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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Uncle Max, by Rosa Nouchette Carey
+
+
+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: Uncle Max
+
+
+Author: Rosa Nouchette Carey
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 17, 2005  [eBook #16080]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNCLE MAX***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+UNCLE MAX
+
+by
+
+ROSA NOUCHETTE CAREY
+
+Author of 'Nellie's Memories,' 'Wee Wifie,' 'Robert Ord's Atonement,'
+etc.
+
+1894
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+       I. Out of the Mist
+
+      II. Behind the Bars
+
+     III. Cinderella
+
+      IV. Uncle Max Breaks The Ice
+
+       V. 'When The Cat Is Away'
+
+      VI. The White Cottage
+
+     VII. Giles Hamilton, Esq
+
+    VIII. New Brooms Sweep Clean
+
+      IX. The Flag of Truce
+
+       X. A Difficult Patient
+
+      XI. One of God's Heroines
+
+     XII. A Missed Vocation
+
+    XIII. Lady Betty
+
+     XIV. Lady Betty Leaves Her Muff
+
+      XV. Up At Gladwyn
+
+     XVI. Gladys
+
+    XVII. 'Why Not Trust Me, Max?'
+
+   XVIII. Miss Hamilton's Little Scholar
+
+     XIX. The Picture In Gladys's Room
+
+      XX. Eric
+
+     XXI. 'I Ran Away, Then!'
+
+    XXII. 'They Have Blackened His Memory Falsely'
+
+   XXIII. The Mystery at Gladwyn
+
+    XXIV. 'Weeping may endure for a Night'
+
+     XXV. 'There is no one like Donald'
+
+    XXVI. I hear about Captain Hamilton
+
+   XXVII. Max opens his Heart
+
+  XXVIII. Crossing the River
+
+    XXIX. Miss Darrell has a Headache
+
+     XXX. With Timbrels and Dances
+
+    XXXI. Wedding-Chimes
+
+   XXXII. A Fiery Ordeal
+
+  XXXIII. Jack Poynter
+
+   XXXIV. I communicate with Joe Muggins
+
+    XXXV. Nightingales and Roses
+
+   XXXVI. Breakers Ahead
+
+  XXXVII. 'I claim that Promise, Ursula'
+
+ XXXVIII. In the Turret-Room
+
+   XXXIX. Whitefoot is saddled
+
+      XL. The Talk in the Gloaming
+
+     XLI. 'At five o'clock in the Morning'
+
+    XLII. Down the Pemberley Road
+
+   XLIII. 'Conspiracy Corner'
+
+    XLIV. Leah's Confession
+
+     XLV. 'This Home is yours no longer'
+
+    XLVI. Nap barks in the Stable-yard
+
+   XLVII. At last, Ursula, at last!'
+
+  XLVIII. 'What o' the Way to the End?'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+OUT OF THE MIST
+
+
+It appears to me, looking back over a past experience, that certain days
+in one's life stand out prominently as landmarks, when we arrive at some
+finger-post pointing out the road that we should follow.
+
+We come out of some deep, rutty lane, where the hedgerows obscure the
+prospect, and where the footsteps of some unknown passenger have left
+tracks in the moist red clay. The confused tracery of green leaves
+overhead seems to weave fanciful patterns against the dim blue of the
+sky; the very air is low-pitched and oppressive. All at once we find
+ourselves in an open space; the free winds of heaven are blowing over us;
+there are four roads meeting; the finger-post points silently, 'This way
+to such a place'; we can take our choice, counting the mile-stones rather
+wearily as we pass them. The road may be a little tedious, the stones may
+hurt our feet; but if it be the right road it will bring us to our
+destination.
+
+In looking back it always seems to me as though I came to a fresh
+landmark in my experience that November afternoon when I saw Uncle Max
+standing in the twilight, waiting for me.
+
+There had been the waste of a great trouble in my young life,--sorrow,
+confusion, then utter chaos. I had struggled on somehow after my twin
+brother's death, trying to fight against despair with all my youthful
+vitality; creating new duties for myself, throwing out fresh feelers
+everywhere; now and then crying out in my undisciplined way that the
+task was too hard for me; that I loathed my life; that it was impossible
+to live any longer without love and appreciation and sympathy; that so
+uncongenial an atmosphere could be no home to me; that the world was an
+utter negation and a mockery.
+
+That was before I went to the hospital, at the time when my trouble was
+fresh and I was breaking my heart with the longing to see Charlie's face
+again. Most people who have lived long in the world, and have parted with
+their beloved, know what that sort of hopeless ache means.
+
+My work was over at the hospital, and I had come home again,--to rest, so
+they said, but in reality to work out plans for my future life, in a sort
+of sullen silence, that seemed to shut me out from all sympathy.
+
+It had wrapped me in a sort of mantle of reserve all the afternoon,
+during which I had been driving with Aunt Philippa and Sara. The air
+would do me good. I was moped, hipped, with all that dreary hospital
+work, so they said. It would distract and amuse me to watch Sara making
+her purchases. Reluctance, silent opposition, only whetted their
+charitable mood.
+
+'Don't be disagreeable, Ursula. You might as well help me choose my new
+mantle,' Sara had said, quite pleasantly, and I had given in with a bad
+grace.
+
+Another time I might have been amused by Aunt Philippa's majestic
+deportment and Sara's brisk importance, her girlish airs and graces; but
+I was too sad at heart to indulge in my usual satire. Everything seemed
+stupid and tiresome; the hum of voices wearied me; the showroom at
+Marshall and Snelgrove's seemed a confused Babel,--everywhere strange
+voices, a hubbub of sound, tall figures in black passing and repassing,
+strange faces reflected in endless pier-glasses,--faces of puckered
+anxiety repeating themselves in ludicrous _vrai-semblance_.
+
+I saw our own little group reproduced in one. There was Aunt Philippa,
+tall and portly, with her well-preserved beauty, a little full-blown
+perhaps, but still 'marvellously' good-looking for her age, if she could
+only have not been so conscious of the fact.
+
+Then, Sara, standing there slim and straight, with the furred mantle just
+slipping over her smooth shoulders, radiant with good health, good looks,
+perfectly contented with herself and the whole world, as it behooves a
+handsome, high-spirited young woman to be with her surroundings, looking
+bright, unconcerned, good-humoured, in spite of her mother's fussy
+criticisms: Aunt Philippa was always a little fussy about dress.
+
+Between the two I could just catch a glimpse of myself,--a tall
+girl, dressed very plainly in black, with a dark complexion, large,
+anxious-looking eyes, that seemed appealing for relief from all this
+dulness,--a shadowy sort of image of discontent and protest in the
+background, hovering behind Aunt Philippa's velvet mantle and Sara's
+slim supple figure.
+
+'Well, Ursula,' said Sara, still good-humouredly, 'will you not give us
+your opinion? Does this dolman suit me, or would you prefer a long jacket
+trimmed with skunk?'
+
+I remember I decided in favour of the jacket, only Aunt Philippa
+interposed, a little contemptuously,--
+
+'What does Ursula know about the present fashion? She has spent the last
+year in the wards of St. Thomas's, my dear,' dropping her voice, and
+taking up her gold-rimmed eye-glasses to inspect me more critically,--a
+mere habit, for I had reason to know Aunt Philippa was not the least
+near-sighted. 'I cannot see any occasion for you to dress so dowdily,
+with three hundred a year to spend absolutely on yourself; for of course
+poor Charlie's little share has come to you. You could surely make
+yourself presentable, especially as you know we are going to Hyde Park
+Mansions to see Lesbia.'
+
+This was too much for my equanimity. 'What does it matter? I am not
+coming with you, Aunt Philippa,' I retorted, somewhat vexed at this
+personality; but Sara overheard us, and strove to pour oil on the
+troubled waters.
+
+'Leave Ursula alone, mother: she looks tolerably well this afternoon;
+only mourning never suits a dark complexion--' But I did not wait to
+hear any more. I wandered about the place disconsolately, pretending to
+examine things with passing curiosity, but my eyes were throbbing and my
+heart beating angrily at Sara's thoughtless speech. A sudden remembrance
+seemed to steal before me vividly: Charlie's pale face, with its sad,
+sweet smile, haunted me. 'Courage, Ursula; it will be over soon.' Those
+were his last words, poor boy, and he was looking at me and not at Lesbia
+as he spoke. I always wondered what he meant by them. Was it his long
+pain, which he had borne so patiently, that would soon be over? or was
+it that cruel parting to which he alluded? or did he strive to comfort
+me at the last with the assurance--alas! for our mortal nature, so sadly
+true--that pain cannot last for ever, that even faithful sorrow is
+short-lived and comforts itself in time, that I was young enough to
+outlive more than one trouble, and that I might take courage from this
+thought?
+
+I looked down at the black dress, such as I had worn nearly two years
+for him, and raged as I remembered Sara's flippant words. 'My darling,
+I would wear mourning for you all my life gladly,' I said, with an inward
+sob that was more anger than sorrow, 'if I thought you would care for me
+to do it. Oh, what a world this is, Charlie! surely vanity and vexation
+of spirit!'
+
+I did not mean to be cross with Sara, but my thoughts had taken a gloomy
+turn, and I could not recover my spirits: indeed, as we drove down Bond
+Street, where Sara had some glittering little toy to purchase, I
+reiterated my intention of not calling at Hyde Park Mansions.
+
+'I do not want any tea,' I said wearily, 'and I would rather go home.
+Give my love to Lesbia; I will see her another day.'
+
+'Lesbia will be hurt,' remonstrated Sara. 'What a little misanthrope you
+are, Ursula! St. Thomas's has injured you socially; you have become a
+hermit-crab all at once, and it is such nonsense at your age.'
+
+'Oh, let me be, Sara!' I pleaded; 'I am tired, and Lesbia always chatters
+so; and Mrs. Fullerton is worse. Besides, did you not tell me she was
+coming to dine with us this evening?'
+
+'Yes, to be sure; but she wanted us to meet the Percy Glyns. Mirrel and
+Winifred Glyn are to be there this afternoon. Never mind, Lesbia will
+understand when I say you are in one of your ridiculous moods.' And Sara
+hummed a little tune gaily, as though she meant no offence by her words
+and was disposed to let me go my own way.
+
+'The carriage can take you home, Ursula; we can walk those few yards,'
+observed Aunt Philippa, as she descended leisurely, and Sara tripped
+after her, still humming. But I took no notice of her words: I had had
+enough dulness and decorum to last me for some time, and the Black Prince
+and his consort Bay might find their way to their own stables without
+depositing me at the front door of the house at Hyde Park Gate. I told
+Clarence so, to his great astonishment, and walked across the road in an
+opposite direction to home, as though my feet were winged with
+quicksilver.
+
+For the Park in that dim November light seemed to allure me; there was
+a red glow of sunset in the distance; a faint, climbing mist between the
+trees; the gas-lamps were twinkling everywhere. I could hear the ringing
+of some church bell; there was space, freedom for thought, a vague,
+uncertain prospect, out of which figures were looming curiously,--a
+delightful sense that I was sinning against conventionality and Aunt
+Philippa.
+
+'Halloo, Ursula!' exclaimed a voice in great astonishment; and there, out
+of the mist, was a kind face looking at me,--a face with a brown beard,
+and dark eyes with a touch of amusement in them; and the eyes and the
+beard and the bright, welcoming smile belonged to Uncle Max.
+
+As I caught at his outstretched hand with a half-stifled exclamation
+of delight, a policeman turned round and looked at us with an air of
+interest. No doubt he thought the tall brown-bearded clergyman in the
+shabby coat--it was one of Uncle Max's peculiarities to wear a shabby
+coat occasionally--was the sweetheart of the young lady in black. Uncle
+Max--I am afraid I oftener called him Max--was only a few years older
+than myself, and had occupied the position of an elder brother to me.
+
+He was my poor mother's only brother, and had been dearly loved by
+her,--not as I had loved Charlie, perhaps; but they had been much to each
+other, and he had always seemed nearer to me than Aunt Philippa, who was
+my father's sister; perhaps because there was nothing in common between
+us, and I had always been devoted to Uncle Max.
+
+'Well, Ursula,' he said, pretending to look grave, but evidently far too
+pleased to see me to give me a very severe lecture, 'what is the meaning
+of this? Does Mrs. Garston allow young ladies under her charge to stroll
+about Hyde Park in the twilight? or have you stolen a march on her,
+naughty little she-bear?'
+
+I drew my hand away with an offended air: when Uncle Max wished to tease
+or punish me he always reminded me that the name of Ursula signified
+she-bear, and would sometimes call me 'the little black growler'; and at
+such times it was provoking to think that Sara signified princess. I have
+always wondered how far and how strongly our baptismal names influence
+us. Of course he would not let me walk beside him in that dignified
+manner: the next instant I heard his clear hearty laugh, and then I
+laughed too.
+
+'What an absurd child you are! I was thinking over your letter as I
+walked along. It did not bring me to London, certainly; I had business of
+my own; but, all the same, I have walked across the Park this evening to
+talk to you about this extraordinary scheme.'
+
+But I would not let him go on. He was about to cross the road, so I took
+his arm and turned him back. And there was the gray mist creeping up
+between the trees, and the lamps glimmering in the distance, and the
+faint pink glow had not yet died away.
+
+'It is so quiet here,' I pleaded, 'and I could not get you alone for a
+moment if we went in. Uncle Brian will be there, and Jill, and we could
+not say a word. Aunt Philippa and Sara have gone to see Lesbia. I have
+been driving with them all the afternoon. Sara has been shopping, and how
+bored I was!'
+
+'You uncivilised little heathen!' Then, very gravely, 'Well, how is poor
+Lesbia?'
+
+'Do not waste your pity on her,' I returned impatiently. 'She is as well
+and cheerful as possible. Even Sara says so. She is not breaking her
+heart about Charlie. She has left off mourning, and is as gay as ever.'
+
+'You are always hard on Lesbia,' he returned gently. 'She is young,
+my dear, you forget that, and a pretty girl, and very much admired.
+It always seems to me she was very fond of the poor fellow.'
+
+'She was good to him in his illness, but she never cared for Charlie as
+he did for her. He worshipped the very ground she walked on. He thought
+her perfection. Uncle Max, it was pitiful to hear him sometimes. He would
+tell me how sweet and unselfish she was, and all the time I knew she was
+but an ordinary, commonplace girl. If he had lived to marry her he would
+have been disappointed in her. He was so large-hearted, and Lesbia has
+such little aims.'
+
+'So you always say, Ursula. But you women are so severe in your judgment
+of each other. I doubt myself if the girl lives whom you would have
+considered good enough for Charlie. Yes, yes, my dear,'--as I uttered a
+dissenting protest to this,--'he was a fine fellow, and his was a most
+lovable character; but it was his last illness that ripened him.'
+
+'He was always perfect in my eyes,' I returned, in a choked voice.
+
+'That was because you loved him; and no doubt Lesbia possessed the same
+ideal goodness for him. Love throws its own glamour,' he went on, and
+his voice was unusually grave; 'it does not believe in commonplace
+mediocrity; it lifts up its idol to some fanciful pedestal, where the
+poor thing feels very uncomfortable and out of its element, and then
+persists in falling down and worshipping it. We humans are very droll,
+Ursula: we will create our own divinities.'
+
+'Lesbia would have disappointed him,' I persisted obstinately; but I
+might as well have talked to the wind. Uncle Max could not find it in
+his heart to be hard to a pretty girl.
+
+'That is open to doubt, my dear. Lesbia is amiable and charming, and I
+daresay she would have made a nice little wife. Poor Charlie hated clever
+women, and in that respect she would have suited him.'
+
+After this I knew it was no good in trying to change his opinion. Uncle
+Max held his own views with remarkable tenacity; he had old-fashioned
+notions with respect to women, rather singular in so young a man,--for he
+was only thirty; he preferred to believe in their goodness, in spite of
+any amount of demonstration to the contrary; it vexed him to be reminded
+of the shortcomings of his friends; by nature he was an optimist, and had
+a large amount of faith in people's good intentions. 'He meant well, poor
+fellow, in spite of his failures,' was a speech I have heard more than
+once from his lips. He was always ready to condone a fault or heal a
+breach; indeed, his sweet nature found it difficult to bear a grudge
+against any one; he was only hard to himself, and on no one else did he
+strive to impose so heavy a yoke. I was only silent for a minute, and
+then I turned the conversation into another channel.
+
+'But my letter, Uncle Max!'
+
+'Ah, true, your letter; but I have not forgotten it. How old are you,
+Ursula? I always forget.'
+
+'Five-and-twenty this month.'
+
+'To be sure; I ought to have remembered. And you have three hundred a
+year of your own.'
+
+I nodded.
+
+'And your present home is distasteful to you?' in an inquiring tone.
+
+'It is no home to me,' I returned passionately. 'Oh, Uncle Max, how can
+one call it home after the dear old rectory, where we were so happy,
+father, and mother, and Charlie--and--'
+
+'Yes, I know, poor child; and you have had heavy troubles. It cannot be
+like the old home, I am well aware of that, Ursula; but your aunt is a
+good woman. I have always found her strictly just. She was your father's
+only sister: when she offered you a home she promised to treat you with
+every indulgence, as though you were her own daughter.'
+
+'Aunt Philippa means to be kind,' I said, struggling to repress my
+tears,--tears always troubled Uncle Max: 'she is kind in her way, and so
+is Sara. I have every comfort, every luxury; they want me to be gay and
+enjoy myself, to lead their life; but it only makes me miserable; they do
+not understand me; they see I do not think with them, and then they laugh
+at me and call me morbid. No one really wants me but poor Jill: I am so
+fond of Jill.'
+
+'Why cannot you lead their life, Ursula?'
+
+'Because it is not life at all,' was my resolute answer: 'to me it is the
+most wearisome existence possible. Listen to me, Uncle Max. Do you think
+I could possibly spend my days as Sara does,--writing a few notes, doing
+a little fancy-work, shopping and paying visits, and dancing half the
+night? Do you think you could transform such a poor little Cinderella
+into a fairy princess, like Sara or Lesbia? No; the drudgery of such a
+life would kill me with _ennui_ and discontent.'
+
+'It is not the life I would choose for you, certainly,' he said, pulling
+his beard in some perplexity: 'it is far too worldly to suit my taste; if
+Charlie had lived you would have made your home with him. He often talked
+to me about that, poor fellow. I thought a year or two at Hyde Park Gate
+would do you no harm, and might be wholesome training; but it has proved
+a failure, I see that.'
+
+'They would be happier without me,' I went on, more quietly, for he was
+evidently coming round to my view of the case. 'Aunt Philippa does not
+mean to be unkind, but she often lets me see that I am in the way, that
+she is not proud of me. She would have taken more interest in me if I had
+been handsome, like Sara; but a plain, dowdy niece is not to her taste.
+No, let me finish, Uncle Max,'--for he wanted to interrupt me here.
+'They made a great fuss about my training at the hospital last year,
+but I am sure they did not miss me; Sara spoke yesterday as though she
+thought I was going back to St. Thomas's, and Aunt Philippa made no
+objection. I heard her tell Mrs. Fullerton once "that really Ursula was
+so strong-minded and different from other girls that she was prepared for
+anything, even for her being a female doctor."'
+
+'Well, my dear, you are certainly rather peculiar, you know.'
+
+'Oh, Uncle Max,' I said mournfully, 'are you going to misunderstand me
+too? Providence has deprived me of my parents and my only brother: is it
+strong-minded or peculiar to be so lonely and sad at heart that gaiety
+only jars on me? Can I forget my mother's teaching when she said,
+"Ursula, if you live for the world you will be miserable. Try to do your
+duty and benefit your fellow-creatures, and happiness must follow"?'
+
+'Yes, poor Emmie, she was a good woman: you might do worse than take
+after her.'
+
+'She would not approve of the life I am leading at Hyde Park Gate,' I
+went on. 'She and Aunt Philippa never cared for each other. I often think
+that if she had known she would not have liked me to be there. Sundays
+are wretched. We go to church?--yes, because it is respectable to do so;
+but there is a sort of reunion every Sunday evening.'
+
+'I wish I could offer you a home, Ursula; but--' here Uncle Max
+hesitated.
+
+'That would not do at all,' I returned promptly. 'Your bachelor home
+would not do for me; besides, you might marry--of course you will,' but
+he flushed rather uncomfortably at that, and said, 'Pshaw! what
+nonsense!' We had paused under a lamp-post, and I could see him plainly:
+perhaps he knew this, for he hurried me on, this time in the direction of
+home.
+
+'I am five-and-twenty,' I continued, trying to collect the salient points
+of my argument. 'I am indebted to none for my maintenance; I am free, and
+my own mistress; I neglect no duty by refusing to live under Uncle
+Brian's roof; no one wants me; I contribute to no one's happiness.'
+
+'Except to Jill's,' observed Uncle Max.
+
+'Jill! but she is only a child, barely sixteen, and Sara is becoming
+jealous of my influence. I shall only breed dissension in the household
+if I remain. Uncle Max, you are a good man,--a clergyman; you cannot
+conscientiously tell me that I am not free to lead my own life, to choose
+my own work in the world.'
+
+'Perhaps not,' he replied, in a hesitating voice. 'But the scheme is a
+peculiar one. You wish me to find respectable lodgings in my parish,
+where you will be independent and free from supervision, and to place
+your superfluous health and strength--you are a muscular Christian,
+Ursula--at the service of my sick poor, and for this post you have
+previously trained yourself.'
+
+'I think it will be a good sort of life,' I returned carelessly, but how
+my heart was beating! 'I like it so much, and I should like to be near
+you, Uncle Max, and work under you as my vicar. I have thought about this
+for years. Charlie and I often talked of it. I was to live with him and
+Lesbia and devote my time to this work. He thought it such a nice idea
+to go and nurse poor people in their homes. And he promised that he
+would come and sing to them. But now I must carry out my plan alone, for
+Charlie cannot help me now.' And as I thought of the sympathy that had
+never failed me my voice quivered and I could say no more.
+
+'I wish we were all in heaven,' growled Uncle Max,--but his tone was a
+little husky,--'for this world is a most uncomfortable place for good
+people, or people with a craze. I think Charlie is well out of it.'
+
+'Under which category do you mean to place me?' I asked, trying to laugh.
+
+'My dear, there is a craze in most women. They have such an obstinate
+faith in their own good intentions. If they find half a dozen fools to
+believe in them, they will start a crusade to found a new Utopia. Women
+are the most meddlesome things in creation: they never let well alone.
+Their pretty little fingers are in every human pie. That is why we get so
+much unwholesome crust and so little meat, and, of course, our digestion
+is ruined.'
+
+'Uncle Max--' But he would not be serious any longer.
+
+'Ursula, I utterly refuse to inhale any more of this mist. I think a
+comfortable arm-chair by the fire would be far more conducive to comfort.
+You have given me plenty of food for thought, and I mean to sleep on it.
+Now, not another word. I am going to ring the bell.' And Uncle Max was as
+good as his word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+BEHIND THE BARS
+
+
+It was quite true, as I had told Uncle Max, that the scheme had been no
+new one; it was no sudden emanation from a girl's brain, morbid with
+discontent and fruitless longings; it had grown with my youth and had
+become part of my environment. As a child the thought had come to me as
+I followed my father into one cottage after another in his house-to-house
+visitation. He had been a conscientious, hard-working clergyman; in fact,
+his work killed him, for he overtasked a constitution that was not
+naturally strong. I accompanied my mother, too, in her errands of mercy,
+and saw a great deal of the misery engendered by drink, ignorance, and
+want of forethought. In the case of the sick poor, the gross
+mismanagement and want of cleanly and thrifty habits led to an amount
+of discomfort and suffering that even now makes me shudder. The parish
+was overgrown and insufficiently worked; the greater part of the
+population belonged to the working-classes; dissenting chapels and
+gin-palaces flourished. Often did my childish heart ache at the
+surroundings of some squalid home, where the parents toiled all day for
+worse than naught, just to satisfy their unhealthy cravings, while the
+children grew up riotous, half starved, and full of inherited vices.
+There was a little child I saw once, a cripple, dying slowly of some sad
+spinal disease, lying in a dark corner, on what seemed to me a heap of
+rags. Oh, God, I can see that child's face now! I remember when we heard
+of its death my mother burst into tears. They were tears of joy, she told
+me afterwards, that another suffering child's life was ended; 'and there
+are hundreds and hundreds of these little creatures, Ursula,' she said,
+'growing up in sin and misery; and the world goes on, and people eat and
+drink and are merry, for it is none of their business, and yet it is not
+the will of the Father that one of these little ones should perish.'
+
+I had learned much from my father, but still more from my mother.
+Uncle Max had called her a good woman, but she was more than that:
+she possessed one of those rare unselfish natures that cannot remain
+satisfied with their own personal happiness: they wish to include
+the whole world. She wanted to inculcate in me her own spirit of
+self-sacrifice. I can remember some of her short, trenchant sentences
+now.
+
+'Never mind happiness: that is God's gift to a few: do your duty.'
+
+'If you have loved your fellow-creatures sufficiently you will not be
+afraid to die. A good conscience will smooth your pillow.'
+
+And once, in her last illness, when Charlie asked if she were
+comfortable, 'Not very, but I shall soon be quite comfortable, for I
+shall hope to forget in heaven how little I have done, after all, here;
+and yet I always wanted to help others.'
+
+Oh, how good she was! And Charlie was good too, after the fashion of
+young men: not altogether thoughtless, full of the promptings of his kind
+heart; but Uncle Max was right when he said his last illness had ripened
+him: it was not the old careless Charlie who had wooed Lesbia who lay
+there: it was another and a better Charlie.
+
+In the old days he had rallied me in a brotherly manner on my
+old-fashioned, grave ways. 'You are not a modern young lady, Ursie,' he
+would say; and he would often call me 'grandmother Ursula'; but all the
+same he would listen to my plans with the utmost tolerance and good
+nature.
+
+Ah, those talks in the twilight, before the fatal disease developed
+itself, and he lay in idle fashion on the couch with his arms under his
+head, while I sat on the footstool or on the rug in the firelight! We
+were to live together,--yes, that was always the dream; even when
+Lesbia's fair face came between us, he would not hear of any difference.
+I was to live with him and Lesbia, Lesbia was rich, and, though Charlie
+had little, they were to marry soon.
+
+I was to form a part of that luxurious household, but my time was to be
+my own, and I was to devote it to the sick poor of Rutherford. 'Mind,
+Ursula, you may work, but I will not have you overwork,' Charlie had once
+said, more decidedly than usual; 'you must come home for hours of rest
+and refreshment. You have a beautiful voice, and it shall be properly
+trained; you may sing to your invalids as much as you like, and sometimes
+I will come and sing too; but you must remember you have social duties,
+and I shall expect you to entertain our friends.' And it was the idea of
+this dual life of home sympathy and outside work that had so strongly
+seized upon my imagination.
+
+When Charlie died I was too sick at heart to carry out my plan. 'How can
+one work alone?' I would say sorrowfully to myself; but after a time the
+emptiness of my life and dissatisfaction with my surroundings brought
+back the old thoughts.
+
+I remembered the dear old rectory life, where every one was in earnest,
+and contrasted it with the trifling pursuits that my aunt and cousin
+called duties. My present existence seemed to shut me in like prison
+bars. Only to be free, to choose my own life! And then came emancipation
+in the shape of hard hospital work, when health and spirits returned to
+me; when, under the stimulus of useful employment and constant exercise
+of body and mind, I slept better, fretted less, and looked less
+mournfully out on the world. Uncle Max was right when he said a year
+at St. Thomas's would save me.
+
+By and by the idea dawned upon me that I might still carry out my plan;
+there were poor people at Heathfield, where Uncle Max's parish was. What
+should hinder me from living there under Uncle Max's wing and trying to
+combine the two lives, as Charlie wished?
+
+I was young, full of activity. I did not wish to shut myself out from my
+kind. I could discharge my duties to my own class and enjoy a moderate
+amount of pleasure. I was young enough to desire that; but the greater
+part of my time would be placed at the disposal of my poorer neighbours.
+People might think it singular at first, but they would not talk for
+ever, and the life would be a happy one to me.
+
+All this had been said in that voluminous letter of mine to Uncle Max;
+he might argue and shake his head over it, thereby proving himself a
+wise man, but he could not but know that I was absolutely under my own
+control, as far as a woman could be. I need ask no one's advice in the
+disposal of my own life; his own and Uncle Brian's guardianship was
+merely nominal now. After five-and-twenty I was declared my own
+mistress in every sense of the word.
+
+Uncle Brian came out to meet us as soon as he heard Uncle Max's voice
+in the hall; the two were very great friends, and they shook hands
+cordially.
+
+'Glad to see you, Cunliffe; why did you not let us know that you were
+coming up to town? We could have put you up easily--eh, Ursula?'
+
+'Yes, indeed, Uncle Brian'; and then I added coaxingly, 'Do please send
+for your portmanteau, Uncle Max; you know Lesbia is coming this evening,
+and you are such a favourite with her.' I knew this would be a strong
+inducement, for Uncle Max's soft heart would insist on treating Lesbia
+as though she were a widowed princess.
+
+'All right,' he returned in his lazy way, and then I took the matter into
+my own hands by leaving the room at once to consult with Mrs. Martin,
+Aunt Philippa's housekeeper. As I closed the door I glanced back for
+another look at Uncle Max. He had thrown himself into an easy-chair, as
+though he were tired, and was leaning back with his hands under his head
+in Charlie's fashion, looking up at Uncle Brian, who was standing on the
+rug.
+
+I always thought Uncle Brian a very handsome man. He had clear, well-cut
+features and a gray moustache, and he was quiet and dignified. He always
+looked to me, with his brown complexion, more like an Indian officer than
+a wealthy banker. There was nothing commercial in his appearance; but I
+should have admired him more if he had been less cold and repressive in
+manner; but he was an undemonstrative man, even to his own children.
+
+I remember hinting this once to Uncle Max, and he had rebuked me more
+severely than he had ever done before.
+
+'I do not like young girls like you, Ursula, to be so critical about
+their elders. Garston is an excellent fellow; he has plenty of brains,
+and always does the right thing, however difficult it may be. Men are not
+like women, my dear: they often hide their deepest feelings. Your poor
+uncle has never been quite the same man since Ralph's death, and just as
+he was getting over his boy's loss a little he had a fresh disappointment
+with Charlie: he always meant to put him in Ralph's place.'
+
+I was a little ashamed of my criticism when Max said this. I felt I had
+not made sufficient allowance for Uncle Brian: the death of his only son
+must have been a dreadful blow. Ralph had died at Oxford; they said he
+had overworked himself in trying for honours and then had taken a chill.
+He was a fine, handsome young fellow, nearly two-and-twenty, and his
+father's idol: no wonder Uncle Brian had grown so much older and graver
+during the last few years.
+
+And he had been fond of Charlie, and had meant to have him in Ralph's
+place; my poor boy would have been a rich one if he had lived. Uncle
+Brian had taken him into the bank, and Lesbia and her fortune were
+promised to him, but the goodly heritage was snatched away before his
+eyes, and he was called away in the fresh bloom of his youth.
+
+I always thought Uncle Brian liked Max better than any other man: he
+was always less stiff and frigid in his presence. I could hear his low
+laugh--Uncle Brian never laughed loudly--as I closed the door; Max had
+said something that amused him. They would be quite happy without me,
+so I ran up to the schoolroom on the chance of getting a chat with Jill.
+
+The schoolroom was on the second floor, where Jill, I, and Fräulein all
+slept. Sara had a handsome room next to her mother's, and a little
+boudoir furnished most daintily for her special use. I do not believe
+she ever sat in it, unless she had a cold or was otherwise ailing; the
+drawing-room was always full of company, and Sara was the life of the
+house. I used to peep in at the pretty room sometimes as I went up to
+bed; there were few notes written at the inlaid escritoire, and the
+handsomely-bound books were never taken down from the shelves. Draper,
+Aunt Philippa's maid, fed the canaries and dusted the cabinets of china.
+Sometimes Sara would trip into the room with one of her cronies for a
+special chat; the ripple of their girlish laughter would reach us as Jill
+and I sat together. 'Whom has Sara got with her this afternoon?' Jill
+would say peevishly. 'Do listen to them; they do nothing but laugh. If
+Fräulein had set her all these exercises she would not feel quite so
+merry,' Jill would finish, throwing the obnoxious book from her with a
+little burst of impatience.
+
+I always pitied Jill for having to spend her days in such a dull room;
+the furniture was ugly, and the windows looked out on a dismal back-yard,
+with the high walls of the opposite building. Aunt Philippa, who was a
+rigid disciplinarian with her young daughter, always said that she had
+chosen the room 'because Jill would have nothing to distract her from her
+studies.' The poor child would put up her shoulders at this remark and
+draw down the corners of her lips in a way that would make Aunt Philippa
+scold her for her awkwardness. 'You need not make yourself plainer than
+you are, Jocelyn,' she would say severely; for Jill's awkward manners
+troubled her motherly vanity. 'What is the good of all the dancing and
+drilling and riding with Captain Cooper if you will persist in hunching
+your shoulders as though you were deformed? Fräulein has been complaining
+of you this morning; she seems excessively displeased at your
+carelessness and want of application.' 'I know I shall get stupid, shut
+up in that dull hole with Fräulein,' Jill would say passionately, after
+one of these maternal lectures. Aunt Philippa was really very fond of
+Jill; but she misunderstood the girl's nature. The system had answered
+ so well with Sara that she could not be brought to comprehend why it
+should fail with her other child. Sara had grown up blooming and radiant
+in spite of the depressing influences of Fräulein and the dull, narrow
+schoolroom. Her music and singing masters had come to her there. Little
+Madame Blanchard had chirped to her in Parisian accent for the hour
+together over _les modes_ and _le beau Paris_. Sara had danced and
+drilled with the other young ladies at Miss Dugald's select
+establishment, and had joined them at the riding-school or in the
+cavalcade under Captain Cooper.
+
+Sara had worn her bondage lightly, and had fascinated even grim old Herr
+Schliefer. Her tact and easy adaptability had kept Fräulein Sonnenschein
+in a state of tepid good-humour. Every one, even cross old Draper,
+idolised Sara for her beauty and sprightly ways. When Aunt Philippa
+declared her education finished, she tripped out of the schoolroom as
+happily as possible to take possession of her grand new bedroom and the
+little boudoir, where all her girlish treasures were arranged. She had
+not been the least impatient for her day of freedom: it would all come in
+good time. When the sceptre was put into her hands and her sovereignty
+acknowledged by the whole household, the young princess was not a bit
+excited. She put on her court dress and made her courtesy to her majesty
+with the same charming unconsciousness and ease of manner. No wonder
+people were charmed with such good-humour and freshness. If the glossy
+hair did not cover a large amount of brains, no one found fault with her
+for that.
+
+Jill raged and stormed fiercely under Sara's light-hearted philosophy;
+when her sister told her to be patient under Fräulein's yoke, that a good
+time was coming for her also, when lesson-books would be shut up, and
+Herr Schliefer would cease to scatter snuff on the carpet as he sat
+drumming with his fingers on the keyboard and grunting out brief
+interjections of impatience.
+
+'What does it matter about Herr Schliefer?' Jill would say, in a sort of
+fury. 'I like him a hundred times better than I do that mincing little
+poll-parrot of a Madame Blanchard: she is odious, and I hate her, and I
+hate Fräulein too. It is not the lessons I mind; one has to learn lessons
+all one's life; it is being shut up like a bird in a cage when one's
+wings are ready for flight. I should like to fly away from this room,
+from Fräulein, from the whole of the horrid set; it makes me cross,
+wicked, to live like this, and all your sugar-plums will do me no good.
+Go away, Sara; you do not understand as Ursula does, it makes me feel bad
+to see you standing there, looking so pretty and happy, and just laughing
+at me.'
+
+'Of course I laugh at you, Jocelyn, when you behave like a baby,'
+returned Sara, trying to be severe, only her dimples betrayed her. 'Well,
+as you are so cross, I shall go away. There is the chocolate I promised
+you. Ta-ta.' And Sara put down the _bonbonnière_ on the table and walked
+out of the room.
+
+I was not surprised to see Jill push it away. No one understood the poor
+child but myself; she was precocious, womanly, for her age; she had
+twenty times the amount of brains that Sara possessed, and she was
+starving on the education provided for her.
+
+To dance and drill and write dreary German exercises, when one is
+thirsting to drink deeply at the well of knowledge; to go round and round
+the narrow monotonous course that had sufficed for Sara's moderate
+abilities, like the blind horse at the mill, and never to advance an inch
+out of the beaten track, this was simply maddening to Jill's sturdy
+intellect. She often told me how she longed to attend classes, to hear
+lectures, to rub against full-grown minds.
+
+'Now. Me-ess Jocelyn, we will do a little of ze Wallenstein, by the
+immortal Schiller. Hold up the head, and leave off striking the table
+with your elbows.' Jill would give a droll imitation of Fräulein, and
+end with a groan.
+
+'What does she know-about Schiller? She cannot even comprehend him. She
+is dense,--utterly dense and stupid; but because she knows her own
+language and has a correct deportment she is fit to teach me.' And Jill
+ground her little white teeth in impotent wrath. Jill always appeared to
+me like an infant Pegasus in harness; she wanted to soar,--to make use of
+her wings,--and they kept her down. She was not naturally gay, like Sara,
+though her health was good, and she was as powerful as a young Amazon.
+Her nature was more sombre and took colour from her surroundings.
+
+She was like a child in the sunshine; plenty of life and movement
+distracted her from interior broodings and made her joyous; when she was
+riding with the young ladies from Miss Dugald's, she would be as merry as
+the others.
+
+But her dreary schoolroom and Fräulein's society chafed her nervous
+sensibilities dangerously; there were only a few brown sparrows, or
+a stray cat intent on game, to be seen from her window. From the
+drawing-room, from Sara's boudoir, from her mother's bedroom, there was
+a charming view of the Park. In the spring the fresh foliage of the
+trees, and the velvety softness of the grass, would be delicious; down
+in the broad white road, carriages were passing, horses cantering,
+happy-looking people in smart bonnets, in gorgeous mantles, driving about
+everywhere; children would be running up and down the paths in the Park,
+flower-sellers would stand offering their innocent wares to the
+passengers. Jill would sit entranced by her mother's window watching
+them; the sunshine, the glitter, the hubbub, intoxicated her; she made up
+stories by the dozen, as her dark eyes followed the gay equipages. When
+Fräulein summoned her she went away reluctantly; the stories got into
+her head, and stopped there all the time she laboured through that long
+sonata.
+
+'Why are your fingers all thumbs to-day, Fräulein?' Herr Schliefer
+would demand gloomily. Jill, who was really fond of the stern old
+professor, hung her head and blushed guiltily. She had no excuse to
+offer: her girlish dreams were sacred to her; they came gliding to her
+through the most intricate passages of the sonata, now with a _staccato_
+movement,--brisk, lively,--with fitful energy, now _andante_, then
+_crescendo, con passione_. Jill's unformed girlish hands strike the
+chords wildly, angrily. '_Dolce, dolce_,' screams the professor in her
+ears. The music softens, wanes, and the dreams seem to die away too.
+'That will do, Fräulein: you have not acquitted yourself so badly after
+all.' And Jill gets off her music-stool reluctant, absent, half awake,
+and her day-dream broken up into chaos.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+CINDERELLA
+
+
+As I opened the schoolroom door a half-forgotten picture of Cinderella
+came vividly before me.
+
+The fire had burnt low; a heap of black ashes lay under the grate; and by
+the dull red glow I could see Jill's forlorn figure, very indistinctly,
+as she sat in her favourite attitude on the rug, her arms clasping her
+knees and her short black locks hanging loosely over her shoulders. She
+gave a little shrill exclamation of pleasure when she saw me.
+
+'Ah, you dear darling bear, do come and hug me,' she cried, trying to get
+up in a hurry, but her dress entangled her.
+
+'Where is Fräulein?' I asked, pushing her back into her place, while I
+knelt down to manipulate the miserable fire. 'Jill, you look just like
+Cinderella when the proud sisters drove away to the ball. My dear, were
+you asleep? Why are you sitting in the dark, with the fire going out, and
+the lamp unlighted? There, it only wanted to be stirred; we shall have
+light by which to see other's faces directly,'
+
+'Fräulein has a headache and has gone to lie down,' returned Jill, and,
+though I could not see her clearly, I knew at once by her voice that she
+had been crying; only she would have been furious if I had noticed the
+fact. 'I hope I am not very wicked, but Fräulein's headaches are the
+redeeming points in her character; she has them so often, and then she
+is obliged to lie down.'
+
+'Of course you have offered to bathe her head?' I asked, a little
+mischievously, but Jill, who was unusually subdued, took the question
+in good part.
+
+'Oh yes, and I spoke to her quite civilly; but I suppose she saw the
+savage gleam of delight in my eyes, for she was as cross as possible, and
+went away muttering that "Meess Jocelyn had the heart like the flint; if
+it had been Meess Sara, now--" and then she banged the door, so the pain
+could not have been so bad after all. It is my belief,' went on Jill,
+'that Fräulein always has a headache when she has a novel to finish.
+Mamma does not like her to set me an example of novel-reading, so she
+is obliged to lock herself in her own room.'
+
+I took no notice of this statement, as I rather leaned to this view of
+the subject myself. Fräulein's round placid face and excellent appetite
+showed no signs of suffering, and her constant plea of a bad headache was
+only received with any credulity by Aunt Philippa herself; neither Sara
+nor I had much respect for Fräulein Sonnenschein, with her thick little
+figure, and big head covered with flimsy flaxen plaits. We were both
+aware of the smooth selfishness of her character, though Sara chose to
+ignore it for Jill's benefit. She was industrious, painstaking, and
+capable of a great deal of dull routine in the way of duties, but she
+was far too fond of her own comfort, and all the affection of which she
+was capable was lavished upon her own relatives; she had cared for Sara
+moderately, but her other pupil, Jill, was a thorn in her side. So I
+passed over Fräulein's headache without comment, and took Jill to task
+somewhat sharply for the comfortless state of the room. A good scolding
+would rouse her from her dejection; the blinds were up and the curtains
+undrawn; the remains of a meal, the usual five-o'clock schoolroom tea,
+were still on the table. Jill's German books were heaped up beside her
+empty cup and the glass dish that contained marmalade; the kettle
+spluttered and hissed in the blaze; Jill's little black kitten, Sooty,
+was dragging a half-knitted stocking across the rug.
+
+'I forgot to ring for Martha,' faltered Jill; 'she will come presently.
+Don't be cross, Ursula. I like the room as it is; it is deliciously
+untidy, just like Cinderella's kitchen; but there is no hope of the fairy
+godmother; and you are going away, and I shall be ten times more
+miserable.'
+
+It was this that was troubling her, then; for I had told her my plans and
+all about my letter to Uncle Max. Perhaps she had heard his voice in the
+hall, for Jill's pretty little ears heard everything that went on in the
+house: she admitted her knowledge at once when I taxed her with it.
+
+'Oh yes, I know Mr. Cunliffe is here. I heard papa go out and speak to
+him; his voice sounded quite cheerful; and now he has come and it will
+all be settled; and you will go away and be happy with your poor people,
+and forget that I am fretting myself to death in this horrid room.'
+
+She had drawn me down on the rug forcibly,--for she had the strength of
+a young Titaness,--and was wrapping her arms around me with a sort of
+fierce impatience. Her big eyes looked troubled and affectionate. Few
+people admired Jill; she was undeveloped and awkward, full of angles, and
+a little brusque in manner; she had a way of thrusting out her big feet
+and squaring her shoulders that horrified Aunt Philippa. She was very
+big, certainly, and would never possess Sara's slim grace. Her hair had
+been cropped in some illness, and had not grown so fast as they expected,
+but hung in short thick lengths about her neck; it was always getting
+into her eyes, and was being pushed back impatiently, but she would much
+oftener throw her head back with a fling like an unbroken pony, for she
+was jerky as young things often are.
+
+But, though, people found fault with Jill, and often said that she would
+never be as handsome as Sara, I liked her face. Perhaps it was a little
+irregular and her complexion slightly sallow, but when she was flushed or
+excited and she opened her big bright eyes, and one could see her little
+white teeth gleaming as she laughed, I have thought Jill could look
+almost beautiful; but her good looks depended on her expression.
+
+'I suppose it will be settled,' I replied, with a quick catch at my
+breath, for the mere mention of the subject excited me; 'but you will be
+a good child and not fret if I do go away. No, I shall never forget you,'
+as a close hug answered me; 'I love you too dearly for that; but I want
+you to be brave about it, dear, for I cannot be happy wasting my time and
+doing nothing. You know how ill I was before I went to St. Thomas's, so
+that Uncle Max was obliged to tell Aunt Philippa that I must have change
+and hard work, or I should follow Charlie.'
+
+'Oh yes, and we were all so frightened about you, you poor thing; you
+looked so pinched and miserable. Well, I suppose I must let you go, as
+you are so wicked as to disobey the proverb that "Charity begins at
+home."'
+
+'Listen to me, dear,' I returned, quite pleased to find her so
+reasonable. 'I am very glad to know that I have been a comfort to you,
+but I shall hope to be so still. I will write long letters to you, Jill,
+and tell you all about my work, and you shall answer them, and talk to me
+on paper about the books you have read, and the queer thoughts you have,
+and how patient and strong you have grown, and how you have learned to
+put up with Fräulein's little ways and not aggravate her with your
+untidiness.' And here Jill's hand--and it was by no means a small
+hand--closed my lips rather abruptly. But I was used to this sort of
+sledge-hammer form of argument.
+
+'Oh, it is all very fine for you to sit there and moralise, Ursula, like
+a sort of sucking Diogenes,' grumbled Jill, 'when you know you are going
+to have your own way and live a deliciously sort of three-volume-novel
+life, not like any one else's, unless it were Don Quixote, or one of the
+Knights of the Round Table, poking about among a lot of strange people,
+doing wonderful things for them, until they are all ready to worship you.
+It is all very well for you, I say; but what would you do if you were
+me?' cried Jill, in her shrill treble, and quite oblivious of grammatical
+niceties; 'how would you like to be poor me, shut up here with that old
+dragon?'
+
+This was a grand opportunity for airing my philosophy, and I rushed at
+it. To Jill's amazement, I shook my hair back in the way she usually
+shook her rough black mane, and, opening my eyes very widely, tried to
+copy Jill's falsetto.
+
+'How thankful I am Jocelyn Garston and not Ursula Garston,' I said,
+with rapid staccato. 'Poor Ursula! I am fond of her, but I would not
+change places with her for the world. She has known such a lot of trouble
+in her life, more than most girls, I believe; she has lost her lovely
+home,--such a sweet old place,--and her mother and father and Charlie,
+all her nearest and her most beloved, and she is so sad that she wants
+to work hard and forget her troubles.'
+
+'Oh dear!' sighed Jill at this.
+
+'How happy I am compared with her!' I went on, relapsing unconsciously
+into my own voice. 'I am young and strong; I have all my life before me.
+True, poor Ralph has gone, but I was only a child, and did not miss him.
+I have a good father and an indulgent mother' ('Humph!' observed Jill at
+this point, only she turned it into a cough); 'if my present schoolroom
+life is not to my taste, I am sensible enough to know that the drudgery
+and restraint will not last for long; in another year, or a year and a
+half, Fräulein, whom I certainly do not love, will go back to her own
+country. I shall be free to read the books I like, to study what I
+choose, or to be idle. I shall have Sara's cheerful companionship instead
+of Fräulein's heavy company; I shall ride; I shall walk in the sunshine;
+I shall be a butterfly instead of a chrysalis; and if I care to be
+useful, all sorts of paths will be open to me.'
+
+'There, hold your tongue,' interrupted Jill, with a rough kiss; 'of
+course I know I am a wicked, ungrateful wretch, and that I ought to be
+more patient. Yes, you shall go, Ursula; you are a darling, but I will
+not want to keep you; you are too good to be wasted on me; it would be
+like pouring gold into a sieve. Well, I did cry about it this afternoon,
+but I won't be such a goose any more. I will live my life the same way,
+in spite of all of them, you will see if I don't, Ursula. Who is it who
+says, "The thoughts of youth are long long thoughts"? I have such big
+thoughts sometimes, especially when I sit in the dark. I send them out
+like strange birds, all over the world,--up, up, everywhere,--but they
+never come back to me again,' finished Jill mournfully; 'if they build
+nests I never know it: I just sit and puzzle out things, like poor little
+grimy Cinderella.'
+
+Jill's eloquence did not surprise me. I knew she was very clever, and
+full of unfledged poetry, and I had often heard her talk in that way; but
+I had no time to answer her, for just then the first gong sounded, and I
+could hear Sara running up to her room to dress for dinner. Jill jumped
+up, and tugged at the bell-rope rather fiercely.
+
+'Martha must have forgotten all about the tea-things; very likely the
+lamp is smoky and will have to be trimmed. I must not come and help you,
+Ursie dear, for I have to learn my German poetry before I dress.' And
+Jill pulled down the blinds and drew the curtains with a vigorous hand.
+Martha looked quite frightened at the sight of Jill's energy and her own
+remissness.
+
+'Why did you not ring before, Miss Jocelyn?' she said, plaintively, and
+in rather an injured voice, as she carried away the tea-tray.
+
+Uncle Max passed me in the passage; Clarence was following with his
+portmanteau; he looked surprised to see me still in my bonnet with my fur
+cape trailing over one arm; but I nodded to him cheerfully and went
+quickly into my room.
+
+My life at St. Thomas's had inured me to hardness; it had contrasted
+strangely with my luxurious surroundings at Hyde Park Gate. Aunt Philippa
+certainly treated me well in her way. I had a full share of the loaves
+and the fishes of the household; my room was as prettily furnished as
+Jill's; a bright fire burnt in the grate; there were pink candles on the
+dressing-table. Martha, who waited upon us both, had put out my black
+evening dress on the bed, and had warmed my dressing-gown; she would come
+to me by and by with a civil offer of help.
+
+I was rather puzzled at the sight of a little breast-knot of white
+chrysanthemums that lay on the table, until I remembered Uncle Max; no
+one had ever brought me flowers since Charlie's death; he had gathered
+the last that I ever wore--some white violets that grew in a little
+hollow in the ground of Rutherford Lodge. I hesitated painfully before
+I pinned the modest little bouquet in my black dress, but I feared Uncle
+Max would be hurt if I failed to appear in it. I wore mother's pearl
+necklace as usual, and the little locket with her hair; somehow I took
+more pleasure in dressing myself this evening, when I knew Uncle Max's
+kind eyes would be on me.
+
+I had not hurried myself, and the second gong sounded before I reached
+the drawing-room, so I came face to face with Lesbia, who was coming out
+on Uncle Brian's arm. She kissed me in her quiet way, and said, 'How do
+you do, Ursula?' just as though we had met yesterday, and passed on.
+
+I thought she looked prettier than ever that evening--like a snow
+princess, in her white gown, with a little fleecy shawl drawn round her
+shoulders, for she took cold easily. She had a soft creamy complexion,
+and fair hair that she wore piled up in smooth plaits on her head; she
+had plaintive blue eyes that could be brilliant at times, and a lovely
+mouth, and she was tall and graceful like Sara.
+
+They made splendid foils to each other; but in my opinion Sara carried
+the palm: she was more piquant and animated; her colouring was brighter,
+and she had more expression; but Charlie's Lily, as he called her, was
+quite as much admired, and indeed they were both striking-looking girls.
+
+I saw that Uncle Max took a great deal of notice of Lesbia, who sat next
+to him. I could not hear their conversation, but a pretty pink colour
+tinged Lesbia's face, and her eyes grew dark and bright as she listened,
+and I saw her glance at her left hand where the half-hoop of diamonds
+glistened that Charlie had placed there; she had not quite forgotten the
+dear boy then, for I am sure she sighed, but the next moment she had
+turned from Uncle Max, and was engaged in an eager discussion with Sara
+about some private theatricals in which Sara was to take a part.
+
+When we went back to the drawing-room we found Fräulein in her favourite
+red silk dress, trying to repair the damage that Sooty had wrought in her
+half-knitted stocking, and Jill, looking very bored and uncomfortable,
+turning over the photograph album in a corner. She looked awkward and
+sallow in her Indian muslin gown: the flimsy stuff did not suit her any
+more than the pink coral beads she wore round her neck. Her black locks
+bobbed uneasily over the book. She looked bigger than ever when she stood
+up to speak to Lesbia.
+
+'How that child is growing!' observed Aunt Philippa behind her fan to
+Fräulein, whose round face was beaming with smiles at the entrance of the
+ladies. 'That gown was made only a few weeks ago, and she is growing out
+of it already. Jocelyn, my love, why do you hunch your shoulders so when,
+you talk to Lesbia? I am always telling you of this awkward habit.'
+
+Poor Jill frowned and reddened a little under this maternal admonition;
+her eyes looked black and fierce as she sat down again with her
+photographs. This hour was always a penance to her; she could not speak
+or move easily, for fear of some remark from Aunt Philippa. When her
+mother and Fräulein interchanged confidences behind the big spangled fan,
+the poor child always thought they were talking about her.
+
+Her bigness, her awkwardness, troubled Jill excessively. Her clumsy hands
+and feet seemed always in her way.
+
+'I know I am the ugly duckling,' she would say, with tears in her eyes;
+'but I shall never turn into a swan like Sara and Lesbia,--not that I
+want to be like them!'--with a little scorn in her voice. 'Lesbia is too
+tame, too namby-pamby, for my taste; and Sara is stupid. She laughs and
+talks, but she never says anything that people have not said a hundred
+times before. Oh, I am so tired of it all! I grow more cross and
+disagreeable every day,' finished Jill, who was very frank on the
+subject of her shortcoming.
+
+I would have stopped and talked to Jill, only Lesbia tapped me on the arm
+rather peremptorily.
+
+'Come into the back drawing-room,' she said, in a low voice. 'I want to
+speak to you.--Jill, why do you not practise your new duet with Sara? She
+will play nothing but valses all the evening, unless you prevent it'
+
+But Jill shook her head sulkily; she felt safer in her corner. Sara was
+strumming on the grand pianoforte as we passed her; her slim fingers were
+running lazily over the keys in the 'Verliebt und Verloren' valse.
+Clarence was lighting the candles; William was bringing in the coffee;
+and Colonel Ferguson was following rather unceremoniously. People were
+always dropping in at Hyde Park Gate: perhaps Sara's bright eyes
+magnetised them. We had colonels and majors and captains at our will,
+for there was a martial craze in the house: to-night it was grave,
+handsome Colonel Ferguson.
+
+He was rather a favourite with Uncle Brian and Aunt Philippa, perhaps
+because his troubles interested them; he had buried his young wife and
+child in an Indian grave, and some people said that he had come to
+England to look out for a second wife.
+
+He was a very handsome man, and still young enough to find favour in a
+girl's sight, and his wealth made him a _grand parti_ in the parents'
+eyes. At present he had bestowed equal attention on Sara and Lesbia,
+though close observers might have noticed that he lingered longest by
+Sara's side.
+
+'How do you do, Colonel Ferguson?' said Sara, nodding to him in her
+bright, unconcerned way, as she finished her valse. 'Mother is over
+there talking to Fräulein: you will find your coffee ready for you.' And
+her glossy little head bent over the keys again, while the lazy music
+trickled through her fingers. Though Colonel Ferguson did as he was told,
+I fancied he would keep a close watch over the young performer.
+
+The inner drawing-room had heavy velvet hangings that closed over the
+archway; on cold evenings the curtains would be drawn rather closely;
+there would be a bright fire, and a single lamp lighted. Very often Uncle
+Brian would retire with his book or paper when Sara's valses wearied him
+or the room filled with young officers. Since Ralph's death he had
+certainly become rather taciturn and unsociable. Aunt Philippa, who loved
+gaiety, never accompanied him, but now and then Jill would creep from her
+corner, when her mother was not looking, and slip behind the ruby
+curtains. I have caught her there sometimes sitting on the rug, with her
+rough head against her father's knee; they would both of them look a
+little shamefaced, as if they were guilty of some fault.
+
+'Go to bed, Jill; it is time for little girls to be asleep,' he would
+say, patting her cheek. Jill would nestle it on his coat-sleeve for a
+moment, as she obeyed him. Her father had the softest place in her heart.
+She always would have it that her mother was hard on her, but she never
+complained of want of kindness from her father.
+
+'Colonel Ferguson comes very often,' remarked Lesbia, a little peevishly,
+as she walked to the fireplace to warm herself: she was a chilly being,
+and loved warmth. 'His name is Donald, is it not? some one told me so:
+Donald Ferguson. Well, he is not bad; he may do for Sara. She has plenty
+of quicksilver to balance his gravity.'
+
+I was rather surprised at this beginning; but without waiting for any
+answer, she went on.
+
+'What is this Mr. Cunliffe tells me?' she asked, fixing her blue eyes
+on my face with marked interest. 'You are going to carry out your old
+scheme, Ursula, about nursing poor people and singing to them. He tells
+me you have chosen Heathfield for your future home, and that he is to
+find you lodgings. Sit down, dear, and tell me all about it,' she went on
+eagerly. 'I thought you had given up all that when--when--' but here she
+stopped and her lips trembled; of course she meant when Charlie died, but
+she rarely spoke his name. I would not let her see my astonishment,--she
+had never seemed so sisterly before,--but I took the seat close to her
+and talked to her as openly as though she were Jill or Uncle Max; now and
+then I paused, and we could hear Colonel Ferguson's deep voice: he was
+evidently turning over the pages of Sara's music.
+
+'Go on, Ursula; I like to hear it,' Lesbia would say when I hesitated;
+she was not looking at me, but at the fire, with her cheek supported
+against her hand.
+
+'What do you think of it?' I asked, presently, when I had finished and
+we had both been silent a few minutes listening to one of Mendelssohn's
+Songs without Words that Sara was playing very nicely.
+
+'What do I think of it?' she replied, and her voice startled me, it was
+so full of pain. 'Oh, Ursula, I think you are to be envied! If I could
+only come with you and work too!--but there is mother, she could not do
+without me, and so we must just go on in the same old way.'
+
+I was so shocked at the hopelessness of her tone, so taken aback at her
+words, that I could not answer her for a moment: it seemed inconceivable
+to me that she could be saying such things. Poor pretty Lesbia, whom
+Charlie had loved and whom I considered a mere fragile butterfly. She
+was quite pale now, and her eyes filled suddenly with tears.
+
+'You do not believe me, Ursula; no, I was right--you never understood me.
+I often told dear Charlie so. You think, because I laugh and dance and do
+as other girls do, that I have forgotten--that I do not suffer. Do you
+think I shall ever find any one so good and kind in this world again? Oh,
+you are hard on me, and I am so miserable, so unhappy, without Charlie.
+And I am not like you: I cannot work myself into forgetfulness; I must
+stop with mother and do as she bids me, and she says it is my duty to be
+gay.'
+
+I was so ashamed of myself, of my mean injustice, that I was very nearly
+crying myself as I asked her pardon.
+
+'Why do you say that?' she returned, almost pettishly, only she looked so
+miserable. 'I have nothing to forgive. I only want you to be good to me
+and not think the worst, for I'm really fond of you, Ursula, only you are
+so reserved and cold with me,'
+
+'My poor dear,' I returned, taking the pretty face between my hands and
+kissing it. 'I will never be unkind to you again. Forgive me if I have
+misunderstood you: for Charlie's sake I want to love you.' And then she
+put her head down on my shoulder and cried a little, and bemoaned herself
+for being so unhappy; and all the time I comforted her my guilty
+conscience owned that Uncle Max was right.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+UNCLE MAX BREAKS THE ICE
+
+
+Uncle Max was one of those men who like to take their own way about
+things; he never hurried himself, or allowed other people's impatience
+to get the better of him. 'There is a time for everything, as Solomon
+says,' was his favourite speech when any one reproached him with
+procrastination; 'depend upon it, the best work is done slowly. What is
+the use of so much hurry? When death comes we shall be sure to leave
+something unfinished.'
+
+So for two whole days he just chatted commonplaces with Aunt Philippa,
+rallied Sara, who loved a joke, and talked politics with Uncle Brian, and
+never mentioned one word about my scheme; if I looked anxiously at him he
+pretended to misunderstand my meaning, and, in fact, behaved from
+morning to night in a most provoking way.
+
+At last I could bear it no longer, and one wet afternoon, when I knew he
+was in the drawing-room, making believe to write his letters, but in
+reality getting a deal of amusement out of Sara's sprightly conversation,
+for she was never silent for two minutes if she could help it, I shut
+myself up in my own room, and would not go near him. I knew he would ask
+where Ursula was every half-hour, and would soon guess that I was out of
+humour about something; and possibly in an hour or two his conscience
+would prick him, and he would feel that I deserved reparation.
+
+This little piece of ill-tempered artifice bore excellent fruit, for
+before I had nearly finished the piece of plain sewing I had set myself
+as a sort of penance, there was a tap at the door, and Sara came in,
+looking very excited, with her bright eyes full of wonder.
+
+'Oh, Ursula, there is such a fuss downstairs! Uncle Max has been telling
+us all about your absurd scheme. Mother is as cross as possible; she is
+so angry, and yet half crying at the same time.'
+
+'And Uncle Brian,' I exclaimed eagerly,--'what does he say?'
+
+'Oh, you know father's way. He just smiled as though the whole thing
+were beneath his notice, and went on reading his paper, and when mother
+appealed to him he said, coolly, that it was none of his business or hers
+either if Ursula chose to make a fool of herself; she had the right to do
+so,--something like that, you know.'
+
+'How very pleasant!' I remarked satirically, for I hated the way Uncle
+Brian put down his foot on things that displeased him. I preferred Aunt
+Philippa's voluble arguments to that.
+
+'To make things worse,' went on Sara cheerfully, 'Mrs. Fullerton and
+Lesbia have come in, and mother and Mrs. Fullerton are trying which can
+talk the faster. Lesbia asked for you, and then did not speak another
+word. What shall you do, Ursula, dear?'
+
+'I shall just go down and ask Aunt Philippa for a cup of tea,' I returned
+coolly, folding up my work. Sara looked half frightened at my boldness,
+and then she began to laugh.
+
+'It is so absurd, you know,' she returned, linking her arm in mine
+affectionately. 'What ever put such nonsense in your head? you are so
+comfortable here with us, and you have your own way, and I never tease
+you now about going to balls. It is so silly of you trying to make
+yourself miserable, and living in poky lodgings. You might as well be
+a fakir, or a dervish, or a Protestant nun, or anything else that is
+unpleasant.'
+
+'My dear, you do not know anything about it,' I answered rather angrily.
+'You and I are different people, Sara; we shall never think the same
+about anything.'
+
+'Well, I don't know,' she returned, half affronted: 'when people try to
+be extra good I always find they succeed in making themselves extra
+disagreeable. It is far more religious, in my opinion, to be pleasant
+to every one, and make them believe that there is something cheerful
+in life, instead of pulling a long face and doing such dreadfully bad
+things.' And after this little fling, in which she tried to be very
+severe, only as usual her dimples betrayed her, she begged me quite
+earnestly to smooth my hair, as though I were breaking one of the
+commandments by keeping it rough; and, having obliged her in this
+particular, and allowed her to peep at her own pretty face over my
+shoulder, we went down to the drawing-room as though we were the best
+of friends.
+
+It was impossible to quarrel with Sara; she was as gay and irresponsible
+as a child; one might as well have been angry with a butterfly for
+brushing his gold-powdered wings across your face; the gentle flappings
+of Sara's speeches never raised a momentary vexation in my mind. I was
+often weary of her, but then we do weary of children's company sometimes;
+in certain moods her bright sparkling effervescence seemed to jar upon
+me: but I never liked to see her sad. Sadness did not become Sara; when
+she cried, which was as seldom as possible, and only when some one died,
+or she lost a pet canary, all her beauty dimmed, and she looked limp and
+forlorn, like a crushed butterfly or a draggled flower.
+
+I do not think I was quite as cool and unconcerned as I wished to appear
+when I marched into the drawing-room, and, after greeting Mrs. Fullerton
+and Lesbia, asked Aunt Philippa for a cup of tea.
+
+Quite a hubbub of voices had struck on my ear as I opened the door, and
+yet complete silence met me. Lesbia, indeed, whispered 'Poor Ursula' as I
+kissed her, but Mrs. Fullerton looked at me with grave disapproval. Aunt
+Philippa was sitting bolt upright behind the tea-tray, and handed me my
+cup, rather as Lady Macbeth did the dagger. I received it, however, as
+though it were my due, and glanced at Uncle Max; but he was too wise to
+look at me, so I said, as coolly as possible, 'Why are you so silent, and
+yet you were talking loudly enough before Sara and I came into the room?'
+For there is nothing like taking the bull of a dilemma by the horns; and
+I had plenty of, let us say, native impudence, only, personally, I should
+have given it another name; and then, of course, I brought the storm upon
+me.
+
+Sara was right. Aunt Philippa certainly talked the faster; Mrs. Fullerton
+tried her best to edge in a word now and then,--a very scathing word,
+too,--but there was no silencing that flow of rapid talk. I quite envied
+her pure diction and the ingenious turn of her sentences; she made so
+much of her own admirable foresight and care of me, and so little of my
+merits.
+
+'I always said something like this would happen, Ursula. I have told your
+uncle often,--Brian, why don't you speak?--yes, indeed, I have told him
+often that I never met any one so strong-minded and self-willed. You need
+not laugh, Sara,--unless you do it to provoke me,--but I have been like a
+mother to Ursula. Thank heaven, my daughters are not of this pattern!
+they do not mistake eccentricity for goodness, or flaunt ridiculous
+notions in the faces of their elders.'
+
+This was too bad of Aunt Philippa; only she had lost her temper, and was
+feeling utterly aggrieved, and Mrs. Fullerton, who was a meddlesome,
+good-humoured woman, and who had nothing of which to complain in life
+except a little over-plumpness and too much money, was agreeing with her
+like a good neighbour and friend.
+
+Uncle Max was smiling, and pulling his beard behind his paper; but he
+made no attempt to check the flow of feminine eloquence. He had said his
+say like a man, and had taken my part behind my back, and he knew women
+were like new wine,--very sound and sweet, but they must find their vent.
+Aunt Philippa would be kinder ever after if we let her scold us properly,
+and took our scolding with a good grace.
+
+Once or twice Uncle Brian let his eye-glasses dangle, and spoke a peevish
+word or two.
+
+'Nonsense, my dear! have I not said over and over again that this is
+none of our business? Ursula is old enough to know her own mind; if she
+chooses to be eccentric we cannot hinder her. All this talk goes for
+nothing.'
+
+'Ah, but, Mr. Garston, young people want guidance,' observed Mrs.
+Fullerton impressively, for Aunt Philippa was beginning to sob, partly
+from the effects of wasted eloquence, and perhaps with a little shortness
+of breathing: anyway, her anger was working itself out. 'If you were to
+advise Ursula as you would Sara, your influence might induce her to
+change her mind.'
+
+'I cannot endorse your opinion, Mrs. Fullerton,' returned Uncle Brian
+drily. 'I am far too keen an observer of human nature to think we can
+talk sense to deaf ears with any benefit.--Ursula, my child,' turning to
+me with a smile that might have been kinder, but perhaps he meant it to
+be so, 'there is not a grain of sense in your scheme: in spite of
+Cunliffe's eloquence, it will not hold water; in fact, in a little while
+you will be glad to come back to us again. When you do, I think I can
+promise that we will not laugh at you more than once a day, and then
+moderately.'
+
+Now, this speech of Uncle Brian's made me very angry. No doubt he meant
+to be kind, and to show me that if my scheme failed I might come home to
+them again; but I was so much in earnest that his satire and his laughing
+at me hurt me more than all Aunt Philippa's hard speeches. So I flushed
+up, and for the first time tears came into my eyes; for he had prophesied
+failure, and I could not bear that, and I might have said words in my
+sudden irritation for which I should have been sorry afterwards, only
+Lesbia, who had sat behind me all this time, as silent and soft-breathed
+as a mouse, got up quickly and took my hand and stood by me.
+
+'I think you have all said plenty of hard things to Ursula, and no one
+has been kind to her. I think she deserves praise and not all this blame;
+if she cannot lead the comfortable life we do, thinking how we are to get
+the most pleasure and enjoy ourselves, it is because she is better than
+we are, and thinks more about her duty. Mrs. Garston,--I do not mean to
+be rude, I am far too fond of you all, because you have all been so good
+to me,'--and here Lesbia's while throat swelled,--'but I cannot bear to
+hear Ursula so blamed. Mr. Cunliffe, I know you agree with me, you said
+so many nice things when Ursula was out of the room.'
+
+This little burst of eloquence surprised us all. Uncle Max said
+afterwards that he was quite touched by it. Lesbia was generally so quiet
+and undemonstrative that her words took Aunt Philippa by storm. She might
+have been offended by Lesbia saying that I was better than the rest of
+them,--a fact that my conscience most emphatically contradicted; but when
+Lesbia kissed her, and begged her to think better of things, she cried a
+little because Charlie was not there to see how pretty she could look,
+and then cheered up, and made overtures that I might come and kiss her
+too, which I did most willingly, and with a full heart, remembering she
+was my father's sister and had been good to me according to her lights.
+
+When Uncle Max saw that reconciliation was imminent, and that by Lesbia's
+help I was likely to have the best of it, my own way, and a good deal of
+petting to follow,--for they would all make more of me during the short
+time I would be with them,--he threw down his paper in high good-humour
+and joined us.
+
+'That is what I call sensible, Mrs. Garston,' he said, paying her a
+compliment at once, as she sat flushed and fanning herself, 'and Ursula
+ought to feel herself very grateful to you for your forbearance and
+acquiescence in her plan.'
+
+I do not believe he knew any more than myself where the forbearance had
+been, but he took it all for granted.
+
+'Nothing puts heart into a person more than feeling sure of one's
+friends' sympathy. Now, we all of us, even Garston, in spite of his
+disapproval, wish Ursula good success in her scheme; some of us think
+better of it than others; for my own part, I am so convinced that she
+will have so many difficulties and disappointments to hamper her that
+I cannot bear to say a discouraging word.' And yet he had said dozens,
+only I was magnanimous and forgave him.
+
+This settled the matter, for Aunt Philippa grew so sorry for me that she
+was almost out of breath again pitying me. 'I do not believe she can help
+it,' she said, in rather an audible aside to Mrs. Fullerton; 'her mother
+had a sort of craze about these things, and seemed to think it part of
+her religion to make herself uncomfortable; and poor Herbert was quite as
+bad, only he was a clergyman, and it did not matter so much with him; so
+I suppose the poor child inherits it. This sort of thing runs in
+families,' went on Aunt Philippa, in an awe-struck voice, as though it
+were a species of insanity. 'I am only thankful that my own girls have
+not got these notions.'
+
+Mrs. Fullerton found out now that it was time to go home and dress for
+dinner, so Lesbia came round to me and whispered that I must come and see
+her soon, for she wanted to talk to me, and not to Sara, who was always
+running in and out.
+
+'I am very fond of Sara, and like to see her, she amuses me so; but when
+I want advice or sympathy I feel I must come to you now, Ursula.' And
+though she had never said so much to me before, I knew she meant it; that
+there was some change in her, some want of nature or heaven knows what
+feminine need, when she missed me, and wanted me, and found some comfort
+in the thought of me.
+
+There was no time for more discussion, and indeed we were all a little
+weary of it; but after dinner Uncle Max, who seemed in excellent spirits,
+as though he had done something wonderful and was proud of his own
+achievements, beckoned me into the inner drawing-room under pretence of
+showing me some engravings, and when we found ourselves alone, he said
+pleasantly, though abruptly--
+
+'Well, Ursula, I thought you would be glad to have an opportunity of
+thanking me, for of course you feel very grateful to me for all the
+trouble I have taken.'
+
+'Oh, indeed!' I returned scornfully, for it would never do to encourage
+this vainglorious spirit. 'I should have felt more disposed to thank you
+if you had not kept me for two days in suspense!'
+
+'That is the result of doing a woman a good turn,' shaking his head
+mournfully. 'The moment she gets her own way, she turns upon you and
+rends you. Fie, fie on you, little she-bear!'
+
+'Oh, Max, do be quiet a moment.'
+
+'Max, indeed! Where are your manners, child? What would Garston say if he
+heard your flippancy?' But by the way he stroked his beard and looked at
+me, I saw he was not displeased. No one would have taken him for my uncle
+who had seen us together, for he was a young-looking man, and I was old
+for my age.
+
+'I do want you to be serious a moment,' I went on plaintively. 'I am
+really very obliged to you for having broken the ice: after all, I have
+not been badly submerged. I soon rose to the surface when Lesbia held out
+a helping hand.'
+
+'Well, now, Ursula, do you not agree with me?--was not Lesbia a darling?'
+
+'She was very nice and sisterly,' I confessed. 'She has more in her than
+I ever thought. Poor little thing! I am afraid she is very unhappy, only
+she hides it so.'
+
+'Just so. That shows her good sense: the world is very intolerant of a
+protracted grief; its victims must learn to dry their eyes quickly.'
+
+Uncle Max was becoming philosophical: this would never do.
+
+'Never mind about Lesbia,' I observed impatiently, 'we can talk about
+her in the next room; what I want to know is, how soon I may come to
+Heathfield.' For I knew how dilatory men can be about other people's
+business, and I fully expected that Uncle Max would put me off to the
+summer.
+
+'You may come as soon as you like,' he returned, rather too carelessly.
+'Shall we say next week, or will that be too early?'
+
+I suppressed my astonishment cleverly, but was down on him in a moment.
+
+'I should like to have some place found for me first,' I remarked
+sententiously; 'you must take lodgings for me first, and then I can
+settle my plans.'
+
+'Oh, that is done already,' he observed cheerfully. 'I have spoken to
+Mrs. Barton about you, and she has very nice rooms vacant. I wanted them
+for Tudor, until I mooted the vicarage plan. It is a tidy little place,
+Ursula, and I think you will be very comfortable there.'
+
+I felt that Uncle Max deserved praise, and I gave it to him without
+stint or limit; he took it nobly, like a man who feels he has earned
+his reward.
+
+'I fancy I have done a neat thing,' he said modestly.
+
+'Directly I read your letter and saw that you were in earnest, I went
+down to Mrs. Barton and had a long talk with her. Do you remember the
+White Cottage, Ursula, that stands just where the road dips a little,
+after you have passed the vicarage? It is on the main road that leads to
+the common: there is a field, and one or two houses, and on the right the
+road branches off to Main Street, where my poorer parishioners live. Oh,
+I see that you have forgotten. Well, there is a low white cottage,
+standing far back from the road, with rather a pretty garden, and a field
+at the back: people call it the White Cottage; though it is smothered in
+jasmine in the summer; and there is a nice little parlour with a bedroom
+over it. That will do capitally, I fancy. Old Mrs. Meredith lived there
+until her death, and she left her furniture to Mrs. Barton.'
+
+I expressed myself as being well pleased at this description, and then
+inquired a little anxiously if there were room for my piano and my books.
+
+'Oh yes, it is quite a good-sized room; that is why I wanted it for
+Tudor. You will not mind it being a little low: it is only a cottage,
+remember. There is a nice easy couch, I spotted that at once, and a
+capital easy-chair, and some corner cupboards that will, hold a store of
+good things; you can make it as pretty as possible.'
+
+'And Mrs. Barton, Max,--is she a pleasant person?'
+
+'There could not be a pleasanter. You will find yourself in clover,
+Ursula, you will indeed; she is a nice little woman, and has all the
+cardinal virtues, I believe; she is a widow and has a big son who works
+at Roberts's, the builder's. Nathaniel is very big, very big indeed, so
+much so that I feel it my duty to warn you of his size, for fear you
+should receive a shock. The cottage just holds him when he sits down,
+and his mother's one anxiety is that he should not bring down the kitchen
+ceiling more than once a year, as it hurts his head and comes expensive;
+he has a black collie they call Tinker, the cleverest dog in the place,
+so Nathaniel says; and these three constitute the household of the White
+Cottage.'
+
+I was charmed with Uncle Max's account; the cottage seemed cosy and
+homelike. I knew I could trust his opinion; he was a good judge of
+character, and was seldom wrong in his estimate of a man, woman, or
+child, and he would be especially careful to intrust me to a thoroughly
+reliable person. I begged him therefore to close with Mrs. Barton at
+once; she asked a very moderate price for her rooms, and I could have
+afforded higher terms. It would not take me long to pack my books and
+other treasures: some of them I should be obliged to leave behind, but
+I must take all Charlie's books and my own, and my favourite pictures and
+bits of china, and a store of fine linen for my own use. I was somewhat
+demoralised by the luxury at Hyde Park Gate, and liked to make myself
+comfortable after my own way. Poor Charlie used to laugh at me and say
+I should be an old maid, and, as I considered this fact inevitable, I
+took his teasing in good part.
+
+I told Uncle Max that I thought I could be ready in another week, and
+that I saw no good in delay. He assented to this, and was kind enough
+to add that the sooner I came the better. I was a little dismayed to
+find that he had not considered himself bound to keep my counsel; he had
+talked about my plan to his curate, Mr. Tudor, and I gathered from his
+manner, for he refused to tell me any more, that he had discussed it
+with another person.
+
+This was too bad, but I would not let him see that this vexed me. I
+wanted to settle in and begin my work quietly before the neighbourhood
+knew of my existence; but if Uncle Max published my intended arrival in
+every house he visited, I felt I could not even worship in comfort, for
+fear the congregation should be eying me suspiciously.
+
+I thought it better to change the subject: so I began to question him
+about Mr. Tudor and Mrs. Drabble, the latter being the ruling power at
+the vicarage; and he fell upon the bait and swallowed it eagerly, so my
+vexation passed unnoticed.
+
+Uncle Max did not live quite alone. His house was large, far too large
+for an unmarried man, and he was very sociable by nature, so he induced
+his curate to take up his abode with him; but the two men and Mrs.
+Drabble, the housekeeper, and the maid under her, could not fill it, and
+several rooms were shut up. Lawrence Tudor had been a pupil of Uncle Max,
+and the two were very much attached to each other. Uncle Max had brought
+him up once or twice to Hyde Park Gate, and we had all been much pleased
+with him. He was not in the least good-looking, but I remember Sara said
+he was gentlemanly and pleasant and had a nice voice. I knew his frank
+manner and evident affection for Uncle Max prepossessed me in his favour;
+he had been very athletic in his college days, and was passionately fond
+of boating and cricket, and he was very musical and sang splendidly.
+
+The little Uncle Max had told me about him had strongly interested me.
+The Tudors had been wealthy people, and Uncle Max had spent more than one
+long vacation at their house, coaching Walter Tudor, who was going in for
+an army examination, and reading Greek with Lawrence (or Laurie, as they
+generally called him) and another brother, Ben.
+
+Lawrence had meant to enter the army too. Nelson, the eldest of all, was
+already in India, and had a captaincy. They were all fine, stalwart young
+men, fond of riding and hunting and any out-of-door pursuit. But there
+never would have been a parson among them but for the failure of the
+company in which Mr. Tudor's money was invested. He had been one of the
+directors, and from wealth he was reduced to poverty.
+
+There was no money to buy Walter a commission, so he enlisted, bringing
+fresh trouble to his parents by doing so. Ben entered an office, but
+Lawrence was kept at Oxford by an uncle's generosity, and under strong
+pressure consented to take orders.
+
+The poor young fellow had no special vocation, and he owned to Max
+afterwards that he feared that he had done the wrong thing. I am afraid
+Max thought so too, but he would not discourage him by saying so; on the
+contrary, he treated him in a bracing manner, telling him that he had
+put his hand to the plough, and that there must be no looking backward,
+and bidding him pluck up heart and do his duty as well as he could; and
+then he smoothed his way by asking him to be his curate and live with
+him, so saving him from the loneliness and discomfort of some curates'
+existence, who are at the mercy of their landladies and laundresses.
+
+So the two lived merrily together, and Lawrence Tudor was all the better
+man and parson for Uncle Max's genial help and sympathy; and though Mrs.
+Drabble grumbled and did not take kindly to him at first, she made him
+thoroughly comfortable, and mended his socks and sewed on his buttons in
+motherly fashion. Mrs. Drabble was quite a character in her way; she was
+a fair, fussy little woman, who looked meek enough to warrant the best of
+tempers; she had a soft voice and manner that deceived you, and a vague
+rambling sort of talk that landed you nowhere; but if ever woman could be
+a mild virago Mrs. Drabble was that woman. She worshipped her master, and
+never allowed any one to find fault with him; but with Mr. Tudor, or the
+maid, or any one who interfered with her, she could be a flaxen-haired
+termagant; she could scold in a low voice for half an hour together
+without minding a single stop or pausing to take breath. Mr. Tudor used
+to laugh at her, or get out of her way, when he had had enough of it; she
+only tried it on her master once, but Max stood and stared at her with
+such surprise and such puzzled good-humour that she grew ashamed and
+stopped in the very middle of a sentence.
+
+But, with all her temper, neither of them could have spared Mrs. Drabble,
+she made them so comfortable.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+'WHEN THE CAT IS AWAY'
+
+
+Aunt Philippa had one very good point in her character: she was not of
+a nagging disposition. When she scolded she did it thoroughly, and was
+perhaps a long time doing it, but she never carried it into the next day.
+
+Jill always said her mother was too indolent for a prolonged effort; but
+then poor Jill often said naughty things. But we all of us knew that Aunt
+Philippa's wrath soon evaporated; it made her hot and uncomfortable while
+it lasted, and she was glad to be quit of it: so she refrained herself
+prudently when I spoke of my approaching departure; and, being of a
+bustling temperament, and not averse to changes unless they gave her much
+trouble, she took a great deal of interest in my arrangements, and bought
+a nice little travelling-clock that she said would be useful to me.
