do; Anais is
+laid up--coachman too, and Joe--half the other servants gone off.  I
+told Victor I would pay anything to him if he would stay."
+
+"And--at Compton?" faintly asked Lenore.
+
+"Bad enough, they say.  Serves 'em right; Mrs. Raymond was as
+mischievous as Duncombe's wife, but I've not heard for the last two
+days; there's been no one to send over, and I've had enough to think
+about of my own."
+
+"Who have it there?" she managed to say.
+
+"Raymond and his wife, both; and Frank and the young De Lancey, I
+heard.  I met Julius Charnock the other day very anxious about them.
+He's got his tithe barn stuffed with children from Water Lane, as if
+he wanted to spread it.  All their meddling!  But what kept you so
+long, little one?  Where were you hiding?--or did Lady Susan keep it
+from you?  I began to think you had eloped with her son.  You are
+sure you have not?"
+
+"I was wrong, father; I went to a Retreat with Lady Susan."
+
+"A what?  Some of Lady Susan's little poperies, eh?  I can't scold
+you, child, now I've got you; only have your letters forwarded
+another time," said Sir Harry, placable as usual when alone with
+Lenore.
+
+Fears of infection for her did not occur to him.  Mr. M'Vie held the
+non-contagion theory, and helpless selfishness excluded all thoughts
+of keeping his daughter at a distance.  He clung to her as he used
+to do in former days, before Camilla had taken possession of him,
+and could not bear to have her out of reach.  In the sick-room she
+was of disappointingly little use.  The nurse was a regular
+professional, used to despotism, and resenting her having brought
+home any one with her, and she never permitted Miss Vivian's
+presence, except when the patient's anxiety made it necessary to
+bring her in; and when admitted, there was nothing to be done but to
+sit by Camilla, and now and then answer the weary disjointed talk,
+and, if it grew a little livelier, the warning that Lady Tyrrell was
+getting excited was sure to follow.
+
+Outside there was enough to do, in the disorganized state of the
+sick and panic-stricken household, where nobody was effective but
+the French valet and one very stupid kitchen-maid.  Lena helped the
+St. Faith's nurse in her charge of the French maid, but almost all
+her time in the morning was spent in domestic cares for the sick and
+for her father; and when he was once up, he was half plaintive, half
+passionate, if she did not at once respond to his calls.  She read
+the papers to him, walked up and down the terrace with him while he
+smoked, and played bezique with him late into the night, to distract
+his thoughts.  And where were hers, while each day's bulletin from
+Compton Hall was worse than the last?  Little Joe Reynolds had been
+sent home on being taken ill, and she would fain have gone to see
+him, but detentions sprang up around her, and sometimes it would
+have been impossible to go so far from the house, so that days had
+become weeks, and the month of October was old before she was
+walking down the little garden of old Betty's house.  The door
+opened, and Julius Charnock came out, startling her by the sight of
+his worn and haggard looks, as he made a deprecating movement, and
+shut the door behind him.  Then she saw that the blinds were in the
+act of being drawn down.
+
+"Is it so?" she said.
+
+"Yes," said Julius, in a quiet tone, as sad and subdued as his
+looks.  "He slept himself away peacefully a quarter of an hour ago."
+
+"I suppose I must not go in now.  I longed to come before.  Poor
+boy, he was like a toy flung away."
+
+"You need not grieve over him," said Julius.  "Far from it.  You
+have done a great deal for him."
+
+"I--I only caused him to be put into temptation."
+
+"Nay.  Your care woke his spirit up and guarded him.  No one could
+hear his wanderings without feeling that he owed much to you.  There
+is a drawing to be given to you that will speak much to you.  It is
+at the Rectory; it was not safe here.  And his mother is here.  I
+can't but hope her soul has been reached through him.  Yes," as
+Lenore leant against the gate, her warm tears dropping, "there is no
+grief in thinking of him.  He had yearnings and conceptions that
+could not have been gratified in his former station; and for him an
+artist's life would have been more than commonly uphill work--full
+of trial.  I wish you could have heard the murmured words that
+showed what glorious images floated before him--no doubt now
+realized."
+
+"I am glad he was really good," were the only words that would come.
+
+The hearts of both were so full, that these words on what was a
+little further off were almost necessary to them.
+
+"Take my arm," said Julius, kindly.  "Our roads lie together down
+the lane.  How is your sister?  Better, I hope, as I see you here."
+
+"She has slept more quietly.  Mr. M'Vie thinks her a little better."
+
+"So it is with Terry de Lancey," said Julius; "he is certainly less
+feverish to-day;" but there was no corresponding tone of gladness in
+the voice, though he added, "Cecil is going on well too."
+
+"And--"  Poor Lenore's heart died within her; she could only press
+his arm convulsively, and he had mercy on her.
+
+"Frank's illness has been different in character from the others,"
+he said; "the fever has run much higher, and has affected the brain
+more, and the throat is in a very distressing state; but Dr. Worth
+still does not think there are specially dangerous symptoms, and is
+less anxious about him than Raymond."
+
+"Ah! is it true?"
+
+"He does not seem as ill as Frank; but there have been bleedings at
+the nose, which have brought him very low, and which have hitherto
+been the worst symptoms," and here the steady sadness of his voice
+quivered a little.
+
+Lenore uttered a cry of dismay, and murmured, "Your mother?"
+
+"She is absorbed in him.  Happily, she can be with him constantly.
+They seem to rest in each other's presence, and not to look
+forward."
+
+"And Cecil?"
+
+"It has taken the lethargic turn with Cecil.  She is almost always
+asleep, and is now, I believe, much better; but in truth we have
+none of us been allowed to come near her.  Her maid, Grindstone, has
+taken the sole charge, and shuts us all out, for fear, I believe, of
+our telling her how ill Raymond is."
+
+"Oh, I know Grindstone."
+
+"Who looks on us all as enemies.  However, Raymond has desired us to
+write to her father, and he will judge when he comes."
+
+They were almost at the place of parting.  Eleonora kept her hand on
+his arm, longing for another word, nay, feeling that without it her
+heart would burst.  "Who is with Frank?"
+
+"Anne.  She hardly ever leaves him.  She is our main-stay at the
+Hall."
+
+"Is he ever sensible?" she faintly asked.
+
+"He has not been really rational for nearly ten days now."
+
+"If--if--oh! you know what I mean.  Oh! gain his pardon for me!" and
+she covered her face with her hand.
+
+"Poor Frank!--it is of your pardon that he talks.  Tell me,
+Eleonora, did you ever receive a letter from my mother?"
+
+"Never.  Where was it sent?" she said, starting.
+
+"To Revelrig.  It was written the day after the ball."
+
+"I never went to Revelrig.  Oh! if I could have spoken to you first
+I should have been saved from so much that was wrong.  No one knew
+where I was."
+
+"No, not till Sister Margaret told Herbert Bowater that her sisters
+had been at a ball at the town-hall the week before.  Then he saw
+she was Miss Strangeways, and asked if she knew where you were."
+
+"Ah, yes! disobedience--tacit deception--temper.  Oh! they have
+brought their just punishment.  But that letter!"
+
+"I think it was to explain poor Frank's conduct at the races.
+Perhaps, as the servants at Revelrig had no knowledge of you, it may
+have been returned, and my mother's letter have been left untouched.
+I will see."
+
+They knew they must not delay one another, and parted; Julius
+walking homewards by the Hall, where, alas! there was only one of
+the family able to move about the house, and she seldom left her
+patient.
+
+Julius did, however, find her coming down-stairs with Dr. Worth, and
+little as he gathered that was reassuring in the physician's words,
+there was a wistful moisture about her eyes, a look altogether of
+having a bird in her bosom, which made him say, as the doctor
+hurried off, "Anne, some one must be better."
+
+"Cecil is," she said; and he had nearly answered, "_only_ Cecil,"
+but her eyes brimmed over suddenly, and she said, "I am so
+thankful!"
+
+"Miles!" he exclaimed.
+
+She handed him a telegram.  The Salamanca was at Spithead; Miles
+telegraphed to her to join him.
+
+"Miles come!  Thank God!  Does mother know?"
+
+"Hush! no one does," and with a heaving breast she added, "I
+answered that I could not, and why, and that he must not come."
+
+"No, I suppose he must not till he is free of his ship.  My poor
+Anne!"
+
+"Oh no!  I know he is safe.  I am glad!  But the knowledge would
+tear your mother to pieces."
+
+"Her soul is in Raymond now, and to be certain of Miles being at
+hand would be an unspeakable relief to him.  Come and tell them."
+
+"No, no, I can't!" she cried, with a sudden gush of emotion sweeping
+over her features, subdued instantly, but showing what it was to
+her.  "You do it.  Only don't let them bring him here."
+
+And Anne flew to her fastness in Frank's attic, while Julius
+repaired to Raymond's room, and found him as usual lying tranquil,
+with his mother's chair so near that she could hand him the cool
+fruit or drink, or ring to summon other help.  Their time together
+seemed to both a rest, and Julius always liked to look at their
+peaceful faces, after the numerous painful scenes he had to
+encounter.  Raymond, too, was clinging to him, to his ministrations
+and his talk, as to nothing else save his mother.  Raymond had
+always been upright and conscientious, but his religion had been
+chiefly duty and obligation, and it was only now that comfort or
+peace seemed to be growing out of it for him.  As he looked up at
+his brother, he too saw the involuntary brightness that the tidings
+had produced, and said, "Is any one else better, Julius?  I know
+Terry is; I am so glad for Rose."
+
+"I asked Anne the same question," said Julius.  "Mother, you will be
+more glad than tantalized.  The Salamanca is come in."
+
+Raymond made an inarticulate sound of infinite relief.  His mother
+exclaimed, "He must not come here!  But Frankie could not spare Anne
+to him.  What will she do?"
+
+"She will stay bravely by Frank," said Julius.  "We must all wait
+till the ship is paid off."
+
+"Of course," said Raymond.  "If she can rejoice that he is out of
+danger, we will; I am content to know him near.  It makes all much
+easier.  And, mother, he will find all ready to own what a priceless
+treasure he sent before him in his wife."
+
+There was the old note of pain in the comparison.  Julius's heart
+was wrung as he thought of Sirenwood, with the sense that the victim
+was dying, the author of the evil recovering.  He could only stifle
+the thought by turning away, and going to the table in his mother's
+adjacent room, where letters had accumulated unopened.  'On Her
+Majesty's Service' bore the post-mark which justified him in opening
+it, and enclosing the letter it contained to Miss Vivian.
+
+He did so almost mechanically.  He had gone through these weeks only
+by never daring to have a self.  The only man of his family who
+could be effective; the only priest in the two infected parishes; he
+had steadfastly braced himself for the work.  He ventured only to
+act and pray, never to talk, save for the consolation of others.  To
+Wil'sbro' he daily gave two morning hours, for he never failed to be
+wanted either for the last rites, or for some case beyond Herbert's
+experience, as well as to see the Vicar, who was sinking fast, in a
+devout and resigned frame, which impressed while it perplexed his
+brother clergyman, in view of the glaring deficiencies so plain to
+others, but which never seemed to trouble his conscience.
+
+The nursing-staff still consisted of the Sisters, Herbert Bowater,
+Mrs. Duncombe and her man-servant.  Under their care, the virulence
+of the disease was somewhat abating, and the doctors ventured to say
+that after the next few days there would be much fewer fatal cases;
+but Water Lane was now a strangely silent place,--windows open,
+blinds flapping in the wind, no children playing about, and the
+'Three Pigeons' remained the only public-house not shut up.  It was
+like having the red cross on the door.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+A Strange Night
+
+
+Cold, cold with death, came up the tide
+   In no manner of haste,
+Up to her knees, and up to her side,
+   And up to her wicked waist;
+For the hand of the dead, and the heart of the dead,
+   Are strong hasps they to hold.--G. MACDONALD
+
+"Rector," said Herbert Bowater, "are you specially at home?"
+
+"Why?" asked Julius, pausing.
+
+"There's that man Gadley."
+
+"Gadley!  Is he down?"
+
+"It seems that he has been ill this fortnight, but in the low,
+smouldering form; and he and that hostler of his kept it a secret,
+for fear of loss of gain, and hatred of doctors, parsons, Sisters,
+and authorities generally, until yesterday, when the hostler made
+off with all the money and the silver spoons.  This morning early, a
+policeman, seeing the door open, went in, and found the poor wretch
+in a most frightful state, but quite sensible.  I was passing as he
+came out to look for help, and I have been there mostly ever since.
+He is dying--M'Vie says there's not a doubt of that, and he has got
+something on his mind.  He says he has been living on Moy's hush-
+money all this time, for not bringing to light some embezzlement of
+your mother's money, and letting the blame light on that poor cousin
+of yours, Douglas."
+
+Herbert was amazed at the lighting up of his Rector's worn, anxious
+face.
+
+"Douglas!  Thank Heaven!  Herbert, we must get a magistrate at once
+to take the deposition!"
+
+"What!  Do you want to prosecute Moy?"
+
+"No, but to clear Archie."
+
+"I thought he was drowned?"
+
+"No; that was all a mistake.  Miles saw him at Natal.  Herbert, this
+will be life and joy to your sister.  What!--you did not know about
+Jenny and Archie?"
+
+"Not I--Jenny!--poor old Joan!  So that's what has stood in her way,
+and made her the jolliest of old sisters, is it?  Poor old Joanie!
+What! was she engaged to him?"
+
+"Yes, much against your father's liking, though he had consented.  I
+remember he forbade it to be spoken of,--and you were at school."
+
+"And Joan was away nursing old Aunt Joan for two years.  So Archie
+went off with this charge on him, and was thought to be lost!  Whew!
+How did she stand it?  I say, does she know he is alive?"
+
+"No, he forbade Miles to speak.  No one knows but Miles and I, and
+our wives.  Anne put us on the scent.  Now, Herbert, I'll go to the
+poor man at once, and you had better find a magistrate."
+
+"Whom can I find?" said Herbert.  "There's my father away, and
+Raymond ill, and Lipscombe waved me off--wouldn't so much as speak
+to me for fear I should be infectious."
+
+"You must get a town magistrate."
+
+"Briggs is frantic since he lost his son, and Truelove thinks he has
+the fever, though Worth says it is all nonsense.  There's nobody but
+Whitlock.  Dear old Jenny!  Well, there always was something
+different from other people in her, and I never guessed what it was.
+I'd go to the end of the world to make her happy and get that
+patient look out of her eyes."
+
+Herbert had nearly to fulfil this offer, for Mr. Whitlock was gone
+to London for the day, and magistrates were indeed scarce; but at
+last, after walking two miles out of the town, his vehemence and
+determination actually dragged in the unfortunate, timid justice of
+the peace who had avoided him in the road, but who could not refuse
+when told in strong earnest that the justification of an innocent
+man depended on his doing his duty.
+
+Poor Mr. Lipscombe!  The neglected 'Three Pigeons' was just now the
+worst place in all Water Lane.  The little that had hastily been
+done since the morning seemed to have had no effect on the foetid
+atmosphere, even to Herbert's well accustomed nostrils; and what
+must it have been to a stranger, in spite of the open window and all
+the disinfectants?  And, alas! the man had sunk into a sleep.
+Julius, who still stood by him, had heard all he had to say to
+relieve his mind, all quite rationally, and had been trying to show
+him the need of making reparation by repeating all to a magistrate,
+when the drowsiness had fallen on him; and though the sound of feet
+roused him, it was to wander into the habitual defiance of
+authority, merging into terror.
+
+Herbert soothed him better than any one else could do, and he fell
+asleep again; but Mr. Lipscombe declared it was of no use to remain--
+nothing but madness; and they could not gainsay him.  He left the
+two clergymen together, feeling himself to have done a very valiant
+and useless thing in the interests of justice, or at the importunity
+of a foolishly zealous young curate.
+
+"Look here," said Herbert, "Whitlock may be trusted.  Leave a note
+for him explaining.  I'll stay here; I'm the best to do so, any way.
+If he revives and is sensible, I'll send off at once for Whitlock,
+or if there is no time, I'll write it down and let him see me sign
+it."
+
+"And some one else, if possible," said Julius.  "The difficulty is
+that I never had authority given me to use what he said to me in
+private.  Rather the contrary, for old instinctive habits of caution
+awoke the instant I told him it was his duty to make it known, and
+that Archie was alive.  I don't like leaving you here, Herbert, but
+Raymond was very weak this morning; besides, there's poor Joe's
+funeral."
+
+"Oh, never mind.  He'll have his sleep out, and be all right when he
+awakes.  Think of righting Jenny's young man!  How jolly!"
+
+Julius went across to the town-hall hospital, and told the Sisters,
+whose darling his curate was, of the charge he had undertaken, and
+they promised to look after him.  After which Julius made the best
+of his way home, where Rosamond had, as usual, a bright face for
+him.  Her warm heart and tender tact had shown her that obtrusive
+attempts to take care of him would only be harassing, so she only
+took care to secure him food and rest in his own house whenever it
+was possible, and that however low her own hopes might be, she would
+not add to his burden; and now Terry was so much better that she
+could well receive him cheerily, and talk of what Terry had that day
+eaten, so joyously, as almost to conceal that no one was better at
+the Hall.
+
+"I will come with you," she said; "I might do something for poor
+Fanny," as the bell began to toll for little Joshua's funeral.
+Fanny Reynolds, hearing some rumour of her boy's illness, had
+brought Drake to her home three days before his death.  The poor
+little fellow's utterances, both conscious and unconscious, had
+strangely impressed the man, and what had they not awakened in the
+mother?  And when the words, so solemn and mysterious, fell on those
+unaccustomed ears in the churchyard, and Fanny, in her wild
+overpowering grief, threw herself about in an agony of sorrow and
+remorse, and sobbed with low screams, it was 'the lady' whom she
+viewed as an angel of mercy, who held her and hushed her; and when
+all was over, and she was sinking down, faint and hysterical, it was
+'the lady' who--a little to the scandal of the more respectable--
+helped Drake to carry her to the Rectory, the man obeying like one
+dazed.
+
+"I must leave the sheep that was lost to you, Rose," said Julius.
+"You can do more for them than I as yet, and they have sent for me
+to the Hall."
+
+"You will stay there to-night if they want you; I don't want any
+one," said Rosamond at the door.
+
+He was wanted indeed at his home.  Frank was in a wilder and more
+raving state than ever, and Raymond so faint and sinking, and with
+such a look about him, that Julius felt, more than he had ever done
+before, that though the fever had almost passed away, there was no
+spirit or strength to rally.  He was very passive, and seemed to
+have no power to wonder, though he was evidently pleased when Julius
+told him both of Archie Douglas's life and the hopes of clearing his
+name.  "Tell Jenny she was right," he said, and did not seem
+inclined to pursue the subject.
+
+They wheeled Mrs. Poynsett away at her usual hour, when he was
+dozing; and as Frank was still tossing and moaning incoherently, and
+often required to be held, Julius persuaded Anne to let him take her
+place with him, while she became Raymond's watcher.  He dozed about
+half an hour, and when she next gave him some food, he said, in a
+very low feeble tone:
+
+"You have heard from Miles?"
+
+"Yes; he says nothing shall stop him the moment they are paid off."
+
+"That's right.  No fear of infection--that's clear," said Raymond.
+
+"I think not--under God!" and Anne's two hands unseen clasped over
+her throbbing, yearning heart.
+
+"Dear old fellow!" said Raymond.  "It is such pleasure to leave
+mother to him.  If I don't see him, Anne, tell him how glad I am.
+I've no charge.  I know he will do it all right.  And mother will
+have you," and he held out his hand to her.  Presently he said:
+"Anne.  One thing--"
+
+"Yes," she said anxiously.
+
+"You always act on principle, I know; but don't hang back from
+Miles's friends and pleasures.  I know the old fellow, Anne.  His
+nature is sociable, and he wants sympathy in it."
+
+"I know what you mean, Raymond," said Anne; "I do mean to try to do
+right--"
+
+"I know, I know," said he, getting a little excited, and speaking
+eagerly; "but don't let right blind you, Anne, if you censure and
+keep from all he likes--if you will be a recluse and not a woman--
+he--don't be offended, Anne; but if you leave him to himself, then
+will every effort be made to turn him from you.  You don't believe
+me."
+
+"My dear Raymond, don't speak so eagerly," as his cheeks flushed.
+
+"I must!  I can't see his happiness and yours wrecked like mine.  Go
+with him, Anne.  Don't leave him to be poisoned.  Mesmerism has its
+power over whoever has been under the spell.  And he has--he has!
+She will try to turn him against you and mother."
+
+"Hush, Raymond!  Indeed I will be on my guard.  There's no one
+there.  What are you looking at?"
+
+"Camilla!" he said, with eyes evidently seeing something.  "Camilla!
+Is it not enough to have destroyed _one_ peace?"
+
+"Raymond, indeed there is no one here."
+
+But he had half raised himself.  "Yes, Camilla, you have had your
+revenge.  Let it be enough.  No--no; I forgive you; but I forbid you
+to touch her."
+
+He grasped Anne's arm with one hand, and stretched the other out as
+though to warn some one away.  The same moment there was another
+outburst of the bleeding.  Anne rang for help with one hand, and
+held him as best she could.  It lasted long; and when it was over he
+was manifestly dying.  "It is coming," he said; looking up to
+Julius.  "Pray!  Only first--my love to Cecil.  I hope she is still
+young enough not to have had all her life spoilt.  Is her father
+coming?"
+
+"To-morrow," said Anne.
+
+"That's well.  Poor child! she is better free."
+
+How piteously sad those words of one wedded but a year!  How unlike
+the look that met his mother's woeful yet tender eyes, as she held
+his hand.  She would aid him through that last passage as through
+all before, only a word of strong and tender love, as he again
+looked up to Julius and Anne, as if to put her in their keeping, and
+once more murmured something of "Love to sweet Rose!  Now, Julius,
+pray!"
+
+An ever dutiful man, there was no wandering in look or tone.  He
+breathed 'Amen' once or twice, but never moved again, only his eyes
+still turned on his mother, and so in its time came the end.
+
+Old Susan saw at first that the long fluttering gasp had no
+successor, and her touch certified Julius.  He rose and went towards
+his mother.  She held out her hands and said.  "Take me to my
+Frank."
+
+"We had better," whispered Anne.
+
+They wheeled her to the foot of the stairs.  Julius took her in his
+arms, Anne held her feet, and thus they carried her up the stairs,
+and along the passage, hearing Frank's husky rapid babble all the
+way, and finding him struggling with the fierce strength of delirium
+against Jenkins, who looked as if he thought them equally senseless,
+when he saw his helpless mistress carried in.
+
+"Frank, my boy, do lie still," she said, and he took no notice; but
+when she laid her hand on his, he turned, looked at her with his
+dull eyes, and muttered, "Mother!"
+
+It was the first recognition for many a day! and, at the smoothing
+motion of her hand over him, while she still entreated, "Lie still,
+my dear," the mutterings died away; the childish instinct of
+obedience stilled the struggles; and there was something more like
+repose than had been seen all these weary months.
+
+"Mother," said Julius, "you can do for us what no one else can.  You
+will save him."
+
+She looked up to him, and hope took away the blank misery he had
+dreaded to see.  "My poor Frankie," she said dreamily, "he has
+wanted me, I will not leave him now."
+
+All was soon still; Frank's face had something like rest on it, as
+he lay with his mother's hand on his brow, and she intent only on
+him.
+
+"You can leave them to me, I think," said Anne.  "I will send if
+there be need; but if not, you had better not come up till you have
+been to Wil'sbro'--if you must go."
+
+"I must, I fear; I promised to come to Fuller if he be still here.
+I will speak to Jenkins first."
+
+Julius was living like a soldier in a campaign, with numbers
+dropping beside him, and no time to mourn, scarcely to realize the
+loss, and he went on, almost as if he had been a stranger; while the
+grief of poor old Jenkins was uncontrollable, both for his lady's
+sake and for the young master, who had been his pride and glory.
+His sobs brought out Mrs. Grindstone into the gallery, to insist,
+with some asperity, that there should be no noise to awaken her
+mistress, who was in a sweet sleep.
+
+"We will take care," said Julius, sadly.  "I suppose she had better
+hear nothing till Mr. Charnock comes."
+
+"She must be left to me, sir, or I cannot be answerable for the
+consequences," was the stiff reply, wherewith Mrs. Grindstone
+retreated into her castle.
+
+Julius left the hushed and veiled house, in the frosty chill of the
+late autumn just before dawn, shivering between grief and cold, and
+he walked quickly down the avenue, feeling it strange that the
+windows in the face of his own house were glittering back the
+reflection of the setting moon.
+
+Something long and black came from the opposite direction.
+"Rector," it said, in a low hoarse voice, "I've got leave from him
+to use what he said to you.  Sister Margaret and I signed it.  Will
+that do?"
+
+"I can't tell now, Herbert, I can't think.  My brother is just
+gone," said Julius in his inward voice.
+
+"Raymond!  No!  Oh, I beg your pardon; I never thought of that;
+Raymond--"
+
+"Go home and go to bed," said Julius, as the young man wrung his
+hand.  "Rest now--we must think another time."
+
+Did Rosamond know? was perhaps the foremost of his weary thoughts.
+Ah! did she not!  Was she not standing with her crimson shawl round
+her, and the long black plaits falling on it, to beckon him to the
+firelit comfort of his own room?  Did she not fall on his neck as he
+came heavily up, and cling around him with her warm arms?  "Oh,
+Julius, what a dear brother he was!  What can we do for your
+mother?"
+
+As he told her how Frank's need did more than any support could do
+for her, her tears came thicker; but in spite of them, her fond
+hands put him into the easy-chair by the fire, and drew off his damp
+boots; and while listening to the low sunken voice that told her of
+the end, she made ready the cup of cocoa that was waiting, and put
+the spoon in his hand in a caressing manner, that made her care,
+comfort, not oppression.  Fatigue seconded her, for he took the warm
+food, faltered and leant back, dozing till the baby's voice awoke
+him, and as he saw Rosamond hushing her, he exclaimed:
+
+"O, Rose! if poor Raymond had ever known one hour like this!" and he
+held out his arms for his child.
+
+"You know I don't let you hold her in that coat.  Go into your
+dressing-room, have your bath, and put on your dressing-gown, and if
+you will lie on the bed, you shall take care of her while I go and
+feed Terry.  You can't do anything for anybody yet, it is only six
+o'clock."
+
+These precautions, hindering his going jaded and exhausted into
+infection, were what Rosamond seemed to live for, though she never
+forced them on him, and he was far too physically tired out not to
+yield to the soothing effect; so that even two hours on the bed sent
+him forth renovated to that brief service in the church, where
+Herbert and he daily met and found their strength for the day.  They
+had not had time to exchange a word after it before there was a
+knock at the vestry door, and a servant gave the message to Herbert,
+who had opened it:  "Lady Tyrrell is taken worse, sir, and Sir Harry
+Vivian begged that Mr. Charnock would come immediately."
+
+A carriage had been sent for him, and he could only hurry home to
+tell Rosamond to send on the pony to Sirenwood, to take him to
+Wil'sbro', unless he were first wanted at home.  She undertook to go
+up to the Hall and give Anne a little rest, and he threw himself
+into the carriage, not daring to dwell on the pain it gave him to go
+from his brother's death bed to confront Camilla.
+
+At the door Eleonora came to meet him.  "Thank you," she said.  "We
+knew it was no time to disturb you."
+
+"I can be better spared _now_," answered Julius.
+
+"You don't mean," she said, with a strange look, which was not quite
+surprise.
+
+"Yes, my dear brother left us at about three o'clock last night.  A
+change came on at twelve."
+
+"Twelve!"  Eleonora laid her hand on his arm, and spoke in a quick
+agitated manner.  "Camilla was much better till last night, when at
+twelve I heard such a scream that I ran into her room.  She was
+sitting up with her eyes fixed open, like a clairvoyante, and her
+voice seemed pleading--pleading with _him_, as if for pardon, and
+she held out her hands and called him.  Then, suddenly, she gave a
+terrible shriek, and fell back in a kind of fit.  Mr. M'Vie can do
+nothing, and though she is conscious now, she does nothing but ask
+for you and say that he does not want you now."
+
+Julius grew paler, as he said very low, "Anne said he seemed to be
+seeing and answering _her_.  Not like delirium, but as if she were
+really there."
+
+"Don't tell any one," entreated Eleonora, in a breathless whisper,
+and he signed consent, as both felt how those two spirits must have
+been entwined, since these long years had never broken that subtle
+link of sympathy which had once bound them.
+
+Sir Harry's face, dreary, sunken, and terrified, was thrust over the
+balusters, as he called, "Don't hinder him, Lena, she asks for him
+every moment;" and as they came on, he caught Julius's hand, saying,
+"Soothe her, soothe her--'tis the only chance.  If she could but
+sleep!"
+
+There lay Camilla Tyrrell, beautiful still, but more than ever like
+the weird tragic head with snake-wreathed brows, in the wasted
+contour of her regular features and the flush on her hollow cheeks,
+while her eyes burned with a strange fire that almost choked back
+Julius's salutation of peace, even while he breathed it, for might
+not the Son of Peace be with some there?
+
+The eager glance seemed to dart at him.  "Julius Charnock!" she
+cried, "come!" and as he would have said some word about her health,
+she cut him short:  "Never mind that; I must speak while my brain
+serves.  After that be the priest.  He is dead!"
+
+"My brother?  Yes."
+
+"The only one I ever loved!  There's no sin nor scandal in saying so
+now.  His wife is better?  It will never kill her."
+
+"She does not know."
+
+"No?  There was nothing to make her.  He could not give her his
+heart, try as he would.  Why did he turn the unchangeable to hate!
+hate! hate!"
+
+"Lady Tyrrell, you did not send for me to hear what ought not to be
+said at all?"
+
+"Don't fly off," she said.  "I had really something to say.  It was
+not wholly hate, Julius; I really tried to teach his little idiot of
+a wife to win him at last.  I meant it to turn out well, and nothing
+could, with that mother there."
+
+"I must leave you, Lady Tyrrell, if you will not control yourself."
+
+"Don't be hard on me, Julius," and she looked up with a glance of
+better days.  "You idolize her, like all the rest of you; but she
+chilled me and repelled me, and turned me to bitterness, when I was
+young and he might have led me.  Her power and his idolatry made me
+jealous, and what I did in a fit of petulance was so fastened on
+that I could not draw back.  Why did not he wait a little longer to
+encumber himself with that girl!  No--that wasn't what I had to say--
+it's all over now.  It is the other thing.  How is Frank?"
+
+"Very ill indeed; but quieter just now."
+
+"Then there shall not be another wreck like ours.  Lena, are you
+here?  You saw that Frank had let Constance Strangeways win your
+pebble.  It was because I showed him the one Beatrice bought, and he
+thought it yours.  Yes, I saw nothing else for it.  What was to
+become of the property if you threw yourself away, and on _her_
+son?" she added, with the malignant look.  "Whether he knew of this
+little vow of yours, I can't tell, but he had lost his head and did
+for himself.  It was for your good and papa's; but I shall not be
+here to guide the clue, so you must go your own way and be happy in
+it, if _she_ will let you.  Father, do you hear?  Don't think to
+please me by hindering the course of true love; and you, Julius,
+tell Frank he was 'a dull Moor.'  I liked the boy, I was sorry for
+him; but he ought to have known his token better;--and there was the
+estate to be saved."
+
+"Estates weigh little now!"
+
+"Clerical!  I suppose now is the time for it?  You were all
+precision at Compton.  It would kill me; I can't live with Mrs.
+Poynsett.  No, no, Tom, I can't have old Raymond quizzed; I'll get
+him out of it when the leading-strings are cut.  What right has she--
+?"
+
+The delirium had returned.  Julius's voice kept her still for a few
+moments, but she broke out afresh at his first pause, and murmurs
+fell thick and fast from her tongue, mixing the names of her brother
+and Raymond with railings at Mrs. Poynsett for slights in the days
+when the mother was striving to discourage the inclination that
+resulted in the engagement.
+
+Earnestly did Julius beseech for peace, for repentance for the poor
+storm-tossed soul; but when the raving grew past control, and the
+time was coming for his ministrations to the Vicar of Wil'sbro', he
+was forced to leave her.  Poor old Sir Harry would have clung to him
+as to anything like a support, but Eleonora knew better.  "No, dear
+papa," she said, "he has given us too much of his time already.  He
+must go where he can still help.  Poor Camilla cannot attend to
+him."
+
+"If she came to herself--"
+
+"Then send for me.  I would come instantly.  Send to the town-hall
+any time before twelve, after that to Compton.  Send without
+scruples, Lenore, you have truly the right."
+
+They did not send, except that a note met him as he returned home,
+telling him that suffusion of the brain had set in.  Camilla Tyrrell
+did not survive Raymond Poynsett twelve hours.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+Come Back
+
+
+And are ye sure the news is true?
+And are ye sure he's weel?--J. THOMPSON
+
+Eleonora Vivian was striving to write her sorrowful announcements in
+the deepening dusk of that autumn evening, while her father had shut
+himself up after his vigil to sleep under Victor's care, when a
+message came that Lady Rosamond Charnock earnestly begged to see
+her.  She stood with a face white and set, looking like a galvanized
+corpse, as her lips framed the words, "He is dead!"
+
+"No!" almost screamed Rosamond, snatching her hand.  "No!  But no
+one can save him but you.  Come!"
+
+Without a word, Eleonora stepped into her own room, and came back in
+cloak, hat, and veil.
+
+"Right," said Rosamond, seizing her arm, and taking her to the pony-
+carriage at the door, then explaining while driving rapidly:  "He
+has left off raving ever since his mother has been with him, but he
+lies--not still but weak, not speaking, only moaning now and then.
+His throat is so dreadful that it is hard to give him anything, and
+he takes no notice of what one says, only if his mother takes the
+spoon.  He gets weaker, and Dr. Worth says it is only because there
+is no impulse to revive him--he is just sinking because he can't be
+roused.  When I heard that, I thought I knew who could."
+
+Eleonora's lips once moved, but no sound came from them, and
+Rosamond urged her little pony to its best speed through the two
+parks from one veiled house to another, fastened it to the garden-
+door without calling any one, and led her silent companion up the
+stairs.
+
+Mrs. Poynsett felt a hand on her shoulder, and Rosamond said, "I
+have brought our only hope," and Eleonora stood, looking at the
+ghastly face.  The yellow skin, the inflamed purple lips, the
+cavernous look of cheeks and eyes, were a fearful sight, and only
+the feeble incessant groping of the skeleton fingers showed life or
+action.
+
+"Put this into his hand," said Rosamond, and Lenore found the pebble
+token given to her, and obeyed.  At the touch, a quivering trembled
+over face and form, the eyelids lifted, the eyes met hers, there was
+a catching of the breath, a shudder and convulsive movement.  "He is
+going," cried his mother, but Anne started forward with drops of
+strong stimulant, Rosamond rubbed spirit into his forehead, the
+struggle lessened, the light flickered back into his brown eyes, his
+fingers closed on hers.  "Speak to him," said Mrs. Poynsett.  "Do
+you see her, Frankie dear?"
+
+"Frank! dear Frank, here I am."
+
+The eyes gazed with more meaning, the lips moved, but no sound came
+till Anne had given another drop of the stimulant, and the terrible
+pain of the swallowing was lessened.  Then he looked up, and the
+words were heard.
+
+"Is it true?"
+
+"It is, my dear boy.  It is Lena."
+
+"Here, Frank," as still the wistful gaze was unsatisfied; she laid
+her hands on his, and then he almost smiled and tried to raise it to
+his cheeks, but he was too weak; and she obeyed the feeble gesture,
+and stroked the wasted face, while a look of content came over it,
+the eyes closed, and he slept with his face against her hand, his
+mother watching beside with ineffable gratitude and dawning hope.
+
+Lenore was forgetting everything in this watching, but in another
+quarter of an hour Anne was forced again to torture him with her
+spoon; but life was evidently gaining ground, for though he put it
+from him at first, he submitted at Lena's gesture and word.  She
+felt the increased warmth and power in his grasp, as he whispered,
+"Lena, you are come back," then felt for the token.
+
+Alas! that she must leave him.  They knew she must not stay away
+from her father; indeed, Rosamond had told no one of her attempt,
+her forlorn hope.  Lena tried to give assurances that she only went
+because it could not be helped, and the others told him she would
+return, but still he held her, and murmured, "Stay."  She could not
+tear herself away, she let him keep her hand, and again he dozed and
+his fingers relaxed.  "Go now, my dear," said Mrs. Poynsett, "you
+have saved him.  This stone will show him that you have been here.
+You will come back to-morrow, I may promise him?"
+
+"Yes, yes.  In the morning, or whenever I can be spared," whispered
+Lena, who was held for a moment to Mrs. Poynsett's breast, ere
+Rosamond took her away again, and brought her once more down-stairs
+and to the pony-carriage.  There she leant back, weeping quietly but
+bitterly over the shock of Frank's terribly reduced state, which
+seemed to take from her all the joy of his revival, weeping too at
+the cruel need that was taking her away.
+
+"He will do now!  I know he will," said Rosamond, happy in her bold
+venture.
+
+"Oh! if I could stay!"
+
+"Most likely you would be turned out for fear of excitement.  The
+stone will be safer for him."
+
+"Where did that come from?" asked Lenore, struck suddenly with
+wonder.
+
+"I wrote to Miss Strangeways, when I saw how he was always feeling,
+feeling, feeling for it, like the Bride of Lammermoor.  I told her
+there was more than she knew connected with that bit of stone, and
+life or death might hang on it.  Then when I'd got it, I hardly knew
+what to do with it, for if it had soothed the poor boy delirious,
+the coming to his right mind might have been all the worse."
+
+Rosamond kissed her effusively, and she dreamily muttered, "He must
+be saved."  There was a sort of strange mist round her, as though
+she knew not what she was doing, and she longed to be alone.  She
+would not let Rosamond drive her beyond the Sirenwood gate, but
+insisted on walking through the park alone in the darkness, by that
+very path where Frank had ten months ago exchanged vows with her.
+
+Rosamond turned back to the Hall.  It was poor Cecil's pony-carriage
+that she was driving, and she took it to the stable-yard, where her
+entreaty had obtained it from the coachman, whom she rewarded by
+saying, "I was right, Brown, I fetched his best doctor," and the old
+servant understood, and came as near a smile as any one at Compton
+could do on such a day.
+
+"Is the carriage gone for Mr. Charnock?"
+
+"Yes, my lady, I sent Alfred with it; I did not seem as if I could
+go driving into Wil'sbro' on such a day."
+
+Rosamond bade a kind farewell to the poor old coachman, and was
+walking homewards, when she saw a figure advancing towards her,
+strangely familiar, and yet hat and coat forbade her to believe it
+her husband, even in the dusk.  She could not help exclaiming,
+"Miles!"
+
+"Yes!" he said, coming to a standstill.  "Are you Rosamond?"
+
+"I am;--Anne is quite well and Frank better.  Oh! this will do them
+good!  You know--"
+
+"Yes--yes, I know," he said hastily, as if he could not bear to let
+himself out to one as yet a stranger.  "My mother?"
+
+"Absorbed in Frank too much to feel it yet fully; Anne watches them
+both.  Oh! Miles, what she has been!" and she clasped his hand
+again.  "Let me call her."
+
+And Rosamond opened the hall door just as some instinct, for it
+could hardly have been sense of hearing, had brought Anne upon the
+stairs, where, as Miles would have hurried up to her, she seemed, in
+the light gray dress she still wore, to hover like some spirit
+eluding his grasp like the fabled shades.
+
+"Oh no! you ought not.  Infection--I am steeped in it."
+
+"Nonsense," and she was gathered into the strong grasp that was home
+and rest to her, while Miles was weeping uncontrollably as he held
+her in his arms.  "O, Nannie, Nannie!  I did not think it would be
+like this.  Why did they keep me till he was gone?  No, I did not
+get the telegram, I only heard at the station.  They let me go this
+morning, and I did think I should have been in time."  He loosed
+himself from her, and hung over the balustrade, struggling with a
+strong man's anguish, then said in a low voice, "Did he want me?"
+
+"He knew it was your duty," said Anne.  "We all were thankful you
+were kept from infection, and he said many little things, but the
+chief was that he trusted you too much to leave any special
+messages.  Hark! that must be Mr. Charnock, Cecil's father!  I must
+go and receive him.  Stay back, Miles, you can't now--you know my
+room--"
+
+He signed acquiescence, but lingered in the dark to look down and
+see how, though Rosamond had waited to spare them this reception,
+his wife's tall graceful figure came forward, and her kindly
+comforting gestures, as the two sisters-in-law took the newcomer
+into the drawing-room, and in another minute Anne flitted up to him
+again.  "That good Rosamond is seeing to Mr. Charnock," she said;
+"will you come, Miles?  I think it will do your mother good; only
+quietly, for Frank knows nothing."
+
+Mrs. Poynsett still sat by Frank.  To Miles's eyes he was a fearful
+spectacle, but to Anne there was hourly progress; the sunken
+dejected look was gone, and though there was exhaustion, there was
+rest; but he was neither sleeping nor waking, and showed no heed
+when his brother dropped on one knee by his mother's side, put an
+arm round her waist, and after one fervent kiss laid his black head
+on her lap, hiding his face there while she fondled his hair, and
+said, "Frank, Frankie dear, here's Miles come home."  He did not
+seem to hear, only his lips murmured something like 'Anne,' and the
+tender hand and ready touch of his unwearied nurse at once fulfilled
+his need, while his mother whispered, "Miles, she is our blessing!"
+
+Poor Miles!  Never had sailor a stranger, though some may have had
+an even sadder, return.  He had indeed found his wife, but hers was
+the only hand that could make Frank swallow the sustenance that he
+needed every half-hour, or who knew how to relieve him.  Indeed,
+even the being together in the sick-room was not long possible, for
+Anne was called to the door.  Mr. Charnock was asking to see Mrs.
+Poynsett.  Would Mrs. Miles come and speak to him?
+
+Mr. Charnock was a small and restless man with white hair, little
+black eyes, looking keener than they were, and a face which had
+evidently been the mould of Cecil's.  He was very kind, with a full
+persuasion that the consolations of his august self must be
+infallible; but this was coupled with an inclination to reprove
+everybody for the fate that had left his cherished darling a
+childless widow at two-and-twenty.  To take him to Frank's room was
+impossible, and he had to be roundly told so.  Neither had he seen
+his daughter.  She was very weak, but recovering, and Grindstone,
+whom he had seen and talked with, was as strenuous in deprecating
+any excitement as he was nervous about it.  So he could only be
+disposed of in his room till dinner-time, when he came down prepared
+to comfort the family, but fulfilled his mission rather by doing
+such good as a blister, which lessens the force of the malady by
+counter-irritation.
+
+Julius came up to be with Miles, and to help them through the
+dinner, the first which had been laid for many a long day.  His
+enquiry for Cecil was answered:  "She is progressing as favourably
+as there can be reason to expect, but I have not seen her.  I follow
+the judgment of her faithful Grindstone."
+
+"Then she still knows nothing--"
+
+"Of her bereavement?  No.  Her state does not yet warrant it.  In
+fact, I almost wish I had obeyed my original impulse, and brought
+down Venn to make the melancholy communication."
+
+To every one's surprise Anne bristled up, saying, "Why, here is
+Julius, Mr. Charnock!"
+
+Mr. Charnock bowed:  "I understand that my Cousin Julius has been
+engrossed by his wife's family and by the adjoining parish, the care
+of which he has assumed."
+
+Anne fairly coloured up, and exclaimed, "Julius has been our main-
+stay and help in everything--I can't think how he has done it.  He
+has been here whenever we needed him, as well as at Wil'sbro', where
+people have been dying everywhere, the poor Vicar and all--"
+
+"Far be it from me to discourage philanthropy," said Mr. Charnock,
+"only I would have it within due bounds.  I am an old-fashioned
+squire, of a school, it may be, antiquated, an advocate of the
+parochial system; and I cannot help thinking that if this had been
+closely adhered to by hot-headed young clergymen, my poor child
+might not have been a childless widow at two-and-twenty."
+
+Julius was too much tired and too sad-hearted to heed greatly what
+Mr. Charnock said.  It was so strange to have Miles in sight, yet to
+feel so unable to be glad, that he scarcely heard anything.  But
+Anne again took up the cudgels:  "Mr. Charnock, you don't suppose
+that it was anything Julius did that brought this fever here.  It
+was going to the town-hall among the drains."
+
+"My dear Mrs. Miles Charnock, I am sure your husband will agree with
+me that sanitary arrangements and all connected with them are beyond
+the range of ladies, who are happily exempted from all knowledge of
+the subject."
+
+Anne could not say aloud that she wished Cecil had held this
+opinion, but she subsided, while Mr. Charnock prosed on, asking
+questions about the arrangements, and seeming shocked to hear that
+the funeral must be early the next day, this being one of the prime
+injunctions of the doctors, and that the one had been asked to
+attend it.  It made him sigh again for his poor daughter, as he
+handed Anne in to dinner.  She did not stay half through it, for it
+was again the time for feeding Frank.  Miles went half way up-stairs
+with her and returned, looking very wistful.  Julius smiled at him,
+"Your wife is too valuable, Miles; she is every one's property."
+
+"It must be very gratifying to you," added Mr. Charnock, "to find
+how example and superior society have developed the native qualities
+your discernment detected in the charming young lady who has just
+quitted us.  It was a most commendable arrangement to send her to
+enjoy the advantages of this place."
+
+"I sent her to be a comfort to my mother," said Miles, bluntly.
+
+"And so she has been," said Julius, fervently, but sotto voce.
+
+"I understand," said Mr. Charnock; "and as I was saying, my dear
+Cecil expressed from the first her desire to assist in forming her
+stranger sister-in-law, and I am happy to see the excellent effect.
+I should scarcely have guessed that she came from a colony."
+
+"Indeed," Miles answered dryly.
+
+Mr. Charnock might have it his own way, if he liked to think Anne
+had been a Hottentot till Cecil reclaimed her.
+
+The two brothers did feel something like joy when a message at last
+informed Mr. Charnock that his daughter was awake and he might see
+her.  They drew nearer together, and leant against one another, with
+absolute joy in the contact.  They were singularly alike in outline,
+voice, and manner, in everything but colouring, and had always been
+one in spirit, except for the strong passion for adventure which had
+taken Miles to sea, to find he had chosen his profession too young
+to count the cost, and he held to it rather by duty than taste.
+Slight as had been his seniority, poor Raymond had always been on a
+sort of paternal pinnacle, sharing the administration with his
+mother, while Miles and Julius had paired on an equality.
+
+"Poor mother!" sighed Miles.  "How is she to live without him?
+Julius, did he leave any word for me with you?"
+
+"Above all, that Anne is the daughter for my mother, and so she is."
+
+"What, when this poor wife of Raymond's was said to be the superior
+creature?"
+
+"You see her adoring father," said Julius.  "My Rose has necessarily
+her own cares, but Anne has been my mother's silent aid and stay for
+months, and what she has been in the present need no words can say.
+My mother has had no power to take the direction of anything, her
+whole being has been absorbed, first in Raymond, now in Frank; and
+not only has Anne been Frank's constant nurse through these five
+weeks of the most frightful fever and delirium I have seen at all
+here, but she has had thought for all, and managed all the house and
+servants.  We could do comparatively little, with Rose's brother ill
+at home, and the baby so young; besides, there have been eleven
+cases in the parish; and there was Wil'sbro'--but Anne has been the
+angel in the house."
+
+"I knew--I knew she would be everything when once the first
+strangeness was over; but, poor girl, her heart is in Africa, and it
+has been all exile here; I could see it in every letter, though she
+tried to make the best of it.  If there had but been a child here!"
+
+"I think you will find sufficient attachment to mother to weigh a
+good deal with her.  Poor Anne, she did think us all very wicked at
+first, and perhaps she does still, but at least this has drawn us
+all nearer together."
+
+And then the brothers lowered their voices, and Miles heard the full
+history of Raymond's last illness, with all the details that Julius
+could have spoken of to none else, while the sailor's tears slowly
+dropped through the hands that veiled his face.  It was a great
+deprivation to him that he might not look on Raymond's face again,
+but the medical edict had been decisive, and he had come home to be
+of use and not a burthen.  As Julius told Rosamond, he only
+thoroughly felt the blessing of Miles's return when he bade good
+night and left the Hall, in peace and security that it had a
+sufficient aid and stay, and that he was not deserting it.
+
+Miles had proposed to send his wife to bed and take the night watch,
+and he so far prevailed that she lay down in the adjoining room in
+her dressing gown while he sat by Frank's side.  She lay where she
+could feast her eyes upon him, as the lamplight fell on his ruddy
+brown cheek, black hair, and steady dark eye, so sad indeed, but so
+full of quiet strength and of heedful alacrity even in stillness--a
+look that poor Raymond, with all his grave dignity, had never worn.
+That sight was all Anne wanted.  She did not speak, she did not
+sleep; it was enough, more than enough, to have him there.  She was
+too much tired, body and mind, after five weeks of strain, for more
+than the sense that God had given her back what she loved, and this
+was 'more than peace and more than rest.'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+Breaking Down
+
+
+Funerals were little attended in these sad days.  The living had to
+be regarded more than the dead, and Raymond Poynsett was only
+followed to the grave by his two brothers, his father-in-law, and
+some of the servants.  Rosamond, however, weeping her soft profuse
+tears, could hear everything from behind the blind at Terry's open
+window, on that moist warm autumn day; everything, for no exception
+was made to the rule that coffins might not be taken into the church
+during this deadly sickness.  She did hear a faltering and a
+blundering, which caused her to look anxiously at the tall white
+figure standing at the head of the grave, and, as she now saw, once
+or twice catching at the iron railing that fenced in the Poynsett
+tombs.  Neither her husband nor his brother seemed to notice what
+she observed.  Absorbed in the sorrow and in one another, they
+turned away after the service was ended and walked towards the Hall.
+Rosamond did not speak for a minute or two, then she turned round to
+Terry, who was sitting up in bed, with an awe-struck face, listening
+as well as he could to the low sounds, and watching her.
+
+"Terry, dear, shall you mind my going to see after Herbert Bowater?
+I am sure they have let him overwork himself.  If he is not fit to
+take Lady Tyrrell's funeral this afternoon, I _shall_ send to
+Duddingstone on my own responsibility.  I will not have Julius doing
+that!"
+
+"Do you think he is ill--Bowater, I mean?" asked Terry.
+
+"I don't like it.  He seemed to totter as he went across the
+churchyard, and he blundered.  I shall go and see."
+
+"Oh yes, go," said Terry; "I don't want anybody.  Don't hurry."
+
+Rosamond put on her hat and sped away to Mrs. Hornblower's.  As
+usual, the front door leading to the staircase was open, and, going
+up, she knocked at the sitting-room door; but the only response was
+such a whining and scratching that she supposed the dogs had been
+left prisoners there and forgotten, and so she turned the lock--but
+there was an obstruction; so that though Mungo and Tartar darted out
+and snuffed round her, only Rollo's paw and head appeared, and there
+was a beseeching earnestness in his looks and little moans, as if
+entreating her to come in.  Another push, vigorously seconded by
+Rollo within, showed her that it was Herbert's shoulder that
+hindered her, and that he was lying outstretched on the floor,
+apparently just recalled to consciousness by the push; for as Rollo
+proceeded to his one remedy of licking, there was a faint murmur of
+"Who--what--"
+
+"It is I!  What is the matter?"
+
+"Lady Rose!  I'll--I'll try to move--oh!"  His voice died away, and
+Rosamond thrust in her salts, and called to Mrs. Hornblower for
+water, but in vain.  However, Herbert managed to move a little to
+one side.  She squeezed into the doorway, hastily brought water from
+his bedroom within, and, kneeling down by him, bathed his face, so
+that he revived to say, in the same faint voice, "I'm so sorry I
+made such mulls.  I couldn't see.  I thought I knew it by heart."
+
+"Never mind, never mind, dear Herbert!  You are better.  Couldn't
+you let me help you to the sofa?"
+
+"Oh, presently;" and as she took his head on her lap, "Thank you; I
+did mean to hold out till after this day's work; but it is all right
+now Bindon is come."
+
+"Come!--is he?" she joyfully exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, I saw him from the window.  I was getting up to hail him when
+the room turned upside down with me."
+
+"There's his step!" now exclaimed Rosamond.  "Squeeze in, Mr.
+Bindon; you are a very welcome sight."
+
+Mr. Bindon did make his way in, and stood dismayed at the black mass
+on the floor.  Rosamond and Rollo, one on each side of Herbert's
+great figure, in his cassock, and the rosy face deadly white, while
+Mungo and Tartar, who hated Mr. Bindon, both began to bark, and thus
+did the most for their master, whose call of 'Quiet! you brutes,'
+seemed to give him sudden strength.  He took a grip of Rollo's curly
+back, and, supported by Mr. Bindon, dragged himself to the sofa and
+fell heavily back on it.
+
+"Give him some brandy," said Mr. Bindon, hastily.
+
+"There's not a drop of anything," muttered Herbert; "it's all gone--
+"
+
+"To Wil'sbro'," explained Rosamond; then seeing the scared face of
+Dilemma at the door, she hastily gave a message, and sent her flying
+to the Rectory, while Mr. Bindon was explaining.
+
+"I wish I had known.  I never will go out of the reach of letters
+again.  I saw in the Times, at Innspruck, a mention of typhoid fever
+here, and I came back as fast as trains would bring me; but too
+late, I fear."
+
+"You are welcome, indeed," repeated Rosamond.  "Herbert has broken
+down at last, after doing more than man could do, and I am most
+thankful that my husband should be saved the funerals at Wil'sbro'."
+
+Mr. Bindon, whose face showed how shocked he was, made a few
+inquiries.  He had learnt the main facts on his way, but had been
+seeking his junior to hear the details, and he looked, like the
+warrior who had missed Thermopylae, ashamed and grieved at his
+holiday.
+
+The bottle Rosamond had sent for arrived, and there was enough
+vigour restored to make her say, "Here's a first service, Mr.
+Bindon, to help this poor fellow into bed."
+
+"No, no!" exclaimed Herbert.
+
+"You are not going to say there's nothing the matter with you?" said
+Rosamond, as a flush passed over the pale face.
+
+"No," he said; "but I want to go home.  I should have taken a fly at
+Wil'sbro'.  Cranky will see to me without bothering anybody else.
+If you would send for one--"
+
+"I don't think I can till I know whether you are fit to move," said
+Rosamond.  "I desired Dilemma to tell them to send Dr. Worth here
+when he comes to Terry.  Besides, is it quite right to carry _this_
+into another place?"
+
+"I never thought of that," said Herbert.  "But they would shut me
+up; nobody come near me but Cranky."  But there a shivering fit
+caught him, so that the sofa shook with him, and Rosamond covered
+him with rugs, and again told him bed was the only place for him,
+and he consented at last, holding his head as he rose, dizzy with
+the ache.
+
+"Look here, Lady Rose," he said, falling back into a sitting posture
+at the first attempt, "where's my writing-case?  If I go off my
+head, will you give this to the Rector, and ask him if it will be
+any good in the matter he knows of?" and he handed her an envelope.
+"And this keep," he added, giving her one addressed to his father.
+"Don't let him have it till it's all over.  You know."  Then he took
+up a pen and a sheet of paper, and got as far, with a shaking hand,
+as 'Dear Crank--' but there he broke down, and laid his head on the
+table, groaning.
+
+"I'll do it.  What shall I say, dear Herbert?"
+
+"Only tell her to come to me," he gasped.  "Cranstoun--our old
+nurse.  Then I'll be no trouble."
+
+While Mr. Bindon helped Herbert into his room, Rosamond sped home to
+send for Mrs. Cranstoun, arrange for the care of the new patient in
+the intervening hours, and fetch some of those alleviations of which
+experience had taught the use.  Mr. Bindon came to meet her on her
+return, carefully shutting the door, and saying, "Lady Rosamond, can
+he be delirious already?  He is talking of being plucked for his
+Ordination."
+
+"Too true," said Rosamond.  "I thought it a great shame to be so
+hard on a man with _that_ in him; but I believe you expected it?"
+
+"No; I may have said he would fail, but I never expected it."