+
+Seeing her so pleasant and reasonable, I made a humble petition that Jill
+might be set free from some of her lessons to help me pack my books and
+ornaments. She made a little demur at this, and offered Draper's services
+instead; but it was Jill I wanted, for the poor child was fretting sadly
+about my going away, and I thought it would comfort her to help me. So
+after a time Aunt Philippa relented, after extorting a promise from Jill
+that she would work all the harder after I had gone; and, as young people
+seldom think about the future except in the way of foolish dreams, Jill
+cheerfully gave her word. So for the last few days we were constantly
+together, and Fräulein had an unexpected holiday. Jill worked like a
+horse in my service, and only broke one Dresden group; she came to me
+half crying with the fragment in her hand,--the poor little shepherdess
+had lost her head as well as her crook, and the pink coat of the shepherd
+had an unseemly rent in it,--but I only laughed at the disaster, and
+would not scold her for her awkwardness. China had a knack of slipping
+through Jill's fingers; she had a loose uncertain grasp of things that
+were brittle and delicate; she had not learned to control her muscles or
+restrain her strength. She had a way of lifting me up when I teased her
+that turns me giddy to remember: I was quite a child in her hands. She
+was always ashamed of herself when she had done it, and begged my pardon,
+and as long as she put me on my feet again I was ready to forgive
+anything. Jill felt a sort of forlorn consolation in using up her
+strength in my service: she would hardly let me do anything myself;
+I might sit down and order her about from morning to night if I chose.
+
+I made her very happy by leaving some of my possessions under her
+care--some books that I knew she would like to read, and other treasures
+that I had locked up in my wardrobe. Jill had the key and could rummage
+if she liked, but she told me quite seriously that it would comfort her
+to come and look at them sometimes. 'It will feel as though you were
+coming back some day, Ursie,' she said affectionately.
+
+Late one afternoon I left her busy in my room, and went to the Albert
+Hall Mansions to bid good-bye to Lesbia. I had called once or twice, but
+had always missed her. So I slipped across in the twilight, as I thought
+at that hour they would have returned from their drive.
+
+The Albert Hall Mansions were only a stone's throw from Uncle Brian's
+house, so I considered myself safe from any remonstrance on Aunt
+Philippa's part. I liked to go there in the soft, early dusk; the smooth
+noiseless ascent of the lift, and the lighted floors that we passed, gave
+one an odd, dreamy feeling. Mrs. Fullerton had a handsome suite of
+apartments on the third floor, and there was a beautiful view from her
+drawing-room window of the Park and the Albert Memorial. It was a nice,
+cheerful situation, and Mrs. Fullerton, who liked gaiety, preferred it
+to Rutherford Lodge, though Lesbia had been born there and she had passed
+her happiest days in it.
+
+I found Mrs. Fullerton alone, but she seemed very friendly, and was
+evidently glad to see me. I suppose I was better company than her own
+thoughts.
+
+I liked Mrs. Fullerton, after a temperate fashion. She was a nice little
+woman, and would have been nicer still if she had talked less and thought
+more. But when one's words lie at the tip of one's tongue there is little
+time for reflection, and there are sure to be tares among the wheat.
+
+She was looking serious this evening, but that did not interfere with her
+comeliness or her pleasant manners. I found her warmth gratifying, and
+prepared to unbend more than usual.
+
+'Sit down, my dear. No, not on that chair: take the easy one by the fire.
+You are looking rather fagged, Ursula. It seems to be the fashion with
+young people now: they get middle-aged before their time. Oh yes, Lesbia
+is out. It is the Engleharts' "At Home," and she promised to go with Mrs.
+Pierrepoint. But she will be back soon. Now we are alone, I want to ask
+you a question. I am rather anxious about Lesbia. Dr. Pratt says there
+is a want of tone about her. She is too thin, and her appetite is not
+good. The child gets prettier every day, but she looks far too delicate.'
+
+I could not deny this. Lesbia certainly looked far from strong, and then
+she took cold so easily. I hinted that perhaps late hours and so much
+visiting (for the Fullertons had an immense circle of acquaintances,
+with possibly half a dozen friends among them) might be bad for her.
+
+Mrs. Fullerton looked rather mournful at this.
+
+'I hope you have not put that in her head,' she returned uneasily.
+'All yesterday she was begging me to give up the place and go back to
+Rutherford Lodge. Major Parkhurst is going to India in February, and so
+the house will be on our hands.'
+
+'I think the change will be good for Lesbia. It is such a pretty place,
+and she was always so fond of it.'
+
+'Oh, it is pretty enough,' with a discontented air; 'but life in a
+village is a very tame affair. There are not more than four families in
+the whole place whom we can visit, and when we want a little gaiety we
+have to drive into Pinkerton.'
+
+'I think it would be good for Lesbia's health, Mrs. Fullerton.'
+
+'Well, well,' a little peevishly, 'we must talk to Dr. Pratt about it.
+But how is Lesbia to settle well if I bury her in that poky little
+village? Perhaps I ought not to say so to you, Ursula; but poor dear
+Charlie has been dead these two years, so there can be no harm in
+speaking of such things now. But Sir Henry Sinclair is here a great deal,
+and there is no mistaking his intentions, only Lesbia keeps him at such
+a distance.'
+
+I thought it very bad taste of Mrs. Fullerton always to talk to me about
+Lesbia's suitors. Lesbia never mentioned such things herself. As far as I
+could judge, she was very shy with them all. I could not believe that the
+placid young baronet had any chance with her. She might possibly marry,
+but poor Charlie's successor would hardly be a thick-set, clumsy young
+man, with few original ideas of his own. Colonel Ferguson would have been
+far better; but he evidently preferred Sara.
+
+I was spared any reply, for Lesbia entered the room at that moment. She
+looked more delicately fair than usual, perhaps because of the contrast
+with her heavy furs. Her hair shone like gold under her little velvet
+bonnet, but, though she was so warmly dressed, she shivered and crept as
+close as possible to the fire.
+
+Mrs. Fullerton had some notes to write, so she went into the dining-room
+to write them and very good-naturedly left us by ourselves.
+
+Lesbia looked at me rather wistfully.
+
+'I have missed you twice, Ursula. I am so sorry; and now you go the day
+after to-morrow. I wish I could do something for you. Is there nothing
+you could leave in my charge?'
+
+'Only Jill,' I said, half laughing. 'If you would take a little more
+notice of her after I have gone, I should be so thankful to you.'
+
+I thought Lesbia seemed somewhat amused at the request.
+
+'Poor old Jill! I will do my best; but she never will talk to me. I think
+I should like her better than Sara if she would only open her lips to me.
+Well, Ursula, what have you and mother been talking about?'
+
+'About Rutherford Lodge,' I returned quickly. 'Do you really want to go
+back there?'
+
+'Did mother talk about that?' looking excessively pleased. 'Oh yes, I
+am longing to go back. I don't want to frighten you, Ursie, dear,--and,
+indeed, there is no need,--but this life is half killing me. I am too
+close to Hyde Park Gate; one never gets a chance of forgetting old
+troubles; and then mother is always saying gaiety is good for me, and she
+will accept every invitation that comes; and I get so horribly tired; and
+then one cannot fight so well against depression.'
+
+I took her hand silently, but made no answer; but I suppose she felt my
+sympathy.
+
+'You must not think I am wicked and rebellious,' she went on, with a
+sigh. 'I promised dear Charlie to be brave, and not let the trouble spoil
+my life; he would have it that I was so young that happiness must return
+after a time, and so I mean to do my best to be happy, for mother's sake,
+as well as my own; and I know Charlie would not like me to go on
+grieving,' with a sad little smile.
+
+'No, darling, and I quite understand you.' And she cheered up at that.
+
+'I knew you would, and that is why I want to tell you things. I have
+tried to do as mother wished, but I do not think her plan answers;
+excitement carries one away, and one can be as merry as other girls
+for a time, but it all comes back worse than ever.'
+
+'Mere gaiety never satisfied an aching heart yet.'
+
+'No; I told mother so, and I begged her to go back to Rutherford because
+it is so quiet and peaceful there and I think I shall be happier. I shall
+have my garden and conservatory, and there will be plenty of riding and
+tennis. I am very fond of our vicar's wife, Mrs. Trevor, and I rather
+enjoy helping her in the Sunday-school and at the mothers' meeting; not
+that I do much, for I am not like you, Ursula, but I like to pretend to
+be useful sometimes.'
+
+'I see what you mean, Lesbia: your life will be more natural and less
+strained than it is here.'
+
+'Yes, and time will hang less heavy on my hands. I do love gardening,
+Ursula. I know I shall forget my troubles when I find myself with dear
+old Patrick again, grumbling because I will pick the roses. I shall sleep
+better in my little room, and wake less unhappy. Oh, mother!' as Mrs.
+Fullerton entered at that moment with a half-finished note in her hand,
+'I am telling Ursula how home-sick I am, and how I long for the dear old
+Lodge. Do let us go back, mother darling: I want to hunt for violets
+again in the little shady hollow beyond the lime-tree walk.'
+
+'Yes, dearest, we will go if you really wish it so much,' returned Mrs.
+Fullerton, with a sigh. 'Why, my pet, did you think I should refuse?' as
+Lesbia put her arms round her neck and thanked her. 'When a mother has
+only got one child she is not likely to deny her much: is she, Ursula?'
+
+'Oh, mother, how good you are to me!' returned Lesbia, and her blue eyes
+were shining with joy. When Mrs. Fullerton had left the room again she
+told me that she had often cried herself to sleep with the longing to be
+in her old home again; she loved every flower in the garden, every animal
+about the place, and she grew quite bright and cheerful as she planned
+out her days. No, there was nothing morbid about Lesbia's nature; she was
+an honest, well-meaning girl, who had had a great disappointment in her
+life; she meant to outlive it if she could, to be as happy as possible.
+A wise instinct told her that her best chance of healing lay in country
+sights and sounds: the fresh gallop over the downs, the pleasant saunter
+through the sweet Sussex lanes, the sweet breath of her roses and
+carnations, would all woo her back to health and cheerfulness. When the
+pretty colour came back into Lesbia's face her mother would not regret
+her sacrifice; and then I remembered that Charlie's friend Harcourt
+Manners lived about half a dozen miles from Rutherford, and always
+attended the Pinkerton dances, and he was a nice intelligent fellow.
+But I scolded back the foolish thoughts, and felt ashamed of myself for
+entertaining them.
+
+I parted from Lesbia very affectionately, for she seemed loath to say
+good-bye, but I knew poor Jill would be grumbling at my absence; the
+others were dining out, and I had promised to join the schoolroom tea,
+which was to be half an hour later on my account, but it was nearly six
+before I made my appearance, very penitent at my delay, and fully
+expecting a scolding.
+
+I found Jill, however, kneeling on the rug, making toast, with Sooty in
+her arms; she had blacked her face in her efforts, but looked in high
+good-humour.
+
+'Fräulein has gone out for the whole evening: that freckled Fräulein
+Misschenstock has been here, and has invited her to tea and supper. Mamma
+said she could go, as you would remain with me, so we shall be alone and
+cosy for the whole evening. Now, you may pour out tea, if you like, for I
+have all this buttered toast on my mind. I am as hungry as a hunter; but
+there is a whole seed-cake, I am glad to see. Now, darling, be quick, for
+you have kept me so long waiting.' And Jill brushed vigorously at her
+blackened cheek, and beamed at me.
+
+But, alas! we had reckoned without our host, and a grand disappointment
+was in store for us, though, as it turned out, things were not as bad as
+they appeared to be at first.
+
+I was praising Jill's buttered toast, for I knew she prided herself
+on this delicacy, and she had just cut herself a thick wedge of the
+seed-cake, which she was discussing with a school-girl's appetite, when
+I heard Uncle Brian's voice calling for Ursula rather loudly: so I ran to
+the head of the staircase, and, to my surprise, saw him coming up in his
+slow, dignified manner.
+
+'Look here, Ursula, I shall be late at the Pollocks', and your aunt and
+Sara have gone on, and there is Tudor in the drawing-room, just arrived
+with a message from Cunliffe. Of course we must put him up; but the
+trouble is there is no dinner, and of course he is famished: young men
+always are.'
+
+My heart sank as I thought of Jill, but there was no help for it. Max's
+friends were sacred. Mr. Tudor must be made as comfortable as possible.
+
+'It cannot be helped, Uncle Brian,' I returned, trying to keep the
+vexation I felt out of my voice. 'Supposing you send Mr. Tudor up to the
+schoolroom, and we will give him some tea. Jill has made some excellent
+buttered toast, and Clayton can get some supper for him by and by in the
+dining-room: there is sure to be a cold joint,--or perhaps Mrs. Martin
+will have something cooked for him.'
+
+'That must do,' he replied, somewhat relieved at this advice. 'We shall
+be back soon after tea, so you will not have him long on your hands.
+Entertain him as well as you can, there's a good girl.' He had quite
+forgotten, and so had I for the moment, that Fräulein was out for the
+evening, and that possibly Aunt Philippa might object to a young man
+joining the schoolroom tea; but, as it proved afterwards, she was more
+shocked at Uncle Brian than at any one else: she said he ought to have
+given up his dinner and stayed with his guest.
+
+'I confess I do not see what Ursula could have done better,' she
+remarked severely; 'she could not spend the evening alone with him in the
+drawing-room; and of course he wanted his tea. That comes of allowing
+Fräulein to neglect her duties: she is too fond of spending her time with
+Fräulein Misschenstock.'
+
+I did not dare break the news to Jill, for fear she should lock herself
+in her own room, for she never liked the society of young men; they
+laughed at her too much, in a civil sort of way: so I hurried down into
+the drawing-room and explained matters to Mr. Tudor, whom I found walking
+about the room and looking somewhat ill at ease.
+
+He seemed rather amused at the idea of the schoolroom tea, but owned that
+he was hungry and tired, as he had had a fourteen-mile walk that day.
+
+'It is all Mr. Cunliffe's fault that I am quartered on you in this way,'
+he said, laughing a little nervously--and very likely Uncle Brian's
+dignified reception had made him uncomfortable; 'but he would insist on
+my bringing my bag, and Mr. Garston has a dinner-engagement, and cannot
+attend to business until to-morrow morning.'
+
+'I am afraid you would like a dinner-engagement too, after your fourteen
+miles,' I returned, in a sympathetic voice, for he did look very tired.
+'We will give you some tea now, and then you can get rid of the dust of
+the journey, and by that time Mrs. Martin will have done her best to
+provide you with some supper.'
+
+'I see I have fallen in good hands,' he replied, brightening at this in
+a boyish sort of way. 'Where is the schoolroom? I did not know there was
+such an apartment, but of course Mrs. Garston told me that her youngest
+daughter had not finished her studies. I think I saw her once: she was
+very tall, and had dark hair.'
+
+'Oh yes; that was Jill--I mean Jocelyn, but we always call her Jill. Will
+you come this way, please? Fräulein is out, and we were having a good
+time by ourselves.'
+
+'And I have come to spoil it,' he answered regretfully, as I opened the
+door.
+
+I shall never forget Jill's face when she saw us on the threshold. She
+quite forgot to shake hands with Mr. Tudor in her dismay, but stood
+hunching her shoulders, with Sooty still clasped in her arms and her
+great eyes staring at him, till he said a pleasant word to her, and then
+she flushed up, and subsided into her chair. I stole an anxious glance at
+the cake; to my great relief, Jill had been quietly proceeding with her
+meal in my absence, for I knew that in her chagrin she would refuse to
+touch another morsel. I wondered a little what Mr. Tudor would think of
+her ungracious reception of him; but he showed his good-breeding by
+taking no notice of it and confining his remarks to me.
+
+Jill's ill-humour thawed by and by when she saw how he entered into the
+spirit of the fun. He vaunted his own skill with the toasting-fork, and,
+in spite of fatigue, insisted on superintending another batch of the
+buttered toast; he was very particular about the clearness of the fire,
+and delivered quite an harangue on the subject. Jill's sulky countenance
+relaxed by and by; she opened her lips to contradict him, and was met so
+skilfully that she appealed to me for assistance.
+
+By the time tea was over, we were as friendly with Mr. Tudor as though we
+had known him all our lives, and Jill was laughing heartily over his racy
+descriptions of schoolroom feasts and other escapades of his youth. He
+looked absurdly young, in spite of his clerical dress; he had a bright
+face and a peculiarly frank manner that made me trust him at once; he did
+not look particularly clever, and Jill had the best of him in argument,
+but one felt instinctively that he was a man who would never do a mean or
+an unkind action, that he would tell the truth to his own detriment with
+a simple honesty that made up for lack of talent.
+
+I could see that Jill's bigness and cleverness surprised him. He
+evidently found her amusing, for he tried to draw her out; perhaps he
+liked to see how her great eyes opened and then grew bright, as she
+tossed back her black locks or shook them impatiently. When Jill was
+happy and at ease her face would grow illuminated; her varying
+expression, her animation, her quaint picturesque talk, made her
+thoroughly interesting. I was never dull in Jill's company; she had
+always something fresh to say; she had a fund of originality, and drew
+her words newly coined from her own mint.
+
+I do not believe that Mr. Tudor quite understood her, for he was a simple
+young fellow. But she piqued his curiosity. I must have appeared quite a
+tame, commonplace person beside her. When Jill went out of the room to
+fetch something, he asked me, rather curiously, how old she was, and when
+I told him that she was a mere child, not quite sixteen, he said, half
+musing, that she seemed older than that. She knew so much about things,
+but he supposed she was very clever.
+
+We went down into the drawing-room after this, and Jill kept me company
+while Mr. Tudor supped in state, with Clayton and Clarence to wait on
+him. He came up after a very short interval, and said, half laughing,
+that his supper had been a most formal affair.
+
+'By the bye, Miss Garston,' he observed, as though by an afterthought,
+'I hear you are coming down to Heathfield.' He stole a glance at Jill as
+he spoke. She had discarded her Indian muslin and coral necklace as being
+too grand for the occasion, and wore her ruby velveteen, that always
+suited her admirably. She looked very nice, and quite at her ease,
+sitting half-buried in Uncle Brian's arm-chair, instead of being bolt
+upright in her corner. She had drawn her big feet carefully under her
+gown, and was quite a presentable young lady.
+
+I thought Mr. Tudor was rather impressed with the transformation
+Cinderella in her brown schoolroom frock, with a smutty cheek and rumpled
+collar, was quite a different person:--presto--change--the young princess
+in the ruby dress has smooth locks and a thick gold necklace. She has big
+shining eyes and a happy child's laugh. Her little white teeth gleam in
+the lamplight. I do not wonder in the least that Mr. Tudor looks at Jill
+as he talks to me. It is a habit people have with me.
+
+But I answered him quite graciously.
+
+'Yes, I am coming down to Heathfield the day after to-morrow. I suppose
+I ought to say _Deo volente_. I hope you all mean to be good to me, Mr.
+Tudor, and not laugh at my poor little pretensions.'
+
+'I shall not laugh, for one,' he replied, looking me full in the face
+now with his honest eyes. 'I think it is a good work, Miss Garston. The
+vicar'--he always called Uncle Max the vicar--'was talking about it up
+at Gladwyn the other day, and Mr. Hamilton said--'
+
+'Gladwyn? Is that the name of a house?' I asked, interrupting Mr. Tudor
+a little abruptly.
+
+'To be sure. Have you not heard of Gladwyn?' And at that he looked a
+little amused. But I was not fated to hear more of Gladwyn that night,
+for the next moment Aunt Philippa came bustling into the room, and Sara
+and Uncle Brian followed her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE WHITE COTTAGE
+
+
+Good-bye is an unpleasant word to say, and I said mine as quickly as
+possible, but I did not like the remembrance of Jill's wet cheek that
+I had kissed: I was haunted by it during the greater part of my brief
+journey. For some inexplicable reason I had chosen to arrive at
+Heathfield late in the afternoon; I wanted to slip into my new home in
+the dusk. I knew that Uncle Max would meet me at the station and look
+after my luggage, so I should have no trouble, and I hoped that I should
+wake up among my neighbours the next morning before they knew of my
+arrival.
+
+When we stopped at some station a little while before we reached
+Heathfield, the guard put a gentleman in my compartment: I fancied they
+had not noticed me, for a large black retriever followed him.
+
+The gentleman lifted his hat directly he saw me, and apologised for
+his dog's presence, until I assured him it made no difference to me; and
+then he drew a newspaper from his bag and tried to read by the somewhat
+flickering light. As I had nothing else to do, and his attention was
+evidently very much absorbed, I looked at him from time to time in an
+idle, furtive sort of way.
+
+He had taken off his hat and put it on the seat; his dark smooth-shaven
+face reminded me of a Romish priest, but he had no tonsure; instead of
+that he had thick closely-cropped hair without a hint or suspicion of
+baldness, was strongly built and very broad, and looked like a man who
+had undergone training.
+
+I was rather given to study the countenances of my fellow-passengers,--it
+was a way I had,--but I was not particularly prepossessed with this man's
+face; it looked hard and stern, and his manner, though perfectly
+gentlemanly, was a little brusque. I abandoned the Romish priest theory
+after a second glance, and told myself he was more like a Roman
+gladiator.
+
+As we approached Heathfield, he folded up his paper and patted his dog,
+who had sat all this time at his feet, with his head on his knees. It was
+a beautiful, intelligent animal, and had soft eyes like a woman, and by
+the way he wagged his tail and licked the hand that fondled his glossy
+head I saw he was devoted to his master.
+
+Just then I encountered a swift, searching glance from the stranger,
+which rather surprised me. He had looked at me, as he spoke, in an
+indifferent way; but this second look was a little perplexing; it was
+as though he had suddenly recognised me, and that the fact amused him;
+and yet we had never met before,--it was such an uncommon face, so
+singular altogether, that I could never have forgotten it.
+
+I grew irritated without reason, for how could a stranger recognise me?
+Happily the lights from the station flashed before my eyes at that
+moment, and I began nodding and smiling towards a corner by the
+bookstall, where a felt hat and brown head were all that I could see
+of Uncle Max.
+
+'Well, here you are, Ursula, punctual to a minute,' exclaimed Max, as he
+shook hands. 'Halloo, Hamilton, where did you spring from?' going to the
+carriage door to speak to my fellow-passenger. I was so provoked at this,
+fearing an introduction, for Max was such a friendly soul, that I went to
+the luggage-van and began counting my boxes, and Max did not hurry
+himself to look after me.
+
+'Now, then,' he observed cheerily, when he condescended to join me, 'is
+your luggage all right? Do you mean all those traps are yours? Bless me,
+Ursula, what will Mrs. Barton say? Put them on the fly, you fellows, and
+be sharp about it. Come along, child; it is pelting cats and dogs, if you
+know what that means: you have a wet welcome to Heathfield.'
+
+I took the news philosophically, and assured him it did not matter in the
+least. We could hear the rain beating against the windows as we reached
+the booking-office. A closed waggonette with a pair of horses was waiting
+at the door; my fellow-passenger, whom Max had addressed as Hamilton, was
+standing on the pavement, speaking somewhat angrily to the coachman. I
+heard the man's answer as he touched his hat.
+
+'Miss Darrell said I was to bring the waggonette, sir: it did not rain so
+badly when the order was brought round to the stables.'
+
+'I could have taken a fly easily: it is worse than folly bringing out
+the horses this wet night. Jump in, Nap. What, must I go first? Manners
+before a wet coat.'
+
+I heard no more, for Max hurried me into a fly, and the waggonette passed
+us on the road.
+
+'Who was that?' I asked curiously.
+
+'Oh, that is Mr. Hamilton. Why did you not wait for me to introduce
+him to you, Ursula? He is a rich doctor who lives in these parts; he
+practises for his own pleasure among the poor people; he will not attend
+gentle-folks. He told me that he had studied medicine meaning to make it
+his profession, but a distant relative died and left him a fortune, and
+by so doing spoiled his career.'
+
+'That was rather ungracious of him; but he looks the sort of man who
+could do plenty of grumbling. Where does he live, Max?'
+
+'Oh, at Gladwyn: I cannot show you the house now, because we do not pass
+it. There is the church, Ursula, and there is Tudor in his mackintosh
+coming out of the vicarage: that is the best of Lawrence, he never shirks
+his duty; he hates the job, but he does it. He is going down to see old
+Smithers and get sworn at for his pains.'
+
+'Have you got any cases ready for me, Max?' I asked, with a little
+tingling of excitement.
+
+'Hamilton has. I was at Gladwyn the other evening, and had a talk with
+him. He was a little off-hand about your mission; he thinks you must be
+romantic, and all that sort of thing. You would have laughed to have
+heard him talk, and I let him go on just for the joke of it. It was rich
+to hear him say that he did not believe in hysterical goodness; a girl
+would do anything now to get herself talked about--no, I did not mean to
+repeat that,' interrupting himself, with an annoyed air. 'Hamilton always
+says more than he means. Look, Ursula, there is the White Cottage; that
+bow-window to the right belongs to your parlour. Now, my dear, I will
+open the gate, and you must just run up the path as quickly as you can,
+for you can hardly hold up an umbrella in this wind. You see the cottage
+does not boast of a carriage-drive.'
+
+That odious Mr. Hamilton--or Dr. Hamilton, which was it? No wonder he
+looked like a Romish priest if he could make those Jesuitical remarks!
+I felt I almost hated him, but I resolved to banish him from my mind,
+as I ran past the dripping laurels that bordered the narrow path. The
+cottage door was open as soon as our fly had stopped at the gate; and
+by the light I could see the neat flower-borders and clipped yews, and
+a leafless wide-spreading tree with a seat under it. As I made my way
+into the porch, a very big man without his coat passed me with a civil
+'good-evening.' I thought it must be Nathaniel, from his great height,
+and of course the prim-looking little widow in black, standing on the
+threshold, was Mrs. Barton. She had a nice, plaintive face, and spoke
+in a mild, deprecating voice.
+
+'Good-evening, Mrs. Barton. What dreadful weather! I hope my wet boxes
+will not spoil the oilcloth.'
+
+'That is easily wiped off, Miss Garston; but I am thinking the damp must
+have made you chilly. Come into the parlour: there is a fine rousing fire
+that will soon warm you. A fire is a deal of comfort on a wet, cool
+night. I have lighted one in your bedroom too.'
+
+Evidently Mrs. Barton spared herself no trouble. I was a fire-worshipper,
+and loved to see the ruddy flame lighting up all the odd corners, and I
+was glad to think both my rooms would be cheerful. The parlour looked the
+picture of comfort; my piano was nicely placed, and the davenport, and
+the chair that I had sent with it. A large old-fashioned couch was drawn
+across the window, the round table had a white cloth on it, and the
+tea-tray and a cottage loaf were suggestive of a meal. The room was long
+and rather low, but the bow-window gave it a cosy aspect; one glance
+satisfied me that I had space for the principal part of my books, the
+rest could be put in my bedroom. When Mrs. Barton stirred the fire and
+lighted the candles the room looked extremely cheerful, especially as
+Tinker, the collie, had taken a fancy to the rug, and had stretched
+himself upon it after giving me a wag of his tail as a welcome. Mrs.
+Barton would hardly give me time to warm my hands before she begged me
+to follow her upstairs and take off my things while they brought in the
+luggage.
+
+I found my bedroom had one peculiarity: you had to descend two broad
+steps before you entered it.
+
+It was the same size as the parlour, and had a bow-window. The furniture
+was unusually good; it had belonged to the previous lodger, Mrs.
+Meredith, who had bequeathed it to Mrs. Barton at her death.
+
+I was thankful to see a pretty iron bedstead with a brass ring and blue
+chintz hangings, instead of the four-poster I had dreaded. There was a
+commodious cupboard and a handsome Spanish mahogany chest of drawers that
+Mrs. Barton pointed out with great pride. A bright fire burned in the
+blue-tiled fireplace; there was an easy-chair and a round table in the
+bow-window; a pleasant perfume of lavender-scented sheets pervaded the
+room, and a winter nosegay of red and white chrysanthemums was prettily
+arranged in a curious china bowl. I praised everything to Mrs. Barton's
+satisfaction, and then she went downstairs to see to the tea, first
+giving me the information that Nathaniel was coming upstairs with the
+big trunk, and would I tell him where to place it?
+
+He entered the next moment, carrying the heavy trunk on his shoulder as
+easily as though it were a toy. He was a good-looking man, with a fair
+beard and a pair of honest blue eyes, and in spite of his size and
+strength--for he was a perfect son of Anak--seemed rather shy and
+retiring.
+
+I left him loosening the straps of my box, and went downstairs to find
+Uncle Max.
+
+He had made himself quite at home, and was sitting in the big easy-chair
+contemplating the fire.
+
+'Well, Ursula, how do you like your rooms? Oh yes, there are two cups and
+saucers,' as I looked inquiringly at the table, 'because Mrs. Barton
+expects me to remain to tea. She is frying ham and eggs at the present
+moment; I hope you do not mind such homely country fare; but to-morrow
+you will be your own housekeeper.'
+
+I assured Uncle Max that I had fallen in love with the White Cottage, and
+that I liked Mrs. Barton excessively, that my bedroom was especially cosy
+and was most comfortably furnished. 'You will see how pretty this room
+will look when I put up my new curtains and pictures,' I went on; 'it is
+a little bare at present, but it will soon have a more furnished
+appearance. I mean to be so busy to-morrow settling all my treasures.'
+And I spoke with so much animation that Uncle Max smiled at what he
+called my youthful enthusiasm.
+
+'You may be as busy as you like all day,' he returned, in his pleasant
+way, 'so that you come up to the vicarage in the afternoon to see Mrs.
+Drabble. Lawrence will be out: that fellow always is out,'--in a humorous
+tone of vexation. 'He makes himself so confoundedly agreeable that people
+are always asking him to dinner: he is terribly secular, is Lawrence, but
+he is young and will mend. Come up to the vicarage and dine with me,
+Ursula; I want you to taste Mrs. Drabble's pancakes: they are food for
+angels, as Lawrence always says.'
+
+I accepted the invitation a little regretfully, for it seemed hard to
+leave my hermitage the first evening; but then Uncle Max had been so good
+to me that it would never do to disappoint him, and, as Mr. Tudor would
+be out, we should be very cosy together.
+
+Mrs. Barton brought in the ham and eggs at this moment, and I sat down
+before my gay little tea-tray, marvelling secretly at the scarlet
+flamingo. There were plenty of homely delicacies on the table,--hot cakes
+and honey, and a basket of brown-and-yellow pippins. Uncle Max shook his
+head and pretended the hot cakes would ruin his digestion, but he enjoyed
+them all the same, and made an excellent meal.
+
+We sat for a long time talking over the fire, chiefly of Lesbia and Jill,
+for he took a warm interest in them both; but about eight o'clock he
+remembered he had an engagement, and went off rather hurriedly, and I
+went upstairs and unpacked one of my boxes, and arranged my clothes in
+the chest of drawers and in the big, roomy cupboard.
+
+When the church clock struck ten, I went down again in search of hot
+water. At the sound of my footstep, Mrs. Barton came out in the passage
+and invited me into the kitchen.
+
+'There is only Nat there at his books,' she said, in her plaintive voice;
+'he works late sometimes, though I tell him he uses up candle and
+firelight. Please make yourself at home, Miss Garston; we shall always
+be pleased to see you in our kitchen, when you like to pop in.'
+
+'I hope I shall not come too often,' I returned, looking round at its
+bright snug appearance. A square of dark carpet covered part of the
+red-tiled floor; the round deal table in the centre was hidden under a
+crimson cloth, and two big elbow-chairs stood on each side of the wide
+fireplace. Nathaniel sat in one, with a little round table in front of
+him, covered with books and papers, with a small lamp for his own use.
+Mrs. Barton's work-box and mending-basket were on the centre table, the
+hearth had just been swept up, there was a smell of hot bread, and a row
+of freshly-baked loaves were cooling on the dresser; the firelight shone
+on the gleaming pewter and brass utensils, and a great tabby cat sat
+purring on the elbow of Nathaniel's chair. I thought he seemed a little
+confused at my entrance, for he got up rather awkwardly and shuffled his
+papers together, so I took pity on his embarrassment, and only spoke to
+Mrs. Barton.
+
+She took me into the little outer kitchen to show me where she did her
+cooking, and I asked her in a low voice what he was studying.
+
+'He does a little of everything,' she said, with a sort of suppressed
+pride in her voice. 'Sometimes it is history, and oftener summing; he
+will have it that a man cannot have too much learning, and that he wants
+to improve himself; he is always fretting because he never had a chance
+when he was young, all along of his having to work when his poor father
+died, and so he is all for making up for lost time; sometimes Dr.
+Hamilton comes in and helps him with the Latin and--what do you call
+those figures?'
+
+I suggested mathematics, and she nodded assent.
+
+'Oh, Nat is a sight cleverer already than his master,' she went on. 'I am
+thinking that if he goes on learning more and more, that Mr. Roberts will
+be taking him into the business some day. Nat is a sort of foreman now,
+for his master thinks a deal of Nathaniel, and no wonder, for it is not
+only his learning, and his sitting up late, and getting up early in the
+winter's morning, and creeping downstairs without his boots so as not
+to wake me; for all he is such a good son; but I will say it, that there
+is not a young man in these parts that can beat Nat,' finished the little
+widow, in a broken voice.
+
+I said I was glad to hear it, for she evidently expected me to say
+something; and then I asked how long Dr. Hamilton had given him lessons
+in Latin and mathematics. She was only too ready to tell me, and seemed
+pleased at my interest.
+
+'Ever since Nat hurt his arm in the railway accident; and I will say that
+Dr. Hamilton brought him round in a wonderful way; he found him at his
+books one evening, and ordered him off to bed in a hurry; but when he
+came next time he had a long talk with Nat, and promised to give him an
+hour when he could spare it. Sometimes Nat goes up to Gladwyn, but
+oftener Dr. Hamilton drops in here; he has taken a fancy to our kitchen,
+he says; but that is his way of putting it. There are plenty of folks who
+find fault with the doctor, and say he is not what he ought to be to his
+own flesh and blood; but I always will have it, and Nathaniel says the
+same, that the doctor has a fine character. Why, Nat swears by him,'
+
+I was beginning to be afraid that Mrs. Barton would never arrive at a
+full stop,--she was a little like Mrs. Drabble in that; they were both
+discursive and parenthetical speakers, only Mrs. Drabble's meaning was
+more involved,--but before I had time to answer, a deep voice from the
+kitchen startled us.
+
+'Mother, how long do you mean to keep Miss Garston in that cold, dark
+place? It is enough to starve her,' And at this rebuke Mrs. Barton
+hurried me into the front kitchen. I was tired by this time, and glad to
+bid them both good-night. And yet the widow's talk interested me. It was
+not Mr. Hamilton's fault that he had a face like a Romish priest;
+evidently he had his good points, like other people, in spite of his
+rudeness in laughing at me. But I could not--no, I could not tolerate
+that remark of his, 'that a girl would do anything to make herself talked
+about.' It was odious, cynical, utterly malevolent. I hoped Uncle Max
+would defer the introduction as long as possible. I never wished to know
+anything of Gladwyn or its master. These thoughts occupied me until I
+fell asleep; and then I dreamt of Jill.
+
+Once or twice I woke in the night, disturbed by a low growl from Tinker,
+who slept in the passage. I heard afterwards that his dreams were always
+haunted by cats. He was an inveterate enemy to all the feline species,
+with the exception of Peter, the great tabby cat. They had long ago sworn
+an armistice, and, in his way, Tinker took a great deal of notice of
+Peter.
+
+It was strange to look round the low cottage room by the flickering,
+fast-dying firelight. The rain still pattered on the garden paths. I was
+rather dismayed to find that it had not ceased the next morning; it is so
+pleasant to wake up in a fresh place and see the bright sunshine. This
+piece of good luck was denied me, however. When I looked out of my window
+I could only see dripping laurels and great pools in the gravel walks.
+The gray sky had not a break in it. I was glad when I was ready to go
+down to my parlour, for the fire and breakfast-table would look cheerful
+by comparison; and afterwards I would set to work so busily that I should
+not have time to notice the rain.
+
+And so it proved; for until my early dinner--or rather luncheon--was
+served, I was employed in unpacking and arranging my books and ornaments.
+
+On my journeys to and fro I often paused at the low staircase window
+to reconnoitre the weather. There was no garden behind the cottage; a
+small gravelled yard, where Mrs. Barton kept her poultry and some rabbits
+belonging to Nathaniel, opened by a gate into a field. There was a
+cow-house there, and a white cow was standing rather disconsolately
+under some trees. I found out afterwards that both the field and the cow
+belonged to Mrs. Barton, so I could always rely on a good supply of sweet
+new milk.
+
+Nathaniel had put up my book-shelves when I had sent them with the other
+furniture, so I had only to arrange the books. I made use, too, of some
+nails he had driven in for my pictures.
+
+The parlour really looked very nice when I had finished; the new
+cream-coloured curtains were up, and I had tied them back with amber
+silk; two or three sunny little landscapes, and Charlie's portrait, a
+beautifully-painted photograph, hung on the walls; my favourite books
+were in their places, and the mantelpiece and the corner cupboards held
+some of the lovely old china that had belonged to mother. Aunt Philippa
+had wished me to leave it behind, as she feared it might be broken; but
+I liked to feast my eyes on the soft rich colours, and every piece was
+precious to me.
+
+When I had disposed the furniture to the best advantage,--had placed my
+davenport and work-table and special chair in the bow-window, and had
+replaced the shabby red cloth by a handsome tapestry one,--I called Mrs.
+Barton to see the room.
+
+She held up her hands in astonishment.
+
+'Dear me, Miss Garston, it looks quite a different place. What will
+Nathaniel say when he sees it?--he is so fond of books and pretty things.
+It only wants sunshine and a bird-cage, and perhaps a geranium or two,
+to make it quite a bower. May I make so bold, ma'am, as to ask who that
+pleasant-faced young gentleman is in the oak frame?'--but I think she
+was sorry that she had asked the question when I told her it was my
+twin-brother, now in heaven.
+
+'That is where my husband and my dear little daughter both are,' she
+said, with moist eyes, as she turned away from the picture. 'Oh, there is
+a deal of trouble in the world, but you are young to know it, ma'am.' And
+then she looked kindly at me, and went away, to give Nathaniel his
+dinner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+GILES HAMILTON, ESQ.
+
+
+It was quite late in the afternoon when I put the last finishing-touches
+to my sitting-room, and it was already dusk when I left the cottage and
+walked quickly up the road that led to the vicarage.
+
+My busy day had not tired me, and I should have enjoyed a solitary ramble
+in spite of the wet roads and dark November sky, only I knew Uncle Max
+would be waiting for me. A keen sense of independence, of liberty, of
+congenial work in prospective, seemed to tingle in my veins, as though
+new life were coursing through them. I was no longer trammelled by the
+constant efforts to move in other people's grooves. I was free to think
+my own thought and lead my own life without reproof or hindrance.
+
+The vicarage was a red, irregular house, shut off from the road by
+a low wall, with a court-yard planted somewhat thickly with shrubs: the
+living-rooms were chiefly at the back of the house, and their windows
+looked out on a pleasant garden: a glass door in the hall opened on a
+broad gravel terrace bordered by standard rose-trees, and beyond lay a
+smooth green lawn almost as level as a bowling-green; a laurel hedge
+divided it from an extensive kitchen-garden, to which Uncle Max and Mr.
+Tudor devoted a great deal of their spare time and superfluous energies.
+
+It was far too large a house for an unmarried man: the broad staircase
+and spacious rooms seemed to require the echo of children's voices. Uncle
+Max used to call it the barracks, but I think in his heart he liked the
+roomy emptiness; when he was restless he would prowl up and down the wide
+landing from one unused room to another. It was an old-fashioned house,
+and more than one generation had grown up in it. Uncle Max was fond of
+telling me about his predecessors' histories. Two little children had
+died in the big nursery overlooking the garden. There was a little brown
+room where a _ci-devant_ vicar had written his sermons, with a big
+cupboard in the wall where he hung his cassock. He had a grown-up family,
+but his wife was dead. One day he married again and brought home a slim,
+pale-faced girl--a certain Priscilla Howe--to be the mistress of his
+house. There were stories rife in the village that her step-children were
+too much for poor, pretty Priscilla; that while her husband wrote his
+sermons in the little brown room the young wife pined and moped in her
+green sitting-room.
+
+Uncle Max found a picture of her one day in a garret where they stored
+apples; a faint musty smell clung to the canvas. 'Priscilla Howe' was
+written in one corner; there was a childish look on the small oval face;
+large melancholy eyes seemed appealing to one out of the canvas. She was
+dressed in a heavy white material like dimity, and held a few primroses
+between her fingers. What an innocent, pathetic little bride the
+stern-faced vicar must have brought home!
+
+I read her epitaph afterwards when Uncle Max showed me her
+grave,--'Priscilla, wife of Ralph Combermere, aged twenty, and her infant
+son.' What a sad little inscription! But Uncle Max read something sadder
+still one day. A letter in faded ink was found in a corner of the same
+old garret, and the signature was 'Priscilla'; there was only one
+sentence legible in the whole, and to whom it was written remained a
+mystery: 'Trust me, dear love, that I shall ever do my duty, in spite of
+flaunts and jeers and most unkindly looks; and if God spares me health,
+which I cannot believe, He may yet right me in the eyes that no longer
+look at me with fondness.'
+
+Poor Priscilla! so her husband had ceased to love her. No wonder the poor
+child dwindled and pined among 'the flaunts and jeers and most unkindly
+looks' of her step-children. One could imagine her clasping her baby to
+her sad heart as she closed her eyes to the bitter misunderstanding of
+this life. 'Where the weary are at rest,'--they might have written those
+words upon her tomb.
+
+The thought of Priscilla used to haunt me when I roamed about the
+passages on windy days; the old garret especially seemed haunted by her
+memory. Uncle Max once said to me that he could have constructed a
+romance out of her poor little history. 'She came from a place called
+Ecclesbourne Hall,' he said, one day. 'She was an heiress; old Ralph
+Combermere knew what he was about when he transplanted the pale primrose.
+Do you know, Ursula, this room is supposed to be haunted? And one of the
+maids told me seriously that Mistress Combermere walks here on windy
+nights with her babe in her arms. Fancy such a report in an English
+vicarage!'
+
+When I reached the house the little maid who opened the door informed me
+that Uncle Max was in his study: it was a large room with a bow-window
+overlooking the garden, and I knew Uncle Max never used any other room
+except for his meals. I had volunteered to announce myself. I was never
+formal with Max, so I knocked at the door, and, without waiting to hear
+his voice in reply, marched in without ceremony.
+
+But the next moment I stood discomfited on the threshold, for instead of
+Uncle Max's familiar face I saw a dark, closely-cropped head bending over
+the table as though searching for something, and the ruddy firelight
+reflected the broad shoulders and hairless profile of the obnoxious Mr.
+Hamilton.
+
+My first idea was to escape, and my fingers were already on the
+door-handle, when he turned abruptly and saw me. 'I beg your pardon,'
+coming towards me and speaking in the deep peculiar voice I had already
+heard. 'I was hunting for the matches that Cunliffe always mislays. You
+are Miss Garston, are you not? I was told to expect you.' And then he
+actually shook hands with me in an off-hand way.
+
+I am not generally devoid of presence of mind, but at that moment I
+behaved as awkwardly as a school-girl. If I could only have thought of
+some excuse for leaving him,--an errand or a message to Mrs. Drabble; but
+no form of words would occur to me. I could only mutter an apology for my
+abrupt entrance, and ask after Uncle Max, stammering with confusion all
+the time, and then take the chair he was placing for me, while he renewed
+his search for the match-box.
+
+'Oh, Cunliffe has only gone down to the village to post his letters: he
+will be back in a few minutes. Ah! here are the matches. Now we shall be
+able to see each other.' And he coolly lighted Uncle Max's reading-lamp
+and two candles, and stirred the fire with such a vigorous hand that the
+huge lump of coal splintered into fragments.
+
+'There; I do like a mighty blaze. Take that newspaper, Miss Garston, if
+the flame scorches your face. I know young ladies are afraid of their
+complexions.' Why need he have said that, as though my brown skin were
+Sara's pretty pink cheeks? 'Why do you not throw off your wraps if the
+room be too hot?' And he spoke so imperatively that I actually obeyed
+him, and got rid of my hat and ulster, which he deposited on the couch.
+
+I did not like the look of Mr. Hamilton any better than I had liked it
+yesterday. His dark, smoothly-shaven face was not to my taste; it looked
+stern and forbidding. He had a low forehead, and there was a hard set
+look about the mouth, and the eyes were almost disagreeable in their
+keenness.
+
+Perhaps I was prejudiced, but he looked to me like a man who rarely
+laughed, and who would take a pleasure in saying bitter things; his voice
+was not unpleasant, but it had a peculiar depth in it, and now and then
+there was an odd break in it that was almost a hesitation.
+
+'Well,' he said, looking full at me, but, I was sure, not in the least
+wishful to set me at my ease, 'I suppose I ought to introduce myself. My
+name is Hamilton.'
+
+I bowed. I certainly did not think it necessary that I should tell him
+that I was aware of that fact.
+
+'We met yesterday, when you were good enough to put up with Nap's
+company. I was half disposed to introduce myself then: only I feared you
+would be shocked at such a piece of unconventionality; young ladies have
+such strict ideas of decorum.'
+
+'And very properly so, too,' I put in severely, for my irritation was
+getting the better of my nervousness. I could not bear the tone in which
+he said 'young ladies.' I felt convinced he had an antipathy to the whole
+sex.
+
+'Our skies were very uncivil in their welcome,' he went on, quite
+disregarding my remark: 'it was the wettest night we have had for an age.
+I was quite savage when I found the horses had been taken out of their
+warm stables: the coachman was an ass, as I told him.'
+
+'You scolded him somewhat severely.'
+
+'Ah! did you hear me?' smiling a little at that, as though he were
+amused. 'I am afraid I speak my mind pretty freely, in spite of
+bystanders. Well, Miss Garston, so I hear you have come down as a sort of
+female Quixote among us. Heathfield is to be the scene of your mission.'
+
+I was so angry at the tone in which he said this that I made no reply.
+What right had a perfect stranger to meddle in my business? It was all
+Uncle Max's fault; if he had only held his tongue.
+
+'Cunliffe was up at Gladwyn the other night,' he continued in the same
+off-hand way, 'and he told us all about it.'
+
+'I am sorry to hear it,' very stiffly.
+
+'Sorry! Why? Good deeds ought to be talked about, ought they not, _pro
+bono publico_, eh? Why not, Miss Garston?'
+
+'Good intentions are not deeds.'
+
+'True; you have me there. I suppose you think you must not reckon on your
+chickens before they are hatched; the _pro bono publico_ scheme is not
+properly hatched yet, except in theory. I am afraid I shall make you
+angry if I tell you I was rather amused at the whole thing.'
+
+'I am glad to afford you amusement, Mr. Hamilton.'
+
+'Ah, I see you are deeply offended; what a pity, and in five minutes too!
+That comes of my unfortunate habit of speaking my mind. Let me follow
+this out. I am afraid Cunliffe has been a traitor; that fellow is not
+reliable: no parsons are. Let me hear what you have against me, Miss
+Garston. I have spoken against your pet theory, and you are aggrieved in
+consequence,'
+
+He spoke in a half-jesting manner, but his ironical voice challenged me.
+
+I felt I detested him, and he should know why.
+
+'I expected to be misunderstood,' I returned coldly, 'but hardly to be
+accused of hysterical goodness. To be sure, a girl will do anything
+nowadays to get herself talked about!'
+
+'Oh,' in a low voice, 'that rascal! But I will be even with him. How many
+more of my speeches did Cunliffe repeat?'
+
+'Oh, I had heard enough,' I replied hastily. 'Does it not strike you as
+a little hard, Mr. Hamilton, that one should be judged beforehand in this
+harsh manner?--that because some girls are full of vagaries, the whole
+sex must be condemned?'
+
+'Oh, if you put it in that cut-and-dried way, I must plead guilty: in
+fact, I should owe you some sort of apology, only'--with a stress on the
+word--'my speech was not intended for the house-top. I am rather a
+sceptic about female missions, Miss Garston, and do not always measure my
+words when I am discussing abstract theories with a friend. In my opinion
+Cunliffe is the one you ought to blame, though if the speech rankles I
+will take my share.'
+
+'I certainly wish you had not said it, Mr. Hamilton.'
+
+'There, now,'--in an injured voice,--'that is the way you treat my
+handsome apology, and I am not a man ever to own myself in the wrong,
+mind you. What does it matter, may I ask, what I think of girls in the
+abstract? I had not met you, Miss Garston, or discussed the subject in
+its bearings: so where may the offence lie? Of course you have no answer
+ready; of course you have taken offence where none is meant. This is so
+like a woman--to undertake to renovate society, and lose her temper at
+the first adverse word.'
+
+He was looking at me with a peculiar but not unkindly smile as he spoke;
+in fact, his expression was almost pleasant; but I was too much
+prejudiced to be softened. I did not care in the least what he thought
+of my temper; I was quite sure he had one of his own.
+
+'No one likes to meet discouragement on the threshold,' I answered
+curtly.
+
+'Not if it comes out with timbrels and dances, like Jephtha's
+daughter, to be sacrificed: that was discouragement on the threshold
+with a vengeance. I was always sorry for that old fellow. Well, _apropos_
+of that touching remark,--which, by the way, is exquisitely
+feminine,--supposing we strike a truce. I daresay you look upon me as an
+interfering stranger; but the fact is, I am the poor folk's doctor down
+here; so you cannot work without me. That alters the case, eh?'--with a
+smile meant to be propitiatory, but really too triumphant for my taste.
+
+'Under those circumstances I could wish that you had less narrow views of
+women's work,' I returned, with some warmth.
+
+He opened his eyes so widely at this that at any other moment I should
+have been amused.
+
+'By all that is wonderful, it is the first time I have been accused of
+narrowness.' And here he gave a gruff little laugh. 'I think I had better
+leave yon alone, Miss Garston, and label you "dangerous." There is a hot
+sparkle in your eyes that warns me to keep off the premises. "Trespassers
+will be taken up." I begin to feel uncomfortable. Cunliffe has put me _en
+parole_, and I dare not break bounds. Can you manage to sit in
+the same room a little longer with such a heretic?'
+
+'Heretics can be converted.'
+
+He shrugged his shoulders at this.
+
+'Not such a hardened sceptic as myself. Now, look here, Miss Garston.
+I will say something civil. I believe you are in earnest; so it shall be
+_pax_ between us; and I will promise not to thwart you. As for women's
+mission in general, I believe their principal mission is not to stop at
+home and mind their own business; in fact, home and homely duties are the
+last straws that break the back of the emancipated woman.' And with these
+audacious words Mr. Hamilton stirred the fire again with prodigious
+energy. Happily, Uncle Max came into the room at that moment; so I was
+spared any reply.
+
+Max must have thought that I was suspiciously glad to see him, for he
+looked from one to the other rather anxiously.
+
+'Sorry to be so late, Ursula; but I met Pardoe, and he entrapped me into
+an argument. Well, how have you and my friend Hamilton got on together?'
+
+I turned away without answering, but Mr. Hamilton responded, in a
+melancholy voice--
+
+'I have been suppressed, like the dormouse in Alice's teapot. There is
+very little left of me. I had no idea your niece had such a taste for
+argument, Cunliffe. I take it rather unkindly that I was not warned off
+the track.'
+
+'So you two have been quarrelling.' And Uncle Max looked a little vexed.
+'What a fellow you are, Hamilton, for stroking a person the wrong way! Of
+course Ursula has believed all your cross-grained remarks?'
+
+'Swallowed them whole and entire; and a fit of moral indigestion is the
+result. Well, I must be going; but first let me administer a palliative,
+Miss Garston. What time do you have breakfast? If it be before ten, I
+shall be happy to introduce you to a very eligible case.'
+
+I would have given much to dispense with Mr. Hamilton's patronage; but
+under the circumstances it would have been absurd to refuse his offer.
+I could not sacrifice my work to my temper; but I recognised with a
+sinking heart that Mr. Hamilton would cross my daily path. The idea
+was as delightful to me as the anticipation of a daily east wind. I
+restrained myself, however, and briefly mentioned that I would be ready
+by nine.
+
+'Oh, that is an hour too early: I will call for you at ten. Let me see,
+you are at the White Cottage. You are not curious about your first
+patient; in that you are not a true daughter of Eve. Well, good-bye, Miss
+Garston; good-bye, Cunliffe.' And he left the room without shaking hands
+with me again.
+
+Uncle Max followed him out into the hall, and they stood so long talking
+that I lost patience, and went into the kitchen to see Mrs. Drabble.
+
+She received me in a resigned way, as usual, and talked without taking
+breath once while she buttered the hot cakes and prepared the tea-tray.
+I understood her to say that Mr. Tudor's collars were her chief cares in
+life; that no young gentleman she had ever known was so hard to please in
+the matter of starch; that her master was a lamb in comparison; and did
+I not think he was looking ill and overworking himself?
+
+I had some difficulty in finding out to whom she was alluding, but I
+imagined she meant her master, who was certainly looking a little thin,
+and then she went off on another tack.
+
+'Folks seem mighty curious about you, Miss Ursula; people do say
+that only a young lady crossed in love would think of doing such an
+out-of-the-way thing as putting up at the White Cottage and nursing
+poor people. There was Rebecca Saunders,--you know Rebecca at the
+post-office,--she said to me last night, "So your young lady has come,
+Mrs. Drabble; the vicar was at the station, I hear, and Dr. Hamilton came
+down by the same train: wasn't that curious, now? I am thinking she must
+be a mighty independent sort of person to take this work on her; there
+has been trouble somewhere, take my word for it, for it is not in young
+folks' nature to go in for work and no play."'
+
+'Oh, I mean to play as well as work,' I returned, laughing. 'Don't tell
+me any more, Mrs. Drabble; people will talk in a village, but I would
+rather not hear what they say.' And then I went back to the study and
+made tea for Uncle Max, and tried to pretend that I felt quite myself,
+and was not the least uneasy in my mind,--as though I could deceive Max.
+
+'Well, Ursula,' he said, shaking his head at me, 'did Hamilton or Mrs.
+Drabble give you those hot cheeks?'
+
+'Oh, Uncle Max,' I returned hastily, 'I am so sorry Mr. Hamilton is your
+friend.'
+
+'Why so, little she-bear?'
+
+'Because--because--I detest him: he is the most disagreeable,
+insufferable, domineering person I have ever met.'
+
+'Candid; but then you were always outspoken, my dear. Now, shall I tell
+you what this disagreeable, insufferable, domineering person said to me
+in the hall?'
+
+'Oh, nothing he said will make any difference in my opinion, I assure
+you.'
+
+'Possibly not, but it is too good to be lost. He said, "That little girl
+actually believes in herself and her work; it is quite refreshing to meet
+with such _naïveté_ nowadays. Ursula did you call her? Well, the name
+just suits her." How do you like that, poor little bear?'
+
+'I like it as well as I liked all Mr. Hamilton's speeches. Max, do you
+really care for that odious man? Must I be civil to him?'
+
+'Indeed, I hope you will be civil, Ursula,' replied Uncle Max, in an
+alarmed voice. 'My dear, Giles Hamilton, Esq., is my most influential
+parishioner; he is rich; he doctors all my poor people _gratis_, bullies
+them one moment, and does them a good turn in the next; he is clever,
+kind-hearted, and has no end of good points, and, though he is eccentric
+and has plenty of faults, we chum together excellently, and I am very
+intimate with his people.'
+
+'His people--who are they?' I asked irritably.
+
+'Oh, it is a queer household up at Gladwyn,' returned Max, rather
+uneasily. 'Hamilton has a cousin living with him, as well as his two
+sisters; her name is Darrell,--Etta Darrell; she is a stylish-looking
+woman, about five-and-thirty; one never knows a lady's age exactly.'
+
+'Are his sisters very young, then? Does Miss Darrell manage the house?'
+
+'Yes. How could you guess that?' looking at me in surprise. 'Gladys,
+Miss Hamilton, is about three-and-twenty, but she is very delicate;
+the younger one, Elizabeth, is two years younger; they are Hamilton's
+half-sisters,--his father married twice: that accounts for a good deal.'
+
+'How do you mean,--accounts for a good deal, Max?'
+
+'Why people say that Hamilton doesn't always get on with his sisters,'
+he returned reluctantly: 'there are often misunderstandings in
+families,--want of harmony, and that sort of thing. Mind, I do not
+say it is true.'
+
+'But you are so often at Gladwyn, you ought to know, Max.'
+
+'Yes, of course; and now and then I have seen Hamilton a little stern
+with his sisters; he is rather irritable by nature. I don't quite
+understand things myself, but I have got it into my head that they would
+be happier without Miss Darrell; she is a splendid manager, but it puts
+Miss Hamilton out of her right place.'
+
+'But she is an invalid, you say?'
+
+'No, not an invalid, only very delicate, and a little morbid; not
+quite what a girl ought to be. You could do some good there, Ursula,'
+rather eagerly. 'Miss Hamilton has no friends of her own age; she is
+reserved,--peculiar. You might be a comfort to her; you are sympathetic,
+sensible, and have known trouble yourself. I should like to see you use
+your influence there.'
+
+'I will try, if you wish it, Max. And her name is Gladys?'
+
+'Yes, Gladys, of Gladwyn,' he returned, with a smile, but I thought he
+said it with rather a singular intonation, but it had a musical sound,
+and I repeated it again to myself,--'Gladys, of Gladwyn.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+NEW BROOMS SWEEP CLEAN
+
+
+We were interrupted just then by Mrs. Drabble, who came in for the
+tea-things, and, as usual, held a long colloquy with her master on sundry
+domestic affairs. When she had at last withdrawn, Uncle Max did not
+resume the subject. I was somewhat disappointed at this, and in spite
+of my strong antipathy to Mr. Hamilton I wanted to hear more about his
+sisters.
+
+He disregarded my hints, however, and began talking to me about my work.
+
+'Do you know anything about the family Mr. Hamilton mentioned?' I asked,
+rather eagerly.
+
+'Oh yes; Mary Marshall's is a very sad case; she has seven children,
+not one of them old enough to work for himself; and she is dying, poor
+creature, of consumption. Her husband is a navvy, and he is at work at
+Lewes; I believe he is pretty steady, and sends the greater part of his
+wages to his wife, but there are too many mouths to feed to allow of
+comforts; his old blind mother lives with them. I believe the neighbours
+are kind and helpful, and Peggy, the eldest child, is a sharp little
+creature, but you can imagine the miserable condition of such a home.'
+
+'Yes, indeed.' And I shuddered as I recalled many a sad scene in my
+father's home.
+
+'I have sent in a woman once or twice to clean up the place; and Mrs.
+Drabble has made excellent beef-tea, but the last lot turned sour from
+being left in the hot kitchen one night, and the cat upset the basin of
+calf's-foot jelly,--at least the children said so. I go there myself,
+because Tudor says the air of the place turns him sick: he looked as
+white as a ghost after his last visit, and declared he was poisoned with
+foul air.'
+
+'I daresay he was right, Max; poor people have such an objection to open
+their windows.'
+
+'I believe you there. I have talked myself nearly hoarse on that subject.
+Hamilton and I propose giving lectures in the schoolroom on domestic
+hygiene. There is a fearful want of sanitary knowledge in women belonging
+to the lower class; want of cleanliness, want of ventilation, want of
+whitewashing, are triple evils that lead to the most lamentable results.
+We cannot get people to understand the common laws of life; the air of
+their rooms may be musty, stagnant, and corrupt, and yet they are
+astonished if their children have an attack of scarlet fever or
+diphtheria.'
+
+I commended the notion of the lectures warmly, and asked with whom the
+idea had originated.
+
+'Oh, Hamilton, of course: he is the moving spirit of everything. We have
+planned the whole thing out. There is to be a lecture every Friday
+evening; the first is to be on household hygiene, the sanitary condition
+of houses, ventilation, cleanliness, etc. In the second lecture Hamilton
+will speak of the laws of health, self-management, personal cleanliness,
+to be followed by a few simple lectures on nursing, sick-cookery, and
+the treatment of infantile diseases. We want all the mothers to attend.
+Do you think it a good idea, Ursula?'
+
+'It is an excellent one,' I returned reluctantly, for I grudged the
+praise to Mr. Hamilton. He could benefit his fellow-creatures, and give
+time and strength and energy to the poor sick people, and yet sneer at me
+civilly when I wanted to do the same, just because I was a woman. Perhaps
+Max was disappointed with my want of enthusiasm, for he ceased talking
+of the lectures, and said he had some more letters to write before
+dinner, and during the rest of the evening, though we discussed a hundred
+different topics, Mr. Hamilton's name was not again mentioned.
+
+Uncle Max walked with me to the gate of the White Cottage, and bade me a
+cheerful good-night.
+
+'I like to feel you are near me, Ursula,' he said, quite affectionately;
+'an old bachelor like myself gets into a groove, and the society of a
+vigorous young woman, brimful of philanthropy and crotchets, will rub me
+up and do me good; one goes to sleep sometimes,' he finished, rather
+mournfully, and then he walked away in the darkness, and I stood for a
+minute to watch him.
+
+It seemed to me that Max was a little different this evening. He was
+always kind, always cheerful; he never wrapped himself up in gloomy
+reserve like other people, however depressed or ill at ease he might be;
+but Mrs. Drabble was right, he was certainly thinner, and there was an
+anxious careworn look about his face when he was not speaking. I was
+certain, too, that his cheerfulness and ready flow of conversation were
+not without effort. I had asked him once if he were quite well, and he
+had looked at me in evident astonishment.
+
+'Perfectly well, thank you,--in a state of rude health. Nothing ever ails
+me. Why do you ask?' But I evaded this question, for I knew Max hated to
+be watched; and, after all, what right had I to intrude into his private
+anxieties? doubtless he had plenty of these, like other men. The
+management of a large parish was on his shoulders, and he was too
+conscientious and hard-working to spare himself; but somehow the shadow
+lying deep down in Max's honest brown eyes haunted me as I unlatched the
+cottage door.
+
+I heard Nathaniel's voice in the kitchen, and went in to bid him and his
+mother good-night. Mrs. Barton was not there, however, but, to my
+chagrin, Mr. Hamilton occupied her seat. He looked up with a rather
+quizzical glance as I entered: he and Nathaniel had the round table
+between them, strewn with books and papers; Nathaniel was writing, and
+Mr. Hamilton was sitting opposite to him.
+
+'I beg your pardon,' I said hurriedly. 'I thought Mrs. Barton was here.'
+
+'She has gone to bed,' returned Mr. Hamilton coolly: 'my friend Nathaniel
+and I are hard at work, as you see. Do you know anything of mathematics,
+Miss Garston?--no, you shake your head--' I do not know what more he
+would have said, but I escaped with a quick good-night.
+
+As I went upstairs I made a resolution to avoid the kitchen in future:
+I might at any moment stumble upon Mr. Hamilton. I had forgotten that he
+gave Nathaniel lessons sometimes in the evening. What a ubiquitous mortal
+this man appeared, here, there, and everywhere! It had given me rather a
+shock to see him so comfortably domiciled in Mrs. Barton's cosy kitchen;
+he looked as much at home there as in Uncle Max's study. How bright
+Nathaniel had looked as he raised his head to bid me good-night! I was
+obliged to confess that they had seemed as happy as possible.
+
+It was very late when he left the cottage; I was just sinking off to
+sleep when I heard his voice under my window. Tinker heard it too, and
+barked, and then the gate shut with a sudden sharp click and all was
+still. Nathaniel must have crept up to bed in his stocking-feet, as they
+say in some parts, for I never heard him pass my door.
+
+I was glad to be greeted by sunshine the next morning; the day seemed to
+smile on my new work like an unuttered benison, as I went down to my
+solitary breakfast. I resolved that nothing Mr. Hamilton could say should
+damp or put me out of temper, and then I sat down and read a sad rambling
+letter from Jill, which was so quaint and original, in spite of its
+lugubriousness, that it made me smile.
+
+I was standing by the door, caressing Tinker, who was in a frolicking
+mood this morning, when I saw Mr. Hamilton cross the road; he wore a dark
+tweed suit and a soft felt hat,--a costume that did not suit him in the
+least; he held open the gate for me, and made a sign that I should join
+him. As I approached without hurrying myself in the least, he looked
+inquiringly at the basket I carried.
+
+'I hope you do not intend to pauperise your patients,' was his first
+greeting.
+
+'Oh no,' was my reply, but I did not volunteer any information as to the
+contents of the basket. There was certainly a jar of beef-tea that Mrs.
+Drabble had given me, and a few grapes; but the little store of soap,
+soda, fine rags, and the two or three clean towels and cloths would have
+surprised him a little, though he might have understood the meaning of
+the neat housewife.
+
+'I am glad you wear print dresses,' was his next remark; 'they are proper
+for a nurse. Stuff gowns that do not wash are abominations. I am taking
+you to a very dirty place, Miss Garston, but what can you expect when
+there are seven children under thirteen years of age and the mother is
+dying? She was a clean capable body when she was up; it is hard for her
+to see the place like a pig-sty now. Old Mrs. Marshall is blind, and as
+helpless as the children,' He spoke abruptly, but not without feeling.
+
+'The neighbours are good to them, Uncle Max tells me.'
+
+'Oh yes; they come in and tidy up a bit, that is their expression; now
+and then they wash the baby or take off a batch of dirty clothes, but
+they have their own homes and children. I tell my patient that she would
+be far more comfortable in a hospital; but she says she cannot leave the
+children, she would rather die at home. That is what they all say.'
+
+'But the poor creatures mean what they say, Mr. Hamilton.'
+
+'Oh, but it is all nonsense!' he returned irritably. 'She can do nothing
+for the children; she cannot have a moment's quiet or a moment's comfort,
+with all those grimy noisy creatures rushing in and out. I found her
+sitting up in bed yesterday, in danger of breaking a blood-vessel through
+coughing, because one of the imps had fallen down and cut his head and
+she was trying to plaster it.'
+
+'Her husband ought to be with her,' I said, somewhat indignantly.
+
+'He is on a job somewhere, and cannot come home; they must have bread
+to eat, and he must work. This is the house,' pointing to a low white
+cottage at the end of a long straggling street of similar houses; two or
+three untidy-looking children were playing in the front garden with some
+oyster-shells and a wooden horse without a head. One little white-headed
+urchin clapped his hands when he saw Mr. Hamilton, and a pretty little
+girl with a very dirty face ran up to him and clasped him round the knee.
+
+''As 'oo any pennies to-day?' she lisped.
+
+'No nonsense; run away, children,' he said, in a rough voice that did not
+in the least alarm them, for they scampered after us into the porch until
+an elder girl, with a year-old baby in her arms, met us on the threshold
+and scolded them away.
+
+Mr. Hamilton shook a big stick at them.
+
+'I shall give no pennies to children with dirty faces. Well, Peggy, how
+is mother? Have the boys gone to school, both of them? That is right.
+This is the lady who is coming to look after mother.'
+
+Here Peggy dropped a courtesy, and said, 'Yes, sir,' and 'yes please,
+mum.'
+
+'Mind you do all she tells you. Now out of my way. I want to speak to
+your grandmother a moment, and then I will come into the other room.'
+
+I followed him into the untidy, miserable looking kitchen. An old woman
+was sitting by the fire with an infant in her arms; we found out that it
+belonged to the neighbour who was washing out some things in the yard.
+She came in by and by, clattering over the stones in her thick clogs,--a
+brisk, untidy-looking young woman,--and looked at me curiously as she
+took her baby.
+
+'I must be going home now, granny,' she said, in a loud, good-humoured
+voice. 'Peggy can rinse out the few things I've left.'
+
+Granny had a pleasant, weather-beaten face, only it looked sunken and
+pale, and the poor blind eyes had a pathetic, unseeing look in them. To
+my surprise, she looked neat and clean. I had yet to learn the slow
+martyrdom the poor soul had endured during the last few months in that
+squalid, miserable household. To her, cleanliness was next to godliness.
+She had brought up a large family well and thriftily, and now in her old
+age and helplessness her life had no comfort in it. I was rather
+surprised to see Mr. Hamilton shake the wrinkled hand heartily.
+
+'Well, Elspeth, what news of your son? Is he likely to come home soon?'
+
+'Nay, doctor,' in a faint old treble: 'Andrew cannot leave his job for
+two or three months to come. He is terrible down-hearted about poor Mary.
+Ay, she has been a good wife to him and the bairns; but look at her now!
+Poor thing! Poor thing!'
+
+'We must all dree our weird. You are a canny Scotch-woman, and know what
+that means. Come, you must cheer up, for I have brought a young lady with
+me who is going to put your daughter-in-law a little more comfortable and
+see after her from time to time.'
+
+'Ay, but that is cheering news,' returned Elspeth; and one of the rare
+tears of old age stole down her withered cheek. 'My poor Mary! she is
+patient, and never complains; but the good Lord is laying a heavy cross
+on her.'
+
+'That is true,' muttered Mr. Hamilton, and then he said, in a
+business-like tone, 'Now for the patient, Miss Garston'; and as he led
+the way across the narrow passage we could hear the hard, gasping cough
+of the sick woman.
+
+Peggy, with the baby still in her arms, was trying to stir a black,
+cindery fire, that was filling the room with smoke. The child was crying,
+and the poor invalid was sitting up in bed nearly suffocated by her
+cough. The great four-post bed blocked up the little window. The remains
+of a meal were still on the big round table. Some clothes were drying by
+the hearth; a thin tortoise-shell cat was licking up a stream of milk
+that was filtering slowly across the floor, in the midst of jugs, cans,
+a broken broom, some children's toys, and two or three boots. The bed
+looked as though it had not been made for days; the quilt and valance
+were deplorably dirty; but the poor creature herself looked neat and
+clean, and her hair was drawn off from her sunken cheeks and knotted
+carefully at the back of her head. Mr. Hamilton uttered an exclamation
+of impatience when he saw the smoke, and almost snatched the poker out
+of Peggy's hands.
+
+'Take the child away,' he said angrily. 'Miss Garston, if you can find
+some paper and wood in this infernal confusion, I shall be obliged to
+you: this smoke must be stopped.'
+
+I found the broken lid of a box that split up like tinder, and Peggy
+brought me an old newspaper, and then I stood by while Mr. Hamilton
+skilfully manipulated the miserable fire.
+
+'All these ashes must be removed,' he said curtly, as he rose with
+blackened hands: 'the whole fireplace is blocked up with them.' And then
+he went to the pump and washed his hands, while I sent Peggy after him
+with a nice clean towel from my basket. While he was gone I stepped up
+to the bed and said a word or two to poor Mrs. Marshall.
+
+She must have been a comely creature in her days of health, but she was
+fearfully wasted now. The disease was evidently running its course; as
+she lay there exhausted and panting, I knew her lease of life would not
+be long.
+
+'It was the smoke,' she panted. 'Peggy is young: she muddles over the
+fire. Last night it went out, and she was near an hour getting it to
+light.'
+
+'It is burning beautifully now,' I returned; and then Mr. Hamilton came
+back and began to examine his patient, professionally. I was surprised
+to find that his abrupt manner left him; he spoke to Mrs. Marshall so
+gently, and with such evident sympathy, that I could hardly believe it
+was the same person; her wan face seemed to light up with gratitude; but
+when he turned to me to give some directions for her treatment he spoke
+with his old dryness.
+
+'I shall be here about the same time to-morrow,' he finished; and then he
+nodded to us both, and went away.
+
+'Mrs. Marshall,' I said, as I warmed the beef-tea with some difficulty in
+a small broken pipkin, 'do you know of any strong capable girls who would
+clean up the place a little for me?'
+
+'There is Weatherley's eldest girl Hope still at home,' she replied,
+after a moment's hesitation, 'but her mother will not let her work
+without pay. She is a poor sort of neighbour, is Susan Weatherley, and
+is very niggardly in helping people.'
+
+'Of course I should pay Hope,' I answered decidedly; and when the
+beef-tea was ready I called Peggy and sent her on my errand. One glance
+at the place showed me that I could do nothing for my patient without
+help. Happily, I had seen some sheets drying by the kitchen fire, but
+they would hardly be ready for us before the evening; but when Mrs.
+Marshall had taken her beef-tea I covered her up and tried to smooth the
+untidy quilt. Then, telling her that we were going to make her room a
+little more comfortable, I pinned up my dress and enveloped myself in a
+holland apron ready for work.
+
+Peggy came back at this moment with a big, strapping girl of sixteen, who
+looked strong and willing. She was evidently not a woman of words, but
+she grinned cheerful acquiescence when I set her to work on the grate,
+while I cleared the table and carried out all the miscellaneous articles
+that littered the floor.
+
+Mrs. Marshall watched us with astonished eyes. 'Oh dear! oh dear!' I
+heard her say to herself, 'and a lady too!' but I took no notice.
+
+I sent Hope once or twice across to her mother for various articles we
+needed,--black lead, a scrubbing-brush, some house flannel and soft
+soap,--and when she had finished the grate I set her to scrub the floor,
+as it was black with dirt. I was afraid of the damp boards for my
+patient, but I covered her up as carefully as possible, and pinned some
+old window-curtains across the bed. Neglect and want of cleanliness had
+made the air of the sick-room so fetid and poisonous that one could
+hardly breath it with safety.
+
+Now and then I looked in the other room and spoke a cheerful word to
+granny. Peggy was doing her best for the children, but the poor baby
+seemed very fretful. Towards noon two rough-headed boys made their
+appearance and began clamouring for their dinner. The same untidy young
+woman whom I had seen before came clattering up the yard again in her
+clogs and helped Peggy spread great slices of bread and treacle for the
+hungry children, and warmed some food for the baby. I saw granny trying
+to eat a piece of bread and dripping that they gave her and then lay it
+down without a word: no wonder her poor cheeks were so white and sunken.
+
+Mrs. Drabble had promised me some more beef-tea, so I warmed a cupful for
+granny and broke up a slice of stale bread in it: it was touching to see
+her enjoyment of the warm food. The eldest boy, Tim, was nearly eleven
+years old, and looked a sharp little fellow, so I set him to clean up the
+kitchen with Peggy and make things a little tidier, and promised some
+buns to all the children who had clean faces and hands at tea-time.
+
+I left Hope still at work when I went up to the White Cottage to eat some
+dinner. Mrs. Barton had made a delicate custard-pudding, which I carried
+off for the invalid's and granny's supper. My young healthy appetite
+needed no tempting, and my morning's work had only whetted it. I did not
+linger long in my pretty parlour, for a heavy task was before me. I was
+determined the sick-room should have a different appearance the next
+morning.
+
+I sent Hope to her dinner while I washed and made my patient comfortable.
+The room felt fresher and sweeter already; a bright fire burned in the
+polished grate; Hope had scoured the table and wiped the chairs, and the
+dirty quilt and valance had been sent to Mrs. Weatherley's to be washed.
+When Hope returned, and the sheets were aired, we re-made the bed. I had
+sent a message early to Mrs. Drabble begging for some of the lending
+blankets and a clean coloured quilt, which she had sent down by a boy.
+The scarlet cover looked so warm and snug that I stood still to admire
+the effect; poor Mary fairly cried when I laid her back on her pillow.
+
+'It feels all so clean and heavenly,' she sobbed; 'it is just a comfort
+to lie and see the room.'
+
+'I mean granny to come and have her tea here,' I said, for I was longing
+for the dear old woman to have her share of some of the comfort; and I
+had just led her in and put her in the big shiny chair by the fire, when
+Uncle Max put his head in and looked at us.
+
+'Just so,' he said, nodding his head, and a pleased expression came into
+his eyes. 'Bravo, Ursula! Tudor won't know the place again. How you must
+have worked, child!' And then he came in and talked to the sick woman.
+
+I had taken a cup of tea standing, for I was determined not to go home
+and rest until I left for the night. I could not forget the poor fretful
+baby, and, indeed, all the children were miserably neglected. I made up
+my mind that Hope and I would wash the poor little creatures and put them
+comfortably to bed. My first day's work was certainly exceptionally hard,
+but it would make my future work easier.
+
+The baby was a pale, delicate little creature, very backward for its age;
+it left off fretting directly I took it in my lap, and began staring at
+me with its large blue eyes. Hope had just filled the large tub, and the
+children were crowding round it with evident amusement, when Uncle Max
+came in. He contemplated the scene with twinkling eyes.
+
+'"There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,"' he began humorously. 'My
+dear Ursula, do you mean to say you are going to wash all those children?
+The tub looks suggestive, certainly.'
+
+I nodded.
+
+'Who would have believed in such an overplus of energy? Hard work
+certainly agrees with you.' And then he went out laughing, and we set to
+work, and then Hope and I carried in the children by detachments, that
+the poor mother might see the clean rosy faces. I am afraid we had to
+bribe Jock, the youngest boy, for he evidently disliked soap and water.
+
+Peggy and the baby slept in the mother's room; there was a little bed in
+the corner for them. I did not leave until granny had been taken upstairs
+and poor tired Peggy was fast asleep with the baby beside her.
+
+The room looked so comfortable when I turned for a last peep. I had drawn
+the round table to the bed, and left the night-light and cooling drink
+beside the sick woman; she was propped up with pillows, and her breathing
+seemed easier. When I bade her good-night, and told her I should be round
+early in the morning, she said, 'Then it will be the first morning I
+shall not dread to wake. Thank you kindly, dear miss, for all you have
+done'; and her soft brown eyes looked at me gratefully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE FLAG OF TRUCE
+
+
+It could not be denied that I was extremely tired as I walked down the
+dark road; but in spite of fatigue my heart felt lighter than it had done
+since Charlie's death, and the warm glow from the window of my little
+parlour seemed to welcome me, it looked so snug and bright. My low chair
+was drawn to the fire, a sort of tea-supper was awaiting me, and Mrs.
+Barton came out of the kitchen as soon as I had lifted the latch, to ask
+what she could do for me.
+
+The first words surprised me greatly. Mr. Hamilton had called late in the
+afternoon, and had seemed somewhat surprised to hear I was still at the
+cottage, but he had left no message, and Mrs. Barton had no idea what he
+wanted with me.
+
+I was half inclined to think that he had another case ready for me, but
+I had done my day's work and refused to think of the morrow. The first
+volume of _Kingsley's Life_ was lying on the little table: I had brought
+it from the vicarage the preceding evening. I passed a delicious hour in
+my luxurious chair, and went to bed reluctantly that I might be fit for
+the next day's fatigue.
+
+As soon as I had breakfasted the next morning and read my letters, a
+chatty one from Sara and an affectionate note from Lesbia, I went down
+to the cottage.
+
+I found my patient a little easier; she had passed a better night, and
+seemed, on the whole, more cheerful. Hope had arrived, and was scrubbing
+the kitchen, as I had enjoined her. Baby seemed poorly and fretful. I
+gave her in charge of Peggy, and set myself to the work of putting my
+patient and the sick-room in order, after which I intended to wash the
+baby and see after granny's and the children's dinner.
+
+I had just brushed up the hearth and put the kettle to boil, when Mr.
+Hamilton's shadow crossed the window, and the next moment he was in the
+room.
+
+I was sure that a half-smile of approbation came to his lips as he
+looked round the room; he lifted his eyebrows as though in surprise as
+he noticed everything,--the neat hearth, white boards, and bright window,
+and lastly the comfortable appearance of the bed, with its scarlet quilt
+and clean sheets.
+
+'This is quite a transformation-scene, Miss Garston,' he said, in an
+approving tone. 'No wonder you were not at home in the afternoon. My
+patient looks cheery too: one would think I had set the fairy Order to
+work.' I felt that this was meant for high praise, and I received it
+graciously. I knew I had worked well and achieved wonders; but then I had
+Hope's strong arms to help me: it had been straightforward work, too,
+with no complication: any charwoman could have done it as well. I was
+sorry that his commendation set Mrs. Marshall's tongue going; she became
+so voluble, in spite of her cough, that I was obliged to enforce silence.
+
+Mr. Hamilton's visit was very brief. I asked him to prescribe for the
+baby, but he said nothing ailed it in particular; it had always been
+sickly, and had been so neglected of late, most likely sour food had been
+given it. Mrs. Tyler, the next-door neighbour, who had looked after it,
+was a thoughtless body. 'You must take it in hand yourself, Miss
+Garston,' he finished; 'keep it warm and clean, and see the food properly
+prepared: that will be better than any medicine.' And then he went off
+with his usual abruptness, only I saw him stop at the gate to give
+pennies to Janie and little Jock.
+
+There was still so much to do that I determined to spend the whole day at
+the cottage. I sent off all the dirty things for Mrs. Tyler to wash at
+home, for she was so noisy and untidy that I did not care to have her on
+the premises, and I thought granny could sit in Mrs. Marshall's room and
+hold baby while Peggy waited on me and ran errands.
+
+Hope worked splendidly: when she had scoured the kitchen and front
+passage, she went upstairs and scrubbed the two rooms where granny and
+the children slept. I had made a potato pie with some scraps of meat
+Peggy had brought from the butcher's, and had seen the dish emptied by
+the hungry children. When I had fed the sandy cat and had had my own
+dinner, which Mrs. Barton had packed in a nice clean basket, and had
+peeped at my patient, I went upstairs to help Hope, and Peggy went
+with me. The state of the sleeping-rooms had horrified me in the morning;
+the windows had evidently not been open for weeks, and the sheets on
+granny's bed were black with dirt. Hope had washed the bedstead, and
+Peggy had lighted a fire, that the room might be habitable by night. Tim
+came up while we were busy, and stared at us. I was helping Peggy drag
+the mattresses and bedclothes into the passage. The open windows and the
+wet boards reeking with soft soap evidently astonished him.
+
+'Where be us to sleep to-night?' quoth Tim; 'it is colder than in the
+yard.' But Peggy, who was excited by her work, bade him hold his tongue
+and not stand gaping there blocking up the passage.
+
+I had been singing over my work, just to put heart into all of us and
+make us forget what a very disagreeable business it was, when Tim again
+made his appearance and said there was a gentleman in the kitchen. 'He
+thought he knowed him, but wasn't sure, but he had asked for the lady.'
+I went down at once, and found it was Mr. Tudor; he was sitting very
+comfortably by the fire, with all the children round him; little Janie
+was on his knee; her face was clean, and her pretty curls had been nicely
+brushed, so I did not mind her cuddling up to him, and I knew he was fond
+of children and always ready to play with them.
+
+He put her down and shook hands with me, and said the vicar had sent him
+to look after me, as he could not come himself. I thought he looked a
+little amused at my appearance; and no wonder. I had quite forgotten that
+I had tied a handkerchief over my head to keep the dust from off my hair;
+with my holland bib-apron and sleeves, and pinned-up dress, I must have
+looked an odd figure; but when I said so he laughed, and observed that he
+rather admired my novel costume: it reminded him of a Highland peasant he
+had once seen.
+
+'Was that you who were singing just now, Miss Garston?' he asked
+presently, looking at me with some attention.
+
+'Yes,' I returned. 'You seem surprised. Surely you have heard me sing at
+Hyde Park Gate?' But he shook his head very decidedly.
+
+'I should not have forgotten your voice if I had once heard it,' he said,
+in such a pleasant manner that the straightforward compliment did not
+embarrass me. 'You ought not to let such a talent rust, Miss Garston: the
+vicar must utilise you for our Penny Readings.'
+
+I was horrified at this notion, and told him very seriously that nothing
+would induce me to sing on a platform, but that it was not my intention
+to let it rust, only I had my own ideas how best to utilise it.
+
+He looked curious at this, but I changed the subject by asking him if he
+would like to see Mrs. Marshall. He hesitated, coloured slightly as
+though the question were distasteful, then he put down Janie from his
+knee,--for the child had clambered up again,--and said the vicar had
+undertaken the case, as he was rather new to the work, but he would see
+her if I wished it.
+
+I was provoking enough to say that I did wish it, for I wanted him to
+see the comfortable appearance of the room that he so dreaded to enter.
+I felt sorry for Mr. Tudor in my heart that his work should be so
+distasteful to him: he was a fine, manly young fellow, who would have
+made a splendid sailor or soldier, but sick-rooms and old women were not
+to his taste, and yet he was very gentle and sympathising in his manners,
+and all the poor people liked him.
+
+Granny was dozing by the fire, and the baby was asleep on the mother's
+bed, and as I opened the door I quite enjoyed Mr. Tudor's start of
+astonishment at the changed scene. I did not let him stay long, but I
+thought his kind looks and pleasant voice would cheer poor Mary. He said
+very little to either her or Elspeth, but what he said was sensible and
+to the point.
+
+I sent him away after this, for my work was waiting for me. He went off
+laughing, and protesting that he had no idea that I had taken up the
+_rôle_ of a charitable charwoman, and that the vicar would remonstrate
+with me on the subject.
+
+I think we all felt the brighter for Mr. Tudor's little visit, though he
+had said nothing specially clever; but he was an honest, genial creature,
+and I liked him thoroughly. I stopped at the cottage late that evening,
+for Mrs. Marshall wanted a letter written to her husband, and I could not
+refuse to do it. I was almost too tired to enjoy Kingsley that night, and
+found myself dozing over it, so I shut it up and went to bed.
+
+Mr. Hamilton did not make his appearance until later the next day, when
+I was presiding over the children's dinner. I had just carried in a plate
+of lentil soup to granny, whom I now kept entirely in the sick-room, as
+she was too old to bear the children's noise, and the constant draughts
+from the opening door would soon have laid her on a sick-bed. I had baby
+in my lap, and was feeding her when he looked in on us.
+
+I rose at once to follow him into the sick-room, but he waved me back.
+
+'Do not disturb yourself, Miss Garston; you all look very comfortable.
+Jock, are you trying to swallow that spoon? You will find it a hard
+morsel.' And then he went into the other room, and, to my surprise, we
+did not see him again.
+
+I left a little earlier that evening, as I knew Uncle Max meant to pay me
+a visit; but it was already dark when I closed the little gate behind me.
+I had not gone many paces when I heard footsteps behind me, and, somewhat
+to my dismay, Mr. Hamilton joined me.
+
+'Have you only just finished your day's work?' he said, in evident
+surprise. 'This will never do, Miss Garston; we shall have you knocking
+yourself up if you use up your time and strength so recklessly, and I
+want you for another case.'
+
+'I am quite prepared for that,' I answered; but I am afraid my voice was
+a little weary. 'You called on me yesterday, Mr. Hamilton. I was sorry to
+be out, but there was so much to do that I stayed at the cottage until
+quite late in the evening.'
+
+'Just so,' in rather a vexed tone. 'The village nurse will be on a
+sick-bed herself if this goes on.'
+
+'Oh, what nonsense!' I returned, laughing, for I forgot for the moment in
+the darkness that I was speaking to the formidable Mr. Hamilton. 'I do
+not always mean to work quite so hard. Mr. Tudor called me a charitable
+charwoman last evening; but this is an exceptional case,--so many
+helpless beings, and such shocking mismanagement and neglect. When I put
+things on a proper footing I shall not spend so much time there.'
+
+'What do you mean by putting things on a proper footing?' he asked, with
+some show of interest.
+
+'When the place has been properly cleaned it will be kept tolerably tidy
+with less labour. Hope Weatherley has been hard at work for two days, and
+things are now pretty comfortable.'
+
+'I suppose--excuse me if the question seems impertinent, but I imagine
+that you paid Hope out of your own purse?'
+
+'For those two days, certainly. It was necessary for my own comfort,
+speaking selfishly, that the place should be made habitable. My nursing
+would have been a mere mockery unless we could have got rid of the dirt,'
+
+'You are perfectly right. I had no idea you were such a practical person.
+But, if you will allow me to give you a hint, Marshall earns good wages,
+and there ought to be sufficient money to pay for a moderate amount of
+help.'
+
+'I told Mrs. Marshall so this morning,' I returned, pleased to find
+myself talking with such ease to Mr. Hamilton; but he seemed quite
+different to-night; evidently his _brusquerie_ was a mere mannerism that
+he laid aside at times; he had lost that sneering manner that I so much
+disliked. I remembered Uncle Max said that he was kind-hearted and
+eccentric.
+
+'We had a long talk,' I went on. 'Marshall sends the money regularly, and
+I am to manage it. Mrs. Tyler is to wash for us, and I think we can
+afford to have Hope for at least an hour a day, to do the rough work;
+Peggy is so little to do everything.'
+
+'Heaven help poor Peg!' he ejaculated; 'for she will soon have all those
+children on her hands. Mrs. Marshall cannot last long. Well, Miss
+Garston, how many hours do you intend to spend at the cottage daily?'
+
+'I should think two hours in the morning and an hour and a half in the
+late afternoon or evening might do, unless there be a change for the
+worse, or Elspeth falls ill; she is very old and feeble.'
+
+'She was half starved, poor old creature,--fairly clemmed, as they say
+in the North. Here we are at your place, Miss Garston. How bright and
+inviting your parlour looks! I wonder if I may ask to come in for a few
+minutes, while I tell you about the other case?'
+
+Of course I could not do less than invite him to enter, after that; but
+I am afraid my manner lacked enthusiasm, and betrayed the fact that I was
+unwilling to entertain Mr. Hamilton as a guest, for when I saw his face
+in the lamplight he was regarding me with some amusement.
+
+'Cunliffe has done me no end of mischief,' he said, as he offered to
+relieve me of my wraps: 'that unfortunate speech has strongly prejudiced
+you against me. Confess, now, you think me a very disagreeable person,
+because I happened to disagree with you that evening.'
+
+'Certainly not on that account,' I returned, falling into the trap; and
+then we both laughed, for I had as good as owned that I thought him
+disagreeable. That laugh made us better friends. I felt I no longer
+disliked him: it was certainly not his fault that Providence had given
+him that type of face, and I supposed one could get used to it.
+
+'I was in an evil mood that afternoon,' he went on, and then I knew
+instinctively that he wanted to efface his satirical words from my
+memory. 'Things had gone wrong somehow,--for this world of ours is a
+mighty muddle sometimes.' And here he gave an impatient sigh. 'It is a
+relief to human nature to vent one's spleen on the first handy person
+that crosses one's path, and, pardon me for saying so, you were just a
+little aggressive yourself,' looking at me rather dubiously, as though
+he were not quite sure how I should take this hit. My conscience told me
+that I had been far from peaceable; on the contrary, I had been decidedly
+cross; not that I would confess that this was the case, so I only
+returned mildly that I considered that he had been hard on me that day,
+and had handled my pet theory very roughly.
+
+'Come, now you are talking like a reasonable woman, and I will plead
+guilty to some severity. Let me own that I distrusted you, Miss Garston.
+I have a horror of gush, and what I call the working mania of young
+ladies, and you had not proved to me then that you could work. At the
+present day, if a girl is restless and bad-tempered, and cannot get on
+with her own people, she takes up hospital-nursing, and a rare muddle she
+makes of it sometimes. I own hospital work is better than the convent of
+the Middle Ages, where the troublesome young ladies were safely immured;
+but, as I said before, I distrust the hysterical restlessness of the
+age.'
+
+'No doubt you have a fair amount of argument on your side,' I replied,
+so meekly that he looked at me, and then got up from his chair and said
+hastily that I was tired, and he was thoughtless to keep me waiting for
+my tea.
+
+'Let me give you some, while you tell me about the case,' was my
+hospitable reply; for, though I felt no special desire to prolong our
+_tête-à-tête_, mere civility prompted my offer.
+
+He hesitated, then, to my surprise, sat down again, and said he would be
+very much obliged if I would give him a cup of tea, as he was tired too,
+and had to go farther and keep his dinner waiting.
+
+I went out of the room to remove my hat and speak to Mrs. Barton. When
+I came back he was standing before Charlie's photograph, and evidently
+studying it with some attention, but he made no remark about it; and I
+told him of my own accord that it was the portrait of my twin-brother,
+who had died two years ago.
+
+'Indeed! There is no likeness; at least I should not have known it was
+your brother. This is often the case between relations,' he continued
+hastily, as though he feared he had hurt me. 'What a snug little berth
+you have, Miss Garston, and everything so ship-shape too! I suppose that
+is your piano; but I am afraid you will have little time to practise.'
+And then, as I handed him his tea, he threw himself down in the
+easy-chair and seemed prepared to enjoy himself.
+
+Looking at Mr. Hamilton this evening, I could have believed he had two
+sides to his character: he presented such a complete contrast to the Mr.
+Hamilton in Uncle Max's study that I was quite puzzled by it. He had
+certainly a clever face, and his smile was quick and bright; it was only
+in rest that his mouth looked so stern and hard. I found myself wondering
+once or twice if he had known any great trouble that had embittered him.
+
+'Well, I must tell you about poor Phoebe Locke,' he began suddenly. 'I
+want you to find out what you can do for her. The Lockes are respectable
+people: Phoebe and her sister were dressmakers. They live a little lower
+down,--at Woodbine Cottage.
+
+'Some years ago spinal disease came on, and now Phoebe is bedridden. She
+suffers a good deal at times, but her worst trouble is that her nerves
+are disordered, most likely from the dulness and monotony of her life.
+She suffers cruelly from low spirits; and no wonder, lying all day in
+that dull little back room. Her sister cannot sit with her, as Phoebe
+cannot bear the noise of the sewing-machine, and the sight of the outer
+world seems to irritate her. The neighbours would come in to cheer her
+up, but she does not seem able to bear their loud voices. It is
+wonderful,' he continued musingly, 'how education and refinement train
+the voice: strange to say, though my voice is not particularly low, and
+certainly not sweet, it never seems to jar upon her.'
+
+'Very likely not,' I returned quickly; 'no doubt she depends upon you for
+all her comforts: to most invalids the doctor's visit is the one bright
+spot in the day.'
+
+'It seems strange that we do not project our own shadows sometimes, and
+make our patient shiver,' he said, with a touch of gruffness. 'It is
+little that I can do for Phoebe, except order her a blister or ice when
+she needs it. One cannot touch the real nervous suffering: there is where
+I look to you for help; a little cheerful talk now and then may lighten
+her burden. Anyhow, it would be a help for poor Miss Locke, who has a sad
+time of it trying to earn food for them both. There is a little niece
+who lives with them, a subdued, uncanny little creature, who looks as
+though the childhood were crushed out of her; you might take her in hand
+too.'
+
+'I wonder if Phoebe would like me to sing to her,' I observed quietly.
+'I have found it answer sometimes in nervous illnesses.'
+
+I thought my remark surprised him.
+
+'It is a good idea,' he said slowly. 'You might try it. Of course it
+would depend a great deal on the quality of voice and style of singing.
+I wonder if you would allow me to judge of this,'--looking meaningly at
+the piano; but I shook my head at this, and he did not press the point.
+
+We had very little talk after this, for he went away almost directly,
+first arranging to meet me at Mrs. Marshall's about four the next day and
+go with me to Woodbine Cottage.
+
+'You will find plenty of work, Miss Garston,' were his final words, 'so
+do not waste your strength unnecessarily.' And then he left the room, but
+came back a moment afterwards to say that his sisters meant to call on
+me, only they thought I was hardly settled yet: 'we must get Mr. Cunliffe
+to bring you up to Gladwyn: we must not let you mope.'
+
+I thought there was little chance of this, with Uncle Max and Mr. Tudor
+always looking after me. Mr. Hamilton had hardly closed the door before
+Uncle Max opened it again.
+
+'So the enemy has tasted bread and salt, Ursula,' he said, looking
+excessively pleased: 'that is right, my dear: do not give way to absurd
+prejudices. You and Hamilton will get on splendidly by and by, when you
+get used to his brusque manner.' And, though I did not quite endorse this
+opinion, I was obliged to acknowledge to myself that the last half-hour
+had not been so unpleasant after all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A DIFFICULT PATIENT
+
+
+I had a little talk with granny the next day.
+
+Mrs. Marshall was dozing uneasily, and I was sitting by granny, nursing
+the baby, and waiting for Mr. Hamilton, when I felt her cold wrinkled
+hand laid on mine.
+
+'What is it, Elspeth?' I asked, thinking she wanted something.
+
+'What put it in your head, my bairn, to do the Lord's work? that is what
+I am wanting to know. I have been listening to you this morning singing
+like a bird about the house, with all the bit creatures chirping about
+you, and I said to myself, "What could have put it into her head to leave
+all her fine friends, and come and wait on the likes of us old and sick
+folk and young bairns?"'
+
+I do not know what there was in this speech that made me cry, but I
+know I had some difficulty in answering, but I told her a little about
+Charlie, and how sad I was, and how I loved the work, and she patted my
+hand softly all the time.
+
+'Never fret, my bairn. You will not be lonely long: the Lord will see to
+that. He would not let you work for Him and do nothing for you in return.
+Nay, that is not His way. Look at me: as doctor said the other day, I
+have dreed my weird; few and evil have been my days, like Jacob, but here
+I sit like a lady by the fire, warm and comfortable and hearty, thank
+God; and Andrew's wife lies on her death-bed, poor woman.'
+
+'Yes; but, Elspeth, you sit there in the dark.'
+
+'Eh, but it is peaceful and quiet-like, and the Lord bides with me, "and
+darkness and light are both alike to him,"' finished Elspeth reverently.
+And then I heard the click of the gate, and rose hastily, only the baby
+cried as I laid her on Elspeth's lap, and I had to stay a moment to
+pacify her.
+
+Mr. Hamilton came in and stood by us.
+
+'Do not hurry yourself; I can easily wait a few minutes if you are not
+ready. Are you sure you are not too tired to come?' he continued, looking
+at me a little inquisitively, and I was certain that he noticed the trace
+of tears on my face. Why was it I never could speak of my darling quite
+calmly?
+
+'I am perfectly ready, and baby has left off crying,' I returned, taking
+up my basket, and then we left the house together.
+
+'I hope you do not suffer from low spirits, like the rest of us,' he
+said, in rather a kind tone, as we walked on. 'It is to be expected that
+a cross-grained fellow like myself should have fits of the blues
+occasionally. That is one thing I particularly admire about Cunliffe!
+however worried he is, one never sees him out of humour; his ups and
+downs are never perceptible. I do believe he is less selfish than other
+people.'
+
+'There is no one like Uncle Max,' I rejoined fervently.
+
+'Is it not odd that we should suit each other so well?' he asked
+presently, 'for we are complete contrasts. I can bear him to say things
+to me that I would knock any other fellow down for saying. That is why I
+let him preach to me, because he honestly believes what he says and tries
+to act up to his profession.' He broke off here, for by this time we had
+reached Woodbine Cottage, and he unlatched the gate for me.
+
+A thin-faced child with a cropped head and clean white pinafore opened
+the door, and dropped an alarmed courtesy when she saw us.
+
+'Please sir, Aunt Susan is out, and Aunt Phoebe is very bad this
+afternoon, and cannot see any one. She is lying in the dark, and I was
+to let none of the neighbours in while Aunt Susan was away.'
+
+'All right, Kitty; but Aunt Phoebe will see me.' And he walked into the
+passage, and told the child to close the door gently. The room we passed
+was strewn with work-material, and looked cold and comfortless, but a
+small kitchen opposite had a warm cosy aspect. Mr. Hamilton passed both
+rooms and tapped at a door lower down the passage, and then without
+waiting for an answer entered, and beckoned me to follow him.
+
+A dark curtain had been drawn across the window, and the dim glow of a
+cindery fire scarcely gave sufficient light to discern the different
+pieces of furniture. Mr. Hamilton gave vent to a suppressed exclamation
+of impatience as he seized the poker, but I could not but notice the
+skilful and almost noiseless manner in which he manipulated the coals.
+Then he looked round for a match, and lighted a candle on the
+mantelpiece, in spite of a peevish remonstrance from the patient.
+
+'You will make my head worse, doctor: nothing but the dark eases it.'
+
+'Nonsense, Phoebe! I know better than that,' he returned cheerfully,
+and then he stepped up to the bed, and I followed him. The woman who
+lay there was still young in years, she could not have been more than
+three- or four-and-thirty, but every semblance of youth was crushed out
+of her by some subtile and mysterious suffering; it might have been the
+face of a dead woman, only for the living eyes that looked at us.
+
+The hopeless wistful look in those eyes gave me a singular shock. I had
+never seen human eyes with the same expression; they seemed as though
+they were appealing against some awful destiny. Once when Charlie and
+I were staying at Rutherford a beautiful spaniel belonging to Lesbia had
+been accidentally shot while straying in some wood. The poor animal had
+dragged himself with pain and difficulty to the garden-gate, and there we
+found him. I shall never forget the wistfulness of the poor creature's
+eyes when his mistress knelt down and caressed him. He died a few minutes
+afterwards, licking her hand. I could not help thinking of Tito when I
+first saw Phoebe Locke; for the same unreasoning anguish seemed in the
+sick woman's eyes. A tormented soul looked out of them.
+
+There was something rigid and uncompromising in the whole aspect of the
+sick-room; there was nothing to tone down and soften the harsh details of
+bodily suffering; everything was in spotless order; the sheets were white
+as the driven snow; a formidable phalanx of medicine-bottles stood on the
+small square table; there were no books, no pictures, no flowers; a
+sampler hung over the mantelpiece, that was all. I saw Mr. Hamilton
+glance disapprovingly at the row of bottles.
+
+'I told Kitty to clear all that rubbish away,' he said curtly. 'Why do
+you not have something pleasanter to look at, Phoebe?--some flowers, or
+a canary? you would find plenty of amusement in watching a canary.'
+
+'Birds are never still for a moment; they would drive me mad,' returned
+Phoebe, in the hollow tones that seemed natural to her. 'Flowers are
+better; but what have I to do with flowers? Doctor,' her voice rising
+into a shrill crescendo, 'you must give me something to send me to sleep,
+or I shall go mad. I think, think, think, until my head is in a craze
+with pain and misery.'
+
+'Well, well, we will see about it,' humouring her as though she were a
+child. 'Will you not speak to this lady, Phoebe? She has come down here
+to help us all,--sick people, and unhappy people, and every one that
+wants help.'
+
+'She can't do anything for me,' muttered Phoebe restlessly; 'no one--not
+even you, doctor, can do anything for me. I am doomed,--doomed before my
+time.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton looked at me meaningly, as though to say, 'Now you see what
+you have to do: this is more your work than mine.' I obeyed the hint, and
+accosted the sick woman as cheerfully as though her dismal speech had not
+curdled my blood.
+
+'I hope I shall be some comfort to you; it is hard indeed if no one can
+help you, when you have so much to bear!'
+
+'To bear!' repeating my words as though they stung her. 'I have lain here
+for three years--three years come Christmas Eve, doctor--between these
+four walls, summer and winter, winter and summer, and never knew except
+by heat or cold what season of the year it was. And I am young,--just
+turned four-and-thirty,--and I may lie here thirty years more, unless
+I die or go mad.'
+
+'Now, Phoebe,' remonstrated Mr. Hamilton,--and how gently he
+spoke!--'have I not told you over and over that things may mend yet if
+you will only be patient and good? You are just making things worse by
+bearing them so badly. Why, a friend of mine has been seven years on her
+back like you, and she is the happiest, cheeriest body: it is quite a
+pleasure to go into her room.'
+
+'Maybe she is good, and I am wicked,' returned Phoebe sullenly. 'I cannot
+help it, doctor: it is one of my bad days, and nothing but wicked words
+come uppermost. The devil has a deal of power when a woman is chained as
+I am.'
+
+'Don't you think you could exorcise the demon by a song, Miss Garston?'
+observed Mr. Hamilton, in an undertone. 'This is just the case where
+music may be a soothing influence; something must be tried for the poor
+creature.'
+
+The proposition almost took away my breath. Sing now! before Mr.
+Hamilton! And yet how in sheer humanity could I refuse? I had often sung
+before to my patients, and had never minded it in the least; but before
+Mr. Hamilton!
+
+'You need not think of me,' he continued provokingly,--for of course I
+was thinking of him: 'I am no critic in the musical line. Just try how it
+answers, will you?' And he walked away and turned his back to us, and
+seemed absorbed in the sampler.
+
+For one minute I hesitated, and then I cleared my throat. 'I am going to
+sing something, Phoebe. Mr. Hamilton thinks it will do you good.' And
+then, fearful lest her waywardness should stop me, I commenced at once
+with the first line of the beautiful hymn, 'Art thou weary? art thou
+languid?'
+
+My voice trembled sadly at first, and my burning face and cold hands
+testified to my nervousness; but after the first verse I forgot Mr.
+Hamilton's presence and only remembered it was Charlie's favourite hymn
+I was singing, and sang it with a full heart.
+
+When I had finished, I bent over Phoebe and asked if I should sing any
+more, and, to my great delight, she nodded assent. I sang 'Abide with
+me,' and several other suitable hymns, and I did not stop until the hard
+look of woe in Phoebe's eyes had softened into a more gentle expression.
+
+As I paused, I looked across the room. Mr. Hamilton was still standing by
+the mantelpiece, perfectly motionless. He had covered his eyes with his
+hand, and seemed lost in profound thought. He absolutely started when I
+addressed him.
+
+'Yes, we will go if you have finished,' but he did not look at me as he
+spoke. 'Phoebe, has the young lady done you any good? Did you close your
+eyes and think you heard an angel singing? Now you must let me take her
+away, for she is very tired, and has worked hard to-day. To-morrow, if
+you ask her, she will come again.'
+
+'I shall not wait to be asked,' I returned, answering the dumb, wistful
+look that greeted the doctor's words. 'Oh yes, I shall come again
+to-morrow, and we will have a little talk, and I will bring you some
+flowers, and if you care to hear me sing I have plenty of pretty songs.'
+And then I kissed her forehead, for I felt strongly drawn to the poor
+creature, as though she were a strange, suffering sister, and I thought
+that the kiss and the song and the flowers would be a threefold cord
+of sympathy for her to bind round her harassed soul through the long
+hours of the night.
+
+Mr. Hamilton followed me silently out, and on the threshold we
+encountered Susan Locke. She was a thin, subdued-looking woman, dressed
+in rusty black, with a careworn, depressed expression that changed into
+pleasure at the sight of Mr. Hamilton.
+
+'Oh, doctor, this is good of you, surely,--and you so busy! It is one of
+Phoebe's bad days, when nothing pleases her and she will have naught to
+say to us, but groan and groan until one's heart is pretty nigh broken.
+I was half hoping that you would look in on us and give her a bit of a
+word.'
+
+'Miss Garston has done more than that,' replied Mr. Hamilton. 'I
+think you will find your sister a little cheered. Give her something
+comfortable to eat and drink, and speak as cheerfully as you can.
+Good-night, Miss Locke.' And then he motioned to me to precede him down
+the little garden. Mr. Hamilton was so very silent all the way home that
+I was somewhat puzzled; he did not speak at all about Phoebe,--only said
+that he was afraid that I was very tired, and that he was the same; and
+when we came in sight of the cottage he left me rather abruptly; if it
+had not been for his few approving words to Susan Locke, I should have
+thought something had displeased him.
+
+Uncle Max made me feel a little uncomfortable the next morning. I met
+him as I was starting for my daily work, and he walked with me to Mrs.
+Marshall's.
+
+'I was up at Gladwyn last evening, Ursula,' he began. 'Miss Elizabeth
+is still away, but the other ladies asked very kindly after you. Miss
+Hamilton means to call on you one afternoon, only she seems puzzled to
+know how she is ever to find you at home. I cannot think what put
+Hamilton into such a bad temper; he scarcely spoke to any of us, and
+looked horribly cranky, only I laughed at him and he got better; he
+never mentioned your name. You have not fallen out again, eh, little
+she-bear?' looking at me rather anxiously.
+
+'Oh dear, no; we are perfectly civil to each other; I understand him
+better now.' But all the same I could not help wondering, as I parted
+from Max, what could have made Mr. Hamilton so strangely silent.
+
+It was still early in the afternoon when I found myself free to go and
+see Phoebe; she had been on my mind all day, and had kept me awake for
+a long time; those miserable eyes haunted me. I longed so to comfort her.
+Miss Locke opened the door; I thought she seemed pleased to see me, but
+she eyed my basket of flowers dubiously.
+
+'Phoebe is looking for you, Miss Garston, though she says nothing about
+it; it is not her way; but I see her eyes turning to the door every now
+and then, and she made Kitty open the curtains. If I may make so bold,
+those flowers are not for Phoebe, surely?'
+
+'Yes, indeed they are, Miss Locke. Dr. Hamilton wishes her to have
+something pleasant to look at.' But Miss Locke only shook her head.
+
+'The neighbours have sent in flowers often and often, and she has made me
+carry them out of the room; the vicar used to send them too, but he knows
+now that it is no manner of use: she always says they do not put flowers
+in tombs, only outside them: she will have it she is living in a tomb.'
+
+'We must get this idea out of her head,' I returned cheerfully, for I was
+obstinately bent on having my own way about the flowers.
+
+Kitty was sewing on a little stool by the window; the curtains were
+undrawn, so that the room was tolerably light, and might have been
+cheerful, only an ugly wire blind shut out all view of the little garden.
+
+I could not help marvelling at the strange perversity that could wilfully
+exclude every possible alleviation; there must be some sad warp or twist
+of the mental nature that could be so prolific of unwholesome fancies. As
+I turned to the bed I thought Phoebe looked even more ghastly in the
+daylight than she had done last evening; her skin was yellow and
+shrivelled, like the skin of an old woman; her eyes looked deep-set and
+gloomy, but their expression struck me as more human; her thin lips even
+wore the semblance of a smile.
+
+When I had greeted her, and had drawn from her rather reluctantly that
+she had had some hours' sleep the previous night, I spoke to Kitty. The
+little creature looked so subdued and moped in the miserable atmosphere
+that I was full of pity for her, so I showed her a new skipping rope that
+I had bought on my way, and bade her ask her aunt Susan's permission to
+go out and play.
+
+The child's dull eyes brightened in a moment. 'May I go out, Aunt
+Phoebe?' she asked breathlessly.
+
+'Yes, go if you like,' was the somewhat ungracious answer.
+
+'She is glad enough to get away from me,' she muttered, when Kitty had
+shut the door gently behind her. 'Children have no heart; she is an
+ungrateful, selfish little thing; but they are all that; we clothe her
+and feed her, and it is little we get out of her in return; and Susan
+is working her fingers to the bone for the two of us.'
+
+I took no notice of this outburst, and commenced clearing away the
+medicine-bottles to make room for my basket of chrysanthemums and
+ivy-leaves. Uncle Max had procured them for me, but I had no idea as
+I arranged them that they had come from Gladwyn.
+
+Phoebe watched my movements very gloomily; she evidently disapproved
+of the whole proceeding. I carried out the bottles to Miss Locke, and
+begged her to throw them away: 'they are of no use to her,' I observed.
+'Mr. Hamilton intends to send her a new mixture, and this array of
+half-emptied phials is simply absurd: it is just a whim. If your sister
+asks for them when I have gone, you can tell her that Miss Garston
+ordered them to be destroyed.'
+
+On my return to the room I found Phoebe lying with her eyes closed. I
+could have laughed outright at her perversity, for of course she had shut
+them to exclude the sight of the flower-basket, though it was the
+loveliest little bit of colour, the dark-red chrysanthemum nestled so
+prettily among trails of tiny variegated ivy. I resolved to punish her
+for this piece of morbid obstinacy, and took down the wire blind; she was
+speechless with anger when she found out what I had done, but I was
+resolved not to humour these ridiculous fancies; the dull wintry light
+was not too much for her.
+
+'You must not be allowed to have your own way so entirely,' I said,
+laughing: 'your sister is very wrong to give in to you. Mr. Hamilton
+wishes your room to be more cheerful: he says the dull surroundings
+depress and keep you low and desponding, and I must carry out his orders,
+and try how we are to make your room a little brighter. Now'--as she
+seemed about to speak--'I am going to sing to you, and then we will have
+a talk.'
+
+'I don't care to hear singing to-day, my head buzzes so with all this
+flack,' was the sullen answer; but I took no notice of this ill-tempered
+remark, and began a little Scotch ballad that I thought was bright and
+spirited.
+
+She closed her eyes again, with an expression of weariness and disgust
+that made me smile in spite of my efforts to keep serious; but I soon
+found out that she was listening, and so I sang one song after another,
+without pausing for any comment, and pretended not to notice when the
+haggard weary eyes unclosed, and fixed themselves first on the flowers,
+next on my face, and last and longest at the strip of lawn, with the bare
+gooseberry bushes and the narrow path edged with privet.
+
+When I had sung several ballads, I waited for a minute, and then
+commenced Bishop Ken's evening hymn, but my voice shook a little as I saw
+a sudden heaving under the bedclothes, and in another moment the large
+slow tears coursed down Phoebe's thin face. It was hard to finish the
+hymn, but I would not have dispensed with the Gloria.
+
+'What is it, Phoebe?' I asked gently, when I had finished. 'I am sorry
+that I have made you cry.'
+
+'You need not be sorry,' she sobbed at last, with difficulty: 'it eases
+my head, and I thought nothing would ever draw a tear from me again. I
+was too miserable to cry, and they say--I have read it somewhere, in the
+days when I used to read--that there is no such thing as a tear in hell.'
+
+I tried not to look astonished at this strange speech. I must let this
+poor creature talk, or how should I ever find out the root of her
+disease? so I answered quietly that no doubt she was right, that in that
+place of outer darkness there should be weeping, without tears, and a
+gnashing of teeth, beside which our bitterest human sorrow would seem
+like nothing.
+
+'That is true,' she returned, with a groan; 'but, Miss Garston, hell has
+begun for me here; for three years I have been in torment, and rightly
+too,--and rightly too,--for I never was a good woman, never like Susan,
+who read her Bible and went to church. Oh, she is a good creature, is
+Susan.'
+
+'I am glad to hear it, Phoebe: so, you see, your affliction, heavy as it
+is,--and I am not saying it is not heavy,--is not without alleviation.
+The Merciful Father, who has laid this cross upon you, has given you this
+kind companion as a consoler. What a comfort you must be to each other!
+what a divine work has been given to you both to do,--to bring up that
+motherless little creature, who must owe her very life and happiness to
+you!'
+
+She lay and looked at me with an expression of bewildered astonishment,
+and at this moment Miss Locke opened the door, carrying a little tea-tray
+for her sister. I had a glimpse of Kitty curled up on the mat outside the
+door, with the skipping-rope still in her hand. She had evidently been
+listening to the singing, for she crept away, but in the distance I could
+hear her humming 'Ye banks and braes' in a sweet childish treble that was
+very harmonious and true.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+ONE OF GOD'S HEROINES
+
+
+No. I was quite right when I told poor Phoebe that her sad case was not
+without alleviation. I was still more sure of the truth of my words when
+I saw with what care Miss Locke had prepared the invalid's meal, and how
+gently she helped to place her in a proper position. There was evidently
+no want of love between the sisters; only on one side the love was more
+self-sacrificing and unselfish than the other. It needed only a look at
+Susan Locke's spare form and thin, careworn face to tell me that she was
+wearing herself out in her sister's service. Phoebe looked in her face
+and broke into a harsh laugh, to poor Susan's great alarm.
+
+'What do you think Miss Garston has been saying, Susan? That we must be a
+comfort to each other. Fancy my being a comfort to you! You poor thing,
+when I am the plague and burden of your life,' And she laughed again, in
+a way that was scarcely mirthful.
+
+'Nay, Phoebe, you have no need to say such things,' returned her sister
+sadly; but she was probably used to this sort of speeches. 'I am bound to
+take care of you and Kitty, who are all I have left in the world. It is
+not that I find it hard, but that you might make it easier by looking a
+little cheered sometimes.'
+
+Phoebe took this gentle rebuke somewhat scornfully.
+
+'Cheered! The woman actually says cheered, when I am already on the
+border-land of the place of torment. Was I not as good as dead and buried
+three years ago? And did not father always tell us that hell begins in
+this world for the wicked?'
+
+'Ay, that was father's notion; and I was never clever enough to argue
+with him. But you are not wicked, my woman, only a bit tiresome and
+perverse and wanting in faith.' And Miss Locke, who was used to these
+wild moods, patted her sister's shoulder, and bade her drink her tea
+before it got cold, in a sensible matter-of-fact way, that was not
+without its influence on the wayward creature; for she did not refuse
+the comforting draught.
+
+I took my leave soon after this, after promising to repeat my visit on
+the next evening. Phoebe bade me good-bye rather coldly, but I took no
+notice of her contrary mood. Miss Locke followed me out of the room, and
+asked me anxiously what I thought of her sister.
+
+'It is difficult to judge,' I returned, hesitating a little. 'You must
+remember this is only my second visit, and I have not made much way with
+her. She is in a state of bodily and mental discomfort very painful to
+witness. If I am not mistaken, she is driving herself half-crazy with
+introspection and self-will. You must not give way to this morbid desire
+to increase her own wretchedness. She needs firmness as well as
+kindness.'
+
+Miss Locke looked at me wistfully a moment.
+
+'What am I to do? She would fret herself into a fever if I crossed her
+whims. Directly you have left the house she will be asking for that wire
+blind again, though it would do her poor eyes good to see the thrushes
+feeding on the lawn, and there is the little robin that comes to us every
+winter and taps at the window for crumbs; but she would shut them all
+out,--birds, and sunshine, and flowers.'
+
+'Just as she would shut out her Father's love, if she could; but it is
+all round her, and no inward or outward darkness can hinder that. Miss
+Locke, you must be very firm. You must not move the flowers or replace
+the blind on any pretext whatever. She must be comforted in spite of
+herself. She reminds me of some passionate child who breaks all its
+toys because some wish has been denied. We are sorry for the child's
+disappointment, but a wise parent would inflict punishment for the fit
+of passion.'
+
+Miss Locke sighed; her mouth twitched with repressed emotion. She was
+evidently an affectionate, reticent woman, who found it difficult to
+express her feelings.
+
+'I am keeping you standing all this time,' she said apologetically, 'and
+I might have asked you to sit down a minute in our little kitchen. Let me
+pour you out a cup of tea, Miss Garston. Kitty and I were just going to
+begin.'
+
+I accepted this offer, as I thought Miss Locke evidently wanted to speak
+to me. She seemed pleased at my acquiescence, and told Kitty to stay with
+her aunt Phoebe a few minutes.
+
+'I have baked a nice hot cake with currants in it, Kitty,' she said
+persuasively, 'and you shall have your share, hot and buttered, if you
+will be patient and wait a little.'
+
+'She is a good little thing,' I observed, as the child reluctantly
+withdrew to her dreary post, after a longing look at the table, while
+Miss Locke placed a rocking-chair with a faded green cushion by the fire,
+and opened the oven door to inspect the cake. 'It is dull work for the
+little creature to be so much in the sick-room. It is hardly a wholesome
+atmosphere for a child.'
+
+Miss Locke shook her head as though she endorsed this opinion.
+
+'What am I to do?' she returned sorrowfully. 'Kitty is young, but she
+has to bear our burdens. I spare her all I can; but when I am at my
+dressmaking Phoebe cannot be left alone, and she has learned to be quiet
+and handy, and can do all sorts of things for Phoebe. I know it is not
+good for her living alone with us, but the Lord has ordered the child's
+life as well as ours,' she finished reverently.
+
+'We must see what can be done for Kitty,' was my answer. 'She can be
+free to play while I am with your sister. I sent her out with her new
+skipping-rope this evening. What brought her back so soon?'
+
+'It was the singing,' returned Miss Locke, smiling. 'The street door
+was just ajar, and Kitty crept in and curled herself up on the mat. It
+sounded so beautiful, you see; for Kitty and I only hear singing at
+church, and it is not often I can get there, with Phoebe wanting me;
+so it did us both good, you may be sure of that.'
+
+I could not but be pleased at this simple tribute of praise, but
+something else struck me more, the unobtrusive goodness and self-denial
+of Susan Locke. What a life hers must be! I hinted at this as gently as
+I could.
+
+'Ay, Phoebe has always been a care to me,' she sighed. 'She was never as
+strong and hearty as other girls, and she wanted her own way, and fretted
+when she could not get it. Father spoiled her, and mother gave in to her
+more than she did to me; and when trouble came all along of Robert Owen,
+and he used her cruel, just flinging her aside when he saw some one he
+fancied more than Phoebe, and driving her mad with spite and jealousy,
+then she let herself go, as it were. She was never religious, not to
+speak of, all the time she kept company with Robert, so when her hopes
+of him came to an end she had nothing to support her. It needs plenty of
+faith to make us bear our troubles patiently.'
+
+'And then her health failed.'
+
+'Yes; and mother died, and father followed her within six months, and
+Phoebe could not be with them, and she took on about that; she has had a
+deal of trouble, and that is why I cannot find it in my heart to be hard
+on her; she was that fond of Robert, though he was a worthless sort of
+fellow, that, as the saying is, she worshipped the ground he walked on.
+Ah, Phoebe was bonnie-looking then, though she was never over-strong,
+and had not much colour; but he need not have called her a sickly
+ill-tempered wench when he threw her over and married Nancy. It was
+a cruel way to serve a woman that loved him as Phoebe did.'
+
+'She has certainly had her share of trouble. How long ago did this happen
+to your sister?'
+
+'It must be five years since Robert and Nancy were married. Phoebe was
+never the same woman since then, though her health did not fail for a
+year or more afterwards; Mr. Hamilton always says she has had a good
+riddance of Robert. He never thought much of him, and he has told me that
+it is far better that Phoebe never had a chance of marrying him, for she
+would have been a sad burden to any man; and she would not have had you
+to nurse her.' And Miss Locke's careworn face brightened. 'That is just
+what I tell myself, when I am out of heart about her; the Lord knew
+Robert would have been a cruel husband to her,--for he is not too kind
+to Nancy,--and so He kept Phoebe away from him. Phoebe is not one to bear
+unkindness,--it just maddens her,--and we have all spoilt her.'
+
+'Just so, and she knows her power over you. I am afraid she gives you a
+great deal to bear, Miss Locke.'
+
+'I never mind it from her,' she answered simply. 'She is all I have in
+the world except Kitty, and I am thinking what I can do for her from
+morning to night; that is the best and the worst of my work, one need
+never stop thinking for it. Sometimes, when I am tired, or things have
+gone wrong with my customers, or I am a bit behindhand with the rent,
+I wish I could talk it over with her; it would ease me somehow; but I
+never do give way to the feeling, for it would only fret and worry her.'
+
+'You are wrong,' I returned warmly. 'Mr. Hamilton would tell you so if
+you asked him. Any worry, any outside trouble, would be better for Phoebe
+than this unhealthy feeding on herself. Take my advice, Miss Locke, talk
+about yourself and your own troubles. Phoebe is fond of you, it will
+rouse her to enter more into your life.'
+
+Miss Locke shook her head, and the tears came into her mild hazel eyes.
+
+'There is One who knows it all. I'll not be troubling my poor Phoebe,'
+she said, and her hands trembled a little. Kitty came in at this moment
+and said her aunt Phoebe wanted her, so we were obliged to break off the
+conversation.
+
+I thought about it all rather sadly as I sat by my solitary fire that
+evening with Tinker's head on my lap. He had taken to me, and I always
+found him waiting for my return; but it was less of Phoebe than of Susan
+I was thinking. I was so absorbed in my reflections that Uncle Max's
+voice outside quite startled me.
+
+'May I come in, Ursula?' he said, thrusting in his head. 'I have been
+at the choir-practice, so I thought I would call as I passed.'
+
+Of course I gave him a warm welcome, and he drew his chair to the
+opposite side of the fire, and declared he felt very comfortable: then
+he asked me why I was looking grave, and if I were tired of my solitude.
+I disclaimed this indignantly, and gave him a sketch of my day's work,
+ending with my talk to Susan Locke.
+
+He seemed interested, and listened attentively.
+
+'It is such a sad case, Max,--poor Phoebe's, I mean,--but I am almost
+as sorry for her sister. Susan Locke is such a good woman.'
+
+'You would say so if you knew all, Ursula, but Miss Locke would never
+tell you herself. When Phoebe's illness came on, and Hamilton told them
+that she might not get well for a year or two, or perhaps longer, Susan
+broke off her own engagement to stay with her sister. Her father was just
+dead, and the child Kitty had to live with them.'
+
+'Miss Locke engaged!' I exclaimed, in some surprise, for it had never
+struck me that the homely middle-aged woman had this sort of experience
+in her life.
+
+Max looked amused.
+
+'In that class they do not always choose youth and beauty. Certainly
+Susan Locke was neither young nor handsome, but she was a neat-looking
+body, only she has aged of late. Do you want to know all about it? Well,
+she was engaged to a man named Duncan: he was a widower with three or
+four children; he had the all-sorts shop down the village, only he moved
+last year. He was a respectable man and had a comfortable little
+business, and I daresay he thought Miss Locke would make a good mother to
+his children. She told me all about it, poor thing! She would have liked
+to marry Duncan; she was fond of him, and thought he would have made her
+a steady husband; but with Phoebe on her hands she could not do her duty
+to him or the children.
+
+'"And there is Kitty; and he has enough of his own; and a sickly body
+like Phoebe would hinder the comfort of the house, and I have promised
+mother to take care of her." And then she asked my opinion. Well, I could
+not but own that with the shop and the house to mind, and five children,
+counting Kitty, and a bedridden invalid, her hands would be over-weighted
+with work and worry.
+
+'"I think so too," she answered, as quietly as possible, "and I have no
+right to burden Duncan. I am sure he will listen to reason when I tell
+him Phoebe is against our marrying." And she never said another word
+about it. But Duncan came to me about six months afterwards and asked me
+to put up his banns.
+
+'"I wanted Susan Locke," he said, in a shamefaced manner, "but that
+sister of hers hinders our marrying; so, as I must think of the children,
+I have got Janet Sharpe to promise me. She is a good, steady lass, and
+Susan speaks well of her."'
+
+Uncle Max had told his story without interruption. I listened to it with
+almost painful interest.
+
+With what quiet self-denial this homely woman had put aside her own hopes
+of happiness for the sake of the sickly creature dependent on her! She
+had owned her affection for Duncan with the utmost simplicity; but in her
+unselfishness she refused to burden him with her responsibilities. If she
+married him she must do her duty by him and his children, and she felt
+that Phoebe would be a drag on her strength and time.
+
+'She is a good woman, Uncle Max,' I observed, when he had finished.
+'She is working herself to death, and Phoebe never gives her a word
+of comfort.'
+
+'How can you expect it?' he replied quietly. 'You cannot draw comfort out
+of empty wells, and poor Phoebe's heart is like a broken cistern, holding
+nothing.'
+
+'But surely you talk to her, Uncle Max?'
+
+'I have tried to do so,' he answered sadly; 'but for the last year she
+has refused to see me, and Hamilton has advised me to keep away. If I
+cross the threshold it is to see Miss Locke. I thought it was a whim at
+first, and I sent Tudor in my stead; but she was so rude to him, and
+lashed herself into such a fury against us clerics, that he came back
+looking quite scared, and asked why I had sent him to a mad woman.'
+
+'She was angry with me to-day.' And I told him about the blind.
+
+'That is right, Ursula,' he said encouragingly. 'You have made a good
+beginning: the singing may do more to soften her strange nature than all
+our preaching. You will be a comfort to Miss Locke, at any rate.' And
+then he stopped, and looked at me rather wistfully, as though he longed
+to tell me something but could not make up his mind to do it 'You will be
+a comfort to us all if you go on in this way,' he continued; and then he
+surprised me by asking if I had not yet seen the ladies from Gladwyn.
+
+The question struck me as rather irrelevant, but I took care not to say
+so as I answered in the negative.
+
+'You have been here nearly a week; they might have risked a call by this
+time,' he returned, knitting his brows as though something perplexed him;
+but I broke in on his reflections rather impatiently.
+
+'I declare, Max, you have quite piqued my curiosity about these people;
+some mystery seems to attach to Gladwyn. I shall expect to see something
+very wonderful.'
+
+'Then you will be disappointed,' he returned quietly, not a bit offended
+by my petulance. 'I cannot help wishing you to make acquaintance with
+them, as they are such intimate friends of mine, and I think it will be a
+mutual benefit.'
+
+Then, as I made no reply to this, he went on, still more mildly:
+
+'I confess I should like your opinion of them. I have a great reliance in
+your intuition and common sense; and you are so deliciously frank and
+outspoken, Ursula, that I shall soon know what you think. Well, I must
+not stay gossiping here. Your company is very charming, my dear, but I
+have letters to write before bedtime. You will see our friends in church
+on Sunday. I hear Miss Elizabeth comes home to-morrow; she is the lively
+one,--not quite of the Merry Pecksniff order, but still a bright, chatty
+lady.
+
+"From morning till night
+It is Betty's delight
+To chatter and talk without stopping."
+
+'You know the rest, Ursula, my dear. By the bye,' opening the door, and
+looking cautiously into the passage, 'I wonder whom the Bartons are
+entertaining in the kitchen to-night? I hear a masculine voice.'
+
+'It is only Mr. Hamilton,' I returned indifferently. 'I heard him come
+in half an hour ago; he is giving Nathaniel a lesson in mathematics.'
+
+'To be sure. What a good fellow he is!' in an enthusiastic tone. 'Well,
+good-night, child: do not sit up late.' And he vanished.
+
+I am afraid I disregarded this injunction, for I wanted to write to my
+poor Jill--who was never absent from my mind--and Lesbia; and I was loath
+to leave the fireside, and too much excited for sleep.
+
+When I had finished my letters I still sat on gazing into the bright
+caverns of coal, and thinking over Susan Locke's history.
+
+'How many good people there are in the world!' I said, half aloud; but I
+almost jumped out of my chair at the sound of a deep, angry voice on the
+other side of the door.
+
+'It is a thriftless, wasteful sort of thing burning the candle at both
+ends. Women have very little common sense, after all.'
+
+I extinguished the lamp hastily, for of course Mr. Hamilton's growl was
+meant for me, though it was addressed to Nathaniel. I heard him close the
+door a moment afterwards, and Nathaniel crept back into the kitchen. I
+woke rather tired the next day, and owned he was right, for I found my
+duties somewhat irksome that morning. The feeling did not pass off, and
+I actually discovered that I was dreading my visit to Phoebe, only of
+course I scouted it as nonsense.
+
+Miss Locke was out, and Kitty opened the door. Her demure little face
+brightened when she saw me, and especially when I placed a large
+brown-paper parcel in her arms, of that oblong shape dear to all
+doll-loving children, and bade her take it into the kitchen.
+
+'It is too dark and cold for you to play outside, Kitty,' I observed,
+'so perhaps you will make the acquaintance of the blue-eyed baby I have
+brought you; when Aunt Susan comes in, you can ask her for some pieces to
+dress her in, for her paper robe is rather cold.'
+
+Kitty's eyes grew wide with surprise and delight as she ran off with her
+treasure; the baby-doll would be a playmate for the lonely child, and
+solace those weary hours in the sick-room. I would rather have brought
+her a kitten, but I felt instinctively that no animal would be tolerated
+by the invalid.
+
+It was somewhat dark when I entered the room, but one glance showed me
+that my directions had been obeyed; the window was unshaded, and the
+flowers were in their place.
+
+Phoebe was lying watching the fire. I saw at once that she was in a
+better mood. The few questions I put to her were answered quietly and
+to the point, and there was no excitement or exaggeration in her manner.
+
+I did not talk much. After a minute or two I sat down by the uncurtained
+window and began to sing as usual. I commenced with a simple ballad, but
+very soon my songs merged into hymns. It began to be a pleasure to me to
+sing in that room. I had a strange feeling as though my voice were
+keeping the evil spirits away. I thought of the shepherd-boy who played
+before Saul and refreshed the king's tormented mind; and now and then an
+unuttered prayer would rise to my lips that in this way I might be able
+to comfort the sad soul that truly Satan had bound.
+
+When my voice grew a little weary, I rose softly and took down the old
+brown sampler, as I wished to replace it by a little picture I had
+brought with me.
+
+It was a sacred photograph of the Crucifixion, in a simple Oxford frame,
+and had always been a great favourite with me; it was less painful in its
+details than other delineations of this subject: the face of the divine
+sufferer wore an expression of tender pity. Beneath the cross the Blessed
+Virgin and St. John stood with clasped hands,--adopted love and most
+sacred responsibility,--receiving sanction and benediction.
+
+I had scarcely hung it on the nail before Phoebe's querulous voice
+remonstrated with me.
+
+'Why can you not leave well alone, Miss Garston? I was thanking you in my
+heart for the music, but you have just driven it away. I cannot have that
+picture before my eyes; it is too painful.'
+
+'You will not find it so,' I replied quietly; 'it is a little present I
+have brought you. My dead brother bought it for me when he was a boy at
+school, and it is one of the things I most prize. He is dead, you know,
+and that makes it doubly dear to me. That is why I want you to have it,
+because I have so much and you so little.'
+
+My speech moved her a little, for her great eyes softened as she looked
+at me.
+
+'So you have been in trouble, too,' she said softly. 'And yet you can
+sing like a bird that has lost its way and finds itself nearly at the
+gate of Paradise.'
+
+'Shall I tell you about my trouble?' I returned, sitting down by the
+bed. It wrung my heart to talk of Charlie, but I knew the history of
+his suffering and patience would teach Phoebe a valuable lesson.
+
+An hour passed by unheeded, and when I had finished I exclaimed at the
+lateness of the hour.
+
+'Ay, you have tired yourself; you look quite pale,' was her answer; 'but
+you have made me forget myself for the first time in my life.' She
+stopped, and then with more effort continued, 'Come again to-morrow, and
+I will tell you my trouble; it is worse than yours, and has made me the
+crazy creature you see. Yes, I will tell you all about it'; but, half
+crying, as though she had little hope of contesting my will, 'You will
+not leave that picture to make my heart ache more than, it does now?'
+
+'My poor Phoebe,' I said, kissing her, 'when your heart once aches for
+the thought of another's sorrow your healing will have begun. Let that
+picture say to you what no one has said to you before, "that all your
+life you have been an idolater, that you have worshipped only yourself
+and one other--"'
+
+'Whom? What do you mean? Have you heard of Robert?' she asked excitedly.
+
+'To-morrow is Sunday,' I returned, touching her softly. 'I am going to
+church in the morning, and I shall not be here until evening; but we
+shall have time then for a long talk, and you shall tell me everything.'
+And then, without waiting for an answer, I left the room. It was late
+indeed. Miss Locke had long returned, and was busying herself over her
+sister's supper; she held up her finger to me smiling as I passed, and
+I peeped in.
+
+Kitty was lying on the rug, fast asleep, with the doll in her arms.
+
+'I found them like this when I came in,' whispered Miss Locke; 'she must
+have been listening to the music and fallen asleep. How late you have
+stopped with Phoebe! it is nearly eight o'clock!'
+
+'I do not think the time has been wasted,' I answered cheerfully, as
+I bade her good-night and stepped out into the darkness. Is time ever
+wasted, I wonder, when we stop in our daily work to give one of these
+weak ones a cup of cold water? It is not for me to answer; only our
+recording angel knows how some such little deed of kindness may brighten
+some dim struggling life that seems over-full of pain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A MISSED VOCATION
+
+
+It was pleasant to wake to bright sunshine the next morning, and to hear
+the sparrows twittering in the ivy.
+
+It had been my intention to set apart Sunday as much as possible as a day
+of rest and refreshment. Of course I could not expect always to control
+the various appeals for my help or to be free from my patients, but by
+management I hoped to secure the greater part of the day for myself.
+
+I had told Peggy not to expect me at the cottage until the afternoon;
+everything was in such order that there was no necessity for me to forgo
+the morning service. My promise to Phoebe Locke would keep me a prisoner
+for the evening, but I determined that her sister and Kitty should be set
+free to go to church, so my loss would be their gain.
+
+I thought of Jill as I dressed myself. She had often owned to me that the
+Sundays at Hyde Park Gate were not to her taste. Visitors thronged the
+house in the afternoon; Sara discussed her week's amusements with her
+friends or yawned over a novel; the morning's sermon was followed as a
+matter of course by a gay luncheon party. 'What does it mean, Ursula?'
+Jill would say, opening her big black eyes as widely as possible: 'I do
+not understand. Mr. Erskine has been telling us that we ought to renounce
+the world and our own wills, and not to follow the multitude to do
+foolishness, and all the afternoon mother and Sara having been talking
+about dresses for the fancy-ball. Is there one religion for church and
+another for home? Do we fold it up and put it away with our prayer-books
+in the little book-cupboard that father locks so carefully?' finished
+Jill, with girlish scorn.
+
+Poor Jill! she had a wide, generous nature, with great capabilities, but
+she was growing up in a chilling atmosphere. Young girls are terribly
+honest; they dig down to the very root of things; they drag off the
+swathing cloths from the mummy face of conventionality. What does it
+mean? they ask. Is there truth anywhere? Endless shams surround them;
+people listen to sermons, then they shake off the dust of the holy place
+carefully from the very hem of their garments; their religion, as Jill
+expressed it, is left beside their prayer-books. Ah! if one could but see
+clearly, with eyes purged from every remnant of earthliness,--see as the
+angels do,--the thick fog of unrisen and unprayed prayers clinging to the
+rafters of every empty church, we might well shudder in the clogging
+heavy atmosphere.
+
+Jill had not more religion than many other girls, but she wanted to be
+true; the inconsistency of human nature baffled and perplexed her; she
+was not more ready to renounce the world than Sara was, but she wished
+to know the inner meaning of things, and in this I longed to help her.
+I could not help thinking of her tenderly and pitifully as I walked
+down the road leading to the little Norman church. I was early, and the
+building was nearly empty when I entered the porch; but it was quiet and
+restful to sit there and review the past week, and watch the sunshine
+lighting up the red brick walls and touching the rood-screen, while a
+faint purple gleam fell on the chancel pavement.
+
+Two ladies entered the seat before me, and I looked at them a little
+curiously.
+
+They were both very handsomely dressed, but it was not their fashionable
+appearance that attracted me. I had caught sight of a most beautiful and
+striking face belonging to one of them that somehow riveted my attention.
+
+The lady was apparently very young, and had a tall graceful figure, and
+strange colourless hair that looked as though it ought to have been
+golden, only the gloss had faded out of it; but it was lovely hair, fine
+and soft as a baby's.
+
+As she rose she slightly turned round, and our eyes met for a moment;
+they were large, melancholy eyes, and the face, beautiful as it was, was
+very worn and thin, and absolutely without colour. I could see her
+profile plainly all through the service, but the dull impassive
+expression of the countenance that she had turned upon me gave me a
+sensation of pain; she looked like a person who had experienced some
+great trouble or undergone some terrible illness. I could not make up
+my mind which it could be.
+
+The other lady was much older, and had no claims to beauty. I could see
+her face plainly, for she looked round once or twice as though she were
+expecting some one.
+
+She must have been over thirty, and had rather a singular face; it was
+thin, dark-complexioned, and very sallow; she was a stylish-looking
+woman, but her appearance did not interest me. To my surprise, just as
+the service commenced, Mr. Hamilton came in and joined them. So these
+must be the ladies from Gladwyn, I thought. That beautiful pale girl must
+be his sister Gladys, and the other one Miss Darrell.
+
+I tried to keep my attention to my own devotions, but every now and
+then my eyes would stray to the lovely face before me. Mr. Hamilton's
+behaviour was irreproachable. I could hear his voice following all the
+responses, and he sang the hymns very heartily.
+
+I think he knew I was behind him, for he handed me a hymn-book, with a
+slight smile, when I was offering to share mine with a young woman. Miss
+Darrell gave me a curiously penetrating look when she came out that did
+not quite please me, but the girl who followed her did not seem to notice
+my presence. I sat still in my place for a minute, as I did not wish to
+encounter them in the porch. I had lingered so long that the congregation
+had quite dispersed when I got out, but, to my surprise, I could see the
+three walking very slowly down the road. Could they have been waiting for
+me? I wondered; but I dismissed this idea as absurd.
+
+But I could not forget the face that had so interested me; and when I
+encountered Uncle Max on his way to the children's service I questioned
+him at once about the two ladies.
+
+'Yes, you are right, Ursula,' he said, a little absently. 'The one with
+fair hair was Miss Gladys: her cousin, Miss Darrell, sat by Hamilton.'
+
+'But you never told me how beautiful she was,' I replied, in rather
+an injured voice. 'She has a perfect face, only it is so worn and
+unhappy-looking.'
+
+'You must not keep me,' observed Max hurriedly; 'Miss Darrell wants to
+speak to me before service.' And he rushed off, leaving me standing in
+the middle of the path rather wondering at his abruptness, for the bell
+had not commenced.
+
+A little farther on, I came face to face with Miss Darrell; she was
+walking with Mr. Tudor, and seemed talking to him with much animation.
+
+She bowed slightly, as he took off his hat to me, in a graceful well-bred
+manner, but her face prepossessed me even less than it had done in the
+morning. She had keen, dark eyes like Mr. Hamilton's, only they somehow
+repelled me. I was somewhat quick with my likes and dislikes, as I had
+proved by the dislike I had taken to Mr. Hamilton. This feeling was
+wearing off, and I was no longer so strongly prejudiced against him. I
+might even find Miss Darrell less repelling when I spoke to her. She was
+evidently a gentlewoman; her movements were quiet and graceful, and she
+had a good carriage.
+
+I was somewhat surprised on reaching the cottage to find Mr. Hamilton
+sitting by my patient. He had Janie on his knee, and seemed as though he
+had been there for some time, but he rose at once when he saw me.
+
+'I was waiting for you, Miss Garston,' he said quietly. 'I wanted to give
+you some directions about Mrs. Marshall'; and when he had finished, he
+said, a little abruptly--
+
+'What made you so long coming out of church this morning? I was waiting
+to introduce my sister and cousin to you, but you were determined to
+disappoint me.'
+
+I was a little confused by this.
+
+'Did you recognise me?' I asked, rather tamely.
+
+'No,--not in that smart bonnet,' was the unexpected reply. 'I did not
+identify the wearer with the village nurse until I heard your voice in
+the Te Deum: you can hardly disguise your voice, Miss Garston: my cousin
+Etta pricked up her ears when she heard it.' And then, as I made no
+answer, he picked up his hat with rather an amused air and wished me
+good-bye.
+
+I was rather offended at the mention of my bonnet; the little gray wing
+that relieved its sombre black trimmings could hardly be called smart,--a
+word I abhorred,--but he probably said it to tease me.
+
+'Ay, the doctor has been telling us you have a voice like a skylark,'
+observed Elspeth, 'but I have been thinking it must be more like an
+angel's voice, my bairn, since you mostly use it to sing the Lord's
+praises, and to cheer the sick folk round you: that is more than a
+skylark does.'
+
+So he had been praising my voice. What an odd man!
+
+I stayed at the cottage about two hours, and read a little to the
+children and Elspeth, and then I started for the Lockes'.
+
+Kitty clapped her hands when she heard she was to go to church with her
+aunt Susan. I found out afterwards the child had always gone alone.
+
+Phoebe was evidently expecting me, for her eyes were fixed on the door
+as I entered, and the same shadowy smile I had seen once before swept
+over her wan features when she saw me. She seemed ready and eager to
+talk, but I adhered to my usual programme. I was rather afraid that our
+conversation would excite her, so I wanted to quiet her first. I sang a
+few of my favourite hymns, and then read the evening psalms. She heard
+me somewhat reluctantly, but when I had finished her face cleared, and
+without any preamble she commenced her story.
+
+I never remember that recital without pain. It positively wrung my heart
+to listen to her. I had heard the outline of her sad story from her
+sister's lips, but it had lacked colour; it had been a simple statement
+of facts, and no more.
+
+But now Phoebe's passionate words seemed to clothe it with power; the
+very sight of the ghastly and almost distracted face on the pillow gave
+a miserable pathos to the story. It was in vain to check excitement while
+the unhappy creature poured out the history of her wrongs: the old old
+story, of a credulous woman's heart being trampled upon and tortured by
+an unworthy lover, was enacted again before me.
+
+'I just worshipped the ground he walked on, and he threw me aside like a
+broken toy,' she said over and over again. 'And the worst of it is that,
+villain as he is, I cannot unlove him, though I am that mad with him
+sometimes that I could almost murder him.'
+
+'Love is strong as death, and jealousy is cruel as the grave,' I
+muttered, half to myself, but she overheard me.
+
+'Ay, that is just true,' she returned eagerly: 'there are times when I
+hate Robert and Nancy and would like to haunt them. Did I not tell you,
+Miss Garston, that hell had begun with me already? I was never a good
+woman,--never, not even when I was happy and Robert loved me. I was
+just full of him, and wanted nothing else in heaven and earth; and when
+the trouble came, and father and mother died, and I lay here like a
+log,--only a log has not got a living heart in it,--I seemed to go mad
+with the anger and unhappiness, and I felt "the worm that dieth not, and
+the fire that is not quenched."'
+
+I stooped over and wiped her poor lips and poor head, for she was
+fearfully exhausted, and then in a perfect passion of pity closed her
+face between my hands and bade God bless her.
+
+'What do you mean?' she said, staring at me; but her voice trembled.
+'Haven't I been telling you how wicked I am? Do you think that is a
+reason for His blessing me?'
+
+'I think His blessing has always been with you, my poor Phoebe, like the
+sunlight that you try to shut out from your windows. You hide yourself
+in your own darkness, and pretend that the all-embracing love is not for
+you. Well may you call your present existence a tomb; but you must not
+wrong your Almighty Father. Not He, but you yourself have walled yourself
+up with your own sinful hands, and then you wonder at the weight that
+lies upon your heart.'
+
+'Can I forget my trouble when I am not able to move?' she said bitterly.
+And it was sad to see how her hands beat upon the bedclothes. But I held
+them in mine. They were icy cold. The action seemed to calm her frenzy.
+
+'You cannot forget,' I returned quietly; 'but all this time, all these
+weary years, you might have learned to forgive Robert.'
+
+'Nay, I will have nothing to do with forgiving,' was the hard answer.
+
+'And yet you say you love him, Phoebe. Why, the very devils would laugh
+at such a notion of love.'
+
+'Didn't I say I both loved and hated him?' very fiercely.
+
+'Speak the truth, and say you hate him, and God forgive you your sin. But
+it is a greater one than Robert has committed against you.'
+
+'How dare you say such things to me, Miss Garston?' trying to free her
+hands; but still I held them fast. 'You will make me hate you next. I am
+not a pleasant-tempered woman.'
+
+'If you do, I will promise you forgiveness beforehand. Why, you poor
+creature, do you think I could ever be hard on you?'
+
+The fierce light in her eyes softened. 'Nay, I did not mean what I said;
+but you excite me with your talk. How can you know what I feel about
+these things? You cannot put yourself in my place.'
+
+'The heart knoweth its own bitterness, Phoebe; and it may be that in your
+place I should fail utterly in patience; but if we will not lie still
+under His hand, and learn the lesson He would fain teach us, it may be
+that fresh trials may be sent to humble us.'
+
+'Do you think things could be much worse with me?' becoming excited
+again; but I stroked her hand, and begged her gently to let me finish
+my speech.
+
+'Phoebe, as you lie there on your cross, the whole Church throughout the
+world is praying for you Sunday after Sunday when the prayer goes up for
+those who are desolate and oppressed. And who so desolate and oppressed
+as you?'
+
+'True, most true,' she murmured.
+
+'You are cradled in the supplications of the faithful. A thousand hearts
+are hearing your sorrows, and yet you say impiously that you are on the
+border-land of hell; but no, you will never go there. There are too many
+marks of His love upon you. All this suffering has more meaning than
+that.'
+
+It is impossible to describe the look she gave me; astonishment,
+incredulity, and something like dawning hope were blended in it; but
+she remained silent.
+
+'You have missed your vocation, that is true. You were set apart here
+to do most divine work; but you have failed over it. Still, you may
+be forgiven. How many prayers you might have prayed for Robert! You
+might have been an invisible shield between him and temptation. There
+is so much power in the prayers of unselfish love. This room, which
+you describe as a tomb, or an antechamber of hell, might have been an
+inner sanctuary, from which blessings might flow out over the whole
+neighbourhood. Silent lessons of patience might have been preached here.
+Your sister's weary hands might have been strengthened. You could have
+mutually consoled each other; and now--' I paused, for here conscience
+completed the sentence. I saw a tear steal under her eyelid, and then
+course slowly down her face.
+
+'I have made Susan miserable, I know that; and she is never impatient
+with me if I am ever so cross with her. Ah, I deserve my punishment, for
+I have been a selfish, hateful creature all my life. I do think sometimes
+that an evil spirit lives in me.'
+
+'There is One who can cast it out; but you must ask Him, Phoebe. Such a
+few words will do: "Lord help me!" Now we have talked enough, and Susan
+will be coming back from church. I mean to sing you the evening hymn, and
+then I must go.' And, almost before I had finished the last line, Phoebe,
+exhausted with emotion, had sunk into a refreshing sleep, and I crept
+softly out of the room to watch for Susan's return.
+
+I felt strangely weary as I walked home. It was almost as though I had
+witnessed a human soul struggling in the grasp of some evil spirit. It
+was the first time I had ever ministered to mental disease. Never before
+had I realised what self-will, unchastened by sorrow and untaught by
+religion, can bring a woman to. Once or twice that evening I had doubted
+whether the brain were really unhinged; but I had come to the conclusion
+that it was only excess of morbid excitement.
+
+My way home led me past the vicarage. Just as I was in sight of it, two
+figures came out of the gate and waited to let me pass. One of them was
+the churchwarden, Mr. Townsend, and the other was Mr. Hamilton. It was
+impossible to avoid recognition in the bright moonlight; but I was rather
+amazed when I heard Mr. Hamilton bid Mr. Townsend good-night, and a
+moment after he overtook me.
+
+'You are out late to-night, Miss Garston. Do you always mean to play
+truant from evening service?'
+
+I told him how I had spent my time, but I suppose my voice betrayed
+inward fatigue, for he said, rather kindly,--
+
+'This sort of work does not suit you; you are looking quite pale this
+evening. You must not let your feelings exhaust you. I am sorry for
+Phoebe myself, but she is a very tiresome patient. Do you think you have
+made any impression on her?'
+
+He seemed rather astonished when I briefly mentioned the subject of our
+talk.
+
+'Did she tell you about herself? Come, you have made great progress. Let
+her get rid of some of the poison that seems to choke her, and then there
+will be some chance of doing her good. She has taken a great fancy to
+you, that is evident; and, if you will allow me to say so, I think you
+are just the person to influence her.'
+
+'It is a very difficult piece of work,' I returned; but he changed the
+subject so abruptly that I felt convinced that he knew how utterly jaded
+I was. He told me a humorous anecdote about a child that made me laugh,
+and when we reached the gate of the cottage he bade me, rather
+peremptorily, put away all worrying thoughts and to go to bed, which
+piece of advice I followed as meekly as possible, after first reading
+a passage out of my favourite _Thomas à Kempis_; but I thought of Phoebe
+all the time I was reading it:
+
+'The cross, therefore, is always ready, and everywhere waits for thee.
+Thou canst not escape it wheresoever thou runnest; for wheresoever thou
+goest, thou carriest thyself with thee and shalt ever find thyself.... If
+thou bear the cross cheerfully, it will bear thee, and lead thee to the
+desired end, namely, where there shall be an end of suffering, though
+here there shall not be. If thou bear it unwillingly, thou makest for
+thyself a (new) burden, and increasest thy load, and yet,
+notwithstanding, thou must bear it.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+LADY BETTY
+
+
+The next evening I was refused admittance to Phoebe's room. Miss Locke
+met me at the door, looking more depressed than usual, and asked me to
+follow her into the kitchen, where we found Kitty in the rocking-chair by
+the hearth, dressing her new doll.
+
+'It is just as she treated the vicar and Mr. Tudor,' she observed
+disconsolately. 'I don't quite know what ails her to-day; she had a
+beautiful night, and slept like a baby, and when I took her breakfast to
+her she put her arms round my neck and asked me to kiss her,--a thing she
+has not done for a year or more; and she went on for a long time about
+how bad she had been to me, and wanting me to forgive her and make it up
+with her.'
+
+'Well?' I demanded, rather impatiently, as Susan wiped her patient eyes
+and took up her sewing.
+
+'Well, poor lamb! I told her I would forgive her anything and everything
+if she would only let me go on with my work, for I had Mrs. Druce's
+mourning to finish; but she would not let me stir for a long time, and
+cried so bitterly--though she says she never can cry--that I thought of
+sending for you or Dr. Hamilton. But she cried more when I mentioned you,
+and said, No, she would not see you; you had left her more miserable than
+she was before: and she made me promise to send you away if you came this
+evening, which I am loath to do after all your kindness to her.'
+
+'I have brought her some fresh flowers this evening,' was my reply. 'Do
+not distress yourself, Miss Locke; we must expect Phoebe to be contrary
+sometimes.' And the words came to my mind, "And ofttimes it casteth him
+into the fire, and oft into the water." 'You have discharged your duty,
+but I am not going just yet. Let me help you with that work. I am very
+fond of sewing, and that is a nice easy piece. Shall you mind if I sing
+to you and Kitty a little?'
+
+I need not have asked the question when I saw the fretted look pass from
+Miss Locke's face.
+
+'It is the greatest pleasure Kitty and I have, next to going to church,'
+she said humbly. 'Your voice does sound so sweet; it soothes like a
+lullaby. It is my belief,' speaking under her breath so that the child
+should not hear her, 'that she is just trying to punish herself by
+sending you away.'
+
+I thought perhaps this might be the case, for who could understand all
+the perversities of a diseased mind? But if Phoebe's will was strong for
+evil, mine was stronger still to overcome her for her own good. I was
+determined on two things: first, that I would not leave the house without
+seeing her; and, secondly, that nothing should induce me to stay with her
+after this reception. She must be disciplined to civility at all costs.
+Max had been wrong to yield to her sick whims.
+
+I must have sung for a long time, to judge by the amount of work I
+contrived to do, and if I had sung like a whole nestful of skylarks I
+could not have pleased my audience more. I was sorry to set Miss Locke's
+tears flowing, because it hindered her work; tears are such a simple
+luxury, but poor folk cannot always afford to indulge in them.
+
+I had just commenced that beautiful song, 'Waft her, angels, through the
+air,' when the impatient thumping of a stick on the floor arrested me; it
+came from Phoebe's room.
+
+'I will go to her,' I said, waving Miss Locke back and picking up my
+flowers. 'Do not look so scared: she means those knocks for me.' And I
+was right in my surmise. I found her lying very quietly, with the traces
+of tears still on her face; she addressed me quite gently.
+
+'Do not sing any more, please; I cannot bear it; it makes my heart ache
+too much to-night.'
+
+'Very well,' I returned cheerfully. 'I will just mend your fire, for it
+is getting low, and put these flowers in water, and then I will bid you
+good-night.'
+
+'You are vexed with me for being rude,' she said, almost timidly. 'I told
+Susan to send you away, because I could not bear any more talk. You made
+me so unhappy yesterday, Miss Garston.'
+
+I was cruel enough to tell her that I was glad to hear it, and I must
+have looked as though I meant it.
+
+'Oh, don't,' she said, shrinking as though I had dealt her a blow. 'I
+want you to unsay those words: they pierce me like thorns. Please tell me
+you did not mean them.'
+
+'How can I know to what you are alluding?' I replied, in rather an
+unsympathetic tone; but I did not intend to be soft with her to-day: she
+had treated me badly and must repent her ingratitude. 'I certainly meant
+every word I said yesterday,'
+
+To my great surprise, she burst into tears, and repeated word for word
+a fragment of a sentence that I had said.
+
+'It haunts me, Miss Garston, and frightens me somehow. I have been saying
+it over and over in my dreams,--that is what upset me so to-day: "if we
+will not lie still under His hand,"--yes, you said that, knowing I have
+never lain still for a moment,--"and if we will not learn the lesson He
+would fain teach us, it may be that fresh trials may be sent to humble
+us."'
+
+Pity kept me silent for a moment, but I knew that I must not shirk my
+work.
+
+'I am sorry if the truth pains you, Phoebe, but it is no less the truth.
+How am I to look at you and think that God has finished His work?'
+
+She put up both her hands and motioned me away with almost a face of
+horror, but I took no notice. I arranged the flowers and tended the fire,
+and then offered her some cooling drink, which she did not refuse, and
+then I bade her good-night.
+
+'What!' she exclaimed, 'are you going to leave me like that, and not a
+word to soothe me, after making me so unhappy? Think of the long night I
+have to go through.'
+
+'Never mind the length of the night, if only you can hear His voice in
+the darkness. You wanted to send me away, Phoebe; well, and to-morrow I
+shall not come; I shall stay at home and rest myself. You can send me
+away, and little harm will happen; but take care you do not send Him
+away.' And I left the room.
+
+When I told Miss Locke that I was not coming the next evening she looked
+frightened. 'Has my poor Phoebe offended you so badly, then?' she asked
+tremulously.
+
+'I am not offended at all,' I replied; 'but Phoebe has need to learn
+all sorts of painful lessons. I shall have all the warmer welcome on
+Wednesday, after leaving her to herself a little.' But Miss Locke only
+shook her head at this.
+
+The next day was so lovely that I promised myself the indulgence of a
+long country walk; there was a pretty village about two miles from
+Heathfield that I longed to see again. But my little plan was frustrated,
+for just as I was starting I heard Tinker bark furiously; a moment
+afterwards there was a rush and scuffle, followed by a shriek in a
+girlish treble; in another moment I had seized my umbrella and flown to
+the door. There was a fight going on between Tinker and a large black
+retriever, and a little lady in brown was wandering round them,
+helplessly wringing her hands, and crying, 'Oh, Nap! poor Nap!'
+
+I took her for a child the first moment, she was so very small. 'Do not
+be frightened, my dear,' I said soothingly, 'I will make Tinker behave
+himself.' And a well-aimed blow from my umbrella made him draw off
+growling. In another moment I had him by the collar, and by dint of
+threats and coaxing contrived to shut him up in the kitchen. He was not
+a quarrelsome dog generally, but, as I heard afterwards, Nap was an old
+antagonist; they had once fallen out about Peter, and had never been
+friends since.
+
+I found the little brown girl sitting in the porch with her arms round
+the retriever's neck; she was kissing his black face, and begging him to
+forget the insult he had received from that horrid Barton dog.
+
+'Poor old Tinker is not horrid at all, I assure you,' I said, laughing;
+'he is a dear fellow, and I am already very fond of him.'
+
+'But he nearly killed Nap,' she returned, with a little frown; 'he is
+worse than a savage, for he has no notion of hospitality. Nap and I came
+to call,' rising with an air of great dignity. 'I suppose you are Miss
+Garston. I am Lady Betty.'
+
+I had never heard of such a person in Heathfield; but of course Uncle Max
+would enlighten me. As I looked at her more closely I saw my mistake in
+thinking she was a child; little brown thing as she was, she was fully
+grown up, and, though not in the least pretty, had a bright piquant face,
+a _nest retroussé_, and a pair of mischievous eyes.
+
+She was dressed rather extravagantly in a brown velvet walking-dress,
+with an absurd little hat, that would have fitted a child, on the top of
+her dark wavy hair; she only wanted a touch of red about her to look like
+a magnified robin-redbreast.
+
+'Well,' she said impatiently, as I hesitated a moment in my surprise,
+'I have told you we have come for a call, Nap and I; but if you are going
+out--'
+
+'Oh, that is not the least consequence,' I returned, waking up to a sense
+of my duty. 'I am very pleased to see you and Nap; but you must not stop
+any longer in this cold porch; the wind is rather cutting. There is a
+nice fire in my parlour.' And I led the way in.
+
+I was rather puzzled about Nap, for I seemed to recognise his sleek head
+and mild brown eyes; and yet where could I have seen him? He trotted in
+contentedly after his mistress, and stretched himself out on the rug
+Tinker's fashion; but Lady Betty, instead of seating herself, began to
+walk round the room and inspect my books and china, making remarks upon
+everything in a brisk voice, and questioning me in rather an inquisitive
+manner about sundry things that attracted her notice; but, to my great
+surprise and relief, she passed Charlie's picture without remark or
+comment--only I saw her glancing at it now and then from under her long
+lashes. This mystified me a little; but I thought her whole behaviour a
+little peculiar. I had never before seen callers on their first visit
+perambulating the room like polar bears, or throwing out curious feelers
+everywhere. As a rule, they sat up stiffly enough and discussed the
+weather.
+
+Lady Betty was evidently a character; most likely she prided herself on
+being unlike other people. I was just beginning to wish that she would
+sit down and let me question her in my turn, when she suddenly put up her
+eye-glasses and burst into a most musical little laugh.
+
+'Oh, do come here, Miss Garston; this is too amusing! There goes her
+majesty Gladys of Gladwyn, accompanied by her prime minister. Don't they
+look as though they were walking in the Row?--heads up--everything in
+perfect trim! They are coming to call--yes!--no!--They are going to the
+Cockaignes first. What an escape! my dear creature, if they come here I
+shall fly to Mrs. Barton. The prime minister's airs will be too much for
+my gravity.'
+
+I gave her a very divided attention, for I was watching Miss Hamilton and
+her companion with much interest. I could see that Miss Darrell was
+chatting volubly; but Miss Hamilton's face looked as grave and impassive
+as it had looked on Sunday. When they had passed out of sight I turned to
+Lady Betty rather eagerly; she had dropped her eye-glasses, but an amused
+smile still played round her lips.
+
+'_La belle cousine_ is improving the occasion as usual. Poor Gladys, how
+bored she looks! but there is no escape for her this afternoon, for the
+prime minister has her in tow. I wonder from what text she is preaching?
+Ezekiel's dry bones, I should think, from her majesty's face.'
+
+'Do you know the Hamiltons of Gladwyn very intimately?' I asked
+innocently; but I grew rather out of patience when Lady Betty
+first lifted her eye-glass and stared at me, with the air of a
+non-comprehending kitten, and then buried her face in a very fluffy
+little muff in a fit of uncontrolled merriment.
+
+I was provoked by this, and determined not to say a word. So presently
+she came out of her muff and asked me, with mirthful eyes, for whom I
+took her.
+
+'You are Lady Betty, I understood,' was my stiff response.
+
+'Yes, of course; every one calls me that, except the vicar, who will
+address me as Miss Elizabeth. I never will answer to that name; I hate it
+so. The servants up at Gladwyn never dare to use it. I would get Etta to
+dismiss them if they did. Is it not a shame that people should not have a
+voice in the matter of their name,--that helpless infants should be
+abandoned to the tender mercies of some old fogey of a sponsor? Miss
+Garston, if I were ever to hear you address me by that name it would be
+the death-warrant to our friendship.'
+
+'Let me know who you really are first, and then I will promise not to
+offend your peculiar prejudice.'
+
+'Dear me!' she answered pettishly, 'you talk just like Giles. He often
+laughs at me and makes himself very unpleasant. But then, as I often tell
+him, philanthropists are not pleasant people with whom to live; a man
+with a hobby is always odious. Well, Miss Garston, if you will be so
+prying, my name is Elizabeth Grant Hamilton; only from a baby I have been
+called Lady Betty.'
+
+'I shall remember,' I replied quietly, for really the little thing seemed
+quite ruffled. This was evidently more than a whim on her part. 'It would
+have seemed to me a liberty to use a family pet name. But of course if
+you wish me to do so--'
+
+'I do wish it,' rather peremptorily. 'That is partly why Mr. Cunliffe and
+I are not good friends,--that, and other reasons.'
+
+'Oh, I am sorry you do not like Uncle Max,' I said, rather impulsively;
+but she drew herself up after the manner of an aggrieved pigeon. She was
+rather like a bright-eyed bird, with her fluffy hair and quick movements.
+
+'Oh, I like him well enough, but I do not understand him. Men are not
+easy to understand. He is quiet, but he is disappointing. We must not
+expect perfection in this world,' finished the little lady sententiously.
+
+'I have never met any one half as good as Uncle Max,' was my warm retort.
+'He is the most unselfish of men.'
+
+'Unselfish men make mistakes sometimes,' she returned drily. 'Giles and
+he are great friends. He is up at Gladwyn a great deal; so is Mr. Tudor.
+Mr. Tudor is not a finished character, but he has good points, and one
+can tolerate him. There, how vexing, we were just beginning to talk
+comfortably, and I see the shadow of her majesty's gown at the gate.
+Come, Nap, we must fly to Mrs. Barton's for refuge. _Au revoir_, Miss
+Garston.' And, kissing her little gloved hand, this strangest of Lady
+Betties vanished, followed by the obedient Nap.