+
+"Fail, indeed!  Fancy a man being turned back who has worked night
+and day--night and day--doing all the very hardest services--never
+resting!  Very likely killing himself!" cried Rosamond hotly.  "May
+I come back to him?  Terry can spare me, and if you will go to
+Wil'sbro' I'll stay till my husband comes, or the doctor.  The
+Sisters will tell you what to do."
+
+Herbert was, however, so much more comfortable for being in bed,
+that he was able to give Mr. Bindon directions as to the immediate
+cares at Wil'sbro'; but he was distressed at occupying Lady Rose,
+his great object being to be no trouble to anybody, though he had
+seen so much of the disease as to have been fully aware that it had
+been setting in for the last two days, yet his resolution to spare
+his Rector had kept him afoot till he had seen other help arrive.
+He declared that he wanted nobody but Rollo, who could fetch and
+carry, and call any one, if only the doors were open, and really the
+creature's wistful eyes and gentle movements justified the
+commendation.
+
+"Only," said Herbert anxiously, "I suppose this is not catching for
+dogs.  You'll make a home for him Lady Rose?" he added.  "I should
+like you to have him, and he'll be happier with you than with any
+one else."
+
+"Herbert, I can't have you talk of that."
+
+"Very well," he said, quietly.  "Only you will keep my dear old
+fellow--I've had him from a puppy--and he is but three years old
+now."
+
+Rosamond gave all promises, from her full heart, as she fondled the
+soft, wise black head.
+
+Herbert was unhappy too about Mrs. Hornblower's trouble.  Harry had
+been one of the slighter cases, and was still in his room, a good
+deal subdued by the illness, and by the attention the lodger had
+shown him; for Herbert had spent many hours, when he had been
+supposed to be resting, in relieving Mrs. Hornblower, and she was
+now in a flood of gratitude, only longing to do everything for him
+herself.  Had he not, as she declared, saved her son, body and soul?
+
+The most welcome sight was Julius, who came down in dismay as soon
+as he could leave the Hall.  "I am so glad," said the patient; "I
+want to talk things over while my head is clearer than it ever may
+be again."
+
+"Don't begin by desponding.  These fevers are much less severe now
+than six weeks ago."
+
+"Yes; but they always go the hardest with the great big strong young
+fellows.  I've buried twelve young men out of the whole forty-five."
+
+"Poor lads, I doubt if their life had been such a preparation as
+yours."
+
+"Don't talk of my life.  A stewardship I never set myself to
+contemplate, and so utterly failed in.  I've got nothing to carry to
+my God but broken vows and a wasted year."
+
+"Nothing can be brought but repentance."
+
+"Yes, but look at others who have tried, felt their duties, and
+cared for souls; while I thought only of my vows as a restraint, and
+tried how much pleasure I could get in spite of them.  A pretty
+story of all the ministry I shall ever have."
+
+"These last weeks!"
+
+"Common humanity--nonsense!  I should always have done as much;
+besides, I was crippled everywhere, not merely by want of power as a
+priest, but by having made myself such a shallow, thoughtless ass.
+But that was not what I wanted to say.  It was about Gadley and his
+confession."
+
+"O, Herbert!  I am afraid I was very unkind that night.  I did not
+think of anything but our own trouble, nor see how much it had cost
+you."
+
+"Of course not--nonsense.  You had enough to think of yourself, and
+I was only ashamed of having bored you."
+
+"And when I think of the state of that room, I am afraid it was then
+you took in the poison."
+
+"Don't say _afraid_.  If it was for Jenny, I shall have done some
+good in the world.  But the thing is--is it good?  Will it clear
+Douglas?  I suppose what he said to you was under seal of
+confession?"
+
+"Scarcely so, technically; but when a man unburthens himself on his
+death-bed, and then, so far from consenting, shows terror and dismay
+at the notion of his words being taken down as evidence, it seems to
+me hardly right or honourable to make use of them--though it would
+right a great wrong.  But what did you get from him?"
+
+"I gave Lady Rose the paper.  He raved most horribly for an hour or
+two, as if all the foul talk of his pot-house had got into his
+brain," said Herbert, with a shudder.  "Rector, Rector, pray for me,
+that I mayn't come out with _that_ at any rate.  It has haunted me
+ever since.  Well, at last he slept, and woke up sinking but
+conscious, knew me, and began to ask if this was death, and was
+frightened, clutching at me, and asking to be held, and what he
+could do.  I told him at least he could undo a wrong, if he would
+only authorize us to use what he said to clear Douglas; and then, as
+Sister Margaret had come across, I wrote as well as I could:
+"George Gadley authorizes what he said to the Rev. Julius Charnock
+to be used as evidence;" and I suppose he saw us sign it, if he
+could see at all, for his sight was nearly gone."
+
+Julius drew a long breath.
+
+"And now, what was it?" said Herbert.
+
+"Well, the trio--Moy, young Proudfoot, and Tom Vivian--detained a
+letter of my mother's, with a cheque in it, and threw the blame of
+it on Archie Douglas.  They thought no one was in the office but
+themselves; but Gadley was a clerk there, and was in the outer room,
+where he heard all.  He came to Moy afterwards, and has been preying
+on him for hush-money ever since."
+
+"And this will set things straight?"
+
+"Yes.  How to set about the public justification I do not yet see;
+but with your father, and all the rest, Archie's innocence will be
+as plain as it always has been to us."
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"On an ostrich farm at Natal."
+
+"Whew!--we must have him home.  Jenny can't be spared.  Poor Jenny,
+when she hears that, it will make all other things light to her."
+
+"What is their address?"
+
+"No, don't write.  Mamma has had a fresh cold, and neither my father
+nor Jenny could leave her.  Let them have a little peace till it
+gets worse.  There will be plenty of time, if it is to be a twenty-
+eight days business like the others.  Poor mamma!" and he rolled his
+head away; then, after some minutes of tossing and shivering, he
+asked for a prayer out of the little book in his pocket.  "I should
+know it, but my memory is muddled, I think."
+
+The book--a manual for sick-rooms--was one which Julius had given
+him new five weeks back.  It showed wear already, having been used
+as often in that time as in six ordinary years of parish work.  By
+the time the hard-pressed doctor came, it was plain that the fever
+was setting in severely, aggravated no doubt by the dreadful night
+at the 'Three Pigeons,' and the unrelaxed exertions ever since; for
+he was made to allow that he had come home in the chill morning air,
+cold, sickened, and exhausted; had not chosen to disturb anybody,
+and had found no refreshment but a raw apple--the last drop of wine
+having been bestowed on the sick; had lain down for a short sleep
+worse than waking, and had neither eaten nor slept since, but worked
+on by sheer strength of will and muscle.  When Julius thought of the
+cherishing care that he had received himself, he shuddered, with a
+sort of self-reproach for his neglect; and the doctor, though good-
+humouredly telling Herbert not to think he knew anything about his
+own symptoms, did not conceal from Julius that enough harm had been
+done in these few days to give the fine Bowater constitution a hard
+struggle.
+
+"Grown careless," he said.  "Regular throwing away of his life."
+
+Careless Herbert might have been, but Julius wondered whether this
+might not be losing of the life to find it.
+
+Cranstoun or Cranky arrived, a charming old nurse, much gratified in
+the midst of her grief, and inclination to scold.  She summarily
+sent off Mungo and Tartar by the conveyance that brought her, and
+would have sent Rollo away, but that Herbert protested against it,
+and no power short of an order from him would have taken the dog
+from his bedside.
+
+And Mr. Bindon returned from Wil'sbro' in unspeakable surprise.
+"The heroes of the occasion," he said, "were Bowater and Mrs.
+Duncombe!  Every sick person I visited, and there were fourteen in
+all stages, had something to say of one or other.  Poor things, how
+their faces fell when they saw me instead of his bright, honest
+face!  'Cheering the very heart of one!' as a poor woman said;
+'That's what I calls a true shepherd,' said an old man.  You don't
+really mean he was rejected at the Ordination?'"
+
+"Yes, and it will make him the still truer shepherd, if he is only
+spared!"
+
+"The Sisters can't say enough of him.  They thought him very ill
+yesterday, and implored him to take care of himself; but he declared
+he could not leave these two funerals to you.  But, after all, he is
+less amazing to me than Mrs. Duncombe.  She has actually been living
+at the hospital with the Sisters.  I should not have known her."
+
+"Great revolutions have happened in your absence.  Much that has
+drawn out her sterling worth, poor woman."
+
+"I shall never speak harshly again, I hope.  It seems to be a
+judgment on me that I should have been idling on the mountains,
+while those two were thus devoting themselves to my Master in His
+poor."
+
+"We are thankful enough to have you coming in fresh, instead of
+breaking down now.  Have you a sermon?  You will have to take
+Wil'sbro' to-morrow.  Driver won't come.  He wrote to the
+churchwardens that he had a cold, and that his agreement was with
+poor Fuller."
+
+"And you undertook the Sunday?"
+
+"Yes.  They would naturally have no Celebration, and I thought
+Herbert's preaching in the midst of his work would be good for them.
+You never heard such an apology and confession as the boy made to
+our people the first Sunday here, begging them to bear with him."
+
+"Then I can't spare you anything here?"
+
+"Yes, much care and anxiety.  The visitation has done its worst in
+our house.  We have got into the lull after the storm, and you need
+not be anxious about me.  There is peace in what I have to do now.
+It is gathering the salvage after the wreck."
+
+Then Julius went into his own house, where he found Terry alone,
+and, as usual, ravenously hungry.
+
+"Is Bowater really ill?" he asked.
+
+"I am afraid there is no believing otherwise, Terry," said Julius.
+"You will have to spare Rose to him sometimes, till some one comes
+to nurse him."
+
+"I would spare anything to him," said Terry, fervently.  "Julius, it
+is finer than going into battle!"
+
+"I thought you did not care much for battles, Terry."
+
+"If it was battles, I should not mind," said the boy; "it is
+peaceful soldiering that I have seen too much of.  But don't you
+bother my father, Julius, I won't grumble any more; I made up my
+mind to that."
+
+"I know you did, my boy; but you did so much futile arithmetic, and
+so often told us that a+b-c equalled Peter the Great, that Dr. Worth
+said you must not be put to mathematics for months to come, and I
+have told your father that if he cannot send you to Oxford, we will
+manage it."
+
+A flush of joy lighted up the boy's face.  "Julius, you are a brick
+of a brother!" he said.  "I'll do my best to get a scholarship."
+
+"And the best towards that you can do now is to get well as soon as
+possible."
+
+"Yes.  And you lie down on the sofa there, Julius, and sleep--Rose
+would say you must.  Only I want to say one thing more, please.  If
+I do get to Oxford, and you are so good, I've made up my mind to one
+thing.  It's not only for the learning that I'll go; but I'll try to
+be a soldier in your army and Bowater's.  That's all that seems to
+me worth the doing now."
+
+So Julius dropped asleep, with a thankworthy augury in his ears.  It
+is not triumph, but danger and death that lead generous spirits each
+to step where his comrade stood!
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+The Salvage
+
+
+Frank was certainly better.  Ever since that sight of Eleonora he
+had been mending.  If he muttered her name, or looked distressed, it
+was enough to guide his hand to her token, he smiled and slept
+again; and on the Sunday morning his throat and mouth were so much
+better, that he could both speak and swallow without nearly so much
+pain; but one of his earliest sayings was, "Louder, please, I can't
+hear.  When does she come?"
+
+Mrs. Poynsett raised her voice, Anne tried; but he frowned and
+sighed, and only when Miles uttered a sea-captain's call close to
+his ear, did he smile comprehension, adding, "Were you shouting?" a
+fact only too evident to those around.
+
+"Then I'm deaf," he said.  And Anne wrote and set before him, "We
+hope it will pass as you get better."  He looked grateful, but there
+was little more communication, for his eyes and head were still
+weak, and signs and looks were the chief currency; however, Julius
+met Eleonora after morning service, to beg her to renew her visit,
+after having first prepared her for what she would find.  Eleonora
+was much distressed; then paused a minute, and said, "It does him
+good to see me?"
+
+"It seems to be the one thing that keeps him up," said Julius,
+surprised at the question.
+
+"O, yes!  I can't--I could not stay away," she said.  "It is all so
+wrong together; yet this last time cannot hurt!"
+
+"Last time?"
+
+"Yes; did you not know that papa has set his heart on going to
+London to-morrow?  Yes, early to-morrow.  And it will be for ever.
+We shall never see Sirenwood again."
+
+She stood still, almost bent with the agony of suppressed grief.
+
+"I am very sorry; but I do not wonder he wishes for change."
+
+"He has been in an agony to go these three days.  It was all I could
+do to get him to stay to-day.  You don't think it will do Frank
+harm?  Then I would stay, if I took lodgings in the village; but
+otherwise--poor papa--I think it is my duty--and he can't do without
+me."
+
+"I think Frank is quite capable of understanding that you are forced
+to go, and that he need not be the worse for it."
+
+"And then," she lowered her voice, "it does a little reconcile me
+that I don't think we ought to go further into it till we can
+understand.  I did make that dreadful vow.  I know I ought not now;
+but still I did, in so many words."
+
+"You mean against a gambler?"
+
+"If it had only been against a gambler; but I was stung, and wanted
+to guard myself, and made it against any one who had ever betted!
+If I go on, I must break it, you see, and if I do might it not bring
+mischief on him?  I don't even feel as if it were _true_ to have
+come to him on Friday, and now--yet they said it was the only chance
+for his life."
+
+"Yes, I think it saved him then, and to disappoint him now might
+quite possibly bring a relapse," said Julius.  "It seems to me that
+you can only act as seems right at the moment.  When he is his own
+man again, you will better have the power of judging about this vow,
+and if it ought to bind you.  And so, it may really be well you do
+not see more of him, and that his weakness does not lead you further
+than you mean."
+
+A tottering step, and an almost agonized, though very short sob
+under the crape veil, proved to Julius that his counsel, though
+chiming in with her stronger, sterner judgment, was terrible to her,
+nor would he have given it, if he had not had reason to fear that
+while she had grown up, Frank had grown down; and that, after this
+illness, it would have to be proved whether he were indeed worthy of
+the high-minded girl whom he had himself almost thrown over in a
+passion.
+
+But there was no room for such misgivings when the electric shock of
+actual presence was felt--the thin hollow-cheeked face shone with
+welcome, the liquid brown eyes smiled with thankful sweetness, the
+fingers, fleshless, but cool and gentle, were held out; and the
+faint voice said, "My darling!  Once try to make me hear."
+
+And when, with all her efforts, she could only make him give a sort
+of smile of disappointment, she would have been stonyhearted indeed
+if she had not let him fondle her hand as he would, while she
+listened to his mother's report of his improvement.  With those eyes
+fixed in such content on her face, it seemed absolutely barbarous to
+falter forth that she could come no more, for her father was taking
+her away.
+
+"My dear, you must be left with us," cried Mrs. Poynsett.  "He
+cannot spare you."
+
+"Ah! but my poor father.  He is lost without me.  And I came of age
+on Tuesday, and there are papers to sign."
+
+"What is it?" murmured Frank, watching their faces.
+
+Mrs. Poynsett gave her the pen, saying, "You must tell him, if it is
+to be."
+
+She wrote:  "My father takes me to London to-morrow, to meet the
+lawyers."
+
+His face fell; but he asked, "Coming back--when?"
+
+She shook her head, and her eyes filled with tears, as she wrote:
+"Sirenwood is to be put up to auction."
+
+"Your sister?" began Frank, and then his eye fell on her crape
+trimmings.  He touched her sleeve, and made a low wail.  "Oh! is
+every one dead?"
+
+It was the first perception he had shown of any death, though
+mourning had been worn in his room.  His mother leant down to kiss
+him, bidding Lena tell him the truth; and she wrote:
+
+"I am left alone with poor papa.  Let me go--now you can do without
+me."
+
+"Can I?" he asked, again grasping her hand.
+
+She pointed to his mother and Anne; but he repeated, "You--you!"
+
+"When you are better we will see how it is to be," she wrote.
+
+He looked sadly wistful.  "No, I can't now.  Something was very
+wrong; but it won't come back.  By and by.  If you wouldn't go--"
+
+But his voice was now more weak and weary, tired by the effort, and
+a little kneeling by him, allowing his tender touch, soothed him,
+enough to say submissively, "Good-bye, then--I'll come for you"--
+wherewith he faltered into slumber.
+
+Rosamond had just seen her off in the pony carriage, and was on the
+way up-stairs, when she stumbled on a little council, consisting of
+Dr. Worth, Mr. Charnock, and Grindstone, all in the gallery.  "A
+widow in her twenty-second year.  Good heavens!" was the echo she
+heard; and Grindstone was crying and saying, "She did it for the
+best, and she could not do it, poor lamb, not if you killed her for
+it;" and Dr. Worth said, "Perhaps Lady Rosamond can.  You see, Lady
+Rosamond, Mrs. Grindstone, whose care I must say has been devoted,
+has hitherto staved off the sad question from poor young Mrs.
+Poynsett, until now it is no longer possible, and she is becoming so
+excited, that--"
+
+Cecil's bell rang sharply.
+
+"I cannot--I cannot!  In her twenty-second year!" cried her father,
+wringing his hands.
+
+Grindstone's face was all tears and contortions; and Rosamond,
+recollecting her last words with poor Cecil, sprang forward, both
+men opening a way for her.
+
+Cecil was sitting up in bed, very thin, but with eager eyes and
+flushed cheeks, as she held out her hands.  "Rosamond!  Oh!  But
+aren't you afraid?"
+
+"No, indeed, I'm always in it now," said Rosamond, kissing her, and
+laying her down; "it has been everywhere."
+
+"Ah! then they sent him away--Raymond?" then clutching Rosamond's
+hand, and looking at her with searching eyes, "Tell me, has his
+mother any right!  Would you bear it if she kept _you_ apart?"
+
+"Ah!  Cecil, it was not her doing."
+
+"You don't mean it was his own?  Papa is not afraid.  You are not
+afraid.  If it had been he, I wouldn't have feared anything.  I
+would have nursed him day and night till--till I made him care for
+me."
+
+"Hush, dear Cecil," said Rosamond, with great difficulty.  "I know
+you would, and so would he have done for you, only the cruel fever
+kept you apart."
+
+"The fever!  He had it?"
+
+"Yes, he _had_ it."
+
+"But he is better.  I am better.  Let me be taken to him.  His
+mother is not there now.  I heard them say she was in Frank's room.
+Call papa.  He will carry me."
+
+"Oh! poor, poor Cecil.  His mother only went to Frank when he did
+not need her any more."  And Rosamond hid her face on the bed,
+afraid to look.
+
+Cecil lay back so white, that Grindstone approached with some drops,
+but this made her spring up, crying, "No, no, don't come near me!
+You never told me!  You deceived me!"
+
+"Don't, don't, ma'am--my dear Miss Charnock--now.  It was all for
+the best.  You would not have been here now."
+
+"And then I should be with him.  Rosamond, send her away, I can't
+bear her.  She sent him away from me that night.  I heard her."
+
+"My dear Cecil, this will not do.  You are making your father
+dreadfully unhappy.  Dear Raymond stayed with you till he really
+could not sit up any longer, and then he kissed you."
+
+"Kissed me!  Oh, where?  Did you see?  No, don't ask Grindstone.
+She made me think he had left me, and fancy--oh, Rosamond! such--
+such things!  And all the time--"
+
+The moaning became an anguish of distress, unable to weep, like
+terrible pain, as the poor young thing writhed in Rosamond's arms.
+It was well that this one sister understood what had been in Cecil's
+heart, and did believe in her love for Raymond.  Rosamond, too, had
+caressing power beyond any other of the family, and thus she could
+better deal with the sufferer, striving, above all, to bring tears
+by what she whispered to her as she held her to her bosom.  They
+were a terrible storm at last, but Cecil clung to Rosamond through
+all, absolutely screaming when Grindstone came near; poor Grindstone
+who had been so devoted, though mistaken.  Weakness, however, after
+the first violent agitation was soothed, favoured a kind of stunned
+torpor, and Cecil lay still, except when her maid tried to do
+anything for her, and then the passion returned.  When old Susan
+Alston came with a message, she was at once recognized and
+monopolized, and became the only servant whom she would suffer about
+her.
+
+The inconvenience was great, but relapse was such an imminent
+danger, that it was needful to give up everything to her; and Mr.
+Charnock, regarding his daughter's sufferings as the only ones worth
+consideration, seemed to pursue Rosamond the instant she had sat
+down by the still feeble, weary, convalescent Terry, imploring her
+to return to Cecil with the irresistible force of tearful eyes and
+piteous descriptions; and as Terry had a week's start in recovery,
+and was not a widow under twenty-two, he had to submit, and lie as
+contentedly as he could in his solitude.
+
+Susan could be better spared to Cecil's morbid fancy of being waited
+on by her who had attended her husband, for Miles and Anne were
+sufficient for Mrs. Poynsett and Frank.  The long-sundered husband
+and wife scarcely saw each other, except over Frank's bed, and Mr.
+Charnock was on the Captain's hands whenever he came beyond it.  On
+the Wednesday, however, Julius, who had only once spoken to his
+brother alone, came up to the breakfast-table where he and Mr.
+Charnock were sitting, and hurt the feelings of the latter by first
+asking for Frank.  "He had slept all night, and only half woke when
+Miles and Anne changed watch and gave him beef-tea.  Cecil, very
+moaning and restless--more fever about her, poor dear.  When would
+Lady Rosamond come up?--she was asking for her."  When she had seen
+to a few things at home, given her brother his breakfast, and seen
+to poor Herbert; he had had a dreadful night, and that Cranstoun
+_would_ shut the window unless some one defended him.  Mr. Charnock
+began to resume his daughter's symptoms, when Julius, at the first
+pause, said:
+
+"Have you finished, Miles?  Could you speak to me in the library a
+minute?  I beg your pardon, Mr. Charnock, but my time is short."
+
+"I hope--I quite understand.  Do not let me be in your way."  And
+the brothers repaired to the library, where Julius's first words
+were, "Miles, you must make up your mind.  They are getting up a
+requisition to you to stand for Wil'sbro'."
+
+"To me?"
+
+"You are the most obvious person, and the feeling for dear Raymond
+is so strong as to prevent any contest.  Whitlock told Bindon
+yesterday that you should have no trouble."
+
+"I can't.  It is absurd.  I know nothing about it.  My poor mother
+bred up Raymond for nothing else.  Don't you remember how she made
+him read history, volumes upon volumes, while I was learning nothing
+but the ropes?  I declare, Julius, there he goes."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Why, that old ass, down to hunt up poor Rosamond; I don't believe
+he thinks there's any one in the world but his daughter.  I declare
+I'll hail him and stop him."
+
+"No, no, Miles, Rosamond can take care of herself.  She won't come
+till she has seen to her patients down there; and, after all,
+Cecil's is the saddest case, poor thing.  To return.  If you don't
+take to politics in the end, I think you should let them put you in
+now, if only as a stop-gap, or we shall get some one whom it may not
+be easy to get rid of."
+
+"There's something in that, but I can't accept without knowing my
+position, and I would not utter a word to disturb my mother till it
+occurs to her of herself."
+
+"Now that Frank is better?"
+
+"No.  It will all come on her soon enough."
+
+"Would you stand if she made it right for you?"
+
+"I can't tell.  There would be no punishment so great to my poor
+Anne as to be dragged into society, and I don't know how she would
+bear it, even if she had no scruples.  We never thought of anything
+but settling in Glen Fraser, only I wanted her to know you all.  If
+that poor Cecil only had a child we could be free to go back.  Poor
+Anne!"
+
+"Do you think she is still as homesick as at first?"
+
+"Well, not quite, perhaps; but I never can get to talk to her, and I
+know it is a terrible sacrifice to her to live here at all, and I
+won't have her forced into a style of thing against her conscience.
+If they come to me, I shall tell them to take Mr. Bowater."
+
+"Poor Mr. Bowater!  He will have little heart."
+
+"Who else is there?  That fellow Moy would like it, I suppose."
+
+"That fellow Moy may have to change his note," said Julius.  "I
+think we have the means of clearing Archie, when we can see how to
+use them."
+
+Miles gave a sort of leap as he stood by the fire.  "Tell me.
+Archie!  I had no heart to write to him, poor fellow."
+
+"Write to him by all means, but say nothing here."  And Julius
+briefly repeated what Gadley had said.
+
+"I don't see that the scoundrel Moy deserves any consideration."
+
+"I don't know whether he does; but he has a good wife, ailing and
+sickly, and a daughter.  He has lived in good report these many
+years, and I think it is due to him and to old Proudfoot not to
+spread the report before giving him warning.  In fact, I am not sure
+whether we could proceed against him as things stand."
+
+"It is just what Raymond would have known," said Miles, with a sigh;
+"but you are right, Julius, one ought to give him fair play.  Ah!
+what's that, Jenkins?--Note from Lord Belfort?  Wait for an answer.
+Can't they give one any peace?"
+
+While Miles was reluctantly answering his note, Julius, resolving to
+act before he was forbidden, mounted to Frank's room, requested to
+speak with his mother, and propelled her into the outer room,
+leaving Anne on guard.
+
+"Now then, my dear," she said, "I have known a talk must soon come.
+You have all been very good to me to leave it so long."
+
+"I am come now without poor Miles's knowledge or consent," said
+Julius, "because it is necessary for him to know what to do."
+
+"He will give up the navy," said his mother.  "O, Julius! does he
+require to be told that he--?" and she laid her head on her son's
+shoulder.
+
+"It is what he cannot bear to be told; but what drives me on is that
+Whitlock tells me that the Wil'sbro' people want to bring him in at
+once, as the strongest proof of their feeling for Raymond."
+
+"Yes," she raised her head proudly, "of course he must come forward.
+He need have no doubt.  Send him to me, Julius, I will tell him to
+open letters, and put matters in train.  Perhaps you will write to
+Graves for me, if he does not like it, poor boy."
+
+She had roused herself into the woman of business, and when Miles,
+after some indignation at her having been disturbed, obeyed the
+summons, she held out her arms, and became the consoler.
+
+"Come, my boy," she said, "we must face it sooner or later.  You
+must stand foremost and take up his work for him."
+
+"Oh, mother! mother! you know how little I am able," said Miles,
+covering his face with his hands.
+
+"You do not bring his burthened heart to the task," she said.  "If
+you had watched and felt with him, as perhaps only his mother could,
+you would know that I can be content that the long heartache should
+have ceased, where the weary are at rest.  Yes, Miles, I feel as if
+I had put him to sleep after a long day of pain, as when he was a
+little child."
+
+They hardened themselves to the discussion, Mrs. Poynsett explaining
+what she thought the due of her eldest son, only that Cecil's
+jointure would diminish the amount at her disposal.  Indeed, when
+she was once aroused, she attended the most fully; but when Miles
+found her apologizing for only affording him the little house in the
+village, he cried out with consternation.
+
+"My dear," she said, "it is best so; I will not be a burthen on you
+young ones.  I see the mistake."
+
+"I know," stammered Miles, "my poor Anne is not up to your mark--not
+clever like you or Jenny--but I thought you did like her pretty
+handy ways."
+
+"I feel them and love them with all my heart; but I cannot have her
+happiness and yours sacrificed to me.  Yes, you boys love the old
+nest; but even Julius and Rose rejoice in their own, and you must
+see what she really wishes, not what she thinks her duty.  Take her
+out walking, you both need it badly enough."
+
+They ventured to comply, and eluding Mr. Charnock, went into the
+park, silvery with the unstanched dews, and the leaves floating down
+one by one like golden rain.  "Not much like the Bush," said Miles.
+
+"No," was all Anne durst say.
+
+"Poor Nan, how dreary it must have looked to you last year!"
+
+"I am afraid I wrote very complaining letters!"
+
+"Not complaining, but a direful little effort at content, showing
+the more piteously, because involuntarily, what a mistake I had
+made."
+
+"No, no mistake.  Indeed, Miles, it was not.  Nothing else would
+have cured me of the dreadful uncharitableness which was the chief
+cause of my unhappiness, and if I had not been so forlorn, I should
+never have seen how good and patient your mother was with me.  Yes,
+I mean it.  I read over my old diary and saw how tiresome and
+presumptuous I was, and how wonderfully she bore with me, and so did
+Julius and Rosamond, while all the time I fancied them--no
+Christians."