+
+My pulses quickened a little at the prospect of seeing the beautiful face
+of Gladys Hamilton in my little room; but it was not she who entered
+first, but Miss Darrell, whose sharp incisive glance had taken in every
+detail of my surroundings before her faultlessly-gloved hand had released
+mine; and even when I turned to greet Miss Hamilton, her peculiar and
+somewhat toneless voice claimed my attention.
+
+'How very fortunate,' she began, seating herself with elaborate caution
+with her back to the light. 'We hardly hoped to find you at home, Miss
+Garston. My cousin Giles informed us how much engaged you were. We have
+been so interested in what Mr. Cunliffe told us about it. It is such a
+romantic scheme, and, as I am a very romantic person, you may be sure of
+my sympathy. Gladys, dear, is this not a charming room? Positively you
+have so altered and beautified it that I can hardly believe it is the
+same room. I told a friend of ours, Mrs. Saunders, that it would never
+suit her, as it was such a shabby little place.'
+
+'It is very nice,' returned Miss Hamilton quietly. 'I hope,' fixing her
+large, beautiful eyes on me, 'that you are comfortable here? We thought
+perhaps you might be a little dull.'
+
+'I have no time to be dull,' I returned, smiling, but Miss Darrell
+interrupted me.
+
+'No, of course not; busy people are never dull. I told you so, Gladys, as
+we walked up the road. Depend upon it, I said, Miss Garston will hardly
+have a minute to give to our idle chatter. She will be wanting to get to
+her sick people, and wish us at Hanover. Still, as my cousin Giles said,
+we must do the right thing and call, though I am sure you are not a
+conventional person; neither am I. Oh, we are quite kindred souls here.'
+
+I tried to receive this speech in good part, but I certainly protested
+inwardly against the notion that Miss Darrell and I would ever be kindred
+souls. I felt an instinctive repugnance to her voice; its want of tone
+jarred on me; and all the time she talked, her hard, bright eyes seemed
+to dart restlessly from Miss Hamilton to me. I felt sure that nothing
+could escape their scrutiny; but now and then, when one looked at her in
+return, she seemed to veil them most curiously under the long curling
+lashes.
+
+She was rather an elegant-looking woman, but her face was decidedly
+plain. She had thin lips and rather a square jaw, and her sallow
+complexion lacked colour. One could not guess her age exactly, but she
+might have been three-or four-and-thirty. I heard her spoken of
+afterwards as a very interesting-looking person; certainly her figure
+was fine, and she knew how to dress herself,--a very useful art when
+women have no claim to beauty.
+
+Miss Darrell's voluble tongue seemed to touch on every subject. Miss
+Hamilton sat perfectly silent, and I had not a chance of addressing her.
+Once, when I looked at her, I could see her eyes were fixed on my
+darling's picture. She was gazing at it with an air of absorbed
+melancholy: her lips were firmly closed, and her hands lay folded in
+her lap.
+
+'That is the picture of my twin-brother,' I said softly, to arouse her.
+
+To my surprise, she turned paler than ever, and her lips quivered.
+
+'Your twin brother, yes; and you have lost him?' But here Miss Darrell
+chimed in again:
+
+'How very interesting! What a blessing photography is, to be sure? Do you
+take well, Miss Garston? They make me a perfect fright. I tell my cousins
+that nothing on earth will induce me to try another sitting. Why should I
+endure such a martyrdom, if it be not to give pleasure to my friends?'
+
+To my surprise, Miss Hamilton's voice interrupted her: it was a little
+like her step-brother's voice, and had a slight hesitation that was not
+in the least unpleasant. She spoke rather slowly: at least it seemed so
+by comparison with Miss Darrell's quick sentences.
+
+'Etta, we have not done what Giles told us. We hope you will come and
+dine with us to-morrow. Miss Garston, without any ceremony.'
+
+'Dear me, how careless of me!' broke in Miss Darrell, but her forehead
+contracted a little, as though her cousin's speech annoyed her. 'Giles
+gave the message to me, but we were talking so fast that I quite forgot
+it. My cousin will have it that you are dull, and our society may cheer
+you up. I do not hold with Giles. I think you are far too superior a
+person to be afraid of a little solitude; strong-minded people like you
+are generally fond of their own society; but all the same I hope you do
+not mean to be quite a recluse.'
+
+'We dine at seven, but I hope you will come as much earlier as you like,'
+interposed Miss Hamilton. 'No one will be with us but Mr. Tudor.'
+
+'You forget Mr. Cunliffe, Gladys,' observed Miss Darrell, in rather a
+sharp voice. 'I am sure I do not know what the poor man has done to
+offend you; but ever since last summer--' But here Miss Hamilton rose
+with a gesture that was almost queenly, and her impassive face looked
+graver than ever.
+
+'I did not know you had invited Mr. Cunliffe, Etta, or I should certainly
+have mentioned him. Good-bye, Miss Garston: we shall look for you soon
+after six.'
+
+There was something wistful in her expression; it seemed as though she
+wanted me to come, and yet I was a complete stranger to her. I felt very
+reluctant to dine at Gladwyn, but that look overruled me.
+
+'I will try to come early,' was my answer, and then I drew back to let
+them pass.
+
+Miss Darrell bade me good-bye a little stiffly; something had evidently
+put her out. As they went down the narrow garden path I could see she was
+speaking to Miss Hamilton rather angrily, but Miss Hamilton seemed to
+take no notice.
+
+What did it all mean? I wondered; and then I suddenly bethought myself of
+my other visitor. I had wholly forgotten her existence in my interest in
+her beautiful sister. What could have become of Lady Betty?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+LADY BETTY LEAVES HER MUFF
+
+
+This question was speedily answered.
+
+The gate had scarcely closed behind my visitors when I heard a gay little
+laugh behind me, and Lady Betty tripped across the passage and took
+possession of the easy-chair in the friendliest way.
+
+'Now we can have a chat and be cosy all by ourselves,' she said, with
+childish glee; and then she stopped and looked at me, and her rosy little
+mouth began to pout, and a sort of baby frown came to her forehead.
+
+'You don't seem pleased to see me again. Shall I go away? Are you busy,
+or tired, or is there anything the matter?' asked Lady Betty, in an
+extremely fractious voice.
+
+'There is nothing the matter, and I am delighted to see you, and'--with a
+sudden inspiration--'if you will be good enough to stay and have tea with
+me I will ask Mrs. Barton to send in one of her excellent tea-cakes.'
+
+This was evidently what Lady Betty wanted, for she nodded and took off
+her hat, and began to unbutton her long tan-coloured gloves in a cool,
+business-like way that amused me. I ran across to the kitchen, and gave
+Mrs. Barton a _carte blanche_ for a sumptuous tea, and when I returned I
+found Lady Betty quite divested of her walking-apparel, and patting her
+dark fluffy hair to reduce it to some degree of smoothness. She had a
+pretty little head, and it was covered by a mass of short curly hair that
+nothing would reduce to order.
+
+'This is just what I like,' she said promptly. 'When Giles told us about
+you, and I made up my mind to call, I hoped you would ask me to stay. I
+do dislike stiffness and conventionality excessively. I hope you mean to
+be friends with us, Miss Garston, for I have taken rather a fancy to you,
+in spite of your grave looks. Dear me! do you always look so grave?'
+
+'Oh no,' I returned, laughing.
+
+'That is right,' with an approving nod; 'you look ever so much nicer and
+younger when you smile. Well, what did the prime minister say? Was she
+very gushing and sympathetic? Did she patronise you in a ladylike way,
+and pat you on the head metaphorically, until you felt ready to box her
+ears? Ah! I know _la belle cousine's_ little ways.'
+
+This was so exact a description of my conversation with Miss Darrell that
+I laughed in a rather guilty fashion. Lady Betty clapped her hands
+delightfully.
+
+'Oh, I have found you out. You are not a bit solemn, really, only you put
+on the airs of a sister of mercy. So you don't like Etta; you need not be
+afraid of telling me so; she is the greatest humbug in the world, only
+Giles is so foolish as to believe in her. I call her a humbug because she
+pretends to be what she is not; she is really a most prosaic sort of
+person, and she wants to make people believe that she is a soft romantic
+body.'
+
+'You are not very charitable in your estimate of your cousin, Lady
+Betty,'
+
+'Then she should not lead Gladys such a life. Poor dear majesty, to be
+ruled by her prime minister! I should like to see Etta try to dictate to
+me. Why, I should laugh in her face. She would not attempt it again. I
+can't think how it is,' looking a little grave, 'that she has Gladys so
+completely under her thumb. Gladys is too proud to own that she is afraid
+of her, but all the same she never dares to act in opposition to Etta.'
+
+Lady Betty's confidence was rather embarrassing, but I hardly knew how to
+check it. I began to think the household at Gladwyn must be a very queer
+one. Uncle Max had already hinted at a want of harmony between Mr.
+Hamilton and his step-sisters, and Miss Darrell seemed hardly a favourite
+with him, although he was too kind-hearted to say so openly.
+
+'Has your cousin lived long with you?' I ventured to ask.
+
+'Oh yes; ever since Gladys and I were little things; before mamma died.
+Auntie lived with us too: poor auntie, we were very fond of her, but she
+was a sad invalid; she died about three years ago. Etta has managed
+everything ever since.'
+
+'Do you mean that Miss Darrell is housekeeper? I should have thought that
+would have been your sister's place.'
+
+'Oh, Gladys is called the mistress of her house, but none of the servants
+go to her for orders. If she gives any, Etta is sure to countermand
+them,'
+
+'It is partly Gladys's fault,' went on Lady Betty, in her frank outspoken
+way. 'She tried for a little while to manage things; but either she was a
+terribly bad housekeeper, or Etta undermined her influence in the house;
+everything went wrong, and Giles got so angry,--men do, you know, when
+the dear creatures' comforts are invaded: so there was a great fuss, and
+Gladys gave it up; and now the prime minister manages the finances, and
+gives out stores, and, though I hate to say it, things never went more
+smoothly than they do now. Giles is scarcely ever vexed.'
+
+I am ashamed to say how much I was interested in Lady Betty's childish
+talk, and yet I knew it was wrong not to check her. What would Miss
+Hamilton say if she were to hear of our conversation? Jill was rather
+a reckless talker, but she was nothing compared with this daring little
+creature. Lady Betty told me afterwards, when we were better acquainted,
+that it had amused her so to see how widely I could open my eyes when I
+was surprised. I believe she did it out of pure mischief.
+
+Our talk was happily interrupted by the appearance of Mrs. Barton and the
+tea-tray, which at once turned Lady Betty's thoughts into a new channel.
+
+There was so much to do. First she must help to arrange the table, and,
+as no one else could cut such thin bread-and-butter, she must try her
+hand at that. Then Nap must have his tea before we touched ours; and when
+at last we did sit down she was praising the cake, and jumping up for the
+kettle, and waiting upon me 'because I was a dear good thing, and waited
+on poor people,' and coaxing me to take this or that as though I were her
+guest, and every now and then she paused to say 'how nice and cosy it
+was,' and how she was enjoying herself, and how glad she felt to miss
+that stupid dinner at Gladwyn, where no one talked but Giles and Etta,
+and Gladys sat as though she were half asleep, until she, Lady Betty,
+felt inclined to pinch them all.
+
+We were approaching the dangerous subject again, but I warded it off by
+asking how she and her sister employed their time.
+
+She made a little face at me, as though the question bothered her. 'Oh,
+I do things, and Gladys--does things,' rather lucidly.
+
+'Well, but what things, may I ask?'
+
+'Why do you want to know?' was the unexpected retort. 'I don't question
+you, do I? Giles says women are dreadfully curious.'
+
+'I think you are dreadfully mysterious; but, as you are evidently ashamed
+of your occupations, I will withdraw my question.'
+
+'I do believe you are cross, Miss Garston: you are not a saint, after
+all, though Giles says you sing like a cherub: I don't know where he ever
+heard one, but that is his affair. Well, as you choose to get pettish
+over it, I will be amiable, and tell you what we do. Etta says we waste
+our time dreadfully, but as it is our time and not hers, it is none of
+her business.'
+
+I thought it prudent to remain silent, so she wrinkled her brows and
+looked perplexed.
+
+'Gladys--let me see what Gladys does: well, she used to teach in the
+schools, but she does not teach now; she says the infants make her
+head ache; that is why she has dropped the Sunday-school. Now Etta
+has her class. Then there was the mothers' meeting; well, I never
+knew why she gave that up,--I wonder if she knows herself,--but Etta
+has got it. And she has left off singing at the penny readings and
+village entertainments; Etta would have replaced her there, only she has
+no voice. I think she works a little for the poor people at the East End
+of London, but she does it in her own room, because Etta laughs at her
+and calls her 'Madam Charity.' Gladys hates that. She takes long walks,
+and sketches a little, and reads a good deal; and--there, that is all I
+know of her majesty's doings.'
+
+Poor Miss Hamilton! it certainly did not sound much of a life.
+
+'And about yourself, Lady Betty?'
+
+'Oh, Lady Betty is here, there, and everywhere,' mimicking me in a droll
+way. 'Lady Betty walks a little, talks a little, plays a little, and
+dances when she gets a chance. At present, lawn-tennis is a great object
+in her life; last winter, swimming in Brill's bath and riding from Hove
+to Kemp Town or across the Brighton Downs were her hobbies. In the summer
+a gardening craze seized her, and just now she is in an idle mood. What
+does it matter? a short life and a merry one,--eh, Miss Garston?'
+
+I would not expostulate with this civilised little heathen, for she was
+evidently bent on provoking a lecture, and I determined to disappoint
+her. We had sat so long over our tea that the room was quite dark, and I
+rose to kindle the lamp. Lady Betty, as usual, was anxious to assist me,
+and went to the window to lower the blind. The next moment I heard an
+exclamation of annoyance, and as she came back to the table her little
+brown face was all aglow with some suppressed irritation.
+
+'What is the matter, Lady Betty?' I asked, in some surprise.
+
+'It is that provoking Etta again,' she began. 'She has guessed where I
+am, and has sent for me, the meddlesome old--' But here a tap at our room
+door stopped her outburst.
+
+As Lady Betty made no response, I said, 'Come in,' and immediately a
+respectable-looking woman appeared in the doorway.
+
+She looked like a superior lady's-maid, and had a plain face much marked
+by the smallpox, and rather dull light-coloured eyes.
+
+'Well, Leah,' demanded Lady Betty, rather sulkily, 'what is your business
+with Miss Garston?'
+
+'My business is with you, Lady Betty,' returned the woman
+good-humouredly. 'Master came in just now and asked where you were;
+I think he told Miss Darrell that it was too late for you to be out
+walking: so Miss Darrell said she believed you were at the White Cottage,
+for she saw your muff lying on Miss Garston's table; so she told me to
+step up here, as it was too dark for you to walk alone, and I was to tell
+you that they would be waiting dinner.'
+
+'It is just like her interference,' muttered Lady Betty. 'But I suppose
+there would be a pretty fuss if I let the dinner spoil. Help me on with
+my jacket, Leah; as you have come when no one wanted you, you had better
+make yourself useful.'
+
+She spoke with the peremptoriness of a spoiled child, but the woman
+smiled pleasantly and did as she was bid. She seemed a civil sort of
+person, evidently an old family servant. Something had struck me in her
+speech. Miss Darrell had seen Lady Betty's muff, and knew of her presence
+in the cottage, and yet she had made no remark on the subject; this
+seemed strange, but would she not wonder still more at my silence?
+
+'Lady Betty,' I said hastily, as this occurred to me, 'your cousin will
+think it odd that I never spoke of you this afternoon; but you ran out of
+the room so quickly, and then I forgot all about it.'
+
+'Oh, Etta will know I was only playing at hide-and-seek. Most likely she
+will think I bound you to secrecy. What a goose I was to leave my muff
+behind me,--the very one Etta gave me, too! why, she would see a pin;
+nothing escapes her: does it, Leah?'
+
+'Not much, Lady Betty: she has fine eyes for dust, I tell her. The new
+housemaid had better be careful with her room. Now, ma'am, if you are
+ready?'
+
+'Good-bye, Miss Garston; we shall meet to-morrow,' returned Lady Betty,
+standing on tiptoe to kiss me, and as they went out I heard her say in
+quite a friendly manner to Leah, as though she had already forgotten her
+grievance,--
+
+'Is not Miss Garston nice, Leah? She has got such a kind face.' But I did
+not hear Leah's reply.
+
+I had not seen the last of my visitors, for about an hour afterwards, as
+I was finishing a long chatty letter to Jill, there was the sharp click
+of the gate again, and Uncle Max came in.
+
+'Are you busy, Ursula?' he said apologetically, as I looked up in some
+surprise. 'I only called in as I was passing. I am going on to the
+Myers's: old Mr. Myers is ill and wants to see me.' But for all that
+Max drew his accustomed chair to the fire, and looked at the blazing
+pine-knot a little dreamily.
+
+'You keep good fires,' was his next remark. 'It is very cold to-night:
+there is a touch of frost in the air; Tudor was saying so just now. So
+you have had the ladies from Gladwyn here this afternoon?'
+
+'How do you know that?' I asked, in a sharp pouncing voice, for I was
+keeping that bit of news for a tidbit.
+
+'Oh, I met them,' he returned absently, 'and they told me that you were
+to dine with them to-morrow. I call that nice and friendly, asking you
+without ceremony. What time shall you be ready, Ursula? for of course I
+shall not let you go alone the first time.'
+
+I was glad to hear this, for, though I was not a shy person, my first
+visit to Gladwyn would be a little formidable; so I told him briefly that
+I would be ready by half-past six, as they wished me to go early, and it
+would never do to be formal on my side. And then I gave him an account of
+Lady Betty's visit, but it did not seem to interest him much: in fact, I
+do not believe that he listened very attentively.
+
+'She is an odd little being,' he said, rather absently, 'and prides
+herself on being as unconventional as possible. They have spoiled her
+among them, Hamilton especially, but her droll ways amuse him. She has
+sulked with me lately because I will not give in to her absurd fad about
+Lady Betty. I tell her that she ought not to be ashamed of her baptismal
+name; the angels will call her by it one day.'
+
+'She is very amusing. I think I shall like her, Max; but Miss Darrell
+does not please me. She is far too gushing and talkative for my taste;
+she patronised and repressed me in the same breath. If there is anything
+I dislike, it is to be patted on the head by a stranger.'
+
+'Miss Hamilton did not pat you on the head, I suppose.'
+
+'Miss Hamilton! Oh dear, no; she is of another calibre. I have quite
+fallen in love with her: her face is perfect, only rather too pale, and
+her manners are so gentle, and yet she has plenty of dignity; she reminds
+me of Clytie, only her expression is not so contented and restful: she
+looks far too melancholy for a girl of her age.'
+
+'Pshaw!' he said, rather impatiently, but I noticed he looked
+uncomfortable. 'What can have put such ideas in your head?--you have
+only seen her twice: you could not expect her to smile in church.'
+
+Max seemed so thoroughly put out by my remark that I thought it better
+to qualify my speech. 'Most likely Miss Darrell had been nagging at her.'
+
+His face cleared up directly. 'Depend upon it, that was the reason she
+looked so grave,' he said, with an air of relief. 'Miss Darrell can say
+ill-tempered things sometimes. Miss Hamilton is never as lively as Miss
+Elizabeth; she is always quiet and thoughtful; some girls are like that,
+they are not sparkling and frothy.'
+
+I let him think that I accepted this statement as gospel, but in my heart
+I thought I had never seen a sadder face than that of Gladys Hamilton; to
+me it looked absolutely joyless, as though some strange blight had fallen
+on her youth. I kept these thoughts to myself, like a wise woman, and
+when Max looked at me rather searchingly, as though he expected a verbal
+assent, I said, 'Yes, you are right, some girls are like that,' and left
+him to glean my meaning out of this parrot-like sentence.
+
+I could make nothing of Max this evening: he seemed restless and ill at
+ease; now and then he fell into a brown study and roused himself with
+difficulty. I was almost glad when he took his leave at last, for I had
+a feeling somehow--and a curious feeling it was--that we were talking at
+cross-purposes, and that our speeches seemed to be lost hopelessly in a
+mental fog; the cipher to our meaning seemed missing.
+
+But he bade me good-night as affectionately as though I had done him a
+world of good: and when he had gone I sat down to my piano and sang all
+my old favourite songs, until the lateness of the hour warned me to
+extinguish my lamp and retire to bed.
+
+I was just sinking into a sweet sleep when I heard Nathaniel's voice
+bidding some one good-night, and in another moment I could hear firm
+quick footsteps down the gravel walk, followed by Nap's joyous bark.
+
+Mr. Hamilton had been in the house all the time I had been amusing
+myself. I do not know why the idea annoyed me so. 'How I wish he would
+keep away sometimes!' I thought fretfully. 'He will think I am practising
+for to-morrow: I will not sing if they press me to do so.' And with this
+ill-natured resolve I fell asleep.
+
+My dinner-engagement obliged me to go to Phoebe quite early in the
+afternoon. Miss Locke looked surprised as she opened the door, but she
+greeted me with a pleased smile.
+
+'Phoebe will hardly be looking for you yet,' she said, leading the way
+into the kitchen in the evident expectation of a chat; 'she did finely
+yesterday in spite of her missing you; when I went in to her in the
+morning she quite took my breath away by asking if there were not an
+easier chair in the house for you to use. "'Deed and there is, Phoebe,
+woman," said I, quite pleased, for the poor thing is far too
+uncomfortable herself to look after other people's comforts, and it was
+such a new thing to hear her speak like that: so I fetched father's big
+elbow-chair with a cushion or two and his little wooden footstool, and
+there it stands ready for you this afternoon.'
+
+'That was very thoughtful of Phoebe,' was my reply.
+
+'Well, now, I thought you would be pleased, though it is only a trifle.
+But that is not all. Widow Drayton was sitting with me last afternoon,
+when all at once she puts up her finger and says, "Hark! Is not that your
+Kitty's voice?" And so I stole out into the passage to listen. And there,
+to be sure, was Kitty singing most beautifully some of the hymns you sang
+to Phoebe; and if she could not make out all the words she just went on
+with the tune, like a little bird, and Phoebe lay and listened to her,
+and all the time--as I could see through the crack of the door--her eyes
+were fixed on the picture you gave her, and I said to myself, "Phoebe,
+woman, this is as it should be. You may yet learn wisdom out of the lips
+of babes and sucklings."'
+
+'I am very glad to hear all this, Miss Locke,' I returned cheerfully.
+'Kitty will be able to take my place sometimes. She will be a valuable
+little ally. Now, as my time is limited, I will go to Phoebe.'
+
+I was much struck by the changed expression on Phoebe's face as soon
+as I had entered the room. She certainly looked very ill, and when I
+questioned her avowed she had suffered a good deal of pain in the night;
+but the wild hard look had left her eyes. There was intense depression,
+but that was all.
+
+She evidently enjoyed the singing as much as ever: and I took care to
+sing my best. When I had finished I produced a story that I thought
+suitable, and began to read to her. She listened for about half an hour
+before she showed a symptom of weariness. At the first sign I stopped.
+
+'Will you do something to please me in return?' I asked, when she had
+thanked me very civilly. 'I want you to go on with this book by yourself
+now. I know what you are going to say--that you never read--that it makes
+your head ache and tires you. But, if you care to please me, you will
+waive all these objections, and we can talk over the story to-morrow.'
+Then I told her about my invitation for this evening, and about the
+beautiful Miss Hamilton, whose sweet face had interested me. And when we
+had chatted quite comfortably for a little while I rose to take my leave.
+
+Of course she could not let me go without one sharp little word.
+
+'You have been kinder to me to-day,' she said, pausing slightly. 'I
+suppose that is because I let you take your own way with me.'
+
+'Every one likes his own way,' I said lightly. 'If I have been kinder to
+you, as you say, possibly it is because you have deserved kindness more.'
+And I smiled at her and patted the thin hand, as though she were a child,
+and so 'went on my way rejoicing,' as they say in the good old Book.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+UP AT GLADWYN
+
+
+Uncle Max had never been famous for punctuality. He was slightly Bohemian
+in his habits, and rather given to desultory bachelor ways; but his
+domestic timekeeper, Mrs. Drabble, ruled him most despotically in the
+matter of meals, and it was amusing to see how she kept him and Mr. Tudor
+in order: neither of them ventured to keep the dinner waiting, for fear
+of the housekeeper's black looks; such an offence they knew would be
+expiated by cold fish and burnt-up steaks. Uncle Max might invite the
+bishop to dine, but if his lordship chose to be late Mrs. Drabble would
+take no pains to keep her dinner hot.
+
+'If gentlemen like to shilly-shally with their food, they must take
+things as they find them,' she would say; and if her master ever ventured
+to remonstrate with her, she took care that he should suffer for it for a
+week.
+
+'We must humour Mother Drabble,' Mr. Tudor would say good-humouredly.
+'Every one has a crotchet, and, after all, she is a worthy little woman,
+and makes us very comfortable. I never knew what good cooking meant until
+I came to the vicarage.' And indeed Mrs. Drabble's custards and flaky
+crust were famed in the village. Miss Darrell had once begged very humbly
+that her cook Parker might take a lesson from her, but Mrs. Drabble
+refused point-blank.
+
+'There were those who liked to teach others, and plenty of them, but she
+was one who minded her own business and kept her own recipes. If Miss
+Darrell wanted a custard made she was willing to do it for her and
+welcome, but she wanted no gossiping prying cooks about her kitchen.'
+
+As I knew Max's peculiarity, I was somewhat surprised when, long before
+the appointed time, Mrs. Barton came up and told me that Mr. Cunliffe was
+in the parlour. I had commenced my toilet in rather a leisurely fashion,
+but now I made haste to join him, and ran downstairs as quickly as
+possible, carrying my fur-lined cloak over my arm.
+
+'You look very nice, my dear,' he said, in quite fatherly fashion. 'Have
+I ever seen that gown before?'
+
+The gown in point had been given to me by Lesbia, and had been made in
+Paris: it was one of those thin black materials that make up into a
+charming demi-toilette, and was a favourite gown with me.
+
+I always remember the speech Lesbia made as she showed it to me. 'When
+you put on this gown, Ursula, you must think of the poor little woman
+who hoped to have been your sister.' This was one of the pretty little
+speeches that she often made. Poor dear Lesbia! she always did things so
+gracefully. In Charlie's lifetime I had thought her cold and frivolous,
+for she had not then folded up her butterfly wings; but even then she
+was always doing kind little things.
+
+It was a dark night, neither moon nor stars to be seen, and after we had
+passed the church the darkness seemed to envelop us, and I could barely
+distinguish the path. Max seemed quite oblivious of this fact, for he
+would persist in pointing out invisible objects of interest. I was told
+of the wide stretch of country that lay on the right, and how freshly the
+soft breezes blew over the downs.
+
+'There is the asylum, Ursula,' he observed cheerfully, waving his hand
+towards the black outline. 'Now we are passing Colonel Maberley's house,
+and here is Gladwyn. I wish you could have seen it by daylight.'
+
+I wished so too, for on entering the shrubbery the darkness seemed to
+swallow us up bodily, and the heavy oak door might have belonged to a
+prison. The sharp clang of the bell made me shiver, and Dante's lines
+came into my mind rather inopportunely, 'All ye who enter here, leave
+hope behind.' But as soon as the door opened the scene was changed like
+magic; the long hall was deliciously warm and light: it looked almost
+like a corridor, with its dark marble figures holding sconces, and small
+carved tables between them.
+
+'I will wait for you here, Ursula,' whispered Uncle Max; and I went off
+in charge of the same maid that I had seen before. Lady Betty had called
+her Leah, and as I followed her upstairs I thought of that tender-eyed
+Leah who had been an unloved wife.
+
+Leah was very civil, but I thought her manner bordered on familiarity:
+perhaps she had lived long in the family, and was treated more as a
+friend than a servant. She was an exceedingly plain young woman, and her
+light eyes had a curious lack of expression in them, and yet, like Miss
+Darrell's, they seemed able to see everything.
+
+Seeing me glance round the room,--it was a large, handsomely furnished
+bedroom, with a small dressing-room attached to it,--she said, 'This is
+Miss Darrell's room. Mrs. Darrell used to occupy it, and Miss Etta slept
+in the dressing-room, but ever since her mother's death she has had both
+rooms.'
+
+'Indeed,' was my brief reply: but I could not help thinking that Miss
+Darrell had very pleasant and roomy quarters. There were evidences of
+luxury everywhere, from the bevelled glass of the walnut-wood wardrobe to
+the silver-mounted dressing-case and ivory brushes on the toilet-table. A
+pale embroidered tea-gown lay across the couch, and a book that looked
+very much like a French novel was thrown beside it. Miss Darrell was
+evidently a Sybarite in her tastes.
+
+Uncle Max was waiting for me at the foot of the stairs, and took me into
+the drawing-room at once.
+
+To our surprise, we found Miss Hamilton there alone. The room was only
+dimly lighted, and she was sitting in a large carved chair beside the
+fire with an open book in her lap.
+
+I wonder if Max noticed how like a picture she looked. She was dressed
+very simply in a soft creamy cashmere, and her fair hair was piled up on
+her head in regal fashion: the smooth plaits seemed to crown her; a
+little knot of red berries that had been carelessly fastened against her
+throat was the only colour about her; but she looked more like Clytie
+than ever, and again I told myself that I had never seen a sweeter face.
+
+She greeted me with gentle warmth, but she hardly looked at Max; her
+white lids dropped over her eyes whenever he addressed her, and when she
+answered him she seemed to speak in a more measured voice than usual. Max
+too appeared extremely nervous; instead of sitting down, he stood upon
+the bear-skin rug and fidgeted with some tiny Chinese ornaments on the
+mantelpiece. Neither of them appeared at ease: was it possible that they
+were not friends?
+
+'You are not often to be found in solitude, Miss Hamilton,' observed Max;
+and it struck me his voice was a little peculiar. 'I do not think I have
+ever seen you sitting alone in this room before.'
+
+'No,' she answered quickly, and then she went on in rather a hesitating
+manner: 'Etta and Lady Betty have been shopping in Brighton, and they
+came back by a late train, and now Etta is shut up with Giles in his
+study. Some letters that came by this morning's post had to be answered.'
+
+'Miss Darrell is Hamilton's secretary, is she not?'
+
+'She writes a good many of his letters. Giles is rather idle about
+correspondence, and she helps him with his business and accounts. Etta
+is an extremely busy person.'
+
+'Miss Hamilton used to be busy too,' returned Max quietly. 'I always
+considered you an example to our ladies. I lost one of my best workers
+when I lost you.'
+
+A painful colour came into Miss Hamilton's face.
+
+'Oh no,' she protested, rather feebly. 'Etta is far cleverer than I at
+parish work. Teaching does not make her head ache.'
+
+'Yours used not to ache last summer,' persisted Uncle Max, but she did
+not seem to hear him. She had turned to me, and there was almost an
+appealing look in her beautiful eyes, as though she were begging me to
+talk.
+
+'Oh, do you know, Miss Garston,' she said nervously, 'that Giles was very
+nearly sending for you last night? He was with Mrs. Blagrove's little
+girl until five this morning; the poor little creature died at half-past
+four, and he told us that he thought half a dozen times of sending for
+you.'
+
+'I wish he had done so. I should have been so glad to help.'
+
+'Yes, he knew that, but he said it would have been such a shame rousing
+you out of your warm bed; and he had not the heart to do it. So he
+stopped on himself; there was really nothing to be done, but the parents
+were in such a miserable state that he did not like to leave them. He was
+so tired this afternoon that he dropped asleep instead of writing his
+letters: that is why Etta has to do them.'
+
+'Who is talking about Etta?' observed Miss Darrell, coming in at that
+moment, with a quick rustle of her silk skirt, looking as well-dressed,
+self-possessed, and full of assurance as ever. 'Why are you good people
+sitting in the dark? Thornton would have lighted the candles if you had
+rung, Gladys; but I suppose you forgot, and were dreaming over the fire
+as usual. Miss Garston, I suppose I ought to apologise for being late,
+but we are such busy people here; every moment is of value; and though
+Gladys asked you to come early, I never thought you would be so good as
+to do so. Friendly people are scarce, are they not, Mr. Cunliffe? By the
+bye,' holding up a taper finger loaded with sparkling rings, 'I have a
+scolding in store for you. Why did you not examine my class as usual last
+Sunday?--the children tell me you never came near them.'
+
+'I had so little time that I asked Tudor to take the classes for me,' he
+returned quickly, but he was looking at Miss Hamilton as he spoke. 'I am
+always sure of the children in that class: they have been so thoroughly
+well taught that there is very little need for me to interfere.'
+
+'It would encourage their teachers if you were to do so,' returned Miss
+Darrell, smiling graciously. She evidently appropriated the praise to
+herself, but I am sure Uncle Max was not thinking of her when he spoke.
+Just then Lady Betty came into the room, followed by Mr. Tudor.
+
+Lady Betty looked almost pretty to-night. She wore a dark ruby velveteen
+that exactly suited her brown skin; her fluffy hair was tolerably smooth,
+and she had a bright colour. She came and sat down beside me at once.
+
+'Oh, I am so vexed that we are so late! but it was all Etta's fault: she
+would look in at every shop-window, and so of course we lost the proper
+train.'
+
+'What does the child say?' asked Miss Darrell good-humouredly. She seemed
+in excellent spirits this evening; but how silent Miss Hamilton had
+become since her entrance! 'Of course poor Etta is blamed; she always is
+if anything goes wrong in the house; Etta is the family scapegoat. But
+who was it, I wonder, who wanted another turn on the pier? Not Etta,
+certainly.'
+
+'Just as though those few minutes would have mattered; and I did want
+another look at the sea,' returned Lady Betty pettishly; 'but no, you
+preferred those stupid shops. That is why I hate to go into Brighton with
+you.' But Miss Darrell only laughed at this flimsy display of wrath.
+
+Just then Mr. Tudor had taken the other vacant chair beside me. 'How is
+the village nurse?' he asked, in his bright way. I certainly liked Mr.
+Tudor, he had such a pleasant, friendly way with him, and on his part he
+seemed always glad to see me. If I had ever talked slang, I might have
+said that we chummed together famously. He was a year younger than
+myself, and I took advantage of this to give him advice in an
+elder-sisterly fashion.
+
+'You must take care that the clergy do not spoil the village nurse,'
+observed Miss Darrell, who had overheard him, and this time the taper
+finger was uplifted against Mr. Tudor.
+
+'Oh, there is no fear of that,' he returned manfully; 'Miss Garston is
+too sensible to allow herself to be spoiled; but it is quite right that
+we all should make much of her.'
+
+'We will ask Giles if he agrees with this,' replied Miss Darrell, in
+a funny voice, and at that moment Mr. Hamilton entered the room.
+
+I do not know why I thought he looked nicer that evening: one thing, I
+had never seen him in evening dress, and it suited him better than his
+rough tweed; he was quieter and less abrupt in manner, more dignified and
+less peremptory, but he certainly looked very tired.
+
+He accosted me rather gravely, I thought, though he said that he was glad
+to see me at Gladwyn. His first remark after this was to complain of the
+lateness of the dinner.
+
+'Parker is not very punctual this evening, Etta,' he observed, looking
+at his watch.
+
+'I think it was our fault, Giles,' returned his cousin plaintively. 'We
+kept Thornton such a long time in the study, and no doubt that is the
+cause of the delay. Parker is seldom a minute behindhand; punctuality is
+her chief point, as Mrs. Edmonstone told me when I engaged her. You see,'
+turning to Uncle Max, 'we are such a regular household that the least
+deviation in our nature quite throws us into confusion. I am so sorry,
+Giles, I am, indeed; but will you ring for Thornton, and that will remind
+him of his duty?'
+
+Miss Darrell's submissive speech evidently disarmed Mr. Hamilton, and
+deprived him of his Englishman's right to grumble to his womankind: so he
+said, quite amiably, that they would wait for Parker's pleasure a little
+longer, and then relapsed into silence.
+
+The next moment I saw him looking at me with rather an odd expression;
+it was as though he were regarding a stranger whom he had not seen
+before; I suppose the term 'taking stock' would explain my meaning.
+Just then dinner was announced, and he gave me his arm.
+
+The dining-room was very large and lofty, and was furnished in dark oak.
+A circular seat with velvet cushions ran round the deep bay-window. A
+small oval table stood before it. Dark ruby curtains closed in the bay.
+
+My first speech to Mr. Hamilton was to regret that he had not sent for me
+the previous night.
+
+'Oh no,' he said pleasantly. 'I am quite glad now that your rest was
+not disturbed.' And then he went on looking at me with the same queer
+expression that his face had worn before.
+
+'Do you know, Miss Garston, your remark quite startled me? Somehow
+I do not seem to recognise my nurse to-night. When I came into the
+drawing-room just now I thought there was a strange young lady sitting
+by Tudor.'
+
+Of course I was curious to know what he meant; but he positively refused
+to enlighten me, and went on speaking about his poor little patient.
+
+'She was an only child; but nothing could have saved her. The Blagroves
+are well-to-do people,--Brighton shopkeepers,--so they hardly come under
+the category of your patients. Miss Garston, you call yourself a servant
+of the poor, do you not?'
+
+'I should not refuse to help any one who really needed it,' was my reply.
+'But, of course, if people can afford to hire service I should think my
+labour thrown away on them.'
+
+'Ah! just so. But now and then we meet with a case where hirelings can
+give no comfort. With the Blagroves, for example, there was nothing to be
+done but just to watch the child's feeble life ebb away. A miracle only
+could have saved her; but all the same it was impossible to go away and
+leave them. They were young people, and had never seen death before.'
+
+I was surprised to hear him speak with so much feeling. And I liked that
+expression 'servant of the poor.' It sounded to me as though he had at
+last grasped my meaning, and that I had nothing more to fear from his
+sarcasm.
+
+I wondered what had wrought such a sudden change in him, for I had only
+worked such a few days. Certainly it would make things far easier if I
+could secure him as an ally; and I began to hope that we should go on
+more smoothly in the future.
+
+Mr. Hamilton was evidently a man whom it would take long to know. His was
+by no means a character easy to read. One would be sure to be startled by
+new developments and curious contradictions. I had known him only for ten
+days; but then we had met constantly in that short time. I had seen him
+hard in manner and soft in speech, cool, critical, and disparaging, at
+one moment satirical and provoking, the next full of thoughtfulness and
+readiness to help. No wonder I found it difficult to comprehend him.
+
+When we had finished discussing the Blagroves, Mr. Hamilton turned
+his attention to his other guests, and tried to promote the general
+conversation: this left me at liberty to make my own observations.
+
+Miss Hamilton sat at the top of the table facing her brother, and Uncle
+Max and Mr. Tudor were beside her; but she did not speak to either of
+them unless they addressed her, and her replies seemed to be very brief.
+If I had been less interested in her I might have accused her of want of
+animation, for it is hardly playing the _rôle_ of a hostess to look
+beautiful and be chary of words and smiles.
+
+It was impossible to attribute her silence to absence of mind, for she
+followed with grave attention every word that was spoken; but for some
+inexplicable reason she had withdrawn into herself. Uncle Max left her
+to herself after a time, and began to talk politics with Mr. Hamilton,
+and Mr. Tudor was soon compelled to follow his example.
+
+Poor Mr. Tudor! I rather pitied him, for his other neighbour, Lady Betty,
+had turned suddenly very sulky, and I had my surmises that Miss Darrell
+had said something to affront her; for she made snapping little answers
+when any one spoke to her, and, though they laughed at her, and nobody
+seemed to mind, most likely they thought it prudent to give her time to
+recover herself.
+
+Miss Darrell's radiant good-humour was a strange contrast to her two
+cousins' silence. She threw herself gallantly into the breach, and talked
+fast and well on every topic broached by the gentlemen. She was evidently
+clever and well read, and had dabbled in literature and politics.
+
+Her energy and vivacity were almost fatiguing. She seemed able to keep up
+two or three conversations at once. The lowest whisper did not escape her
+ear; if Mr. Hamilton spoke to me, I saw her watchful eye on us, and she
+joined in at once with a sprightly word or two; the next moment she was
+answering Uncle Max, who had at last hazarded a remark to his silent
+neighbour. Miss Hamilton had no time to reply; her cousin's laugh and
+ready word were before her.
+
+I found the same thing happen when Mr. Tudor addressed me: before he had
+finished his sentence she had challenged the attention of the table.
+
+'Giles,' she said good-humouredly, 'do you know what Mr. Tudor said in
+the drawing-room just now, that it was the bounden duty of the Heathfield
+folk to spoil and make much of Miss Garston?'
+
+Both Mr. Tudor and I looked confused at this audacious speech, but he
+tried to defend himself as well as he could.
+
+'No, no, Miss Darrell, that was not quite what I said; the whole style
+of the sentence is too laboured to belong to me: "bounden duty,"--no, it
+does not sound like me at all.'
+
+'We need not quarrel about terms,' she persisted; 'your meaning was just
+the same. Come, Mr. Tudor, you cannot unsay your own words, that it was
+right for you all to make much of Miss Garston.'
+
+I thought this was spoken in the worst possible taste, and I am sure Mr.
+Hamilton thought so too, for he smiled slightly and said, 'Nonsense,
+Etta! you let your tongue run away with you. I daresay that was not
+Tudor's meaning at all; he is the most matter-of-fact fellow I know, and
+could not coin a compliment to save his life. Besides which, I expect he
+has found out by this time that it would be rather difficult to spoil
+Miss Garston. That cuts both ways, eh!' looking at me rather
+mischievously.
+
+'Oh, if all the gentlemen are in conspiracy to defend Miss Garston, I
+will say no more,' returned Miss Darrell, with a shrug, but she did not
+say it quite pleasantly. 'Gladys dear, I think we had better retire
+before I am quite crushed: Giles's frown has quite flattened me out. Miss
+Garston, if you are ready,' making me a mocking little courtesy; but Miss
+Hamilton waited for me at the door and linked her arm in mine, taking
+possession of me in a graceful way that evidently pleased Max, for he
+looked at us smiling.
+
+'Come into the conservatory, Gladys,' whispered Lady Betty in her
+sister's ear. 'Etta has a cold coming on, and will be afraid of following
+us.'
+
+The conservatory led out of the drawing-room, and was lighted by coloured
+lamps that gave a pretty effect; it was full of choice flowers, and two
+or three cane chairs filled up the centre. It was not so warm as the
+drawing-room, certainly, but it was pleasant to sit there in the dim
+perfumed atmosphere and peep through the open window at the firelight.
+Miss Darrell followed us to the window with a discontented air.
+
+'I hope you are not going to stay there many minutes, Gladys: you will
+certainly give yourself and Miss Garston a bad cold if you do. There is
+something wrong with the warming-apparatus, and Giles says it will be
+some days before it will be properly warmed. I thought I told you so this
+morning.'
+
+'I do not think Miss Garston will take cold, Etta, and it is very
+pleasant here'; but, though Miss Darrell retreated from the window, I
+think we all felt as much constrained as though she had joined us, for
+not a word could escape her ears if she chose to listen.
+
+But this fact did not seem to daunt Lady Betty for long, for she soon
+began chattering volubly to us both.
+
+'I am not so cross now as I was,' she said frankly. 'I am afraid I was
+very rude to Mr. Tudor at dinner; but what could I do when Etta was so
+impertinent? No, she is not there, Gladys; she has gone out of the room,
+looking as cross as possible. But what do you think she said to me?'
+
+'Never mind telling us what she said, dear,' returned Miss Hamilton
+soothingly.
+
+'Oh, but I want to tell Miss Garston: she looks dreadfully curious, and
+I do not like her to think me cross for nothing. I am not like that, am
+I, Gladys? Well, just before we went in to dinner, she begged me in a
+whisper not to talk quite so much to Mr. Tudor as I had done last time.
+Now, what do you want, Leah?' pulling herself up rather abruptly.
+
+'I have only brought you some shawls, Lady Betty, as Miss Darrell says
+the conservatory is so cold. She has told Thornton to mention to his
+master when he takes in the coffee that Miss Gladys is sitting here, and
+she hopes he will forbid it.'
+
+'You can take away the shawls, Leah,' returned Miss Hamilton quietly, but
+there was a scornful look on her pale face as she spoke. 'We are not
+going to remain here, since Miss Darrell is so anxious about our health.
+Shall we come in, Miss Garston? Perhaps it is a trifle chilly here.' And,
+seeing how the wind blew, and that Miss Darrell was determined to have
+her way in the matter, I acquiesced silently; but I was not a bit
+surprised to see Lady Betty stamp her little foot as she followed us.
+
+Miss Darrell was lying back on a velvet lounge, and welcomed us with
+a provoking smile.
+
+'I thought the threat of telling Giles would bring you in, Gladys,' she
+said, laughing. 'What a foolish child you are to be so reckless of your
+health! Every one knows Gladys is delicate,' she went on, turning to me;
+'everything gives her cold. Giles has been obliged to forbid her
+attending evening service this winter: you were terribly rebellious about
+it, were you not, my dear? but of course Giles had his way. No one in
+this house ventures to disobey him.'
+
+Miss Hamilton did not answer: she was standing looking into the fire, and
+her lips were set firmly as though nothing would make her unclose them.
+
+'Oh, do sit down,' continued her cousin pettishly; 'it gives one such an
+uncomfortable feeling when a tall person stands like a statue before
+one.' And as Miss Hamilton quietly seated herself, she went on, 'Don't
+you think religious people are far more self-willed than worldly ones,
+Miss Garston? I daresay you are self-willed yourself. Gladys made as much
+fuss about giving up evening service as though her salvation depended on
+her going twice or three times a day. "What is to prevent you reading the
+service in your own room?" I used to say to her. "It cannot be your duty
+to disobey your brother and make yourself ill."'
+
+'The illness lay in your own imagination, Etta,' observed Miss Hamilton
+coldly. 'Giles would never have found out my chest was delicate if you
+had not told him so.'
+
+Miss Darrell gave her favourite little shrug, and inspected her rings.
+
+'See what thanks I get for my cousinly care,' she said good-humouredly.
+'I suppose, Gladys, you were vexed with me for telling him that you were
+working yourself to death,--that the close air of the schoolroom made
+your head ache, and that so much singing was too much for your strength.'
+
+'If you please, Etta, we will talk about some other subject; my health,
+or want of health, will not interest Miss Garston.' She spoke with
+dignity, and then, turning to me with a winning smile, 'Giles has told me
+about your singing. Will you be good enough to sing something to us? It
+would be a great pleasure: both Lady Betty and I are so fond of music.'
+
+'Miss Garston looks very tired, Gladys; it is almost selfish to ask her,'
+observed Miss Darrell softly; and then I knew that Miss Hamilton's
+request did not please her.
+
+I had vowed to myself that no amount of pressing should induce me to sing
+that evening, but I could not have refused that gentle solicitation. As I
+unbuttoned my gloves and took my place at the grand piano, I determined
+that I would sing anything and everything that Miss Hamilton wished; Miss
+Darrell should not silence me; and with this resolve hot on me I
+commenced the opening bars of 'The Lost Chord,' and before I had finished
+the song Miss Hamilton had crept into the corner beside me, and remained
+there as motionless as though my singing had turned her into stone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+GLADYS
+
+
+I do not know how the majority of people feel when they sing, but with me
+the love of music was almost a passion. I could forget my audience in a
+moment, and would be scarcely aware if the room were empty or crowded.
+
+For example, on this evening I had no idea that the gentlemen had entered
+the room, and the first intimation of the fact was conveyed to me by
+hearing a 'Bravo!' uttered by Mr. Hamilton under his breath.
+
+'But you must not leave off,' he went on, quite earnestly. 'I want you to
+treat us as you treat poor Phoebe Locke, and sing one song after another
+until you are tired.'
+
+I was about to refuse this request very civilly but decidedly, for I
+had no notion of obeying such an arbitrary command, when Miss Hamilton
+touched my arm.
+
+'Oh, do please go on singing as Giles says: it is such a pleasure to hear
+you.' And after this I could no longer refuse.
+
+So I sang one song after another, chiefly from memory, and sometimes I
+could hear a soft clapping of hands, and sometimes there was breathless
+silence, and a curious feeling came over me as I sang. I thought that the
+only person to whom I was singing was Miss Hamilton, and that I was
+pleading with her to tell me the reason of her sadness, and why there was
+such a weary, hopeless look in her eyes, when the world was so young with
+her and the God-given gift of beauty was hers.
+
+I was singing as though she and I were alone in the room, when Max
+suddenly whispered in my ear, 'That will do, Ursula,' and as soon as the
+verse concluded I left off. But before I could rise Miss Darrell was
+beside us.
+
+'Oh, thank you so much, Miss Garston; you are very amiable to sing so
+long. Giles was certainly loud in your praises, but I was hardly prepared
+for such a treat. Why, Gladys dear, have you been crying? What an
+impressionable child you are! Miss Garston has not contrived to draw
+tears from my eyes.'
+
+But, without making any reply, Miss Hamilton quietly left the room. Were
+her eyes wet, I wonder? Was that why Max stopped me? Did he want to
+shield her from her cousin's sharp scrutiny? If so, he failed.
+
+'It is such a pity Gladys is so foolishly sensitive,' she went on,
+addressing Uncle Max: 'natures of this sort are quite unfit for the stern
+duties of life. I am quite uneasy about her sometimes, am I not, Giles?
+Her spirits are so uneven, and she has so little strength. Parochial work
+nearly killed her, Mr. Cunliffe. You said yourself how ill she looked in
+the summer.'
+
+'True; but I never thought the work hurt her,' replied Max, rather
+bluntly. 'I think it was a mistake for Miss Hamilton to give up all her
+duties; occupation is good for every one.'
+
+'That is my opinion,' observed Mr. Hamilton. 'Etta is always making a
+fuss about Gladys's health, but I tell her there is not the least reason
+for alarm; many people not otherwise delicate take cold easily. It is
+true I advised her to give up evening service for a few weeks until she
+got stronger.'
+
+'Indeed!' And here Max looked a little perplexed. 'I thought you told me,
+Miss Darrell, that your cousin found our service too long and wearisome,
+and this was the reason she stayed away.'
+
+'Oh no; you must have misunderstood me,' returned Miss Darrell, flushing
+a little. 'Gladys may have said she liked a shorter sermon in the
+evening, but that was hardly her reason for staying away; at least--'
+
+'Of course not. What nonsense you talk, Etta!' observed Mr. Hamilton
+impatiently. 'You know what a trouble I had to coax Gladys to stay at
+home; she was rather obstinate about it,--as girls are,--but I asked her
+as a special favour to myself to remain.'
+
+Max's face cleared up surprisingly, and as Miss Hamilton at that moment
+re-entered the room, he accosted her almost eagerly.
+
+'Miss Hamilton, we have been talking about you in your absence; your
+brother and I have been agreeing that it is really a great pity that you
+should have given up all your parish duties; it is a little hard on us
+all, is it not, Tudor? Your brother declares occupation will do you good.
+Now, I am sure your cousin will not have the slightest objection to give
+up your old class, and she can take Miss Matthews's, and then I shall
+have two good workers instead of one.'
+
+For an instant Miss Hamilton hesitated; her face relaxed, and she looked
+at Max a little wistfully; but Miss Darrell interposed in her sprightly
+way:
+
+'Do as you like, Gladys dear. Mr. Cunliffe will be too glad of your help,
+I am sure, as he sees how much you wish it. We all think you are fretting
+after your old scholars; home duties are not exciting enough, and even
+Giles notices how dull you are. Oh, you shall have my class with
+pleasure; anything to see you happy, love. Shall we make the exchange
+to-morrow?'
+
+'No, thank you, Etta; I think things had better be as they are.' And
+Miss Hamilton walked away proudly, and spoke to Mr. Tudor; the sudden
+brightness in her face had dimmed, and I was near enough to see that her
+hand trembled.
+
+'There, you see,' observed Miss Darrell complacently. 'I have done my
+best to persuade her in public and private to amuse herself and not give
+way to her feelings of lassitude. "Do a little, but not much," I have
+often said to her; but with Gladys it must be all or none.'
+
+'Ursula, do you know how late it is?' asked Max, coming up to me. He
+looked suddenly very tired, and I saw at once that he wished me to go: so
+I made my adieux as quickly as possible, and in a few minutes we had left
+the house, accompanied by Mr. Tudor.
+
+Uncle Max was very quiet all the way home. I had expected him to be full
+of questions as to how I had enjoyed my evening, but his only remark was
+to ask if I were very tired, and then he left me to Mr. Tudor.
+
+'Well, how do you like the folks up at Gladwyn?' demanded Mr. Tudor.
+'Lady Betty was not in the best of humours to-night, and hardly deigned
+to speak to me; but I am sure you must have admired Miss Hamilton.'
+
+'I like both of them,' was my temperate reply: 'you must not be hard on
+poor little Lady Betty. Miss Darrell had been lecturing her, and that
+made her cross.'
+
+'So I supposed,' was the prompt answer. 'Well, what did you think of the
+Dare-all,--as the vicar calls her sometimes? is she not like a pleasant
+edition of Tupper's _Proverbial Philosophy_,--verbose and full of long
+sentences? How many words did she coin to-night, do you think?'
+
+There was a little scorn in the young man's voice. Miss Darrell was
+evidently not a favourite in the vicarage, yet most people would have
+called her elegant and well-mannered, and, if she had no beauty, she was
+not bad-looking. She was so exceedingly well made up, and her style of
+dress was so suitable to her face, that I was not surprised to hear
+afterwards from Lady Betty that many people thought her cousin Etta
+handsome. Now when Mr. Tudor made this spiteful little speech I felt
+rather pleased, for my dislike to Miss Darrell had increased rather
+than diminished by the evening's experiences; under her smooth speeches
+there lurked an antagonistic spirit; something had prejudiced her against
+me even at our first meeting; I was convinced that she did not like me,
+and would not encourage my visit to Gladwyn. Mr. Tudor and I talked a
+good deal about Lady Betty; he described her as most whimsical and
+sound-hearted, half-child and half-woman, with a touch of the brownie;
+her brother often called her Brownie, or little Nix, to tease her. She
+was very fond of her sister, he went on to say, but there was not much
+companionship between them. Miss Hamilton was very intellectual, and read
+a good deal, and Lady Betty never read anything but novels; they all made
+a pet of her,--even Mr. Hamilton, who was not much given to pets,--but
+she was hardly an influence in the house.
+
+'She has not backbone enough,' he finished, 'and the Dare-all rules them
+all with a rod of iron--"cased in velvet."'
+
+Uncle Max listened to all this in silence, and as they parted with me at
+the gate of the White Cottage he only said 'Good-night, Ursula,' in a
+depressed voice. He was evidently rather cast down about something;
+perhaps Miss Hamilton's decision had disappointed him; she had been
+his favourite worker, and had helped him greatly; he seemed to feel it
+hard that she should withdraw her services so suddenly. How wistfully she
+had looked at him as he pleaded with her! it was the first time I had
+seen her look at him of her own accord, and yet she had denied his
+request,--very firmly and gently.
+
+'I must be friends with her, and then perhaps she will tell me all about
+it some day,' I thought; for I was convinced that there was more than met
+the eye; but it was some time before I could banish these perplexing
+thoughts.
+
+I saw a good deal of Lady Betty during the next week or two. I met her
+frequently on my way to the Lockes', and she would walk with me to the
+gate, and two or three times she made her appearance at the Marshall's';
+'for it's no use calling at the White Cottage of an afternoon,' she would
+say disconsolately, 'for you are never at home, you inhospitable
+creature.'
+
+'Why, do you think I live here, Lady Betty!' I returned, smiling. 'Do you
+know I am becoming a most punctual person? I am always back at the White
+Cottage by five, and sometimes a little earlier, and I shall always be
+pleased if you will come in and have tea with me.'
+
+'I should like it of all things,' replied Lady Betty, with a sigh; 'and I
+will come sometimes, you will see if I don't. But I know Etta will make a
+fuss; she always does if I stay out after dark; and it is dark at four
+now. That is why I pop in here to see you, because Etta is always busy in
+the mornings and never takes any notice of what we do.'
+
+'But surely Miss Darrell will not object to your coming to see me?' I
+asked, somewhat piqued at this.
+
+'Oh dear, no,' returned Lady Betty, jumbling her words as though she
+found my question embarrassing. 'Etta never objects openly to anything we
+do, only she throws stumbling-blocks in our way. I do not know why I have
+got it into my head that she would not like Gladys or me to come here
+without her, but it is there all the same,--the idea, I mean; it was
+something she said the other night to Mrs. Maberley that gave me this
+impression. Mrs. Maberley wanted to call on you, because she said you
+were Mr. Cunliffe's niece, and people ought to take notice of you. And
+Etta said, "Oh dear, yes; and it was a very kind thought on Mrs.
+Maberley's part, and Mr. Cunliffe would think it so. That was why Giles
+had invited you to Gladwyn. But there was no hurry, and you evidently
+were not prepared to enter into society. You had rather strong-minded
+views on this subject, and she was not quite sure whether Giles was wise
+to encourage the intimacy with his sisters."'
+
+'Miss Darrell said this to Mrs. Maberley?'
+
+'Yes. Was it not horrid of Etta? I felt so cross. And Mrs. Maberley is
+such an old dear: only rather old-fashioned in her notions about girls.
+So Etta's speech rather frightened her, I could see. Of course she has
+not called yet? I am almost inclined to tell Giles about it.'
+
+'Indeed, I hope you will do nothing of the kind, Lady Betty. I am sorry
+Miss Darrell does not like me; but I do not see that it matters so very
+much what people think of us.'
+
+'Yes; but when Etta takes a dislike to people she tries to prevent us
+from knowing them: that is the provoking part of it. She is so dreadfully
+jealous, and I expect it was your singing that gave umbrage. Etta is not
+at all accomplished; she never cared much for Gladys to sing, because she
+had such a sweet voice, and it put her in the background. Ah! I know how
+mean it sounds, but it is just the truth about Etta. And if I were to
+drop in for five-o'clock tea, as you say, Leah would be sure to make her
+appearance and say I was wanted at Gladwyn.'
+
+I found Lady Betty's confidential speeches rather embarrassing, and when
+I knew her a little better I took her to task rather seriously for her
+want of reticence. But she only pouted, and said, 'When one looks at you,
+Miss Garston, one cannot help telling you things: they all tumble out
+without one's will. That is what Gladys means when she says you have a
+sympathetic face. I wish you would get her to talk to you.'
+
+As Lady Betty persisted in haunting the Marshalls' cottage, I
+determined to make her useful. So I set her to read to Elspeth, or to
+give sewing-lessons to Peggy, or to amuse the younger children, while
+I was engaged with my patient; and I soon found that she was a most
+helpful little body.
+
+Mr. Hamilton found her sitting in the kitchen one day surrounded by the
+children. She was telling them a story. The baby was sucking her thumb
+contentedly on her lap. Poor Mary was worse that day, and I had begged
+Lady Betty to keep the little ones quiet.
+
+Mr. Hamilton came into the sick-room looking very much pleased. 'I only
+wish you could make Lady Betty a useful member of society, Miss Garston,'
+he said, with one of the rare smiles that always lit up his dark face so
+pleasantly. 'She is a good little thing, but she wants ballast. As a
+rule, young ladies are terribly idle.'
+
+I had called up at Gladwyn a few days after we had dined there, but, to
+my great disappointment, I did not see Miss Hamilton. Miss Darrell was
+alone, so my visit was as brief as possible.
+
+She told me at once that her cousins had gone over to Brighton for an
+afternoon's shopping, and that Mr. Hamilton had run up to London for a
+few hours. And then she commenced plying me with questions in a ladylike
+way about my work and my past life, but in such a skilful manner that it
+was almost impossible to avoid answering. She was so sure that I must be
+dull, living all alone. Oh, of course I was too good and unselfish to say
+so, but all the same I must be miserably dull. What could have put such a
+singular idea in my head, she wondered. When young ladies did this sort
+of thing there was generally some painful reason: they were unhappy at
+home, or they had had some disastrous love-affair. Of course--laughing
+a little affectedly--she had no intention of hinting at such a reason in
+my case; any one could see at a glance that I was not that sort of
+person; I was far too sensible and matter-of-fact: gentlemen would be
+quite afraid of me, I was so strong-minded. But all the same she pleaded
+guilty to a feeling of natural curiosity why such an idea had come into
+my head.
+
+When I had warded off this successfully,--for I declined to enlighten
+Miss Darrell on this subject,--she flew off at a tangent to Aunt
+Philippa.
+
+'It was such a pity when relations did not entirely harmonise. An aunt
+could never replace a mother. Ah! she knew that too well: and when there
+were daughters--and she had heard from Mr. Cunliffe that my cousin Sara
+was excessively pretty and charming--no doubt there would be natural
+misunderstandings and jealousies. In spite of all my goodness, I was only
+human. Of course she understood perfectly how it all happened, and she
+felt very sorry for me.'
+
+I disclaimed the notion of any family disagreement with some warmth, but
+I do not think she believed me. She had evidently got it into her head
+that I was a strong-minded young woman with an uncertain temper, who
+could not live peaceably at home. No doubt she had hinted this to Mrs.
+Maberley and other ladies. She would make this the excuse for
+discouraging any degree of intimacy with her cousins. I should not be
+asked very often to Gladwyn if it depended on Miss Darrell; but Mr.
+Hamilton had a will of his own, and if he chose me as a companion for
+his sisters, Miss Darrell would find it difficult to exclude me.
+
+One could see at a glance that Mr. Hamilton was master in his own house.
+Miss Darrell seemed perfectly submissive to him. There was something
+almost obsequious in her manner to him. She watched his looks anxiously,
+and, though she coaxed and flattered him, she did not seem quite certain
+how he would take her speeches.
+
+'We are a strange household; don't you think so, Miss Garston?' she
+observed presently. 'Giles is our lord and master. None of us poor women
+dare to contradict him. When dear mamma was alive, she had a great deal
+of influence over him. He was very fond of her. Her death made a great
+difference in the house.'
+
+'It must have been a great trouble to you, Miss Darrell.'
+
+'Yes, indeed. I was almost broken-hearted. She had been the dearest and
+most indulgent of mothers; but Giles was very good to me. Gladys and Lady
+Betty were very devoted to her; perhaps you have heard them speak of Aunt
+Margaret. Ah! I forgot, you have only seen Gladys twice.' And here she
+looked at me rather sharply, but I nodded acquiescence. 'Gladys was
+always a favourite with her.'
+
+'Miss Hamilton must be a general favourite,' I replied, a little
+unguardedly.
+
+'Ah! I suppose you think her handsome,' in rather a forced manner: 'many
+people say she is too pale, and rather too statuesque, for their taste.'
+
+'In my opinion she is very beautiful,' I replied quickly, 'I told Uncle
+Max the other day that I thought her face almost perfect.'
+
+'And what did he say?' she asked, rather eagerly. 'Did he agree with
+you?' But I was obliged to confess that I had forgotten his answer.
+
+'I know Mr. Cunliffe thinks Gladys cold,' she went on. 'He is too
+kind-hearted to say so; but I know he feels hurt at her desertion of her
+post. It was a strange whim on her part to give up all her parish work.
+I am afraid it was a little bit of temper. Gladys has a temper, though
+you may not think so. She is very firm, and does not brook the least
+interference on my part. Poor dear! if it were not wrong, I should say
+she was a little jealous of my influence with Giles, because he likes
+me to do things for him; but how am I to help doing what he asks me,
+when I owe the very bread I eat to his kindness?'
+
+Miss Darrell was poor and dependent then. This piece of news surprised
+me. I thought of the glittering rings and silver-mounted dressing-case
+and all the luxurious appliances in her toilet, and wondered if Mr.
+Hamilton had paid for them.
+
+Miss Darrell seemed to read my thoughts in a most wonderful way.
+
+'Poor mother left very little except personal jewellery. Yes, I owe
+everything to Giles's generosity. He is good enough to say that I earn my
+allowance,--and indeed I am never idle; but,' interrupting herself, 'I do
+not want to talk of myself; I am a very insignificant person,--just
+Giles's housekeeper; Gladys is mistress of the house. I only wanted you
+to explain to Mr. Cunliffe that I am not to blame for Gladys's strange
+whim. Let me explain a little. She was looking very ill and overworked,
+and I begged Giles to lecture her. I told him that there was no need for
+Gladys to do quite so much; in fact, she was putting herself a little too
+forward in the parish, considering how young she was, and the vicar an
+unmarried man. So Giles and I gave her a word. I am sure he spoke most
+gently, and I was very careful indeed in only giving her a hint that
+people, and even Mr. Cunliffe, might misconstrue such devotion. I never
+saw Gladys in such a passion; and the next day she had flung everything
+up. She told the vicar that the schoolroom made her head ache, and that
+her throat was delicate, and she could not sing. Poor Mr. Cunliffe was
+in such despair that I was obliged to offer my services. It is far too
+much for me; but what can I do? the parish must not suffer for Gladys's
+wilfulness. Now if you could only explain things a little to Mr.
+Cunliffe; he looked so hurt the other night when Gladys refused to take
+her old class. No wonder he misses her, for she used to teach the
+children splendidly; but if he knew it was only a little temper on
+Gladys's part he would look over it and be friends with her again. But
+you must have noticed yourself, Miss Garston, how little he had to say
+to her.'
+
+I had found it impossible to check Miss Darrell's loquacity or to edge in
+a single word; but as soon as her breath failed I rose to take my leave,
+and she did not seek to detain me.
+
+'You will explain this to Mr. Cunliffe, for Gladys's sake,' she said,
+holding my hand. 'I do want him to think well of her, and I can see his
+good opinion is shaken.'
+
+But to this I made no audible reply; but, as I shook off the dust of
+Gladwyn, I told myself that Uncle Max should not hear Miss Darrell's
+version from my lips. She wished to make me a tool in her hands; but her
+breach of confidence had a very different result from what she expected.
+Miss Darrell's words had cleared up a perplexity in my mind: I could read
+between the lines, and I fully exonerated Miss Hamilton.
+
+The following afternoon I had a most unexpected pleasure. When I came
+back to the cottage after my day's work Mrs. Barton met me at the door
+and told me that Miss Hamilton was in the parlour.
+
+I had thought she meant Lady Betty; but, to my surprise, I found Miss
+Hamilton seated by the fire. A pleased smile came to her face as I
+greeted her most warmly. She must have seen how glad I was; but she
+shrank back rather nervously when I begged her to take off her furred
+mantle and stay to tea.
+
+She was not sure that she could remain. Lady Betty was alone, as Giles
+and Etta were dining at the Maberleys'. She had been asked, and had
+refused; but Etta had taken in her work, as Mrs. Maberley had wanted them
+to go early. Perhaps she had better not stay, as it would not be kind to
+Lady Betty. But I soon overruled this objection. I told Miss Hamilton
+that I saw Lady Betty frequently, but that she herself had never called
+since her first visit, and that now I could not let her go.
+
+I think she wanted me to press her; she was arguing against her own
+wishes, it was easy to see that. By and by she asked me in a low voice if
+I were sure to be alone, or if I expected any visitors; and when I had
+assured her decidedly that no one but Uncle Max ever came to see me, and
+that I knew he was engaged this evening, her last scruple seemed to
+vanish, and she settled herself quite comfortably for a chat. We talked
+for a little while on indifferent subjects. She told me about the
+neighbourhood and the people who lived in the large houses by the church,
+and about her brother's work in the parish, and how if rich people sent
+for him he always kept them waiting while he went to the poor ones.
+
+'Giles calls himself the poor people's doctor: he attends them for
+nothing. He cannot always refuse rich people if they will have him, but
+he generally sends them to Dr. Ramsbotham. You see, he never takes money
+for his services, and as people know this, they are ashamed to send for
+him; and yet they want him because he is so clever. Giles is so fond of
+his profession; he is always regretting that he had a fortune left him,
+for he says it would have been far pleasanter to make one. Giles never
+did care for money; he is ready to fling it away to any one who asks
+him.'
+
+Miss Hamilton kept up this desultory talk all tea-time. She spoke with
+great animation about her brother, and I could hardly believe it was the
+same girl who had sat so silently at the head of the table that evening
+at Gladwyn. The sad abstracted look had left her face. It seemed as
+though for a little while she was determined to forget her troubles.
+
+When Mrs. Barton had taken away the tea-tray, she asked me, with the same
+wistful look in her eyes, to sing to her if I were not tired, and I
+complied at once.
+
+I sang for nearly half an hour, and then I returned to the fireside. I
+saw that Miss Hamilton put up her hand to shield her face from the light;
+but I took no notice, and after a little while she began to talk.
+
+'I never heard any singing like yours, Miss Garston; it is a great gift.
+There is something different in your voice from any one else's: it seems
+to touch one's heart.'
+
+'If my singing always makes you sad, Miss Hamilton, it is a very dubious
+gift.'
+
+'Ah, but it is a pleasant sadness,' she replied quickly. 'I feel as
+though some kind friend were sympathising with me when you sing: it tells
+me too that, like myself, you have known trouble.'
+
+I sighed as I looked at Charlie's picture. Her eyes followed my glance,
+and I saw again that tremulous motion of her hands.
+
+'Yes, I know,' she said hurriedly; but her beautiful eyes were full of
+tears. 'I have always been so sorry for you. You must feel so lonely
+without him.'
+
+The intense sympathy with which she said these few words seemed to break
+down my reserve. In a moment I had forgotten that we were strangers, as I
+told her about my love for Charlie, and the dear old life at the rectory.
+
+It was impossible to doubt the interest with which she listened to me. If
+I paused for an instant, she begged me very gently to tell her more about
+myself; she was so sorry for me; but it did her good to hear me.
+
+When I spoke of the life at Hyde Park Gate, and told her how little I was
+fitted for that sort of existence, she put down her shielding hand, and
+looked at me with strange wistfulness.
+
+'No, you are too real, too much in earnest, to be satisfied with that
+sort of life. Mr. Cunliffe used to tell us so. And I seemed to understand
+it all before I saw you. I always felt as though I knew you, even before
+we met. I hope,' hesitating a little, 'that we shall see a great deal of
+you. I know Giles wishes it.'
+
+'You cannot come here too often, Miss Hamilton. It will always be such a
+pleasure to me to see you.'
+
+'Oh, I did not mean that,' she returned nervously. 'I may not be able
+to come here,--that is, not alone; there are reasons, and you must not
+expect me; but I hope you will come to Gladwyn whenever you have an hour
+to spare. Giles said so the other day. I think he meant you to be friends
+with us. You must not mind,' getting still more nervous, 'if Etta is a
+little odd sometimes. Her moods vary, and she does not always make people
+feel as though they were welcome; but it is only her manner, so you must
+not mind it.'
+
+'Oh no; I shall hope to come and see you and Lady Betty some time.'
+
+'And,' she went on hurriedly, 'if there is anything that I can do to help
+you, I hope you will tell me so. Perhaps I cannot visit the people; but
+there are other things,--needlework, or a little money. Oh, I have so
+much spare time, and it will be such a pleasure.'
+
+'Oh yes; you shall help me,' I returned cheerfully, for she was looking
+so extremely nervous that I wanted to reassure her; but we were prevented
+from saying any more on this subject, for just then we heard the click of
+the little gate, and the next moment Uncle Max walked into the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+'WHY NOT TRUST ME, MAX?'
+
+
+Max looked very discomposed when he saw Miss Hamilton; he shook hands
+with her gravely, and sat down without saying a word. I wondered if it
+were my fancy, or if Miss Hamilton had really grown perceptibly paler
+since his entrance.
+
+'What does this mean, Uncle Max?' I asked gaily, for this sort of
+oppressive silence did not suit me at all. 'I understood that you and
+Mr. Tudor were dining at the Glynns' to-night.'
+
+'Lawrence has gone without me,' he replied. 'I had a headache, and so I
+sent an excuse; but, as it got better, I thought I would come up and see
+how you were getting on.'
+
+'A headache, Uncle Max!' looking at him rather anxiously, for I had never
+heard him complain of any ailment before. I had been dissatisfied with
+his appearance ever since I had come to Heathfield; he had looked worn
+and thin for some time, but to-night he looked wretched.
+
+'Oh, it is nothing,' he returned quickly. 'Miss Hamilton, I hardly
+expected to find you here with Ursula. I thought you were all going
+to the Maberleys'.'
+
+'Etta and Giles have gone,' she replied quietly. 'I ought not to be here,
+as Lady Betty is alone at Gladwyn; but Miss Garston persuaded me to
+remain; but it is getting late. I must be going,' rising as she spoke.
+
+'There is not the slightest need for you to hurry,' observed Max; 'it is
+not so very late, and I will walk up with you to Gladwyn.'
+
+'Indeed, I hope you will do nothing of the kind,' she said hurriedly.
+'Miss Garston, will you please tell him that there is no need, no need
+at all? indeed, I would much rather not.'
+
+Miss Hamilton had lost all her repose of manner; she looked as nervous
+and shy as any school-girl when Max announced his intention of escorting
+her; and yet how could any gentleman have allowed her to go down those
+dark roads alone?
+
+Perhaps Max thought she was unreasonable, for there was a touch of satire
+in his voice as he answered her:
+
+'I certainly owe it to my conscience to see you safe home. What would
+Hamilton say if I allowed you to go alone?--Ursula,' turning to me with
+an odd look, 'it is a fine starlight night; suppose you put on your
+hat,--a run will do you good,--and relieve Miss Hamilton's mind.'
+
+'Yes, do come,' observed Miss Hamilton, in a relieved voice; but, as she
+spoke, her lovely eyes seemed appealing to him, and begging him not to be
+angry with her; but he frowned slightly, and turned aside and took up a
+book. How was it those two contrived to misunderstand each other so
+often? Max looked even more hurt than he had done at Gladwyn.
+
+I was not surprised to find that when I left the room Miss Hamilton
+followed me, but I was hardly prepared to hear her say in a troubled
+voice,--
+
+'Oh, how unfortunate I am! I would not have had this happen for worlds.
+Etta will--oh, what am I saying?--I am afraid Mr. Cunliffe is offended
+with me because I did not wish him to go home with me--but,' a little
+proudly and resentfully, 'he is too old a friend to misunderstand me, so
+he need not have said that.'
+
+'I think Uncle Max is not well to-night,' I replied soothingly. 'I never
+heard him speak in that tone before; he is always so careful not to hurt
+people's feelings.'
+
+'Yes, I know,' stifling a sigh; 'it is more my fault than his; he is
+looking wretchedly ill; and--and I think he is a little offended with me
+about other things; it is impossible to explain, and so he misjudges me.'
+
+'Why do you not try to make things a little clearer?' I asked. 'Could you
+not say a word to him as we walk home? Uncle Max is so good that I cannot
+bear him to be vexed about anything, and I know he is disappointed that
+you will not work in the school.'
+
+'Yes, I know; but you do not understand,' she returned gently. 'I should
+like to speak to him, if I dared, but I think my courage will fail; it is
+not so easy as you think.' And then as we went downstairs she took my
+arm, and I could feel that her hand was very cold. 'I wish he had not
+asked you to come: it shows he is hurt with me; but all the same I should
+have asked you myself.'
+
+Uncle Max took up his felt hat directly he saw us, and followed us
+silently into the entry; he did not speak as we went down the little
+garden together; and as we turned into the road leading to the vicarage
+it was Miss Hamilton who spoke first. She was still holding my arm,
+perhaps that gave her courage, and she looked across at Max, who was
+walking on my other side.
+
+'Mr. Cunliffe, I am so sorry you were hurt with me the other night,
+when Etta spoke about the schools. I am not giving up work for my own
+pleasure; I loved it far too much; but there are reasons,'
+
+I heard Max give a quick, impatient sigh in the darkness.
+
+'So you always say, Miss Hamilton; you remember we have talked of this
+before. I have thought it my duty more than once to remonstrate with you
+about giving up your work, but one seems to talk in the dark; somehow you
+have never given me any very definite reasons,--headaches,--well, as
+though I did not know you well enough to be sure you are the last person
+to think of ailments.'
+
+'Yes, but one's friends are over-careful; but still you are right; it is
+not only that. Mr. Cunliffe, I wish you would believe that I have good
+and sufficient reasons for what I do, even if I cannot explain them. It
+makes one unhappy to be misunderstood by one's clergyman, and,'
+hesitating a moment, 'and one's friends,'
+
+'Friends are not left so completely in the dark,' was the pointed answer.
+'It is no use, Miss Hamilton. I find it impossible to understand you. I
+have no right to be hurt. No, of course not, no right at all,'--and here
+Max laughed unsteadily,--'but still, as a clergyman, I thought it could
+not be wrong to remonstrate when my best worker deserted her post.'
+
+There was no response to this, only Miss Hamilton's hand lay a little
+heavily on my arm, as though she were tired. I though it best to be
+silent. No word of mine was needed. I could tell from Max's voice and
+manner how bitterly he was hurt.
+
+But when he next spoke it was on a different subject.
+
+'I must beg your pardon, Miss Hamilton, for having wronged you in my
+thoughts about something else. I find your brother has forbidden you to
+attend evening service for the present. And no doubt he is right; but
+your cousin gave me to understand that you stayed away for a very
+different reason.'
+
+'What did Etta tell you?' she asked quickly. But before he could answer
+a dark figure seemed to emerge rather suddenly from the roadside. Miss
+Hamilton dropped my arm at once. 'Is that you, Leah? Have my brother and
+Miss Darrell returned from Maplehurst?' And I detected an anxious note
+in her voice.
+
+'Yes, ma'am,' returned Leah civilly; 'and Miss Darrell seemed anxious at
+your being out so late, because you would take cold, and master begged
+you would wrap up and walk very fast.'
+
+'Oh, I shall take no harm,' returned Miss Hamilton impatiently.
+'Good-night, Miss Garston, and thank you for a very happy evening.
+Good-night, Mr. Cunliffe, and thank you, too. There is no need to come
+any farther: Leah will take care of me.' And she waved her hand and moved
+away in the darkness.
+
+'What a bugbear that woman is!' I observed, rather irritably, as we
+retraced our steps in the direction of the Man and Plough, the little inn
+that stood at the junction of the four roads. Everything looked dark and
+eerie in the faint starlight. Our footsteps seemed to strike sharply
+against the hard, white road; there was a suspicion of frost in the air.
+When Max spoke, which was not for some minutes, he merely remarked that
+we should have a cold Christmas, and then he asked me if I would dine
+with him at the vicarage on Christmas Day. He and Mr. Tudor would be
+alone.
+
+'Christmas will be here in less than a fortnight, Ursula,' he went on,
+rather absently, but I knew he was not thinking of what he was saying.
+And when we reached the White Cottage he followed me into the parlour,
+sat down before the fire, and stretched out his hands to the blaze, as
+though he were very cold.
+
+I stood and watched him for a moment, and then I could bear it no longer.
+
+'Oh, Max!' I exclaimed, 'I wish you would tell me what makes you look so
+wretchedly ill to-night. Even Miss Hamilton noticed it. I am sure there
+is something the matter.'
+
+'Nonsense, child! What should be the matter?' But Max turned his face
+away as he spoke. 'I told you that I had a headache; but that is nothing
+to make a fuss about. Mrs. Drabble shall make me a good strong cup of tea
+when I get home.'
+
+Max's manner was just a trifle testy, but I was not going to be repelled
+after this fashion. On the contrary, I put my hand on his shoulder and
+obliged him to look at me.
+
+'It is not only a headache. You are unhappy about something; as though
+I do not see that. Max, you know we have always been like brother and
+sister, and I want you to tell me what has grieved you.'
+
+That touched him, as I knew it would, for he had dearly loved his sister.
+
+'I wish your mother were here now,' he returned, in a moved voice. 'I
+wish poor Emmie were here: there were not many women like her. One could
+have trusted her with anything.'
+
+'I think I am to be trusted too, Max.'
+
+'Yes, yes, you are like her, Ursula. You have got just the same quiet
+way. Your voice always reminds me of hers. She was a dear, good sister
+to me, more like a mother than a sister. I think if she had lived she
+would have been a great comfort to me now, Ursula.'
+
+'I know I am not so good as my mother, but I should like to be a comfort
+to you in her place.'
+
+I suppose Max's ear detected the suppressed pain in my voice, for as he
+looked at me his manner changed; the old affectionate smile came to his
+lips, and he put his hands lightly on me, as though to keep me near him.
+'You have been a comfort to me, my dear. You and I have always understood
+each other. I think you are as good as gold, Ursula.'
+
+'Then why not trust me, Max? Why not tell me what makes you so unhappy?'
+
+'Little she-bear,' he said, still smiling, 'you must not begin to growl
+at me after this fashion, because I am somewhat hipped and want a change.
+There is no need to be anxious about me. A man in my position must have
+his own and other people's difficulties to bear. No, no, my dear, you
+have a wise head, but you are too young to take my burdens on your
+shoulders. What should you know about an old bachelor's worries?'
+
+'An old bachelor,' I returned indignantly, 'when you know you are young
+and handsome, Max! How can you talk such nonsense?'
+
+I could see he was amused at this.
+
+'You must not expect me to believe that; a man is no judge of his own
+looks: but I never thought much about such things myself. I detest the
+notion of a handsome parson. There, we will dismiss the subject of your
+humble servant. I want to ask you a favour, Ursula.' And then I knew that
+all my coaxing had been in vain, and that he did not mean to tell me what
+troubled him and made him look so pinched and worn.
+
+But, in spite of this preface, he kept me waiting for a long time, while
+he sat silently looking into the fire and stroking his brown beard.
+
+'Ursula,' he began at last, still gazing into the red cavern of coals, as
+though he saw visions there, 'I want you and Miss Hamilton to be great
+friends. I am sure that she has taken to you, and she likes few people,
+and it will be very good for her to be with you.'
+
+Max's speech took me somewhat by surprise. I had not expected him to
+mention Miss Hamilton's name.
+
+'She is not happy,' he went on, 'and she is more lonely than other
+girls of her age. Miss Elizabeth is a nice bright little thing, but,
+as Lawrence says, she wants ballast; she is a child compared to
+Gladys,--Miss Hamilton, I mean.' And here Max stammered a little
+nervously.
+
+'No, you are right, she is not happy,' I returned quietly; 'she gives me
+the impression that she has known some great trouble.'
+
+'Every one has his troubles,' he replied evasively. 'Most people indulge
+in the luxury of a private skeleton. Now I have often thought that Miss
+Hamilton and her sister would have been far happier without Miss Darrell;
+she has rather a peculiar temper, and I have often fancied that she has
+misrepresented things. It is always difficult to understand women, even
+the best of them,' with a smothered sigh, 'but I confess Miss Darrell is
+rather a problem to me.'
+
+'I am not surprised to hear you say that,' I returned quickly: 'you are
+just the sort of man, Max, to be hoodwinked by any designing person. I am
+less charitable than you, and women are sharper in these matters. I have
+already found out that Miss Darrell makes Miss Hamilton miserable.'
+
+'Gently, gently, Ursula,' in quite a shocked voice; 'there is no need to
+put things quite so strongly: you are rather hasty, my dear. Miss Darrell
+may be a little too managing, and perhaps jealous and exacting; but I
+think she is very fond of her cousins.'
+
+'Indeed!' rather drily, for I did not agree with Max in the least; he was
+always ready to believe the best of every one.
+
+'Hamilton, too, is really devoted to his sisters, but they do not
+understand him. I believe Miss Hamilton is very proud of her brother, but
+she does not confide in him. He has often told me, in quite a pained way,
+how reserved they are with him. I believe Miss Darrell is far more his
+_confidante_ than his sisters.'
+
+'No doubt,' I returned, quite convinced in my own mind that this was the
+case.
+
+'So you must see yourself how much Miss Hamilton needs a friend,' he went
+on hurriedly. 'I want you to be very good to her, Ursula; perhaps you may
+think it a little strange if I say that I think it will be as much your
+duty to befriend Miss Hamilton as to minister to Phoebe Locke.'
+
+'I wonder who is speaking strongly now, Max.'
+
+'But if it be the truth,' he pleaded, a little anxiously.
+
+'You need not fear,' was my answer: 'if Miss Hamilton requires my
+friendship, I am very willing to bestow it. I will be as good to her as
+I know how to be, Max. Is it likely I should refuse the first favour you
+have ever asked me?' And, as he thanked me rather gravely, I felt that he
+was very much in earnest about this. He went away after this, but I think
+I had succeeded in cheering him, for he looked more like himself as he
+bade me good-night; but after he had gone I sat for a long time,
+reflecting over our talk.
+
+I felt perplexed and a little saddened by what had passed. Max had not
+denied that he was unhappy, but he had refused to confide in me. Was his
+unhappiness connected in any way with Miss Hamilton? This question
+baffled me; it was impossible for me to answer it.
+
+I could not understand his manner to her. He was perfectly kind and
+gentle to her, as he was to all women, but he was also reserved and
+distant; in spite of their long acquaintance, for he had visited at
+Gladwyn for years, there was no familiarity between them. Miss Hamilton,
+on her part, seemed to avoid him, and yet I was sure she both respected
+and liked him. There was some strange barrier between them that hindered
+all free communication. Max was certainly not like himself when Miss
+Hamilton was present; and on her side she seemed to freeze and become
+unapproachable the moment he appeared. But this was not the only thing
+that perplexed me. The whole atmosphere of Gladwyn was oppressive. I had
+a subtile feeling of discomfort whenever Miss Darrell was in the room;
+her voice seemed to have a curious magnetic effect on one; its tuneless
+vibrations seemed to irritate me; if she spoke loudly, her voice was
+rather shrill and unpleasant. She knew this, and carefully modulated it.
+I used to wonder over its smoothness and fluency.
+
+And there was another thing that struck me. Mr. Hamilton seemed fond of
+his step-sisters, but he treated them with reserve; the frank jokes that
+pass between brothers and sisters, the pleasant raillery, the blunt
+speeches, the interchange of confidential looks, were missing in the
+family circle at Gladwyn. Mr. Hamilton behaved with old-fashioned
+courtesy to his sisters; he was watchful over their comfort, but he was
+certainly a little stiff and constrained in his manner to them: he seemed
+to unbend more freely to his cousin than to them; he had scolded her
+good-humouredly once or twice, after quite a brotherly fashion, and she
+had taken his rebukes in a way that showed they understood each other.
+I grew tired at last of trying to adjust my ideas on the subject of the
+Hamilton family. I was rather provoked to find how they had begun to
+absorb my interest. 'Never mind, I have promised Uncle Max to be good to
+her,' was my last waking thought that night, 'and I am determined to keep
+my word.' And I fell asleep, and dreamt that I was trying to save Miss
+Hamilton from drowning, and that all the time Miss Darrell was standing
+on the shore, laughing and pelting us with stones, and when a larger one
+than usual struck me, I awoke.
+
+I wondered if it were accident or design that brought Miss Darrell across
+my path the next day. I had just left the Lockes' cottage, feeling
+somewhat tired and depressed: Phoebe had been in one of her contrary
+moods, and had given me a good deal of trouble, but the evil spirit had
+been quieted at last, and I had taken my leave after reprimanding her
+severely for her rudeness. I was just closing the garden gate, when Miss
+Darrell came up to me in the dusk, holding out her hand with her tingling
+little laugh.
+
+'How odd that we should have met just here! I hardly knew you, Miss
+Garston, in that long cloak, you looked so like a Sister of Charity.
+I think you are very wise to adopt a uniform.'
+
+'Thank you, but I have hardly adopted one,' I returned, folding the fur
+edges of my cloak closer to me, for it was a bitterly cold evening. 'Are
+you going home, Miss Darrell? because you have passed the turning that
+leads to Gladwyn.'
+
+'Oh, I do not mind a longer round,' was the careless answer. 'I am very
+hardy, and a walk never hurts me. If it were Gladys, now--by the bye,
+have you seen my cousin Giles to-day?'
+
+'No,' I returned, wondering a little at her question.
+
+'You are lucky to have escaped him,' with another laugh. 'Dear, dear,
+how angry Giles was last night, to be sure, when we came home and found
+Gladys out! he was far too angry to say much to her; he only asked her if
+she had taken leave of her senses, and that some people--I do not know
+whom he meant--ought to be ashamed of themselves.'
+
+'Indeed!' somewhat sarcastically, for I confess this speech made me feel
+rather cross. I wondered if Mr. Hamilton could really have said it. I
+determined that I would ask him on the first opportunity.
+
+'It was a very injudicious proceeding,' went on Miss Darrell smoothly.
+'Gladys was to blame, of course; but still, if you remember, I told you
+how delicate she was, and how we dreaded night air for her: young people
+are so careless of their health, but of course, as Giles said, we thought
+she would be safe with you. You see, Giles looks upon you in the
+character of nurse, Miss Garston, and forgets you are young too. "Depend
+upon it, they have forgotten the time," I said to him: "when two girls
+are chattering their secrets to each other, they are not likely to
+remember anything so sublunary." You should have seen Giles's expression
+of lordly disgust when I said that.'
+
+'I should rather have heard Mr. Hamilton's answer.'
+
+'Don't be too sure of that,' returned Miss Darrell, in a mocking voice
+that somehow recalled my dream. 'I am afraid it would not please you.
+Giles is no flatterer. He said he thought you would have been far too
+sensible for that sort of nonsense, but that one never knew, and that it
+was not only young and pretty girls like Gladys who could be romantic,
+and for all your staid looks you were not Methuselah: rather a dubious
+speech, Miss Garston.'
+
+'True!' far too dubious to be entirely palatable to my feminine pride;
+but I was careful not to hint this to Miss Darrell, and she went on in
+the same light jesting way.
+
+'It is terribly hard to satisfy Giles, he is so critical; he sets
+impossible standards for people, and then sneers if they do not reach
+them. He had conceived rather a high opinion of you, Miss Garston. He
+told me one day that he would be glad for you to be intimate with his
+sisters, as they would only learn good from you, and that he hoped that
+I would encourage your visits. I trust that he has not changed his
+opinion since then; but Giles is so odd when people disappoint him. I
+said last night that we would invite you for to-morrow, and then you
+and Gladys could finish your talk; but he was as cross as possible, and
+begged that I would invite no one for Thursday, as he was very busy, and
+Gladys must find another opportunity for her talk. There, how I am
+chattering on!--and perhaps I ought not to have said all that; but I
+thought you would wonder at our want of neighbourliness, and of course we
+cannot expect you to understand Giles's odd temper: it is a great pity
+he has got this idea in his head.'
+
+'What idea, Miss Darrell?'
+
+'Dear, dear, how sharp you are! how you take me up! Of course it is only
+Giles's ill temper: he cannot really think you wanting in ballast.'
+
+'Oh, I understand now. Please go on.'
+
+'But I have no more to say,' rather bewildered by my abruptness. 'Of
+course we shall see you soon, when all this has blown over. If you like,
+I will tell Giles I have seen you.'
+
+'Please tell Mr. Hamilton nothing. I will speak to him myself.
+Good-night, Miss Darrell; I am rather cold and tired after my day's work.
+I do not in the least expect that Miss Hamilton has taken any harm.' And
+I made my escape. I do not know what Miss Darrell thought of me, but she
+walked on rather thoughtfully; as for me, I felt tingling all over with
+irritation. If Mr. Hamilton had dared to imply these things of me, I
+should hardly be able to keep my promise to Uncle Max, for I would
+certainly decline to visit at Gladwyn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+MISS HAMILTON'S LITTLE SCHOLAR
+
+
+Miss Darrell's innuendoes were not to be borne with any degree of
+patience. Mr. Hamilton's opinion might be nothing to me,--how often I
+repeated that!--but all the same I owed it to my dignity to seek an
+explanation with him.
+
+The opportunity came the very next day.
+
+He called to speak to me about a new patient, a little cripple boy who
+had broken his arm; the father was a labourer, and there were ten
+children, and the mother took in washing. 'Poor Robin has not much chance
+of good nursing,' he went on; 'Mrs. Bell is not a bad mother, as mothers
+go, but she is overworked and overburdened; she has a good bit of
+difficulty in keeping her husband out of the alehouse. Good heavens! what
+lives these women lead! it is to be hoped that it will be made up to them
+in another world: no washing-tubs and ale-houses there, no bruised bodies
+and souls, eh, Miss Garston?'
+
+Mr. Hamilton was talking in his usual fashion; he had taken the arm-chair
+I had offered him, and seemed in no hurry to leave it, although his
+dinner-hour was approaching. When he had given me full directions about
+Robin, and I had promised to go to him directly after my breakfast the
+next morning, I said to him in quite a careless manner that I hoped Miss
+Hamilton was well and had sustained no ill effects from her visit to me.
+
+'Oh no: she is better than usual. I think you roused her and did her
+good. Gladys mopes too much at home. All the same,' in a tolerant tone,
+'you ought not to have kept her so late; as Etta very wisely remarked, it
+was no good for her to stay in on Sundays and remain out a couple of
+hours later another night; you see, Gladys takes cold so easily.'
+
+'I hear you were very much inclined to blame the village nurse, Mr.
+Hamilton.'
+
+'Who?--I?' looking at me in a little surprise. 'I do not remember that I
+said anything very dreadful. Etta was in a fuss, as usual; you managing
+women like to make a fuss sometimes: she sent off Leah, and wanted me to
+lecture Gladys for her imprudence; but I was not inclined to be bothered,
+and said it was Gladys's affair if she chose to make herself ill, but all
+the same she ought to be ashamed of such skittishness at her age. I don't
+believe Gladys knew I was joking; that is the worst of her, she never
+sees a joke; Etta does, though, for she burst out laughing when my lady
+walked off to bed in rather a dignified manner. I hope you are not easily
+offended too, Miss Garston?'
+
+'Oh dear, no,' I returned coolly, 'only I should be sorry if you had in
+any way changed your opinion of my steadiness. Miss Darrell hinted that
+you were vexed with me for keeping your sister, and thought that I was
+to blame.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton looked so bewildered at this that I exonerated him from that
+moment.
+
+'What nonsense has that girl been talking?' he said, rather irritated.
+'I always tell her that tongue of hers will lead her into trouble; I know
+she talked plenty of rubbish that night. When she said it was a pity that
+you and Gladys were always chattering secrets, I told her that though you
+were not a Methuselah, you were hardly the sort of person to indulge in
+that sort of sentimentality, that I could answer for your good sense in
+that, and that Etta need not be so hard on a pretty young girl like
+Gladys. That was not accusing you of want of steadiness.'
+
+'No, thank you. I am so glad that I know what you really said.'
+
+'Indeed, I was not aware that my good or bad opinion mattered to Miss
+Garston: you have certainly never given me the impression that you mind
+very much what I say or think.'
+
+Was Mr. Hamilton cross? He looked quite moody all at once; his face wore
+that hard disagreeable look that I so disliked. He had been so pleasant
+in his manners ever since that evening at Gladwyn that I was rather sorry
+that this agreeable state of things should be disturbed. He was evidently
+not to blame for Miss Darrell's misrepresentations, so I hastened with
+much policy to throw oil on the troubled waters.
+
+'I do not know why you should say that. It ought not to be a matter of
+indifference what people think of us.'
+
+'Ought it not? Would you like to know my opinion of you after nearly
+a month of acquaintance? Let me warn you, I have entirely changed my
+opinion since our stormy interview in Cunliffe's study.'
+
+I do not know what there was in Mr. Hamilton's look and manner that made
+me say hastily,--
+
+'Oh no, I would rather not know, and I hope you will not tell me. I am
+quite sure you do not misconstrue my motives now.'
+
+'You may be quite sure of that,' rather grimly, as though my last speech
+displeased him. 'It is difficult not to think you older than you are, you
+are so terribly sensible and matter-of-fact. How can Gladys get on with
+you, I wonder? Do you put a moral extinguisher on all her romance?'
+
+'I am not quite so matter-of-fact as you make out, Mr. Hamilton.'
+
+He shot an odd sort of glance at me. 'When you sing, one can believe
+that; there is nothing prosaic in a nestful of larks. Poor Phoebe, I do
+believe you are doing her good: she looks far more human already. By the
+bye, when are you coming to sing to us again? I told Etta that I was
+engaged on Thursday, and she declared it was our only free day until
+Christmas.'
+
+'I shall be too busy to come till after then,' I replied quietly, for I
+did not wish him to think that I was ready to jump at any invitation to
+Gladwyn. He seemed rather disconcerted at my coldness.
+
+'Why, it is more than ten days to Christmas! I hope you do not mean to
+be stiff and unneighbourly, Miss Garston. I am afraid,' with a decidedly
+quizzical look, 'that pride is a serious defect of yours.'
+
+'Perhaps so; but, you see, I do not wish to be different from my
+neighbours,' I replied quietly; but my speech was received by Mr.
+Hamilton with a hearty laugh.
+
+'Oh yes, you are right: we are a proud lot,' he observed, as he rose to
+take leave. 'Well, Miss Garston, after Christmas is over, we shall hope
+to see you for an evening; but any afternoon you are free they will be
+glad to see you. Etta makes excellent tea. What a craze five-o'clock tea
+is with you women! I have protested against it in vain: the girls are in
+majority against me.' With this speech he took himself off. I was much
+relieved at this peaceable ending to our interview. Now he was gone I
+could scarcely believe that I had ventured on a joke with the formidable
+Mr. Hamilton, a joke which he had taken in excellent part. I began to
+feel less in awe of him: he certainly knew how to shake hands heartily,
+and I could recapitulate Lady Betty's criticism on myself and apply it
+to him, for when Mr. Hamilton smiled he looked quite a different
+man,--years younger, and much better looking. Well, I was glad that
+he had such a good opinion of my common sense.
+
+My hands were likely to be full of business until after Christmas. Mrs.
+Marshall was growing gradually weaker, and Mr. Hamilton was doubtful
+whether she would last to see the New Year in. Her husband would be home
+on Christmas Eve; his work at Lewes would be finished by then, and he
+hoped to find work nearer home. Poor Mary told me this with tears in her
+eyes; her one prayer was that she might be spared to see Andrew again.
+'He has been a good husband to me, and has kept out of the public-house
+for the sake of his wife and the children, and I cannot die easy until I
+have said good-bye to him,' finished the poor woman; but when I repeated
+this to Mr. Hamilton he shook his head. 'A few hours may take her off any
+day,' he said; 'it is only a wonder that she has lasted so long. I
+believe she is keeping herself alive by the sheer force of her longing
+to see her husband. Women are strange creatures, Miss Garston.'
+
+My new patient was likely to give me plenty of occupation. I found the
+poor little fellow, looking very forlorn and dull, lying in a dark corner
+of a large chilly garret, which was evidently shared by two or three
+brothers.
+
+Mrs. Bell, who had left her washing-tub to accompany me upstairs, stood
+drying her arms on her apron, and talking in a high-pitched querulous
+voice. 'No one can say I have not been unfortunate this year,' she
+grumbled. 'There's Bell, he gets worse and worse. I fetched him myself
+out of the Man and Plough last Saturday night, where he was drinking the
+money that was to buy the children bread. "Do you call yourself a man or
+a brute?" I says, but in my opinions it's wronging the poor bruteses to
+compare them with such as him. "Work!" says he; "why don't you work
+yourself?" when I am at that wash-tub from morning till night.'
+
+'And now poor Robin is adding to your trouble, Mrs. Bell,' I observed,
+with a pitying look at the child's white face and large wistful eyes.
+
+'Ay, he has gone and done it now,' she returned, with a touch of motherly
+feeling; 'it was a slide those bad boys had made, and Robbie came down on
+it with his crutch under him. He is always in trouble, is Robbie, has had
+more illnesses than all the children put together; there is nothing Robin
+can't take: whooping-cough,--why, he nearly whooped himself to death;
+measles and scarlet fever,--why, he was as nearly gone as possible, the
+doctor said. He has always been puny and weakly from a baby. But there's
+Bell, now, makes more of a fuss over Rob than over the others; if there
+is anything that will keep him away from the Man and Plough, it is Rob
+asking him to take him out somewhere.'
+
+'Ay, father's promised to sit with me this evening,' observed Robin, in
+a faint little treble.
+
+'Then we must make the room comfortable for father,' I said quickly.
+'Mrs. Bell, I must not hinder you any more; but if you could spare one
+of the girls to help me tidy up a little.'
+
+'Ay, Sally can come,' she returned; 'the place does look like a piggery.
+You see, Tom and Ned and Willie sleep here along of Robin, and boys know
+naught about keeping a place tidy; Sally reds it up towards evening. But
+there, doctor said Robbie must have a fire, and I've clean forgotten it:
+I will send up Sally with some sticks and a lump or two of coal.'
+
+Mrs. Bell was not a bad sort of woman, certainly, but, like many of her
+class, she was not a good manager; and when a woman has ten children, and
+a husband rather too fond of the Man and Plough, and is obliged to stand
+at her washing-tub for hours every day, one cannot expect to find the
+house in perfect order.
+
+We had soon a bright little fire burning, which gave quite a cheery
+aspect to the large bare attic; the sloping roof and small window did not
+seem to matter so much. With Sally's help I moved Robin's little bed to a
+lighter part of the room, where the roof did not slope so much, and where
+the wintry sunlight could reach him. Robin seemed much pleased with this
+change of position, and when I had washed and made him comfortable he
+declared that he felt 'first-rate.'
+
+I had so much to do for my patient that I was obliged to let Sally tidy
+up the room in her usual scrambling way. The child had been sadly
+neglected by that time, and he was getting faint. I had to prepare some
+arrow-root for his dinner, and then hurry off to the Marshalls' before I
+had my own. I was obliged to omit my visit to Phoebe that day, and divide
+my time between Mrs. Marshall and Robin. When I had given Robin his tea,
+and had put a chair by the fire for father, I went off, feeling that I
+could leave him more comfortably. The eldest boy, Tom, a big, strapping
+lad of fourteen, who went to work, had promised to keep the other boys
+quiet, 'that the little chap might not be disturbed,' and as Robin again
+declared that he felt first-rate, if it weren't for his arm, I hoped that
+he might be able to sleep.
+
+'Father stopped with me ever so long, until the boys came to bed,' were
+Robin's first words the next morning; 'and doctor came, and said we
+looked quite snug, and he is going to send father some books to read, and
+some papers, and father said he was more comfortable than downstairs, as
+I did not mind his pipe, and Tom has hung my linnet there,' pointing to
+the window, 'and if you open the cage, miss, you will see him hop all
+over the bedclothes, and chirp in the beautifullest way.'
+
+We had a great deal of cleaning to do that day. I shall never forget Lady
+Betty's face when she came upstairs and saw me down on my knees at work
+in my corner of the room; for Sally was little, and the room was large,
+and I was obliged to go to her assistance.
+
+'Good gracious, Miss Garston!' she said, in quite a shocked voice, 'you
+do not mean to tell me that you consider it your duty to scrub floors?'
+
+'Well, no,' I returned, laughing, for really her consternation was
+ludicrous, 'I should consider it a waste of strength, generally; but
+we never know what comes in a day's work. Sally is so little that I am
+obliged to help her.'
+
+'Why can't Mrs. Bell do it?' asked Lady Betty indignantly.
+
+'Mrs. Bell has hardly time to cook the children's dinner. Please don't
+look so shocked. I don't often scrub floors, and I have nearly finished
+now. What have you brought in that basket, little Red Riding-Hood?' for
+in her little crimson hood-like bonnet she did not look so unlike Red
+Riding-Hood.
+
+'Oh, Giles asked Gladys to send some things for poor little Robin, and
+she packed them herself. There is a jar of beef-tea, and some jelly, and
+some new-laid eggs, and sponge-cakes, and a roll or two; and Gladys hopes
+you will let her know what Robin wants, for he used to be her little
+scholar, and she is so interested in him.'
+
+Of course I knew Lady Betty would chatter about me when she returned
+home, but I was rather vexed when Mr. Hamilton took me to task the next
+morning and gave me quite a lecture on the subject; he made me promise at
+last that I would never do anything of the kind again. I hardly know what
+made me so submissive. I think it was his threat of keeping any more
+patients from me, and then he seemed so thoroughly put out.
+
+'It is such folly wearing yourself out like this, Miss Garston,' he said
+angrily. 'I wonder why women never will learn common sense. If you work
+under me I will thank you to obey my directions, and I do not choose my
+nurse to waste her time and strength in scrubbing floors. Yes, Robin boy,
+I am very angry with nurse; but there is no occasion for you to cry about
+it; and--why, good heavens! if you are not crying too, Miss Garston! Of
+course; there, I told you so; you have just knocked yourself up.'
+
+His tone so aggravated me that I plucked up a little spirit.
+
+'I am not a bit knocked up,'--and, in rather a choky voice, 'I am not
+crying; I never cry before people; only I am a little tired. I was up all
+last night with Mrs. Marshall, and you talk so much.'
+
+'Oh, very well,' rather huffily; but he was in a bad humour that day. 'I
+won't talk any more to you. But I should like to know one thing: when are
+you going home?'
+
+'In another hour; my head aches, rather, and I think I shall lie down.'
+
+'Of course your head aches; but there, you have given me a promise, so I
+will not say any more. Try what a good nap will do. I am going round by
+the Lockes', and I shall tell Phoebe not to expect you this afternoon. It
+won't hurt her to miss you sometimes; it will teach her to value her
+blessings more, and people cannot sing when they have a headache.' And he
+walked off without waiting for me to thank him for his thoughtfulness.
+What did he mean by saying that I was crying, the ridiculous man, just
+because there were tears in my eyes? I certainly could not fancy myself
+crying because Mr. Hamilton scolded me!
+
+I had a refreshing nap, and kept my dinner waiting, but I must own I was
+a little touched when Mrs. Barton produced a bottle of champagne which
+she said Mr. Hamilton had brought in his pocket and had desired that I
+was to have some directly I woke. 'And I was to tell you, with his
+compliments, that his sister Gladys would sit with Robin all the
+afternoon, and that Lady Betty was at the Marshalls', and he was going
+again himself, and Phoebe Locke was better, and he hoped you would not
+stir out again to-day.'
+
+How very kind and thoughtful of Mr. Hamilton! He had sent his sisters
+to look after my patients, that I might be able to enjoy my rest with a
+quiet conscience. I was sorry that he should think that I was so easily
+knocked up; but it was not over-fatigue, nor yet his scolding, that had
+brought the tears to my eyes. To-day was the second anniversary of
+Charlie's death, and through that long, wakeful night, as I sat beside
+poor Mary's bed, I was recalling the bitter hours when my darling went
+down deeper into the place of shadows,--when he fought away his young
+life, while Lesbia and I wept and prayed beside him. No wonder a word
+unnerved me; but I could not tell Mr. Hamilton this.
+
+When we met the next day he asked me, rather curtly, if the headache had
+gone; but when I thanked him, somewhat shyly, for the medicine he had
+sent, he got rather red, and interrupted me with unusual abruptness.
+
+'You have nothing for which to thank me,' he said, in quite a repellent
+tone. 'I am glad you obeyed orders and stopped at home; I was afraid you
+might be contumacious, as usual,'--which was rather ungracious of him,
+after the promise he had extracted from me.
+
+I questioned Robin about Miss Hamilton's visit; she had remained with the
+boy some hours, reading to him and amusing him, and, in Robin's favourite
+language, 'getting on first-rate; only, just as I was drinking my mugful
+of tea, parson comes, and Miss Hamilton she says she will be late, and
+gets up in a hurry, and--'
+
+'Wait a minute, Robin: do you mean Mr. Cunliffe or Mr. Tudor?'
+
+'Oh, the vicar, to be sure; and he seemed finely surprised to see Miss
+Hamilton there. "So you've come to see your old scholar," he says,
+smiling, and Miss Hamilton says, "Yes; but she must go now," and she
+drops her glove, and parson looks for it, but it was too dark, and for
+all his groping it could not be found. "I must just go without it," says
+Miss Hamilton; "but I have got my muff, and it does not matter," and she
+says good-bye, and goes away. Parson found it, though,' went on Robin
+garrulously. 'When Sally lighted the candle he spies it at once, and puts
+it in his pocket. "Miss Hamilton will be fine and glad when you tell her
+it is found," I says to parson; but he just looks at me in an odd sort of
+way, and says, "Yes, Robin, certainly."--'And you won't forget to give it
+to her, to-morrow, sir?' but he did not seem to hear me. "Good-night,
+my man," he said. "So Miss Hamilton did not think you were too old to be
+kissed." And he kissed me just in the same place as she did. What did you
+say, miss?'
+
+'I did not say anything, Robin.'
+
+'Didn't you, miss? I thought I heard you say "poor man," or something
+like that. Is not Miss Hamilton beautiful? I think she is almost as
+beautiful as my picture of the Virgin Mary. I asked parson if he did not
+think so, and he said yes. Do you think she will come again soon?'
+
+'We shall see, Robbie dear.' But, as I spoke, something told me that we
+should not see Miss Hamilton there again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE PICTURE IN GLADYS'S ROOM
+
+
+The days flew rapidly by, and I was almost too busy to heed them as they
+passed. Each morning I woke with fresh energy to my day's work; the hours
+were so full of interest and varied employment that my evening rest came
+all too soon. I grew so fond of my patients, especially of poor little
+Robin, that I never left them willingly; and the knowledge that I was
+necessary to them, that they looked to me for relief and comfort, seemed
+to fill my life with sweetness.
+
+As I said to myself daily, no one need complain that one's existence is
+objectless, or altogether desolate, as long as there are sick bodies and
+sick souls to which one can minister. For 'Give, and it shall be given
+unto you,' is the Divine command, and sympathy and help bestowed on our
+suffering fellow-creatures shall be repaid into our bosoms a hundredfold.
+I was right in my surmise: Miss Hamilton did not again visit her little
+scholar; but Lady Betty came almost daily, and was a great help in
+amusing the child. I was with him for an hour in the morning, and again
+in the late afternoon; but Mrs. Marshall took up the greater part of my
+time; she was growing more feeble every day, and needed my constant care.
+Unless it were absolutely necessary, I was unwilling to sacrifice my
+night's rest, or to draw too largely on my stock of strength; but I had
+fallen into the habit, during the last week or two, of going down to the
+cottage in the evening about eight or nine, and settling her comfortably
+for the night. I found these late visits were a great boon to her, and
+seemed to break the length of the long winter night, and so I did not
+regret my added trouble. Poor Phoebe had to be content with an hour
+snatched from the busier portion of the day; but she was beginning to
+occupy herself now. I kept her constantly supplied with books; and Miss
+Locke assured me that she read them with avidity; her poor famished mind,
+deprived for so many years of its natural aliment, fastened almost
+greedily on the nourishment provided for it. From the moment I induced
+her to open a book her appetite for reading returned, and she occupied
+herself in this manner for hours.
+
+She never spoke to her sister about what she read, but when Kitty and she
+were alone she would keep the child entranced for an hour together by the
+stories she told her out of Miss Garston's books.
+
+'Sometimes Kitty sings to her, and sometimes they have a rare talk,' Miss
+Locke would say. 'I am often too busy to do more than look in for five
+minutes or so, to see how they are getting on. Phoebe grumbles far less;
+it is wonderful to hear her say, sometimes, that she did not know it was
+bedtime, when I go in to fetch the lamp. Reading? ay, she is always
+reading; but she sleeps a deal, too.'
+
+I used to look round Phoebe's room with satisfaction now; it had quite
+lost its stiff, angular look. A dark crimson foot-quilt lay on the bed,
+a stand of green growing ferns was on the table, and two or three books
+were always placed beside her.
+
+Some gay china figures that I had hunted out of the glass cupboard in the
+parlour enlivened the mantelpiece, and a simple landscape, with sheep
+feeding in a sunny field, hung opposite the bed. Some pretty cretonne
+curtains had replaced the dingy dark ones. Phoebe herself had a soft
+fleecy gray shawl drawn over her thin shoulders. Mr. Hamilton again and
+again commented on her improved appearance, but I always listened rather
+silently; the evil spirit that had taken possession of Phoebe had not
+finally left her; 'and why could not we cast it out?' used to come to
+my lips sometimes as I looked at her; but all the same I knew the
+Master-hand was needed for that.
+
+Christmas Day fell this year on a Tuesday. On Sunday afternoon I had
+finished my rounds and was returning home to tea, when, as I was passing
+the Marshalls' cottage, Peggy ran after me bareheaded to say her father
+had just arrived, and would I come in for a moment, as mother seemed a
+little faint, and granny was frightened.
+
+I hastened back with the child; for, of course, in poor Mary's state the
+least shock might prove fatal. I found Marshall stooping over the bed and
+supporting his wife with clumsy fondness, with the tears rolling clown
+his weather-beaten face.
+
+'I'm 'most 'feard she's gone, missis,' he said hoarsely. 'Poor lass,
+I took her too sudden, and she had not the strength of the little un
+there.'
+
+I bade him lay her down gently, and then applied the necessary remedies,
+and, to my great relief, my patient presently revived. It was touching to
+see the weak hand trying to feel for her husband; as it came into contact
+with the rough coat-sleeve, a smile came upon the death-like face.
+
+'It is Andrew himself,' she whispered; 'I feared it was naught but a
+dream, mother; it is Andrew's own self, and he is looking well and
+hearty. Ay, lad,' with a loving look at him, 'I could not have died in
+peace till I had seen you again; and now God's will be done, for He has
+been good to me and granted me my heart's desire.'
+
+Poor Marshall looked weary and travel-stained, so I beckoned Peggy out
+of the room, and with her help there was soon a comfortable meal on the
+table,--part of the meat-pie that was left from the children's dinner,
+a round or two of hot toast, and a cup of smoking coffee.
+
+The poor man looked a little bewildered when he saw these preparations
+for his comfort, and he wiped his eyes again with his rough coat-sleeve.
+
+'I have been so long without wife or child that I can't make it out to
+see them all flocking round me again. There is Tim a man almost. Well,
+I have been tramping it since five this morning, and I am nearly ready
+to drop; so thank you kindly, missis, and with your leave I will fall
+to.'
+
+When I returned to Mary I found her looking wonderfully revived and
+cheerful.
+
+'Isn't it grand to think that the Lord has let me have my own way about
+seeing Andrew?' she said, with a smile: 'he will be here now, poor lad,
+to see the last of me and look after the children. Now, you must not let
+me keep you, Miss Garston, for Andrew is that handy he can nurse as well
+as mother there before she lost her eyesight. I have been a deal of
+trouble to you, and now you must go home and rest.'
+
+I was glad to be set at liberty, for I hoped that I might be in time to
+attend evening service; but just as I had finished tea, and was trying to
+think that I was not so very tired, and that it would not be wiser to
+stay at home, the outer door unlatched, and the next moment there was a
+quick tap at the parlour door, and Lady Betty bustled in, looking very
+rosy from the cold.
+
+'Oh, I can't stop a moment,' she said breathlessly; 'I have given Etta
+the slip, and in five minutes she will be looking for me; but I took it
+in my head to ask you to go and see Gladys. She is in her room with a
+cold, and looks dreadfully dull, and I know it will do her so much good
+if you will go and talk to her. Giles is out, and every one else, so no
+one will disturb you: so do go, there's a good soul.' And actually before
+I could answer, the impetuous little creature had shut the door in my
+face, and I could hear her running down the garden path.
+
+I had not seen Miss Hamilton since the evening Uncle Max discovered us
+together, and I could not resist the temptation of finding her alone.
+Lady Betty had said she was in her room, and looked dreadfully dull. I
+had promised Max to be good to her, so of course it was my duty to go and
+cheer her up. I made this so plain to my conscience that in five minutes
+more I was on the road to Gladwyn, and before the church bells had
+stopped ringing I had entered the dark shrubberies, and was looking at
+the closed windows, wondering which of them belonged to Miss Hamilton's
+room.
+
+I was agreeably surprised when a pretty-looking maid admitted me. I had
+taken a strange dislike to Leah, and the man who had waited upon us at
+dinner that evening had a dark, unprepossessing face; but this girl
+looked bright and cheerful, and took my message to Miss Hamilton at once
+without a moment's hesitation. She returned almost immediately. Miss
+Hamilton was in her room, but she would be very glad to see me, and the
+girl looked glad too as she led the way to the turret-room. Miss Hamilton
+was standing on the threshold, and met me with outstretched hands; she
+looked ill and worn, and had a soft white shawl drawn closely round her
+as though she were chilly, but her eyes brightened at the sight of me.
+
+'This is good of you, Miss Garston; I never expected such a pleasure.
+That will do, Chatty; you can close the door.' And, still holding my
+hand, she drew me into the room. It was a pretty room, but furnished
+far more simply than Miss Darrell's. The deep bay-window formed a recess
+large enough to hold the dressing-table and a chair or two, and was
+half-hidden by the blue cretonne curtains; besides this there were two
+more windows. Miss Hamilton had been sitting in a low cushioned chair
+by the fire; a small table with a lamp and some books was beside her;
+a Persian kitten lay on the white rug. On a stand beside a chair was a
+large, beautifully-painted photograph in a carved frame; the folding
+doors were open, and a vase of flowers stood before it.
+
+'What has put this benevolent idea into your head?' she asked, as she
+drew forward a comfortable wicker chair with a soft padded seat. 'I
+thought I had a long, dull evening before me, with no resource but my own
+thoughts, for I was tired of reading. I could scarcely believe Chatty
+when she said that you were in the drawing-room.'
+
+I told Miss Hamilton of Lady Betty's visit, and she laughed quite
+merrily.
+
+'Good little Betty! She is always trying to give me pleasure. She wanted
+to stay with me herself, only Etta said it was no use for two people to
+stop away from church. They have all gone, even Thornton and Leah. I
+believe only Parker and Chatty are in the house.'
+
+'Is Chatty the housemaid?'
+
+'No, the under-housemaid; but Catherine's father is ill, so she has gone
+to nurse him--'
+
+'And Leah--who is Leah? I mean what is her capacity in the household?'
+as Miss Hamilton looked rather surprised at my question.
+
+'She used to be Aunt Margaret's attendant, and now she is Etta's
+maid,--at least, we call her so,--but she makes herself useful in many
+ways. She is rather a superior person, and well educated, but I like
+Chatty to wait on me best; she is such a simple, honest little soul.
+I know people say servants have not much feeling, but I am sure Chatty
+would do anything for me and Lady Betty.'
+
+'And you think Leah would not?' I asked, rather stupidly.
+
+'I did not say so, did I?' she answered quickly. 'We always look upon
+Leah as Etta's servant. She was devoted to her old mistress, and of
+course that makes Etta care for her so much. To me she is not a pleasant
+person. Etta has spoiled her, and she gives herself airs, and takes too
+much upon herself. Do you know'--with an amused smile--'Lady Betty and I
+think that Etta is rather afraid of her? She never ventures to find fault
+with her, and once or twice Lady Betty has heard Leah scolding Etta when
+something has put her out. I should not care to be scolded by my maid:
+should you, Miss Garston?'
+
+'No,' I returned, rather absently, for, unperceived by Miss Hamilton, my
+attention was arrested by the photograph. It was the portrait of a young
+man, and something in the face seemed familiar to me.
+
+The next moment I was caught. A distressed look crossed Miss Hamilton's
+face, and she made a sudden movement, as though she would close the
+photograph; but on second thoughts she handed it to me.
+
+'Should you like to see it more closely? It is a photograph of my
+twin-brother, Eric. They think--yes, they are afraid that he is dead.'
+
+Her lips had turned quite white as she spoke, and in my surprise, for
+I never knew there had been another brother, I did not answer, but only
+bent over the picture.
+
+It was the face of a young man about nineteen or twenty,--a beautiful
+face, that strangely resembled his sister's; the large blue-gray eyes
+were like hers, but the fair budding moustache scarcely hid the weak,
+irresolute mouth. Here the resemblance stopped, for Miss Hamilton's firm
+lips and finely-curved chin showed no lack of power; but in her brother's
+face--attractive as it was--there were clearly signs of vacillation.
+
+'Well, what do you think of it?' she asked, with a quick catch of her
+breath.
+
+'It is a beautiful face,' I returned, rather hesitating. 'Very striking,
+too. One could not easily forget it; and it is strangely like you: but--'
+
+'Yes, I know,'--taking it out of my hand and closing the carved
+panels,--'but you think it weak. Oh yes, we cannot all be strong alike.
+Our Creator has ordained that, and it is for us to be merciful. Poor
+Eric! He would be three-and-twenty now. He was just twenty when that was
+taken.'
+
+'And he is dead?'
+
+'They say so. They think he is drowned; but we have no real proof,
+and we cannot be sure of it. He is alive in my dreams. That is the best
+of not really knowing,' she went on, in a sad voice: 'one can go on
+praying for him, for, perhaps, after all, he may one day come back;
+not from the dead,--oh no, I do not believe that for a moment; but if
+he be alive--' her eyes dilating and her manner full of excitement.
+
+I pressed her to tell me about him, adding softly that I could feel for
+her more than any one else, as I had lost my own twin-brother. But she
+looked kindly at me and shook her head.
+
+'Not to-night, I do not feel well enough, and it always makes me so ill
+and excited to speak about it, and we should not have time. Perhaps some
+day, when I get more used to you. Oh yes, some day, perhaps.'
+
+'Indeed, I do not wish to intrude upon your trouble, Miss Hamilton,'
+I returned, colouring at this repulse. But she took my hand and pressed
+it gently.
+
+'You must not be hurt with me. I have never spoken to any one about Eric.
+Mr. Cunliffe knows. But he--he--is different, and he was very kind to me.
+I must always be grateful.' The tears came into her eyes, and she hurried
+on:
+
+'I should like you to know, only I am such a coward. I am so sure of
+your sympathy, you seem already such a friend. Why do you call me Miss
+Hamilton? I am younger than you. I should like to hear you say Gladys.
+Miss Hamilton seems so stiff from you, and for years I have thought of
+you as Ursula.'
+
+'You mean that Uncle Max has often talked of me?'
+
+'Oh yes,' with an involuntary sigh, 'of you and your brother. He was
+always so fond of you both. He used to say very often that he wished that
+I knew you; that you were so good, so unlike other people; that you bore
+your trouble so beautifully.'
+
+'I bore my trouble well! Oh, Miss Hamilton, it is impossible that he
+could have said that, when he knew how rebellious I was.' But here I
+could say no more.
+
+'Don't cry, Ursula,' she said, very sweetly; 'you are not rebellious now.
+Oh, I used to be so sorry for you; you little thought at that dreadful
+time, when you were so lonely and desolate, that a girl whom you had
+never seen, and perhaps of whom you had never heard, was praying for you
+with all her heart. That is what I mean by saying that I have known you
+for a long time.'
+
+By mutual impulse we bent forward and kissed each other,--a quiet
+lingering kiss that spoke of full understanding and sympathy. I had
+promised Uncle Max to be good to this girl, to do all I could to help
+her, but I did not know as I gave that promise how my heart would cleave
+to her, and that in time I should grow to love her with that rare
+friendship that is described in Holy Writ as 'passing the love of women.'
+We were silent for a little while, and then by some sudden impulse I
+began to speak of Max; I told her that I felt a little anxious about him,
+that he did not seem quite well or quite happy.
+
+'I have thought so myself,' she returned, very quietly.
+
+'Max is so good that I cannot bear to see him unhappy,--he is so
+unselfish, so full of thought for other people, so earnest in his work,
+so conscientious and self-denying.'
+
+'True,' she replied, taking up a little toy screen that lay in her lap
+and shielding her face from the flame: 'he is all that. If any one
+deserves to be happy, it is your uncle.'
+
+I was glad to hear her say this, but her voice was a little constrained.
+
+'He seems very far from happy just now,' was my answer: 'he looks worn
+and thin, as though he were overworking himself. I asked him the other
+night what ailed him. Are you cold, Miss Hamilton? I thought you shivered
+just now.'
+
+'No, no,' she returned, a little impatiently: 'you were speaking of your
+uncle.'
+
+'Yes. I could not get him to tell me what was the matter; he began to
+joke: you know his way; men are so tiresome sometimes.'
+
+'It is not always easy to understand them,' she said, turning away her
+face: 'perhaps they do not wish to be understood. It must be a great
+comfort to Mr. Cunliffe to have you so near him. I have thought lately
+that he has seemed a little lonely.'
+
+'But he comes here very often,' I said, rather quickly; 'he need not be
+dull, with so many friends.'
+
+To my surprise, Miss Hamilton's fair face flushed almost painfully.
+
+'He does not come so often as he used; perhaps he finds us a little too
+quiet. I am sorry for Giles's sake--oh yes, I do not mean that,' as I
+looked at her rather reproachfully. 'Of course we all like Mr. Cunliffe.'
+
+I was about to reply to this, when Miss Hamilton suddenly grew a little
+restless, and the next moment the door-bell sounded.
+
+I rose at once. 'They have come back from church. I will bid you good-bye
+now.' And, as I expected, she made no effort to keep me.
+
+'You will come again,' she said, kissing me affectionately. 'I have so
+enjoyed our little talk; you have done me good, indeed you have, Ursula,'
+watching me from the threshold. I knew I could not escape my fate, so I
+walked downstairs as coolly as I could, and encountered them all in the
+hall. Miss Darrell gave a little shriek when she saw me.
+
+'Dear me, Miss Garston, how you startled me! Who would have thought of
+finding you here on Sunday evening, when all good people are at church!'
+but here Mr. Hamilton put her aside with little ceremony: he really
+seemed as though he were glad to see me.
+
+'You came to sit with Gladys: it was very kind and thoughtful of you.
+Poor girl, she seemed rather dull, but now you have cheered her up.'
+
+'Perhaps Miss Garston will extend her cheering influence, Giles,'
+observed Miss Darrell in her most staccato manner, 'and remain to supper.
+Leah will see her home.'
+
+'I am going to perform that office myself, Etta. Will you stay?' looking
+at me in a friendly manner.
+
+'Not to-night,' I returned hurriedly; 'and, indeed, I can very well
+walk alone.' But Mr. Hamilton settled that question by putting on his
+greatcoat.
+
+'Oh, of course Giles will walk with you: how could he do less?' replied
+Miss Darrell, with a scarcely perceptible sneer. 'You have timed your
+visit so well that he will be just back to supper. So you have been
+sitting with dear Gladys? I wonder how you knew she had a cold: private
+information, I suppose. I should hardly have thought Gladys was well
+enough to see visitors, she was so feverish when I left her; but that
+stupid Chatty makes such mistakes.'
+
+'Miss Hamilton was not at all feverish, I assure you. My visit has done
+her no harm.' And I turned to Lady Betty, who stood on tiptoe to kiss me
+and breathed a 'thank you' into my ear; but Miss Darrell could not
+forbear from a parting fling as she bade me good-night.
+
+'We shall wait supper for you, Giles,' she said rather pointedly; but Mr.
+Hamilton took no notice; he only bade me be careful, as it was rather
+slippery by the gate, and then he began telling me about the sermon, and,
+strangely enough, he endorsed my opinion of Max.
+
+'I tell him he must have a change after Christmas; he looks knocked up,
+and a trifle thin. It will not hurt Tudor to work a little harder; you
+may tell Cunliffe I say so. Halloo! I think you had better take my arm,
+Miss Garston; it is confoundedly dark and slippery.' But I declined this,
+as I was tolerably sure-footed.
+
+Mr. Hamilton seemed in excellent spirits, and talked well and with great
+animation, as though he were bent on amusing me; he was a clever man,
+and had a store of useful information which he did not always care to
+produce. I never heard him talk better than on this occasion: there were
+flashes of wit and brilliancy that surprised me: I was almost sorry when
+I reached the cottage.
+
+'Good-night, Miss Garston, and thank you again for your deed of charity,'
+he said quite heartily, and as though he meant it. Really, I never liked
+Mr. Hamilton so much before; but then he had never shown himself so
+genial. I saw Lady Betty the next morning, and asked her after Miss
+Hamilton, but I almost regretted my question when the naughty little
+thing treated me to one of her usual confidences: there was no inducing
+her to hold her tongue when she was in the humour for chatting.
+
+'Oh, it was such fun!' she said, her eyes dancing with mischief. 'Etta
+was so cross when you were gone; she declared it was a conspiracy between
+us three, and that you only wanted Giles to walk home with you. No, I did
+not mean to repeat that, so please don't look so angry. Etta did not
+really think so, but she will say these things about people. I tell
+Gladys Etta wants Giles herself. She scolded Chatty for being so stupid,
+and said if Leah had been at home she would have shown more sense; and
+then she went up to Gladys's room in a nice temper, but Gladys would not
+listen, said she was tired, and ordered Etta out of the room. When Gladys
+is like that Etta can do nothing with her, so she sulked until Giles came
+home, and then began teasing him about his gallantry, and wondering how
+he enjoyed his walk, and you know her way.'
+
+'Lady Betty, I am busy; besides which, I do not wish to hear any more of
+your cousin's improving conversation.'
+
+'Oh, there is nothing more to tell,' she returned triumphantly. 'Giles
+silenced her so completely that she did not dare to open her lips again.
+Oh, she is properly frightened of Giles when he is in one of his moods.
+He told her that he disliked observations of this sort, that in his
+opinion they were both undignified and vulgar, especially when they
+related to a person whom he so much respected as Miss Garston. "And allow
+me to remark," he continued, looking at poor little me rather fiercely,
+as though I were in fault too, "that I shall consider it an honour if
+Miss Garston bestows her friendship on any member of my household. I am
+very glad she seems to like Gladys, and I only hope she will do the poor
+girl good and come every day if she likes, and that is all I mean to say
+on the subject." But I think he said quite enough; don't you, Miss
+Garston?' finished naughty Lady Betty, looking up at me with such
+innocent eyes that I could not have scolded her any more than I could
+have scolded a kitten.
+
+But if only Lady Betty could learn to hold her tongue--!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+ERIC
+
+
+That afternoon I had rather an adventure. I was just walking up the hill
+on my way to the post-office, when a handsome carriage came round the
+corner by the church rather sharply, and the same moment a little dog
+crossing the road in the dusk seemed to be under the horses' feet.
+
+That was my first impression. My next was that the coachman was trying
+to pull up his horses. There was a sudden howl, the horses kicked and
+plunged, some one in the carriage shrieked, and then the little dog was
+in my arms, and even in the dim light I could feel one poor little leg
+was broken.
+
+The horses were quieted with difficulty, and the footman got down and
+went to the carriage window.
+
+'It is poor little Flossie, ma'am,' he said, touching his hat: 'she must
+have got out into the road and recognised the carriage, for she was under
+the horses' feet. This lady got her out somehow.' And indeed I had no
+idea how I had managed it. One of the horses had reared, and his front
+hoof almost touched me as I snatched up Flossie. I suppose it was a risky
+thing to do, for I never liked the remembrance afterwards, and I do not
+believe I could have done it again.
+
+'Oh dear! oh dear!' observed a pleasant voice, 'do let me thank the lady.
+Stand aside, Williams.' And a pretty old lady with white hair looked out
+at me.
+
+'I am afraid the poor dog's leg is broken,' I observed, as the little
+animal lay in my arms uttering short barks of pain. 'Happily your man
+pulled up in time, or it must have been killed.'
+
+'Oh dear! oh dear! what will the colonel say to such carelessness?'
+exclaimed the old lady. 'He's so fond of Flossie, and makes such a fuss
+with her. And Mr. Hamilton has gone to Brighton, or I would have sent
+Flossie in for him to attend to her.'
+
+'Will you let me see what I can do, Mrs. Maberley?' I said, for I had
+recognised the pretty old lady at once. 'I am the village nurse, Miss
+Garston, and I think I can bind up poor Flossie's leg.'
+
+'Miss Garston!' in quite a different voice; it seemed to have grown
+rather formal. 'Oh, I am so much obliged to you, but I am ashamed to give
+you the trouble; only for poor Flossie's sake,' hesitating, 'will you
+come into the carriage and let me drive you to Maplehurst?' And to this
+I readily consented. I could never bear to see an animal in pain, and the
+little creature, a beautiful brown-and-white spaniel, was already licking
+my hand confidingly.
+
+I could see Mrs. Maberley was embarrassed by my presence, for she talked
+in rather a nervous manner about it being Christmas Eve, and how busy the
+young ladies were decorating the church.
+
+'I wanted to speak to Miss Darrell for a moment,' she went on, 'and I
+found her and Lady Betty putting up wreaths in the chancel, and that
+good-looking Mr. Tudor was helping them. I was so sorry poor dear Gladys
+was not there; but Miss Darrell says her cold is so much better that she
+is downstairs again. I am afraid she is very delicate and takes after
+her poor mother.'
+
+'I saw Miss Hamilton yesterday, and I certainly thought she looked very
+ill.'
+
+'So Miss Darrell told me. What a good, unselfish little creature she is,
+Miss Garston! I do not know what Mr. Hamilton and his sisters would do
+without her. Ah, here we are at Maplehurst, and Tracy is looking out for
+us. Tracy, is the colonel at home? No, I am thankful to hear it. Poor
+little Flossie has met with an accident, and this lady has saved her
+life, but she tells me her leg is broken. Now, Miss Garston, will you
+believe it that I am such a coward that I could not be of the least
+assistance? Tracy, take Miss Garston into the morning room, and do your
+best to help her.' And Mrs. Maberley trotted away as fast as she could,
+while Tracy ushered me into a bright snug-looking room and asked me very
+civilly what she could do for me.
+
+Tracy was a handy, sensible woman, and in a few minutes I had managed,
+with her help, to strap up poor Flossie's leg in the most successful
+manner.
+
+'I am sure, ma'am, Mr. Hamilton couldn't have done better himself,'
+observed Tracy, looking at me with respectful admiration, while I petted
+Flossie, who was now lying comfortably in her basket, trying to lick her
+bandages. 'I must go and tell my mistress that it is done, for she will
+be fretting herself ill over poor Flossie.'
+
+I expect Tracy sounded my praises, for when Mrs. Maberley entered the
+room in her pretty cap with gray ribbons there was not a trace of
+formality in her manner as she thanked me with tears in her eyes for
+my kindness to Flossie.
+
+'To think of a young creature being so clever!' she said, folding her
+soft dimpled hands together. 'My dear, the colonel will be so grateful to
+you: he dotes on Flossie. You must stay and have tea with me, and then he
+can thank you himself. No, I shall take no refusal. Tracy, tell Marvel to
+bring up the tea-tray at once. My dear,' turning to me, when Tracy had
+left the room, 'I am almost ashamed to look you in the face when I
+remember how long you have been in Heathfield and that I have never
+called on you; but Etta told me that you did not care to have visitors.'
+
+'Yes, I know, Mrs. Maberley; but that is quite a mistake,' I returned,
+somewhat eagerly, for I had fallen in love with the pretty old lady, and
+her tall, aristocratic colonel with his white moustache and grand
+military carriage, and had watched them with much interest from my place
+in church. She was such a dainty old lady, like a piece of Dresden china,
+with her pink cheeks and white curls and old-fashioned shoe-buckles; and
+she had such beautiful little hands, plump and soft as a baby's, which
+she seemed to regard with innocent pride, for she was always settling the
+lace ruffles round her wrists and pinching them up with careful fingers.
+
+'Dear, dear! I thought Etta told me,' she began rather nervously.
+
+'Miss Darrell makes mistakes, like other people,' I answered, smiling.
+'I shall be very pleased to know my neighbours; it is quite true that I
+am not often at home, and just now I am very busy, but all the same I do
+not mean to shut myself out from society. One owes a duty to one's
+neighbours.'
+
+'My dear Miss Garston, I am quite pleased to hear you talk so sensibly.
+I was afraid from what Etta said that you were a little eccentric and
+strong-minded, and I have such a dislike to that in young people; young
+ladies are so terribly independent at the present day, in my opinion, and
+I know the colonel thinks the same. They are sadly deficient in good
+manners and reverence. That is why I am so fond of the Hamilton girls:
+they are perfect young gentlewomen; they never talk slang or slip-shod
+English, and they know how to respect gray hairs. The colonel is devoted
+to Gladys: I tell him he is as fond of her as though she were his own
+daughter.'
+
+'I think every one must be fond of Miss Hamilton.'
+
+'Yes, poor darling! and she is much to be pitied,' returned Mrs.
+Maberley, with a sigh. 'Oh, here comes Marvel with the tea. Now, Miss
+Garston, my dear, take off that bonnet and jacket: I like people to look
+as though they were at home. Marvel, draw up that chair to the fire, and
+give Miss Garston a table to herself, and put the muffins where she can
+reach them; there, now I think we look comfortable: young people always
+look nicer without their bonnets; it was a pity to hide your pretty
+smooth hair. Now tell me a little about yourself. I am sure Etta is
+wrong: you do not look in the least strong-minded. Tracy said it was
+wonderful how such slender little fingers could ever do hospital work.
+She has fallen in love with you, my dear; and Tracy has plenty of
+penetration. I never can understand why she does not take to Etta; and
+Etta is so good to her; but there, we all have our prejudices.'
+
+As soon as Mrs. Maberley's ripple of talk had died away, I told her a
+little about my work, and how much I liked my life at Heathfield, and
+then I spoke of my great interest in Gladys Hamilton.
+
+It was really very pleasant sitting in this warm, softly-lighted room and
+talking to this charming, kind-hearted old lady. Christmas Eve was not so
+dull, after all, as I had expected; it was nice to feel that I was making
+a new friend,--that the little service I had rendered Mrs. Maberley had
+broken down the barrier between us and overcome her prejudice. I knew
+that Miss Darrell had set her against me, and that for some reason of
+her own she wished to prevent her calling upon me.
+
+Did Miss Darrell dislike my coming to Heathfield? Was she afraid of
+finding me in her way? Was she at all desirous of making my stay irksome
+to me? These were some of the questions I was continually asking myself.
+
+I noticed that Mrs. Maberley sighed and shook her head when I spoke of
+Miss Hamilton. As I warmed to my subject, and praised her beauty and
+gentleness and intelligence, she sighed still more.
+
+'Yes, she is a dear girl, a dear good girl; but she has never been the
+same since Eric went. Does she talk to you about Eric, Miss Garston? Etta
+says she talks of nothing else to her.'
+
+I opened my eyes rather widely at this statement, for I could not forget
+what Miss Hamilton had said to me that night: 'I have never spoken to any
+one about Eric.' Was it likely that she would choose Miss Darrell for a
+_confidante_? But I kept my incredulity to myself, and simply related to
+Mrs. Maberley the circumstance that I had seen the photograph by accident
+the previous evening, and only knew then that Miss Hamilton had had a
+twin-brother.
+
+'How very singular!' she observed, putting down her tea-cup in a hurry.
+'I should have thought every one in the place would have spoken about the
+young man, he was such a favourite; and it was no use Mr. Hamilton trying
+to keep it a secret. Why, the postmaster's wife told me before Eric had
+been gone twenty-four hours, and then I went to Mr. Cunliffe. Why, child,
+do you mean your uncle has never told you about it?'
+
+'Oh no, Uncle Max never repeats anything; he would be the last person
+from whom I should hear it.'
+
+'And yet he was up at Gladwyn every day,--ay, twice a day; and people
+said--But what an old gossip I am! Well, about poor Eric, there can be
+no harm in your knowing what all the world knows, even Marvel and Tracy;
+it is a very sore subject with poor Mr. Hamilton, and no one dares to
+mention Eric's name to him; but, as Etta says, Gladys can never hold her
+tongue about him when they two are alone together.' I certainly held mine
+at that moment. I began to wonder what Miss Darrell would say next.
+
+'So you have seen his picture, Miss Garston, my dear: well, now, is it
+not a beautiful face?--not sufficiently manly, as the colonel says; but
+then, poor fellow, he had not a strong character. Still, it was a lovely
+sight to see them together: our gardens join, you know, and often and
+often, as I have sat under our beech, I have seen Gladys and Eric walking
+up and down the little avenue, with his arm round her, and their two
+heads shining like gold, and she would be talking to him and smiling
+in his face, until it made me quite young to see them.'
+
+'Wait a moment, Mrs. Maberley, please. I am deeply interested; but would
+Gladys--would Miss Hamilton like me to know all this?'
+
+'To be sure she would,--though perhaps she would not care for the pain
+of telling it herself; but it would be better for you to hear it from me
+than from Mrs. Barton, or Mrs. Drabble, or any other gossiping person
+that takes it into her head to tell you, for you could not be much longer
+at Heathfield without hearing of it, when, as I say, every Jack and Tom
+in the village knows it,--though how it all got about is more than I can
+say. I tell the colonel, Leah must have had a hand in it: I know it was
+she who told Tracy.'
+
+I saw by this time that Mrs. Maberley had quite made up her mind to tell
+me the story herself; she was garrulous, like many other old ladies, and
+perhaps she enjoyed a little gossip about her neighbours, so I only
+essayed one other feeble protest.
+
+'I hope Mr. Hamilton will not mind--' but she answered me quite
+briskly,--
+
+'Well, poor fellow, he knows by this time people will talk; I daresay
+he thinks Mr. Cunliffe has told you. Now, I do not want to blame Mr.
+Hamilton; he is a great favourite of mine ever since he cured the
+colonel's gout, and I would not be hard on him for worlds; but I have
+always been afraid that he did not rightly understand Eric; the brothers
+were so different. Mr. Hamilton is very hard-working and rather
+matter-of-fact, and Eric was quite different, more like a girl, dreamy
+and enthusiastic and terribly idle, and then he fancied himself an
+artist. Mr. Hamilton could not bear that.'
+
+'Why not? An artist's is a very good profession.'
+
+'Yes, but he did not believe in his talent; and then Eric was intended
+for the law; his brother had sent him to Oxford, but he would not work,
+and he was extravagant, and got into debt,--and, oh yes, there was no end
+of trouble. I do not know how it was,' went on Mrs. Maberley, 'but Eric
+always seemed in the wrong. Etta used to take his part,--which was very
+good of her, as Eric could not bear her and treated her most rudely. Mr.
+Hamilton used to complain that Gladys encouraged him in his idleness; he
+sometimes came in here of an evening looking quite miserable, poor
+fellow, and would say that his sisters and Eric were leagued against him;
+that but for Etta he would be at his wits' end what to do. Eric would not
+obey him; he simply defied his authority; he was growing more idle every
+day, and when he remonstrated with him, Gladys took his part. Oh dear, I
+am afraid they were all very wretched.'
+
+'You think Mr. Hamilton did not understand his young brother.'
+
+'Well, perhaps not. You see, Mr. Hamilton had not the same temptations;
+he was always steady and hard-working from a boy, and never cared much
+about his own comfort. As for getting into debt, why, he would have
+considered it wicked to do so. I know the colonel thought once or twice
+that he was a little hard on Eric. I remember his saying once 'that boys
+will be boys, and that all are not good alike, and that he must not use
+the curb too much.' It was a pity, certainly, that Mr. Hamilton was so
+angry about his painting. I daresay it was only a temporary craze. I am
+afraid, though, Eric must have behaved very badly. I know he struck his
+elder brother once. Anyhow, things went on from bad to worse; and one day
+a dreadful thing happened. A cheque of some value, I have forgotten the
+particulars, was stolen from Mr. Hamilton's desk, and the next day Eric
+disappeared.'
+
+'Was he accused of taking it?'
+
+'To be sure. Leah saw him with her own eyes. You must ask Mr. Cunliffe
+about all that; my memory is apt to be treacherous about details. I know
+Leah saw him with his hand in his brother's desk, and though Eric vowed
+it was only to put a letter there,--a very impertinent letter that he had
+written to his brother,--still the cheque was gone, and, as they heard
+afterwards, cashed by a very fair young man at some London Bank; and the
+next morning, after some terrible quarrel, during which Gladys fainted,
+poor girl, Eric disappeared, and the very next thing they heard of him,
+about three weeks afterwards, was that his watch and a pocket-book
+belonging to him had been picked up on the Brighton beach close to Hove.'
+
+'Do you mean that this is all they have ever heard of him?'
+
+'Yes. I believe Mr. Hamilton employed every means of ascertaining his
+fate. For some months he refused to believe that he was dead. I am not
+sure if Gladys believes it now. But Etta did from the first. "He was weak
+and reckless enough for anything," she has often said to me. Of course it
+is very terrible, and one cannot bear to think of it, but when a young
+man has lost his character he has not much pleasure in his life.'
+
+'I do not think Miss Hamilton really believes that he is dead.'
+
+'Perhaps not, poor darling. But Mr. Hamilton has no doubt on the subject,
+my dear Miss Garston. He is much to be pitied: he has never been the same
+man since Eric went. I am afraid that he repents of his harshness to the
+poor boy. He told the colonel once that he wished he had tried milder
+treatment.'
+
+'One can understand Mr. Hamilton's feelings so well. You are right, Mrs.
+Maberley: he is much to be pitied.'
+
+'Yes, and, to make matters worse, Gladys was very ill, and refused to see
+or speak to him in her illness. I believe the breach is healed between
+them now; but she is not all that a sister ought to be to him.'
+
+'Perhaps Miss Darrell usurps her place,' I replied a little incautiously,
+but I saw my mistake at once. Mrs. Maberley was evidently a devout
+believer in Miss Darrell's merits.
+
+'Oh, my dear, you must not say such things. Mr. Hamilton has told me over
+and over again that he does not know how he would have got through that
+miserable time but for his cousin Etta's kindness. She did everything for
+him, and nursed Gladys in her illness. I am sure she would have died but
+for Etta. Dear me! Flossie looks restless. I do believe she hears her
+master's step outside.--Yes, Flossie, that is his knock.--But I wonder
+whom he is bringing in with him.' And Mrs. Maberley straightened herself
+and smoothed the folds of her satin gown, and tried to look as usual,
+though there were tears in her bright eyes and her hands were a little
+tremulous. I do not know why I felt so sure that it would be Mr.
+Hamilton, but I was not at all surprised when he followed the tall old
+colonel into the room. But he certainly looked astonished when he saw me.
+
+'Miss Garston!' he ejaculated, darting one of his keen looks at me. But
+when he had shaken hands he sat down by Mrs. Maberley somewhat silently.
+
+I was rather sorry to see Mr. Hamilton, for our talk had unsettled me
+and made me feel nervous in his presence. I was afraid he would read
+something from our faces. And I certainly saw him look at me more than
+once, as though something had aroused his suspicion. For the first time
+I was unwilling to encounter one of those straight glances. I felt
+guilty, as though I must avoid his eyes, but all the more I felt he
+was watching me.
+
+I was anxious to put a stop to this uncomfortable state of things, but
+I could not silence Mrs. Maberley, who was relating to her husband the
+story of poor Flossie's accident. My presence of mind and skill were so
+much lauded, and the colonel said so many civil things, that I felt
+myself getting hotter every moment.
+
+Mr. Hamilton came at last to my relief.
+
+'I think Miss Garston resembles me in one thing, colonel. She hates to be
+thanked for doing her duty. You will drive her away if you say any more
+about Flossie. Oh, I thought so,' as I stretched out my hand for my hat:
+'I thought I interpreted that look aright. Well, I must be going too. I
+only brought him back safe to you, Mrs. Maberley.--By the bye, colonel,
+I shall tell Gladys that you have never asked after her.'
+
+'My sweetheart, Gladys! To be sure I have not. Well, how is she, my dear
+fellow?'
+
+'As obstinate as ever, colonel. Came downstairs to-day, and declares she
+will go to early service to-morrow, because it will be Christmas Day,
+and she has never missed yet. Women are kittle cattle to manage. Now,
+Miss Garston, if you are ready, I will see you a little on your way.'
+
+I knew it was no good to remonstrate, so I held my peace, Mrs. Maberley
+kissed me quite affectionately, and begged me to come whenever I had an
+hour to spare.
+
+'I wish I had known you before, my dear. But there, we all make mistakes
+sometimes.' And she patted me on the shoulder. 'Edbrooke, will you see
+them out? He will be your friend for ever, after your goodness to
+Flossie: won't you, Edbrooke?'
+
+I never felt so afraid of Mr. Hamilton before. I was wondering what I
+should say to him, and hoping that he had not noticed my nervousness,
+when he startled me excessively by saying,--
+
+'What makes you look so odd this evening? You are not a bit yourself,
+Miss Garston. Come! I shall expect you to confess. Mrs. Maberley is an
+old friend of mine, and I am very much attached to her. I should like to
+know what you and she have been talking about?'
+
+It was too dark for Mr. Hamilton to see my face, so I answered a little
+flippantly,--
+
+'I daresay you would like to know. Women are certainly not much more
+curious than men, after all.'
+
+'Oh, as to that, I am not a bit curious,' was the contradictory answer.
+'But all the same I intend to know. So you may as well make a clean
+breast of it.'
+
+'But--but you have no right to be so inquisitive, Mr. Hamilton.'
+
+'Again I say I am not inquisitive, but I mean to know this. Mrs. Maberley
+had been crying. I could see the tears in her eyes. You looked inclined
+to cry too, Miss Garston. Now,'--after a moment's hesitation, as though
+he found speech rather difficult,--'I know the dear old lady has only one
+fault. She is rather too fond of gossiping about her neighbours, though
+she does it in the kindest manner. May I ask if her talk this evening
+at all related to a family not a hundred miles away from Maplehurst?'
+
+His voice sounded hard and satirical in the darkness. 'I wish you would
+not ask me such a question, Mr. Hamilton,' I returned, much distressed.
+'It was not my fault: I did not wish--' But he interrupted me.
+
+'Of course; I knew it. When am I ever deceived by a face or manner? Not
+by yours, certainly. So my good old friend told you about that miserable
+affair. I wish she had held her tongue a little longer. I wish--'
+
+But I burst out, full of remorse,--
+
+'Oh, Mr. Hamilton, I am so sorry! I have no right to know, but indeed
+I was hardly to blame.'
+
+'Who says you are to blame?' he returned, so harshly that I remained
+silent: 'it is no fault of yours if people will not be silent. But all
+the same I am sorry that you know; your opinion of me is quite changed
+now, eh? You think me a hard-hearted taskmaster of a brother. Well, it
+does not matter: Gladys would have made you believe that in time.'
+
+His voice was so full of concentrated bitterness that I longed to say
+something consoling; in his own fashion he had been kind to me, and I
+did not wish to misjudge him.
+
+'I know your sister Gladys sufficiently to be sure that she will never
+act ungenerously by her brother,' I returned hotly. 'Mr. Hamilton, you
+need not say such things: it is not for me to judge.'
+
+'But all the same you will judge,' he replied moodily. 'Oh, I know how
+you good women cling together: you know nothing of a man's nature; you
+cannot estimate his difficulties; because he has not got your sweet
+nature, because he cannot bear insolence patiently--Oh,' with an
+abruptness that was almost rude but for the concealed pain in his voice,
+'I am not going to excuse myself to you: why should I? I have only to
+account to my Maker and my own conscience,' And he was actually walking
+off in the darkness, for we were now in sight of the parlour window, but
+I called him back so earnestly that he could not refuse to obey.
+
+'Mr. Hamilton, pray do not leave me like this; it makes me unhappy. Do
+you know it is Christmas Eve?'
+
+'Well, what of that?' with a short laugh.
+
+'People ought not to quarrel and be disagreeable to each other on
+Christmas Eve.'
+
+'I am afraid, Miss Garston, that I do feel intensely disagreeable this
+evening.'
+
+'Yes, but you must try and forgive me all the same. I could not quite
+help myself; but indeed I do not mean to judge you or any one, and I
+should like you to shake hands.'
+
+'There, then,' with a decidedly hearty grasp; and then, without releasing
+me, 'So you don't think so very badly of me, after all?'
+
+'I am very sorry for you,' was my prudent answer; 'I think you have had
+a great deal to bear. Good-night, Mr. Hamilton.'
+
+'Wait a minute; you have not answered my question. You must not have
+it all your own way. I repeat, has Mrs. Maberley given you a very bad
+impression of my character?'
+
+'Certainly not; oh, she spoke most kindly; I should not have been afraid
+if you had heard the whole of our conversation.'
+
+'I wish I had heard it.'
+
+'She made me feel very sorry for you all. Oh, what trouble there is in
+the world, Mr. Hamilton! It does seem so blind and foolish to sit in
+judgment on other people! how can we know their trials and temptations?'
+
+'That is spoken like a sensible woman. Try to keep a good opinion of us,
+Miss Garston: we shall be the better for your friendship. Well, so we are
+friends again, and this little misunderstanding is healed: so much the
+better; I should hate to quarrel with you. Now run in out of the cold.'
+
+I hastened to obey him, but he stood at the gate until I had entered
+the house; his voice and manner had quite changed during the last few
+minutes, and had become strangely gentle, reminding me of his sister
+Gladys's voice. What a singular man he was!--and yet I felt sorry for
+him. 'I wonder if he is really to blame!' I thought, as I opened the
+parlour door.
+
+The lamp was alight; the fire burnt ruddily; Tinker was stretched on the
+rug as usual, but something else was on the rug too.
+
+A girlish figure in a dark tweed gown was huddled up before the grate; a
+head, with short thick locks of hair tossing roughly on her neck, turned
+quickly at my entrance.
+
+'Jill!'
+
+'Yes, it is I, Ursie dear! Oh, you darling bear, what a time you have
+been!' Two strong arms pulled me down in the usual fashion, and a hot
+cheek was pressed lovingly against mine.
+
+'Oh, Jill, Jill, what does this mean?' I exclaimed, in utter amazement;
+but for a long time Jill only laughed and hugged me, and there was no
+getting an answer to my question.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+'I RAN AWAY, THEN!'
+
+
+'Now, Jill,' I demanded, at last, taking her by the shoulders, 'I insist
+on knowing what this means.' And when I spoke in that tone Jill always
+obeyed me at once.
+
+So she shook her untidy mane, and looked at me with eyes that were
+brimful of fun and naughtiness.
+
+'Very well, Ursie dear, if you will know, you shall; but first sit down
+in that cosy-looking chair, and I will put my elbows in your lap, in the
+dear old fashion, and then we can talk nicely. What a snug little room
+this is! it looked just delicious when I came in, and Mrs. Barton made me
+such a nice cup of tea, and then I went upstairs to look at your bedroom,
+and there was a beautiful fire there, and Mrs. Barton says you always
+have one: so you are not so poor and miserable, after all.'
+
+'I am not at all poor, thank you; and I work so hard that I think I
+deserve to be warm and comfortable. And when people live alone, a fire
+is a nice, cheerful companion. But this is not answering my question,
+Jocelyn.'
+
+Now Jill hated me to call her Jocelyn, so she made a face at me, and
+said, in rather a grumpy voice, 'Well, I ran away, then!'
+
+'Ran away from Hyde Park Gate! Were you mad, Jill?'
+
+'Oh dear, no,--not from Hyde Park Gate. Did you not get my letter? Oh,
+I remember, I forgot to post it: it is in my blotting-case now. Then you
+did not know that Sara has scarlatina?'
+
+'No, indeed; but I am very sorry to hear it.'
+
+'Oh, she is nearly well now; but no one knows how she caught it. There
+was a terrible fuss when Dr. Armstrong pronounced it scarlatina. Mamma
+made father take lodgings at Brighton at once, and Fräulein and I were
+packed off there at a minute's notice. You can fancy what my life has
+been for the last ten days, mewed up in a dull, ugly parlour with that
+old cat.'
+
+'My poor, dear Jill! But why did you not write to me, and I would have
+come over at once?'
+
+'So I did write, twice, and I do believe that horrid creature never
+posted my letters,--I daresay they are in her pocket now,--and I could
+not get out by myself until to-day. Now just think, Ursula, what sort of
+a Christmas Day I was likely to have; and then you never came to me, and
+I got desperate; so when Fräulein said she had one of her headaches,' and
+here Jill made a comical grimace, 'I just made up my mind to take French
+leave, and spend Christmas Day with you, and here I am; and scold me if
+you dare, and I will hug you to death.' And, indeed, Jill's powerful
+young arms were quite capable of fulfilling her threat.
+
+'It is not for me to scold you,' I replied quietly; 'but I am afraid
+you will get into trouble for this piece of recklessness. Think how
+frightened poor Fräulein will be when she misses you.'
+
+'Poor Fräulein, indeed! a deceitful creature like that. Why, Ursula, what
+do you think? I just peeped into her room to be sure that she was safe
+and it was all dark: she was not there at all. Oh, oh, my lady, I said to
+myself, so that is your little game, is it? And, just to be certain, I
+rang at the bell at 37 Brunswick Place, where the Schumackers live, and
+asked the servant if Fräulein Hennig was still there, and when I heard
+that she was having tea I nearly laughed in his face. What do you think
+of that for an instructress of youth,--getting up the excuse of a
+headache, and leaving me over those stupid lessons, while she paid a
+visit on her own account? Does she not deserve a thorough good fright
+as a punishment?'
+
+'I think Aunt Philippa ought to be undeceived. I have never trusted
+Fräulein Hennig since you told me she shut herself up in her bedroom to
+read novels. Jill, my dear, you have acted very wrongly, and I am afraid
+we shall all get into trouble over this school-girl trick of yours. I
+must think what is best to be done under the circumstances.'
+
+'You may think as much as you like,' returned Jill obstinately, 'but I
+have come to spend my Christmas Day with you, and nothing will induce me
+to go back to Fräulein: I shall murder her if I do. Now, Ursie darling,'
+in a coaxing voice, 'do be nice, and make much of me. You can't think how
+delicious it is to see your face again; it is such a dear face, and I
+like it ever so much better than Sara's and Lesbia's.'
+
+I was unable to reply to this flattering speech, for Jill suddenly put up
+her hand--I noticed it was a little inky--and said, 'Hark, there is some
+one coming up to the door?' and for the moment we both believed that it
+was Fräulein; but, to Jill's immense relief, it was only Mr. Tudor, with
+a great bough of holly in his hand.
+
+'We have just finished at the church, and I have brought you this, Miss
+Garston,' he began, and then he stopped, and said, 'Miss Jocelyn here!'
+in a tone of extreme surprise, and Jill got up rather awkwardly and shook
+hands with him. I could see that she felt shy and uncomfortable. I was
+very pleased to see Mr. Tudor, for I knew he would help us in this
+emergency. Jill was such a child, in spite of her womanly proportions,
+that I was sure that her escapade would not seriously shock him; he was
+young enough himself to have a fellow-feeling for her; and I was not
+wrong. Mr. Tudor looked decidedly amused when I told him Jill had taken
+French leave. He tried to look grave until I had finished, but the effort
+was too much for him, and he burst out laughing.
+
+Jill, who was looking very sulky, was so charmed by his merriment that
+she began to laugh too, and we were all as cheerful as possible until I
+called them to order, and asked Mr. Tudor if he would send off a telegram
+at once.
+
+'A telegram! Oh, Ursula!' And Jill's dimples disappeared like magic.
+
+'My dear, Fräulein would not have a moment's sleep to-night if she did not
+know you were safe. Do not be afraid, Jill: we will spend our Christmas
+Day together, in spite of all the Fräuleins in the world.' And then I
+wrote off the telegram, and a short note, and gave them to Mr. Tudor. The
+telegram was necessarily brief:
+
+'Jocelyn safe with me. Will not return until Thursday. Write to explain.'
+
+The note was more explanatory.
+
+I apologised profusely to Fräulein for her pupil's naughtiness, but
+begged her to say nothing to her mother, as I would communicate myself
+with Aunt Philippa and let her know what had happened. Under the
+circumstances I thought it better to keep Jocelyn with me over Christmas
+Day, until I heard from Aunt Philippa. But she might depend on my
+bringing her back myself.
+
+'It is far too polite,' growled Jill, who had been reading the letter
+over my shoulder. 'How can you cringe so to that creature?'
+
+'I consider it a masterpiece of diplomacy,' observed Mr. Tudor, as I
+handed it for his inspection. 'Civil words pay best in the long-run; and
+you know it was very naughty to run away, Miss Jocelyn.'
+
+'It was nothing of the kind,' returned Jill rebelliously. 'And I would do
+it again to-morrow. I am more than sixteen; I am not a child now, and I
+have a right to come and see Ursula if I like.' And Jill threw back her
+head, and the colour came into her face, and she looked so handsome that
+I was not surprised to see Mr. Tudor regard her attentively. I never saw
+a face so capable of varying expression as Jill's.
+
+Jill declared she was glad when Mr. Tudor was gone. But I think she liked
+him very well on the whole; and, indeed, no one could dislike such a
+bright, kind-hearted fellow. As soon as he had left the house I had to
+call a council. It was quite certain my bed would not hold Jill; so, at
+Mrs. Barton's suggestion, some spare mattresses were dragged in my room
+and a bed made up on the floor. Jill voted this delicious; nothing could
+have pleased her more, and she was so talkative and excited that I had
+the greatest trouble in coaxing her to be quiet and let me go to sleep:
+in fact, I had to feign sleep to make her hold her tongue.
+
+But I was much too restless to sleep, and once when I crept out of bed to
+replenish the fire I stood still for a moment to look at Jill.
+
+She was sleeping as placidly as an infant in its cradle, her short black
+locks pushed back from her face, and one arm stretched on the coverlet.
+I was surprised to see how fine Jill's face really was. The ugly
+duckling, as Uncle Brian called her, was fast changing into a swan. At
+present she was too big and undeveloped for grace; her awkward manners
+and angularities made people think her rough and uncouth. 'I expect she
+will eclipse Sara's commonplace prettiness some day; but, poor child,
+no one understands her,' I sighed, and as I tucked her up more warmly,
+with a kiss, Jill's sleepy arms found their way to my neck and held me
+there. 'Is not it delicious, Ursie dear?' she murmured drowsily.
+
+I was glad to see that Miss Hamilton was at the early service. She looked
+pale and delicate, but there was a brighter look upon her face when she
+nodded to me in the porch. Her brother was putting her into a fly, and
+Miss Darrell and Lady Betty followed.
+
+I was rather surprised to see him close the door after them and step back
+into the porch. And the next moment he joined us.
+
+'Well, Miss Garston,' holding out his hand, with a friendly smile, 'you
+see Gladys contrived to have her way. A happy Christmas to you! But I see
+you are not alone,' looking rather inquisitively at Jill, who looked very
+big and shy as usual.
+
+'I think you have heard of my cousin Jocelyn?' I returned, without
+entering into any further particulars. I should have been sorry for
+Jill's escapade to reach Mr. Hamilton's ears. But he shook hands with
+her at once, and said, very pleasantly, that he had heard of her from
+Mr. Cunliffe. And then, after a few more words, we parted.
+
+Mr. Hamilton was unusually genial this morning. There was nothing in his
+manner to recall our stormy interview on the previous evening. Perhaps he
+wished to efface the recollection from my memory, for there was something
+significant in his smile, as though we perfectly understood each other.
+
+I had lain awake for a long time thinking over Mrs. Maberley's talk and
+that uncomfortable walk from Maplehurst. Mr. Hamilton's voice and words
+haunted me; the suppressed irritation and pain that almost mastered him,
+and how he had flung away from me in the darkness.
+
+I was glad to remember that I had called him back and spoken a
+conciliatory word. No doubt he had been to blame. I could imagine him
+hard and bitter to a fault. But he had suffered; there were lines upon
+his face that had been traced by no common experience. No, it was not for
+me to judge him. As he said, what could I know of a man's nature? And I
+was still more glad when I saw Mr. Hamilton in the church porch, and knew
+that the day's harmony was not disturbed, and that there was peace
+between us. His bright, satisfied smile made me feel more cheerful.
+
+'What a strange-looking man!' observed Jill, in rather a grumbling voice,
+as we walked up the hill. 'Is that Mr. Hamilton? I thought he was young;
+but he is quite old, Ursula.'
+
+'No, dear, not more than three-or four-and-thirty, Uncle Max says.'
+
+'Well, I call that old,' returned Jill, with the obstinacy of sixteen.
+'He is an old bachelor, too, for of course nobody wants to marry him; he
+is too ugly.'
+
+'Oh, Jill, how absurd you are! Mr. Hamilton is not ugly at all. You will
+soon get used to his face. It is only rather peculiar.' And I quite meant
+what I said, for I had got used to it myself.
+
+'Humph!' observed Jill significantly. But she did not explain the meaning
+of her satirical smile, and I proceeded to call her attention to the
+hoar-frost that lay on the cottage roof, and the beauty of the clear
+winter sky. 'It is a glorious Christmas morning,' I finished.