+
+"Ah! you child!  You know I would never have done it if I had known
+you were to be swamped among brides.  At any rate, this poor old
+place doesn't look so woefully dismal and hateful to you now."
+
+"It could not, where you are, and where I have so many to know and
+love."
+
+"You can bear the downfall of our Bush schemes?"
+
+"Your duty is here now."
+
+"Are you grieved, little one?"
+
+"I don't know.  I should like to have seen mamma; but she does not
+need me now as your mother does."
+
+"Then you are willing to be her daughter?"
+
+"I have tried hard, and she is very kind; but I am far too dull and
+ignorant for her.  I can only wait upon her; but when she has you
+and Julius to talk to, my stupidity will not matter."
+
+"Would you be content to devote yourself to her, instead of making a
+home of our own?"
+
+"She can't be left alone in that great house."
+
+"The question is, can you be happy in it? or do you wish for a house
+to ourselves?"
+
+"You don't, Miles, it is your own home."
+
+"That's not the question."
+
+"Miles, why do you look at me so?"
+
+"I was told to ascertain your wishes."
+
+"I don't wish anything--now I have you--but to be a comfort to your
+mother.  That is my first earthly wish just now."
+
+"If that be earthly, it has a touch of the heavenly," muttered Miles
+to himself.  "You will make it clear to mother then that you like to
+go on with her?"
+
+"If she does not mind having me."
+
+"And Julius says it really cheered our dear Raymond to think you
+would be the one to look after her!  But that's not all, Nanny, I've
+only till to-morrow to decide whether I am to be Member for
+Wil'sbro'."
+
+"Is that a duty?"
+
+"Not such a duty as to bind me if it were altogether repugnant to
+you.  I was not brought up for it, and may be a mere stop-gap, but
+it is every man's duty to come to the front when he is called for,
+and do his utmost for his country in Parliament, I suppose, as much
+as in action."
+
+"I see; but it would be leaving your mother alone a great deal."
+
+"Not necessarily.  You could stay here part of the time, and I go
+backwards and forwards, as Raymond did before his marriage."
+
+"It would be better than your being at sea."
+
+"But remember," he added, "there is much that can't be shirked.  I
+don't mean currying popularity, but if one is in that position,
+there's no shutting oneself up.  It becomes a duty to keep society
+going, and give it the sort of tone that a nice woman can do.  Do
+you see?"
+
+"I think I do.  Julius said so once."
+
+"So if we are to have such tears and despair as there were about the
+ball in the Chimaera, then--"
+
+"I was wrong then," said Anne.  "I did not behave at all well to you
+all that time, dear Miles; I have been sorry for it ever since I
+understood."
+
+"It was not you, little one, it was Mr. Pilgrim."
+
+"No, it was not Mr. Pilgrim who made me cross."
+
+"Yes, it was.  He exacted pledges that he had no right to lay on
+your conscience, and your poor little conscience was in terrible
+straits, and I was too angry to feel for it.  Never mind all that;
+you have done with the fellow, and understand better now."
+
+"He thought he was right, and that only such abstinence could guard
+me.  And, Miles, a promise is a promise, and I do not think I ought
+to dance or play at cards.  It is not that I think them wrong for
+others, but I cannot break my word.  Except those--I will do
+whatever is fitting for your wife."
+
+"Spoken like a heroine!"
+
+"I don't think I could ever give a tone.  Rosamond could, if she
+tried, but I have no readiness and no training; but I do see that
+there is more good in being friendly like Jenny Bowater, than in
+avoiding everything, and as long as one does it because it is right
+and loving, it can't be the world or worldliness."
+
+It was not lucidly expressed, but it satisfied the Captain.
+
+"All right, my bonnie Nance, I'll promise on my side never to ask
+you to go against your real conscience, and if you must have a Pope,
+I had rather it were Pope Julius than Pope Pilgrim."
+
+"Don't, Miles.  Popes are all wrong, and I don't know whether Mr.
+Pilgrim would give the right hand of fellowship to Julius."
+
+Miles chuckled.  "You may think yourself lucky you have not to
+adjust that question, Madame Nan."
+
+"There's the quarter chiming, Frank will want his beef-tea."
+
+Presently after Miles laid his hand on his mother's shoulder, and
+said, "Mother, here's a daughter who thinks you want to turn us out
+because she is too slow and stupid for your home child."  And he
+drew Anne up blushing as if she were his freshly-won bride.
+
+"My dear, are you sure you don't want to go away from the old woman?
+Should you not be happier with him all to yourself?"
+
+"I could not be happy if you were left," said Anne.  "May I go on as
+we did last winter?  I will try to do better now I have him to help
+me."
+
+"My own dear child!"
+
+That was the way Anne forgot her own people and her father's house.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+Herbert's Victory
+
+
+And of our scholars let us learn
+Our own forgotten lore.--KEBLE
+
+"Joan, Jenny, dearest old Joanie!"  It was eagerly spoken, though
+the voice was strangely altered that came from behind the flowered
+curtain of that big bed, while the fingers drew it back, and Rollo
+raised his black muzzle near at hand.  "Oh, Jenny! have you come to
+me?"
+
+"My dear, dear, poor boy!"
+
+"No kissing--it's not safe," and he burrowed under the sheet.
+
+"As if I did not mean to do more for you than that!  Besides, it is
+not catching."
+
+"So I said, till it caught me.  What a jolly cold hand!  You've not
+come in cold and hungry though?"
+
+"No, indeed, Rosamond forced me to sit down to a whole spread.  As
+if one could eat with a knot in one's throat."
+
+"Mind you do, Jenny--it was what did for me.  The Rector ordered me
+never to go about unfed; but one could not always--and there was
+something I have to tell you that drove all the rest out--"
+
+"Dear Herbs!  Papa can't talk of what you have done without tears.
+He longed to come, but we could not leave mamma without one of us,
+and he thought I could do the most for you.  I have a note for you."
+
+"Forgiving me?"
+
+"I should _think_ so.  It is in my bag--"
+
+"No, not this moment; I like to know it.  And mammy--poor mammy--"
+
+"She is as comforted as she can be that you have Cranky and me; and
+then papa's being proud of you has cheered her--oh! so much."
+
+"I'm glad they can comfort themselves--"
+
+"But, Herbert, dear, you must be much better; I did not expect to
+see you so well."
+
+"I am not so bad between whiles," said Herbert, wearily.  "And,
+while I can, I've got something to tell you that will make it up to
+you, and a great deal more."
+
+"Make it up?" said Jenny, looking with bewildered eyes at the dear
+face.
+
+"Yes, I made Gadley consent.  The Rector has it in writing, and it
+will do quite as well if I die.  O, Jenny, woman, think of my never
+knowing what you had gone through!"
+
+"Is it about Archie?" said Jenny, beginning to tremble.
+
+"Yes.  It will clear him."
+
+"I always knew he was clear."
+
+"Yes, but he can come back now all right.  Eh! what an ass I am!
+I've begun at the wrong end.  He wasn't drowned--it was all a
+mistake; Miles saw him in Africa--Cranky, I say, come to her."
+
+"Yes, Master Herbert, you've been talking a great deal too much for
+your sister just off a journey.  You'll get the fever on again.
+Miss Joanna, you ought to know better than to let him run on; I
+sha'n't be able to let you do nothing for him if this is the way."
+
+"Was it too sudden, Joan?" said Herbert, wistfully, as she bent to
+kiss his brow with trembling lips.  "I couldn't let any one tell you
+but myself, while I could; but I don't seem able to go on.  Is the
+Rector there, Cranky?"
+
+"Yes, sir, waiting in the parlour."
+
+"Rector," and Julius hurried in at once, "take her and tell her.  I
+can't do it after all."
+
+"Is he alive?" whispered Jenny, so much overcome that Julius had to
+hold her up for a moment as he led her into the other room.
+
+"Really!  She thinks me delirious," said Herbert, rather amused.
+"Tell her all, Rector."
+
+"Really, Joan," said Julius, putting her into the great chair, and
+holding her trembling hand.  "Miles has seen him, has had him in his
+ship."
+
+"And you never told me!"
+
+"He made Miles promise not to tell."
+
+"But he told you!"
+
+"Yes, because it was Anne who gave the clue which led to his
+discovery; but when he found we all thought him dead, he laid Miles
+under the strictest charge to say nothing.  He is on an ostrich farm
+in Natal, Jenny, well, and all that he ever was, and more too.  He
+took your photograph from Miles's book."
+
+"And I never knew," moaned Jenny, quite overcome.
+
+"He would not be persuaded that it was not more for your peace not
+to know of his life, and when Miles was put on honour, what could we
+do?  But now it is all changed.  Since Herbert's discovery he need
+not be a banished man any more."  And Julius told Jenny the manner
+of the discovery.  She listened, evidently gathering all in, and
+then she asked:  "And what have you done?"
+
+"Nothing as yet."
+
+"Nothing! while there is this blot on Archie's name, and he is
+living in exile, and that Moy is revelling in prosperity.  Nothing!
+Why don't you publish it to every one?"
+
+"My dear Jenny, I have only known it a week, and I have not been
+able to find out where Mr. Moy is."
+
+"What, to have him taken up?"
+
+"Taken up, no; I don't imagine he could be prosecuted after this
+length of time and on this kind of evidence.  No, to give him
+warning."
+
+"Warning?  To flee away, and never clear Archie!  What are you
+about, Julius?  He ought to be exposed at once, if he cannot be made
+to suffer otherwise."
+
+"Nay, Jenny, that would be hard measure."
+
+"Hard measure!" she interrupted; "what has my innocent Archie had?"
+
+"Think of the old man, his wife and daughter, Jenny."
+
+"She's a Proudfoot.--And that girl the scandal of the country!  You
+want to sacrifice Archie to them, Julius?"
+
+"You are tired and shaken, Jenny, or you would see that all I want
+to do is to act with common consideration and honour."
+
+She interrupted again.  "What honour do you mean?  You are not
+making it a secret of the confessional?"
+
+"You are misunderstanding me, Joanna," Julius gently said.
+"Herbert's vigil spared me from that difficulty, but--"
+
+"Then you would have sacrificed Archie to this imaginary--"
+
+"Hush, Jenny!  I fear he is wandering again.  Alas! it is the sad
+old refrain!"
+
+As they came to the door together, Herbert's voice, under that
+strange change which wandering brings, was heard muttering, "Give an
+account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward."
+And Mrs. Cranstoun received them, with her head shaking, and tearful
+eyes.  "It has come on again, sir; I was afraid it would be too much
+for him."
+
+Herbert's prayer had been granted, inasmuch as the horrible ravings
+that he feared repeating never passed his lips.  If he had gone down
+to the smoke of Tartarus to restore his sister's lover, none of its
+blacks were cleaning to him; but whether conscious or wandering, the
+one thought of his wasted year seemed to be crushing him.  It was a
+curious contrast between poor Mr. Fuller's absence of regret for a
+quarter of a century's supineness, and this lad's repentance for
+twelve months' idleness.  That his follies had been guileless in
+themselves might be the very cause that his spirit had such power of
+repentance.  His admiration of Lady Tyrrell had been burnt out, and
+had been fancy, not heart, and no word of it passed his lips, far
+less of the mirth with the Strangeways.  Habit sometimes brought the
+phrases of the cricket-field, but these generally ended in a shudder
+of self-recollection and prayer.
+
+The delirium only came with the accesses of fever, and when
+sensible, he was very quiet and patient, but always as one weighed
+down by sense of failure in a trust.  He never seemed to entertain a
+hope of surviving.  He had watched too many cases not to be aware
+that his symptoms were those that had been almost uniformly fatal,
+and he noted them as a matter of course.  Dr. Easterby came to see
+him, and was greatly touched; Herbert was responsive, but it was not
+the ordinary form of comfort that he needed, for his sorrow was
+neither terror nor despair.  His heart was too warm and loving not
+to believe that his heavenly Father forgave him as freely as did his
+earthly father; but that very hope made him the more grieved and
+ashamed of his slurred task, nor did he view his six weeks at
+Wil'sbro' as any atonement, knowing it was no outcome of repentance,
+but of mere kindliness, and aware, as no one else could be, how his
+past negligence had hindered his full usefulness, so that he only
+saw his failures.  As to his young life, he viewed it as a mortally
+wounded soldier does, as a mere casualty of the war, which he was
+pledged to disregard.  He _did_ perhaps like to think that the fatal
+night with Gadley might bring Archie back, and yet Jenny did not
+give him the full peace in her happiness which he had promised
+himself.
+
+Joanna had suffered terribly, far more than any one knew, and her
+mind did not take the revulsion as might have been expected.  Her
+lighthouse was shining again when she thought it extinguished for
+ever, but her spirits could not bear the uncertainty of the spark.
+She could not enter into what Miles and Julius both alike told her,
+of the impossibility of their mother beginning a prosecution for
+money embezzled ten years back, when no living witness existed,
+nothing but the scrap of paper written by Herbert, and signed by him
+and Margaret Strangeways, authorizing Julius Charnock to use what
+had been said by the dying, half-delirious man.  What would a jury
+say to such evidence?  And when Julius said it only freed himself
+morally from the secrecy, poor Jenny was bitter against his
+scruples, even though he had never said more than that he should
+have been perplexed.  The most bitter anti-ritualist could hardly
+have uttered stronger things than she thought, and sometimes said,
+against what seemed to her to be keeping Archie in banishment; while
+the brothers' reluctance to expose Mr. Moy, and blast his reputation
+and that of his family, was in her present frame of mind an
+incomprehensible weakness.  People must bear the penalty of their
+misdeeds, families and all, and Mrs. and Miss Moy did not deserve
+consideration:  the pretensions of the mother had always been half
+scorn, half thorn, to the old county families, and the fast airs of
+the daughter had been offensive enough to destroy all pity for her.
+If an action in a Court of Justice were, as Miles and Julius told
+her, impossible,--and she would not believe it, except on the word
+of a lawyer,--public exposure was the only alternative for righting
+Archie, and she could not, or would not, understand that they would
+have undergone an action for libel rather than not do their best to
+clear their cousin, but that they thought it due to Mr. Moy to give
+him the opportunity of doing the thing himself; she thought it
+folly, and only giving him time and chance for baffling them.
+
+The strange thing was, that not only when she argued with the two
+brothers, but when she brooded and gave way to these thoughts as she
+kept her watch, it probably made her less calm--for an access of
+restlessness and fever never failed to come on--with Herbert.
+Probably she was less calm externally, and the fret of face and
+manner communicated itself to him, for the consequences were so
+invariable that Cranstoun thought they proved additionally what she
+of course believed, that Miss Joan could not be trusted with her
+brother.  At last Jenny, in her distress and unwillingness to
+abandon Herbert to Cranky's closed windows, traced cause and effect,
+and made a strong resolution to banish the all-pervading thought,
+and indeed his ever-increasing weakness and danger filled her mind
+so as to make this easier and easier, so that she might no longer
+have to confess to herself that Rollo was a safer companion, since
+Herbert, with a hand on that black head, certainly only derived
+soothing influences from those longing sympathetic eyes.  And he
+could not but like the testimony of strong affection that came to
+him.  The whole parish was in consternation, and inquiries, and very
+odd gifts, which he was supposed to 'fancy,' came from all over
+Compton as well as from Strawyers, and were continually showering
+upon his nurses, so that Mrs. Hornblower and Dilemma spent their
+lives in mournful replies over the counter, and fifty times a day he
+was pronounced to be 'as bad as he could be to be alive.'  Old
+servants and keepers made progresses from Strawyers, to see Master
+Herbert, and were terribly aggrieved because Miss Bowater kept them
+out of his room, as much for their sake as his; and Mrs. Cranstoun
+pointed to the open lattice which she believed to be killing him, as
+surely as it gave aches to her rheumatic shoulder.
+
+Julius thought almost as much as Jenny could do of the means of
+recalling Archie; but it was necessary to wait until he could
+communicate with Mr. Moy, and his hands were still over-full, for
+though much less fatal, the fever smouldered on, both in Wil'sbro'
+and Compton, and as St. Nicholas was a college living which had
+hitherto been viewed as a trump card, it might be a long time going
+the round of the senior fellows.
+
+Julius had just been at poor Mrs. Fuller's, trying to help her to
+put her complicated affairs in order, so as to be ready for a move
+as soon as one daughter, who had the fever slightly, could be taken
+away, and he was driving home again, when he overtook Mrs. Duncombe
+and offered her a lift, for her step was weary.  She was indeed
+altered, pale, with cheek-bones showing, and all the lustre and
+sparkle gone out of her, while her hat was as rigidly dowdy as Miss
+Slater's.
+
+She roused herself to ask feebly after the remaining patients.
+
+"Cecil is really getting better at last," he said.  "Her father
+wants to take her to Portishead next week."
+
+"And young Bowater?"
+
+"No change.  His strength seems to be going."
+
+"I wouldn't pity him," sighed Bessie Duncombe; "he has only seen the
+best end of life, and has laid it down for something worth!  I'm
+sure he and your brother are the enviable ones."
+
+"Nay, Mrs. Duncombe, you have much to work for and love in this
+life."
+
+"And I must go away from everything just as I had learnt to value
+it.  Bob has taken a house at Monaco, and writes to me to bring the
+children to join him there!"
+
+"At Monaco?"
+
+"At Monaco!  Yes, and I know that it is all my own fault.  I might
+have done anything with him if I had known how.  But what could you
+expect?  I never saw my mother; I never knew a home; I was bred up
+at a French school, where if one was not a Roman Catholic there was
+not a shred of religion going.  I married after my first ball.
+Nobody taught me anything; but I could not help having brains, so I
+read and caught the tone of the day, and made my own line, while he
+went on his."
+
+"And now there is a greater work for you to do, since you have
+learnt to do it."
+
+"Ah! learnt too late.  When habits are confirmed, and home station
+forfeited--What is there left for him or my poor boys to do?"
+
+"A colony perhaps--"
+
+"Damaged goods," she said, smiling sadly.
+
+"Then are you going?"
+
+"As soon as I have seen this fever out, and can dispose of the
+things here.  I have just been to Moy's office to see about getting
+rid of the lease."
+
+"Is Mr. Moy come home?"
+
+"Yes.  Have you not heard?"
+
+"What?--Not the fever?"
+
+"No.  Worse I should say.  Gussie has gone off and got married to
+Harry Simmonds."
+
+"The man at the training stables?"
+
+"Yes.  They put up their banns at the Union at Brighton, and were
+married by the Registrar, then went off to Paris.  They say it will
+kill her mother.  The man is a scoundrel, who played Bob false, and
+won largely by that mare.  And the girl has had the cheek to write
+to me," said Mrs. Duncombe, warming into her old phraseology--"to
+_me_!--to thank me for opportunities of meeting, and to tell me she
+has followed up the teaching of last year."
+
+"What--the rights of women?"
+
+"Ay.  This is a civil marriage--not mocking her with antiquated
+servile vows," she says.  "Ah, well, it was my doing, I suppose.
+Clio Tallboys held forth in private, I believe, to poor Gussie, on
+theories that were mere talk in her, but which this poor girl has
+taken in earnest."
+
+"Very sad earnest she may find it, I fear.  Can I do anything for
+you?" as they reached the gate of Aucuba Villa.
+
+"No, thank you, unless to get the house off my hands."
+
+"You are alone.  Will you not come and spend the evening with us?"
+
+"That is very kind, but I have too much to do, and besides, Sister
+Margaret is coming to spend the night with me."
+
+"I am glad to hear it."
+
+"Yes, Mr. Charnock, I trust I have learnt something in this spell of
+work.  I've not been for nothing in such scenes with those Sisters
+and young Bowater.  I'm more ignorant than half the poor things that
+I've heard talk of their faith and hope; but I see it is not the
+decorous humbug it once looked like.  And now that I would have
+learnt, here I go to Monaco."
+
+"You will learn.  You have a work before you that will teach you."
+
+"My boys are young enough to start with on a different tack," she
+said.  "You will tell me--no--I'll not hinder you now.  I shall see
+you again."
+
+Julius was too anxious to get home to refuse to be released, much as
+he felt for this brave woman.  The day before, Herbert had been
+frightfully faint and exhausted by the morning's attack of fever,
+but had been so still ever since that there was a shade of hope that
+the recurrence might not take place; and this hope grew stronger,
+when Jenny came into the outer room to say that the usual time for
+the fever was passing so quietly in a sort of sleep that Dr. Worth
+seemed to think rally possible, if only there was no fresh access.
+
+They stood over the fire, and Julius asked, "Can't you lie on the
+sofa, Jenny?  I can stay."
+
+"No," said Jenny, restlessly.  "No, I can't.  I know you have
+something to tell me."
+
+"Moy has come home, Jenny.  He is in terrible trouble.  His daughter
+has eloped with young Simmonds at the training stables."
+
+"The most appropriate end of her bringing up," said Jenny, in the
+hard tone it was so difficult to answer--it was so unlike herself--
+and her thought was that weak pity and forbearance would hinder
+exertions in Archie's cause.  "Generous at other folks' expense,"
+said she to herself.  "Sparing the guilty and leaving the innocent
+to exile!"
+
+But a moaning murmur, and Cranstoun's movement at once summoned them
+both to the bedside.
+
+Alas! here was the attack that the doctor had evidently apprehended
+as likely to be fatal.  Hour after hour did sister, nurse, and
+friend stand watching, and doing their best, their piteously little
+best, while consciousness, if there was any, was far out of their
+reach.
+
+Late into the night it went on, and then followed the collapse, with
+locked teeth, which could hardly be drawn asunder to put the
+stimulus hopelessly between them, and thus came the tardy December
+dawn, when the church-bell made Jenny bid Julius not stay, but only
+first read the commendatory prayer.
+
+"I thought there was a little more revival just now," he said; "his
+hands are warmer, and he really did swallow."
+
+The old nurse shook her head.  "That's the way before they go," said
+she.  "Don't ye wish him, poor lamb, it makes it the harder for
+him."
+
+Julius prayed the prayer, and as he tenderly laid his hand on the
+brow, he wondered whether he should find the half-closed eyes shut
+for ever on his return.
+
+But as he went, there was a quiver of lip and flicker of eyelid, the
+lightening, as Cranky called it, was evidently gaining ground.
+Herbert's faint whisper was heard again--"Jenny!"
+
+"Dearest!"
+
+"The Lord's Prayer!"
+
+She began,--his fingers tightened on hers.  "Pray it for old Moy,"
+he said; and as she paused, scarce hearing or understanding, "He--he
+wants it," gasped Herbert.  "No!  One can't pray it, without--"
+another pause.  "Help me, Jenny.  Say it--O Lord, who savedst us--
+forgive us.  Help us to forgive from our hearts that man his
+trespasses.  Amen."
+
+Jenny said it.  Herbert's voice sank in the Amen.  He lay breathing
+in long gasps; but he thus breathed still when Julius came back, and
+Jenny told him that a few words had passed, adding--
+
+"Julius, I will say nothing bitter again.  God help me not to think
+it."
+
+Did Herbert hear?  Was that the reason of the calm which made the
+white wasted face so beautiful, and the strange soft cool hush
+throughout the room?
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+Silver Hair
+
+
+And how should I your true love know
+From another man?--Friar of Orders Gray
+
+"Please God, I can try again."
+
+Those were the words with which Herbert Bowater looked into his
+Rector's face on awaking in the evening of that same December day
+from one of a series of sleeps, each sweeter and longer than the
+last, and which had borne him over the dreaded hours, without fever,
+and with strengthening pulse.
+
+Julius had not ventured to leave the sick-room that whole day, and
+when at last he went home and sank into the chair opposite Terry,
+for the first time through all these weeks of trouble and tension,
+he burst into a flood of tears.
+
+He had hardly made the startled lad understand that life, not death,
+had thus overcome him, when the door flew open, and in rushed
+Rosamond, crying, "Julius, Julius, come!  It is he or his ghost!"
+
+"Who?  What?"
+
+"It is your hair!  At Mrs. Douglas's grave!  He'll be gone!  Make
+haste--make haste!"
+
+He started up, letting her drag him along, but under protest.  "My
+dear, men _do_ come to have hair like mine."
+
+"I tell you it was at our graves--our own--I touched him.  I had
+this wreath for Raymond, and there he was, with his hat off, at the
+railing close to Mrs. Douglas's.  I thought his back was yours, and
+called your name, and he started, and I saw--he had a white beard,
+but he was not old.  He just bowed, and then went off very fast by
+the other gate, towards Wil'sbro'.  I did call, 'Wait, wait,' but he
+didn't seem to hear.  Oh, go, go, Julius!  Make haste!"
+
+Infected by the wild hope, Julius hurried on the road where his wife
+had turned his face, almost deriding himself for obeying her, when
+he would probably only overtake some old family retainer; but as,
+under the arch of trees that overhung the road, he saw a figure in
+the moonlight, a thrill of recognition came over him as he marked
+the vigorous tread of the prime of life, and the white hair visible
+in the moonlight, together with something utterly indescribable, but
+which made him call out, "Archie!  Archie Douglas! wait for me!"
+
+The figure turned.  "Julius!" came in response; the two cousins'
+hands clasped, and there was a sob on either side as they kissed one
+another as brothers.
+
+"Archie!  How could you!--Come back!" was all that Julius could say,
+leaning breathlessly against him and holding him tight.
+
+"No!  Do not know that I have been here.  I was sent to London on
+business.  I could not help running home in the dark.  No one must
+know it.  I am dead to them."
+
+"No, Archie, you are not.  Gadley has confessed and cleared you.
+Come home!"
+
+"Cleared me!"  The two arms were stretched up to the sky, and there
+was the sound of a mighty sob, as though the whole man, body, soul,
+and spirit, were relieved from an unspeakable burthen.  "Say it
+again, Julius!"
+
+"Gadley, on his death-bed, has confessed that Moy and Proudfoot took
+that money, incited by Tom Vivian."
+
+Archie Douglas could not speak, but he turned his face towards
+Compton again, strode swiftly into the churchyard, and fell on his
+knees by his mother's grave.  When at last he rose, he pointed to
+the new and as yet unmarked mound, and said, "Your mother's?"
+
+"Oh no!  Raymond's!  We have had a terrible fever here--almost a
+pestilence--and we are scarcely breathing after it."
+
+"Ah! some one in the train spoke of sickness at Wil'sbro', but I
+would ask no questions, for I saw faces I knew, and I would lead to
+no recognition.  I could not stay away from getting one sight of the
+old place.  Miles made it all burn within me; but here's my return-
+ticket for the mail-train."
+
+"Never mind return-tickets.  Come home with me."
+
+"I shall startle your mother."
+
+"I meant my home--the Rectory.  It was my wife who saw you in the
+churchyard, and sent me after you.  She is watching for you."
+
+Archie, still bewildered, as if spell-bound by his ticket, muttered,
+"I thought I should have time to walk over and look at Strawyers."
+
+"Joanna is here."
+
+"Julius!  It is too much.  You are sure I am awake?  This is not the
+old dream!" cried the exile, grasping his cousin's arm quite
+gainfully.
+
+"I am a waking man, and I trust you are," said Julius.  "Come into
+the light.  No, that is not Jenny on the step.  It is my Rose.  Yes,
+here he is!"
+
+And as they came into the stream of light from the porch, Irish
+Rosamond, forgetting that Archie was not a brother, caught him by
+both hands, and kissed him in overpowering welcome, exclaiming, "Oh,
+I am so glad!  Come in--come in!"
+
+There he stood, blinking in the lamplight, a tall, powerful, broad-
+chested figure, but hardly a hero of romance to suit Terry's fancy,
+after a rapid summary of the history from Rosamond.  His hair and
+beard were as white as Julius's, and the whole face was tanned to
+uniform red, but no one could mistake the dazed yet intense gladness
+of the look.  He sank into a chair, clasped his hands over his face
+for a moment, then surveyed them all one by one, and said, "You told
+me she was here."
+
+"She is with her brother Herbert, at Mrs. Hornblower's lodgings.
+No, you must wait, Archie; he has barely in the last few hours, by
+God's great mercy, taken a turn for the better in this fever, and I
+don't see how she can leave him."