+
+We had a very merry breakfast, for Jill was almost wild with spirits, and
+then we went to church again. Gladys was in her usual place, and looked
+round at me with a smile as I entered. When the service was over, I went
+to the Marshalls', accompanied by Jill, who announced her intention of
+not letting me out of her sight, for I had to preside over the children's
+Christmas dinner, and to look after my patient. We visited Robin next,
+and then went on to the Lockes', and Jill sat open-eyed and breathless
+in a corner of the room as I sang carols to Phoebe in the twilight.
+
+She rose reluctantly when I put my hand on her shoulder and told her
+that we must hurry back to the cottage to make ourselves smart for the
+evening. Jill seldom troubled her head about such sublunary affairs as
+dress.
+
+'I shall be obliged to wear my old tweed,' she said contentedly. 'I have
+only to smooth my hair, and then I shall be ready.' And she grumbled not
+a little when I insisted on arranging a beautiful spray of holly as a
+breast-knot, and twisting some very handsome coral beads that Charlie had
+given me round her neck. Jill always looked better for a touch of warm
+colour: the dark-red berries just suited her brown skin. 'You will do
+better now,' I said, pushing her away gently, 'so you need not pout and
+hunch your shoulders. Have I not told you that it is your duty to make
+the best of yourself?--we cannot be all handsome, but we need not offend
+our neighbours' eyes.' But, as usual, Jill turned a deaf ear to my
+philosophy.
+
+The study looked very cosy when we entered it, and Uncle Max gave us a
+warm welcome. To be sure, he shook his head at Jill, and told her that he
+was afraid she was a naughty girl, but both he and Mr. Tudor prudently
+refrained from teasing her on the subject of her escapade. On the
+contrary, they treated her with profound respect, as though she were
+a grown-up, sensible young lady, and this answered with Jill. She grew
+bright and animated, forgot her shyness, and talked in her quaint racy
+manner. I could see that Mr. Tudor was much taken with her. She was so
+different from the stereotyped young lady; her cleverness and originality
+amused him; and I am sure Uncle Max was equally surprised and pleased.
+
+I could see Max was making strenuous efforts to be cheerful, but every
+now and then he relapsed into gravity. After dinner I drew him aside a
+moment to speak to him about Jill: to my relief, he promised to be the
+bearer of a letter to Aunt Philippa.
+
+'I want to go up to town for a day or two,' he said, 'and I may as well
+do this business for you. How happy the child looks, Ursula! I wish you
+could keep her a little longer. She is very much improved. I had no idea
+that there was so much in her; she will be far more attractive than Sara
+when she has developed a moderate amount of vanity.' And I fully endorsed
+this opinion.
+
+We went home early, for I could see Max was very tired, but both he and
+Mr. Tudor insisted on escorting us. It was a beautiful starlight night,
+clear and frosty: our footsteps rang crisply on the ground: not a breath
+of wind stirred the skeleton branches that stretched above our heads: a
+solemn peacefulness seemed to close us round. Jill's mirthful laugh quite
+startled the echoes. She and Mr. Tudor were following very slowly. Once
+or twice we stood still and waited for them, but Mr. Tudor was in the
+middle of some amusing story, and so they took no notice of us.
+
+I told Max about my visit to Mrs. Maberley, and of the conversation
+that had taken place between us. I thought he started a little when
+I mentioned Eric Hamilton's name.
+
+'What a pity!' he said quietly. 'I had hoped she would have told you
+herself. I was waiting for her to do so.'
+
+'But, Max, surely you might have told me?'
+
+'Who?--I? I should not have presumed. You must remember that I was in
+Hamilton's confidence, and,' after a moment's hesitation, 'in hers too.
+Ursula,' with a sudden passionate inflexion in his voice, 'you have no
+idea how she loved that poor boy, and how she suffered: it nearly killed
+her. Now you know why I say that she is lonely and wants a friend.' 'But
+she has you, Max,' I exclaimed involuntarily, for I knew what he must
+have been to them in their trouble; Max could be as tender as a woman;
+but he started aside as though I had struck him; and his voice was quite
+changed as he answered me.
+
+'You mistake, Ursula. I was only her clergyman: if she confided in me it
+was because she could not do otherwise; she is naturally reserved. She
+would find it easier to be open with you.'
+
+'I do not think so, Max. I--But what does it matter what I think? There
+is one question I want to ask: do you think Mr. Hamilton was at all to
+blame?'
+
+'I am Hamilton's friend,' he returned, in a tone that made me regret that
+I had asked the question, and then he stood still and waited for the
+others to join us. Indeed, he did not speak again, except to wish us
+good-night.
+
+'It is the loveliest Christmas Day I have ever spent,' cried Jill,
+flinging herself on me, and she was no light weight. 'I do like Mr. Tudor
+so; he is nicer than any one I know, more like a nice funny boy than a
+man, only he tells me he can be grave sometimes. What was the matter with
+Mr. Cunliffe?--he looks tired and worried and not inclined to laugh.' And
+so Jill chattered on without waiting for my answers, talking in the very
+fulness of her young heart, until I pretended again to be asleep, and
+then she consented to be quiet.
+
+I saw Max for a few minutes the next day when he came to fetch my letter.
+He looked more like himself, only there was still a tired expression
+about his eyes; but he talked very cheerfully of what he should do during
+the few days he intended to remain in town.
+
+I made him promise to be very diplomatic with Aunt Philippa, and he most
+certainly kept his word, for the next morning I received a letter that
+surprised us both, and that drove Jill nearly frantic with joy.
+
+Aunt Philippa's letter was very long and rambling. She began by
+expressing herself as deeply shocked and grieved at Jocelyn's behaviour,
+which was both dishonourable and unlady-like, and had given her father
+great pain. 'Dear old dad! I don't believe it,' observed Jill, pursing
+her lips at this.
+
+Aunt Philippa regretted that she could no longer trust her young
+daughter,--she was sure Sara would never have behaved so at her age,--and
+she felt much wounded by Jocelyn's defiant action. At the same time, she
+was equally deceived in Fräulein Hennig, she was certainly more to blame
+than Jocelyn. Mr. Cunliffe had told her things that greatly surprised
+her. Uncle Brian was very angry, and insisted that she should be
+dismissed. Under these distressing circumstances, and as it would not be
+safe for Jocelyn to come back to Hyde Park Gate until the rooms had been
+properly disinfected, she must beg me as a favour to herself and Uncle
+Brian to keep Jocelyn with me until they went to Hastings. Mr. Cunliffe
+knew of a finishing governess, a Miss Gillespie, who was most highly
+recommended as a well-principled and thoroughly cultured person, only she
+would not be at liberty for three or four weeks. As I reached this point
+of Aunt Philippa's letter, I was obliged to lay it down to prevent myself
+from being strangled.
+
+'Well, Jill, there is no need to hug me to death: it is Uncle Max that
+you have to thank, and not me.'
+
+'Yes, but you see it would never do to hug him, for he is not a bit my
+uncle, so I am doing it by deputy,' observed Jill recklessly. 'Oh,
+Ursula, what a darling you are! and what a dear fellow he is! To think
+of my staying here three or four weeks! You will let me help you nurse
+people, won't you?' very coaxingly.
+
+'We will see about that presently; but, Jill, you have never opened your
+mother's letter. Now, as it is perfectly impossible that you can sleep on
+the floor for weeks, and as I do not intend to keep such a chatterbox in
+my room, I am going to see what Mrs. Barton advises.' And leaving Jill to
+digest Aunt Philippa's scolding as well as she could, I went in search of
+the little widow.
+
+I found, to my relief, that there was another room in the cottage, though
+it could not boast of much furniture beyond a bed and wash-stand: so,
+after a little consideration, I started off to the vicarage to hold a
+consultation with Mrs. Drabble.
+
+The upshot of our talk was so satisfactory, and Mrs. Barton and Nathaniel
+worked so well in my service, that when bedtime came Jill found herself
+the possessor of quite a snug room. There were curtains up at the window,
+and strips of carpet on the floor. A dressing-table had been improvised
+out of a deal packing-case, and covered with clean dimity. Jill's
+travelling-box stood in one corner, and on the wall there was a row of
+neat pegs for Jill's dresses. Jill exclaimed at the clean trim look of
+the room, but I am sure she regretted her bed on the floor. She came down
+presently in her scarlet dressing-gown to give me a final hug and
+reiterate her petition for work.
+
+'Mamma has talked a lot of rubbish about my keeping up my studies and
+practising two hours a day, and she means to disinfect my books and send
+them down, but I have made up my mind that I will not open one. I am
+going to enjoy myself, and nurse sick people, and do real work, instead
+of grinding away at that stupid German.' And Jill set her little white
+teeth, and looked determined, so I thought it best not to contradict
+her.
+
+'I am so glad Uncle Max thought of Miss Gillespie, dear.'
+
+'Who is she? I hate her already. I expect she is only an Anglicised
+Fräulein,' observed Jill, with a vixenish look.
+
+'You are quite wrong. Miss Gillespie is Scotch, and she is very nice and
+good, and pretty too, for I have often heard Uncle Max talk of her. Her
+father was Max's great friend, and at his death the daughters were
+obliged to go out in the world. Miss Gillespie is the eldest. No, she is
+not very young,--nearly forty, I believe,--but she is so nice-looking;
+she was engaged to a clergyman, but he died, and they had been engaged
+so many years, and so now she will not marry. She is very cheerful,
+however, and all her pupils love her, and I am sure you will be happy
+with her, Jill.'
+
+Jill would not quite allow this, but the next day she recurred to the
+subject, and asked me a good many questions about Miss Gillespie, and
+when I told her that it was settled that Miss Gillespie should join them
+at Hastings she really looked quite pleased; but nothing would induce her
+to open the case of books Aunt Philippa had sent down, and when I told
+Uncle Max he only laughed.
+
+'Let her be as idle as she likes. She is over-educated now, and knows far
+more than most girls of her age. Take her about with you, and make her
+useful.' And I followed this advice implicitly, but for a different
+reason,--there was no keeping Mr. Tudor out of the house; so when I was
+engaged, and Jill could not be with me, I took advantage of a general
+invitation that Miss Hamilton had given me, and sent her up to Gladwyn.
+
+They were all very kind to her, and she seemed to amuse Miss Darrell, but
+after a time Mr. Tudor began going there too, and then indeed I should
+have been at my wits' end, only Mrs. Maberley came to my rescue. She took
+a fancy to Jill, and Jill reciprocated it, and presently she and Lady
+Betty began to spend most of their idle hours at Maplehurst.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+'THEY HAVE BLACKENED HIS MEMORY FALSELY'
+
+
+I loved having Jill with me, but I could not deny to myself or other
+people that I found her a great responsibility. In the first place, I
+had so little leisure to devote to her, for just after Christmas I was
+unusually busy. Poor Mrs. Marshall died on the eve of the New Year, and
+both Mr. Hamilton and I feared that Elspeth would soon follow her.
+
+A hard frost had set in, and granny's feeble strength seemed to succumb
+under the pressure of the severe cold; she had taken to her bed, and lay
+there growing weaker every day. Poor Mary had died very peacefully, with
+her hand in her husband's. I had been with her all day, and I did not
+leave until it was all over.
+
+Jill was as good as gold, and helped me with Elspeth and the children,
+and she always spent an hour or two with Robin; but by and by she began
+asking to go up to Gladwyn of her own accord, or proposing to have tea
+with Mrs. Maberley.
+
+'Of course I would prefer to stop with you, Ursie dear,' she said
+affectionately; 'I would rather talk to you than to any one else; but
+then, you see, you are never at home, and when you do come in, poor
+darling, you are so tired that you are only fit for a nap.' And I could
+not deny that this was the truth. After my hard day's work I was not
+always disposed for Jill's lively chatter, and yet her bright face was
+a very pleasant sight for tired eyes.
+
+I used to question her sometimes about her visits to Gladwyn, and she
+was always ready to talk of what had passed in the day. She and Lady
+Betty had struck up quite a friendship: this rather surprised me, as
+they were utterly dissimilar, and had different tastes and pursuits. Jill
+was far superior in intelligence and intellectual power; she had wider
+sympathies, too; and though Lady Betty had a fund of originality, and was
+fresh and _naïve_; I could hardly understand Jill's fancy for her, until
+Jill said one day,
+
+'I do like that dear Lady Betty, she is such a crisp little piece of
+human goods; no one has properly unfolded her, or tested her good
+qualities; she is quite new and fresh, a novelty in girls. One never
+knows what she will say or do next: it is that that fascinates me, I
+believe; because,' went on Jill, and her great eyes grew bright and
+puzzled, 'it is not that she is clever; one gets to the bottom of her
+at once; there is not enough depth to drown you.'
+
+Jill did not take so readily to Gladys; she admired her, even liked her,
+but frankly owned that she found her depressing. 'If I talk to her long,
+I get a sort of ache over me,' she observed, in her graphic way. 'It is
+not that she looks dreadfully unhappy, but that there is no happiness in
+her face. Do you know what I mean? for I am apt to be vague. It rests me
+to look at you, Ursula; there is something quiet and comfortable in your
+expression; now, Miss Hamilton looks as though she had lost something she
+values, or never had it, and must go on looking for it, like that poor
+ghost lady who wanted to find her lost pearl.'
+
+Jill never could be induced to say much in Mr. Hamilton's favour, though
+he was very civil to her and paid her a great deal of attention. 'Oh,
+him!' she would say contemptuously, if I ever hazarded an observation: 'I
+never take much notice of odd-looking, ugly men: they may be clever, but
+they are not in my line. Mr. Hamilton stares too much for my taste, and
+I don't believe he is kind to his sisters; they are half afraid of him.'
+And nothing would induce her to alter her opinion.
+
+But Miss Darrell thoroughly amused her. Jill's shrewd, honest eyes were
+hardly in fault there: she used to narrate with glee any little fact she
+could glean about 'the lady with two faces,' as she used to call her.
+
+'Oh, she is a deep one,' Jill would say. 'I could not understand her at
+first. I thought she was just bright and talkative and good-natured, and
+I thought it nice to sit and listen to her, and she was very kind, and
+petted me a good deal, and I did not find her out at first.'
+
+'Find her out! what do you mean, Jill?' I asked innocently.
+
+'Why, that she is not good-natured a bit, really,' with a sagacious nod
+of her head. 'She keeps a stock of smiles for Cousin Giles and any chance
+visitor. She is not half so nice and charming when Miss Hamilton and Lady
+Betty are alone with her. Oh, I heard her one day, when I was in the
+conservatory with Lady Betty. Lady Betty held up her finger and said,
+'Hush!' and there she was talking in such a disagreeable, sneering voice
+to Miss Hamilton, only I stopped my ears and would not listen. And now
+she has got used to me she says unpleasant little things before my face,
+and then when "dear Cousin Giles" comes in'--and here Jill looked
+wicked--'she is all sweetness and amiability, quite charming, in fact.
+Now, that is what I hate, for a person to wear two faces, and have
+different voices: it shows they are not true.'
+
+'Well, perhaps you are right, dear'; for, without being uncharitable
+to Miss Darrell, I wished to put Jill on her guard a little.
+
+'I don't like the way she talks about you,' went on Jill indignantly.
+'She always begins when we are alone; not exactly saying things so much
+as implying them.'
+
+'Indeed! What sort of things?' I asked carelessly.
+
+'Oh, she is always hinting that it is rather odd for you to be living
+alone; she calls you deliciously unconventional and strong-minded,
+but I know what she means by that. Then she is so curious: she is always
+trying to find out how often Mr. Cunliffe or Mr. Tudor comes to see you,
+or if you go to the vicarage; and she said one day that she thought you
+preferred gentlemen's society to ladies', as they could never induce you
+to come up to Gladwyn, but of course you saw plenty of her cousin Giles
+in the village.'
+
+I felt my cheeks burn at this unwarrantable accusation, but Jill begged
+me not to disturb myself.
+
+'She won't make those sort of speeches to me again,' she said calmly.
+'She had a piece of my mind then that will last her for a long time.'
+
+'I hope you were not rude, Jill?'
+
+'Oh no! I only flew into a passion, and asked her how she dared to imply
+such a thing?--that my cousin Ursula was the best and the dearest woman
+in the world, and that no one else could hold a candle to her. "Ursula
+care for gentlemen's society!" I exclaimed: "why, at Hyde Park Gate we
+never could get her to remain in the drawing-room when those stupid
+officers were there: she never would talk to any of them, except old
+Colonel Trevanion, who is nearly blind! You do not understand Ursula: she
+is a perfect saint: she is the simplest, most unselfish, grandest-hearted
+creature; and you make out that she is a silly flirt like Sara." And then
+I had to hold my tongue, though I was as red as a turkey-cock, for there
+was Mr. Hamilton staring at us both, and asking if I were in my senses,
+and why I was quarrelling about my cousin, for of course my voice was as
+gruff and cross as possible.'
+
+'Oh, Jill!' I exclaimed, much distressed, 'how could you say such absurd
+things?--you know I never like you to talk in this exaggerated fashion. A
+saint, indeed! A pretty sort of saint Mr. Hamilton must think me!' for it
+nettled me to think that he had ever heard Jill's ridiculous nonsense.
+
+'Wait a moment, till I have finished: you are not too saintly to be cross
+sometimes. I will tell him that, if you like. Well, when he said this
+about quarrelling, Miss Darrell gave him one of her sweet smiles.
+
+'"Nonsense, Giles, as though I mind what this dear foolish child says;
+she is indulging in a panegyric on her cousin's virtues, because I said
+she was a little masculine and strong-minded and rather looked down upon
+us poor women. I have pressed her over and over again to spend an evening
+with us, but she always puts us off. I am afraid we Gladwyn ladies are
+not to her taste."
+
+'"Don't be silly, Etta. Have I not told you poor old Elspeth is
+dying?--Miss Garston will not leave her, you may be sure of that." And
+then Mr. Hamilton said to me in quite a nice way,--oh, I did not dislike
+him so much that evening,--"I daresay you misunderstand Etta. I assure
+you we all think most highly of your cousin, and she will always be a
+welcome guest here, and I hope you will induce her to come soon."
+Wasn't it nice of him? Dear Etta did not dare to say another word.'
+
+'Very nice, Jill; but indeed I do not want to hear any more of Miss
+Darrell's speeches.' And I got up hastily and opened the piano to put
+a stop to the conversation. Jill was always pleased when I would sing
+to her, but somehow my voice was not quite in order that evening.
+
+The next day Jill surprised me very much by asking me if I knew that Miss
+Hamilton was going to Bournemouth for the rest of the winter.
+
+'Mrs. Maberley has invited her, and Mr. Hamilton thinks it will do her so
+much good: they are going early next week. She wants to see you, Ursula;
+she says you have not met since Christmas. Could you go this afternoon?
+Miss Darrell will be out.'
+
+I considered for a moment, and then said yes, I would certainly go up to
+Gladwyn. It made me feel a little dull to think Miss Hamilton was going
+away; we had not exchanged a word since that Sunday evening, but I had
+thought of her so much since then. My patients had engrossed my time, but
+hardly my thoughts. Poor Elspeth was slowly dying, and I had to be
+constantly with her. Marshall had not yet resumed work, but he was in
+poor spirits from the loss of his wife, and could hardly be a comfort to
+the poor creature. I put off my visit to Phoebe until the evening, and
+walked up to Gladwyn with Jill; she and Lady Betty were going for a walk,
+and were to have tea with the Maberleys. I learned afterwards that Mr.
+Tudor met them quite accidentally about three miles from Heathfield, and
+had accompanied them to Maplehurst, where he made himself so pleasant to
+the old lady that he was pressed to remain. Oh, Mr. Tudor, I am afraid
+you are not quite so artless as you look! I began to wish Aunt Philippa
+would soon recall Jill.
+
+I found Miss Hamilton alone, and she seemed very glad to see me; her fair
+face quite flushed with pleasure when she saw me enter the drawing-room.
+
+'I was afraid it was some stupid visitor,' she said frankly, 'when I
+heard the door-bell ring. Did it trouble you to come? How tired you look!
+there, you shall take Giles's chair,' putting me with gentle force in a
+big blue-velvet chair that always stood by the fire; and then she took
+off my wraps and unfastened my gloves, and made me feel how glad she was
+to wait on me.
+
+'You are going away,' I said, rather lugubriously, for I felt all at
+once how I should miss her. She looked a little better and brighter, I
+thought, or was it only temporary excitement?
+
+'Yes,' she returned seriously, but not sadly, 'I think it will be better.
+I am almost glad to go away, except that I shall not see you,' looking at
+me affectionately.
+
+'Oh, if you wish to go,' for I was so relieved to hear her say this.
+
+'It is not that I wish it, exactly, but that I feel it will be better:
+things are so uncomfortable just now, more than usual, I think. Etta
+seems always worrying herself and me; sometimes I fancy that she wants
+to get rid of me, that I am too troublesome,' with a faint smile. 'She
+worries about my health and want of spirits. I suppose I am rather a
+depressing element in the house, and, as I get rather tired of all this
+fuss, I think it will be better to leave it behind for a little.'
+
+'That sounds as though you were driven away from home, Miss Hamilton.'
+
+'Miss Hamilton!' reproachfully; 'that is naughty, Ursula. I do not call
+you Miss Garston.'
+
+'Gladys, then.'
+
+'Perhaps my restlessness is driving me away,' she returned sadly. 'I do
+feel so restless without my work. I never minded Etta's fussiness so
+much. I daresay she means it kindly, but it harasses me. I am one of
+those reserved people who do not find it easy to talk of their feelings,
+bodily or mental, except to a chosen few. You are one,--perhaps not the
+only one.'
+
+'Of course not,' for she hesitated. 'You do not suppose that I laid such
+flattering unction to my soul?'
+
+'Oh, but I could tell you anything,' she returned seriously. 'You seem to
+draw out one's thoughts while one is thinking them. Yes, I am sorry to
+leave you even for a few weeks; but, for many reasons, Giles is right,
+and the change will be good for me.'
+
+'If you will only come back looking better and brighter I will gladly let
+you go.'
+
+'I do not promise you that,' she answered quickly, 'unless you remove
+the pressure of a very heavy burden; but I shall be quieter and more at
+peace, and I am very fond of Colonel and Mrs. Maberley: they are dear
+people, and they spoil me dreadfully.'
+
+'I am thankful some one spoils you, Gladys.'
+
+She smiled at that.
+
+'Uncle Max is still away,' I observed, after a brief silence. 'He went to
+Torquay to see an invalid friend, and he is still there. Mr. Tudor does
+not expect him back until the end of next week.'
+
+'Yes, I know,' she returned, in a low voice; 'but we shall be at
+Bournemouth before then. Will you bid him good-bye for me, Ursula, and
+say that I hope his visit has rested and refreshed him? He was not very
+well, you told me.'
+
+'No, but he is better now: he writes very cheerfully. Gladys, when you
+come back you will be stronger, I hope. I really do hope you will resume
+your work then; it will be far better for you to do so.'
+
+'You cannot judge,' she said gently. 'I am afraid that I shall be unable
+to do that.' And somehow her manner closed the subject; but I was
+determined to make her speak on another subject.
+
+'I want to tell you something that I think you ought to know,' I began,
+rather abruptly. 'Mrs. Maberley spoke to me about your brother Eric.'
+
+'Ursula!'
+
+'I could not let you go away and not know this: it did not seem honest.
+It has troubled me a great deal. Mrs. Maberley would tell me, and she
+told it so nicely; and Mr. Hamilton is aware that I know, and I am afraid
+he is not pleased about it.'
+
+She put up her hands to her face for a moment, with a gesture full of
+distress.
+
+'I meant to tell you myself,' she said, in a stifled voice, 'but not now;
+not until I felt stronger.'
+
+'And now you will not have that pain, Gladys. I think you ought to be
+relieved that some one else has told me.' But she shook her head.
+
+'How do I know what they said? And Giles is aware of it, you say. Oh,
+Ursula, for pity's sake, tell me, has he talked to you about Eric?'
+
+'No, no, not in the way you mean: he only said that we must not judge or
+misjudge other people. He seemed afraid that I should misjudge him.'
+
+'Oh, I am thankful to know that. I could not bear to have the poor boy
+discussed between you two. Giles would have made you believe everything,
+he has such a way with him, and you would not know any better. Oh,
+Ursula,' in a piteous voice, 'you must not listen to them; they are all
+so hard on my poor darling. Faulty as he was, he was innocent of the
+crime laid to his charge; they have accused him falsely. Eric never
+took that cheque.'
+
+I could see she was strongly agitated. Her delicate throat swelled with
+emotion, and she took hold of my hands and held them tightly, and her
+large blue-gray eyes were fixed on my face with such a beseeching
+expression that I could have promised to believe anything. And yet she
+was right. Mr. Hamilton had a way with him that influenced people
+strongly; he could speak with a power and authority that seemed to
+dominate one in spite of one's self. It has always appeared to me that we
+poor women are easily silenced and subjugated by a strong masculine will.
+It is difficult to assert a timid individuality in the presence of a
+regnant force.
+
+I answered her as gently as I could. 'Dear Gladys, you will make yourself
+ill. Will it give you any relief to speak out? I will listen to anything
+you have to say.'
+
+She drew a deep breath, and the colour ebbed back into her face.
+
+'Perhaps it may be a relief: I am weary of silence,--of trying to bear
+it alone; and other things are wearing me out. Etta is not so far wrong,
+after all.' And then she stopped, and looked at me wistfully, and her
+lips trembled. 'Ursula, you are a nurse; you go about comforting sick
+bodies and sick minds. If I am ill,--one must be ill sometimes,--will you
+promise to come and take care of me, in spite of all Etta may do or say?'
+
+I hesitated for a moment, for it seemed to me impossible to give an
+unconditional promise, but she continued reproachfully, 'You cannot have
+the heart to refuse! I wanted to ask you this before. You would not,
+surely, leave me to eat out my heart in this loneliness! If you knew what
+it is to have Etta with one at such times! an east wind would be more
+merciful and comforting. I know I am expressing myself far too strongly,
+but all this excites me. Do promise me this, Ursula. Giles will not
+hinder you coming: he appreciates you thoroughly: it will only be Etta
+who may try to oppose you.'
+
+Gladys was right; I had not the heart to refuse: so I gave her the
+required promise, and she grew calmed at once.
+
+'Now that is settled, I can breathe more freely,' she said presently.
+'I am afraid I am growing fanciful, but lately I have had such a horror
+of being ill. Giles would be kind, I know,--he is always kind in
+illness,--but he lets Etta influence him. Ursula, she influenced him and
+turned him against my poor boy; with all Giles's faults,--and he can be
+very hard and stern and unforgiving,--I am sure that of his own accord he
+would never have been so harsh to Eric.'
+
+'But Mrs. Maberley told me that Miss Darrell took your brother Eric's
+part.'
+
+'Yes, I know, she believes in Etta, and so does Giles; but she is not
+true; she has a dangerous way of implying blame when she is apparently
+praising a person: have you never noticed this? Giles was always more
+angry with Eric after Etta had been into the study to intercede for him.
+If she would only have let him alone; but that is not Etta's way: she
+must make or mar people's lives.'
+
+There was a concentrated bitterness in Gladys's voice, and her face grew
+stern.
+
+'There was no love between them. Eric detested Etta, and on her side I
+know she disliked him. Eric never would tell me the reason; he was always
+hinting that he had found her out, and that she knew it, and that in
+consequence she wanted to get rid of him; but I thought it was all fancy
+on the poor boy's part, and I used to laugh at him. I wish I had not
+laughed now, for there was doubtless truth in what he said.'
+
+'You were very fond of him, Gladys?' I asked softly, and as I spoke her
+face changed, and its expression grew soft and loving in a moment.
+
+'Love him? he was everything to me: he was my twin, you know,--and so
+beautiful. Oh, I never saw a man's face so beautiful as his; he had such
+bright ways, too, and such a ringing laugh,--I wake up sometimes and
+fancy I hear it; and then came his whistle and light footstep springing
+up the stairs; but it is only a part of my dream.' She sighed, and went
+on: 'He was so fond of me, and used to tell me everything, and he was
+never cross to me, however put out and miserable he was; and I know they
+made him very miserable. Giles was so strict with him, and would not give
+him any liberty, and when Eric rebelled he was cruel to him.'
+
+'Oh, not cruel, surely!' I could not help the involuntary exclamation.
+I thought Gladys looked at me a little strangely before she answered:
+
+'It seemed cruel to us; he was very harsh,--oh, terribly harsh; but I
+think--nay, I am sure--he has repented of his hardness. I was slow to
+forgive him: perhaps it would be more true to say I have not wholly
+forgiven him yet; but I know now that he has suffered, that he would undo
+a great deal of the past if he could, and this makes me more merciful.
+Sometimes in my heart I feel quite sorry for Giles.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE MYSTERY AT GLADWYN
+
+
+Just then Leah entered the room to replenish the fire, and Gladys dropped
+my hand hastily and took up a screen.
+
+'When my brother comes in we will have tea, Leah,' she said quickly.
+'Where is Thornton, that he does not come in to do this?'
+
+'I was passing through the hall, and I thought I would have a look at the
+fire, ma'am,' observed Leah, as she stooped to throw on a log. As she did
+so, I saw her take a furtive look at us both,--it gave me an unpleasant
+feeling,--and a moment afterwards she said in a soft, civil voice,--
+
+'There is no reason why Thornton should not bring tea now, if you like,
+ma'am. Master never cares to be waited for, and most likely he will be
+late this afternoon. I can walk home with Miss Garston when she is ready.
+I am sure my mistress would spare me.'
+
+'We will see about that presently, Leah; when I want Thornton I will ring
+for him.' Gladys spoke somewhat haughtily, and Leah left the room without
+another word; but I was sorry and troubled in my very heart to see Gladys
+motion me to be silent, and then go quickly to the door and open it and
+stand there for a moment. Her colour was a little heightened when she
+came back to her seat.
+
+'She has gone now, but we must be careful and not speak loudly. I hate
+myself for being so suspicious, but I have found out that some of our
+conversations have been retailed to Etta. I am afraid Leah listens at the
+door. She came in just now to interrupt our talk: it is Thornton's place
+to put coals on the drawing-room fire.'
+
+I felt an uncomfortable sensation creeping over me.
+
+'Do you think she even heard us just now?'
+
+'I fear so; and now Etta will know we have been talking about Eric. Oh, I
+am glad I am going away! it gets too unbearable. Ursula, I shall write to
+you, and you must answer me. Think what a comfort your letters will be to
+me; I shall be able to depend on what you say. Lady Betty is so careless,
+she knows what Etta is, and yet she will leave her letters about, and
+more than once they have not reached me. I am afraid that Leah is a
+little unscrupulous in such matters.'
+
+I was aghast as I listened to her, but she changed the subject quickly.
+
+'What were we talking about? Oh, I said Giles was hard; and so he was;
+but Eric was faulty too.
+
+'He was very idle; he would not work, and he thought of nothing but his
+painting. Giles always says I encouraged him in his idleness; but this is
+hardly the truth. I used to try and coax him to open his books, but he
+had got this craze for painting, and he spent hours at his easel. I
+thought it was a great pity that Giles forced him to take up law; if he
+had talent it was surely better for him to be an artist; but Giles and
+Etta persisted in ignoring his talent. They called his pictures daubs,
+and ridiculed his artistic notions.'
+
+'Do you really believe that he would have worked successfully as an
+artist?'
+
+'It is difficult for me to judge. Eric was so young, and had had little
+training, and then he only painted in a desultory way: as I have told
+you, he was very idle. I think if Giles had been more fatherly with him,
+and had remonstrated with him more gently, and showed him the sense and
+fitness of things, Eric would have been reasonable; but Etta made so much
+mischief between them that things only got worse and worse. Eric was
+extravagant; he never managed money well, and he got into debt, and that
+made Giles furious, and when Eric lost his temper--for he was very hot
+and soon got into a passion--Giles's coolness and hard sneering speeches
+nearly drove Eric wild. He came to me one day in the garden looking as
+white as a sheet,--that was the day before the cheque was missed,--and
+told me, in a conscience-stricken voice, that it was all up between him
+and Giles, he had got into a passion and struck Giles across the face.
+
+'"I don't know why he did not knock me down," cried the poor lad. "I
+deserved it, for I saw him wince with the pain; but he only took me by
+the shoulder--you know how strong Giles is--and turned me out of the room
+without saying a word, and there was the mark of my hand across his
+cheek. I feel like Cain, I do indeed, Gladys, 'For he that hateth his
+brother is a murderer'; and I hate Giles." And the poor boy--he was only
+twenty, Ursula--put his head down on my shoulder and sobbed like a child.
+If only Giles could have seen him then!'
+
+'Do you know what passed between them?'
+
+'Yes; I heard a little from both of them. Some of Eric's bills had been
+opened accidentally by Giles. Etta had told Giles that they were his,
+and he had called Eric to account. And then it seems that Eric's affairs
+were mixed up with another young man's, Edgar Brown, a very wild young
+fellow, with whom Giles had forbidden Eric to associate. They had been
+school-fellows, and Giles knew his father, Dr. Brown, and disliked him
+much; and it seems that Eric had promised to break with him, and had not
+kept his promise; and when Giles called him mean and dishonourable, Eric
+had forgotten himself, and struck Giles.
+
+'"It is all over between us, I tell you, Gladys," the poor boy kept
+saying. "Giles says he shall take me away from Oxford, and I am to be put
+in an attorney's office: he declares I shall ruin him. I cannot stop here
+to be tormented and bullied, and I will never go near old Armstrong: why,
+the life would be worse than a convict's. I shall just go and enlist, and
+then there is a chance of getting rid of this miserable life." But I did
+not take much notice of this speech, for I knew Eric had no wish to enter
+the army; and certainly he would never do such a rash thing as enlist: he
+always declared he would as soon be a shoeblack. What does that look
+mean, Ursula?' for I was glancing uneasily at the door. Was it my fancy,
+or did I really hear the faint rustle of a dress on the tessellated
+pavement of the hall? In another moment Gladys understood, and her voice
+dropped into a whisper.
+
+'Come closer to me. I mean to tell you all in spite of them. I will be as
+quick as I can, or Giles will be here.
+
+'I never saw Eric in such a state as he was that day. He seemed nearly
+beside himself: nothing I could say seemed to give him any comfort. He
+shut himself up in his room and refused to eat. He would not admit me for
+a long time, but when he at last opened the door I saw that his table was
+strewn with papers, and a letter directed to Giles lay beside them.
+
+'We sat down and had a long talk. He told me that he had got into more
+difficulties than even Giles suspected. He had been led away by Edgar
+Brown. I brought him all the money I had, which was little enough, and
+promised him my next quarter's allowance. I remember he spoke again of
+enlisting, and said that any life, however hard, would be preferable to
+the present one. He could not stay here and be slandered by Etta and
+bullied by Giles. He seemed very unhappy, and once he put down his head
+upon his arms and groaned. It was just then that I heard a slight
+movement outside the door, and opened it just in time to see Leah gliding
+round the corner. Ursula, she had heard every word that my poor boy had
+said, and it is Leah's evidence that has helped to criminate him.'
+
+'Yes, I see. But did you not put your brother on his guard?'
+
+'No,' she returned sadly, 'I made the grievous mistake of keeping Leah's
+eavesdropping to myself. I thought Eric had enough to trouble him,
+without adding to his discomfort. I would give much now to have done
+otherwise.
+
+'I stayed up late with him, and did not leave him until he had promised
+to go to bed. Giles was still in the study when I went to my room, but he
+came up shortly afterwards, for I could hear his footsteps distinctly
+passing my door. He must have passed Leah in the passage, for I heard him
+say, "You are up late to-night, Leah," but her answer escaped me.
+
+'I can tell you no more on my own evidence; but Eric's account, which I
+believe as surely as I am holding your hand now, is this:
+
+'He heard Giles come up to bed, and a sudden impulse prompted him to go
+down to the study and place his letter on Giles's desk. It was a very
+wild, foolish letter, written under strong excitement. I saw it
+afterwards, and felt that it had better not have been written. Among
+other things, he informed Giles that he would sooner destroy himself than
+go into Armstrong's office, and that he (Giles) had made his life so
+bitter to him that he thought he might as well do it: oh, Ursula, of
+course it was wrong of him, but indeed he had had terrible provocation.
+He had made up his mind to put this letter on Giles's desk before he
+slept: so he slipped off his boots, that I might not hear him pass my
+door, and crept down to the study. He had his chamber candlestick, as he
+feared that he might have some difficulty with the fastenings, for he had
+heard Giles put up the chain and bell. All our doors on that floor have
+chains and bells; it is one of Giles's fads. To his great surprise,
+the door was ajar, and when he put down the candle on the table he had
+a passing fancy that the thick curtains that were drawn over one of the
+windows moved slightly, as though from a draught of air. He blamed
+himself afterwards that he had not gone up to the window and examined
+it, but in his perturbed mood he did not take much notice; but he was
+certainly startled when he turned round to see Leah, in her dark
+dressing-gown, standing in the threshold watching him with a queer look
+in her eyes. There was something in her expression that made him feel
+uneasy.
+
+'"I thought it was thieves," she said, and now she looked not at him, but
+across at the curtain. "What are you doing with master's papers, Mr.
+Eric?"
+
+'"Mind your own business," returned Eric sulkily: "do you think I am
+going to account to you for my actions?" And he took up his candlestick
+and marched off.'
+
+'And he left that woman in possession?'
+
+'Yes,' returned Gladys in a peculiar tone, and then she hurried on:
+'The next morning Giles missed a cheque for a large amount that he had
+received the previous night and placed in one of the compartments of
+his desk, and in its place he found Eric's letter. Do you notice the
+discrepancy here? Eric vowed to me that he had placed the letter on the
+desk, that he never dreamt of opening it, that he always believed Giles
+kept it locked, that if Giles had been careless and left the key in it
+he knew nothing about it. His business to the study was to put his letter
+where Giles would be likely to find it on entering the room. Ursula, how
+did that letter get into the desk?
+
+'We were all summoned to the study when the cheque was missed. Etta
+fetched me. She said very little, and looked unusually pale. Giles was in
+a terrible state of anger, she informed me, and Leah was speaking to him.
+
+'Alas! she had been speaking to some purpose. I found Eric almost dumb
+with fury. Giles had refused to believe his assertion of innocence, and
+he had no proof. Leah's statement had been overwhelming, and bore the
+outward stamp of veracity.
+
+'She told her master that, thinking she heard a noise, and being fearful
+of thieves, she had crept down in her dressing-gown to the study, and, to
+her horror, had seen Mr. Eric with his hand in his brother's desk, and
+she could take her oath that he put some paper or other in his pocket.
+She had not liked to disturb her master, not knowing that there was money
+in the case.
+
+'Ursula, I cannot tell you any more that passed. That woman had
+effectually blackened my poor boy's honour. No one believed his word,
+though he swore that he was innocent. I heard high words pass between
+the brothers. I know Giles called Eric a liar and a thief, and Eric
+rushed at him like a madman, and then I fainted. When I recovered I
+found Lady Betty crying over me and Leah rubbing my hands. No one else
+was there. Eric had dashed up to his room, and Giles and Etta were in
+the drawing-room. I told Leah to go out of my sight, for I hated her; and
+I felt I did hate her. And when she left us alone I managed, with Lady
+Betty's help, to crawl up to Eric's room. But, though we heard him raging
+about it, he would not admit us. So I went and lay down on my bed and
+slept from sheer grief and exhaustion.
+
+'When I woke from that stupor,--for it was more stupor than sleep,--it
+was late in the afternoon. I shall always believe the wine Leah gave me
+was drugged. How I wish I had dashed the glass away from my lips! But I
+was weak, and she had compelled me to drink it.
+
+'Lady Betty was still sitting by me. She seemed half frightened by my
+long sleep. She said Eric had come in and had kissed me, but very
+lightly, so as not to disturb me. And she thought there were tears
+in his eyes as he went out. Ursula, I have never seen him since. He
+left the house almost immediately afterwards, but no one saw him go. By
+some strange oversight Giles's telegram to the London Bank to stop the
+cheque did not reach them in time. And yet Etta went herself to the
+telegraph-office. As you may have perhaps heard, a tall fair young man,
+with a light moustache, cashed the cheque early in the afternoon. Yes, I
+know, Ursula, the circumstantial evidence is rather strong just here. I
+am quite aware that it was possible for Eric after leaving our house to
+be in London at the time mentioned, but no one can prove that it was
+Eric.
+
+'Edgar Brown is tall and fair, and there are plenty of young men
+answering to that description; and I maintain, and shall maintain to my
+dying day,--and I am sure Mr. Cunliffe agrees with me,--that it was not
+Eric who presented that cheque. The clerk told Giles that the young man
+had a scar across his cheek and a slight cut, though he was decidedly
+good-looking. But Giles refused to believe this. He says the clerk made
+a mistake about the last.
+
+'The next morning I received a letter from Eric, written at the Ship
+Hotel, Brighton, containing the exact particulars that I have given, and
+reiterating in the most solemn way that he was perfectly innocent of the
+shameful crime laid to his charge.
+
+'"You will believe me, Gladys, I know," he went on. "You will not let my
+enemies blacken my memory if you can help it. If I could only be on the
+spot to clear up the mystery; for there is a mystery about the cheque.
+But I have sworn never to cross the threshold of Gladwyn again until this
+insult is wiped out and Giles believes in my innocence. If we never meet
+again, my sweet sister, you will know I loved you as well as I could love
+anything; but I was never good and unselfish like you. And I fear--I
+greatly fear--that I shall never weather through this." That was all.
+The letter ended abruptly.
+
+'The following afternoon a messenger from the Ship asked to see Mr.
+Hamilton; and after Giles had been closeted with him for a few minutes he
+came out, looking white and scared, with Eric's watch and scarf in his
+hands. The man had told him the young gentleman had gone out and had not
+returned, and they had been found on the beach, at the extreme end of
+Hove, and they feared something had happened to him. He had ordered
+dinner at a certain time, but he had not made his appearance. The next
+morning they had heard reports in the town that caused them to institute
+inquiries. A letter in the pocket of the coat, directed to Eric Hamilton,
+Gladwyn, Heathfield, enabled them to communicate with his relatives. And
+they had lost no time in doing so. I never saw Giles so terribly upset.
+He looked as though he had received a blow. He went to Brighton at once,
+and afterwards to London, and employed every means to set our fears at
+rest, for a horrible suspicion that he had really made away with himself
+was in all our minds.
+
+'I was far too ill to notice all that went on. A fever seemed about me,
+and I could not eat or sleep. I think I should have done neither, that my
+poor brain must have given way under the shock of my apprehensions, but
+for Mr. Cunliffe.
+
+'He was a true friend,--a good Samaritan. He bound up my wounds and
+poured in oil and wine of divinest charity. He did not believe that Eric
+was guilty of either dishonesty or self-destruction. In his own mind he
+was inclined to believe that he wished us to think him dead. It was all
+a mystery; but we must wait and pray; and in time he managed to instil
+a faint hope into my mind that this might be so.
+
+'Etta was rather kind to me just then. She looked ill and worried, and
+seemed taken up with Giles. It was well that he should have some one to
+look after his comforts, for there was a breach between us that seemed as
+though it would never be healed. I saw that he was irritable and
+miserable,--that the thought of Eric robbed him of all peace. But I could
+make no effort to console him, for I felt as though my heart was
+breaking. I--' And here she hid her face in her hands, and I could see
+she was weeping, and I begged her earnestly to say no more, that I quite
+understood, and she might be sure of my sympathy with her and Eric. She
+kissed me gratefully, and said, 'Yes, I know. I am glad to have told you
+all this. Now you understand why I am so grateful to Mr. Cunliffe, why I
+am so sorry'--and here her lips quivered--'if I disappoint him. I feel as
+though he has given me back Eric from the dead. It is true I doubt
+sometimes, when I am ill or gloomy, but generally my faith is strong
+enough to withstand Etta's incredulity.'
+
+'Does Miss Darrell believe that he is dead?'
+
+'Yes; and she is so angry if any one doubts the fact. I don't know why
+she hates the poor boy so: even Mr. Cunliffe has reproved her for her
+want of charity. I think she fears Mr. Cunliffe more than any one, even
+Giles: she is always so careful what she says before him.'
+
+'Gladys, I think I hear your brother's voice in the hall, and your cheeks
+are quite wet: he will wonder what we have been talking about.'
+
+'I will ring for Thornton, and the tea: he shall find me clearing the
+table. Don't offer to help me, Ursula.' And I sat still obediently,
+watching her slow, graceful movements about the room in the firelight:
+her fair hair shone like a halo of gold, and the dark ruby gown she wore
+gathered richer and deeper tints. That beautiful, sad face, how I should
+miss it!
+
+It was some little time before Mr. Hamilton entered the room. Thornton
+had lighted the candles and arranged the tea-tray, and Gladys had placed
+herself at the table.
+
+He testified no surprise at seeing me, but walked to the fire, after
+greeting me, and warmed himself.
+
+'They told me you were here,' he said abruptly: 'I was at the cottage
+just now. Have you not had your tea? Why, it is quite late, Gladys, and
+I want to take Miss Garston away.'
+
+'Is there anything the matter, Mr. Hamilton?' for I was beginning to
+understand his manner better now.
+
+'Oh, I have some business for you, that is all,--another patient; but I
+will not tell you about it yet: you must have a good meal before you go
+out into the cold. I shall ring the bell for some more bread-and-butter;
+I know you dined early; and this hot cake will do you no good.' And, as
+I saw he meant to be obeyed, I tried to do justice to the delicious brown
+bread and butter; but our conversation had taken away my appetite.
+
+He stood over me rather like a sentinel until I had finished.
+
+'Now, then, I may as well tell you. Susan Locke is ill,--acute pneumonia.
+I have just been down to see her, and I am afraid it is a sharp attack.
+Well, if you are ready, we may as well be going; the neighbour who is
+with her seems a poor sort of body. They sent for you, but Mrs. Barton
+said you were with Elspeth, and when Kitty went there you were nowhere to
+be found.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+WEEPING MAY ENDURE FOR A NIGHT
+
+
+I could not suppress an exclamation when Mr. Hamilton mentioned the name.
+
+Susan Locke! Poor, simple, loving-hearted Susan! What would become of
+Phoebe if she died?
+
+Mr. Hamilton seemed to read my thoughts.
+
+'Yes,' he said, looking at me attentively, 'I knew you would be sorry;
+Miss Locke was a great favourite of yours. Poor woman! it is a sad
+business. I am afraid she is very ill: they ought to have sent for me
+before. Now, if you are ready, we will start at once.'
+
+'I will not keep you another minute. Good-bye, Ursula.' And Gladys kissed
+me, and quietly followed us to the door. It was snowing fast, and the
+ground was already white with the fallen flakes. Mr. Hamilton put up his
+umbrella, and stood waiting for me under the shrubs, but a sudden impulse
+made me linger.
+
+Gladys was still standing in the porch; her fair hair shone like a halo
+in the soft lamplight, her eyes were fixed on the falling snow. I had
+said good-bye to her so hastily: I ran back, and kissed her again.
+
+'I wish you were not going, Gladys; I shall miss you so.'
+
+'It is nice to hear that,' she returned gently. 'I shall remember those
+words, Ursula. Write to me often; your letters will be my only comfort.
+There, Giles is looking impatient; do not keep him waiting, dear.' And
+she drew back, and a moment afterwards I heard the door shut behind us.
+
+Mr. Hamilton did not speak as I joined him, and I thought that our walk
+would be a silent one, until he said presently, in rather a peculiar
+tone,--
+
+'Well, Miss Garston, I suppose I ought to congratulate you for succeeding
+where I have failed.' Of course I knew what he meant, but I pretended to
+misunderstand him, and he went on,--
+
+'You have won my sister's heart. Gladys cares for few people, but she
+seems very fond of you.'
+
+'The feeling is reciprocated, I can assure you.'
+
+'I am glad to know that,' he returned heartily. 'I only wish you
+could teach Gladys to be like other girls; she is too young and too
+pretty to take such grave views of life; it is unnatural at her age. One
+disappointment, however bitter, ought not to cloud her whole existence.
+Try to make her see things in a more reasonable light. Gladys is as good
+as gold. Of course I know that she is a fine creature; but it is not like
+a Christian to mourn over the inevitable in this undisciplined way.'
+
+He spoke with great feeling, and with a gentleness that surprised me.
+I felt sure then of his affection for his young sister; I wished Gladys
+could have heard him speak in this fatherly manner. But, in spite of my
+sympathy, it was difficult for me to answer him. I felt that this was a
+subject that I could not discuss with Mr. Hamilton, and yet he seemed to
+wish me to speak.
+
+'You must give her time to recover herself,' I said, rather lamely.
+'Gladys is very sensitive; she is more delicately organised than most
+people; her feelings are unusually deep. She has had a severe shock; it
+will not be easy to comfort her.'
+
+'No, I suppose not,' with a sigh; 'her faith has suffered shipwreck;
+but you must try to win her back to peace. Oh, you have much to do at
+Gladwyn, as well as other places. I want you to feel at home with us,
+Miss Garston. Some of us have our faults, we want knowing; but you must
+try and like us better, and then you will not find us ungrateful.'
+
+He stopped rather abruptly, as though he expected an answer, but I only
+stammered out that he was very kind, and that I hoped when Gladys
+returned from Bournemouth that I should often see her.
+
+'Oh, to be sure,' he returned hastily. 'I forgot that her absence would
+make a difference. You do not like poor Etta: I have noticed that. Well,
+perhaps she is a little fussy and managing; but she is a kind-hearted
+creature, and very good to us all. I do not know what I should have done
+without her; my sisters do not understand me, they are never at their
+ease with me. I feel this a trouble; I want to be good to them; but there
+always seems a barrier that one cannot break down. I suppose,' with
+intense bitterness, 'they lay the blame of that poor boy's death at my
+door, as though I would not give my right hand to have him back again.'
+
+'Oh no, Mr. Hamilton,' I exclaimed, shocked to hear him speak in this
+way, 'things are not so bad as that. I know Gladys would be more to you
+if she could.' But he turned upon me almost fiercely.
+
+'Do not tell me that,' he said harshly, 'for I cannot believe you. Gladys
+cared more for Eric's little finger than the whole of us put together;
+she looks upon me as his destroyer, as a hard taskmaster who oppressed
+him and drove him out of his home. Oh, you want to contradict me; you
+would tell me how gentle Gladys is, and how submissive. No, she is never
+angry, but her looks and words are cold as this frozen snow; she has not
+kissed me of her own accord since Eric left us. I sometimes think it is
+painful for her to live under my roof.'
+
+'Mr. Hamilton!'
+
+'Well, what now?' in the same repellent tone.
+
+'You are wrong; you are unjust. Gladys does not feel like that; she has
+tried to forgive you in her heart for any past mistake; she sees you
+regret much that has passed, and she is no longer bitter against you.
+I wish you would believe this. I wish you could understand that she, too,
+longs to break down the barrier. Perhaps I ought not to say it, but I
+think Miss Darrell keeps you apart from your sisters.'
+
+'What, Etta!' in an astonished tone. 'Why, she is always making
+excuses for Gladys's coldness. Come, Miss Garston, I cannot have you
+misunderstand my poor little cousin in this way. You have no idea how
+faithful and devoted she is. She has actually refused a most advantageous
+offer of marriage to remain with us. She told me this in confidence; the
+girls do not know it: perhaps I ought not to have repeated it; but you
+undervalue Etta. Few women would sacrifice themselves so entirely for
+their belongings.'
+
+'No, indeed,' was my reply to this; but I secretly marvelled at this
+piece of intelligence, and there was no time to ask any questions, for
+we had reached the cottage, and the next minute I was standing by Susan
+Locke's bedside.
+
+There was no need to tell me that poor Susan was in danger; the
+inflammation ran high; the flushed face, the difficult breathing,
+the strength and fulness of the rapid pulse, filled me with grave
+forebodings. Mr. Hamilton remained with me some time, and when he took
+his leave he promised to come again as early as possible in the morning.
+
+'I will stay altogether if you wish it,' he said kindly, 'if you feel
+the least uneasiness at being alone.' But I disclaimed all fear on this
+score. I only begged him to remain with the patient a few minutes while
+I spoke to Phoebe, and he agreed to this.
+
+It was late; but I knew she would not be asleep. How could she sleep,
+poor soul, with this fresh stroke threatening her? As I opened the door
+I heard her calling to me in a voice broken with sobs.
+
+'Oh, Miss Garston, I have been longing for you to come to me; you have
+been here for hours. I have been lying listening to your footsteps
+overhead. Do you know, the suspense is killing me?'
+
+'Yes, I am so sorry for you, Phoebe: it is hard to bear, is it not?
+But I could not leave your sister. We are doing all we can to ease her
+sufferings, but she is very very ill.'
+
+'Do you think that I do not know that? She is dying! My only sister is
+dying!' And here her tears burst out again. 'Ah, Miss Garston, those
+dreadful words are coming true, after all.'
+
+'What words, my poor Phoebe?' And I knelt down by her side and smoothed
+the hair from her damp forehead.
+
+'Oh, you know what I mean. I have repeated them before; they haunt me day
+and night, and you refused to take them back. "If we will not lie still
+under His hand, and learn the lesson He would teach us, fresh trials may
+be sent to humble us,"--fresh trials; and, oh, my God, Susan is dying!'
+
+'You must not say that to her nurse, Phoebe; you must try and strengthen
+my hands: indeed, all hope is not lost: the inflammation is very high,
+but who knows if your prayers may not save her?'
+
+'My prayers! my prayers!' covering her face while the tears trickled
+through her wasted fingers; 'as though God would listen to me who have
+been a rebel all my life.'
+
+'Ah, but you are not rebellious now: you have fought against Him all
+these years, but now all His waves and billows have gone over your head,
+and you cannot breast them alone.'
+
+'No, and I have deserved it all. I do try to pray, Miss Garston, I do
+indeed, but the words will not come. I can only say over and over again,
+"Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee," and then I stop
+and my heart seems breaking.'
+
+'Well, and what can be better than that cry of your poor despairing heart
+to your Father! Do you think that He will not have pity on His suffering
+child? Be generous in your penitence, Phoebe, and trust yourself and
+Susan in His hands.'
+
+'Ah, but you do not know all,' she continued, fixing her miserable eyes
+on me. 'I have not been good to Susan: I have let her sacrifice her life
+for me, and have taken it all as a matter of course. I made her bear all
+my bad tempers and never gave her a good word. She was too tired,--ah,
+she was often tired,--and then she took this chill, and I made her wait
+on me all the same. She told me she was ill and in great pain, and I kept
+her standing for a long time; and I would not bid her good-night when she
+went away; and I heard her sigh as she closed the door, and I called her
+back and she did not hear me; and now--' But here hysterical sobs checked
+her utterance.
+
+'Yes, but you are sorry now, and Susan has forgiven you. I think she
+wanted to send you a message, but she is in too great pain to speak. I
+heard her say, "Poor Phoebe," but I begged her not to make the effort;
+you see she is thinking of you still.'
+
+'My poor Susan! But she must not miss you; I am wicked and selfish to
+keep you like this. Go to her, Miss Garston!' And I was thankful to be
+dismissed.
+
+My heart was full when I re-entered the sick-room. Mr. Hamilton looked
+rather scrutinising as he rose to give me his place.
+
+'Your thoughts must be here,' he said meaningly. 'Forgive me, if I give
+you that hint: do not forget Providence is watching over that other room.
+One duty at a time, Miss Garston.' And, though I coloured at this
+wholesome rebuke, I knew he was correct.
+
+'Yes, he is right,' I thought, as I stood listening to poor Susan's
+oppressed and difficult breathing: 'the Divine Teacher is beside His
+child. It is not for us to question this discipline or plead for an
+easier lesson.' But none the less did the fervent petition rise from my
+heart that the angel of death might not be suffered to enter this house.
+
+The night wore on, but, alas! there was no improvement. When Mr. Hamilton
+came through the snow the next morning he looked grave and dissatisfied,
+and then he asked me if I wanted any help; but I shook my head. 'Mrs.
+Martin is in the house: she will look after Phoebe and Kitty.'
+
+When he had gone, I wrote a little note and gave it to Kitty:
+
+'I cannot leave Susan for a minute, she is so very ill. Mr. Hamilton can
+see no improvement. He is coming again at mid-day. She suffers very much;
+but we will not give up hope, you and I;' and I bade Kitty carry it to
+her aunt.
+
+When Mr. Hamilton returned, he brought a little covered basket with him,
+and bade me rather peremptorily take my luncheon while he watched beside
+the patient.
+
+This act of thoughtfulness touched me. I wondered who had packed the
+basket: there was the wing of a chicken, some delicate slices of tongue,
+a roll, and some jelly. A little note lay at the bottom:
+
+'Giles has asked me to provide a tempting luncheon: he says you have
+had a sad night with poor Miss Locke, and are looking very tired. Poor
+Ursula! you are spending all your strength on other people.
+
+'In another half-hour I shall leave Gladwyn. I think I am glad to go,
+things are so miserable here, and one loses patience sometimes. I wish
+I could know poor Susan Locke's fate before I go; but Giles seems to have
+little hope. Take care of yourself for my sake, Ursula. I have grown to
+love you very dearly.
+
+'--Your affectionate friend,
+
+'Gladys.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton came again early in the evening, and I took the opportunity
+of paying Phoebe another visit.
+
+She was lying with her eyes closed, and looked very ill and
+exhausted,--alarmingly so, I thought: her emotion had nearly spent
+itself, and she was now passive and waiting for the worst.
+
+'Let me know when it happens,' she whispered. 'I have no hope now, but I
+will try and bear it.' And she drew my hands to her lips and kissed them:
+'they have touched Susan, they are doing my work, they are blessed hands
+to me.' And then she seemed unable to bear more.
+
+When Mr. Hamilton paid his final visit he announced his intention of
+remaining in the house. 'There will be a change one way or another before
+long, and I shall not leave you by yourself to-night,' he said quietly;
+and in my heart I was not sorry to hear this. He told me that there was a
+good fire downstairs, and that he meant to take possession of a very
+comfortable arm-chair, but that he wanted to remain in the sick-room for
+half an hour or so.
+
+I fancied that his professional eyes had already detected some change.
+Presently he walked away to the fireplace and stood looking down into the
+flames in rather an absent way.
+
+I could not help looking at him once or twice, he seemed so absorbed in
+thought; his dark face looked rigid, his lips firmly closed, and his
+forehead slightly puckered.
+
+More than once I had puzzled myself over a fancied resemblance of Mr.
+Hamilton to some picture I had seen. All at once I remembered the
+subject. It was the picture of a young Christian sleeping peacefully just
+before he was called to his combat with wild beasts in the amphitheatre:
+the keeper was even then opening the door: the lions were waiting for
+their prey. The face was boyish, but still Mr. Hamilton reminded me of
+him. And there was a picture of St. Augustine sitting with his mother
+Monica, that reminded me of Mr. Hamilton too. I had called him plain, and
+Jill thought him positively ugly, but, after all, there was something
+noble in his expression, a power that made itself felt.
+
+Just then the lines of his face relaxed and softened; he half smiled,
+looked up, and our eyes met. I was terribly abashed at the thought that
+he should find me watching him; but, to my surprise, his face brightened,
+and he roused himself and crossed the room.
+
+'I was dreaming, I think, but you woke me. Are you very tired? Shall I
+take your place?' But before I could reply his manner changed, and he
+stooped over the bed, and then looked at me with a smile.
+
+'I thought so. The breathing is certainly less difficult: the
+inflammation is diminishing. I see signs of improvement.'
+
+'Thank God!' was my answer to this, and before long this hope was
+verified: the pain and difficulty of breathing were certainly less
+intense, the danger was subsiding.
+
+Mr. Hamilton went downstairs soon after this, and I settled to my
+solitary night-watch, but it was no longer dreary: every hour I felt more
+assured that Susan Locke would be restored to her sister.
+
+Once or twice during the night I crept into Phoebe's room to gladden her
+heart with the glad news, but she was sleeping heavily and I would not
+disturb her. 'Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the
+morning,' I said to myself, as I sat down by Susan's bedside. I was very
+weary, but a strange tumult of thoughts seemed surging through my brain,
+and I was unable to control them. Gladys's pale face and tear-filled eyes
+rose perpetually before me: her low, passionate tones vibrated in my ear.
+'They have accused him falsely,' I seemed to hear her say: 'Eric never
+took that cheque.'
+
+What a mystery in that quiet household! No wonder there was something
+unrestful in the atmosphere of Gladwyn,--that one felt oppressed and ill
+at ease in that house.
+
+Fragments of my conversation with Mr. Hamilton came unbidden to my
+memory. How strange that that proud, reserved man should have spoken so
+to me, that he had suffered his heart's bitterness to overflow in words
+to me, who was almost a stranger: 'They lay the blame of that poor boy's
+death at my door, as though I would not give my right hand to have him
+back again.' Oh, if Gladys had only heard the tone in which he said this,
+she must have believed and have been sorry for him.
+
+'They are too hard upon him,' I said to myself. 'If he has been stern
+and injudicious with his poor young brother, he has long ago repented
+of his hardness. He is very good to them all, but they will not try to
+understand him: it is not right of Gladys to treat him as a stranger.
+I am sorry for them all, but I begin to feel that Mr. Hamilton is not the
+only one to blame.'
+
+I wished I could have told him this, but I knew the words would never
+get themselves spoken. I might be sorry for him in my heart, but I could
+never tell him so, never assure him of my true sympathy. I was far too
+much in awe of him: there are some men one would never venture to pity.
+
+But all the same I longed to do him some secret service; he had been kind
+to me, and had helped me much in my work. If I could only succeed in
+bringing him and Gladys nearer together, if I could make them understand
+each other, I felt I would have spared no pains or trouble to do so.
+
+If he were not so infatuated on the subject of his cousin's merits, I
+thought scornfully, I should be no more sanguine about my success; but
+Miss Darrell had hoodwinked him completely. As long as he believed in all
+she chose to tell him, Gladys would never be in her proper place.
+
+As soon as it was light I heard Mr. Hamilton stirring in the room below.
+He came up for a moment to tell me that he was going home to breakfast;
+he looked quite fresh and brisk, and declared that he had had a capital
+night's sleep.
+
+'I am going to find some one to take your place while you go home and
+have a good seven hours' rest,' he said, in his decided way. 'I suppose
+you are aware that you have not slept for forty-eight hours? Kitty is
+going to make you some tea.' And with this he took himself off.
+
+I went into Phoebe's room presently. Kitty told me that she was awake at
+last. As soon as she saw me she put up her hands as though to ward off my
+approach.
+
+'Wait a moment,' she said huskily. 'You need not tell me; I know what you
+have come to say; I have no longer a sister: Susan is a saint in heaven.'
+
+For a moment I hesitated, afraid to speak. She had nerved herself to bear
+the worst, and I feared the revulsion of feeling would be too great. As I
+stood there silently looking down at her drawn, haggard face, I felt she
+would not have had strength to bear a fresh trial. If Susan had died
+Phoebe would not have long survived her.
+
+'You are wrong,' I said, very gently. 'I have no bad news for you this
+morning. The inflammation has diminished. Susan breathes more easily:
+each breath is no longer acute agony.'
+
+'Do you mean that she is better?' staring at me incredulously.
+
+'Most certainly she is better. The danger is over; but we must be very
+careful, for she will be ill for some time yet. Yes, indeed, Phoebe, you
+may believe me. Do you think I would deceive you? God has heard your
+prayers, and Susan is spared to you.'
+
+I never saw a human countenance so transformed as Phoebe's was that
+moment; every feature seemed to quiver with ecstasy; she could not speak,
+only she folded her hands as though in prayer. Presently she looked up,
+and said, as simply as a child,--
+
+'Oh, I am so happy! I never thought I should be happy again. You may
+leave me now, Miss Garston, for I want to thank God, for the first time
+in my life. I feel as though I must love Him now for giving Susan back
+to me.' And then again she begged me to leave her.
+
+Mr. Hamilton did not forget me. I had just put the sick-room in order
+when a respectable young woman made her appearance. She told me that her
+name was Carron, that she was a married woman and a friend of Miss
+Locke's, and she would willingly take my place until evening.
+
+I was thankful to accept this timely offer of help, and went home and
+enjoyed a deep dreamless sleep for some hours. When I woke it was
+evening. Jill was standing by my bedside with a tray in her hands.
+The room was bright with firelight. Jill's big eyes looked at me
+affectionately.
+
+'How you have slept, Ursie dear! just like a baby! I have been in and out
+half-a-dozen times; but no, you never stirred. I told Mr. Hamilton so,
+when he inquired an hour ago. Now, you are to drink this coffee, and when
+you are quite awake I will give you his message.'
+
+'I am quite awake now,' I returned, rubbing my eyes vigorously.
+
+'Well, then, let me see. Oh, Miss Locke is going on well, and Mrs. Carron
+will stop with her until eight o'clock. Phoebe has been ill, and they
+sent for him; but it was only faintness and palpitation, and she is
+better now. He has been to see Elspeth, and she is poorly; but there is
+no need for you to trouble about her. Miss Darrell is sending her broth
+and jelly, and Peggy waits on her very nicely. Lady Betty and I went to
+see her to-day, and she was as comfortable and cheery as possible, and
+told us that she felt like a lady in that big bed downstairs. Mr.
+Hamilton says she will not die just yet, but one of these days she will
+go off as quietly as a baby. She asked after you, Ursie, and sent you a
+power of love, and I hope it will do you good.'
+
+'And what have you been doing with yourself all day, Jill?' I asked,
+rather anxiously.
+
+'Oh, lots of things,' tossing back her thick locks. 'Let me see. Lady
+Betty came to fetch me for a walk, and we met Mr. Tudor. He is all alone,
+poor man, and very dull without Mr. Cunliffe; he told us so: so Lady
+Betty brought him back to lunch. And Miss Darrell was so cross, and told
+poor Lady Betty that she was very forward to do such a thing; they had
+such a quarrel in the drawing-room about it. Mr. Tudor came in and
+found Lady Betty crying, so he made us come out in the garden, and we
+played a new sort of Aunt Sally. Mr. Tudor stuck up an old hat of Mr.
+Hamilton's,--at least we found out it was not an old one after all,--and
+we snowballed it, and Mr. Hamilton came out and helped us. After tea, we
+all told ghost-stories round the fire. Miss Darrell does not like them,
+so she went up to her room. Mr. Tudor had to see a sick man, but he came
+back to dinner; but I would not stay, for I thought you would be waking,
+Ursie, so Mr. Hamilton brought me home.'
+
+'Jill!' I asked desperately, 'have they not written for you to join them
+at Hastings yet? I begin to think you have been idle long enough.'
+
+'Had you not better go to sleep again, Ursie dear?' returned Jill,
+marching off with my tray. But she made a little face at me as she went
+out of the door. 'I shall get into trouble over this,' I thought. 'I
+really must write to Aunt Philippa.' But I was spared the necessity, for
+the very next day Jill came to me at Miss Locke's to tell me, with a very
+long face, that her mother had written to say that Miss Gillespie was
+coming the following week, and Jill was to pack up and join them at
+Hastings the very next day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+'THERE IS NO ONE LIKE DONALD'
+
+
+Mrs. Carron very kindly took my place that I might be with Jill that last
+evening, and we spent it in Jill's favourite fashion, talking in the
+firelight.
+
+She was a little quiet and subdued, full of regret at leaving me, and
+more affectionate than ever.
+
+'I have never been so happy in my life,' she said, in rather a melancholy
+voice. 'When I get to Hastings, my visit here will seem like a dream, it
+has been so nice, somehow; you are such a dear old thing, Ursula, and I
+am so fond of Lady Betty, I shall ask mother to invite her in the
+holidays.'
+
+'And there is no one else you will regret, Jill?' I asked, anxious to
+sound her on one point.
+
+'Oh yes; I am sorry to bid good-bye to Mr. Tudor. He has been such fun
+lately. I really do think he is quite the nicest young man I know.'
+
+'Do you know many young men, my dear?' was my apparently innocent remark;
+but Jill was not deceived by this smooth speech.
+
+'Of course I do,' in a scornful voice; 'they come to see Sara, and I
+hate them so, flimsy stuck-up creatures, with their white ties and absurd
+little moustaches. Each one is more stupid and vapid than the other. And
+Sara must think so too; for she smiles on them all alike.'
+
+'You are terribly hard on the young men of your generation, Jill; I
+daresay I should think them very harmless and pleasant.' But she shook
+her head vigorously.
+
+'Why cannot they be natural, and say good-natured things, like Mr. Tudor?
+He is real, and not make-believe, pretending that he is too bored to live
+at all. One would think there was no truth anywhere, nothing but tinsel
+and sham, to listen to them. That is why I like Mr. Tudor: he has the
+ring of the true metal about him. Even Miss Darrell agrees with me
+there.'
+
+'Do you discuss Mr. Tudor with Miss Darrell?'
+
+'Why not?' opening her eyes widely. 'I like to talk about my friends,
+and I feel Mr. Tudor is a real friend. She was so interested,--really
+interested, I mean, without any humbug,--at least, pretence,' for here I
+held up my finger at Jill. 'She wanted to know if you liked him too, and
+I said, "Oh yes, so much; he was a great favourite of yours," and she
+seemed pleased to hear it.'
+
+'You silly child! I wish you would leave me and my likes and dislikes out
+of your conversations with Miss Darrell.'
+
+'Well, do you know, I try to do so, because I know how you hate her,--at
+least, dislike her: that is a more ladylike term,--you are so horribly
+particular, Ursula; but somehow your name always gets in, and I never
+know how, and there is no keeping you out. Sometimes she makes me
+dreadfully angry about you, and sometimes she says nice things; but
+there, we will not talk about the double-faced lady to-night. I
+understand her less than ever.'
+
+We glided into more serious subjects after this. I made Jill promise to
+be more patient with her life, and work from a greater sense of duty, and
+I begged her most earnestly to fight against discontent, and exorcise
+this youthful demon of hers, and again she promised to do her best.
+
+'I feel better about things, somehow: you have done me good, Ursie; you
+always do. I must make mother understand that I am nearly a woman, and
+that I do not intend to waste my time any longer dreaming childish
+dreams. I suppose mother is really fond of me, though she does find fault
+with me continually, and is always praising Sara.' Jill went on talking
+in this way for some time, and then we went upstairs together.
+
+I was rather provoked to find Mr. Tudor at the station the next morning.
+I suppose my steady look abashed him, for he muttered something about
+Smith's bookstall, as though I should be deceived by such a flimsy
+excuse. After all, Mr. Tudor was not better than other young men; in
+spite of Jill's praises, he was capable of this mild subterfuge to get
+his own way.
+
+Jill was so honestly and childishly pleased to see him that I ought to
+have been disarmed. She went off with him to the bookstall, while I
+looked after her luggage, and they stood there chattering and laughing
+until I joined them, and then Mr. Tudor grew suddenly quiet.
+
+As the train came up, I heard him ask Jill how long they were to stay at
+Hastings, and if they would be at Hyde Park Gate before Easter.
+
+'I shall be up in town then,' he remarked carelessly, 'to see some of my
+people.'
+
+'Oh yes, and you must come and see us,' she returned cheerfully.
+'Good-bye, Mr. Tudor. I am so sorry to leave Heathfield.'
+
+But, after all, Jill's last look was for me: as she leaned out of the
+carriage, waving her hand, she did not even glance at the young man who
+was standing silent and gloomy beside me. I felt rather sorry for the
+poor boy, as he turned away quite sadly.
+
+'I must go down to the schools: good-bye, Miss Garston,' he said
+hurriedly. One would have thought he had to make up for lost time, as he
+strode through the station and up the long road. Had Jill really taken
+his fancy, I wondered? had her big eyes and quaint speeches bewitched
+him? Mr. Tudor was a gentleman, and we all liked him; but what would
+Uncle Brian and Aunt Philippa say if a needy, good-looking young curate
+were suddenly to present himself as a lover for their daughter Jocelyn?
+Why, Jill would be rich some day,--poor Ralph was dead, and she and Sara
+would be co-heiresses. Her parents would expect her to make a grand
+match.
+
+I shook my head gravely over poor Lawrence's prospects as I took my way
+slowly up the hill. I was rather glad when his broad shoulders were out
+of sight; I should be sorry if any disappointment were to cloud his
+cheery nature.
+
+I missed Jill a great deal at first, but in my heart I was not sorry
+to get rid of the responsibility; a lively girl of sixteen, with strong
+individuality and marked precocity, is likely to be a formidable charge;
+but Mrs. Barton lamented her absence in no measured terms.
+
+'It seems so dull without Miss Jocelyn,' she said, the first evening.
+'She was such a lively young lady, and made us all cheerful. Why, she
+would run in and out the kitchen a dozen times a day, to feed the
+chickens, or pet the cat, or watch me knead the bread. She and Nathaniel
+got on famously together, and often I have found her helping him with the
+books, and laughing so merrily when he made a mistake. I used to think
+Nathaniel did it on purpose sometimes, just for the fun of it.'
+
+Yes, we all missed Jill, and I for one loved the girl dearly. It made me
+quite happy one day when she wrote a long letter, telling me that she was
+delighted with her new governess.
+
+'Miss Gillespie is as nice as possible,' she wrote. 'I already feel quite
+fond of her; my lessons are as interesting now as they used to be dull
+with Fräulein. She knows a great deal, and is not ashamed to confess when
+she is ignorant of anything; she says right out that she cannot answer my
+questions, and proposes that we should study it together. I quite enjoy
+our walks and talks, for she takes so much interest in all I tell her.
+She is a little dull and sad sometimes, as though she were thinking of
+past troubles; but I like to feel that I can cheer her up and do her
+good. Mother and Sara are delighted with her; she plays so beautifully,
+and they say that she is such a gentlewoman. When we come downstairs in
+the evening she will not allow me to creep into a corner; she makes me
+join in the conversation, and coaxes me to play my pieces; and she tries
+to prevent mother making horrid little remarks on my awkwardness.
+
+'"It will all come right, Mrs. Garston," I heard her say one day. "It is
+far wiser not to notice it: young girls are so sensitive, and Jocelyn is
+keenly alive to her shortcomings." And mother actually nodded assent to
+this, and the next moment she called me up, and said how much I had
+improved in my playing, and that Colonel Ferguson had told her that I
+had been exceedingly well taught.
+
+'By the bye, I am quite sure that Colonel Ferguson intends to be my
+brother-in-law: he is always here in the evening, and yesterday he sent
+Sara such a magnificent bouquet.'
+
+Jill's chatty letters were always amusing. She had prepared me
+beforehand, so I was not surprised at receiving a voluminous letter from
+Aunt Philippa a few days afterwards, informing me of Sara's engagement to
+Colonel Ferguson.
+
+'Your uncle and I are delighted with the match,' she wrote. 'Colonel
+Ferguson belongs to a very good old family, and he has private property.
+Your uncle says that he is a very intelligent man, and is much respected
+in the regiment.
+
+'Mrs. Fullerton thinks it is a pity for Sara to marry a widower; but I
+call that nonsense; he is a young-looking man for his age, and every one
+thinks him so handsome. Sara, poor darling, is as happy as possible. I
+believe that they are to be married soon after Easter, as he wants to get
+some salmon fishing in Norway: so we shall come up to Hyde Park Gate
+early next week, and see about the trousseau, for there is no time to be
+lost.'
+
+Sara added a few words in her pretty girlish handwriting.
+
+'I wonder if you will be very much surprised by mamma's letter, Ursula
+dear. We all thought he liked Lesbia, but no, he says that was entirely a
+mistake on our part, he never really thought of her at all.
+
+'Of course I am very happy. I think there is no one like Donald in the
+world. I cannot imagine why such a wise, clever man should fall in love
+with a silly little body like me. I suppose I must please him in some
+way, for, really, he seems dreadfully in love.
+
+'You must come to my wedding, Ursula, and I must choose your dress
+for you; of course father will pay for it, but I promise you it shall
+be pretty, and suitable to your complexion. I mean to have eight
+bridesmaids. Jocelyn will be one, of course, and I shall get that tall,
+fair Grace Underley to act as a foil to her bigness. I shall not ask
+poor Lesbia to be one; it would be too trying for her, and I know you
+will not care about it; but you must come for a week, and see all my
+pretty things, and help poor mamma, for she has only Jocelyn: so remember
+you are to keep yourself disengaged the week after Easter.'
+
+I wrote back that same evening warm congratulations to Sara and Aunt
+Philippa, and promised to come when Sara wanted me. A gay wedding was not
+to my taste, but I knew I owed this duty to them: they had been kind to
+me in their own fashion and according to their lights, and I would not
+fail them. Easter would fall late this year,--in the middle of April:
+there were still three months before Sara would be married, and most
+likely by that time I should need a few days' rest and change.
+
+The next morning I heard from Lesbia. It was a kind, sad little letter;
+she told me she was glad about Sara's engagement, and as they were still
+at Hastings she and her mother had called at Warrior Square, and had
+found Sara and her _fiancé_ together.
+
+'I think it has improved Sara already,' it went on; 'she was looking
+exceedingly pretty, and in good spirits, and she seemed very proud of
+her tall, grave-looking soldier. Mother and I always liked Colonel
+Ferguson. He and Sara are complete contrasts; I think her brightness
+and good-humour, as well as her beauty, have attracted him, for he is
+honestly in love! I liked the quiet, deferential way in which he treated
+her. I am sure he will make a kind husband. Mrs. Garston looked as happy
+as possible. I did not see Jocelyn; she was out riding with her father.
+
+'We are going down to dear Rutherford in March, but I have promised Sara
+to come up for the wedding. Don't sigh, Ursula: it is all in the day's
+work, and one has to do trying things sometimes.
+
+'I have come to think that perhaps dear Charlie is better off where he
+is. He was so enthusiastic and so true that life must have disappointed
+him. Perhaps I should have disappointed him too; but no, I should have
+loved him too well to do that.
+
+'I shall love to be at Rutherford during the spring. Everything will
+remind me of those sweet spring days two years ago. Oh, those walks and
+rides, and the evening when we listened to the nightingale and he told me
+that he loved me! I remember the very patch of grass where I stood. There
+was a little clump of alders, and I can see how he looked then. Oh,
+Ursula, these memories are very sad, but they are sweet, too; for Charlie
+is our Charlie still, is he not?'
+
+'Poor Lesbia!' I sighed, as I folded up her letter and prepared for my
+day's work. 'It must be hard for her to witness Sara's happiness, when
+her own life is so clouded. Her heart is still true to Charlie; but she
+is so young, and life is so long. I trust that better things are in store
+for her.'
+
+Miss Locke was recovering very slowly. Years of anxiety and hard work
+had overtaxed her strength sorely. Mr. Hamilton used to shake his head
+over her tardy progress, and tell her that she was a very unsatisfactory
+patient, and that he had expected to cure her long before this.
+
+'If it were not for you and my dear Miss Garston, I should never be lying
+here now,' she returned gratefully. 'I must have died; you know that,
+doctor; and even now, in spite of all the good things you send me, I am
+so weary and fit for nothing I feel as though I should never sit up
+again.'
+
+'Oh, we shall have you up before long,' he returned cheerfully. 'You
+are only rather slow about it. You are not troubling about your work or
+anything else, I hope, because the rent is paid, and there is plenty in
+the cupboard for Phoebe and Kitty.'
+
+'I know you have paid the rent, and I shall never be grateful enough to
+you, doctor; for what should I have done, with this long illness making
+me behindhand with everything? I am afraid Miss Garston puts her hand in
+her pocket sometimes. I hope the Lord will bless you both for your
+goodness to two helpless women. Ay, and he will bless you, doctor!'
+
+'I am sure I hope so,' he returned, in a good-humoured tone, shaking her
+hand. 'There! mind what your nurse says, and keep yourself easy: you will
+find Phoebe a different person when you see her next.'
+
+I was afraid Phoebe would find her sister much changed when they met.
+Miss Locke had greatly aged since her illness; her hair was much grayer,
+and her face was sunken, and I doubted whether she would ever be the same
+woman again. Mr. Hamilton and I had already discussed the sisters'
+future.
+
+'I am afraid they will be terribly pinched,' he said once. 'Miss Locke
+is suffering now from years of overwork. She will never be able to work
+as hard as she has done. And she has to provide for that child Kitty, as
+well as for poor Phoebe.'
+
+'We must think what is to be done,' I replied. 'Miss Locke is a very good
+manager: she is careful and thrifty. A little will go a long way with
+her.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton said no more on the subject just then, but a few days
+afterwards he told me that he intended to buy the cottage. He had a good
+deal of house-property in Heathfield, and a cottage more or less did not
+matter to him.
+
+'They shall live in it rent-free, and I will take care of the repairs.
+There will be no need for Miss Locke to work so hard then. She is a good
+woman, and I thoroughly respect her. Of course I know she is a favourite
+of yours, Miss Garston, but you must not think that influences me.'
+
+'As though I should imagine such a thing!' I returned, in quite an
+affronted tone. But Mr. Hamilton only laughed.
+
+'You are such an insignificant person, you see,' he went on
+mischievously. 'You are of so little use to your generation. People do
+not benefit by your example, or defer to your opinion. There is no St.
+Ursula in the calendar.' Now what did he mean by all this rigmarole? But
+he only laughed again in a provoking way, and went out.
+
+I had had both the sisters on my hands. Those hours of fearful suspense
+had told on Phoebe, and for a week or two we were very anxious about her.
+
+I kept the extent of her illness from Susan, and she never knew that
+Mr. Hamilton visited her daily. Strange to say, Phoebe gave us little
+trouble. She bore her bodily sufferings with surprising patience, and
+even made light of them; and she would thank me most gratefully when I
+waited on her.
+
+I was never long in her room. There was no reading or singing now.
+Nothing would induce her to keep me from Susan. She used to beg me to
+go back to Susan and leave her to Kitty. I never forgot Susan's look of
+astonishment when I told her this.
+
+'Somehow, it doesn't sound like Phoebe,' she said, looking at me a
+little wistfully. 'Are you sure you understand her, Miss Garston?--that
+something has not put her out? She has often sulked with me like that.'
+
+'Oh, Phoebe never sulks now,' I returned, smiling at this view of the
+case. 'She is not like the same woman, Susan. She thinks of other people
+now.' Miss Locke heard me silently, but I saw that she was still
+incredulous. She was not sanguine enough to hope for a miracle; and
+surely only a miracle could change Phoebe's sullen and morbid nature.