+
+"But she must hear it," cried Rosamond.  "I'm going to make her or
+Cranky get some rest; but you ought to be the one to tell her,
+Julius, you that have stood by her through all."
+
+"And aren't you burning to do so, Rosey, woman? and I think you had
+better, rather than that I should startle Herbert by returning; but
+stay, mind your own rules--eat and drink before you go, and give the
+same to Archie.  I shall send up a note to Miles.  How is Cecil?"
+
+"Very silent and broken, poor thing.  She is to see your mother to-
+morrow.  How well it was that she kept me so late over her wreath of
+camellias!"
+
+Archie submitted to wait for food and fuller information,--indeed
+the lady of the house manifested more impatience than he did, as she
+flitted about making preparations, and he sat with hands locked
+together over his knee, gazing fixedly at Julius, scarcely speaking,
+though eagerly listening; and when the meal was brought in, he could
+not eat, only eagerly drank off a cup of scalding tea, and watched
+Rosamond, as if jealous of any delay over her cutlet.  She did not
+abuse his patience.
+
+"Now then?" she said, rising.  "You shall hear something of her
+before long."
+
+"Let me come to her door," entreated Archie.
+
+And as the light shone from the window of the sick-room, Rosamond
+said, "Stand under that tree in the moonlight, and I will make her
+look out."
+
+All was intensely quiet; Cranky fast asleep in the arm-chair in the
+outer-room, and Jenny sitting by the bed, watching the smooth quiet
+breath.
+
+"You are to lie down on the sofa and sleep," said Rosamond, kissing
+her, and she shook her head, "You must.  People want strength for
+joy as well as grief.  Trust him to me, for there is some one for
+you to see to-morrow."
+
+"Not papa!" said Jenny, startled.  "No, nor Phil!  Tell me,
+Rosamond.  There is only one you could look at me like that for!"
+
+"Look out at the window."
+
+Trembling all over, Jenny went and put her face to the lattice.  The
+figure under the tree came nearer.  Archie must have been able
+clearly to see her face in the moonlight.  He stretched up his arms
+to her, then folded them together on his breast, and let himself be
+led away by Julius, while Jenny slid down on her knees, with her
+face buried, and the suppressed choking sobs made Herbert look up at
+Rosamond, and whisper, "It is?"
+
+"It is," repeated Rosamond, who had thought him asleep, or entirely
+absorbed in the trouble of living.
+
+"Go to her," he added.
+
+Rosamond put her arm round her, and supported her into the next
+room; for, after the month of hopeless watching, the long
+sleeplessness and the struggle of this silent day to force her
+spirit to the forgiveness she had promised, and then the sudden
+reaction, had overpowered her, and the suppression and silence were
+beyond endurance.  She did not even know that Herbert was awake when
+Rosamond brought her out into Mrs. Hornblower's room, and said,
+"Have it out now, my dear, no one will hear.  Scream comfortably.
+It will do you good."
+
+But Jenny could not even scream.  She was in the excited agony when
+the mind is far too much for the body, and joy, unrealized, is like
+grief.  If her brother had that day passed away, and if nothing had
+been heard of her lover, she would have been all calmness and
+resignation; but the revulsion had overcome her, and at the moment
+she was more conscious of strangulation than of anything else.
+Rosamond tended her for full half an hour, and then she seemed
+almost asleep, though she resisted the attempt to undress her, with
+the words, "I must go to Herbert."
+
+"I will take care of Herbert," and Jenny was too much spent not to
+acquiesce, and fell asleep almost before she was laid down on the
+bed their landlady had given up to the watchers.
+
+Rosamond's task was a comfortable one, for every hour of sleep,
+every mouthful of food seemed to do its work of restoration on the
+sound, healthy frame, and a smile and word of thanks met her
+whenever she roused her patient with the inevitable spoon.
+
+When he awoke towards morning, he asked what day it was, and when
+she told him, answered, "So I thought.  Then I have not lost count
+of time."
+
+"No, you have been wonderfully clear-headed."
+
+"I can't see how there can have been time to write," he said.  "It
+is true that he is come, is it not?"
+
+"Quite true; but he came independently on business," and Rosamond
+told of Julius's chase, bringing a look of amusement on his face.
+
+Jenny came in with the rising sun, pale indeed, but another creature
+after her rest and in the sight of the restful countenance that
+greeted her with a smile.  The moaning, hoarse voice was gone too,
+it was a faint shadow of Herbert's own tones that said, "Is not this
+good, Jenny?  I didn't think to have seen it."
+
+"My Herbert, you have given him back!  You have given me the heart
+to be glad!"
+
+"You must go and see him," said Herbert.
+
+Jenny looked wistful and undecided; but Julius entered to say that
+she must come at once, for Archie must go back to London by the ten
+o'clock train to an appointment, and could not return for two days.
+
+Herbert smiled her away, for he was still in a state where it was
+not possible to bear any engrossing of his head-nurse, and the
+lover's absence was, even to his unselfishness, good news.
+
+Rosamond could not refrain from the pleasure of peeping down the
+little dark stair as Archie and his Jenny met in the doorway, and
+she walked demurely in their rear, wondering whether other eyes saw
+as much as she did in the manner in which Jenny hung on his arm.
+She left them to their dewy walk in the Rectory garden to the last
+minute at which breakfast could be swallowed, and told Jenny that
+she was to drive him in the pony-carriage to Hazlett's Gate; she
+would take care of Herbert.
+
+"You ought to be asleep, you know," said Jenny.
+
+"My dear, I couldn't sleep!  There's a great deal better than sleep!
+Is not Herbert going to get well? and aren't you jolly again and
+Archie back again?  Sleep!--why I want to have wings and clap them--
+and more than all, is not Mr. Charnock off and away to-morrow?
+Sleep indeed!--I should like to see myself so stupid."
+
+"Mr. Charnock?" interrogatively said Archie.
+
+"The head of the family--the original Charnock of Dunstone," said
+Rosamond, who was in wild spirits, coming on a worn-out body and
+mind, and therefore perfectly unguarded.  "Don't shake your head at
+me, Jenny, Archie is one of the family, and that makes you so, and I
+must tell you of his last performance.  You know he is absolutely
+certain that his dear daughter is more infallible than all the
+Popes, even since the Council, or than anybody but himself, and that
+whatever goes wrong here is the consequence of Julius's faith in Dr.
+Easterby.  So, when poor Cecil, uneasy in her mind, began asking
+about the illness at Wil'sbro', he enlivened her with a prose about
+misjudging, through well-intentioned efforts of clerical
+philanthropy to interfere with the sanitary condition of the town--
+so that wells grew tainted, &c., all from ignorant interference.
+Poor man he heard a little sob, and looked round, and there was
+Cecil in a dead faint.  He set all the bells ringing, and sent an
+express for me."
+
+"But wasn't he furious with Anne for mentioning drains at all?"
+
+"My dear Joan, don't you know how many old women there are of both
+sorts, who won't let other people look over the wall at what they
+gloat on in private?  However, he had his punishment, for he really
+thought that the subject had been too much for her delicacy, and
+simply upset her nerves."
+
+"When was this?"
+
+"Four or five days ago.  She is better, but has said not a word more
+about it.  She is nothing like strong enough, even for so short a
+journey as to Portishead; but they say change will be the best thing
+for her, and the coming down into the family would be too sad."
+
+"Poor thing!  Yes indeed," said Jenny; and feeling universally
+benevolent, she added, "give her my love," a thing which so sincere
+a person could hardly have said a few weeks ago.
+
+Reserve was part of Cecil's nature, and besides, her father was
+almost always with her; but when she had been for the first time
+dressed in crape up to her waist, with the tiniest of caps perched
+toy-like on the top of her passive head, the sight upset him
+completely, and muttering, "Good heavens!--a widow at twenty-two!"
+he hid himself from the sight over some business transactions with
+Mrs. Poynsett and Miles.
+
+Rosamond seized the opportunity of bringing Julius in to pay his
+farewell visit, and presently Cecil said, "Julius, I should be much
+obliged if you would tell me the real facts about this illness."
+
+"Do," said Rosamond.  "Her half knowledge is most wearing."
+
+He gently told her what science had pronounced.
+
+"Then it was Pettitt's well?" she said.
+
+"They tell us that this was the immediate cause of the outbreak; but
+there would probably have been quite as much fatal illness the first
+time any infectious disease came in.  The whole place was in a
+shameful state, and you were the only people who tried to mitigate
+it."
+
+"And did worse harm, because we would not listen to advice," said
+Cecil.  "Julius, I have a great deal of money; can't I do anything
+now?  My father wants me to give a donation to the church as a
+memorial of _him_, but, somehow, I don't feel as if I deserved to do
+that."
+
+"I see what you mean, Cecil, but the town is being rated to set the
+drainage to rights, and it will thus be done in the most permanent
+and effectual way.  There are some orphans who might be saved from
+the Union, about whom I thought of asking you to help."
+
+Cecil asked the details of the orphans, and the consultation over
+them seemed to be prolonged by her because, even now, she could not
+resolve to go below the surface.  It lasted until her father came to
+ask whether she were ready to go with him to Mrs. Poynsett's
+sitting-room.  She looked very fragile and childish as she stood up,
+clinging to his arm to help her wavering, uncertain step, holding
+out her hand to Julius and saying, "I shall see you again."
+
+He was a little disappointed to see her no older, and no warmer;
+having gone thus far, it seemed as if she might have gone further
+and opened more.  Perhaps he did not understand how feelings,
+naturally slow, were rendered slower by the languor of illness,
+which made them more oppressive than acute.  As Mr. Charnock and his
+daughter knocked, the door was opened by Miles, who merely gave his
+hand, and went down.  Frank, who had been reading in a low easy-
+chair by the fire, drew it close to his mother for her, and
+retreated to another seat, and the mother and daughter-in-law
+exchanged a grave kiss.  Cecil attempted some civility about the
+chair, to which poor Frank replied, "I'm afraid it is of no use to
+speak to me, Cecil, Miles can only just make me hear."
+
+Regret for his misfortune, and inquiry as to the chance of
+restoration, were a possible topic.  Mr. Charnock gave much advice
+about aurists, and examples of their success or non-success; and
+thence he diverged to the invalid-carriage he had secured, and his
+future plans for expediting his daughter's recovery.  Meanwhile Mrs.
+Poynsett and Cecil sat grave, dry-eyed, and constrained, each
+feeling that in Mr. Charnock's presence the interview was a nullity,
+yet neither of them able to get rid of him, nor quite sure that she
+would have done so if she could.
+
+He, meanwhile, perfectly satisfied with his own considerate tact,
+talked away the allotted half-hour, and then pronounced his daughter
+pale and tired.  She let him help her to rise, but held Mrs.
+Poynsett's hand wistfully, as if she wished to say something but
+could not; and all Mrs. Poynsett could bring out was a hope of
+hearing how she bore the journey.  It was as if they were both
+frozen up.  Yet the next moment Cecil was holding Frank's hand in a
+convulsive clasp, and fairly pulling him down to exchange a kiss,
+when he found her tears upon his cheek.  Were they to his
+misfortune, or to his much-increased resemblance to his brother?
+
+Mr. Charnock kept guard over her, so that her other farewells were
+almost as much restrained as these, and though she hung on
+Rosamond's neck, and seemed ready to burst forth with some fervent
+exclamation, he hovered by, saying, "My dear child, don't, don't
+give way to agitation.  It does you honour, but it cannot be
+permitted at such a moment.  Lady Rosamond, I appeal to your
+unfailing good sense to restrain her emotion."
+
+"I haven't any good sense, and I think it only hurts her to restrain
+her emotion," said Rosamond, with one of her little stamps, pressing
+Cecil in her arms.  "There, there, my dear, cry,--never mind, if it
+will comfort your poor heart."
+
+"Lady Rosamond!  This is--Cecil, my dear child!  Your resolution--
+your resignation.  And the boxes are packed, and we shall be late
+for the train!"
+
+Mr. Charnock was a little jealous of Lady Rosamond as a comforter
+preferred to himself, and he spoke in a tone which Cecil had never
+resisted.  She withdrew herself from Rosamond, still tearless,
+though her chest heaved as if there were a great spasm in it; she
+gave her hand to Miles, and let him lead her to the carriage; and so
+Raymond's widowed bride left Compton Poynsett enfolded in that
+strange silence which some called sullenness and pride; others, more
+merciful, stunned grief.
+
+Poor Cecil! there was less pity to be spared to her because of the
+intense relief it was to be free from her father, and to be able to
+stand in a knot consulting on the steps, without his coming out to
+find out what they were talking about, and to favour them with some
+Dunstone counsel.
+
+The consultation was about Mr. Moy.  It was determined that since
+Archie was in England, it would be better not to wait till Herbert
+was recovered, but that Miles and Julius should go together at once
+to see what effect they could produce on him.
+
+They drove together to his office.  He was a tall man, a few years
+over forty, and had hitherto been portly and well-preserved, with a
+certain serene air of complacent prosperity about him, that had
+always been an irritation to the county families, with whom he tried
+to assert an equality; but as he rose to greet the brothers, there
+was a bent and shrunken look about him:  the hair on his temples had
+visibly whitened, his cheeks seemed to have sunk in, and there were
+deep furrows on them.  Altogether he had grown full twenty years
+older in appearance since he had stood proposing a popular toast at
+the dinner at the town-hall.  There was something nervous and
+startled in his gray eye, as he saw them enter, though he tried to
+assume his usual half-bland, half-easy, manner.
+
+"Good morning, Captain Charnock Poynsett.  Good morning, Mr.
+Charnock, I hope I see you well?" the words faltering a little, as
+neither sailor nor clergyman took notice of his proffered hand; but
+he continued his inquiries after the convalescents, though neither
+inquired in return after Mrs. Moy, feeling, perhaps, that they would
+rather not hear a very sad account of her state just before letting
+their inevitable Nemesis descend; also, not feeling inclined for
+reciprocal familiarity, and wanting to discourage the idea that
+Miles came for political purposes.
+
+"It has been a terrible visitation," said Moy, when he had been
+reduced to replying to himself.
+
+"It has," said Julius.  "Perhaps you have heard that your tenant,
+Gadley, is dead?"
+
+"Yes, I did hear it.  A very melancholy thing--the whole family
+swept-away," said Mr. Moy, his eye again betraying some uneasiness,
+which Julius increased by saying--
+
+"We thought it right that you should hear that he made a disclosure
+on his death-bed."
+
+"Indeed!" Mr. Moy sat erect--the hard, keen, watchful lawyer.
+
+"A disclosure that nearly affects the character of Mr. Archibald
+Douglas," proceeded Julius.
+
+"May I ask what this may be?"
+
+"Mr. Gadley then informed me that he had been in the outer room,
+behind his desk, at the time when Mr. Douglas brought in the letter
+from my mother, containing the missing cheque, and that after
+Douglas was gone, he heard Mr. Vivian propose to those within to
+appropriate the amount to their own debts."
+
+"Pardon me, Mr. Charnock, this is a very serious charge to bring on
+the authority of a man in a raving fever.  Was any deposition taken
+before a magistrate?"
+
+"No," said Julius.  "Mr. Lipscombe was fetched, but he was unable to
+speak at the time.  However, on reviving, he spoke as is thus
+attested," and he showed Herbert Bowater's slip of paper.
+
+"Mr. Charnock," said Mr. Moy, "without the slightest imputation on
+the intentions of yourself or of young Mr. Bowater, I put it to
+yourself and Captain Charnock Poynsett, whether you could go before
+a jury with no fuller attestation than you have in your hand.  We
+know what Mr. Charnock and Mr. Bowater are.  To a jury they would
+simply appear--pardon me--a young clergyman, his still more youthful
+curate, and a sister of mercy, attaching importance to the words of
+a delirious man; and juries have become very incredulous in such
+cases."
+
+"We shall see that," said Miles sharply.
+
+"The more cautious," added Mr. Moy, "when it is the raking up of a
+matter eleven years old, where the witnesses are mostly dead, and
+where the characters of two gentlemen, also deceased, would be
+implicated.  Believe me, sir, this firm--I speak as its present
+head--will be rejoiced to make any compensation to Mrs. Poynsett for
+what went astray while coming to their hands.  It has been our
+desire to do so from the very first, as letters of which I have
+copies testify; but our advances were met in a spirit of enmity,
+which may perhaps be laid aside now."
+
+"No so-called compensation can be accepted, but the clearing of
+Douglas's character," said Miles.
+
+"It is a generous feeling," said Mr. Moy, speaking apparently most
+dispassionately, though Julius saw his hands trembling below the
+table; "but even if the word of this delirious man were sufficient,
+have you reflected, Captain Charnock Poynsett, on the unequal
+benefit of justifying--allowing that you could justify--a young man
+who has been dead and forgotten these eleven years, and has no
+relation living nearer than yourself, at the expense of those also
+gone, but who have left relations who could ill bear to suffer from
+such a revelation?"
+
+"Justice is justice, whether a man be dead or alive," said Miles;
+"and Douglas is alive to demand his right."
+
+"Alive!" cried Mr. Moy, starting violently.  "Alive!  Archie Douglas
+alive!"
+
+"Alive, and in England," said Julius.  "He slept in my house the
+night before last.  He never was in the Hippolyta, at all, but has
+been living in Africa all these years of exile."
+
+Mr. Moy's self-command and readiness were all gone.  He sank back in
+his chair, with his hands over his face.  The brothers looked at one
+another, fearing he might have a stroke; but he revived in a moment,
+yet with a totally different expression on his countenance.  The
+keen, defensive look was gone, there was only something piteously
+worn and supplicating in the face, as he said--
+
+"Then, gentlemen, I cannot resent anything you may do.  Believe me,
+but for the assurance of his death, I should have acted very
+differently long ago.  I will assist you in any way you desire in
+reinstating Mr. Douglas in public opinion, only, if it be possible,
+let my wife be spared.  She has recently had the heaviest possible
+blow; she can bear no more."
+
+"Mr. Moy, we will do nothing vindictive.  We can answer for my
+mother and Douglas," began Julius; but Miles, more sternly, would
+not let his brother hold out his hand, and said--
+
+"You allow, then, the truth of Gadley's confession?"
+
+"What has he confessed?" said Moy, still too much the lawyer not to
+see that his own complicity had never yet been stated.
+
+Julius laid before him his own written record of Gadley's words, not
+only involving Moy in the original fraud, but showing how he had
+bribed the only witness to silence ever since.  The unhappy man read
+it over, and said--
+
+"Yes, Mr. Charnock, it is all true.  I cannot battle it further.  I
+am at your mercy.  I would leave you to proclaim the whole to the
+world; if it were not for my poor wife and her father, I would be
+glad to do so.  Heaven knows how this has hung upon me for years."
+
+"I can well believe it," said Julius, not to be hindered now from
+grasping Mr. Moy's hand.
+
+It seemed to be a comfort now to tell the whole story in detail.
+Moy, the favoured and trusted articled clerk at first, then the
+partner, the lover and husband of the daughter, had been a model of
+steadiness and success so early, that when some men's youthful
+follies are wearing off, he had begun to weary of the monotony of
+the office, and after beginning as Mentor to his young brother-in-
+law, George Proudfoot, had gradually been carried along by the
+fascination of Tom Vivian's society to share in the same perilous
+pursuits, until both had incurred a debt to him far beyond their
+powers, while he was likewise so deeply involved, that no bonds of
+George Proudfoot would avail him.
+
+Then came the temptation of Mrs. Poynsett's cheque, suggested,
+perhaps in jest, by Vivian, but growing on them as the feasibility
+of using it became clear.  It was so easy to make it appear to
+Archie Douglas that the letter was simply an inquiry for the lost
+one.  Mr. Proudfoot, the father, was out of reach; Mrs. Poynsett
+would continue to think the cheque lost in the post; and Tom Vivian
+undertook to get it presented for payment through persons who would
+guard against its being tracked.  The sum exceeded the debt, but he
+would return the overplus to them, and they both cherished the hope
+of returning it with interest.  Indeed, it had been but a half
+consent on the part of either, elicited only by the dire alternative
+of exposure; the envelope and letter were destroyed, and Vivian
+carried off the cheque to some of the Jews with whom he had had only
+too many transactions, and they never met him again.
+
+Moy's part all along had been half cowardice, half ambition.  The
+sense of that act and of its consequences had gnawed at his heart
+through all his success; but to cast himself down from his position
+as partner and son-in-law of Mr. Proudfoot, the keen, clever,
+trusted, confidential agent of half the families around--to let his
+wife know his shame and that of her brother, and to degrade his
+daughter into the daughter of a felon--was more than he could bear;
+and he had gone on trying to drown the sense of that one lapse in
+the prosperity of his career and his efforts to place his daughter
+in the first ranks of society.  No doubt the having done an injury
+to the Poynsett family had been the true secret of that enmity, more
+than political, which he had always shown to Raymond; and after
+thinking Gadley safer out of that office, and having yielded to his
+solicitations and set him up at the Three Pigeons, he had been
+almost compelled to bid for popularity by using his position as a
+magistrate to protect the blackguardism of the town.  He had been
+meant for better things, and had been dragged on against his
+conscience and judgment by the exigencies of his unhappy secret; and
+when the daughter, for whose sake he had sacrificed his better self,
+had only been led by her position into the follies and extravagances
+of the worst part of the society into which she had been introduced,
+and threw herself into the hands of a dissipated gambler, to whom
+her fortune made her a desirable prey--truly his sin had found him
+out.
+
+His fight at first had been partly force of habit, but he was so
+entirely crushed that they could only have pity on him when he put
+himself so entirely in their hands, only begging for forbearance to
+his wife and her aged father, and entreating that principal,
+interest, and compound interest might at once be tendered to Mrs.
+Poynsett.
+
+The brothers could answer for nothing.  Archie must decide for
+himself what he would accept as restoration of his character, and
+Mrs. Poynsett could alone answer as to whether she would accept the
+compensation.  But neither of them could be hard on one so stricken
+and sorrowful, and they did not expect hardness from their mother
+and cousin, especially so far as old Mr. Proudfoot and his daughter
+were concerned.
+
+That the confession was made, and that Archie should be cleared, was
+enough for Julius to carry to Herbert's room, while Miles repaired
+to his mother.  It was known in the sick-room where the brothers had
+been, and Julius was watched as he crossed the street by Jenny's
+eager eye, and she met him at the door of the outer room with a face
+of welcome.
+
+"Come in and tell us all," she said.  "I see it is good news."
+Herbert was quite well enough to bear good news in full detail as he
+lay, not saying much, but smiling his welcome, and listening with
+ears almost as eager as his sister's.  And as Julius told of the
+crushed and broken man, Jenny's tears rose to her eyes, and she
+pressed her brother's hand and whispered, "Thanks, dear boy!"
+
+"Small thanks to me."
+
+"Yes, I can enjoy it now," said Jenny; "thanks to you for forcing
+the bitterness out of me."
+
+"Can you bear a little more good news, Herbert?" said Julius.  "Who
+do you think is to have St. Nicholas?"
+
+"Not William Easterby?  That's too good to be true."
+
+"But so it is.  All the Senior Fellows dropped it like a red-hot
+coal."
+
+"I thought Dwight wanted to marry?"
+
+"Yes, but the lady's friends won't hear of his taking her there; so
+it has come down to young Easterby.  He can't be inducted of course
+yet; but he has written to say he will come down on Saturday and
+take matters in hand."
+
+"The services on Sunday?  Oh!" said Herbert, with as great a gasp of
+relief as if he had been responsible for them; and, indeed, Rosamond
+declared that both her husband and Mr. Bindon looked like new men
+since Wil'sbro' was off their backs.  Archie was coming back that
+evening.  Jenny much longed to show her two treasures to each other,
+for it was a useless risk for the healthy man, and the sick one was
+too weak and tired to wish for a new face, or the trouble of
+speaking; nay, he could not easily bring himself to cheerful
+acquiescence in even his favourite Lady Rose taking his sister's
+place to set her free for an evening with Archie at the Hall.
+
+Mrs. Poynsett was in the drawing-room.  She had taken courage to
+encounter the down-stair associations, saying she would make it no
+sadder for the dear boy than she could help, and so Miles had
+carried her down to meet one who had been always as one of her own
+sons.
+
+And thus it was that she gathered him into her embrace, while the
+great strong man, only then fully realizing all the changes, sobbed
+uncontrollably beside her.
+
+"My boy, my poor Archie," she said, "you are come at last.  Did you
+not know you still had a mother to trust to?"
+
+"I ought to have known it," said Archie, in a choked voice.  "Oh
+that I had seen Jenny in London!"
+
+For indeed it had become plain that it had been his flight that had
+given opportunity and substance to the accusation.  If he had
+remained, backed by the confidence of such a family as the
+Poynsetts, Gadley would have seen that testimony in his favour would
+be the safer and more profitable speculation; and Moy himself, as he
+had said, would have testified to the innocence of a living man on
+the spot, though he had let the blame rest on one whom he thought in
+the depths of the sea.  Archie's want of moral courage had been his
+ruin.  It had led him to the scene of temptation rather than resist
+his companions, and had thus given colour to the accusation, and in
+the absence of both Joanna and of his cousins, it had prevented him
+from facing the danger.
+
+This sense made him the more willing to be forbearing, when, after
+dinner, the whole council sat round to hear in full the history of
+the interview with Mr. Moy; Anne taking up her position beside
+Frank, with whom, between her pencil and the finger-alphabet, she
+had established such a language as to make her his best interpreter
+of whatever was passing in the room.
+
+"One could not help being sorry for Moy," said Miles, as he
+concluded; "he turns out to be but half the villain after all, made
+so rather by acquiescence than by his own free will."
+
+"But reaping the profit," said Mrs. Poynsett.
+
+"Yes, though in ignorance of the injury he was doing, and thus
+climbing to a height that makes his fall the worse.  I am sorry for
+old Proudfoot too," added Julius.  "I believe they have not ventured
+to tell him of his granddaughter's marriage."
+
+"I do not think the gain to me would be at all equal to the loss to
+them," said Archie.  "Exposure would be ruin and heartbreak there,
+and I don't see what it would do for me."
+
+"My dear Archie!" exclaimed both Mrs. Poynsett and Joanna, in
+amazement.
+
+"So long as you and Mr. Bowater are satisfied, I care for little
+else," said Archie.
+
+"But your position, my dear," said Mrs. Poynsett.
+
+"We don't care much about a man's antecedents, within a few years,
+out in the colonies, dear Aunt Julia," said Archie, smiling.
+
+"You aren't going back?"
+
+"That depends," said Archie, his eyes seeking Joanna's; "but I don't
+see what there is for me to do here.  I'm spoilt for a solicitor
+anyway--"
+
+"We could find an agency, Miles, couldn't we?--or a farm--"
+
+"Thank you, dear aunt," said Archie; "I don't definitely answer,
+because Mr. Bowater must be consulted; but I have a business out
+there that I can do, and where I can make a competence that I can
+fairly offer to Jenny here.  If I came home, as I am now, I should
+only prey on you in some polite form, and I don't think Jenny would
+wish for that alternative.  I must go back any way, as I have told
+her, and whether to save for her, or to make a home for her there,
+it must be for her to decide."
+
+They looked at Jenny.  She was evidently prepared; for though her
+colour rose a little, her frank eyes looked at him with a confiding
+smile.
+
+"But we must have justice done to you, my dear boy, whether you stay
+with us or not," said Mrs. Poynsett.
+
+"That might have been done if I had not been fool enough to run
+away," said Archie; "having done so, the mass of people will only
+remember that there has been something against me, in spite of any
+justification.  It is not worth while to blast Moy's character, and
+show poor old Proudfoot what a swindler his son was, just for that.
+The old man was good to me.  I should like to let it rest while he
+lives.  If Moy would sign such an exculpation of me as could be
+shown to Mr. Bowater, and any other whom it might concern, I should
+be quite willing to have nothing told publicly, at least as long as
+the old gentleman lives."
+
+"I think Archie is right," said Miles, in the pause, with a great
+effort.
+
+"Yes, right in the highest sense of the word," said Julius.
+
+"It is Christian," Anne breathed across to her husband.
+
+"I don't like it," said Mrs. Poynsett.
+
+"Let that scoundrel go unhung!" burst from Frank, who had failed to
+catch the spirit of his interpreter.
+
+"I don't like it in the abstract, mother," said Miles; "but you and
+Frank have not seen the scoundrel in his beaten down state, and, as
+Archie says, it is hard to blacken the memory of either poor George
+Proudfoot or Tom Vivian, who have fathers to feel it for them."
+
+"Poor Tom Vivian's can hardly be made much blacker," said Mrs.
+Poynsett, "nor are Sir Harry's feelings very acute; but perhaps poor
+old Proudfoot ought to be spared, and there are considerations as to
+the Vivian family.  Still, I don't see how to consent to Archie
+going into exile again with this stigma upon him.  I am sure Raymond
+would not, and I do not think Mr. Bowater will."
+
+"Dear Aunt Julia," said Archie, affectionately, coming across to
+her, "it was indeed exile before, when I was dead to all of you; but
+can it be so now the communication is open, and when I am making or
+winning my home?" and his eyes brought Jenny to him by her side.
+
+"Yes, dear Mrs. Poynsett," she said, holding her hand, "I am sure he
+is right, and that it would spoil all our own happiness to break
+that poor old father's heart, and bring him and his wife to disgrace
+and misery.  When I think of the change in everything since two days
+back--dear Herbert wrung a sort of forgiveness out of me--I can't
+bear to think of anybody being made miserable."
+
+"And what will your papa say, child?"
+
+"I think he will feel a good deal for old Proudfoot," said Jenny.
+"He rather likes the old man, and has laughed at our hatred of Miss
+Moy's pretensions."
+
+"Then it is settled," said Archie; "I will write to Moy, for I
+suppose he had rather not see me, that I will say nothing about it
+publicly while Mr. Proudfoot lives, and will not show this
+confession of his, unless it should be absolutely necessary to my
+character.  Nor after old Proudfoot's death, will I take any step
+without notice to him."
+
+"Much more than he ought to expect," said Mrs. Poynsett.
+
+"I don't know," said Archie.  "If he had refused, it would not have
+been easy to bring him to the point, I suppose I must have
+surrendered to take my trial, but after so many years, and with so
+many deaths, it would have been awkward."
+
+"And the money, mother," said Miles, producing a cheque.  "Poor Moy,
+that was a relief to him.  He said he had kept it ready for years."
+Mrs. Poynsett waved it off as if she did not like to touch it.
+
+"I don't want it!  Take it, Archie.  Set up housekeeping on it," she
+said.  "You are not really going back to that place?"
+
+"Yes, indeed I am; I sail on Tuesday.  Dear good Aunt Julia, how
+comfortable it is to feel any one caring for me again; but I am
+afraid even this magnificent present, were it ten times as much,
+could not keep me; I must go back to fulfil my word to my partner
+out there, even if I returned at once."
+
+"And you let him go, Jenny?"
+
+"I must!" said Jenny.  "And only think how different it is now!  For
+the rest, whether he comes back for me at once, or some years hence,
+must depend on papa and mamma."
+
+She spoke with grave content beaming in her eyes, just like herself.
+The restoration was still swallowing up everything else.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+Herbert's Christmas
+
+
+And when the self-abhorring thrill
+   Is past--as pass it must,
+When tasks of life thy spirit fill,
+Then be the self-renouncing will
+   The seal of thy calm trust.--Lyra Apostolica
+
+By Christmas Day Archie Douglas was in the Bay of Biscay; but even
+to Joanna it was not a sorrowful day, for did not Herbert on that
+day crawl back into his sitting-room, full dressed for the first
+time, holding tight by her shoulder, and by every piece of furniture
+on his way to the sofa, Rollo attending in almost pathetic delight,
+gazing at him from time to time, and thumping the floor with his
+tail?  He had various visitors after his arrival--the first being
+his Rector, who came on his way back from church to give his
+congratulations, mention the number of convalescents who had there
+appeared, and speak of the wedding he had celebrated that morning,
+that of Fanny Reynolds and her Drake, who were going forth the next
+day to try whether they could accomplish a hawker's career free from
+what the man, at least, had only of late learnt to be sins.  It was
+a great risk, but there had been a penitence about both that Julius
+trusted was genuine.  A print of the Guardian Angel, which had been
+her boy's treasure, had been hung by Fanny in her odd little
+bedroom, and she had protested with tears that it would seem like
+her boy calling her back if she were tempted again.
+
+"Not that I trust much to that," said Julius.  "Poor Fanny is soft,
+and likes to produce an effect; but I believe there is sterling
+stuff in Drake."
+
+"And he never had a chance before," said Herbert.
+
+"No.  Which makes a great difference--all indeed between the
+Publicans, or the Heathens, and the Pharisees.  He can't read, and I
+doubt whether he said the words rightly after me; but I am sure he
+meant them."
+
+"I suppose all this has done great good?" said Jenny.
+
+"It will be our fault if it do not do permanent good.  It ought,"
+said Julius, gravely.  "No, no, Herbert, I did not mean to load you
+with the thought.  Getting well is your business for the present--
+not improving the occasion to others."
+
+To which all that Herbert answered was, "Harry Hornblower!" as if
+that name spoke volumes of oppression of mind.
+
+That discussion, however, was hindered by Mrs. Hornblower's own
+arrival with one of her lodger's numerous meals, and Julius went off
+to luncheon.  The next step on the stairs made Herbert start and
+exclaim, "That's the dragoon!  Come in, Phil."
+
+And there did indeed stand the eldest brother, who had obtained a
+few days' leave, as he told them, and had ridden over from Strawyers
+after church.  He came in with elaborate caution in his great muddy
+boots, and looked at Herbert like a sort of natural curiosity,
+exclaiming that he only wanted a black cap and a pair of bands to be
+exactly like Bishop Bowater, a Caroline divine, with a meek, oval,
+spiritual face, and a great display of delicate attenuated fingers,
+the length of which had always been a doubt and marvel to his sturdy
+descendants.
+
+"Hands and all," quoth Philip; "and what are you doing with them?"
+as he spied a Greek Testament in the fingers, and something far too
+ponderous for them within reach.  "Jenny, how dare you?" he
+remonstrated, poising the bigger book as if to heave it at her head.
+"That's what comes of your encouraging followers, eh?"
+
+"Ah!" said Jenny, pretending to dodge the missile, while Rollo
+exercised great forbearance in stifling a bark, "Greek is not quite
+so severe to some folks as dragoon captains think."
+
+"Severe or not he might let it alone," said Phil, looking much
+disposed to wrest away the little book, which Herbert thrust under
+his pillow, saying--
+
+"It was only the Lesson."
+
+"Why can't you read the Lesson like a sensible man in its native
+English?  Don't laugh, children, you know what I mean.  There's no
+good in this fellow working his brain.  He can't go up again before
+September, and according to the Bishop's letter to my father, he is
+safe to pass, if he could not construe a line, after what he did at
+Wil'sbro'.  The Bishop and Co. found they had made considerable
+donkeys of themselves.  Yes, 'tis the ticket for you to be shocked;
+but it is just like badgering a fellow for his commission by asking
+him how many facets go to a dragon-fly's eye, instead of how he can
+stand up to a battery."
+
+"So I thought," said Herbert; "but I know now what it is to be in
+the teeth of the battery without having done my best to get my
+weapons about me."
+
+"Come now!  Would any of those poor creatures have been the better
+for your knowing
+
+"How many notes a sackbut has,
+Or whether shawms have strings,"
+
+or the Greek particles, which I believe were what sacked you?"
+
+"They would have been the better if I had ever learnt to think what
+men's souls are, or my own either," said Herbert, with a heavy sigh.
+
+"Ah! well, you have had a sharp campaign," said Phil; "but you'll
+soon get the better of it when you are at Nice with the old folks.
+Jolly place--lots of nice girls--something always going on.  I'll
+try and get leave to take you out; but you'll cut us all out!
+Ladies won't look at a fellow when there's an interesting young
+parson to the fore."
+
+Herbert made an action of negation, and his sister said--
+
+"The doctors say Nice will not do after such an illness as this.
+Papa asked the doctor there, and he said he could not advise it."
+
+"Indeed!  Then I'll tell you what, Herbs, you shall come into
+lodgings at York, and I'll look after you there.  You shall ride
+Pimento, and dine at the mess."
+
+"Thank you, Phil," said Herbert, to whom a few months ago this
+proposal would have been most seducing, "but I am going home, and
+that's all the change I shall want."
+
+"Home!  Yes, Ellen is getting ready for you.  Not your room--oh, no!
+but the state bedroom!  When will you come?  My leave is only till
+Tuesday."
+
+"Oh!  I don't know how to think of the drive," sighed Herbert
+wearily.
+
+"We must wait for a fine day, when he feels strong enough," said
+Jenny.
+
+"All right," said Phil; "but ten days or a fortnight there will be
+quite enough, and then you'll come.  There are some friends of
+yours, that only looked at me, I can tell you, for the sake of your
+name--eh, Master Herbs?"
+
+Herbert did not rise to the bait; but Jenny said, "The Miss
+Strangeways?"
+
+"Yes.  Wouldn't he be flattered to hear of the stunning excitement
+when they heard of Captain Bowater, and how the old lady, their
+mother, talked by the yard about him?  You'll get a welcome indeed
+when you come, old fellow.  When shall it be?"
+
+"No, thank you, Phil," said Herbert, gravely.  "I shall come back
+here as soon as I am well enough.  But there is one thing I wish you
+would do for me."
+
+"Well, what?  I'll speak about having any horse you please taken up
+for you to ride; I came over on Brown Ben, but he would shake you
+too much."
+
+"No, no, it's about a young fellow.  If you could take him back to
+York to enlist--"
+
+"My dear Herbert, I ain't a recruiting-sergeant."
+
+"No, but it might be the saving of him," said Herbert, raising
+himself and speaking with more animation.  "It is Harry Hornblower."
+
+"Why, that's the chap that bagged your athletic prizes!  Whew!
+Rather strong, ain't it, Joan!"
+
+"He did no such thing," said Herbert, rather petulantly; "never
+dreamt of it.  He only was rather a fool in talking of them--
+vaunting of me, I believe, as not such a bad fellow for a parson; so
+his friends got out of him where to find them.  But they knew better
+than to take him with them.  Tell him, Jenny; he won't believe me."
+
+"It is quite true, Phil," said Jenny, "the poor fellow did get into
+bad company at the races, but that was all.  He did not come home
+that night, but he was stupefied with drink and the beginning of the
+fever, and it was proved--perfectly proved--that he was fast asleep
+at a house at Backsworth when the robbery was committed, and he was
+as much shocked about it as any one--more, I am sure, than Herbert,
+who was so relieved on finding him clear of it, that he troubled
+himself very little about the things.  And now he has had the fever--
+not very badly--and he is quite well now, but he can't get anything
+to do.  Truelove turned him off before the races for hanging about
+at the Three Pigeons, and nobody will employ him.  I do think it is
+true what they say--his mother, and Julius, and Herbert, and all--
+that he has had a lesson, and wants to turn over a new leaf, but the
+people here won't let him.  Julius and Herbert want him to enlist,
+and I believe he would, but his mother--as they all do--thinks that
+the last degradation; but she might listen if Captain Bowater came
+and told her about his own regiment--cavalry too--and the style of
+men in it--and it is the only chance for him."
+
+Philip made a wry face.
+
+"You see I took him up and let him down," said Herbert, sadly and
+earnestly.
+
+"I really do believe," said Jenny, clenching the matter, "that
+Herbert would get well much faster if Harry Hornblower were off his
+mind."
+
+Phil growled, and his younger brother and sister knew that they
+would do their cause no good by another word.  There was an odd
+shyness about them all.  The elder brother had not yet said anything
+about Jenny's prospects, and only asked after the party at the Hall.
+
+"All nearly well, except Frank's deafness," said Jenny.  "In a day
+or two he is going up to London to consult an aurist, and see
+whether he can keep his clerkship.  Miles is going with him, and
+Rosamond takes Terry up to see his brother in London, and then, I
+believe, she is going on to get rooms at Rockpier, while Miles comes
+home to fetch his mother there."
+
+"Mrs. Poynsett!" with infinite wonder.
+
+"Oh yes, all this has really brought out much more power of activity
+in her.  You know it was said that there was more damage to the
+nervous system than anything else, and the shock has done her good.
+Besides, Miles is so much less timid about her than dear Raymond,
+who always handled her like a cracked teapot, and never having known
+much of any other woman, did not understand what was good for her."
+
+"Miles has more pith in him than ever poor old Raymond had," said
+Phil.  "Poor old Poynsett, I used to think he wanted to be spoony on
+you, Joan, if he had only known his own mind.  If he had, I suppose
+he would have been alive now!"
+
+"What a pleasing situation for Jenny!" Herbert could not help
+muttering.
+
+"Much better than running after ostriches in the wilderness," quoth
+Philip.  "You ride them double, don't you?"
+
+"Two little negro boys at a time," replied Jenny, "according to the
+nursery-book.  Will you come and try, Phil?"
+
+"You don't mean to go out?"
+
+"I don't know," said Jenny; "it depends on how mamma is, and how
+Edith gets on."
+
+Philip gave a long whistle of dismay.  Herbert looked at him
+wistfully, longing to hear him utter some word of congratulation or
+sympathy with his sister; but none was forthcoming.  Philip had
+disliked the engagement originally--never had cared for Archie
+Douglas, and was not melted now that Jenny was more valuable than
+ever.  She knew him too well to expect it of him, and did not want
+to leave him to vex Herbert by any expression of his opinion on the
+matter, and on this account, as well as on that of the fatigue she
+saw on her patient's features, she refused his kind offer of keeping
+guard while she went in the afternoon to church, adding that Herbert
+must rest, as Mrs. Duncombe was coming afterwards to take leave of
+him.
+
+Philip shrugged his shoulders in horror, and declared that he should
+not return again till _that_ was over; but he should look in again
+before he went home to settle about Herbert's coming to York.
+
+"York!" said Herbert, with a gasp, as Jenny brought his jelly, and
+arranged his pillows for a rest, while the dragoon's boots resounded
+on the stairs.  "Please tell him to say no more about it.  I want
+them all to understand that I'm not going in for that sort of thing
+any more."
+
+"My dear, I think you had better not say things hotly and rashly;
+you may feel so very differently by and by."
+
+"I know that," said Herbert; "but after all it is only what my
+ordination vows mean, though I did not see it then.  And this year
+must be a penance year; I had made up my mind to that before I fell
+ill."
+
+"Only you must get well," said Jenny.
+
+"That takes care of itself when one is sound to begin with," said
+Herbert.  "And now that I have been brought back again, and had my
+eyes opened, and have got another trial given me, it would be double
+shame to throw it away."
+
+"I don't think you will do that."
+
+"I only pray that all that seems burnt out of me by what I have
+seen, and heard, and felt, may not come back with my strength."
+
+"I could hardly pray that for you, Herbert," said Jenny.  "Spirits
+are wanted to bear a clergyman through his work, and though you are
+quite right not to _go in_ for those things, I should be sorry if
+you never enjoyed what came in your way."
+
+"If I never was tempted."
+
+"It need not be temptation.  It would not be if your mind were full
+of your work--it would only be refreshment.  I don't want my boy to
+turn stern, and dry, and ungenial.  That would not be like your
+Rector."
+
+"My Rector did not make such a bad start, and can trust himself
+better," said Herbert.  "Come, Jenny, don't look at me in that way.
+You can't wish me to go to York, and meet those rattling girls
+again?"
+
+"No, certainly not, though Sister Margaret told Rosamond they had
+never had such a sobering lesson in their lives as their share in
+the mischief to you."
+
+"It was not their fault," said Herbert.  "It was deeper down than
+that.  And they were good girls after all, if one only had had
+sense."
+
+"Oh!--"
+
+"Nonsense, Jenny," with a little smile, as he read her face, "I'm
+not bitten--no--but they, and poor Lady Tyrrell, and all are proof
+enough that it is easy to turn my head, and that I am one who ought
+to keep out of that style of thing for the future.  So do silence
+Phil, for you know when he gets a thing into his head how he goes
+on, and I do not think I can bear it now."
+
+"I am sure you can't," said Jenny, emphatically, "and I'll do my
+best.  Only, Herbie, dear, do one thing for me, don't bind yourself
+by any regular renunciations of moderate things now your mind is
+excited, and you are weak.  I am sure Julius or Dr. Easterby would
+say so."
+
+"I'll think," said Herbert.  "But if I am forgiven for this year,
+nothing seems to me too much to give up to the Great Shepherd to
+show my sorrow.  'Feed My sheep' was the way He bade St. Peter prove
+his love."
+
+Jenny longed to say it was feeding the sheep rather than self-
+privation, but she was not sure of her ground, and Herbert's low,
+quiet, soft voice went to her heart.  There were two great tears on
+his cheeks, he shut his eyes as if to keep back any more, and turned
+his face inwards on the sofa, his lips still murmuring over 'Feed My
+sheep.'  She looked at him, feeling as if, while her heart had
+wakened to new glad hopes of earth, her brother, in her fulfilled
+prayer, had soared beyond her.  They were both quite still till Mrs.
+Duncombe came to the door.
+
+She was at the Rectory, her house being dismantled, and she, having
+stayed till the last case of fever was convalescent, and the Sisters
+recalled, was to go the next day to her mother-in-law's.  She was
+almost as much altered as Herbert himself.  Her jaunty air had given
+way to something equally energetic, but she looked wiry and worn,
+and her gold pheasant's crest had become little more than a sandy
+wisp, as she came quietly in and took the hand that Herbert held out
+to her, saying how glad she was to see him on the mend.
+
+He asked after some of the people whom they had attended together,
+and listened to the details, asking specially after one or two
+families, where one or both parents had been taken away.  "Poor
+Cecil Poynsett is undertaking them," was the answer in each case.
+Some had been already sent to orphanages; others were boarded out
+till places could be found for them; and the Sisters had taken
+charge of two.
+
+Then one widow was to 'do for' the Vicar, who had taken solitary
+possession of the Vicarage, but would soon be joined there by one or
+more curates.  He had been inducted into the ruinous chancel of the
+poor old church, had paid the architect of the Rat-house fifty
+pounds (a sum just equalling the proceeds of the bazaar) to be rid
+of his plans; had brought down a first-rate architect; and in the
+meantime was working the little iron church vigorously.
+
+"Everything seems to be beginning there just as I go into exile!"
+said Mrs. Duncombe.  "It seems odd that I should have to go from
+what I have only just learnt to prize.  But you have taught mo a
+good deal--"
+
+"Every one must have learnt a good deal," said Herbert wearily.  "If
+one only has!"
+
+"I meant you yourself, and that is what I came to thank you for.
+Yes, I did; even if you don't like to hear it, your sister does, and
+I must have it out.  I shall recollect you again and again standing
+over all those beds, and shrinking from nothing, and I shall hold up
+the example to my boys."
+
+"Do hold up something better!"
+
+"Can you write?" she said abruptly.
+
+"I have written a few lines to my mother."
+
+"Do you remember what you said that night, when you had to hold that
+poor man in his delirium, and his wife was so wild with fright that
+she could not help?"
+
+"I am not sure what you mean."
+
+"You said it three or four times.  It was only--"
+
+"I remember," said Herbert, as she paused; "it was the only thing I
+could recollect in the turmoil."
+
+"Would it tire you very much to write it for me in the flyleaf of
+this Prayer-Book that Mr. Charnock has given me?"
+
+Herbert pulled himself into a sitting posture, and signed to his
+sister to give him the ink.
+
+"I shall spoil your book," he said, as his hand shook.
+
+"Never mind," she said, eagerly, "the words come back to me whenever
+I think of the life I have to face, and I want them written; they
+soothe me, as they soothed that frightened woman and raving man."
+
+And Herbert wrote.  It was only--'The Lord is a very present help in
+trouble.'
+
+"Yes," she said; "thank you.  Put your initials, pray.  There--thank
+you.  No, you can never tell what it was to me to hear those words,
+so quietly, and gravely, and strongly, in that deadly struggle.  It
+seemed to me, for the first time in all my life, that God is a real
+Presence and an actual Help.  There!  I see Miss Bowater wants me
+gone; so I am off.  I shall hear of you."
+
+Herbert was exhausted with the exertion, and only exchanged a close
+pressure of the hand, and when Jenny came back, after seeing the
+lady to the door, she thought there were tears on his cheek, and
+bent down to kiss him.
+
+"That was just the way, Jenny," his low, tired voice said.  "I never
+could recollect what I wanted to say.  Only just those few Psalms
+that you did manage to teach me before I went to school, they came
+back and back."
+
+Jenny had no time to answer, for the feet of Philip were on the
+stairs.  He had been visiting Mrs. Hornblower, and persuading her
+that to make a dragoon of her son was the very best thing for him--
+great promotion, and quite removed from the ordinary vulgar
+enlistment in the line--till he had wiled consent out of her.  And
+though Philip declared it was blarney, and was inclined to think it
+infra dig. to have thus exerted his eloquence, it was certain that
+Mrs. Hornblower would console herself by mentioning to her
+neighbours that her son was gone in compliment to Captain Bowater,
+who had taken a fancy to him.
+
+The relief to Herbert was infinite; but he was by this time too much
+tired to do anything but murmur his thanks, and wish himself safe
+back in his bed, and Philip's strong-armed aid in reaching that
+haven was not a little appreciated.
+
+Julius looked in with his mother's entreaty that Philip, and if
+possible his sister, should come up to eat their Christmas dinner at
+the Hall; and Herbert, wearily declaring that sleep was all he
+needed, and that Cranky would be more than sufficient for him,
+insisted on their accepting the invitation; and Jenny was not sorry,
+for she did not want a tete-a-tete with Philip so close to her
+patient's room, that whatever he chose to hear, he might.
+
+She had quite enough of it in the walk to the Hall.  Phil, with the
+persistency of a person bent on doing a kind thing, returned to his
+York plan, viewing it as excellent relaxation for a depressed, over-
+worked man, and certain it would be a great treat to 'little Herb.'
+He still looked on the tall young man as the small brother to be
+patronized, and protected, and dragged out of home-petting; so he
+pooh-poohed all Jenny's gentler hints as to Herbert's need of care
+and desire to return to his work, until she was obliged to say
+plainly that he had entreated her to beg it might not be argued with
+him again, as he was resolved against amusement for the present.
+
+Then Phil grew very angry both with Herbert and Jenny.
+
+"Did they suppose he wanted the boy to do anything unclerical?"
+
+"No; but you know it was by nothing positively unclerical that he
+was led aside before."
+
+Phil broke out into a tirade against the folly of Jenny's speech.
+In his view, Herbert's conduct at Wil'sbro' had confuted the
+Bishop's censure, and for his own part, he only wished to amuse the
+boy, and give him rest, and if he did take him to a ball, or even
+out with the hounds, he would be on leave, and in another diocese,
+where the Bishop had nothing to do with him.
+
+Jenny tried to make him understand that dread of the Bishop was the
+last thing in Herbert's mind.  It was rather that he did not think
+it right to dissipate away a serious impression.
+
+That was worse than before.  She was threatened with the most
+serious displeasure of her father and mother, if she encouraged
+Herbert in the morbid ascetic notions ascribed to Dr. Easterby.
+
+"It was always the way with the women--they never knew where to
+stop."
+
+"No," said Jenny, "I did not know there was anywhere to stop in the
+way of Heaven."
+
+"As if there were no way to Heaven without making a fool of
+oneself."
+
+This answer made Jenny sorry for her own, as needlessly vexatious,
+and yet she recollected St. Paul's Christian paradoxes, and felt
+that poor Herbert might have laid hold of the true theory of the
+ministry.  At any rate, she was glad that they were at that moment
+hailed and overtaken by the party from the Rectory, and that Phil
+pounced at once on Julius, to obtain his sanction to giving Herbert
+a little diversion at York.
+
+Julius answered more warily, "Does he wish it?"
+
+"No; but he is too weak yet, and is hipped and morbid."
+
+"Well, Phil, I would not put it into his head.  No doubt you would
+take very good care of him, but I doubt whether your father would
+like the Bishop to hear of him--under the circumstances--going to
+disport himself at the dragoon mess.  Besides, I don't think he will
+be well enough before Lent, and then of course he could not."
+
+This outer argument in a man's voice pacified Phil, as Julius knew
+it would, much better than the deeper one, and he contented himself
+with muttering that he should write to his father about it, which
+every one knew he was most likely not to do.
+
+Who could have foretold last Christmas who would be the party at
+that dinner?  Mrs. Poynsett at the head of her own table, and Miles
+in the master's place, and the three waifs from absent families
+would have seemed equally unlikely guests; while of last year's
+party--Charlie was in India, Tom De Lancey with the aunts in
+Ireland, Cecil at Dunstone.  Mrs. Duncombe was perfectly quiet, not
+only from the subduing influence of all she had undergone, but
+because she felt herself there like an intruder, and would have
+refused, but that to leave her at home would have distressed her
+hostess.  Mrs. Poynsett had never seen her before, and after all she
+had heard about her, was quite amazed at the sight of such an
+insignificant little person as she was without her dash and sparkle,
+and in a dress which, when no longer coquettish, verged upon the
+slovenly.
+
+Poor thing, she was waiting till the Christmas visit of the elder
+Mrs. Duncombe's own daughter was over, so that there might be room
+for her, and she was thankful for the reprieve, which left her able
+to spend Christmas among the privileges she had only learnt to value
+just as she was deprived of them.  She looked at Mrs. Poynsett, half
+in curiosity, half in compunction, as she remembered how she had
+helped to set Cecil against her.
+
+"But then," as she said to Rosamond, in going home, "I had
+prejudices about the genus belle-mere.  And mine always knew and
+said I should ruin her son, in which, alas! she was quite right!"
+
+"She will be pleased now," said Rosamond.
+
+"No, indeed, I believe she had rather I were rapidity personified
+than owe the change to any one of your Rector's sort.  I have had a
+letter or two, warning me against the Sisters, or thinking there is
+any merit in works of mercy.  Ah, well!  I'll try to think her a
+good old woman!  But if she had only not strained the cord till it
+snapped, how much happier Bob and I should have been!"
+
+What a difference there is between straining the cord for one's self
+and for other people!  So Julius could not help feeling when
+Herbert, in spite of all that could be said to him, about morbid
+haste in renunciation, sent for the village captain of the cricket-
+club, and delivered over to him the bat, which had hitherto been as
+a knightly sword to him, resigning his place in the Compton Poynsett
+Eleven, and replying to the dismayed entreaties and assurances of
+the young farmer that he would reconsider his decision, and that he
+would soon be quite strong again, that he had spent too much time
+over cricket, and liked it too well to trust himself at it again.
+
+That was the last thing before on a New Year's Day, which was like
+an April day, Herbert came into church once more, and then was
+carried off in the Strawyers carriage, lying back half ashamed, half
+astonished, at the shower of strange tears which the ecstatic shouts
+and cheers of the village boys had called forth.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+Rockpier
+
+
+For Love himself took part against himself
+   To warn us off.--TENNYSON
+
+Rosamond was to have a taste of her old vocation, and go campaigning
+for lodgings, the searching for which she declared to be her
+strongest point.  Rockpier was to be the destination of the family;
+Eleonora Vivian, whose letters had been far fewer than had been
+expected of her, was known to be there with her father, and this was
+lure sufficient for Frank.  Frank's welfare again was the lure to
+Mrs. Poynsett; and the benefit Rosamond was to derive from sea air,
+after all she had gone through, made Julius willing to give himself
+the holiday that everybody insisted on his having until Lent.
+
+First, however, was sent off an advanced guard, consisting of
+Rosamond and Terry, who went up to London with Frank, that he might
+there consult an aurist, and likewise present himself to his chief,
+and see whether he could keep his clerkship.  All this turned out
+well, his duties did not depend on his ears, and a month's longer
+leave of absence was granted to him; moreover, his deafness was
+pronounced to be likely to yield to treatment, and a tube restored
+him to somewhat easier intercourse with mankind, and he was in high
+spirits, when, after an evening spent with Rosamond's friends, the
+M'Kinnons, the trio took an early train for Rockpier, where Rosamond
+could not detain Frank even to come to the hotel with them and have
+luncheon before hurrying off to Verdure Point, the villa inhabited
+by Sir Harry.  All he had done all the way down was to impress upon
+her, in the fulness of his knowledge of the place, that the only
+habitable houses in Rockpier were in that direction--the nearer to
+Verdure Point the more perfect!