+
+The sisters were longing to meet, but the helplessness of the one and the
+long-protracted weakness of the other kept them long apart, though only a
+short flight of stairs divided them.
+
+At last I thought we might venture to bring Susan into Phoebe's room.
+
+The weather was less severe, and Susan seemed a little stronger, so Kitty
+and I hurried ourselves in preparation for a festive tea in Phoebe's
+room.
+
+She watched us with unconcealed interest as we spread the tea-cloth, and
+arranged the best china, and then placed an easy-chair by her bedside.
+
+The room really looked very bright and cosy. A little gray kitten that I
+had brought Kitty was asleep on the quilt; Phoebe had taken a great fancy
+to the pretty, playful little creature, and it was always with her;
+Kitty's large wax doll was lying with its curly head on her pillow.
+
+Susan trembled very much as she entered the room, leaning heavily on
+my arm. Phoebe lay quite motionless, watching her as she walked slowly
+towards the bed, then her face suddenly grew pitiful, and she held out
+her arms.
+
+'Oh, how ill you look, my poor Susan, and so old and gray! but what does
+it matter, so that I have got my Susan back? If you had died, I should
+have died too; God never meant to punish me like that.' And she stroked
+and kissed her face as though she were a child, and for a little while
+the two sisters mingled their tears together.
+
+Susan was too weak for much emotion, so I placed her comfortably in her
+easy-chair, and bade her look at Phoebe without troubling to talk; but
+her heart was too full for silence.
+
+'Why, my woman,' she burst out, 'you look real bonnie! I do believe your
+face has got a bit of colour in it, and you remind me of the old Phoebe;
+nay,' as Phoebe laughed at this, 'I never thought to hear you laugh
+again, my dearie.'
+
+'It is with the pleasure of seeing you,' returned Phoebe. 'If you only
+knew what I suffered while you lay ill! "there is no improvement," they
+said, and Miss Garston looked at me so pityingly; and if you had died and
+never spoken to me again,--and I had refused to bid you good-night,--you
+remember, Susan! oh, I think my heart would have broken if you had gone
+away and left me like that.'
+
+'Nay, I should have thought nothing about it, but that it was just
+Phoebe's way. Do you mean that you fretted about that, lass? Oh,' turning
+to me, for Phoebe was crying bitterly over the recollection, 'I would not
+believe you, Miss Garston, when you said Phoebe was changed, for I said
+to myself, "Surely she will be up to her old tricks again soon"; but now
+I see you are right. Nay, never fret, my bonnie woman, for I loved you
+when you were as tiresome and cross-grained as possible. I think I cannot
+help loving yon,' finished Susan simply, as she took her sister's hand.
+
+That was a happy evening that we spent in Phoebe's room. When tea was
+over we read a few chapters, Kitty and I, and then I sang some of
+Phoebe's favourite songs. When I had finished, I looked at them: Phoebe
+had fallen asleep with Susan's hand still in hers: there was a look of
+peaceful rest on the worn gray face that made me whisper to Miss Locke,--
+
+'The evil spirit is cast out at last, Susan.'
+
+'Ay,' returned Susan quietly. 'She is clothed and in her right mind, and
+I doubt not sitting at the feet of Him who has called her. I have got my
+Phoebe back again, thank God, as I have not seen her for many a long
+year.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+I HEAR ABOUT CAPTAIN HAMILTON
+
+
+It was now more than five weeks since Gladys had left us, but during that
+time I had heard from her frequently.
+
+Her letters were deeply interesting. She wrote freely, pouring out her
+thoughts on every subject without reserve. Somehow I felt, as I read
+them, that those letters gave as much pleasure to the writer as to the
+recipient; and I found afterwards that this was the case. Her
+consciousness of my sympathy with her made her open her heart more freely
+to me than to any other person. She delighted in telling me of the books
+she read, in describing the various effects of nature. Her descriptions
+were so powerful and graphic that they quite surprised me. She made me
+feel as though I were walking through the fir woods beside her, or
+standing on the sea-shore watching the white-crested waves rolling in and
+breaking into foam at our feet. A sort of dewy freshness seemed to stamp
+the pages. Gladys loved nature with all her heart; she revelled in the
+solemn grandeur of those woods, in the breadth and freedom of the ocean;
+it seemed to harmonise with her varying moods.
+
+'I feel a different creature already,' she wrote when she had been away
+a fortnight. 'Without owning myself happy (but happiness, active or
+negative, will never come to me again), still I am calmer and more at
+peace,--away from the oppressive influences that surrounded me at home.
+
+'I have made up my mind that the atmosphere of Gladwyn is fatal to my
+soul's health. I seem to wither up like some sensitive plant in that
+blighting air; half-truths, misunderstandings, and jealousies have
+corroded our home peace. I am better away from it all, for here I can own
+myself ill and miserable, and no one blames or misapprehends my meaning:
+there are no harsh judgments under the guise of pity.
+
+'These dear people are so truly charitable, they think no evil of a poor
+girl who is faithful to a brother's memory: they are patient with my sad
+moods, they leave me free to follow out my wishes. I wander about as I
+will, I sketch or read, I sit idle; no one blames me; they are as good to
+me as you would be in their place.
+
+'I shall stay away as long as possible, until I feel strong enough to
+take up my life again. You will not be vexed with me, my dear Ursula: you
+know how I have suffered; you of all others will sympathise with me.
+Think of the relief it is to wake up in the morning and feel that no
+jarring influences will be at work that day; that no eyes will pry into
+my secret sorrow, or seek to penetrate my very thoughts; that I may look
+and speak as I like; that my words will not be twisted to serve other
+people's purposes. Forgive me if I speak harshly, but indeed you do not
+know all yet. Your last letter made me a little sad, you speak so much of
+Giles. Do you really think I am hard upon him? The idea is painful to me.
+
+'I like you to think well of him. He is a good man. I have always
+thoroughly respected him, but there is no sympathy between us. Of course
+it is more Etta's fault than his: she has usurped my place, and Giles no
+longer needs me. Perhaps I am not kind to him, not sisterly or soft in my
+manners; but he treats me too much as a child. He never asks my opinion
+on any subject. We live under his protection, and he never grudges us
+money; he is generous in that way; but he never enters into our thoughts.
+Lady Betty and I lead our own lives.
+
+'You ask me why I do not write to him, my dear Ursula. Such a thought
+would never enter my head. Write to Giles! What should I say to him? How
+would such a letter ever get itself written? Do you suppose he would care
+for me as a correspondent? I should like you to ask him that question, if
+you dared. Giles's face would be a study. I fancy I write that letter,--a
+marvellous composition of commonplace nothings. "My dear brother, I think
+you will like to hear our Bournemouth news," etc. I can imagine him
+tossing it aside as he opens his other letters: "Gladys has actually
+written to me. I suppose she wants another cheque. See what she says,
+Etta. You may read it aloud, if you like, while I finish my breakfast."
+Now do not look incredulous. I once saw Lady Betty's letter treated in
+this way, and all her poor little sentences pulled to pieces in Etta's
+usual fashion. No, thank you, I will not write to Giles. I write to Lady
+Betty sometimes, but not often: that is why she comes to you for news. We
+are a queer household, Ursula. I am very fond of my dear little Lady
+Betty, but somehow I have never enjoyed writing to her since Etta one day
+handed to her one of my letters opened by mistake. Lady Betty has fancied
+the mistake has occurred more than once.'
+
+I put down this letter with a sigh; it was the only painful one I had
+received from Gladys. My remark about her writing to her brother had
+evidently upset her, but after this she did not speak much about Gladwyn,
+and by tacit consent we spoke little about any of her people except Lady
+Betty. When I mentioned Mr. Hamilton I did so casually, and only with
+reference to my own work. He was so mixed up with my daily life, I came
+so continually into contact with him, that it was impossible to avoid his
+name.
+
+Gladys understood this, for she once replied,--
+
+'I am really and honestly glad that you and Giles work so well together.
+He will be a good friend to you, I know, for when he forms a favourable
+opinion of a person he is slow to change it, and Giles is one who, with
+all his faults, will go through fire and water for his friends. I like to
+hear of him in this way, for you always put him in the best light, and
+though you may not believe it after all my hard speeches, I am
+sufficiently proud of my brother to wish him to be properly appreciated.'
+And after this I mentioned him less reluctantly.
+
+Max came back about ten days after Jill had left us. I found him waiting
+for me one evening when I got back to the cottage. As usual, he greeted
+me most affectionately, only he laughed when I made him turn to the light
+that I might see how he looked.
+
+'Well, what is your opinion, Ursula, my dear? I hope you have noticed the
+gray hairs in my beard. I saw them there this morning.'
+
+'You are rather tanned by the cold winds. I suppose Torquay has done you
+good; but your eyes have not lost their tired look, Max: you are not a
+bit rested.'
+
+'I believe I want more work: too much rest would kill me with ennui,'
+stretching out his arms with a sort of weary gesture. 'I walked a great
+deal at Torquay; I was out in the air all day; but it did not seem to be
+what I wanted: I was terribly bored. Tudor is glad to get me back. The
+fellow actually seems dull. Have you any idea what has gone wrong with
+him, Ursula?' But I prudently turned a deaf ear to this question, and he
+did not follow it up; and a moment afterwards he mentioned that he had
+been at Gladwyn, and that Miss Darrell had given him a good account of
+Miss Hamilton.
+
+'I had no idea that she was away until this afternoon. Her departure was
+rather sudden, was it not?'
+
+I think he was glad when I gave him Gladys's message; but he looked
+rather grave when I told him how much she was enjoying her freedom.
+
+'She seems a different creature; those Maberleys are so good to her; they
+pet her, and yet leave her uncontrolled to follow her own wishes. I am
+more at rest about her there.'
+
+'A girl ought to be happy in her own home,' he returned, somewhat
+moodily. 'I think Miss Hamilton has indulged her sadness long enough.
+Perhaps there are other reasons for her being better. I suppose she has
+not heard--?' And here he stopped rather awkwardly.
+
+'Do you mean whether she has heard anything of Eric? Oh no, Max.'
+
+'No, I was not meaning that,' looking at me rather astonished. 'Of course
+we know the poor boy is dead. I was only wondering if she had had an
+Indian letter lately. Well, it is none of my affair, and I cannot wait to
+hear more now. Good-night, little she-bear; I am off.' And he actually
+was off, in spite of my calling him quite loudly in the porch, for I
+wanted him to tell me what he meant. Had Gladys any special correspondent
+in India? I wondered if I might venture to question Lady Betty.
+
+As it very often happens, she played quite innocently into my hands, for
+the very next day she came to tell me that she had had a letter from
+Gladys.
+
+'It was a very short one,' she grumbled. 'Only she had an Indian letter
+to answer, and that took up her time, so that was a pretty good excuse
+for once.'
+
+'Has Gladys any special friend in India?'
+
+'Only Claude!--I mean our cousin, Claude Hamilton. Have you not often
+heard us talk of him? How strange! Why, he used to stay with us for
+months at a time, and he and Gladys were great friends: they correspond.
+He is Captain Hamilton now; his regiment was ordered to India just at the
+time poor dear Eric disappeared; he was awfully shocked about that, I
+remember. Etta wrote and told him all about it; he was a great favourite
+of hers. We none of us thought him handsome except Etta; he was a
+nice-looking fellow, but nothing else.'
+
+'And you and Gladys are fond of him?'
+
+'Oh yes.' But here Lady Betty looked a little queer.
+
+'Gladys writes to him most: she has always been his correspondent.
+Now and then I get a letter written to me. You see, he has no one else
+belonging to him, now his mother is dead. Aunt Agnes died about two years
+ago, and he never had brothers or sisters, so he adopted us.'
+
+'Uncle Max knew him, of course?'
+
+'To be sure. Mr. Cunliffe knew all our people. Claude was a favourite of
+his, too. I think every one liked him; he was so straightforward, and
+never did anything mean. I think he will make a splendid officer; he has
+had fever lately, and we rather expect he is coming home on sick-leave.
+Etta hopes so.'
+
+'Gladys has never spoken of her cousin to me.'
+
+'That is because you two are always talking about other things,--poor
+Eric, for example. Gladys likes to talk about Claude, of course: he is
+her own cousin.' And Lady Betty's manner was just a little defiant, as
+though I had accused Gladys of some indiscretion. I heard her mutter,
+'They find plenty of fault with her about that,' but I took no notice.
+I had satisfied my curiosity, and I knew now why Max fancied an Indian
+letter would raise Gladys's spirits; but all the same he might have
+spoken out. Max had no business to be so mysterious with me.
+
+I heard Captain Hamilton's name again shortly afterwards. I was calling
+at Gladwyn one afternoon. I was loath to do so in Gladys's absence, but
+I dared not discontinue my visits entirely, for fear of Miss Darrell's
+remarks. To my surprise, I found her _tête-à-tête_ with Uncle Max. She
+welcomed me with a great show of cordiality; but before I had been five
+minutes in the room I found out that my visit was inopportune, though
+Max seemed unfeignedly pleased to see me, and she had repeated his words
+in almost parrot-like fashion. 'Oh yes, I am so glad to see you, Miss
+Garston! it is so good of you to call when dear Gladys is away! Of course
+I know she is the attraction: we all know that, do we not?' smiling
+sweetly upon me. 'She has been away more than five weeks now,--dear,
+dear! how time flies!--really five weeks, and this is your first call.'
+
+'You know how Miss Locke's illness has engrossed me,' I remonstrated.
+'I never pretend to mere conventional calls.'
+
+'No, indeed. You have a code of your own, have you not? Your niece is
+fortunate, Mr. Cunliffe. She makes her own laws, while we poor inferior
+mortals are obliged to conform to the world's dictates. I wish I were
+strong-minded like you. It must be such a pleasure to be free and despise
+_les convenances_. People are so artificial, are they not?'
+
+'Ursula is not artificial, at any rate,' returned Max, with a benevolent
+glance. It had struck me as I entered the room that he looked rather
+bored and ill at ease, but Miss Darrell was in high spirits, and looked
+almost handsome. I never saw her better dressed.
+
+'No, indeed. Miss Garston is almost too frank; not that that is a fault.
+Oh yes, Miss Locke's illness has been a tedious affair: even Giles got
+weary of it, and used to grumble at having to go every day. Of course,
+seeing Giles once or twice a day, you heard all our news, so we did not
+expect you to toil up here: that would have been unnecessary trouble
+after your hard work.'
+
+Miss Darrell spoke quite civilly, and I do not know why her speech
+rankled and made me reply, rather quickly,--
+
+'Nurses do not gossip with the doctor, Miss Darrell. Mr. Hamilton has
+told me no news, I assure you. Gladys's letters tell me far more.'
+
+I was angry with myself when I said this, for why need I have answered
+her at all or taken notice of her remark? and, above all, why need I have
+mentioned Gladys's name? Miss Darrell's colour rose in a moment.
+
+'Dear me! I am glad to hear dear Gladys writes to you. She does not
+honour us. Lady Betty gets a note sometimes, but Giles and I are never
+favoured with a word. Giles feels terribly hurt about it sometimes, but
+I tell him it is only Gladys's way. Girls are careless sometimes. Of
+course she does not mean to slight him.'
+
+'Of course not,' rather gravely from Max.
+
+'All the same it is very neglectful on Gladys's part. If you are a real
+friend, Miss Garston, you will tell her what a mistake it is,--really a
+fatal mistake, though I do not dare to tell her so. I see Giles's look of
+disappointment when the post brings him nothing but dry business letters.
+He is so anxious about her health. He let her go so willingly, and yet
+not one word of recognition for her own, I may say her only, brother.'
+
+Max was looking so exceedingly grave by this time that I longed to change
+the subject. I would say a word in defence of Gladys when we were alone,
+he and I. It would be worse than useless to speak before Miss Darrell.
+She would twist my words before my face. I never said a word in Gladys's
+behalf that she did not make me repent it.
+
+The next moment, however, she had started on a different tack.
+
+'Oh, do you know, Mr. Cunliffe,' she said carelessly, as she crossed the
+hearth-rug to ring the bell, 'we have heard again from Captain Hamilton?'
+
+Max raised his head quickly. 'Indeed! I hope he is quite well. By the
+bye, I remember you told me he had a touch of fever; but I trust he has
+got the better of that.'
+
+'We hope so,' in a very impressive tone; 'but it was a sharp attack, and
+no doubt home-sickness and worry of mind accelerated the mischief. Poor
+Claude! I fear he has suffered much; not that he says so himself: he is
+far too proud to complain. But he is likely to come home on sick-leave;
+next mail will settle the question, but I believe we may expect him about
+the end of July.'
+
+'Indeed! That is good news for all of you'; but the poker that Max had
+taken up fell with a little crash among the fire-irons. Miss Darrell gave
+a faint scream, and then laughed at her foolish nervousness.
+
+'It was very clumsy on my part,' stammered Max. Could it be my fancy, or
+had he turned suddenly pale, as though something had startled him too?
+
+'Oh no, it was only my poor nerves,' replied Miss Darrell, with her
+brightest smile. 'What was I saying? Oh yes, I remember now,--about
+Claude: he wrote to Gladys to ask if he might come, and she said yes.
+Ah, here comes tea, and I believe I heard Giles's ring at the bell.'
+
+I cannot tell which of the two revealed it to me,--whether it was the
+sudden pallor on Max's face, or the curious watchful look that I detected
+in Miss Darrell's eyes: it was only there for a moment, but it reminded
+me of the look with which a cat eyes the mouse she has just drawn within
+her claws. I saw it all then with a quick flash of intuition. I had
+partly guessed it before, but now I was sure of it.
+
+My poor Max, so brave and cheery and patient! But she should not torment
+him any longer in my presence. If he had to suffer,--and the cause of
+that suffering was still a mystery to me,--she should not spy out his
+weakness. He had turned his face aside with a quick look of pain as he
+spoke, and the next moment I had mounted the breach and was begging Miss
+Darrell to assist me in the case of a poor family,--old hospital
+acquaintances of mine, who were emigrating to New Zealand.
+
+My importunity seemed to surprise her. My sudden loquacity was an
+interruption; but I would not be repressed or silenced. I took the chair
+beside her, and made her look at me. I fixed her wandering attention and
+pressed her until she grew irritable with impatience. I saw Max was
+recovering himself: by and by he gave a forced laugh.
+
+'You will have to give in, Miss Darrell. Ursula always gets her own way.
+How much do you want, child? You must be merciful to a poor vicar. Will
+that satisfy you?' offering me a sovereign, and Miss Darrell, after a
+moment's hesitation, produced the same sum from her purse.
+
+I took her money coolly, but I would not resign the reins of the
+conversation any more into her hands. When Mr. Hamilton entered the room
+he stopped and looked at me with visible astonishment: he had never heard
+me so fluent before; but somehow my eloquence died a natural death after
+his entrance. I was still a little shy with Mr. Hamilton.
+
+His manner was unusually genial this afternoon. I was sure he was
+delighted to see us both there again. He spoke to Max in a jesting tone,
+and then looked benignly at his cousin, who was superintending the
+tea-table. She certainly looked uncommonly well that day; her dress of
+dark maroon cashmere and velvet fitted her fine figure exquisitely; her
+white, well-shaped hands were, as usual, loaded with brilliant rings. She
+was a woman who needed ornaments: they would have looked lavish on any
+one else, they suited her admirably. Once I caught her looking with
+marked disfavour on my black serge dress: the pearl hoop that had been my
+mother's keeper was my sole adornment. I daresay she thought me extremely
+dowdy. I once heard her say, in a pointed manner, that 'her cousin Giles
+liked to see his women-folk well dressed; he was very fastidious on that
+point, and exceedingly hard to please.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton seemed in the best of humours. I do not think that he
+remarked how very quiet Max was all tea-time. He pressed us to remain to
+dinner, and wanted to send off a message to the vicarage; but we were
+neither of us to be persuaded, though Miss Darrell joined her entreaties
+to her cousin's.
+
+I was anxious to leave the house as quickly as possible, and I knew by
+instinct what Max's feelings must be. I could not enjoy Mr. Hamilton's
+conversation, amusing as it was. I wanted to be alone with Max; I felt
+I could keep silence with him no longer. But we could not get rid of Mr.
+Hamilton; as we rose to take our departure he coolly announced his
+intention of walking with us.
+
+'The Tylcotes have sent for me again,' he said casually. 'I may as well
+walk down with you now.' He looked at me as he spoke, but I am afraid my
+manner disappointed him. For once Mr. Hamilton was decidedly _de trop_.
+I am sure he must have noticed my hesitation, but it made no difference
+to his purpose. I had found out by this time that when Mr. Hamilton had
+made up his mind to do a certain thing, other people's moods did not
+influence him in the least. He half smiled as he went out to put on his
+greatcoat, and, as though he intended to punish me for my want of
+courtesy, he talked to Max the whole time; not that I minded it in the
+least, only it was just his lordly way.
+
+To my great relief, however, he left us as soon as we reached the
+vicarage, so I wished him good-night quite amiably, and of course Max
+walked on with me to the cottage.
+
+He was actually leaving me at the gate without a word except 'Good-night,
+Ursula,' but I laid my hand on his arm.
+
+'You must come in, Max. I want to speak to you.'
+
+'Not to-night, my dear,' he returned hurriedly. 'I have business letters
+to write before dinner.'
+
+'They must wait, then,' I replied decidedly, 'for I certainly do not
+intend to let you leave me just yet. Don't be stubborn, Max, for you know
+I always get my own way. Come in. I want to tell you why Gladys never
+writes to her brother.' And he followed me into the house without a word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+MAX OPENS HIS HEART
+
+
+But I did not at once join Max in the parlour, though he was evidently
+expecting me to do so: instead of that, I ran upstairs to take off my
+walking-things. It would be better to leave him alone a few minutes. When
+I returned he was leaning back in the easy-chair, with his hands clasped
+behind his head, evidently absorbed in thought. I was struck by his
+expression: it was that of a man who was nerving himself to bear some
+great trouble; there was a quiet, hopeless look on his face that touched
+me exceedingly. I took the chair opposite him, and waited for him to
+speak. He did not change his attitude when he saw me, but he looked at me
+gravely, and said, 'Well, Ursula?' but there was no interest in his tone.
+
+Of course I knew what he meant, but I let that pass, and something seemed
+to choke my voice as I tried to answer him:
+
+'Never mind that now: we will come to that presently. I want to tell you
+that I know it now, Max. I guessed a little of it before, but now I am
+sure of it.'
+
+I had roused him effectually. A sort of dusky red came to his face
+as he sat up and looked at me. He did not ask me what I meant: we
+understood each other in a moment. He only sighed heavily, and said, 'I
+have never told you anything, Ursula, have I?' but his manner testified
+no displeasure. He would never have spoken a word to me of his own
+accord, and yet my sympathy would be a relief to him. I knew Max's nature
+so well: he was a shy, reticent man; he could not speak easily of his own
+feelings unless the ice were broken for him.
+
+'Max,' I pleaded, and the tears came into my eyes, 'if my dear mother
+were living you would have told her all without reserve.'
+
+'I should not have needed to tell her: she would have guessed it, Ursula.
+Poor Emmie! I never could keep anything from her. I have often told you
+you are like her: you reminded me of her this afternoon.'
+
+'Then you must make me your _confidante_ in her stead. Do not refuse
+me again, Max: I have asked this before. In spite of our strange
+relationship, we are still like brother and sister. You know how quickly
+I guessed Charlie's secret: surely you can speak to me, who am her
+friend, of your affection for Gladys.'
+
+I saw him shrink a little at that, and his honest brown eyes were full of
+pain.
+
+'My affection for Gladys,' he repeated, in a low voice. 'You are very
+frank, Ursula; but somehow I do not seem to mind it. I never care for
+Miss Darrell to speak to me on the subject, although she has been so
+kind; in fact, no one could have been kinder. We can only act up to our
+own natures: it is certainly not her fault, but only my misfortune, that
+her sympathy jars on me.'
+
+Max's words gave me acute pain.
+
+'Surely you have not chosen Miss Darrell for your _confidante_, Max?'
+
+'I have chosen no one,' he returned, with gentle rebuke at my vehemence.
+'Circumstances made Miss Darrell acquainted with my unlucky attachment.
+She did all she could to help me, and out of common gratitude I could not
+refuse to listen to her well-meant efforts to comfort me.'
+
+I remained silent from sheer dismay. Things were far worse than I had
+imagined. I began to lose hope from the moment I heard Miss Darrell had
+been mixed up in the affair; the thought sickened me. I could hardly bear
+to hear Max speak; and yet how was I to help him unless he made me
+acquainted with the real state of the case?
+
+'I suppose I had better tell you all from the beginning,' he said, rather
+dejectedly; 'that is, as far as I know myself, for I can hardly tell you
+when I began to love Gladys. I call her Gladys to myself,' with a faint
+smile, 'and it comes naturally to me. I ought to have said Miss
+Hamilton.'
+
+'But not to me, Max,' I returned eagerly.
+
+'What does it matter what I call her? She will never take the only name
+I want to give her!' was the melancholy reply to this. 'I only know one
+thing, Ursula, that for three years--ay, and longer than that--she has
+been the one woman in the world to me, and that as long as she and I live
+no other woman shall ever cross the threshold of the vicarage as its
+mistress.'
+
+'Has it gone so deep as that, my poor Max?'
+
+'Yes,' he returned briefly. 'But we need not enter into that part of the
+subject; a man had best keep his own counsel in such matters. I want to
+tell you bare facts, Ursula; we may as well leave feelings alone. If you
+can help me to understand one or two points that are still misty to my
+comprehension, you will do me good service.'
+
+'I will try my very best for you both.'
+
+'Thank you, but we cannot both be helped in the same way; our paths do
+not lie together. Miss Hamilton has refused to become my wife.'
+
+'Oh, Max! not refused, surely.' This was another blow,--that he
+should have tried and failed,--that Gladys with her own lips should
+have refused him; but perhaps he had written to her, and there was some
+misunderstanding; but when I hinted this to Max he shook his head.
+
+'We cannot misunderstand a person's words. Oh yes, I spoke to her,
+and she answered me; but I must not tell you things in this desultory
+fashion, or you will never understand. I have told you that I do not
+know when my attachment to Miss Hamilton commenced. It was gradual and
+imperceptible at first,--very real, no doubt, but it had not mastered my
+reason. I always admired her: how could I help it?' with some emotion.
+'Even you, who are not her lover, have owned to me that she is a
+beautiful creature. I suppose her beauty attracted me first, until I saw
+the sweetness and unselfishness of her nature, and from that moment I
+lost my heart.
+
+'The full consciousness came to me at the time of their trouble about
+Eric. I had been fond of the poor fellow, for his own sake as well as
+hers, but I never disguised his faults from her. I often told her that I
+feared for Eric's future; he had no ballast, it wanted a moral earthquake
+to steady him, and it was no wonder that his caprices and extravagant
+moods angered his brother. She used to be half offended with me for my
+plain speaking, but she was too gentle to resent it, and she would beg
+me to use my influence with Hamilton to entreat him not to be so hard
+on Eric.
+
+'When the blow came, I was always up at Gladwyn once, sometimes twice, a
+day. They all wanted me; it was my duty to be their consoler. I am glad
+to remember now that I was some comfort to her.'
+
+'Wait a moment, Max; I must ask you something. Do you believe that Eric
+was guilty?'
+
+'I am almost sorry that you have put that question,' he returned
+reluctantly. 'I never would tell her what I thought. It was all a
+mystery. Eric might have been tempted; it was not for me to say. She
+could see I was doubtful. I told her that, whether he were sinned against
+or sinning, our only thought should be to bring him back and reconcile
+him to his brother. "God will prove his innocence if he be blackened
+falsely," I said to her; and, strange to say, she forgave me my doubts.'
+
+'Oh, Max, I see what you think.'
+
+'How can I help it,' he replied, 'knowing Eric's character so well? he
+was so weak and impulsive, so easily led astray, and then he was under
+bad influences. You will have heard Edgar Brown's name. He was a wild,
+dissipated fellow, and Hamilton had a right to forbid the acquaintance;
+both he and I knew that Edgar had low propensities, and was always
+lounging about public-houses with a set of loafers like himself. He has
+got worse since then, and has nearly broken his mother's heart. Do you
+think any man with a sense of responsibility would permit a youth of
+Eric's age to have such a friend? Yet this was a standing grievance with
+Eric, and I am sorry to say his sister took Edgar's part. Of course she
+knew no better: innocence is credulous, and Edgar was a sprightly,
+good-looking fellow, the sort that women never fail to pet.'
+
+'Yes, I see. Eric was certainly to blame in this.'
+
+'He was faulty on many more points. I am afraid, Ursula you have been
+somewhat biassed by Miss Hamilton. You must remember that she idolised
+Eric,--that she was blind to many of his faults; she made excuses for him
+whenever it was possible to do so, but with all her weak partiality she
+could not deny that he was thriftless, idle, and extravagant, that he
+defied his brother's authority, that he even forgot himself so far as to
+use bad language in his presence. I believe, once, he even struck him;
+only Hamilton declared he had been drinking, so he merely turned him out
+of the room.'
+
+I looked at Max sadly. 'This may be all true; but I cannot believe that
+he took that cheque.'
+
+'The circumstantial evidence against him is very strong,' he replied
+quietly. 'You do not know what power a sudden temptation has over these
+weak natures: he was hard pressed, remember that; he had gambling debts,
+thanks to Edgar. Fancy gambling debts at twenty! I have tried to take
+Miss Hamilton's view of the case, but I cannot bring myself to believe
+in his innocence. Most likely he repented the moment he had done it,
+poor boy. Eric was no hardened sinner. I sometimes fear--at least, the
+terrible thought has crossed my mind, and I know Hamilton has had it
+too--that in his despair he might have made away with himself.'
+
+'Oh, Max, this is too horrible!' And I shuddered as I thought of the
+beautiful young face so like Gladys's, with its bright frank look that
+seemed to appeal to one's heart.
+
+'Well, well, we need not speak of it; but it was a sad time for all of
+us; and yet in some ways it was a happy time to me. It was such a comfort
+to feel that I was necessary to them all; that they looked for me daily;
+that they could not do without me. I used to be with Hamilton every
+evening; and when Gladys was very ill they sent for me, because they
+said no one knew how to soothe her so well.
+
+'Do you wonder, Ursula, that, seeing her in her weakness and sorrow, she
+grew daily into my life, that my one thought was how I could help and
+comfort her?
+
+'She was very gentle and submissive, and followed my advice in
+everything. When I told her that only work could cure her sore heart,
+she did not contradict me: in a little while I had to check her feverish
+activity. She had overwhelmed herself with duties; she managed our
+mothers' meetings with Miss Darrell's help, taught in our schools, and
+helped train the choir. I had allotted her a district, and she worked it
+admirably. She was my right hand in everything; all the poor people
+worshipped her.'
+
+'Yes, Max,' for he paused, as though overwhelmed with some bitter-sweet
+recollection.
+
+'I loved her more each day, but I respected her sorrow, and tried to hide
+my feelings from her. It was more than a year after Eric's disappearance
+before I ventured to speak, and then it was by Hamilton's advice that I
+did so. He had set his heart on the match. He told me more than once that
+he would rather have me as a brother-in-law than any other man.
+
+'I thought I had prepared her sufficiently, but it seems that she was
+very much, startled by my proposal. Her trouble had so engrossed her that
+she had been perfectly blind to my meaning. It was all in vain, Ursula,
+for she did not love me,--at least not in the right way. She told me so
+with tears, accusing herself of unkindness. She liked, most certainly she
+liked me, but perhaps she knew me too well.
+
+'She was so unhappy at the thought of giving me pain, so sweet and gentle
+in her efforts to console me and heal the wound she had inflicted, that I
+could not lose hope. She told me that, though she had trusted me entirely
+as her friend, she had never thought of me as her lover, and the idea was
+strange to her. This thought gave me courage, and I begged that I might
+be allowed to speak to her again at some future time.
+
+'She wanted to refuse, and said hurriedly that she never intended to
+marry. But I took these words as meaning nothing. A girl will tell you
+this and believe it as she says it. I suppose I pressed her hard to leave
+me this margin of hope, for after reflecting a few minutes she looked at
+me gravely and said it should be as I wished. In a year's time I might
+speak to her again, and she would know her own mind.
+
+'I pleaded for a shorter ordeal, though secretly I was overjoyed at this
+crumb of consolation vouchsafed to me. But she was inexorable, though
+perfectly gentle in her manner.
+
+'"I wish you had set your heart on some one else, Mr. Cunliffe,"
+she said, with a melancholy smile, "for I can give you so little
+satisfaction. I feel so confused and weary, as though life afforded me
+no pleasure. But, indeed, I do all you tell me, and I mean to go on with
+my work."
+
+'I was glad to hear her say this, for at least I should have the
+happiness of seeing her every day.
+
+'"In a year's time," she went on, "my heart may feel a little less heavy,
+and I shall have had opportunity to reflect over your words. I cannot
+tell you what my answer may be, but if you are wise you will not hope. If
+you do not come to me then, I shall know that you have changed, and shall
+not blame you in the least. You are free to choose any one else. I have
+so little encouragement to give you that I shall not expect you to submit
+to this ordeal." But I think her firmness was a little shaken, and she
+looked at me rather timidly when I thanked her very quietly and said that
+at the time appointed I would speak to her again. I supposed she had not
+realised the strength of my feelings.
+
+'Ursula, I was by no means hopeless. And as the months passed on my hopes
+grew.
+
+'I saw her daily, and after the first awkwardness had passed we were good
+friends. But her manner changed insensibly. She was less frank with me;
+at times she was almost shy. I saw her change colour when I looked at
+her. She was quiet in my presence, and yet my coming pleased her. I
+thought it would be well with me when the time came for renewing my
+suit; but it seems that I was a blind fool.
+
+'I had put down the exact date, May 7. It was last year, Ursula. I meant
+to adhere to the very day and hour; but before February closed my hopes
+had suffered eclipse.
+
+'All at once Miss Hamilton's manner became cold and constrained, as
+you see it now. Her soft shyness, that had been so favourable a sign,
+disappeared entirely. She avoided me on every occasion. She seemed to
+fear to be alone with me a moment. Her nervousness was so visible and so
+distressing that I often left her in anger. A barrier--vague, and yet
+substantial--seemed built up between us.
+
+'She began to neglect her work, and then to make excuses. She was
+overdone, and suffered from headache. The school-work tired her. You
+have heard it all, Ursula: I need not repeat it.
+
+'One by one she dropped her duties. The parish knew her no more. She
+certainly looked ill. Her melancholy increased. Something was evidently
+preying on her mind.
+
+'One day Miss Darrell spoke to me. She had been very kind, and had fed my
+hopes all this time. But now she was the bearer of bad news.
+
+'She came to me in the study, while I was waiting for Hamilton. She
+looked very pale and discomposed, and asked if she might speak to me. She
+was very unhappy about me, but she did not think it right to let it go
+on. Gladys wanted me to know. And then it all came out.
+
+'It could never be as I wished. Miss Hamilton had been trying all this
+time to like me, and once or twice she thought she had succeeded, but the
+feeling had never lasted for many days. I was not the right person. This
+was the substance of Miss Darrell's explanation.
+
+'"You know Gladys," she went on, "how sensitive and affectionate her
+nature is; how she hates to inflict pain. She is working herself up into
+a fever at the thought that you will speak to her again.
+
+'"It was too terrible last time, Etta," she said to me, bursting into
+tears. "I cannot endure it again. How am I to tell him about Claude?"
+
+'"About Claude!" I almost shouted. Miss Darrell looked frightened at my
+violence. She shrank back, and turned still paler. I noticed her hands
+trembled.
+
+'"Oh, have you not noticed?" she returned feebly. "Oh, what a cruel task
+this is! and you are so good,--so good."
+
+'"Tell me what you mean!" I replied angrily, for I felt so savage at that
+moment that a word of sympathy was more than I could bear. You would not
+have known me at that moment, Ursula. I am not easily roused, as you
+know, but the blow was too sudden. I must have forgotten myself to have
+spoken to Miss Darrell in that tone. When I looked at her, her mouth was
+quivering like a frightened child's, and there were tears in her eyes.
+
+'"I scarcely know that it is you," she faltered. "Are men all like that
+when their wills are crossed? It is not my fault that you are hurt in
+this way. And it is not Gladys's either. She has tried--I am sure she has
+tried her hardest--to bring herself to accede to your wishes. But a woman
+cannot always regulate her own heart."
+
+'"You have mentioned Captain Hamilton's name," I returned coldly, for her
+words seemed only to aggravate and widen the sore. "Perhaps you will
+kindly explain what he has to do with the matter?"
+
+'She hesitated, and looked at me in a pleading manner. I saw that she did
+not wish to speak; but for once I was inexorable.
+
+'"I must rely upon your honour, then, not to repeat my words either to
+Giles or Gladys. Your doing so would bring Gladys into trouble; and,
+after all, there is nothing definitely settled." I nodded assent to this,
+and she went on rather reluctantly:
+
+"Claude was always fond of Gladys, but we never knew how much he admired
+her until he went away. They are only half-cousins. Gladys's father was
+step-brother to Claude's. Giles has always been averse to cousins
+marrying, but we thought this would make a difference."
+
+'"They are engaged, then?" I asked, in a loud voice, that seemed to
+startle Miss Darrell.
+
+'"Oh no, no," she returned eagerly; "there is no engagement at all.
+Claude writes to her, and she answers him, and I think he is making way
+with her: she has owned as much to me. Gladys is not one to talk of her
+feelings, especially on this subject; but it is easy to see how absorbed
+she is in those Indian letters; she is always brighter and more like
+herself when she has heard from Claude."
+
+'"I am to deduce from all this that you believe Captain Hamilton has a
+better chance of winning her affections than I?"
+
+'Again she hesitated, then drew a foreign letter slowly from her pocket.
+"I think I must read you a sentence from his last letter: he often writes
+to me as well as to Gladys. Yes, here it is: 'Your last letter has been a
+great comfort to me, my dear Etta: it was more than a poor fellow had a
+right to expect. I do believe that this long absence has served my
+purpose, and the scratch I got at Singapore. Girls are curious creatures;
+one never can tell how to tackle them, and my special cousin knows how to
+keep one at a distance, but I begin to feel I am making way at last. She
+wrote to me very sweetly last mail. I carry that letter everywhere; there
+was a sweetness about it that gave me hope. If I can get leave,--though
+heaven knows when that will be,--I mean to come home and carry the breach
+boldly. I shall first show her my wound and my medal, and then throw
+myself at her pretty little feet. Gladys--' No, I must not read any more;
+you see how it is, Mr. Cunliffe?"
+
+'"Yes, I see how it is," I returned slowly. "Forgive me if I have been
+impatient or unmindful of your kindness." And then I took up my hat and
+left the room, and it was weeks before I set foot in Gladwyn again.'
+
+'Oh, Max! my poor Max!' I returned, stroking his hand softly. He did not
+take it away: he only looked at me with his kind smile.
+
+'That was Emmie's way,--her favourite little caress. Wait a moment,
+Ursula, my dear; I am going out for a breath of air,' And he stood in the
+porch for a few minutes, looking up at the winter sky seamed with stars,
+and then came back to me quietly, and waited for me to speak.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+CROSSING THE RIVER
+
+
+Max waited for me to speak, but I had no words ready for the occasion. My
+silence seemed to perplex him.
+
+'You have heard everything now, Ursula.'
+
+'Yes, I suppose so. I am very sorry for you, Max; you have suffered
+cruelly. And this only happened last year?'
+
+'Last February.'
+
+'It is very strange,--very mysterious. I do not seem to understand it.
+I cannot find the clue to all this.'
+
+'There is no clue needed,' he returned impatiently. 'Miss Hamilton is in
+love with her cousin, and is sorry for my disappointment.'
+
+'I do not believe it,' I replied bluntly. And yet, as I said this,
+Gladys's conduct seemed to me perfectly inexplicable. It was just
+possible that Max's statement, after all, might be correct,--that she did
+not love him well enough to marry him: and this would account for her
+nervousness and constraint in his presence: a sensitive girl like Gladys
+would never be at her ease under such circumstances. But she had promised
+not to withdraw her friendship: why had she then given up her work and
+made herself a stranger to his dearest interest? I had seen her struggle
+with herself when he had begged her to resume her class. A brightness had
+come to her eyes, her manner had become warm and animated, as though the
+stirring of new life were in her veins, and then she had refused him very
+gently, and a certain dimness and blight had crept over her. I had
+wondered then at her.
+
+No, I could not bring myself to believe that she was indifferent to Max.
+He was so good, so worthy of her. And yet--and yet, do we women always
+choose the best? Perhaps, as Max said, she knew him too well for him to
+influence her fancy. Captain Hamilton's scars and medals might cast a
+glamour over her. Gladys was very impulsive and enthusiastic; perhaps Max
+was too quiet and gentle to take her heart by storm.
+
+I had plenty of time for these reflections, for Max sat moodily silent
+after my blunt remark, but at last he said,--
+
+'I am afraid I believe it, Ursula, and that is more to the purpose. Miss
+Darrell has dispelled my last hope.'
+
+'You mean that Captain Hamilton's return speaks badly for your chances?'
+
+'I have no chances,' very gloomily. 'I am out of the running. Miss
+Hamilton's message--for I suppose it was a message--was my final answer.
+She did not wish me to speak to her again.'
+
+'Are you sure that she sent that message?'
+
+'Am I sure that I am sitting here?' he answered, rather irritably. 'What
+have you got in your head, Ursula, my dear? You must not let personal
+dislike influence your better judgment. Perhaps Miss Darrell is not to my
+taste; I think her sometimes officious and wanting in delicacy; but I do
+not doubt her for a moment.'
+
+'That is a pity,' I returned drily, 'for she is certainly not true; but
+all you men swear by her.' For I felt--heaven forgive me!--almost a
+hatred of this woman, unreasonable as it seemed; but women have these
+instincts sometimes, and Max had warned me against Miss Darrell from the
+first.
+
+'I will be frank with you,' I continued, more quietly. 'I do not read
+between the lines: in other words, I do not understand Gladys's
+behaviour. It may be as you say; I do not wish to delude you with false
+hopes, my poor Max; Gladys may care more for Captain Hamilton than she
+does for you; but it seems to me that you acted wrongly on one point; you
+meant it for the best; but you ought to have spoken to Gladys yourself.'
+
+'I wonder that you should say that, Ursula,' he returned, in rather a
+hurt voice. 'I may be weak about Miss Hamilton, but I am hardly as weak
+as that. Do you think me capable of persecuting the woman I love?'
+
+'It would not be persecution,' I replied firmly, for I was determined
+to speak my mind on this point. 'Miss Darrell may have misconstrued
+her meaning: the truth loses by repetition: she may have added to or
+diminished her words. A third person should never be mixed up in a love
+affair: trouble always comes of it. I think you were wrong, Max: you let
+yourself be managed by Miss Darrell. She has nothing to do with you or
+Gladys.'
+
+'I could not help it if she came to me.'
+
+'True, she thrust herself in between you. Well, it is too late to speak
+of that now. If you will take my advice, Max,' for the thought had come
+upon me like a flash of inspiration, 'you will go down to Bournemouth and
+speak to Gladys, keeping your own counsel and telling no one of your
+intention.'
+
+I saw Max stare at me as though he thought I had lost my senses, and then
+a sudden light came into his eyes.
+
+'You will go down to Bournemouth,' I went on, 'and the Maberleys will be
+glad to see you; you are an old friend, and they will ask no questions
+and think no ill. You will have no difficulty in seeing Gladys alone.
+Speak to her promptly and frankly; ask her what her behaviour has meant,
+and if she really prefers her cousin. If you must know the worst, it will
+be better to know it now, and from her own lips. Do go, Max, like a brave
+man.' But even before I finished speaking, the light had died out of his
+eyes, and his manner had resumed its old sadness.
+
+'No, Ursula; you mean well, but it will not do. I cannot persecute her
+in this way. Captain Hamilton is coming home in July: she has given him
+permission to come. I will wait for that. I shall very soon see how
+matters stand between them. I shall only need to see her with him;
+probably I shall not speak to her at all.'
+
+I could have wrung my hands over Max's obstinacy and quixotism: he
+carried his generosity to a fault. Few men would be so patient and
+forbearing.
+
+How could he stand aside hopelessly and let another man win his prize?
+But perhaps he considered it was already won. I pleaded with him again.
+I even went so far as to contradict my theory about a third person, and
+offered to sound Gladys about her cousin; but he silenced me
+peremptorily.
+
+'Promise me that you will do nothing of the kind; give me your word of
+honour, Ursula, that you will respect my confidence. Good heavens! if I
+thought that you would betray me, and to her of all people, I should
+indeed bitterly repent my trust in you.'
+
+Max was so agitated, he spoke so angrily, that I hastened to soothe him.
+Of course his confidence was sacred; how could he think such things of
+me? I was not like Miss--. But here I pulled myself up. He might be as
+blind and foolish as he liked, he might commit suicide and I would not
+hinder him; he should enjoy his misery in his own way. And more to that
+effect.
+
+'Now I have made you cross, little she-bear,' he said, laying his hand
+on mine, 'and you have been so patient and have given my woes such a
+comfortable hearing. You frightened me for a moment, for I know how quick
+and impulsive you can be. No, no, my dear. I hold you to your own words:
+a third person must not be mixed up in a love affair; it only brings
+trouble.'
+
+'You have proved the truth of my words,' I remarked coolly. 'Very well,
+I suppose I must forgive you; only never do it again, on your peril: you
+know I am to be trusted.'
+
+'To be sure; you are as true as steel, Ursula.'
+
+'Very well, then: in that case you have nothing to fear. I will be wise
+and wary for your sake, and guard your honour sacredly as my own; if I
+can give you a gleam of hope, I will. Anyhow, I shall watch.'
+
+'Thank you, dear. And now we will not talk any more about it; now you
+know why I wanted you to be her friend. I am glad to think she is so fond
+of you.' But I would not let him change the subject just yet.
+
+'Max,' I said, detaining him, for he rose to go, 'all this is dreadfully
+hard for you. Shall you go away--if--if--this happens?'
+
+'No,' he returned quietly; 'it is they who will go away. Captain Hamilton
+cannot leave his regiment: he is far too fond of an active life. It will
+be dreary enough, God knows, but it will not be harder than the life I
+have led these twelve months, trying to win her back to her work and to
+put myself in the background. It has worn me out, Ursula. I could not
+stand that sort of thing much longer. It is a relief to me that she is
+away.'
+
+'Yes, I can understand this.'
+
+'It makes one think, after all, that the extreme party have something in
+their argument in favour of the celibacy of the clergy. Not that I hold
+with them, for all that; but all this sort of thing takes the heart out
+of a man, and comes between him and his work. I should be a better priest
+if I were a happier man, Ursula.'
+
+'I doubt that, Max.' And the tears rose to my eyes, for I knew how good
+he was, and what a friend to his people.
+
+'My dear, I differ from you. I believe there is no work like happy
+work,--work done by a heart at leisure from itself; but of course we
+clergy and laity must take what heaven sends us.' And then he held out
+his hands to me, and I suppose he saw how unhappy I was for his sake.
+
+'Don't fret about me, my dear little Ursula,' he said kindly. 'The back
+gets fitted for the burden, and by this time I have grown accustomed to
+my pain; it will all be right some day: I shall not be blamed up there
+for loving her.' And he left me with a smile.
+
+I passed a miserable evening thinking of Max. Next to Charlie, he had
+been my closest friend from girlhood; I had been accustomed to look to
+him for advice in all my difficulties, to rely upon his counsel. I knew
+that people who were comparatively strangers to him thought he was almost
+too easy-going, and a little weak from excess of good-nature. He was too
+tolerant of other folk's failings; they said he preached mercy where
+severity would be more bracing and wholesome; and no doubt they thought
+that he judged himself as leniently; but they did not know Max.
+
+I never knew a man harder to himself. Charitable to others, he had no
+self-pity; selfish aims were impossible to him. He who could not endure
+to witness even a child or an animal suffer, would have plucked out his
+right eye or parted with his right hand, in gospel phrase, if by doing so
+he could witness to the truth or spare pain to a weaker human being. It
+was this knowledge of his inner life that made Max so priestly in my
+eyes. I knew he was pure enough and strong enough to meet even Gladys's
+demands. Nothing but a modern Bayard would ever satisfy her fastidious
+taste; she would not look on a man's stature, or on his outward beauty;
+such things would seem paltry to her; but he who aspired to be her lord
+and master must be worthy of all reverence and must have won his spurs:
+so much had I learnt from my friendship with Gladys.
+
+I pondered over Max's words, and tried to piece the fragments of our
+conversation with recollections of my talks with Gladys. I recalled much
+that had passed. I endeavoured to find the clue to her downcast, troubled
+looks, her quenched and listless manner. I felt dimly that some strange
+misunderstanding wrapped these two in a close fog. What had brought about
+this chill, murky atmosphere, in which they failed to recognise each
+other's meaning? This was the mystery: lives had often been shipwrecked
+from these miserable misunderstandings, for want of a word. I felt
+completely baffled, and before the evening was over I could have cried
+with the sense of utter failure and bewilderment. If Max's chivalrous
+scruples had not tied my hands, I would have gone to Gladys boldly and
+asked her what it all meant; I would have challenged her truth; I would
+have compelled her to answer me; but I dared not break my promise. By
+letter and in the spirit I would respect Max's wishes.
+
+But I resolved to watch: no eyes should be so vigilant as mine. I was
+determined, that nothing should escape my scrutiny; at least I was in
+possession of certain facts that would help me in finding the clue I
+wanted. I knew now that Max loved Gladys and had tried to win her: that
+he had nearly done so was also evident. What had wrought that sudden
+change? Had Captain Hamilton's brilliant successes really dazzled her
+fancy and blinded her to Max's quiet unobtrusive virtues? Did she really
+and truly prefer her cousin? This was what I had to find out, and here
+Max could not help me.
+
+There was one thing I was glad to know,--that Mr. Hamilton favoured Max's
+suit. At least I should not be working against him. I do not know why,
+but the thought of doing so would have pained me: I no longer wished to
+array myself for war against Mr. Hamilton; my enmity had died a natural
+death for want of fuel.
+
+I felt grateful to him for his kindness to Max; no doubt he had a
+fellow-feeling with him. That dear old gossip, Mrs. Maberley, had told
+me something about Mr. Hamilton on my second visit that had made me feel
+very sorry for him. Max knew about it, of course; he had said a word to
+me once on the subject, but it was not Max's way to gossip about his
+neighbours; he once said, laughing, that he left all the choice bits
+of scandal to his good old friend at Maplehurst.
+
+It was from Mrs. Maberley that I heard all about Mr. Hamilton's
+disappointment, and why he had not married. When he was about
+eight-and-twenty he had been engaged to a young widow.
+
+'She was a beautiful creature, my dear,' observed the old lady; 'the
+colonel said he had never seen a handsomer woman. She was an Irish
+beauty, and had those wonderful gray eyes and dark eyelashes that make
+you wonder what colour they are, and she had the sweetest smile possible;
+any man would have been bewitched by it. I never saw a young man more in
+love than Giles: when he came here he could talk of nothing but Mrs.
+Carrick: her name was Ella, I remember. Well, it went on for some months,
+and he was preparing for the wedding,--there was to be a nursery got
+ready, for she had one little boy, and Giles already doted on the
+child,--when all at once there came a letter from his lady-love; and a
+very pretty letter it was. Giles must forgive her, it said, she was
+utterly wretched at the thought of the pain she was giving him, but she
+was mistaken in the strength of her attachment. She had come to the
+conclusion that they would not be happy together, that in fact she
+preferred some one else.
+
+'She did not mention that this other lover was richer than Giles and had
+a title, but of course he found out that this was the case. The fickle
+Irish beauty had caught the fancy of an elderly English nobleman with a
+large family of grown-up sons and daughters. My dear, it was a very
+heartless piece of work: it changed Giles completely. He never spoke
+about it to any one, but if ever a man was heart-broken, Giles was: he
+was never the same after that; it made him hard and bitter; he is always
+railing against women, or saying disagreeable home-truths about them. And
+of course Mrs. Carrick, or rather Lady Howe, is to blame for that. Oh, my
+dear, she may deck herself with diamonds, as they say she does, and call
+herself happy,--which she is not, with a gouty, ill-tempered old husband
+who is jealous of her,--but I'll be bound she thinks of Giles sometimes
+with regret, and scorns herself for her folly.'
+
+Poor Mr. Hamilton! And this had all happened about six or seven years
+ago. No wonder he looked stern and said bitter things. He was not
+naturally sweet-tempered, like Max; such a misfortune would sour him.
+
+'All well,' I said to myself, as I went up to bed, 'it is perfectly true
+what Longfellow says, "Into each life some rain must fall, some days must
+be dark and dreary"; but it is strange that they both have suffered. It
+is a good thing, perhaps, that such an experience is never likely to
+happen to me. There is some consolation to be deduced even from my want
+of beauty: no man will fall in love with me and then play me false.' And
+with that a curious feeling came over me, a sudden inexplicable sense of
+want and loneliness, something I could not define, that took no definite
+shape and had no similitude, and yet haunted me with a sense of ill; but
+the next moment I was struggling fiercely with the unknown and unwelcome
+guest.
+
+'For shame!' I said to myself; 'this is weakness and pure selfishness,
+mere sentimental feverishness; this is not like the strong-minded young
+person Miss Darrell calls me. What if loneliness be appointed me?--we
+must each have our cross. Perhaps, as life goes on and I grow older, it
+may be a little hard to bear at times, but my loneliness would be better
+than the sort of pain Mr. Hamilton and Max have endured.' And as I
+thought this, a sudden conviction came to me that I could not have borne
+a like fate, a dim instinct that told me that I should suffer keenly and
+long,--that it would be better, far better, that the deepest instincts of
+my woman's nature should never be roused than be kindled only to die away
+into ashes, as many women's affections have been suffered to die.
+'Anything but that,' I said to myself, with a sudden thrill of pain
+that surprised me with its intensity.
+
+All this time through the long cold weeks Elspeth had been slowly dying.
+Quietly and gradually the blind woman's strength had ebbed and lessened,
+until early in March we knew she could not last much longer.
+
+She suffered no pain, and uttered no complaint. She lay peacefully
+propped up with pillows on the bed where Mary Marshall had breathed her
+last, and her pale wrinkled face grew almost as white as the cap-border
+that encircled it.
+
+At the commencement of her illness I was unable to be much with her.
+Susan and Phoebe Locke had thoroughly engrossed me, and a hurried visit
+morning and evening to give Peggy orders was all that was possible under
+the circumstances; but I saw that she was well cared for and comfortable,
+and Peggy was very good to her and kept the children out of the room.
+
+'Ah, my bairn, I am dying like a lady,' she said to me one day, 'and it
+is good to be here on poor Mary's bed. See the fine clean sheets that
+Peggy has put me on, and the grand quilt that keeps my feet warm!
+Sometimes I could cry with the comfort of it all; and there is the broth
+and the jelly always ready; and what can a poor old body want more?'
+
+When Susan was convalescent I spent more time with Elspeth. I knew she
+loved to have me beside her, and to listen to the chapters and Psalms I
+read to her. She would ask me to sing sometimes, and often we would sit
+and talk of the days that seemed so 'few and evil' in the light of
+advancing immortality.
+
+'Ay, dearie,' she would say, 'it is not much to look back upon except in
+an angel's sight,--a poor old woman's life, who worked and struggled to
+keep her master and children from clemming. I used to think it hard
+sometimes that I could not get to church on Sunday morning,--for I was
+aye a woman for church,--but I had to stand at my wash-tub often until
+late on Saturday night. "After a day's charing, rinsing out the
+children's bits of things, and ironing them too, how is a poor tired
+body like me to get religion?" I would say sometimes when I was fairly
+moithered with it all. But, Miss Garston, my dear, I'm glad, as I lie
+here, to know that I never neglected the children God had given me; and
+so He took care of all that; He knew when I was too tired to put up a
+prayer that it was not for the want of loving Him.'
+
+'No, indeed, Elspeth. I often think we ought not to be too hard on poor
+people.'
+
+'That's true,' brightening up visibly. 'He is no severe taskmaster
+demanding bricks out of stubble; He knows poor labouring people are often
+tired, and out of heart. I used to say to my master sometimes, "Ah well,
+we must leave all that for heaven; we shall have a fine rest there, and
+plenty of time to sing our hymns and talk to the Lord Jesus. He was a
+labouring man too, and He will know all about it." I often comforted my
+master like that.'
+
+Elspeth's quaint talk interested me greatly. I grew to love her dearly,
+and I liked to feel that she was fond of me in return. I could have sat
+by her contentedly for hours, holding her hard work-worn hand and
+listening to her gentle flow of talk with its Scriptural phrases and
+simple realistic thoughts. It was like washing some pilgrim's feet at
+a feast to listen to Elspeth.
+
+One evening she told me that she had been thinking of me.
+
+'I wanted to know what you were like, my bairn,' she said, with her
+pretty Scotch accent; 'and the doctor came in as I was turning it over
+in my mind, so I made bold to ask him to describe you. I thought he was
+a long time answering, and at last he said, "What put that into your
+head, granny?" as if he were a little bit taken aback by the question.
+
+'"Well, doctor," I returned, "we all of us like to see the faces of those
+we love; and I am all in the dark. That dear young lady is doing the
+Lord's work with all her might, and she has a voice that makes me think
+of heaven, and the choirs of angels, and the golden harps, and maybe her
+face is as beautiful as her voice."
+
+'"Oh no," he says quite sharply to that, "she is not beautiful at all:
+indeed, I am not sure that most people would not think her plain."
+
+'I suppose I was an old ninny, but I did not like to hear him say this,
+my bairn, for I knew it could not be the truth; but he went on after a
+minute,--
+
+'"It is not easy to describe the face of a person one knows so well. I
+find it difficult to answer your question. Miss Garston has such a true
+face, one seems to trust it in a minute: it is the face of an honest
+kindly woman who will never do you any harm;" and then I saw what he
+meant. Why, bairn, the angels have this sort of beauty, and it lasts the
+longest; that is the sort of face they have there.'
+
+I heard all this silently, and was thankful that Elspeth's blind eyes
+could not see the burning flush of mortification that rose to my face.
+The dear garrulous old body, how could she have put such a question to
+Mr. Hamilton? and yet how kindly he had answered! A sudden recollection
+of Irish dark-gray eyes with black lashes came to my mind; I knew Mr.
+Hamilton was a connoisseur of beauty. I had often heard him describe
+people, and point out their physical defects with the keenest criticism;
+he was singularly fastidious on this point; but, in spite of my
+humiliation, I was glad to know that he had spoken so gently. He had told
+the truth simply, that was all: at least he had owned I was true; I must
+content myself with this tribute to my honesty.
+
+But it was some days before I could recall Elspeth's words without a
+sensation of prickly heat: it is strange how painfully these little
+pin-pricks to our vanity affect us. I was angry with myself for
+remembering them, and yet they rankled, in spite of Elspeth's quaint
+and homely consolation. Alas! I was not better than my fellows: Ursula
+Garston was not the strong-minded woman that Miss Darrell called her.
+
+But when I next met Mr. Hamilton I had other thoughts to engross me, for
+Elspeth was dying, and we were standing together by her bedside. I had
+not sent for Mr. Hamilton, for I knew that he could do nothing more for
+her; but he had met one of the children in the village, and on hearing
+the end was approaching had come at once to render me any help in his
+power. Perhaps he thought I should like to have him there.
+
+Elspeth's pinched wrinkled face brightened as she heard his voice. 'Ay,
+doctor, I am glad to know you are there; you have been naught but kind
+to me all these years, and now, thanks to this bairn, I am dying like
+a lady. The Lord bless you both! and He will,--He will!' with feeble
+earnestness.
+
+I bent down and kissed her cold cheek. 'Never mind us, Elspeth: only tell
+us that all is well with you. You are not afraid, dear granny?'
+
+'What's to fear, my bairn, with the Lord holding my hand?--and He will
+not let go; ah no, He will never let go! Ay, I have come to the dark
+river, but it will not do more than wet my feet. I'll be carried over,
+for I am old and weak,--old and weak, my dearie.' These were her last
+words, and half an hour afterwards the change came, and Elspeth's
+sightless eyes were opened to the light of immortality.
+
+That night I took up a little worn copy of the _Pilgrim's Progress_ that
+I had had from childhood, and opened it at a favourite passage, where
+Christian and his companion are talking with the shining ones as they
+went up towards the Celestial city, and I thought of Elspeth as I read
+it. 'You are going now,' said they, 'to the paradise of God, wherein you
+shall see the Tree of Life, and eat of the never-failing fruit thereof;
+and when you come there you shall have white robes given you, and your
+walk and talk shall be every day with the King, even all the days of
+eternity. There you shall not see again such things as you saw when you
+were in the lower regions, upon the earth, to wit, sorrow, sickness, and
+death, for the former things are passed away....
+
+'And the men asked, "What must we do in that holy place?" To whom it was
+answered, "You must then receive the comfort of your toil, and have joy
+for all your sorrow."' I thought of Elspeth's last words, 'Old and
+weak,--old and weak, my dearie.' Surely they had come true: those aged
+feet had barely touched the cold water. Gently and tenderly she had been
+carried across to the green pastures and still waters in the paradise of
+God.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+MISS DARRELL HAS A HEADACHE
+
+
+I began to feel that Gladys had been away a long time, and to wish for
+her return. I was much disappointed, then, on receiving a letter from her
+about a fortnight after Elspeth's death, telling me that Colonel Maberley
+had made up his mind to spend Easter in Paris, and that she had promised
+to accompany them.
+
+'I shall be sorry to be so long without your companionship,' she wrote.
+'I miss you more than I can say; but I am sure that it is far better for
+me to remain away as long as possible: the change is certainly doing me
+good. I am quite strong and well: they spoil me dreadfully, but I think
+this sort of treatment suits me best.'
+
+It was a long letter, and seemed to be written in a more cheerful mood
+than usual. There was a charming description of a trip they had taken,
+with little graceful touches of humour here and there.
+
+I handed the letter silently to Max when he called the next day. I
+thought that it would be no harm to show it to him. He took it to the
+window, and was so busy reading it that I had half finished a letter
+I was writing to Jill before he at last laid it down on my desk.
+
+'Thank you for letting me see it,' he said quietly: 'it has been a great
+pleasure. Somehow, as I read it, it seemed as though the old Gladys
+Hamilton had written it,--not the one we know now. Indeed, she seems much
+better.'
+
+'Yes, and we must make up our minds to do without her,' I answered, with
+a sigh.
+
+'And we shall do so most willingly,' he returned, with a sort of tacit
+rebuke to my selfishness, 'if we know the change is benefiting her.' And
+then, with a change of tone, 'What a beautiful handwriting hers is,
+Ursula!--so firm and clear, so characteristic of the writer. Does she
+often write you such long, interesting letters? You are much to be
+envied, my dear. Well, well, the day's work is waiting for me.' And with
+that he went off, without saying another word.
+
+My next visitor was Mr. Hamilton. He came to tell me of an accident case.
+A young labourer had fallen off a scaffolding, and a compound fracture of
+the right arm had been the result. He was also badly shaken and bruised,
+and was altogether in a miserable plight.
+
+I promised, of course, to go to him at once; but he told me that there
+was no immediate hurry; he had attended to the arm and left him very
+comfortable, and he would do well for the next hour or two; and, as Mr.
+Hamilton seemed inclined to linger for a little chat, I could not refuse
+to oblige him.
+
+'It is just as well that this piece of work has come to me,' I said
+presently, 'for I was feeling terribly idle. Since Elspeth's death I have
+not had a single case, and have employed my leisure in writing long
+letters to my relations and taking country rambles with Tinker.'
+
+'That is right,' he returned heartily. 'I am sure we worked you far too
+hard at one time.'
+
+'It did not hurt me, and I should not care to be idle for long.--Yes, I
+have heard from Gladys,' for his eyes fell on the open letter that lay
+beside us. 'I am rather disappointed that I shall not see her before I go
+away.'
+
+'Are you going away, then?' he asked, very quickly, and I thought the
+news did not seem to please him.
+
+'Not for three weeks. I hope my patient will be getting on by that time,
+and will be able to spare me: at any rate, I can give his mother a lesson
+or two. You know my cousin is to be married, and I have promised to help
+Aunt Philippa.'
+
+'How long do you think you will be away?' he demanded, with a touch of
+his old abruptness.
+
+'For a fortnight. I could not arrange for less. Sara is making such a
+point of it.'
+
+'A whole fortnight! I am afraid you are terribly idle, after all, Miss
+Garston. You are growing tired of this humdrum place. You are yearning
+for "the leeks and cucumbers of Egypt,"' with a grim smile.
+
+'You are wrong,' I returned, with more earnestness than the occasion
+warranted. 'I feel a strange reluctance to re-enter Vanity Fair. The
+splendours of a gay wedding are not to my taste. Sara tells me that her
+reception after the ceremony will be attended by about two hundred
+guests. To me the idea is simply barbarous. I expect I shall be heartily
+glad to get back to Heathfield.'
+
+I was surprised to see how pleased Mr. Hamilton looked at this speech. I
+had been thinking of my work and my quiet little parlour, not of Gladwyn,
+when I spoke; but he seemed to accept it as a personal compliment.
+
+'I assure you that we shall welcome you back most gladly,' he returned.
+'The place will not seem like itself without our busy village nurse.
+Well, you have worked hard enough for six months: you deserve a holiday.
+I should like to see you in your butterfly garb, Miss Garston. I fancy,
+however, that I should not recognise you.'
+
+With a sudden pang I remembered Elspeth's words. He does not think that
+such home attire will become me. I thought he preferred me in my usual
+nun's garb of black serge.
+
+'Oh,' I said, petulantly and foolishly, 'I must own that I shall look
+rather like a crow dressed up in peacock's feathers in the grand gown
+Sara has chosen for me'; but I was a little taken aback, and felt
+inclined to laugh, when he asked me, with an air of interest, what it
+was like in colour and material.
+
+'Sara wished it to be red plush,' I replied demurely; 'but I refused to
+wear it; so she has waived that in favour of a dark green velvet. I think
+it is absolutely wicked to make Uncle Brian pay for such a dress; but it
+seems that Sara will get her own way, so I must put up with all they
+choose to give me.'
+
+'That is hardly spoken graciously. If your uncle be rich, why should
+he not please himself in buying you a velvet gown? I think the fair
+bride-elect has good taste. You will look very well in dark-green velvet:
+light tints would not suit you at all; red would be too gay.'
+
+He spoke with such gravity and decision that I thought it best not to
+contradict him. I even repressed my inclination to laugh: if he liked to
+be dogmatic on the subject of my dress, I would not hinder him. The next
+moment, however, he dismissed the matter.
+
+'I agree with you in disliking gay weddings. The idea is singularly
+repugnant to me. Because two people elect to join hands for the journey
+of life, is there any adequate reason why all their idle acquaintances
+should accompany them with cymbals and prancings and all sorts of
+fooleries just at the most solemn moment of their life?'
+
+'I suppose they wish to express their sympathy,' I returned.
+
+'Sympathy should wear a quieter garb. These folks come to church to show
+their fine feathers and make a fuss; they do not care a jot for the
+solemnity of the service; and yet to me it is as awful in its way as the
+burial service. "Till death us do part,"--can any one, man or woman, say
+these words lightly and not bring down a doom upon himself?' He spoke
+with suppressed excitement, walking up and down the room: one could see
+how strongly he felt his words. Was he thinking of Mrs. Carrick? I
+wondered. He gave a slight shudder, as though some unwelcome thought
+obtruded itself, and then he turned to me with a forced smile.
+
+'I am boring you, I am afraid. I get horribly excited over the shams of
+conventionality. What were we talking about? Oh, I remember: Gladys's
+letter. Yes, she has written to Lady Betty, but not such a volume as
+that,' glancing at the closely written sheets. 'You are her chief
+correspondent, I believe; but she told us her plans. For my part, I am
+glad that she should enjoy this trip to Paris. Really, the Maberleys are
+most kind. I sent her a cheque to add to her amusements, for of course
+all girls like shopping.'
+
+How generous he was to his sisters! with all his faults of manner, he
+seemed to grudge them nothing. But all the same I knew Gladys would have
+valued a few kind words from him far more than the cheque; but perhaps he
+had written to her as well. But he seemed rather surprised when I asked
+him the question.
+
+'Oh no; I never write to my sisters: they would not care for a letter
+from me. Etta offered to enclose it in a letter she had just finished to
+Gladys, so that saved all trouble. By the bye, Miss Garston, I hope you
+will come up to Gladwyn one evening before you leave Heathfield. I do not
+see why we are to be deserted in this fashion.'
+
+Neither did I, if he put it in this way: reluctant as I was to spend an
+evening there in Gladys's absence, it certainly was not quite kind either
+to him or to Lady Betty to refuse. He seemed to anticipate a refusal,
+however, for he said hastily,--
+
+'Never mind answering me now. Etta shall write to you in proper form,
+and you shall fix your own evening. Now I have hindered you sufficiently,
+so I will take my leave,'--which he did, but I heard him some time
+afterwards talking to Nathaniel in the porch.
+
+A few days after this I received a civil little note from Miss Darrell,
+pressing me to spend a long evening with them, and begging me to bring my
+prettiest songs.
+
+I made the rather lame excuse that I was much engaged with my new
+patient, and fixed the latest day that I could,--the very last evening
+before I was to leave for London. Mr. Hamilton met me a few hours
+afterwards, and asked me rather drily what my numerous engagements
+could be.
+
+'You are the most unsociable of your sex,' he added, when I had no answer
+to make to this. 'I shall take care that you are properly punished, for
+neither Cunliffe nor Tudor shall be asked to meet you. Etta was sure you
+would like one or both to come, but I put my veto on it at once.'
+
+'Then you were very disagreeable,' I returned laughingly. 'I wanted Uncle
+Max very much.' But he only shook his head at me good-humouredly, and
+scolded me for my want of amiability.
+
+I determined, when the evening came, that he should not find fault with
+me in any way. I was rather in holiday mood; my patient was going on
+well, and his mother was a neat, capable body, and might be trusted to
+look after him. No other cases had come to me, and I might leave
+Heathfield with a clear conscience. Uncle Max would miss me, but an old
+college friend was coming to stay at the vicarage, so I could be better
+spared. I had seen a great deal of Mr. Tudor lately. I often met him in
+the village, and he always turned back and walked with me: he met me on
+this occasion, and walked to the gates of Gladwyn. Indeed, he detained me
+for some minutes in the road, trying to extract particulars about the
+wedding.
+
+'Miss Jocelyn is to be bridesmaid, then?' describing a circle with his
+stick in the dust.
+
+'Yes. Poor Sara is afraid that she will be quite overshadowed by Jill's
+bigness; she has made her promise not to stand quite close. They have got
+a match for her. Grace Underley is as tall as Jill, and very fair. Sara
+calls them her night and morning bridesmaids.'
+
+'I think I shall be in London on the fourteenth. I thought, Miss Garston,
+that there was a prejudice to weddings in May.'
+
+'Yes; but Sara laughs at the idea, and Colonel Ferguson says it is all
+nonsense. I did not know you were coming to town so soon.'
+
+'Some of my people will be up then,' he said absently. 'Perhaps I shall
+have a peep at you all; but of course'--rather hastily--'I shall not call
+at Hyde Park Gate until the wedding is over.'
+
+I wished he would not call then. What was the good of feeding his boyish
+fancy? it would soon die a natural death, if he would only be wise. Poor
+Mr. Tudor! I began to be afraid that he was very much in earnest after
+all: there was a grave expression on his face as he turned away. Perhaps
+he knew, as I did, that our big awkward Jill would develop into a
+splendid woman; that one of these days Jocelyn Garston would be far more
+admired than her sister; that the ugly duckling would soon change into a
+swan. There were times even now when Jill looked positively handsome,
+if only her short black locks would grow, and if she would leave off
+hunching her shoulders.
+
+'I should like Lawrence Tudor to have my Jill, if he were only rich; but
+there is no hope for him now, poor fellow!' I said to myself, as I walked
+up the gravel walk towards the house.
+
+Gladwyn looked its best this evening. The shady little lawns that
+surrounded the house looked cool and inviting; the birds were singing
+merrily from the avenue of young oaks; the air was sweet with the scent
+of May-blossoms and wall-flowers: great bunches of them were placed in
+the hall.
+
+Thornton, who admitted me, said that Leah would be waiting for me in the
+blue room, as Miss Darrell's room was called; so I went up at once.
+
+I was passing through the dressing-room, when I saw the bedroom door was
+half opened, and a voice--I scarcely recognised it as Miss Darrell's, it
+was so different from her usual low, toneless voice--exclaimed angrily,
+'You forget yourself strangely, Leah! one would think you were the
+mistress and I the maid, to hear you speaking to me.'
+
+'I can't help that, Miss Etta,' returned the woman insolently. 'If you
+are not more punctual in your payments I will go to the master myself and
+tell him.' But here I knocked sharply at the door to warn them of my
+presence, and Leah ceased abruptly, while Miss Darrell bade me enter.
+
+She tried to meet me as usual, but her face was flushed, and she looked
+at me uneasily, as though she feared that I had overheard Leah's speech.
+I thought Leah looked sullen and stolid as she waited upon me. It was a
+most forbidding face. I was glad when Miss Darrell dismissed her on some
+slight pretext.
+
+'Leah is in a bad temper this evening,' she observed, examining the
+clasp of a handsome bracelet as she spoke. I noticed then that she had
+beautiful arms, as well as finely-shaped hands, and the emerald-eyed
+snake showed to advantage. 'She is a most invaluable person, but she can
+take liberties sometimes. Perhaps you heard me scolding her; but I
+consider she was decidedly in the wrong.'
+
+'She does not look very good-tempered,' was my reply.
+
+Miss Darrell still looked flushed and perturbed; but she took up her
+fan and vinaigrette, and proposed that we should join Lady Betty in the
+drawing-room. Leah was in the hall. As we passed her she addressed Miss
+Darrell.
+
+'If you can spare me a moment, ma'am, I should like to speak to you,' she
+said, quite civilly; but I thought her manner a little menacing.
+
+'Will not another time do, Leah?' returned her mistress in a worried
+tone; but the next moment she begged me to go in without her.
+
+Lady Betty was sitting by the open window with Nap beside her. I thought
+the poor little girl looked dull and lonely. She gave an exclamation of
+pleasure at seeing me, and ran towards me with outstretched hands. She
+looked like a child in her little white gown and blue ribbons, with her
+short curly hair.
+
+'I am so glad to see you, Miss Garston! I thought Etta would keep you,
+I have been alone all the afternoon: Etta never sits with me now. How
+I wish Gladys would come back! I have no one to speak to, and I miss her
+horribly.'
+
+'Poor Lady Betty!'
+
+'You would say so, if you knew how horrid it all was. Just now, as I was
+sitting alone, I felt like a poor little princess shut up in an enchanted
+tower. Giles is the magician, and Etta is the wicked witch. I was making
+up quite a story about it.'
+
+'Why have you not been to see me lately, Lady Betty?'
+
+'Oh, how silly you are to ask me such a question!' she returned
+pettishly. 'You had better ask Witch Etta. Now you pretend to look
+surprised. She won't let me come--there!'
+
+'My dear child, surely you need not consult your cousin.'
+
+'Of course not,' wrinkling her forehead; 'but then, you see, Witch Etta
+consults me: she makes a point of finding out all my little plans and
+nipping them in the bud. She says she really cannot allow me to go so
+often to the White Cottage; Mr. Cunliffe and Mr. Tudor are always there,
+and it is not proper. She is always hinting that I want to meet Mr.
+Tudor, and it is no good telling her that I never think of such a thing.'
+Lady Betty was half crying. A more innocent, harmless little soul never
+breathed; she had not a spice of coquetry in her nature. I felt indignant
+at such an accusation.
+
+'It is all nonsense, Lady Betty,' I returned sharply. 'Mr. Tudor has not
+called at the cottage more than once since Jill left me, and then Uncle
+Max sent him. When I first came to Heathfield he was very kind in doing
+me little services, and he dropped in two or three times when Jill was
+with me; but indeed he has never been a constant visitor. When we meet
+it is at the vicarage or in the street.'
+
+'You would never convince Etta of that,' replied Lady Betty
+disconsolately. 'She has even told Giles how often Mr. Tudor goes to the
+cottage, and she has got it into her head that I am always trying to meet
+him there. It is such an odious idea, only worthy of Etta herself!' went
+on the little girl indignantly. 'If I could only make her hold her tongue
+to Giles!'
+
+'I would not trouble about it if I were you, dear. No one who knows you
+would believe it. Such an idea would never occur to Mr. Tudor; he is an
+honest, simple young fellow, who is not ashamed to respect women in the
+good old-fashioned way.'
+
+'Oh yes, I like him, and so does Jill; but I wish he were a thousand
+miles off, and then Etta would give me a little peace. How angry Gladys
+would be if she knew it! But I don't mean to trouble her about my small
+worries, poor darling.'
+
+I had never heard Lady Betty speak with such womanly dignity. She was so
+often childish and whimsical that one never expected her to be grave and
+responsible like other people. She kissed me presently, and said I had
+done her good, and would I always believe in her in spite of Etta, for
+she was not the giddy little creature that Etta made her out to be; she
+was sure Giles would think more of her but for Etta's mischief-making.
+
+Mr. Hamilton came in after this, and sat down by us, but Miss Darrell did
+not make her appearance until the gong sounded, and then she hurried in
+with a breathless apology. I do not know what made me watch her so
+closely all dinner-time. She took very little part in the conversation,
+seemed absent and thoughtful, and started nervously when Mr. Hamilton
+spoke to her. He told her once that she looked pale and tired, and she
+said then that the evening was close, and that her head ached. I wondered
+then if the headache had made her eyes so heavy, or if she had been
+crying.
+
+Mr. Hamilton was a little quiet, too, through dinner, but listened with
+great interest when Lady Betty and I talked about the approaching
+wedding. I had to satisfy her curiosity on many points,--the bride's and
+bridesmaids' dresses, and the programme for the day.
+
+The details did not seem to bore Mr. Hamilton. His face never once wore
+its cynical expression; but when we returned to the drawing-room, and
+Lady Betty wanted to continue the subject, he took her quietly by the
+shoulders and marched her off to Miss Darrell.
+
+'Make the child hold her tongue, Etta,' he said good-humouredly. 'I want
+to coax Miss Garston to sing to us.' And then he came to me with the
+smile I liked best to see on his face, and held out his hand.
+
+I was quite willing to oblige him, and he kept me hard at work for nearly
+an hour, first asking me if I were tired, and then begging for one more
+song; and sometimes I thought of Gladys as I sang, and sometimes of Max,
+and once of Mrs. Carrick, with her wonderful gray eyes, and her false
+fair face.
+
+When I had finished I saw Mr. Hamilton looking at me rather strangely.
+
+'Why do you sing such sad songs?' he asked, in a low voice, as though he
+did not wish to be overheard; but he need not have been afraid: Miss
+Darrell was evidently taking no notice of any one just then. She was
+lying back in her chair with her eyes closed, and I noticed afterwards
+that her forehead was lined like an old woman's.
+
+'I like melancholy songs,' was my reply, and I fingered the notes a
+little nervously, for his look was rather too keen just then, and I had
+been thinking of Mrs. Carrick.
+
+'But you are not melancholy,' he persisted. 'There is no weak
+sentimentality in your nature. Just now there was a passion in your voice
+that startled me, as though you were drawing from some secret well.' He
+paused, and then went on, half playfully,--
+
+'If I were like the Hebrew steward, and asked you to let down your
+pitcher and give me a draught, I wonder what you would answer?'
+
+'That would depend on circumstances. You would find it difficult to
+persuade me that you were thirsty, or needed anything that I could give.'
+
+'Would it be so difficult as all that?' he returned thoughtfully. 'I
+thought we were better friends; that you had penetrated beneath the upper
+crust; that in spite of my faults you trusted me a little.'
+
+His earnestness troubled me. I hardly knew what he meant.
+
+'Of course we are friends,' I answered hastily. 'I can trust you more
+than a little.' And I would have risen from my seat, but he put his hand
+gently on my sleeve.
+
+'Wait a moment. You are going away, and I may not have another
+opportunity. I want to tell you something. You have done me good; you
+have taught me that women can be trusted, after all. I thank you most
+heartily for that lesson.'
+
+'I do not know what you mean,' I faltered; but I felt a singular pleasure
+at these words. 'I have done nothing. It is you that have been good to
+me.'
+
+'Pshaw!' impatiently. 'I thought you more sensible than to say that. Now,
+I want you,' his voice softening again, 'to try and think better of me;
+not to judge by appearances, or to take other people's judgments, but to
+be as true and charitable to me as you are to others. Promise me this
+before you go, Miss Garston.'
+
+I do not know why the tears started to my eyes. I could hardly answer
+him.
+
+'Will you try to do this?' he persisted, stooping over me.
+
+'Yes,' was my scarcely audible answer, but he was satisfied with that
+monosyllable. He walked away after that, and joined Lady Betty. Miss
+Darrell had not moved; she still lay back on the cushions, and I thought
+her face looked drawn and old. When I spoke to her, for it was getting
+late, she roused herself with difficulty.
+
+'My head is very bad, and I shall have to go to bed, after all,' she
+said, giving me her hand. 'I am afraid your beautiful singing has been
+thrown away on me, for I was half asleep. I thought I heard you and Giles
+talking by the piano, but I was not sure.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton walked home with me. He had resumed his usual manner; he
+told me he had had a letter that day that would oblige him to go to
+Edinburgh for a week or so.
+
+'I think I shall take the night mail to-morrow evening, though it will
+give me a busy day: so, after all, I shall not miss you, Miss Garston.'
+And after a little more talk about the business that had summoned him,
+we reached the White Cottage and he bade me good-bye.
+
+'I hope you will have a pleasant holiday. Take care of yourself, for all
+our sakes.' And with that he left me.