+
+Terry listened with smiling eyes, sometimes viewing the lover as a
+bore, sometimes as a curious study, confirming practical statements.
+Terry was thoroughly well, only with an insatiable appetite, and he
+viewed his fellow convalescent's love with double wonder when he
+found it caused oblivion of hunger, especially as Frank still looked
+gaunt and sallow, and was avowedly not returned to his usual health.
+
+Rosamond set forth house-hunting, dropping Terry ere long at the
+Library, where she went to make inquiries, and find the sine qua
+non.  When she reached the sitting-room at the hotel, she found
+Frank cowering over the fire in an arm-chair, the picture of
+despondency.  Of course, he did not hear her entrance, and she
+darted up to him, and put her hand on his shoulder.  He looked up to
+her with an attempt at indifference.
+
+"Well, Frank!"
+
+"Well, Rose!  How have you sped?"
+
+"I have got a house; but it is in Marine Terrace.  I don't know what
+you'll say to me."
+
+"I don't know that it signifies."
+
+"You are shivering!  What's the matter?"
+
+"Only, it is very cold!"
+
+(Aside.  "Ring the bell, Terry, he is as cold as ice.")  "Did you
+see her?"
+
+"Oh yes.  Did you have any luncheon?"  ("Some port-wine and hot
+water directly, please.")
+
+"Yes, I believe so.  You are not ordering anything for me?  There's
+nothing amiss--only it is so cold."
+
+"It is cold, and you are not to be cold; nor are we to be cold, sir.
+You must go to bed early in the evening, Terry," said Rosamond, at
+last.  "I shall make nothing of him while you are by, and an hour's
+more sleep will not be lost on you."
+
+"Will you come and tell me then, Rosey?  I deserve something."
+
+"What, for sleeping there instead of here, when you've nothing to
+do?"
+
+"Indeed, but I have.  I want to make out this little Chaucer.  I
+shall go down to the coffee-room and do it."
+
+"Well, if you like poking out your eyes with the gas in the coffee-
+room, I have no objection, since you are too proud to go to bed.
+Wish him good night first, and do it naturally."
+
+"Nature would be thrown away on him, poor fellow," said Terry, as he
+roused Frank with difficulty to have 'Good night' roared into his
+ear, and give a listless hand.  He was about to deal with Rosamond
+in the same way, but she said--
+
+"No, I am not going yet," and settled herself opposite to him, with
+her half-knitted baby's shoe in her hands, and her feet on the
+fender, her crape drawn up from the fire, disposed for conversation.
+Frank, on the other hand, fell back into the old position, looking
+so wretched that she could bear it no longer, picked up the tube,
+forced it on him, and said, "Do tell me, dear Frank.  You used to
+tell me long ago."
+
+He shook his head.  "That's all over.  You are very good, Rosamond,
+but you should not have forced her to come to me."
+
+"Not!"
+
+"My life was not worth saving."
+
+"She has not gone back from you again?--the horrible girl!" (this
+last aside).
+
+"It is not that she has gone back.  She has never changed.  It is I
+who have forfeited her."
+
+"You!--You!--She has not cast you off?"
+
+"You know how it was, and the resolution by which she had bound
+herself, and how I was maddened."
+
+"That!  I thought it was all forgiven and forgotten!" cried
+Rosamond.
+
+"It is not a matter of forgiveness.  She put it to me whether it was
+possible to begin on a broken word."
+
+"Worse and worse!  Why, when you've spoken a foolish word, it is the
+foolishest thing in the world to hold to it."
+
+"If it were a foolish word!" said poor Frank.  "I think I could have
+atoned for that day, if she could have tried me; but when she left
+me to judge, and those eyes of sweet, sorrowful--"
+
+"Sweet!  Sorrowful, indeed!  About as sweet and sorrowful as the
+butcher to the lamb.  Left you to judge!  A refinement of cruelty!
+She had better have stayed away when I told her it was the only
+chance to save your life."
+
+"Would that she had!" sighed Frank.  "But that was your doing,
+Rosamond, and what she did in mere humanity can't be cast back again
+to bind her against her conscience."
+
+"Plague on her conscience!" was my Lady's imprecation.  "I wonder if
+it is all coquetry!"
+
+"She deserves no blame," said Frank, understanding the manner,
+though the words were under Rosamond's breath.  "Her very troubles
+in her own family have been the cause of her erecting a standard of
+what alone she could trust.  Once in better days she fancied I came
+up to it, and when I know how far I have fallen short of it--"
+
+"Nonsense.  She had no business to make the condition without
+warning you."
+
+"She knows more of me than only that," muttered poor Frank.  "I was
+an ass in town last summer.  It was the hope of seeing her that drew
+me; but if I had kept out of that set, all this would never have
+been."
+
+"It was all for her sake."  (A substratum of 'Ungrateful, ungenerous
+girl.')
+
+"For her sake, I thought--not her true sake."  Then there was a
+silence, broken by his exclaiming, "Rose, I must get away from
+here!"
+
+"You can't," she called back.  "Here's your mother coming.  She
+would be perfectly miserable to find you gone."
+
+"It is impossible I should stay here."
+
+"Don't be so chicken-hearted, Frank.  If she has a heart worth
+speaking of, she'll come round, if you only press hard enough.  If
+not, you are well quit of her."
+
+He cried out at this, and Rosamond saw that what she called
+faintness of heart was really reverence and sense of his own
+failings; but none the less did she scorn such misplaced adoration,
+as it seemed to her, and scold him in her own fashion, for not
+rushing on to conquer irresistibly; or else being cool and easy as
+to his rejection.  He would accept neither alternative, was
+depressed beyond the power of comfort, bodily weariness adding to
+his other ills, and went off at last to bed, without retracting his
+intention of going away.
+
+"Well, Terry, it is a new phase, and a most perplexing one!" said
+Rosamond, when her brother came back with arch curiosity in his
+brown eyes.  "The girl has gone and turned him over, and there he
+lies on his back prostrate, just like Ponto, when he knows he
+deserves it!"
+
+"Turned him over--you don't mean that she is off?  I thought she was
+a perfect angel of loveliness and goodness."
+
+"Goodness!  It is enough to make one hate goodness, unless this is
+all mere pretence on her part.  But what I am afraid of is his
+setting off, no one knows where, before any one is up, and leaving
+us to confront his mother, while he falls ill in some dog-hole of a
+place.  He is not fit to go about by himself, and I trust to you to
+watch him, Terry."
+
+"Shall I lie on the mat outside his door?" said Terry, half meaning
+it, and somewhat elated by the romantic situation.
+
+"No, we are not come to quite such extremities.  You need not even
+turn his key by mistake; only keep your ears open.  He is next to
+you, is he not?--and go in on pretext of inquiry--if you hear him up
+to mischief."
+
+Nothing was heard but the ordinary summons of Boots; and it turned
+out in the morning that the chill had exasperated his throat, and
+reduced him to a condition which took away all inclination to move,
+besides deafening him completely.
+
+Rosamond had to rush about all day, providing plenishing for the
+lodging.  Once she saw Sir Harry and his daughter in the distance,
+and dashed into a shop to avoid them, muttering, "I don't believe
+she cared for him one bit.  I dare say she has taken up with Lorimer
+Strangeways after all!  Rather worse than her sister, I declare, for
+she never pretended to be too _good_ for Raymond," and then as a
+curate in a cassock passed--"Ah! some of them have been working on
+her, and persuading her that he is not good enough for her.
+Impertinent prig!  He looks just capable of it!"
+
+Frank was no better as to cold and deafness, though somewhat less
+uncomfortable the next day in the lodging, and Rosamond went up
+without him to the station to meet the rest of the party, and
+arrange for Mrs. Poynsett's conveyance.  They had accomplished the
+journey much better than had been, hoped, but it was late and dark
+enough to make it expedient that Mrs. Poynsett should be carried to
+bed at once, after her most unwonted fatigue, and only have one
+glimpse and embrace of Frank, so as to stave off the knowledge of
+his troubles till after her night's rest.  He seconded this desire,
+and indeed Miles and Anne only saw that he had a bad cold; but
+Rosamond no sooner had her husband to herself, than she raved over
+his wrongs to her heart's content, and implored Julius to redress
+them, though how, she did not well know, since she by turns declared
+that Frank was well quit of Lenore, and that he would never get over
+the loss.
+
+Julius demurred a good deal to her wish of sending him on a mission
+to Eleonora.  All Charnocks naturally swung back to distrust of the
+Vivians, and he did not like to plead with a girl who seemed only to
+be making an excuse to reject his brother; while, on the other hand,
+he knew that Raymond had not been satisfied with Frank's London
+habits, nor had he himself been at ease as to his religious
+practices, which certainly had been the minimum required to suit his
+mother's notions.  He had been a communicant on Christmas Day, but
+he was so entirely out of reach that there was no knowing what
+difference his illness might have made in him; Eleonora might know
+more than his own family did, and have good and conscientious
+reasons for breaking with him; and, aware that his own authority had
+weight with her, Julius felt it almost too much responsibility to
+interfere till the next day, when his mother, with tears in her
+eyes, entreated him to go to Miss Vivian, to find out what was this
+dreadful misunderstanding, which perhaps might only be from his want
+of hearing, and implore her, in the name of an old woman, not to
+break her boy's heart and darken his life, as it had been with his
+brother.
+
+Mrs. Poynsett was tremulous and agitated, and grief had evidently
+told on her high spirit, so that Julius could make no objection, but
+promised to do his best.
+
+By the time it was possible to Julius to call, Sir Harry and Miss
+Vivian were out riding, and he had no further chance till at the
+gaslit Friday evening lecture, to which he had hurried after dinner.
+A lady became faint in the heated atmosphere, two rows of chairs
+before him, and as she turned to make her way out, he saw that it
+was Eleonora, and was appalled by seeing not only the whiteness of
+the present faintness, but that thinness and general alteration
+which had changed the beautiful face so much that he asked himself
+for a moment whether she could have escaped the fever.  In that
+moment he had moved forward to her support; and she, seeming to have
+no one belonging to her, clung to the friendly arm, and was
+presently in the porch, where the cool night air revived her at
+once, and she begged him to return, saying nothing ailed her but
+gas.
+
+"No, I shall see you home, Lena."
+
+"Indeed, there is no need," said the trembling voice, in which he
+detected a sob very near at hand.
+
+"I shall use my own judgment as to that," said Julius, kindly.
+
+She made no more resistance, but rose from the seat in the porch,
+and accepted his arm.  He soon felt that her steps were growing
+firmer, and he ventured to say, "I had been looking for you to-day."
+
+"Yes, I saw your card."
+
+"I had a message to you from my mother."  Lenore trembled again, but
+did not dare to relax her hold on him.  "I think you can guess what
+it is.  She thinks poor Frank must have mistaken what you said."
+
+"No--I wrote it," said Lena, very low.
+
+"And you really meant that the resolution made last year is to stand
+between you and Frank?  I am not blaming you, I do not know whether
+you may not be acting rightly and wisely, and whether you may not
+have more reason than I know of to shrink from intrusting yourself
+to Frank; but my mother cannot understand it, and when she sees him
+heartbroken, and too unwell to act for himself--"
+
+"Oh! is he ill?"
+
+"He has a very bad cold, and could not get up till the afternoon,
+and he is deafer than ever."
+
+Lena moaned.
+
+He proceeded:  "So as he cannot act for himself, my mother begged me
+to come to an understanding."
+
+"I told him to judge," said Lena faintly, but turning Julius so as
+to walk back along the parade instead of to her abode.
+
+"Was not that making him his own executioner?" said Julius.
+
+"A promise is binding," she added.
+
+"Yet, is it quite fair?" said Julius, sure now which way her heart
+went, and thinking she was really longing to be absolved from a
+superstitious feeling; "is it fair to expect another person to be
+bound by a vow of which you have not told him?"
+
+"I never thought he could," sighed she.
+
+"And you know he was entrapped!" said Julius, roused to defend his
+brother.
+
+"And by whom?" she said in accents of deep pain.
+
+"I should have thought it just--both by your poor sister and by him--
+to undo the wrong then wrought," said Julius, "unless, indeed, you
+have some further cause for distrusting him?"
+
+"No! no!" cried she.  "Oh, Julius!  I do it for his own good.  Your
+mother knows not what she wishes, in trying to entangle him again
+with me."
+
+"Lenore, will you tell me if anything in him besides that unhappy
+slip makes you distrust him?"
+
+"I must tell the whole truth," gasped the poor girl, as they walked
+along in the sound of the sea, the dark path here and there
+brightened by the gas-lights, "or you will think it is his fault!
+Julius, I know more about my poor father than ever I did before.  I
+was a child when I lived here before, and then Camilla took all the
+management.  When we came to London, two months ago, I soon saw the
+kind of people he got round him for his comforters.  I knew how he
+spent his evenings.  It is second nature to him--he can't get put of
+it, I believe!  I persuaded him to come down here, thinking it a
+haven of peace and safety.  Alas!  I little knew what old habits
+there were to resume, nor what was the real reason Camilla brought
+us away after paying our debts.  I was a happy child _then_, when I
+only knew that papa was gone to his club.  Now I know that it is a
+billiard-room--and that it is doing all the more harm because he is
+there--and I see him with people whom he does not like me to speak
+to.  I don't know whether I could get him away, and it would be as
+bad anywhere else.  I don't think he can help it.  And he is often
+unwell; he can't do without me when he has the gout, and I ought not
+to leave him to himself.  And then, if--if we did marry and he lived
+with us in London, think what it would be for Frank to have such a
+set brought about him.  I don't see how he could keep them off.  Or
+even an engagement bringing him down here--or anywhere, among papa's
+friends would be very bad for him.  I saw it in London, even with
+Camilla to keep things in check."  She was almost choked with
+suppressed agony.
+
+"I see," said Julius, gravely and pitifully, "it would take a man of
+more age and weight than poor Frank to deal with the habits of a
+lifetime.  The risk is great."
+
+"And when I saw it," added Eleonora, "I felt I must never, never
+bring him into it.  And how could I tell him?  Your mother does not
+know, or she could not wish it!"
+
+"It is plain that in the present state of things you ought not to
+marry, and so far you are judging nobly," said Julius; "but next
+comes the question--how far it is well to make that day at the races
+the pretext?"
+
+"Don't call it a pretext," said Lenore, quickly.  "I meant what I
+said a year ago, with all my soul.  Perhaps it was hasty, when poor
+Camilla drove me into saying I did not mean only an habitual
+gambler, but one who had ever betted.  And now, well as I know how
+cruelly she used that presumptuous vow of mine, and how she repented
+of it at last, still I feel that to fly in its face might be so
+wrong, that I should have no right to expect not to drag Frank
+down."
+
+"Perhaps I am too much interested to judge fairly," said Julius.  "I
+should like you to consult some one--say Dr. Easterby--but it seems
+to me that it is just such a vow as you may well be absolved from."
+
+"But is it not Frank's protection?"
+
+"Put yourself in that poor fellow's place, Lena, and see what it is
+to him to be cast off for such a reason.  He did the wrong, I know.
+He knew he ought not, apart from your resolution, and he did thus
+prove his weakness and unfitness--"
+
+"Oh no, no--it was not his fault."
+
+Julius laughed a little, and added, "I am not saying he deserves
+you--hush!--or that it would be well to take him now, only that I
+think to find himself utterly rejected for so insufficient a reason,
+and when he was really deceived, would not only half kill him now,
+but do his whole nature cruel harm."
+
+"What is to be done then?" sighed Eleonora.
+
+"I should say, and I think my mother would put him on some probation
+if you like, even before you call it an engagement; but give him
+hope.  Let him know that your attachment is as true and unselfish as
+ever, and do not let him brood in misery, enhanced by his deafness."
+
+"I can't marry while poor papa is like what he is," said she, as if
+trying to keep hold of her purpose.
+
+"But you can be Frank's light and hope--the prize for which he can
+work."
+
+"If--your mother will have it so--then," said Eleonora, and the sigh
+that followed was one to relieve, not exhaust.
+
+"May I tell her then?"
+
+"You must, I suppose," said the poor girl; "but she can never wish
+it to go on!"
+
+Julius left her at her own door and went home.
+
+As Mrs. Poynsett said, she could expect nothing better of him.  "It
+is quite clear," she said, "that poor Lena is right, that Frank must
+not set up housekeeping with him.  Even if he were certain to be
+proof against temptation, it would be as bad a connection as could
+be.  I never thought of his being with them; but I suppose there is
+nothing else to be done with him."
+
+"Frank ought not to be exposed to the trial.  The old man has a
+certain influence over him."
+
+"Though I should have thought such a hoary old wreck was nothing but
+a warning.  It has been a most unhappy affair from first to last;
+but Lena is a good, unselfish girl, and nothing else will give Frank
+a chance of happiness.  Waiting will do them no harm, they are young
+enough, and have no great sum to marry upon, so if you can bring her
+to me to-morrow, Julius, I will ask her to grant my poor boy leave
+to wait till she can see her way to marrying."
+
+Julius ventured to write down, 'Hope on!'
+
+To this Frank replied with rather a fiery look, "Mind, I will not
+have her persuaded or worked on.  It must be all her own doing.
+Yes," answering a look of his brother, "I see what you are about.
+You want to tell her it is a superstition about her vow and not
+using me fairly.  So it may be in some points of view; but the fact
+remains.  She thought she might trust to my good sense and
+principle, and it proved that she was wrong.  After that it is not
+right to force myself on her.  I don't dare to do it, Julius.  I
+have not been shut up with myself all these weeks for nothing.  I
+know now how unworthy I ever was to think of her as mine.  If I can
+ever prove my repentance she might in time forgive me; but for her
+to be driven to take me out of either supposed justice or mercy, I
+will not stand!  A wretched deaf being like me!  It is not fitting,
+and I _will_ not have it done!"
+
+Julius wrote--"She is suffering greatly.  She nearly fainted at
+church, and I had to take her out."
+
+Frank's face worked, and he put his hand over it as he said, "You
+are all torturing her; I shall write a letter and settle it myself."
+
+Frank did write the letter that very night, and when Julius next saw
+Eleonora her eyes were swollen with weeping, and she said--
+
+"Take me to him!  I must comfort him!"
+
+"You have heard from him?"
+
+"Yes.  Such a beautiful letter.  But he must not think it _that_."
+
+She did show the letter, reserved though she was.  She was right
+about it; Julius was struck with the humble sweetness, which made
+him think more highly of poor Frank than ever he had done before.
+He had decided against himself, feeling how much his fall at the
+race-ground had been the effect of the manner in which he had
+allowed himself to be led during the previous season in London, and
+owning how far his whole aim in life fell short of what it ought to
+be, asking nothing for himself, not even hope nor patience, though
+he could not refrain from expressing his own undying love, and his
+one desire that if she had not attached herself to one more worthy,
+he might in time be thought to have proved his repentance.  In the
+meantime she would and could be only his beacon star.
+
+Julius could not but take her home, and leave her with Frank, though
+his mother was a little annoyed not to have first seen her; but when
+Frank himself brought her to Mrs. Poynsett's arms, it turned out
+that the two ladies were quite of one mind as to the inexpediency of
+Sir Harry living with Frank.  They said it very covertly, but each
+understood the other, and Eleonora went home wonderfully happier,
+and looking as if her fresh beauty would soon return.
+
+There was quite enough to dazzle Miles, whose first opinion was that
+they were hard on Sir Harry, and that two ladies and a clergyman
+might be making a great deal too much of an old man's form of
+loitering, especially in a female paradise of ritualism, as he was
+pleased to call Rockpier, where all the male population seemed to be
+invalids.
+
+However, it was not long before he came round to their view.  He
+found that Sir Harry, in spite of his gentlemanly speech and
+bearing, was a battered old roue, who was never happy but when
+gambling, and whose air and title were baits to victims of a lower
+class than himself; young clerks and medical students who were
+flattered by his condescension.  He did not actually fleece them
+himself, he had too little worldly wisdom for that; but he was the
+decoy of a coterie of Nyms, Pistols, and Bardolphs, who gathered up
+the spoil of these and any unwary youth who came to Rockpier in the
+wake of an invalid, or to 'see life' at a fashionable watering-
+place.  Miles thought the old man was probably reduced to a worse
+style of company by the very fact of the religious atmosphere of the
+place, where he himself found so little to do that he longed for the
+opening of the Session; but he was strongly impressed with the
+impracticability of a menage for Frank, with the baronet as father-
+in-law.
+
+Not so, Sir Harry.  He was rather fond of Frank, and had been glad
+to be no longer bound to oppose the match, and he had benignantly
+made up his mind to the great sacrifice of living in his house in
+London, surrounding himself with all his friends, and making the
+young couple supply him with pocket-money whenever he had a run of
+ill-luck.  They would grant it more easily than Camilla, and would
+never presume to keep him under regulation as she had done.  They
+would be too grateful to him.
+
+So, after a day or two, he demanded of Eleonora whether her young
+man had given her up, or what he meant by his coolness in not
+calling?  Lena answered the last count by explaining how unwell he
+had been, and how his hearing might be lost by a renewal of his
+cold.  She was however further pressed, and obliged to say how
+matters stood, namely, that they were engaged, but meant to wait.
+
+Whereupon, Sir Harry, quite sincerely, poor old man, grew
+compassionate and grandly benignant.  The young people were prudent,
+but he would come to their aid.  His pittance added to theirs--even
+now would set all things straight.  He would never stand in the way
+of their happiness!
+
+Mrs. Poynsett had bidden Lena cast the whole on her shoulders.  The
+girl was too truthful and generous to do this, fond as she still was
+of her father.
+
+"No, dear papa," she said, "it is very kind in you," for she knew
+that so he meant it, "but I am afraid it will not quite do.  You see
+Frank must be very careful in his situation--and I don't think so
+quiet a way of life would suit you."
+
+"Nonsense, child; I'm an old man, and I want no racketing.  Just
+house-room for myself and Victor.  That fellow is worth two women in
+a house.  You'll keep a good cook.  I'll never ask for more than a
+few old friends to dinner, when I don't feel disposed to have them
+at the club."
+
+Old friends!  Yes, Lenore knew them, and her flesh crept to think of
+Frank's chief hearing of them constantly at his house.
+
+"I don't think we should afford it, dear papa," she said.  "We have
+agreed that I had better stay with you for the present, and let
+Frank make his way."
+
+Then a thought occurred to Sir Harry.  "Is this the Poynsetts'
+doing?"
+
+"No," said Eleonora, stoutly.  "It is mine.  I know that--oh! papa,
+forgive me!--the things and people you like would not be good for
+Frank, and I will not leave you nor bring him into them.  Never!"
+
+Sir Harry swore--almost for the first time before her--that this was
+that old hag Mrs. Poynsett's doing, and that she would make his
+child abandon him in his old age.  He would not have his daughter
+dragged into a long engagement.  Wait--he knew what waiting meant--
+wait for his death; but they should have her now or not at all; and
+he flung away from her and her entreaties to announce his
+determination to the suitor's family.
+
+He did not find this very easy to accomplish.  Frank's ears were
+quite impervious to all his storming, and if he was to reduce his
+words to paper, they came less easily.  Miles, to whom he tried to
+speak as a man of the world, would only repeat that his mother would
+never consent to the marriage, unless the young couple were to live
+alone; nay, he said, with a grain of justice, he thought that had
+been Sir Harry's own view in a former case.  Would he like to see
+Mrs. Poynsett? she is quite ready.
+
+Again Sir Harry quailed at the notion of encountering Mrs. Poynsett;
+but Miles, who had a great idea that his mother could deal with
+everybody, and was the better for doing so, would not let him off,
+and ushered him in, then stood behind her chair, and thoroughly
+enjoyed the grand and yet courteous way in which she reduced to
+nothing Sir Harry's grand beneficence in eking out the young folks'
+income with his own.  She knew very well that even when the estate
+was sold, at the highest estimate, Eleonora would have the barest
+maintenance, and that he could hardly expect what the creditors now
+allowed him, and she made him understand that she knew this, and
+that she had a right to make conditions, since Frank, like her other
+sons, could not enter into possession of his share of his father's
+fortune unless he married with her consent.
+
+And when he spoke of breaking off the engagement, she was callous,
+and said that he must do as he pleased, though after young people
+were grown up, she thought the matter ought to rest with themselves.
+She did not wish her son to marry till his character was more
+confirmed.
+
+He went home very angry, and yet crest-fallen, sought out Eleonora,
+and informed her of his command, that her engagement should be
+broken off.
+
+"I do not know how that can be done, papa," said Eleonora.  "We have
+never exactly made an engagement; we do not want to marry at once,
+and we could not help loving each other if we tried."
+
+"Humph!  And if I laid my commands on you never to marry into that
+family?"
+
+"I do not think you will do that, papa, after your promise to
+Camilla."
+
+She had conquered.  No further objection was made to her being as
+much as she pleased with the Charnocks as long as they remained at
+Rockpier, nor to her correspondence with Frank when he went away,
+not to solitary lodgings as before, but to the London house, which
+Miles and Anne only consented to keep on upon condition of their
+mother sharing it with them.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+The Third Autumn
+
+
+A good man ther was of religion,
+That was a poure Persone of a toune;
+But rich he was of holy thought and work,
+He also was a learned man a clerk.--CHAUCER
+
+Autumn came round again, and brought with it a very different
+September from the last.
+
+Willansborough was in a state of commotion.  That new Vicar had not
+only filled the place with curates, multiplied services in the iron
+church, and carried on the building of St. Nicholas in a style of
+beauty that was quite affronting to those who were never asked to
+contribute to it, but he gave people no peace in their easy
+conventional sins, pricked them in their hearts with personal
+individual stings, and, worse than all, protested against the races,
+as conducted at Wil'sbro'.
+
+And their Member was just as bad!  Captain Charnock Poynsett,
+instead of subscribing, as part of his duty to his constituents, had
+replied by sending his brother Raymond's half-finished letter to the
+club, with an equally strong and resolute one of his own, and had
+published both in all the local papers.
+
+Great was the fury and indignation of Wil'sbro', Backsworth, and all
+the squires around.  Of course it was a delirious fancy of poor
+Raymond Poynsett, and Miles had been worked upon by his puritanical
+wife and ritualistic brother to publish it.  Newspapers teemed with
+abuse of superstition and pharisaism, and praise of this wholesome,
+moral, and 'truly English' sport.  Gentlemen, and ladies too, took
+the remonstrance as a personal offence, and threatened to visit no
+more at Compton; the electors bade him look to his seat, and held
+meetings to invite 'Mr. Simmonds Proudfoot,' as he now called
+himself, to represent them; and the last week, before the races, the
+roughs mobbed him in Water Lane.  He rode quietly through them, with
+his sailor face set as if against a storm, but when he was out of
+the place, he stopped his horse at Herbert Bowater's lodgings, that
+his black eye might be washed, and the streams of rotten egg removed
+from his coat before he presented himself at home.  Not that he had
+much fear of startling his wife and mother.  It was more from the
+Englishman's hatred of showing himself a hero, for Anne was
+perfectly happy in the persecution he had brought on himself, for
+she never had been so sure before that he was not of the world,
+worldly.
+
+The races were exceptionally brilliant, and fully attended, but the
+triumph of the roughs had made them more outrageously disgraceful in
+their conduct than ever; and when Miles went to the quarter-
+sessions, rather doubting whether he should not find himself landed
+in Coventry, not only did the calendar of offences speak for itself,
+but sundry country gentlemen shook him by the hand, lamenting that
+railways and rowdyism had entirely altered races from what they used
+to be, that he was in the right, and what they had seen so recently
+proved that the only thing to be done was to withdraw from what
+respectable people could no longer keep within bounds.  Such
+withdrawal will not prevent them, but it will hinder the
+demoralization from being so extensive as formerly, since no one of
+much character to lose will attend them.
+
+Mr. Bowater rejoiced in Miles's triumph.  None of that family had
+been at these same races.  They had all been much too anxious about
+Herbert not to view Ember Week in a very different light from that
+in which they had thought of it before.
+
+Lent had brought the junior curate back from Strawyers, not much
+more than a convalescent, but with his sister to look after him, and
+both Rector and senior anxious to spare him; he had gone on well
+till the family returned and resumed Jenny, when he was left to his
+own devices, namely, 'all work and no play.'  He was as fixed as
+ever in his resolution of making this a penance year, and believed
+himself so entirety recovered as to be able to do without
+relaxations.  Cricket, riding, dinners, and garden-parties alike he
+had given up, and divided his time entirely between church and
+parish work and study.  Hard reading had never been congenial, and
+took a great deal out of him, and in fact, all his theological study
+had hitherto been little more than task-work, into which he had
+never fully entered, whereas these subjects had now assumed such a
+force, depth, and importance, that he did in truth feel constrained
+to go to the very foundation, and work through everything again,
+moved and affected by them in every fibre of his soul, which
+vibrated now at what it had merely acquiesced in before.  It was a
+phase that had come suddenly on him, when his mind was in full
+vigour of development, and his frame and nerves below par, and the
+effect could not but be severe.  He was wrapped up in these great
+realities, and seemed to care for no talk, except discussing them
+with Julius or the senior curate, and often treated things of common
+life like the dream that they really are.
+
+Julius laid as little parish work on him as possible, only, indeed,
+what seemed actually beneficial by taking him out; but it may be
+feared, that in his present fervid state he was not nearly so
+winning to his young clients as when he was less 'terribly in
+earnest,' although the old women were perhaps more devoted to him,
+from the tender conviction 'that the poor dear young gentleman would
+not be here long.'
+
+For indeed it was true that he had never advanced in strength or
+looks since his return, but rather lost ground, and thus every
+change of weather, or extra exertion, told on him, till in August he
+was caught in a thunder-storm, and the cold that ensued ran on into
+a feverish attack, which barely left him in time for the Ordination,
+and then with a depressed system, and nerves morbidly sensitive.
+
+So sensible (or more than sensible) was he of his deficiencies, that
+he would willingly have held back, and he was hardly well enough to
+do himself justice; but there was no doubt that he would pass, and
+it was plain that three more months of the strain of preparation
+might leave permanent effects on his health.
+
+As it was, the examining chaplain did not recognize the lean, pale,
+anxious man, for the round-faced, rosy, overgrown boy of a year ago.
+His scholarship and critical knowledge were fairly above the mark,
+in spite of a racking headache; and his written sermon, together
+with all that was elicited from him, revealed, all unconsciously to
+himself, what treasures he had brought back from the deep waters
+which had so nearly closed over him.
+
+So superior had he shown himself, that he was appointed to read the
+Gospel, a choice that almost shocked him, knowing that what had made
+him excel had been an experience that the younger men had happily
+missed.  But the mark of approval was compensation to his parents
+and sisters for the disappointment of the last year, and the only
+drawback was fear of the effect of the long ceremonial, so deeply
+felt.
+
+He met them afterwards, very white-faced, with head aching, and
+weary almost beyond speech, but with a wonderfully calm, restful
+look on his face, such as reminded Jenny of those first hours of his
+recovery.
+
+They took him home and put him to bed, and there he lay, hardly
+speaking, and generally sleeping.  There he still was on the Monday,
+when Julius came to inquire after him, and was taken up-stairs at
+once by Jenny, with the greeting, "So the son and heir is come,
+Julius?"
+
+"Yes, and I never saw my mother more exulting.  When Rosamond ran
+down to tell her, she put her arms round her neck and cried.  She
+who never had a tear through all last year.  I met your father and
+mother half-way, and they told me I might come on."
+
+"I think nothing short of such news would have made mamma leave this
+boy," said Jenny; "but she must have her jubilee with Mrs.
+Poynsett."
+
+"And I'm quite well," said Herbert, who had been grasping Julius's
+hand, with a wonderful look in his eyes; "yes, really--the doctor
+said so."
+
+"Yes, he did," said Jenny, "only he said we were to let him alone,
+and that he was not to get up till he felt quite rested."
+
+"And I shall get up to dinner," said Herbert, so sleepily, that
+Julius doubted it.  "I hope to come back before Sunday."
+
+"What does your doctor say to that?"
+
+"He says," replied Jenny, "that this gentleman must be rational;
+that he has nothing the matter with him now, but that he is low, and
+ripe for anything.  Don't laugh, you naughty boy, he said you were
+ripe for anything, and that he must--yes, he _must_--be turned out
+to grass somehow or other for the winter, and do nothing at all."
+
+"I begin to see what you are driving at, Mrs. Joan, you look so
+triumphant."
+
+"_Yes_," said Jenny, blushing a little, and looking quite young
+again; "I believe poor mamma would be greatly reconciled to it, if
+Herbert were to see me out to Natal."
+
+"Is that to be the way?"
+
+"It would be very absurd to make Archie come home again for me,"
+said Jenny.  "And everything else is most happily smoothed for me,
+you know; Edith has come quite to take my place at home; mamma
+learnt to depend on her much more than on me while I was with
+Herbert."
+
+"And it has made her much more of a woman," added Herbert.
+
+"Then you know that full statement poor Mr. Moy put forth when he
+left the place, on his wife's death, quite removed all lingering
+hesitation on papa's part," added Jenny.
+
+"It ought, I am sure!" said Julius.
+
+"So, now, if Herbert will go out with me, it seems to me to be all
+right," said Jenny, colouring deeply, as she made this lame and
+impotent conclusion.
+
+"My father wishes it," said Herbert.  "I believe he meant to see you
+to-day to ask leave of absence for me.  That is what he wishes; but
+I have made up my mind that I ought to resign the curacy--where I
+have never been any use to you--though, if I had been well, I meant
+to have worked a year with you as a priest."
+
+"I don't like to lose you, but I think you are right.  Your
+beginning with me was a mistake.  There is not enough work for three
+of us; but you know Easterby would be delighted to have you at St.
+Nicholas.  He says his most promising people talk of what you said
+to them when they were ill, and he asked me if you could possibly
+come to him."
+
+"I think it would be better to begin in a new place, further from
+home," said Herbert, quietly.
+
+And both knew what he meant, and how hard it would be to be the
+clergyman he had learnt to wish to be, if his mother were at hand to
+be distressed by all he did or did not do.
+
+"But, any way," added Herbert, "I hope to have some time longer at
+Compton before I go.  Next Sunday, if I only _can_."
+
+His mind was evidently full of the Feast of the Sunday, and Julius
+answered, "Whichever Sunday you are strong enough, of course, dear
+fellow.  You had better come with him, Jenny, and sleep at the
+Rectory."
+
+"Oh! thank you.  I should like nothing so much; and I think they
+will spare me that one day."
+
+"You will come in for a grand gathering, that is, if poor Cecil
+accepts.  Miles thinks she ought to be godmother."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"And no one has said a word of any cloud.  It is better he should
+know nothing."
+
+"And oh! Julius, is it true that her father has bought Sirenwood for
+her?"
+
+"Quite true.  You know it was proposed at first, but the trustees
+doubted of the title; but when all that was cleared up, it turned
+out to be a better investment than Swanslea, and so they settled it,
+without much reference to her."
+
+"She will let it, of course?"
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"You don't think she will come to the christening?"
+
+"I cannot tell; Rose has had one or two very sad letters from her.
+She wanted us very much to come to Dunstone, and was much
+disappointed that we were prevented.  I fancy her heart has turned
+to us, and that it is very sore, poor thing."
+
+Julius was right.  Cecil did return an answer, whose warmth quite
+amazed all but Miles and Anne, who thought nothing too much for
+their son; and she gladly came to attend the christening of the
+young Raymond.  Gladly--yes, she was glad to leave Dunstone.  She
+had gone home weary and sick of her lodging and convalescence, and
+hoping to find relief in the home that had once been all-sufficient
+for her, but Dunstone was not changed, and she was.  She had not
+been able to help outgrowing its narrow opinions and formal
+precisions; and when she came home, crushed with her scarcely
+realized grief, nothing there had power to comfort her.
+
+There was soothing at first in her step-mother's kindness, and she
+really loved her father; but their petting admiration soon grew
+oppressive, after the more bracing air of Compton; and their
+idolatry of her little brother fretted and tried her all the more,
+because they thought he must be a comfort to her, and any slight
+from her might be misconstrued.  Mr. Venn's obsequiousness, instead
+of rightful homage, seemed deprivation of support, and she saw no
+one, spoke to no one, without the sense of Raymond's vast
+superiority and her own insensibility to it, loving him a thousand
+times more than she had loved him in life, and mourning him with an
+anguish beyond what the most perfect union would have left.  She had
+nothing to do.  Self-improvement was a mere oppression, and she
+longed after nothing so much as the sight of Rosamond, Anne, Julius,
+or even Frank, and her amiable wishes prevailed to have them invited
+to Dunstone; but at the times specified there were hindrances.  Anne
+had engagements at home, and Rosamond appeared to the rest of the
+family to be a perpetual refuge for stray De Lanceys, while Frank
+had to make up for his long enforced absence by a long unbroken
+spell of work.
+
+Cecil therefore had seen none of the family till she arrived at
+Compton.  She was perfectly well, she said, and had become a great
+walker, and so, indeed, she showed herself, for she went out
+directly after breakfast every morning, and never appeared again
+till luncheon time; and would take long rides in the afternoon.  "It
+was her only chance of sleep," she said, when remonstrated with.
+She did not look ill, but there was a restless, worn air that was
+very distressing on her young features, and was the more piteous to
+her relations, that she was just as constrained as ever in her
+intercourse with them.  She was eagerly attentive to Mrs. Poynsett,
+and evidently so anxious to wait on her that Anne left to her many
+little services, but if they were alone together, they were tongue-
+tied, and never went deeper than surface subjects.  Mrs. Poynsett
+never discussed her, never criticized her, never attempted to fathom
+her, being probably convinced that there was nothing but hard
+coldness to be met with by probing.  Yet there was something
+striking in Cecil's having made people call her Mrs. Raymond
+Poynsett, surrendering the Charnock, which she had once brandished
+in all their faces, and going by the name by which her husband had
+been best known.
+
+To Anne she was passively friendly, and neither gave nor sought
+confidences, and Anne was so much occupied with her baby, and all
+the little household services that had grown on her, as well as with
+her busy husband, that there was little leisure for them; and though
+the meeting with Rosamond was at first the most effusive and
+affectionate of all, afterwards she seemed to avoid tetes-a-tetes
+with her, and was shyer with her than with Anne.
+
+It was Miles that she got on with best.  He had never so fully
+realized the unhappiness of his brother's married life as those who
+had watched it; and he simply viewed her as Raymond's loved and
+loving widow and sincere mourner, and treated her with all brotherly
+tenderness and reverence for her grief; while she responded with a
+cordiality and gratitude which made her, when talking to him, a
+pleasanter person than she had ever been seen at Compton before.
+
+But it was not to Miles, but to Rosamond, that she brought an
+earnest question, walking in one autumn morning to the Rectory, amid
+the falling leaves of the Virginian-creeper, and amazing Rosamond,
+who was writing against time for the Indian mail, by asking--
+
+"Rosamond, will you find out if Mrs. Poynsett would mind my coming
+to live at Sirenwood?"
+
+"You, Cecil!"
+
+"Yes, I'm old enough.  There's no place for me at home, and though I
+must be miserable anywhere, it will be better where I have something
+to do, of some real use to somebody.  I've been walking all round
+every day, and seeing what a state it is in--in the hands of
+creditors all these years."
+
+"But you would be quite alone!"
+
+"I am quite alone as it is."
+
+"And would your father consent?"
+
+"I think he would.  I am a burthen to them now.  They cannot feel my
+grief, nor comfort it, and they don't like the sight of it, though I
+am sure I trouble them with it as little as possible."
+
+"Dear Cecil!" and the ready tears welled up in Rosamond's gray eyes.
+
+"I don't want to talk of it," said Cecil.  "If I felt worthy to
+grieve it would be less dreadful; but it all seems like hypocrisy.
+Rosamond, if you were to lose Julius to-morrow, you would not be as
+unhappy as I am."
+
+"Don't, don't!" cried Rosamond, making a gesture of horror.  "But
+does not coming here make it worse?"
+
+"No, real stabs are better than dull aching; and then you--you,
+Rosamond, did know how it really was, and that I would--I would--"
+
+Cecil wept now as Rosamond had longed to see her weep when she had
+left Compton, and Rosamond spoke from her tender heart of comfort;
+but the outburst did not last long, and Cecil said, recovering
+herself--
+
+"After all, my most peaceful times of late have been in walking
+about in those woods at Sirenwood; I should like to live there.  You
+know _he_ always wished it to be the purchase, because it joins
+Compton, and I should like to get it all into perfect order and
+beauty, and leave it all to little Raymond."
+
+"I should have thought the place would have been full of ghosts."
+
+"I tried.  I made the woman let me in, and I sat where poor Camilla
+used to talk to me, and I thought I was the better for facing it
+out.  The question is whether Mrs. Poynsett will dislike it.  She
+has a right to be consulted."
+
+Perhaps Cecil could not be gracious.  Certainly, Raymond would have
+been thankful for even this admission.
+
+"You wish me to find out?"
+
+"If you would be so good.  I would give it up at once if she has any
+feeling against it, and go somewhere else--and of course she has!
+She never can forget what I did!"
+
+Rosamond caressed Cecil with that sweetness which saw everything in
+the most consoling manner; but when the poor young widow was out of
+sight, there was a revulsion of feeling.
+
+"No, Mrs Poynsett must always feel that that wretched marriage broke
+her son's heart, and murdered him!--murdered him!" said Rosamond to
+herself, clenching that soft fist of hers.  "It ought not to be
+broached to her!"
+
+But Julius--when she stated it to him rather less broadly, but still
+saying that she did not know whether she could bear the sight of
+Cecil, except when she was before her eyes, and how could his mother
+endure her at all--did not see it in the same light.  He thought
+Sirenwood gave duties to Cecil, and that she ought not to be
+hindered from fulfilling them.  And he said his mother was a large-
+minded woman, and not likely to have that personal bitterness
+towards Cecil that both the ladies seemed to expect, as her rival in
+her son's affections, and the means of his unhappiness and death.
+
+He was right; Mrs. Poynsett was touched by finding that Cecil clung
+to them rather than to her sublime family, and especially by the
+design as to little Raymond, though she said that must never be
+mentioned; nothing must bind so young a creature as Cecil, who
+really did not know what love was at all.
+
+"She is afraid the sight of her is distressing to you," said
+Rosamond.
+
+"Poor child, why should she?" said Mrs. Poynsett.  "She was the
+victim of an unsuccessful experiment of my dear boy's, and the
+unsuspecting instrument of poor Camilla's vengeance.  That is all I
+see in her."
+
+"Mrs. Poynsett, how can you!" cried Rosamond, impetuously.  "With
+all I know of her sorrow, I rage at her whenever I am out of sight
+of her."
+
+"I can't do that," said Mrs. Poynsett, half smiling, "any more than
+I could at a doll.  The poor thing was in a false position, and
+nobody was more sorry for her than Raymond himself; but you see he
+had fancied that marriage must bring the one thing it would not in
+that short time."
+
+"It would, if she had not been a little foolish donkey."
+
+"Or if Camilla Tyrrell had let her alone!  It is of no use to rake
+up these things, my dear Rosamond.  Let her come to Sirenwood, and
+do such good as she can there, if it can comfort her.  It was for my
+sake that the unconscious girl was brought here to have her life
+spoilt, and I would not stand in the way of what seems to be any
+relief."
+
+"But is it no pain?" persisted Rosamond.
+
+"No, my dear.  I almost wish it was.  I shall never get on with her;
+but I am glad she should come and be near you all; and Miles likes
+her."
+
+Mr. Charnock demurred at first, and wanted to saddle Cecil with her
+old governess as a companion, but when he found that Mrs. Poynsett
+and Miles made no objection, and remembered that she would be under
+their wing, and would be an inestimable adviser and example to Anne,
+he consented; and Cecil's arrangements were made with startling
+rapidity, so that she was in possession before Christmas, which she
+insisted on spending there.  Dunstone had stereotyped hospitalities,
+which she could not bear, and would not prevent, and now that her
+first year of widowhood was over, the sorrow was not respected,
+while it seemed to her more oppressive than ever.
+
+So there she was in vehement activity; restless rather than
+religious in her beneficence still, though the lesson she had had
+showed itself in her constantly seeking the advice of Miles, who
+thought her the most sensible woman in the world, except his Nan.
+Whether this constant occupation, furnishing, repairing, planning,
+beautifying her model cottages, her school chapel, and all the rest,
+were lessening the heartache, no one knew, but the sharp black eyes
+looked as dry and hard, the lines round the mouth as weary as ever;
+and Rosamond sometimes thought if Sirenwood were not full of ghosts
+to her, she was much like a ghost herself who came
+
+"Hovering around her ancient home,
+   To find no refuge there."
+
+There was another who could not help seeing her somewhat in that
+light, and this was Eleonora Vivian, who had come to Compton to be
+with Frank, when he was at last able to enjoy a well-earned holiday,
+and with ears restored to their natural powers, though he always
+declared that his eight months of deafness had done him more good
+than anything that had ever befallen him in his life.  It had thrown
+him in on his real self, and broken all the unfortunate associations
+of his first year in London.  His first few months, while he was
+still in need of care, had been spent with Miles and Anne, and that
+tender ministry to him which his sister-in-law had begun in his
+illness had been with him when he was tired, dispirited, or beset by
+the trials of a tardy convalescence.  As his interpreter, too, and
+caterer for the pleasures his infirmity allowed, Anne had been
+educating herself to a degree that 'self' improvement never would
+have induced.
+
+And when left alone in London, he was able to take care of himself
+in all ways, and had followed the real leadings of his disposition,
+which his misdirected courtship had interrupted for the time,
+returning to the intellectual pursuits which were likely to be
+beneficial, not only as pleasures, but in an economical point of
+view; and he was half shy, half proud of the profits, such as they
+were, of a few poems and essays which he certainly had not had it in
+him to write before the ordeal he had undergone.
+
+Eleonora's elder sister, Mrs. Fanshaw, had come home from India with
+her husband, newly made a Major-General.  Frank had gone to Rockpier
+early in January, to be introduced to them, and after spending a day
+or two there, to escort Lena to Compton.  Mrs. Poynsett needed but
+one glance to assure her that the two were happier than their wooing
+had ever made them before, save in that one brief moment at Cecil's
+party.  Eleonora looked more beautiful, and the look of wistful pain
+had left her brow, but it had made permanent lines there, as well
+had seemed likely, and though her laugh would never have the abandon
+of Rosamond's, still it was not so very rare, and though she was
+still like a beautiful night, it was a bright moonlight one.
+
+A few private interviews made the cause of the change apparent.  The
+sister, Mary Fanshaw, had something of Camilla's dexterity, but
+having been early married to a good man, she had found its use
+instead of its abuse; and though Lena's trust had come very slowly,
+she had given it at last, and saw that her elders could deal with
+her father as she could never do.  Sir Harry respected the General
+enough to let himself be restrained by him, and the husband and wife
+were ready to take the charge--removing, however, from Rockpier, for
+the religious atmosphere of which they were unprepared, and which
+General Fanshaw thought very dull.  Affairs were in course of being
+wound up on the sale of Sirenwood, and the General had talked to
+Frank, as one of the family, in a way that had proved to him his own
+manhood more than anything that had happened to him.  Out of the
+wreck, nothing remained to the old man, and the portion which had
+been secured by the mother's marriage settlements to younger
+children, though hitherto out of reach, was felt by the daughters to
+be due to the creditors, so that only two thousand pounds apiece had
+been secured to each of them; and this the General consulted Frank
+about appropriating for Sir Harry's use during his lifetime, himself
+retaining the management, so as to secure the attendance of the
+favourite valet, the keeping of a horse, and a fair amount of menus
+plaisirs.
+
+It was also made plain to Frank that Lena's filial duties and
+scruples need no longer stand in the way of the marriage.  Mrs.
+Fanshaw had two girls almost come out, and perhaps she did not wish
+them to be overshadowed by the aunt, who, however retiring, could
+not help being much more beautiful.  So all that remained was that
+Mrs. Poynsett should be willing to supplement Frank's official
+income with his future portion.  She was all the more rejoiced, as
+this visit showed her for the first time what Lena really was when
+brought into the sunshine without dread of what she might hear or
+see, or of harm being done by her belongings; and her gratitude for
+the welcome with which she was received was most touching.
+
+The rest of her family were in course of removing to their new home,
+where Mrs. Fanshaw would be mistress of the house, and so Eleonora's
+stay at Compton was prolonged till the general migration to London,
+which was put off till Easter.  Just before this, Herbert Bowater
+came back from Natal, and walked from Strawyers with all his happy
+dogs, as strong and hearty and as merry as ever; his boyish outlines
+gone, but wholesome sunburn having taken the place of his rosiness,
+and his bonny smile with its old joyousness.  He had married Jenny
+and Archie himself, and stayed a month on their ostrich farm, which
+he declared was a lesson on woman's rights, since Mrs. Ostrich was
+heedless and indifferent as to her eggs, but was regularly hunted
+back to the duties by her husband, who always had two wives, and
+regularly forced them to take turns in sitting; a system which
+Herbert observed would be needful if the rights of women were to
+work.  He had brought offerings of eggs and feathers to Lady
+Rosamond, and pockets full of curiosities for all his village
+friends; also, he had been at the Cape, had seen Glen Fraser,
+rejoiced the inhabitants with his accounts of Anne, and brought home
+a delightful budget for her.
+
+But the special cause of his radiance was a letter he brought from
+his father to Mr. Bindon.  The family living, which had decided his
+own profession, had fallen vacant, and his father, wishing perhaps
+not to be thought cruel and unnatural by his wife, had made no
+appointment until Herbert's return, well knowing that he would
+decide against himself:  and feeling that, as things stood, it would
+be an awkward exercise of patronage to put him in at once.  Herbert
+had declared that nothing would have induced him to accept what he
+persuaded his father to let him offer to James Bindon, whom he had
+found to have an old mother in great need of the comfortable home,
+which, without interest, or any talent save for hard work, he could
+scarcely hope to secure to her.
+
+"And you, Herbert," said Julius, "can I ask you to come back to me,
+now that we shall have a fair amount to do between us?"
+
+Herbert smiled and shook his head, as he took out an advertisement
+for a curate in one of the blackest parishes of the Black Country.
+"I've written to answer that," he said.
+
+Julius did not try to hinder him.  What had been exaggerated had
+parsed away, and he was now a brave man going forth in his strength
+and youth to the service he had learnt to understand; able still
+keenly to enjoy, but only using pleasure as an incidental episode
+for the delight of others, and as subordinate to the true work of
+his life.
+
+He asked for his fellow-worker, Mrs. Duncombe.  There were tidings,
+but disappointing ones.  She had written a long letter to Julius,
+full of her reasons for being received into the Roman Communion,
+where she rapturously declared she had for the first time found
+peace.  Anne and Rosamond took the change most bitterly to heart,
+but Julius, though believing he could have saved her from the
+schism, by showing her the true beauty and efficiency of her own
+Church, could not wonder at this effect of foreign influences on one
+so recently and imperfectly taught, and whose ardent nature required
+strong forms of whatever she took up.  And the letters she continued
+to write to Julius were rapturous in the cause of the Pope and as to
+all that she had once most contemned.  She had taken her children
+with her, but her husband remained tolerant, indifferent, and so
+probably he would do while his health lasted.
+
+Early in the summer Frank and Eleonora were married, and a pretty
+little house in the outskirts of London found for them, suiting with
+the grace of the one and the poetry of the other.  It was a small,
+quiet household, but could pleasantly receive those literary friends
+of Frank's whom he delighted to present to his beautiful and
+appreciative wife, whose sweetness and brightness grew every day
+under the influence of affection and confidence.  The other augury
+of poor Lady Tyrrell, that their holidays would be spent at Compton
+Hall, was fulfilled, but very pleasantly for both parties, for it
+was as much home to Lena as to Frank.
+
+Miles's geniality made all at ease that came near him, and Anne,
+though never a conversational person, was a quietly kind hostess,
+much beloved by all who had experienced her gentleness, and she had
+Frank and Lena to give distinction in their different ways to her
+London parties, as at Compton, Rosamond never failed to give
+everything a charm where she assisted in planning or receiving.
+
+Rosamond would never cease to love society.  Even had she been a
+grandmother she would have fired at the notion of a party, enjoy,
+and render it enjoyable; and the mere announcement of a new face
+would be as stimulating to her as it was the reverse to Anne.  But
+she had grown into such union with her husband, and had so forgotten
+the Rathforlane defence, as to learn that it was pleasanter to do as
+he liked than to try to make him like what she did, and a look of
+disapproval from him would open her eyes to the flaws in any scheme,
+however enchanting at first.
+
+She was too necessary an element in all hospitalities of Cecil or of
+Anne not to get quite as much diversion as so thorough a wife and
+mother could find time for, since Julia did not remain by any means
+an only child, and besides her permanent charge of Terence, relays
+of De Lanceys were constantly casting up at the Rectory for
+mothering in some form or other.
+
+Cecil depended on her more than on any one else for sympathy, not
+expressly in feeling, but in all her pursuits.  In three years' time
+Sirenwood was in perfect order, the once desolate garden blazed with
+ribbons, triangles and pattipans of verbena, scarlet geranium and
+calceolaria, with intervals of echiverias, pronounced by Tom to be
+like cabbages trying to turn into copper kettles; her foliage plants
+got all the prizes at horticultural shows, her poultry were
+incomparable at their exhibitions, her cottages were models, her
+school machinery perfect, and if a pattern in farming apparatus were
+wanted, people went to Mrs. Raymond Poynsett's steward.  She had
+people of note to stay with her every winter, went to London for the
+season, and was made much of, and all the time she looked as little,
+and pinched, and weary, and heart-hungered as ever, and never seemed
+to thaw or warm, clinging to no one but to Miles for counsel, and to
+Rosamond for the fellow-feeling it was not always easy to give--when
+it was apparently only about an orchid or a churn--and yet Rosamond
+tried, for she knew it was starvation for sympathy.
+
+The Charnock world murmured a little when, after a succession of De
+Lancey visitors for four months, the Rectory was invaded by
+Rosamond's eldest brother, Lord Ballybrehon, always the most hair-
+brained of the family, and now invalided home in consequence of a
+concussion of the brain while pigsticking in India.  He was but a
+year older than Rosamond, and her favourite of all, whose scrapes
+she had shared, befriended, defended, and scolded in turn, very
+handsome, very lazily daring, droll and mischievous, a sort of
+concentration of all the other De Lanceys.  His sister loved him
+passionately, he fascinated the Rector, and little Julia was the
+adorer of Uncle Bally.
+
+But Rosamond was rather aghast to find Bally making such love as
+only an Irishman could do to the prim little widow at Sirenwood,
+dismayed and a little bit ashamed of her unspoken conviction that
+Bally, after all his wild freaks and frolics, had come to have an
+eye to the needs of the Rathforlane property; and what were her
+feelings when, instead of finding the wild Irishman contemned, she
+perceived that he was believed in and met fully half way?  The
+stiffness melted, the eyes softened and sparkled, the lips parted in
+soft agitated smiles, the cheeks learnt to blush, and Cecil was
+absolutely and thoroughly in love!
+
+Yes, she had found her heart and was won--won in spite of the
+Dunstone dislike to the beggarly title--in spite of Miles's well-
+considered cautions--in spite of all her original self.  And if
+Ballybrehon began from mere desire to try for the well-endowed
+widow, he had the warm loving nature that was sure to kindle and
+reciprocate the affection he evoked, enough to make him a kind
+husband.
+
+And yet, could any one have wished Cecil Poynsett a more trying life
+than one of her disposition must needs have with impetuous,
+unpunctual, uncertain, scatter-brained, open-handed Ballybrehon,
+always in a scramble, always inviting guests upon guests without
+classification, and never remembering whom he had invited!
+
+Rosamond herself declared she should be either in a rage or worn to
+fritters by a month of it.  How Cecil liked it never appeared.  Some
+thought that they squabbled and worried each other in private, but
+it is certain that, as Terry said, Bally had turned the block into
+living flesh and blood, and Lady Ballybrehon was wondrously
+livelier, brighter, and sweeter ever since she had been entirely
+conquered by the tyrant love, and had ceased to be the slave of her
+own way.
+
+
+
+
+
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