+
+It was long before I slept that night. I felt confused and feverish, as
+though I were on the brink of some discovery that would overwhelm and
+alarm me. I could not understand myself or Mr. Hamilton. His words
+presented an enigma. I felt troubled by them, and yet not unhappy.
+
+Had Miss Darrell overheard him? I wondered. I felt, if she had done so,
+her manner would have been different. She seemed jealous of her cousin,
+and always monopolised his words and looks. He had never spoken to me a
+dozen words in her presence that she had not tried to interrupt us. Had
+she really been asleep? These doubts kept recurring to me. Just before
+I fell asleep a remembrance of Leah's sullen face came between me and my
+dreams. Her insolent voice rang in my ears. What had she meant by her
+words? Why had Miss Darrell submitted to her impertinence? Was she afraid
+of Leah, as Gladys said? I began to feel weary of all these mysteries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+WITH TIMBRELS AND DANCES
+
+
+Aunt Philippa and Sara came to meet me at Victoria. They both seemed
+unfeignedly glad to see me.
+
+Aunt Philippa was certainly a kind-hearted woman. Her faults were those
+that were engendered by too much prosperity. Overmuch ease and luxury had
+made her lymphatic and indolent. Except for Ralph's death, she had never
+known sorrow. Care had not yet traced a single line on her smooth
+forehead; it looked as open and unfurrowed as a child's. Contentment and
+a comfortable self-complacency were written on her comely face. Just now
+it beamed with motherly welcome. Somehow, I never felt so fond of Aunt
+Philippa as I did at that moment when she leaned over the carriage with
+outstretched hands.
+
+'My dear, how well you are looking! Five years younger.--Does she not
+look well, Sara?'
+
+Sara nodded and smiled, and made room for me to pass her, and then gave
+orders that my luggage should be intrusted to the maid, who would convey
+it in a cab to Hyde Park Gate.
+
+'If you do not mind, Ursula, we are going round the Park for a little,'
+observed Sara, with a pretty blush.
+
+Her mother laughed: 'Colonel Ferguson is riding in the Row, and will be
+looking out for us. He is coming this evening, as usual, but Sara thinks
+four-and-twenty hours too long to wait.'
+
+'Oh, mother, how can you talk so?' returned Sara bashfully. 'You know
+Donald asked us to meet him, and he would be so disappointed. And it is
+such a lovely afternoon,--if Ursula does not mind.'
+
+'On the contrary, I shall like it very much,' I returned, moved by
+curiosity to see Colonel Ferguson again. I had never seen him by
+daylight, and, though we had often met at the evening receptions, we
+had not exchanged a dozen words.
+
+I thought Sara was looking prettier than ever. A sort of radiance seemed
+to surround her. Youth and beauty, perfect health, a light heart, and
+satisfied affections,--these were the gifts of the gods that had been
+showered upon her. Would those bright, smiling eyes ever shed tears? I
+wondered. Would any sorrow drive away that light, careless gaiety? I
+hoped not. It was pleasant to see any one so happy. And then I thought
+of Lesbia and Gladys, and sighed.
+
+'You do not look at all tired, Ursie,' observed Sara affectionately,
+laying her little gloved hand on mine. 'She looks quite nice and fresh:
+does she not, mother?--I was so afraid that you would have come up in
+your nurse's livery, as Jocelyn calls it,--black serge, and a horrid
+dowdy bonnet.'
+
+'Oh no; I knew better than that,' I returned, with a complacent glance
+at my handsome black silk, one of Uncle Brian's presents. I had the
+comfortable conviction that even Sara could not find fault with my bonnet
+and mantle. I had made a careful toilet purposely, for I knew what
+importance they attached to such things. Sara's little speech rewarded
+me, as well as Aunt Philippa's approving look.
+
+'It has not done her any harm,' I heard her observe, _sotto voce_. 'She
+certainly looks younger.'
+
+I took advantage of a pause in Sara's chatter to ask after Jill. Aunt
+Philippa answered me, for Sara was bowing towards a passing carriage.
+
+'Oh, poor child, she wanted to come with us to meet you, but it was
+Professor Hugel's afternoon. He teaches her German literature, you know.
+I was anxious for her not to miss his lesson, and she was very good about
+it. She is coming down to afternoon tea, and of course we shall see her
+in the evening.'
+
+'Poor dear Jocelyn! she was longing to come, I know. You and Miss
+Gillespie are terribly severe,' observed Sara, with a light laugh. She
+was so free and gay herself that she rather pitied her young sister,
+condemned to the daily grind of lessons and hard work.
+
+'Nonsense, Sara!' returned her mother sharply. 'We are not severe at all.
+Jocelyn knows that it is all for her good if Miss Gillespie keeps her to
+her task. My dear Ursula, we are all charmed with Miss Gillespie,--even
+Sara, though she pretends to call her strict and old-fashioned. She is a
+most amiable, ladylike woman, and Jocelyn is perfectly happy with her.
+
+'I am very pleased with Jocelyn,' she went on. 'You have done her good,
+Ursula, and both her father and I are very grateful to you. She is not
+nearly so wayward and self-willed. She takes great pains with her
+lessons, and is most industrious. She is not so awkward, either, and Miss
+Gillespie thinks it will be a good plan if I take her out with me driving
+sometimes when Sara is married. I shall only have Jocelyn then,' finished
+Aunt Philippa, with a regretful look at her daughter. I was much
+interested in all they had to tell me, but I was not sorry when we
+entered the Park and the stream of talk died away.
+
+I almost felt as though I were in a dream, as the moving kaleidoscope
+of horses and carriages and foot-passengers passed before my eyes.
+
+Yesterday at this time I was sitting in poor Robert Lambert's whitewashed
+attic, listening to the sparrows that were twittering under the eaves.
+When I had left the cottage I had walked down country roads, meeting
+nothing but a donkey-cart and two tramps.
+
+Now the sunshine was playing on the rhododendrons and on the green leaves
+of the trees in Hyde Park. A brass band had struck up in the distance.
+The riders were cantering up and down the Row, to the admiration of the
+well-dressed crowds that sauntered under the trees or lingered by the
+railings. Carriages were passing and repassing. A four-in-hand drove past
+us, followed by a tandem. Beautiful young faces smiled out of the
+carriages. A few of them looked weary and careworn. Now and then under
+the smart bonnet one saw the pinched weazened face of old age,--dowagers
+in big fur capes looking out with their dim hungry eyes on the follies of
+Vanity Fair. One wondered at the set senile smile on these old faces;
+they had fed on husks all their lives, and the food had failed to nourish
+them; their strength had failed over the battle of life, but they still
+refused to leave the field of their former triumphs. Everywhere in these
+fashionable crowds one sees these pale meagre faces that belong to a past
+age. They wear gorgeous velvets, jewels, feathers, paint: like Jezebel,
+they would look out of the window curiously to the last. How one longs to
+take them gently out of the crowd, to wash their poor cheeks, and lead
+them to some quiet home, where they may shut their tired eyes in peace!
+'What is the world to you?' one would say to them. 'You have done all
+your tasks,--well or badly; leave the arena to the young and the strong;
+it is no place for you; come home and rest, before the dark angel finds
+you in your tinsel and gewgaws.' Would they listen to me, I wonder?
+
+Sara's soft dimples came into play presently. A pretty blush rose to her
+face. A tall man with a bronzed handsome face and iron-gray moustache had
+detached himself from the other riders, and was cantering towards the
+carriage that was now drawn up near the entrance: in another moment he
+had checked his horse with some difficulty.
+
+'I have been looking out for you the last three-quarters of an hour,' he
+said, addressing Sara. 'I could not see the carriage anywhere.--Miss
+Garston, we have met before, but I think we hardly know each other,'
+looking at me with some degree of interest. Sara's cousin was no longer
+indifferent to him.
+
+I answered him as civilly as I could, but I could see his attention
+wandered to his young _fiancée_, and he soon rode round to her side of
+the carriage. It was evident, as Lesbia said, that the colonel was
+honestly in love with Sara. She looked very young beside him, but there
+must have been something very winning in her sweet looks and words to the
+man who had known trouble and had laid a young wife and child to rest in
+an Indian grave.
+
+Before the evening was over I felt I liked Colonel Ferguson immensely,
+and thought far more of Sara for being his choice; there was an air of
+frankness and _bonhomie_ about him that won one's heart; he was sensible
+and practical. In spite of his fondness for Sara, he would keep her in
+order: one could see that. I heard him rebuke her very gently that first
+evening for some extravagance she was planning. They were standing apart
+from the others on the balcony, but I was near the open window, and I
+heard him say distinctly, in a grave voice,--
+
+'I am very sorry to disappoint you, but I must ask you to give up this
+idea, my darling; it would not be right in our position: surely you must
+see that.'
+
+'No, Donald, I do not see it a bit,' she answered quickly.
+
+'Then will you be satisfied with my seeing it, and give it up for my
+sake, dear?'
+
+I knew when they came back into the room that he had got his way. Sara
+was smiling as happily as usual: her disappointment had not gone very
+deep. Her future husband would have very little trouble with her. She was
+neither self-willed nor selfish. She wanted to be happy herself and make
+other people happy; she would be easily guided.
+
+When we left the Park Colonel Ferguson rode off to his club, and we drove
+home rather quickly. There were some visitors waiting for Sara in the
+drawing-room, so I went up to my old room to take off my bonnet. Martha
+would unpack my boxes, Aunt Philippa told me, as she gave me another kiss
+in the hall.
+
+I had not been there for five minutes when I heard flying footsteps down
+the passage, and the next moment Jill's strong arms had taken me by the
+shoulders and turned me round.
+
+'Now, Jill, I don't mean to be strangled as usual'; but she left me no
+breath for more.
+
+'Oh, my dear, precious old bear, this is too good to be true! I nearly
+cried with joy this morning at the idea of seeing you in your old room
+and knowing you will be here a whole fortnight. I declare, after all,
+Sara is very nice to get married.'
+
+No, Jill was not changed; she was as real and big and demonstrative as
+usual, but somehow she looked nicer.
+
+'You must be quick,' she continued, 'for father has come in, and Clayton
+has taken in the tea. We must go down directly; but I want you to see
+Miss Gillespie first.' And Jill looked proud and eager as she led me down
+the passage.
+
+The schoolroom was still the same dull back room that Aunt Philippa
+thought so conducive to her young daughter's studies, but it certainly
+looked more cheerful this evening.
+
+The window was opened. There was a window-box full of gay flowers. A
+great bowl of my favourite wall-flowers was on the table, and another
+vase, with trails of laburnum and lilac, was on Jill's little table. The
+fresh air and sunshine and the sweet scent of the flowers had quite
+transformed the dingy room. There was new cretonne on the old sofa, a
+handsome cloth on the centre-table, and a new easy-chair.
+
+Miss Gillespie was sitting by the window, reading. She had an interesting
+face and rather sad gray eyes, but her manner was decidedly
+prepossessing.
+
+She looked at her pupil with affection. Evidently Jill's abruptness and
+awkwardness were not misunderstood by her.
+
+'I want you two to like each other,' Jill had said, without a pretence of
+introduction; and we had both laughed and extended our hands.
+
+'I seem to know you already, Miss Garston,' she said, in a pleasant
+voice. 'Jocelyn talks about you so much that you cannot be a stranger
+to me.--Do you know your father has come in, dear?' turning to Jill.
+
+'Yes, and I must take my cousin downstairs. Good-bye for the present,
+Gypsy.'
+
+Miss Gillespie smiled again when she saw my astonishment at Jill's
+familiarity.
+
+'Jocelyn thinks my name too long, and has abbreviated it to Gypsy. Mrs.
+Garston was terribly shocked at first, but I told her that it did not
+matter in the least: in fact, I like it.'
+
+'She is such a dear old thing!' burst out Jill, as we left the schoolroom
+and proceeded downstairs arm in arm. 'I never think of her as my
+governess; she is just a kind friend who helps me with my lessons and
+walks with me. We do have such cosy times together. Does not the
+schoolroom look nice, Ursie?'
+
+'Very nice indeed, my dear.'
+
+'So I think; but Sara says it is horrid: she has made mother promise to
+give me her room directly she is married. Sara has a beautiful piano
+there, and a book-case, and all sorts of pretty things. It is a lovely
+room, you know, and looks out over the Park. Mother thinks it too nice
+and pretty for a schoolroom; but I am to call it my study and keep it
+tidy. And Gypsy is to have the old schoolroom for herself: so we are both
+pleased. It is nice for her to have a room of her own, where she can be
+alone.'
+
+'Your mother is very kind to you, Jill.'
+
+'Awfully kind--I mean very kind: Gypsy does so dislike that expression.
+Do you know, I think you two are rather alike in that? Gypsy is very
+unhappy sometimes, though. I have found her crying more than once when I
+have left her long alone; only mother does not know, and I don't mean to
+tell her, because she thinks people ought always to be cheerful. It was
+so sad that clergyman dying,--the one she was to marry; his name was
+Maurice Compton. I saw the name in one of her books: "Lilian Gillespie,
+from her devoted friend, Maurice Compton."'
+
+'My dear Jill, how long are you going to keep me standing in the hall?
+Clayton will find us here directly.'
+
+'Yes, I know'; but Jill showed no intention of moving; the prospect of
+cold tea did not trouble her; 'but I want to tell you something before
+you go in. Mother is certainly kinder to me than she ever has been; she
+says I am to drive with her very often, and that she shall take me to see
+picture-galleries. And father is going to buy a horse for me, because he
+says I ride so well that I may go out with him, as a rule, instead of
+with a master; and--'
+
+'You shall tell me all that presently,' I returned, 'for I am too tired
+to stand on this mat any longer. Are you coming, Jill? or shall I go in
+without you?' but of course I knew she would follow me.
+
+The room seemed full when we entered. Aunt Philippa was at the tea-table;
+Sara was flitting about the room from one guest to another. Uncle Brian,
+who was standing on the hearth-rug, put out his hand to me.
+
+'I am glad to see you back again, Ursula,' looking at me with his cool,
+penetrating glance. Uncle Brian was never demonstrative. 'I think the
+work suits you, to judge by your looks. Take that chair by your aunt,
+child, and she will give you some tea.' And accordingly I placed myself
+under Aunt Philippa's wing, while Jill and a boy-officer with a budding
+moustache waited on me.
+
+The rest of the evening passed very pleasantly. I had a long conversation
+with Miss Gillespie in the inner drawing-room while Sara and Jill played
+duets: of course our subject was Jill. Miss Gillespie spoke most warmly
+of her excellent abilities and fine development of character. 'She will
+be a very striking woman,' she finished, when the last chords were played
+and a soft clapping of hands succeeded. 'Whether she will be a happy one
+is more doubtful: she must not be thwarted too much, and she must have
+room to expand. Jocelyn wants space and sunshine.'
+
+I thought these remarks very sensible; they taught me that Miss Gillespie
+had grasped the true idea of Jill's character. There was nothing little
+about Jill: she never did things by halves: she either loved or hated.
+She was truthful to a fault. There was a massive freedom and simplicity
+about her that would guide her safely through the world's pitfalls.
+'Space and sunshine,' that was all Jill needed to bring her to maturity
+and fruition. Some girls may be trusted to educate themselves. Jill was
+one of these.
+
+The next morning Sara took possession of me. A great honour was to be
+vouchsafed me: I was to be treated to a private view of the trousseau
+and wedding-presents.
+
+I had exhausted my vocabulary of admiring epithets, and sat in eloquent
+silence, long before Sara had finished her display. It was like the
+picture of Pandora opening her box, to see the pretty creature opening
+the big, carved wardrobe to show me the layers of delicate embroidered
+raiment, muslin and laces and jewels, curious trinkets and wonderful
+gifts worthy of the Arabian Nights. There were two rooms full of
+treasures that had been laid at her feet, and no doubt, like Pandora,
+Sara had the rainbow-tinted hope lying amid the bridal gifts.
+
+'This is Donald's present,' she said, smiling, showing me a diamond
+spray. 'I am to wear it on Thursday: it is the loveliest present of
+all,--though mother has given me that beautiful pearl necklace.'
+
+'Wait a moment, Sara,' I said, detaining her as she closed the morocco
+case: 'tell me, do you not feel like a princess in fairy-land, with all
+this glitter round you? Does it all seem real, somehow?'
+
+'Donald is real, anyhow,' she returned, with a charming blush. 'Nothing
+would be real without him. Oh, Ursula, it is nice to be so happy! I
+always have been happier than other girls.' And something like a tear
+stole to her pretty eyes.
+
+'Now you must see your own dress,' she continued, brushing off the tiny
+tear-drop, with a laugh at her own sentimentality. 'What do you think of
+that? Is that not charming taste?'
+
+'It is far too good for me,' I returned seriously. 'How could Uncle Brain
+buy that for me? It is beautiful; it is perfect, and just my taste.' And
+then I could say no more, for Sara had placed her hands across my lips to
+silence me.
+
+'Then you must wear it, dear. Father and mother wanted to give you
+something nice, because you were so good to Jocelyn, and I knew you had a
+fancy for a velvet gown. Is not that yellowish lace charming, Ursula? and
+the bonnet harmonises so well! Your bouquet is to be cream-coloured, too,
+with just a tea-rose or so. You will look quite pretty in it, Ursula
+dear. Do you know Donald liked the look of you so yesterday? he said you
+looked so strong and sensible; he called you an interesting woman.'
+
+I hastened to change the subject, for it recalled certain words that I
+vainly tried to forget. It was a relief when visitors were announced and
+Sara left me to go down to the drawing-room. I was glad to be alone for
+a few minutes. Aunt Philippa came up soon afterwards with a bevy of
+friends, and I escaped to my own room until luncheon-time.
+
+I grew a little weary of the bustle by and by, and yet I was pleased and
+interested too; the excitement was infectious; one smiled to see so many
+happy faces; and then there was so much to do, every one was pressed into
+the service. Jill shut up her books with a bang; her piano remained
+closed. She and Miss Gillespie were answering notes, unpacking presents,
+running to and fro with messages; people came all day long; they talked
+in corners on the balcony, in Uncle Brian's study; no room was held
+sacred.
+
+A cargo of flowers arrived presently; the hall and drawing-room were to
+be transformed into bowers. It must rain roses as well as sunshine on the
+young princess. Sara's bright face appeared every now and then among the
+workers; a little court surrounded her; sometimes Colonel Ferguson's
+bronzed face looked over her shoulders.
+
+'That is very pretty, Ursula. I see you have caught the right idea.
+Jocelyn dear, you are overfilling that basket, and some of the stalks are
+showing. Miss Gillespie will put it right for you. Come, Grace, shall we
+go upstairs?'
+
+Sara nodded and smiled at us as she led the way to the upper regions.
+Pandora was for ever opening her box in those days: she was never weary
+of fingering her silks and satins.
+
+'Now she has gone, let us rest a little,' Jill exclaimed, letting her
+arms fall to her side. 'Are you not tired of it all, Ursie dear? I get so
+giddy that I keep rubbing my eyes. I never knew weddings meant all this
+fuss. Why cannot people do things more quietly? If I ever get married I
+shall just put on my bonnet and walk to the nearest church with father.
+What is the use of all this nonsense? It is like decking the victim for
+the sacrifice, to see all these roses and green leaves. Supposing we have
+a band of music to drown her groans while she is dressing,' finished Jill
+rebelliously, as she contemplated her flower-basket with dissatisfied
+eyes.
+
+Jill's speech recalled Mr. Hamilton's words most vividly: 'Because two
+people elect to join hands for the journey of life, is there any adequate
+reason why all their idle acquaintances should accompany them with
+cymbals and prancings, and all sorts of fooleries, just at the most
+solemn moment of life?' and again, '"Till death us do part,"--can any
+one, man or woman, say those words lightly and not bring down a doom upon
+himself?'
+
+Could I ever forget how solemnly he had said this? After all, Mr.
+Hamilton was right, and I think Jill was right too.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+WEDDING-CHIMES
+
+
+When we had finished the flowers and brought in Aunt Philippa to see the
+effect, I left the others and went up to my room. I had been busy since
+the early morning, and felt I had fairly earned a little rest.
+
+The room that was still called mine had a side-window looking over the
+Park. Down below carriages were passing and repassing; a detachment of
+hussars trotted past; people were pouring out from the Albert Hall,--some
+afternoon concert was just over; the children were playing as usual on
+the grass; the soft evening shadows were creeping up between the trees;
+the sky was blue and cloudless. May was wearing her choicest smiles on
+the eve of Sara's wedding-day.
+
+Martha, the schoolroom maid, had brought me a cup of tea; the rest of the
+family were crowded in Uncle Brian's study; the dining-room was already
+in the hands of Gunter's assistants; the long drawing-room and inner
+drawing-room were sweet with roses and baskets of costly hot-house
+flowers; a bank of rhododendrons was under the hall window; the house was
+full of sunshine, flowers, and the ripple of laughter. I could hear the
+laughter through the closed door. Sara's musical tinkle rang out whenever
+the door opened. I had fallen into a sort of waking dream, when something
+white and golden passed between me and the sunlight; a light kiss was
+dropped on my drowsy eyelids, and there was Lesbia smiling at me.
+
+She looked so cool and fair in her white gown, with a tiny bouquet of
+delicious tea-roses in her hand, her golden hair shining under her little
+lace bonnet. I thought she looked more than ever like Charlie's white
+lily, only now there was a touch of colour on her face.
+
+'Oh, Ursie dear, I am so pleased to see you!' she said gently, laying
+the flowers on my lap. 'Clayton told me that every one else was in Mr.
+Garston's study, so I begged to run up here. We only came up from
+Rutherford this morning, and we have been so busy ever since. I was
+afraid you were asleep, for I knocked at the door without getting any
+answer; but no, your eyes were wide open; so you were only dreaming.'
+
+'I believe I was very tired, they have kept me running about all day.
+Take this low chair by the window, dear, and tell me all about yourself.
+Do you know it is six months since we met? There must be so much to say
+on both sides. But, first, how is Mrs. Fullerton? and is it Rutherford
+that has given you those pretty roses, Lesbia?' But the roses I meant
+were certainly not on my lap.
+
+She answered literally and seriously, in her usual way: 'Yes, they are
+from Rutherford: I cut them myself, in spite of Patrick's grumbling.
+Mother is very well, Ursula; I am sure the country agrees with her. We
+have been there since March, and these two months have been the happiest
+to me since dear Charlie died.'
+
+'You need not tell me that,' I returned, with a satisfied look at the
+sweet face. 'Health has returned to you; you are no longer languid and
+weary; your eyes are bright, your voice has a stronger tone in it.'
+
+'Is it wrong?' she answered quickly. 'I do not forget, I shall never
+forget, but the pain seems soothed somehow. When I wake up in the bed
+where I slept as a child, I hear the birds singing, and I do not say to
+myself, "Here is another long weary day to get through." On the contrary,
+I jump up and dress myself as quickly as I can, for I love to be out
+among the dews; everything is so sweet and still in the early morning;
+there is such freshness in the air.'
+
+'And these early walks are good for you.'
+
+'Oh, I never leave the grounds. I just saunter about with Flo and Rover.
+When breakfast is ready I have a bouquet to lay beside mother's plate.
+Dear, good mother! do you know she cannot say enough in praise of
+Rutherford, now she sees the breakfasts I eat? I think she would be
+reconciled to any place if she saw me enjoy my food: at the Albert Hall
+Mansions I never felt hungry; I was always too tired to eat.'
+
+'I knew Mrs. Fullerton would never repent her sacrifice.'
+
+'No, indeed; mother and I have never been so cosy in our lives. She sits
+in the verandah and laughs over my quarrels with Patrick: he is quite as
+cross-grained as ever, dear old fellow, but there is nothing that he will
+not do for me. We are making a rose-garden now. Do you remember that
+sunny corner by the terrace and sundial?--dear Charlie always wanted me
+to have a rose-garden there. We have trellis-work arches and a little
+arbour. Patrick and Hawkins are doing the work, but I fancy they cannot
+get on without me.'
+
+She stopped with a little laugh at her own conceit, and then went on:
+
+'And I am so busy in other ways, Ursula. Every Monday I go to the
+mothers' meeting with Mrs. Trevor, and I have some of the old women at
+the almshouses besides,--I am so fond of those old women,--and I have
+just begun afternoons for tennis; people like these, and they come from
+such a distance. Mr. Manners declares the Rutherford Thursdays will
+soon be known all over the country.'
+
+'Bravo, Lesbia! you are taking your position nobly, my dear; this is just
+what Charlie wanted to see you,--a brave sweet woman who would not let
+sorrow and disappointment spoil her own and other people's lives.' Then,
+as she blushed with pleasure at my words, I said carelessly, 'Do you
+often see Mr. Manners?'
+
+'Oh yes,' she returned without hesitation,--'on my Thursdays, and at
+church, and at the vicarage: we are always meeting somewhere. He was
+Charlie's friend, you know, and he is so nice and sympathising, and tells
+me so much about their school life and college life together. He was so
+fond of Charlie, and the undergraduates used to call them Damon and
+Pythias.'
+
+'To be sure: Charlie was always talking about Harcourt. He has grown very
+handsome, I have heard.'
+
+'Mother says so: he is certainly good-looking,' she answered simply; 'and
+then he is so kind. I feel almost ashamed at troubling him so much with
+our business and commissions, but he never seems to mind any amount of
+trouble. I have never met any one so unselfish.'
+
+I turned away my head to hide a smile. Lesbia was quite serious. She was
+too much absorbed in the memory of Charlie to read the secret of Harcourt
+Manners's unselfishness: the kindly attentions of the young man, his
+solicitude and sympathy, had not yet awakened a suspicion of the truth.
+
+One day Lesbia's eyes would be opened, and she would be shocked and
+surprised to find the hold that Charlie's friend had got over her heart.
+Very likely she would dismiss him and lock herself up in her room and cry
+for hours; probably she would persist for some weeks in making herself
+and him exceedingly unhappy. But it would be all no use; the tie of
+sympathy would be too strong; he would have made himself too necessary to
+her. One day she would have to yield, and find her life's happiness in
+thus yielding. Charlie's white lily was too fair to be left to wither
+alone, and I knew Harcourt Manners would be worthy to win the prize.
+
+I could see it all before it happened, while Lesbia talked in her serious
+way of Mr. Manners's unselfishness. Presently, however, she changed the
+subject, and began questioning me eagerly about my work; and just then
+Jill joined us, and placed herself on the floor at my feet, with the firm
+intention, evidently, of listening to our remarks.
+
+The conversation drifted round to Gladwyn presently. I could see Lesbia
+was a little curious about these friends of mine that I had mentioned
+casually in my letters.
+
+'I can't quite make out the relationship,' she said, in a puzzled tone.
+'You are always talking about this Gladys. Is she really so beautiful and
+fascinating? And who is Miss Darrell?'
+
+'You had better ask me,' interrupted Jill, quite rudely, 'for Ursula is
+so absurdly infatuated about the whole family; she thinks them all quite
+perfect, with the exception of the double-faced lady, Miss Darrell; but
+they are very ordinary,--quite ordinary people, I assure you.'
+
+'Now, Jill, we do not want any of your impertinence. Lesbia would rather
+hear my description of my friends.'
+
+'On the contrary, she would prefer the opinion of an unprejudiced
+person,' persisted Jill, with a voluble eloquence that took away my
+breath. 'Listen to me, Lesbia. This Mr. Hamilton that Ursula is always
+talking about'--how I longed to box Jill's pretty little ears! she had
+lovely ears, pink and shell-like, hidden under her black locks--'is an
+ugly, disagreeable-looking man.'
+
+'Oh!' from Lesbia, in rather a disappointed tone.
+
+'He is quite old,--about five-and-thirty, they say,--and he has a long
+smooth-shaven face like a Jesuit. I don't recollect seeing a Jesuit,
+though; but he is very like one all the same. He has dark eyes that stare
+somehow and seem to put you down, and he has a way of laughing at you
+civilly that makes you wild; and Ursula believes in him, and is quite
+meek in his presence, just because he is a doctor and orders her about.'
+
+'My dear Lesbia, I hope you are taking Jill's measure with a grain of
+salt. Mr. Hamilton is not disagreeable, and he never orders me about.'
+
+Jill shook her head at me, and went on:
+
+'Then there is the double-faced lady--but never mind her; we both hate
+her.'
+
+'You mean Miss Darrell, Mr. Hamilton's cousin?'
+
+'Yes, Witch Etta, as Lady Betty calls her. She is a dark-eyed, slim piece
+of elegance, utterly dependent on her clothes for beauty; she dresses
+perfectly, and makes herself out a good-looking woman, but she is not
+really good-looking; and she is always talking, and her talk is exciting,
+because there is always something behind her words, something mildly
+suggestive of volcanoes, or something equally pleasant and enlivening.
+If she smiles, for instance, one seems to think one must find out the
+meaning of that.'
+
+'Who has taught you all this, Jill?' asked Lesbia, bewildered by this
+sarcasm.
+
+'My mother-wit,' returned Jill, utterly unabashed. 'Well, then there is
+Gladys. Ah, now we are coming to the saddest part. Once upon a time there
+was a beautiful maiden, really a lovely creature,--oh, I grant you that,
+Ursula,--but she fell under the power of some wicked magician, male or
+female,--some folks say Witch Etta,--who changed her into a snow-maiden
+or an ice-maiden. If she were only alive, this Gladys would be most
+lovely and bewitching; but, you see, she is only a poor snow-maiden, very
+white and cold. If she gives you her hand, it quite freezes you; her kiss
+turns you to ice too; her smile is congealing. Ursula tries to thaw her
+sometimes, but it does no good. She is only Gladys, the snow-maiden.'
+
+I was too angry with Jill to say a word. Lesbia looked more mystified
+than ever.
+
+'If she be so cold and sad, how can Ursula be so fond of her?' she
+demanded, in her practical way. But Jill took no notice, but rattled on:
+
+'Little brown Betsy--I beg her pardon--Lady Betty, is the best of all:
+she is really human. Gladys is only half alive. Lady Betty laughs and
+talks and pouts; she wrinkles up like an old woman when she is cross, and
+has lovely dimples when she smiles. She is not pretty, but she is quaint,
+and interesting, and childlike. I am very fond of Lady Betty,' finished
+Jill, with a benevolent nod.
+
+I proceeded to annotate Jill's mischievous remarks with much severity.
+I left Mr. Hamilton alone, with the exception of a brief sentence; I
+assured Lesbia that he was not ugly, but only peculiar-looking, and that
+he was an intellectual, earnest-minded man who had known much trouble.
+Jill made a wry face, but did not dare to contradict me.
+
+'As for his sister Gladys,' I went on, 'she is simply a most beautiful
+girl, whose health has failed a little from a great shock'; here Jill and
+Lesbia both looked curious, but I showed no intention of enlightening
+them. 'She is a little too sad and quiet for Jill's taste,' I continued,
+'and she is also somewhat reserved in manner, but when she likes a person
+thoroughly she is charming.'
+
+I went on a little longer in this strain, until I had thoroughly
+vindicated my favourite from Jill's aspersion.
+
+'You are very fond of her, Ursula: your eyes soften as you talk of her.
+I should like to see this wonderful Gladys.'
+
+'You must see her one day,' I rejoined; and then the gong sounded, and
+Lesbia jumped up in a fright, because she said she would keep her mother
+waiting, and Jill hurried off to her room to dress.
+
+We had what Jill called a picnic dinner in Uncle Brian's study. Every one
+enjoyed it but Clayton, who seemed rather put out by the disorganised
+state of the house, and who was always getting helplessly wedged in
+between the escritoire and the table. We would have much rather waited on
+ourselves, and we wished Mrs. Martin had forgone the usual number of
+courses. When it was over we all went into the long drawing-room, and
+Jill played soft snatches of Chopin, while Sara and Colonel Ferguson
+whispered together on the dark balcony.
+
+Mrs. Fullerton and Lesbia joined us later on, and then Colonel Ferguson
+took his leave. I thought Sara looked a little quiet and subdued when she
+joined us; her gay chatter had died away, her eyes were a little
+plaintive. When we had said good-night, and Jill and I were passing down
+the corridor hand in hand, we could hear voices from Aunt Philippa's
+room. Through the half-opened door I caught a glimpse of Sara: she was
+kneeling by her mother's chair, with her head on Aunt Philippa's
+shoulder. Was she bidding a tearful regret to her old happy life? I
+wondered; was she looking forward with natural shrinking and a little
+fear to the new responsibility that awaited her on the morrow? It was the
+mother who was talking; one could imagine how her heart would yearn over
+her child to-night,--what fond prayers would be uttered for the girl.
+Aunt Philippa was a loving mother: worldliness had not touched the
+ingrained warmth of her nature.
+
+I am glad to remember how brightly the sun shone on Sara's wedding-day.
+There was not a cloud in the sky. When I woke, the birds were singing in
+Hyde Park, and Jill in her white wrapper was looking at me with bright,
+excited eyes.
+
+'It is such a lovely morning!' she exclaimed rapturously. 'Actually Sara
+is asleep! Fancy sleeping under such circumstances! She and mother are
+going to have breakfast together in the schoolroom. Do be quick and
+dress, Ursula; father is always so early, you know.'
+
+Uncle Brian was reading his paper as usual when I entered the study. Miss
+Gillespie was pouring out coffee. Jill was fidgeting about the room,
+until her father called her to order, and then she sat down to the table.
+I do not think any of us enjoyed our breakfast. Uncle Brian certainly
+looked dull; Jill was too excited to eat; poor Miss Gillespie had tears
+in her eyes; she poured out tea and coffee with cold shaking hands.
+'Lilian Gillespie, from her devoted friend Maurice Compton,' came into my
+head: no wonder the thought of marriage-bells and bridal finery made her
+sad. I am afraid I should have shut myself up in my own room, and refused
+to mingle with the crowd, under these circumstances. I quite understood
+the feeling of sympathy that made Jill stoop down and kiss the smooth
+brown hair as she passed the governess's chair: it was a sort of
+affectionate homage to misfortune patiently borne.
+
+I went up to the schoolroom when breakfast was over. Aunt Philippa looked
+as though she had not slept: there was a jaded look about her eyes. Sara,
+on the contrary, looked fresh and smiling; she was just going to put
+herself in her maid's hands; but she tripped back in her pretty muslin
+dressing-gown and rose-coloured ribbons to kiss me and ask me to look
+after Jill's toilet.
+
+'Every one is so busy, and mother and Draper will be attending to me.
+Do, please, Ursie dear, see that she puts on her bonnet straight.' And
+of course I promised to do my best.
+
+As it happened, Jill was very tractable and obedient. I think her
+beautiful bridesmaid's dress rather impressed her. I saw a look of awe in
+her eyes as she regarded herself, and then she dropped a mocking courtesy
+to her own image.
+
+'I am Jocelyn to-day, remember that, Ursula. I don't look a bit like
+Jill. Jocelyn Adelaide Garston, bridesmaid.'
+
+'You look charming, Jill--I mean Jocelyn.'
+
+'Oh, how horrid it sounds from your lips, Ursie! I like my own funny
+little name best from you. Now come and let me finish you.' And Jill, in
+spite of her fine dress, would persist in waiting on me. She was very
+voluble in her expression of admiration when I had finished, but I did
+not seem to recognise 'Nurse Ursula' in the elegantly-dressed woman that
+I saw reflected in the pier-glass. 'Fine feathers make fine birds,' I
+said to myself.
+
+I think we all agreed that Sara looked lovely. Lesbia, who joined us in
+the drawing-room, contemplated her with tears in her eyes.
+
+'You look like a picture, Sara,' she whispered,--'like a fairy queen,--in
+all that whiteness.' Sara dimpled and blushed. Of course she knew how
+pretty she was, and how people liked to look at her; but I am sure she
+was thinking of Donald, as her eyes rested on her bridal bouquet. Dearly
+as she loved all this finery and consequence, there was a soft,
+thoughtful expression in her eyes that was quite new to them, and
+that I loved to see.
+
+We went to church presently, and Lesbia and I, standing side by side,
+heard the beautiful, awful service. 'Till death us do part.' Oh, what
+words to say to any man! Surely false lips would grow paralysed over
+them!
+
+A most curious thing happened just then. I had raised my eyes, when they
+suddenly encountered Mr. Hamilton's. A sort of shock crossed me. Why was
+he here? How had he come? How strange! how very strange! The next moment
+he had disappeared from my view: probably he had withdrawn behind a
+pillar that he might not attract my notice. I could almost have believed
+that it was an illusion and fancied resemblance, only I had never seen a
+face like Mr. Hamilton's.
+
+The momentary glimpse had distracted me, and I heard the remainder of the
+service rather absently; then the pealing notes of the wedding-march
+resounded through the church; we all stood waiting until Sara had signed
+her name, and had come out of the vestry leaning on her husband's arm.
+
+I was under Major Egerton's care. The crowd round the door was so great
+that it was with the greatest difficulty that he could pilot me to the
+carriage. Lesbia was following us with another officer, whose name I did
+not know. As we took our seats I distinctly saw Mr. Hamilton cross the
+road. He was walking quietly down Hyde Park. As we passed he turned and
+took off his hat. I thought it was a strange thing that he should be in
+the neighbourhood on Sara's wedding-day, and that he should have deigned
+to play the part of a spectator after his severe strictures on gay
+weddings. I supposed his business in Edinburgh was finished, and he had
+an idle day or two on his hands. I half expected him to call the next
+day, for I had given him my address; but he did not come, and I heard
+from Mr. Tudor afterwards that he had gone on to Folkestone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+A FIERY ORDEAL
+
+
+It is a hackneyed truism, and, like other axioms, profoundly true, that
+wedding-festivities are invariably followed by a sense of blank dulness.
+
+It is like the early morning after a ball, when the last guests have left
+the house: the lights flicker in the dawn, the empty rooms want sweeping
+and furnishing to be fit for habitation. Yawns, weariness, satiety, drive
+the jaded entertainers to their resting-places. Every one knows how
+tawdry the ball-dress looks in the clear morning light. The diamonds
+cease to flash, the flowers are withered, the game is played out.
+
+Something of this languor and vacuum is felt when the bride and
+bridegroom have driven away amid the typical shower of rice. The smiles
+seem quenched, somehow; mother and sisters shed tears; a sense of loss
+pervades the house; the bridal finery is heaped up in the empty room; one
+little glove is on the table, another has fallen to the floor. All sorts
+of girlish trinkets that have been forgotten lie unheeded in corners.
+
+I know we all thought that evening would never end, and I quite
+understood why Jill hovered near her mother's chair, listening to her
+conversation with Mrs. Fullerton. Every now and then Aunt Philippa broke
+down and shed a few quiet tears. I heard her mention Ralph's name once.
+'Poor boy! how proud he would have been of his sister!' Uncle Brian heard
+it too, for I saw him wince at the sound of his son's name; but Jill
+stroked her mother's hand, and said, quite naturally, 'Most likely Ralph
+knows all about it, mamma, and of course he is glad that Sara is so
+happy.'
+
+Our pretty light-hearted Sara. I had no idea that I should miss her
+so much! Indeed, we all missed her: it seemed to me now that I had
+undervalued her. True, she had not been a congenial companion to me in my
+dark days; but even then I had wronged her. Why should I have expected
+her to grope among the shadows with me, instead of following her into the
+sunshine? Sara could not act contrary to her nature. Sad things depressed
+her. She wanted to cause every one to be happy.
+
+Her feelings were far deeper than I had imagined them to be. I liked the
+way she spoke to Jill when she was bidding good-bye to us all.
+
+'Jocelyn dear, promise me that you will be good to mother. She has no one
+but you now to study her little ways and make her comfortable, and she is
+not as young as she was, and things tire her.' Of course Jill promised
+with tears in her eyes, and Sara went away smiling and radiant. Jill was
+already trying to redeem her promise, as she hovered like a tall slim
+shadow behind her mother's chair in the twilight.
+
+'Come and sit down, Jocelyn, my dear,' observed Aunt Philippa at last, in
+her motherly voice. When I looked again, Jill's black locks were bobbing
+on her mother's lap, and the three seemed all talking together.
+
+There was very little rest for any one during the next few days. Sara's
+marriage had brought sundry relations from their country homes up to
+town, and there was open house kept for all. Jill went sight-seeing with
+the young people. Aunt Philippa drove some of the elder ladies to the
+Academy, to the Grosvenor Gallery, to the Park, and other places.
+
+Every day there were luncheon-parties, tea-parties, dinner-parties; the
+long drawing-room seemed full every evening. Jill put on one or other of
+her pretty new gowns, and played her pieces industriously; there was no
+stealing away in corners now. There were round games for the young
+people; now and then they went to the theatre or opera: no wonder Jill
+was too tired and excited to open her lesson-books. My fortnight's visit
+extended itself to three weeks. Aunt Philippa could not spare me; she
+said I was much too useful to her and Uncle Brian. I wrote to Mrs. Barton
+and also to Lady Betty, and I begged the latter to inform her brother
+that I could not leave my relations just yet.
+
+Lady Betty wrote back at once. She had given my message, she said, but
+Giles had not seemed half pleased with it. She thought he was going away
+somewhere, she did not know where; but he had told her to say that there
+were no fresh cases, and that Robert Lambert was going on all right, and
+that as I seemed enjoying myself so much it was a pity not to take a
+longer holiday while I was about it, and he sent his kind regards; and
+that was all. I suppose I ought to have been satisfied, but it struck me
+that there was a flavour of sarcasm about Mr. Hamilton's message.
+
+But he was right; I was enjoying myself. Lesbia was still in town, and I
+saw her every day. My acquaintance with Miss Gillespie grew to intimacy,
+and I think we mutually enjoyed each other's society. Aunt Philippa
+seemed to turn to me naturally for help and comfort, and her constant
+'Ursula, my dear, will you do this for me?' gave me a real feeling of
+pleasure; and then there was Jill to pet and praise at every odd moment.
+
+One day we were all called upon to admire Sara's new signature, 'Sara
+Ferguson,' written in bold, girlish characters. 'Donald is looking over
+my shoulder as I write it, dear mamma,' Sara wrote, in a long postscript.
+'Are husbands always so impertinent? Donald pretends that it is part of
+his duty to see that I dot my _i_'s and cross my _t_'s: he will talk such
+nonsense. There, he has gone off laughing, and I may end comfortably by
+telling you that he spoils me dreadfully and is so good to me, and that
+I am happier than I deserve to be, and your very loving child, Sara.'
+
+'Poor darling! she always did make her own sunshine,' murmured Aunt
+Philippa fondly.
+
+Now, that afternoon who should call upon us but Mr. Tudor? Jill was out,
+as usual, riding with two of her cousins and Uncle Brian; they had gone
+off to Kew or Richmond for the afternoon; but Aunt Philippa, who had been
+dozing in her easy-chair by the window, welcomed the young man very
+kindly, and made him promise to stay to dinner.
+
+Mr. Tudor tried not to look too much pleased as he accepted the
+invitation. A sort of blush crossed his honest face as he turned to me:
+he had two or three messages to deliver, he said. Mr. Cunliffe had given
+him one, and Mrs. Barton, and Lady Betty. She, Lady Betty, wanted me to
+know that Miss Darrell was going to Brighton for a week or ten days, and
+that she hoped I should come home before then.
+
+I heard, too, that Mr. Hamilton had gone to Folkestone, and that he had
+tried to induce Uncle Max to go with him. 'But it is no use telling him
+he wants a change,' finished Mr. Tudor, with a sigh; 'he is bent on
+wearing himself out for other people.'
+
+Mr. Tudor and I chatted on for the remainder of the afternoon. I had
+taken him out on the balcony: there were an awning and some chairs, and
+we could sit there in comparative privacy looking down on the passers-by.
+Aunt Philippa was nodding again: we could hear her regular breathing
+behind us: poor woman! she was worn out with bustle and gaiety. I was
+thankful that a grand horticultural _fête_ kept all the aunts and cousins
+away, with the exception of the two who were riding with Jill.
+
+Clayton brought us out some tea presently, and we found plenty of topics
+for conversation.
+
+All at once I stopped in the middle of a conversation.
+
+'Mr. Tudor, have my eyes deceived me, or was that Leah?'
+
+'Who?--what Leah? I do not know whom you mean!' he returned, rather
+stupidly, staring in another direction. There was a cavalcade coming up
+the road,--a tall slim girl, on a chestnut mare, riding on in front with
+a young man, another girl and an elderly man with a gray moustache
+following them, a groom bringing up the rear.
+
+Of course it was Jill, smiling and waving towards the balcony; she could
+not see Mr. Tudor under the awning, but she had caught sight of my silk
+dress. Jill looked very well on horseback: people always turned round to
+watch her. She had a good seat, and rode gracefully; the dark habit
+suited her; she braided her unmanageable locks into an invisible net that
+kept them tidy.
+
+'Is that Miss Jocelyn?' asked Lawrence, almost in a voice of awe. The
+young curate grew very red as Jill rode under the balcony and nodded to
+him in a friendly manner.
+
+'There is Mr. Tudor,' we heard her say. 'Be quick and lift me off my
+horse, Clarence.' But she had slipped to the ground before her cousin
+could touch her, and had run indoors.
+
+Mr. Tudor went into the room at once, but I sat still for a moment.
+Why had I asked him? Of course it was Leah. I could see her strange
+light-coloured eyes glancing up in my direction. What was she doing in
+London? I wondered. She was dressed well, evidently in her mistress's
+cast-off clothes, for she wore a handsome silk dress and mantle. Had they
+quarrelled and parted? I felt instinctively that it would be a good day
+for Gladwyn if Leah ever shook off its dust from her feet. Gladys
+regarded her as a spy and informer, and she had evidently an unwholesome
+influence over her mistress.
+
+We separated soon after this to dress for dinner, and Mr. Tudor went to
+his hotel. I was rather sorry when I came downstairs to find that Jill
+had made rather a careless toilet. She wore the flimsy Indian muslin gown
+that I thought so unbecoming to her style, with a string of gold beads of
+curious Florentine work round her neck. She looked so different from the
+graceful young Amazon who had ridden up an hour ago that I felt provoked,
+and was not surprised to hear the old sharp tone in Aunt Philippa's
+voice:
+
+'My dear Jocelyn, why have you put on that old gown? Surely your new
+cream-coloured dress with coffee lace would have been more suitable. What
+was Draper thinking about?'
+
+'I was in too great a hurry; I did not wait for Draper,' returned Jill
+candidly. 'Draper was dreadfully cross about it, but I ran away from her.
+What does it matter, mamma? They have all seen my cream-coloured dress,
+except--' But here Jill laughed: the naughty child meant Mr. Tudor.
+
+'I am afraid there is not time to change it now; but I am very much vexed
+about it,' returned Aunt Philippa, in a loud whisper. 'You are really
+looking your worst to-night.' But Jill only laughed again, and asked her
+cousin Clarence when he took her down to dinner if it were not a very
+pretty gown.
+
+'I don't know much about gowns,' drawled the young man,--Mr. Tudor and
+I were following them: 'it looks rather flimsy and washed out. If I were
+you I would wear something more substantial. You see, you are so big,
+Jocelyn; your habit suits you better.'
+
+We heard Jill laughing in a shrill fashion at this dubious compliment,
+and presently she and Mr. Tudor, who sat next to her, were talking as
+happily as possible. I do not believe he noticed her unbecoming gown: his
+face had lighted up, and he was full of animation. Poor Lawrence! he was
+five-and-twenty, and yet the presence of this girl of sixteen was more to
+him than all the young-ladyhood of Heathfield. Even charming little Lady
+Betty was beaten out of the field by Jill's dark eyes and sprightly
+tongue.
+
+It was a very pleasant evening, and we were all enjoying ourselves: no
+one imagined anything could or would happen; life is just like that: we
+should just take up our candlesticks, we thought, and march off to bed
+when Aunt Philippa gave the signal. No one could have imagined that there
+would be a moment's deadly peril for one of the party,--an additional
+thanksgiving for a life preserved that night.
+
+And then no one seemed to know how it happened; people never do see,
+somehow.
+
+There was music going on. Agatha Chudleigh--the Chudleighs were Aunt
+Philippa's belongings--was playing the piano, and her brother Clarence
+was accompanying her on the violoncello. There was a little group round
+the piano. Jill was beating time, standing with her back to a small
+inlaid table with a lamp on it. Mr. Tudor was beside her. Jill made a
+backward movement in her forgetfulness and enthusiasm. The next moment
+the music stopped with a crash. There was a cry of horror, the lamp
+seemed falling, glass smashed, liquid fire was pouring down Jill's
+unfortunate dress. If Mr. Tudor had not caught it, they said afterwards,
+with all that lace drapery, the room must have been in flames; but he had
+jerked it back in its place, and, snatching up a bear-skin rug that lay
+under the piano, had wrapped it round Jill. He was so strong and prompt,
+there was not a moment lost.
+
+We had all crowded round in a moment, but no one dared to interfere with
+Mr. Tudor. We could hear Aunt Philippa sobbing with terror. Clarence
+Chudleigh extinguished the lamp, some one else flung an Indian blanket
+and a striped rug at Jill's feet. For one instant I could see the girl's
+face, white and rigid as a statue, as the young man's powerful arms
+enveloped her. Then the danger was over, and Jill was standing among us
+unhurt, with her muslin gown hanging in blackened shreds, and with
+bruises on her round white arms from the rough grip that had saved her
+life.
+
+One instant's delay, and the fiery fluid must have covered her from head
+to foot; if Lawrence had not caught the falling lamp, if he had lost one
+moment in smothering the lighted gown, she must have perished in agony
+before our eyes; but he was strong as a young Hercules, and, half
+suffocated and bruised as she was, Jill knew from what he had saved her.
+
+As the scorched bear-skin dropped to the floor, Lawrence picked up the
+Indian blanket and flung it over Jill's tattered gown. 'Go up to your
+room, Miss Jocelyn,' he whispered: 'you are all right now.' And she
+obeyed without a word. Miss Gillespie and I followed. I think Aunt
+Philippa was faint or had palpitations, for I heard Uncle Brian calling
+loudly to some one to open the windows. Jill was hysterical as soon as
+she reached her room. She was quite unnerved, and clung to me, shaking
+with sobs, while Miss Gillespie mixed some sal-volatile. I could not help
+crying a little with her from joy and thankfulness; but we got her quiet
+after a time, and took off the poor gown, and Jill showed us her bruises,
+and cheered up when we told her how brave and quiet she had been; and
+then she sat for some minutes with her face hidden in my lap, while I
+stroked her hair silently and thanked God in my heart for sparing our
+Jill.
+
+Miss Gillespie had gone downstairs to carry a good report to Aunt
+Philippa. Directly she had gone, Jill jumped up, still shaking a little,
+and went to her wardrobe.
+
+'I must go downstairs,' she said, a little feverishly. 'I have never
+thanked Mr. Tudor for saving my life. Help me to be quick, Ursie dear,
+for I feel so queer and tottery.' And nothing I could say would prevail
+on her to remain quietly in her room. While I was arguing with her, she
+had dragged out her ruby velveteen and was trying to fasten it with her
+trembling fingers.
+
+'Oh, you are obstinate, Jill: you ought to be good on this night of all
+nights.' But she made no answer to this, and, seeing her bent on her own
+way, I brought her a brooch, and would have smoothed her hair, but she
+pushed me away.
+
+'It does not matter how I look. I am only going down for a few minutes.
+He is going away, and I want to say good-night to him, and thank him.'
+And Jill walked downstairs rather unsteadily.
+
+Mr. Tudor was just crossing the hall. When he saw Jill, he hurried up to
+her at once.
+
+'Miss Jocelyn, this is very imprudent. You ought to have gone to bed: you
+are not fit to be up after such a shock,' looking at her pale face and
+swollen eyes with evident emotion.
+
+Jill looked at him gently and seriously, and held out her hands to him
+quite simply.
+
+'I could not go to bed without thanking you, I am not quite so selfish
+and thoughtless. You have saved my life: do you think I shall ever forget
+that?'
+
+Poor Lawrence! the excitement, the terror, and the relief were too much
+for him; and there was Jill holding his hands and looking up in his face,
+with her great eyes full of tears. It was not very wonderful that for a
+moment he forgot himself.
+
+'I could not help doing it,' he returned. 'What would have become of me
+if you had died? I could not have borne it.'
+
+Jill drew her hands away, and her face looked a little paler in the
+moonlight. The young man's excited voice, his strange words, must have
+told her the truth. No, she was not too young to understand; her head
+drooped, and she turned away as she answered him,--
+
+'I shall always be grateful. Good-night, Mr. Tudor: I must go to my
+mother. Come, Ursula.'
+
+She did not look back as we walked across the hall, though poor Lawrence
+stood quite still watching us. Why had the foolish boy said that? Why had
+he forgotten his position and her youth? Why had he hinted that her life
+was necessary to his happiness? Would Jill ever forget those words, or
+the look that accompanied them? I felt almost angry with Lawrence as
+I followed Jill into the room.
+
+Jill need never have doubted her mother's love. Aunt Philippa had been
+too faint and ill to follow her daughter to her room, but her face was
+quite beautiful with maternal tenderness as she folded the girl in her
+arms. Not even her father, who especially petted Jill, showed more
+affection for her that night.
+
+'Oh, Jocelyn, my darling, are you quite sure that you are unhurt? Miss
+Gillespie says you were only frightened and a little bruised; but I
+wanted to see for myself. Mr. Tudor will not let us thank him, but we
+shall be grateful to him all our lives, my pet. What would your poor
+father and I have done without you?'
+
+Jill hid her face like a baby on her mother's bosom: she was crying
+quietly. Her interview with Mr. Tudor had certainly upset her. Uncle
+Brian put his hand in her rough locks. 'Never mind, my little girl: it is
+now over; you must go to bed and forget it,'--which was certainly very
+good advice. I coaxed Aunt Philippa to let her go, and promised to remain
+with her until she was asleep. She was very quiet, and hardly said a word
+as I helped her to undress, but as I sat down by the bedside she drew my
+head down beside hers on the pillow.
+
+'Don't think I am not grateful because I do not talk about it, Ursie
+dear,' she whispered. 'I hope to be better all my life for what has
+happened to-night.' But as Jill lay, with wide, solemn eyes, in the
+moonlight, I wondered what thoughts were coursing through her mind. Was
+she looking upon her life preserved as a life dedicated, regarding
+herself as set apart for higher work and nobler uses? or was her
+gratitude to her young preserver mixed with deeper and more mysterious
+feelings? I could not tell, but from that night I noticed a regular
+change in Jill: she became less girlish and fanciful, a new sort of
+womanliness developed itself, her high spirits were tempered with
+softness. Uncle Brian was right when he said a few days afterwards
+'that his little girl was growing a woman.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+JACK POYNTER
+
+
+My conscience felt decidedly uneasy that night: in spite of all argument
+to the contrary, I could not shake off the conviction that it was my duty
+to speak to Aunt Philippa. I ought to warn her of the growing intimacy
+between the young people. She and Uncle Brian ought to know that Mr.
+Tudor was not quite so harmless as he looked.
+
+It made me very unhappy to act the traitor to this honest, simple young
+fellow. I would rather have taken his hand and bidden him God-speed with
+his wooing. If I had been Uncle Brian I would have welcomed him heartily
+as a suitor for Jill. True, she was absurdly young,--only sixteen,--but I
+would have said to him, 'If you are in earnest, if you really love this
+girl, and are willing to wait for her, go about your business for three
+years, and then come and try your chance with her. If she likes you she
+shall have you. I am quite aware you are poor,--that you are a curate on
+a hundred and fifty a year; but you are well connected and a gentleman,
+and as guileless as a young Nathaniel. I could not desire a better
+husband for my daughter.'
+
+But it was not likely that Uncle Brian would be so quixotic. And I
+knew that Aunt Philippa was rather ambitious for her children, and it
+had been a great disappointment to her that Sara had refused a young
+baronet. So it was with the guilty feelings of a culprit that I entered
+the morning-room the next morning and asked Aunt Philippa if I might
+have a few minutes' conversation with her.
+
+To my relief, she treated the whole matter very coolly, and with a
+mixture of shrewdness and common sense that quite surprised me.
+
+She assured me that it was not of the least consequence. Young creatures
+like Jocelyn must pass through this sort of experiences. She was
+certainly rather young for such an experiment, but it would do her no
+harm. On the contrary, a little stimulus of gratified vanity might be
+extremely beneficial in its after-effects. She was somewhat backward and
+childish for her age. She would have more self-respect at finding herself
+the object of masculine admiration.
+
+'Depend upon it, it will do her a great deal of good,' went on Aunt
+Philippa placidly. 'She will try now in earnest to break herself off her
+little _gaucheries_. As for Mr. Tudor, do not distress yourself about
+him. He is young enough to have half-a-dozen butterfly fancies before he
+settles down seriously.'
+
+'I remember,' she continued, 'that during Sara's first season we had
+rather a trouble about a young barrister. He was a handsome fellow, but
+terribly poor, and your uncle told me privately that he must not be
+encouraged. Well, Sara got it into her head that she was in love with
+him, and, in spite of all I could say to her by way of warning, she
+would promise him dances, and, in fact, they did a good bit of flirting
+together. So I told your uncle that we had better leave town earlier that
+year. We went into Yorkshire, paying visits, and then to Scotland. Sara
+had never been there before, and we took care that she should have a
+thoroughly enjoyable trip. My dear, before three months were over
+she had forgotten Henry Brabazon's existence. It was just a girlish
+sentimentality; nothing more. When we got back to town we made Mr.
+Brabazon understand that his attentions were displeasing to your uncle,
+and before the next season he was engaged to a rich young widow. I do
+not believe Sara ever missed him.'
+
+I listened to all this in silence. I was much relieved to find that Aunt
+Philippa was not disposed to blame me for Lawrence Tudor's infatuation.
+She told me that she was not the least afraid of his influence, and
+should not discourage his visits. Jocelyn would never see him alone, and
+it was not likely that she would be staying at Heathfield again. I
+thought it useless to say any more. I had satisfied my conscience, and
+might now safely wash my hands of all responsibility. If the thought
+crossed my mind that Jill was very different from Sara,--that her will
+was stronger and her affections more tenacious,--there was no need to
+give it utterance. Sixteen was hardly the age for a serious love-affair,
+and I might well be content to leave Jill in her mother's care.
+
+Now and then a doubt of Aunt Philippa's wisdom came to me,--on the last
+evening, for instance, when I was speaking to Jill about Heathfield, and
+when I rather incautiously mentioned Lawrence Tudor's name.
+
+I recollected then that Jill had never once spoken of him since the night
+of the accident. It had dropped completely out of our conversation. I
+forget what I said then, but it was something about my seeing him at
+Heathfield.
+
+We were standing together on the balcony, and as I spoke Jill stooped
+suddenly to look at a little flower-girl who was offering her wares on
+the pavement below. For a moment she did not answer. But I could see her
+cheek and even her little ear was flushed.
+
+'Oh yes, you will see him,' she returned presently. 'What a little mite
+of a child! Look, Ursula. Please remember us to him, and--and we hope he
+is quite well.' And Jill walked away from me rather abruptly, saying she
+must ask her mother for some pence. It was then that a doubt of Aunt
+Philippa's policy crossed my mind; Jill was so different from other
+girls; and Lawrence Tudor had saved her life.
+
+I had other things to occupy my mind just then,--a fresh anxiety that I
+could share with no one, and which effectually spoiled the last few days
+of my London visit.
+
+The sight of Leah had somewhat disturbed me. It had brought back memories
+of the perplexities and mysteries of Gladwyn. Strange to say, I saw her
+again the very next day.
+
+Mr. Tudor was calling at the door to inquire after Jill: he had his bag
+in his hand, and was on his way to the station. I was just going out to
+call on Lesbia, and we walked a few yards together. Just as I was bidding
+him good-bye, two women passed us: as I looked at them casually, I saw
+Leah's flickering light-coloured eyes; she was looking in my direction,
+but, though I nodded to her, she did not appear to recognise me. The
+other woman was a stranger.
+
+I was sitting alone on the balcony that afternoon. Aunt Philippa and Jill
+and Miss Gillespie were driving. I took advantage of their absence and
+the unusual quiet of the house to finish a book in which I was much
+interested.
+
+I was very fond of this balcony seat: the awning protected me from the
+hot June sun, and the flower-boxes at my feet were sweet with mignonette.
+I could see without being seen, and the cool glimpses of the green Park
+were pleasant on this hot afternoon.
+
+The adjoining house was unoccupied: it was therefore with feelings of
+discomfort that I heard the sound of workmen moving about the premises,
+and by and by the smell of fresh paint made me put down my book with
+suppressed annoyance.
+
+A house-painter was standing very near me, painting the outside sashes of
+the window: he had his back turned to me, and was whistling to himself in
+the careless way peculiar to his class. It was a clear, sweet whistling,
+and I listened to it with pleasure.
+
+A sudden noise in the street caused him to look round, and then he saw
+me, and stopped whistling.
+
+Where had I seen that face? It seemed familiar to me. Of whom did that
+young house-painter remind me? Could I have seen him at St. Thomas's
+Hospital? Was it some patient whose name I had forgotten during my year's
+nursing? I had had more than one house-painter on my list.
+
+I was tormented by the idea that I ought to recognise the face before
+me, and yet recognition eluded me. I felt baffled and perplexed by some
+subtile fancied resemblance. As for the young painter himself, he looked
+at me quietly for a moment, as though I were a stranger, touched his cap,
+and went on painting. When he had finished his job, he went inside, and
+I heard him whistling again as he moved about the empty room.
+
+It was a beautiful face: the features were very clearly cut and defined,
+like--Good heavens! I had it now: it reminded me of Gladys Hamilton's.
+The next moment I was holding the balcony railing as though I were giddy;
+it was like Gladys, but it was still more like the closed picture in
+Gladys's room. I pressed my hands on my eyelids as with a strong effort
+I recalled her brother Eric's face, and the next moment the young painter
+had come to the window again, and I was looking at him between my
+fingers.
+
+The resemblance could not be my fancy; those were Eric's eyes looking at
+me. It was the same face, only older and less boyish-looking. The fair
+moustache was fully grown; the face was altogether more manly and full of
+character. It must be he; I must go and speak to him; but as I rose, my
+limbs trembling with excitement, he moved away, and his whistle seemed to
+die in the distance.
+
+It was nearly six o'clock, and there was no time to be lost. I ran
+upstairs and put on my bonnet and mantle. I thought that Clayton looked
+at me in some surprise,--I was leaving the house without gloves; but I
+did not wait for any explanation: the men would be leaving off work. The
+door was open, and I quickly found my way to the drawing-room, but, to my
+chagrin, it was empty, and an elderly man with gray hair came out of a
+back room with a basket of carpenter's tools and looked at me
+inquiringly.
+
+'There is a workman here that I want to find,' I said breathlessly,--'the
+one that was painting the window-frames just now,--a tall, fair young
+man.'
+
+'Oh, you'll be meaning Jack Poynter,' he returned civilly; 'he and his
+mate have just gone.'
+
+'It cannot be the one I mean,' I answered, somewhat perplexed at this.
+'He was very young, not more than three-or four-and-twenty, good-looking,
+with a fair moustache, and he was whistling while he worked.'
+
+'Ay, that's Jack Poynter,' returned the man, taking off his paper cap and
+rubbing up his bristly gray hair. 'We call Jack "The Blackbird" among us;
+he is a famous whistler, is Jack.'
+
+'Oh, but that is not his name,' I persisted, in a distressed voice. 'Why
+do you call him Jack Poynter?'
+
+'That is what he calls himself,' returned the man drily. Evidently he
+thought my remarks a little odd. 'Folks mostly calls themselves by their
+own names; among his mates he is known as "The Whistler," or "The
+Blackbird," or "Gentleman Jack."'
+
+'Well, never mind about his name,' I replied impatiently. 'I want to
+speak to him. Where does he live? Will you kindly give me his address?'
+
+'You would be welcome to it if I knew it, but "Gentleman Jack" keeps
+himself dark. None of us know where he lives. I believe it used to be
+down Holloway; but he has moved lately.'
+
+'I wish you would tell me what you know about him,' I pleaded. 'It is
+not idle curiosity, believe me, but I think I shall be able to do him
+a service.'
+
+'I suppose you know something of his belongings,' returned the man with a
+shrewd glance. 'Now that is what me and my mates say. We would none of us
+be surprised if "Gentleman Jack" has respectable folk belonging to him.
+He has not quite our ways. He is a cut above us, and clips his words like
+the gentlefolk do. But he is an industrious young fellow, and does not
+give himself airs.'
+
+'Could you not find out for me where he lives?'
+
+'Well, for the matter of that, you might ask him yourself, miss; he will
+be here again to-morrow morning, and I am off to Watford on a job. Jack
+is not at work regularly in these parts. He is doing a turn for a mate of
+his who is down with a touch of colic. He is working at Bayswater mostly,
+and he will be here to-morrow morning.'
+
+'You are sure of that?'
+
+'Oh yes. Tom Handley won't be fit for work for a spell yet. He will be
+here sharp enough, and then you can question him yourself.' And, bidding
+me a civil good-evening, the man took up his tools and went heavily
+downstairs, evidently expecting me to follow him. I went back and stole
+up quietly to my room. Aunt Philippa and Jill had returned from their
+drive. I could hear their voices as I passed the drawing-room; but I
+wanted to be alone to think over this strange occurrence.
+
+My pulses were beating high with excitement. Not for one moment did I
+doubt that I had really seen Eric in the flesh. Gladys's intuition was
+right: her brother was not dead. I felt that this assurance alone would
+make her happy.
+
+If she were only at Heathfield, or even at Bournemouth, I would telegraph
+for her to come; I could word the message so that she would have hastened
+to me at once; but Paris was too far; too much time would be lost.
+
+Uncle Max, too, had been called to Norwich to attend a cousin's
+death-bed: I had had a note from him that very morning, so I could not
+have the benefit of his advice and assistance. I knew that I dared not
+summon Mr. Hamilton: the brothers had parted in ill blood, with bitter
+words and looks. Eric looked on his step-brother as his worst enemy. All
+these years he had been hiding himself from him. I dared not run the risk
+of bringing them together. I could not make a _confidante_ of Aunt
+Philippa or Uncle Brian. They had old-fashioned views, and would have at
+once stigmatised Eric as a worthless fellow. Circumstantial evidence was
+so strong against him that few would have believed in his innocence. Even
+Uncle Max condemned him, and in my own heart there lurked a secret doubt
+whether Gladys had not deceived herself.
+
+No, my only course would be to speak to him myself, to implore him for
+Gladys's sake to listen to me. My best plan would be to rise as early as
+possible the next morning, and to be on the balcony by six o'clock. I
+should see the men come in to their work, and should have no difficulty
+in making my way to them. The household was not an early one, especially
+in the season. I should have the house to myself for an hour or so.
+
+Of course my future movements were uncertain. I must speak to Eric first,
+and induce him to reopen communications with his family. I would tell him
+how his brother grieved over his supposed death, how changed he was; and
+he should hear, too, of Gladys's failing health and spirits. I should not
+be wanting in eloquence on that subject. If he loved Gladys he would not
+refuse to listen to me.
+
+After a time I tried to set aside these thoughts, and to occupy myself
+with dressing for the evening. We had a dinner-party that night. Mrs.
+Fullerton and Lesbia were to be of the party. They were going down to
+Rutherford the next day, so I should have to bid them good-bye.
+
+The evening was very tedious and wearisome to me: my head ached, and the
+glitter of lights and the sound of many voices seemed to bewilder me.
+Lesbia came up after dinner to ask if I were not well, I was so pale and
+quiet. We sat out on the balcony together in the starlight for a little
+while, until Mrs. Fullerton called Lesbia in. I would gladly have
+remained there alone, drinking in the freshness of the night dews, but
+Jill came out and began chattering to me, until I went back with her into
+the room.
+
+There was very little sleep for me that night. When at last I fell into
+a dose, I was tormented by a succession of miserable dreams. I was
+following a supposed Eric down long country roads in the darkness.
+Something seemed always to retard me: my feet were weighted with lead,
+invisible hands were pulling me back. I heard him whistling in the
+distance, then I stumbled, and a black bog engulfed me, and I woke with
+a stifled cry.
+
+I woke to the knowledge that the sun was streaming in at my windows,
+and that some sound like a falling plank had roused me from my uneasy
+slumbers. It must be past six o'clock, I thought; surely the men must be
+at work. Yes, I could hear their voices; and the next moment I had jumped
+out of bed, and was dressing myself with all possible haste.
+
+It was nearly seven when I crept down into the drawing-room to
+reconnoitre the adjoining house. As I unfastened the window I heard the
+same sweet whistling that had arrested my attention yesterday.
+
+Without a moment's hesitation I walked out on the balcony. The young
+painter looked round in some surprise at the sound of my footsteps, and
+touched his cap with a half-smile.
+
+'It is a beautiful morning,' I began nervously, for I wanted to make him
+speak. 'Have you been at work long?'
+
+'Ever since six o'clock,' he returned, and I think he was a little
+surprised at hearing himself addressed. 'We work early these light
+mornings.' And then he took up his brush and went on painting.
+
+I watched him for a minute or two without a word. How was I to proceed?
+My presence seemed to puzzle him. Perhaps he wondered why a lady should
+take such interest in his work. I saw him glance at me uneasily.
+
+'Will you let me speak to you?' I said, in a very low voice, and as he
+came towards me, rather unwillingly, I continued: 'I know the men call
+you Jack Poynter, but that is not your name. You are Eric Hamilton; no,
+do not be frightened: I am Gladys's friend, and I will not injure you.'
+
+I had broken off abruptly, for I was alarmed at the effect of my words.
+The young painter's face had become ashen pale, and the brush had fallen
+out of his shaking hand. The next moment a fierce, angry light had come
+to his eyes.
+
+'What do you mean? who are you?' he demanded, in a trembling voice, but
+even at the moment's agitation I noticed he spoke with the refined
+intonation of a gentleman. 'I know nothing of what you say: you must
+take me for another man. I am Jack Poynter.'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Hamilton,' I implored, stretching out my hands across the
+balcony, 'do not treat me as an enemy. I am a friend, who only means
+well. For Gladys's sake listen to me a moment.'
+
+'I will hear nothing!' he stammered angrily. 'I will not be hindered in
+my work any longer. Excuse me if I am rude to a lady, but you take me for
+another man.' And before I could say another word he had stepped through
+the open window.
+
+I could have wrung my hands in despair. He had denied his own identity at
+the very moment when his paleness and terror had proved it to me without
+doubt. 'You take me for another man,' he had said; and yet I could have
+sworn in a court of justice that he was Eric Hamilton; not only his face,
+but his voice; his manner, told me he was Gladys's brother.
+
+But he should not elude me like this, and I hurried downstairs,
+determined to find my way into the empty house and confront him again.
+The fastenings of the hall door gave me a little difficulty. I was afraid
+Clayton would hear me, but I found myself outside at last, and in another
+minute I was in the deserted drawing-room.
+
+Alas! Eric was not there: only his paint-pot and brush lay on the balcony
+outside. Surely he could not have escaped me in these few minutes; he
+must be in one of the other rooms. At the top of the stairs I encountered
+a young workman, and began questioning him at once.
+
+'Well, this is a queer start,' he observed, in some perplexity. 'I saw
+Jack only this moment: he wanted his jacket, for he said he had a summons
+somewhere. I noticed he was palish, and seemed all of a shake, but he did
+not answer when I called out to him.'
+
+'Do you mean he has gone?' I asked, feeling ready to cry with
+disappointment.
+
+'Yes, he has gone right enough; but he'll be back presently, by the time
+the governor comes round. I wonder what's up with Jack; he looked mighty
+queer, as though the peelers were after him; in an awful funk, I should
+say.'
+
+'Will you do me a favour, my man?' and as I spoke a shining half-crown
+changed hands rather quietly. 'I want to speak to your friend Jack
+Poynter very particularly, but I am quite sure that he wishes to avoid
+me. If he comes back, will you write a word on a slip of paper and throw
+it on to the balcony of 64?--Just the words "At work now" will do, or any
+direction that will find him. I am very much in earnest over this.'
+
+The man looked at me and then at the half-crown. He had a good-humoured,
+stupid-looking face, but was young enough to like an unusual job.
+
+'It will be worth more than that to you to bring me face to face with
+Jack Poynter, or to give me any news of him,' I continued. 'You do not
+know where he lives, for example?'
+
+'No: we are none of us his mates, except Fowler and Dunn, and they don't
+know where he lodges: "Gentleman Jack" keeps himself close. But he'll be
+here sure enough by and by, and then I will let you know,' and with this
+I was obliged to be content. I was terribly vexed with myself. I felt I
+had managed badly. I ought to have confronted him in the empty house,
+where he could not have escaped me so easily. Would he come back again?
+As I recalled his terrified expression, his agitated words, I doubted
+whether he would put himself within my reach. I was so worried and
+miserable that I was obliged to own myself ill and to beg that I might be
+left in quiet. I had to endure a good deal of petting from Jill, who
+would keep coming into my room to see how my poor head was. Happily,
+one of my windows commanded an uncovered corner of the balcony. I could
+see without going down if any scrap of paper lay there. It was not until
+evening that I caught sight of an envelope lying on one of the seats.
+
+I rang my bell and begged Draper to bring it to me at once. She thought
+it had fluttered out of my window, and went down smilingly to fulfil my
+behest.
+
+It was a blank envelope, closely fastened, and I waited until Draper was
+out of the room to open it: the slip of paper was inside.
+
+'Jack has not been here all day,' was scrawled on it, 'and the governor
+is precious angry. I doubt Jack has got into some trouble or other.--Your
+obedient servant, Joe Muggins.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+I COMMUNICATE WITH JOE MUGGINS
+
+
+Of course I knew it would be so; Eric had escaped me; but I could not
+help feeling very down-hearted over the disappointment of all my hopes.
+
+I longed so much to comfort Gladys, to bring back peace and unity to that
+troubled household. I had nourished the secret hope, too, that I might
+benefit Mr. Hamilton without his knowledge, and so return some of his
+many kindnesses to me. I knew--none better--how sincerely he had mourned
+over the supposed fate of his young brother, how truly he lamented his
+past harshness. If I could have brought back their young wanderer, if I
+could have said to them, 'If he has done wrong he is sorry for his fault;
+take him back to your hearts,' would not Mr. Hamilton have been the first
+to hold out his hand to the prodigal? Here there was no father; it must
+be the elder brother who would order the fatted calf to be killed.
+
+I had forgotten Miss Darrell. The sudden thought of her was like a dash
+of cold water to me. Would she have welcomed Eric? There again was the
+miserable complication!
+
+All the next day I watched and fretted. The following evening Clayton
+told me, with rather a supercilious air, that a workman calling himself
+Joe Muggins wanted to speak to me. 'He did not know your name, ma'am, but
+he described the lady he wanted, so I knew it was you. He said you had
+asked him a question about a man named Jack Poynter.'
+
+'Oh, it is all right, thank you, Clayton,' I returned quickly, and I went
+out into the hall.
+
+Joe Muggins looked decidedly nervous. He was in his working dress,
+having, as he said, 'come straight to me, without waiting to clean
+himself.'
+
+'I made so bold, miss,' went on Joe, 'because you seemed anxious about
+Jack, and I would not lose time. Well, Jack has been and given the
+governor the sack,--says he has colic too; but we know that is a sham. My
+mate saw him in Lisson Grove last night. He was walking along, his hands
+in his pockets, when Ned pounces on him. "What are you up to, Jack?" he
+says. "Why haven't you turned up at our place? The governor's in a
+precious wax, I can tell you. They want him to put on more men, as
+there's a press for time."--"Well, I am not coming there any more," says
+Jack, looking as black as possible. "The work doesn't suit my complaint,
+and I have written to tell Page so." And he stuck to that, and Ned could
+not get another word out of him: but he says he is shamming, and is not
+ill a bit. It is my belief, and Ned's too, that he has got into some
+trouble with the governor.'
+
+'No, I am sure you are wrong,' I returned, with a sigh; 'but I am very
+much obliged to you for the trouble you have taken. If you hear anything
+more about Jack Poynter, or can find out where he lives, will you
+communicate with me at this address?' And I handed Joe my card and a
+half-sovereign.
+
+'Yes, I'll do it, sure and certain,' he replied, with alacrity. 'Some of
+us will come across him again, one of these days, and we will follow him
+for a bit. You may trust me for that, miss. We will find him, sure
+enough.' And then I thanked him, and bade him good-night.
+
+There was only one thing now that I could do before taking counsel with
+Gladys, and that was to advertise in some of the London papers. I wrote
+out some of these advertisements that evening:
+
+'Jack Poynter is earnestly requested to communicate with Ursula G. He may
+possibly hear of something to his advantage.' And I gave the address of
+an old lawyer who managed my business, writing a note to Mr. Berkeley at
+the same time, begging him to forward any answer to Ursula G.
+
+Another advertisement was of a different character:
+
+'For Gladys's sake, please write to me, or give me a chance of speaking
+to you. An unknown but most sincere friend, U. G.'
+
+The third advertisement was still more pressing:
+
+'Jack Poynter's friends believe him dead, and are in great trouble: he
+is entreated to undeceive them. One word to the old address will be a
+comfort to his poor sister.'
+
+As soon as I had despatched these advertisements to the paper offices, I
+sat down and wrote to Gladys. It was not my intention to tell her about
+Eric, but I must say some word to her that would induce her to come home.
+I told her that I was going back to Heathfield the following afternoon,
+and that I was beginning to feel impatient for her return.
+
+'I cannot do without you any longer, my dear Gladys,' I wrote. 'There is
+so much that I want to talk to you about, and that I cannot write. I have
+heard something that has greatly excited me, and that makes me think that
+your view of the case is right, and that your brother Eric is alive. Of
+course we must not be too sanguine, but I begin to have hopes that you
+may see him again.'
+
+More than this I did not venture to say, but I knew that these few words
+would make Gladys set her face homeward: she would not rest until she
+asked me my meaning. As I gave Clayton the letter I felt convinced that
+before a week was over Gladys would find her way to Heathfield.
+
+I had to give all my attention to Jill after this; but, though she hung
+about me in her old affectionate way, I felt that I should leave her far
+happier than she had ever been before, and she did not deny this, only
+begged me to come and see them sometimes.
+
+'You know I can't do without you, you darling bear,' she finished, with
+one of her old hugs.
+
+I was still more touched by Aunt Philippa's regret at parting with me;
+she said so many kind things; and, to my surprise, Uncle Brian relaxed
+from his usual coldness, and quite warmed into demonstration.
+
+'Come to us as often as you can, Ursula,' he said. 'Your aunt and I
+will be only too pleased to see you.' And then he asked me, a little
+anxiously, if I found my small income sufficient for my needs.
+
+I assured him that my wants were so few, and Mrs. Barton was so
+economical, that but for my poorer neighbours I could hardly use it all.
+
+'Well, well,' he returned, putting a handsome cheque in my hands, 'you
+can always draw on me when you feel disposed. I suppose you like pretty
+things as much as other girls.' And he would not let me even thank him
+for his generosity.
+
+Aunt Philippa only smiled when I showed her the cheque.
+
+'My dear, your uncle likes to do it, and you must not be too proud to
+accept his gifts: you may need it some day. We have only two daughters:
+as it is, Jocelyn will be far too rich. I do not like the idea that
+Harley's child should want anything.' And she kissed me with tears in her
+eyes.
+
+Dear Aunt Philippa! she had grown quite motherly during those three
+weeks.
+
+It was a lovely June afternoon: when I started from Victoria there was a
+scent of hay in the air. Jill had brought with her to the station a great
+basketful of roses and narcissus and heliotrope, and had put it on the
+seat beside me that its fragrance might refresh me.
+
+I felt a strange sort of excitement and pleasure at the thought of
+returning home. Mrs. Barton would be glad to get me back, I knew. Uncle
+Max would not be at the station to meet me, for he had written to say
+that he was still detained at Norwich. His cousin was dead, and had left
+him her little property,--some six or seven hundred a year. There were
+some valuable books and antiquities, and some old silver besides. He was
+the only near relation, and business connected with the property would
+oblige him to remain for another week or ten days. I was rather sorry to
+hear this, for Heathfield was not the same without Uncle Max.
+
+But not even Uncle Max's absence could damp me, I felt so light-hearted.
+'I hope I am not fey,' I said to myself, with a little thrill of
+excitement and expectation as the familiar station came in view. Never
+since Charlie's death had I felt so cheerful and full of life.
+
+Nathaniel was on the platform to look after my luggage, so I walked up
+the hill quietly, with my basket of flowers. As I passed the vicarage,
+Mr. Tudor came out and walked with me to the gate of the White Cottage.
+I had a dim suspicion that he had been watching for me.
+
+Of course he asked after the family at Hyde Park Gate, and was most
+particular in his inquiries after Aunt Philippa. Just at the last he
+mentioned Jill.
+
+'I hope your cousin Jocelyn is well,--I mean none the worse for her
+accident,' he said, turning very red.
+
+'Oh no,' I returned carelessly; 'nothing hurts Jill. She was riding in
+the Park the next morning as though nothing had happened.'
+
+'I remember you told me so, when I called to inquire,' was his answer.
+'It was a nasty accident, and might have upset her nerves; but she is
+very strong and courageous.'
+
+'She has great reason to be grateful to you,' I returned, for I felt very
+sorry for him. He was hoping that she had sent him some message; she
+would surely desire to be remembered to him. When I repeated Jill's
+abrupt little speech his face cleared, and he looked quite bright.
+
+'There is Mrs. Barton looking out for you: I must not keep you at the
+gate talking,' he said cheerfully. 'Besides, I see Leah Bates coming down
+from Gladwyn, and I want to speak to her.' And he ran off in his boyish
+fashion.
+
+I was glad to escape Leah, so I went quickly up the garden-path. The
+little widow was waiting for me in the porch, her face beaming with
+welcome. Tinker rushed out of the kitchen as soon as he heard my voice,
+and gambolled round us with awkward demonstrations of joy that nearly
+upset us, and Joe the black cat came and rubbed himself against my gown,
+with tail erect and loud purring.
+
+The little parlour looked snug and inviting. The fireplace was decorated
+with fir cones and tiny boughs covered with silvery lichen. A great pot
+of mignonette perfumed the room with its sweetness. Charlie's face seemed
+to greet me with grave sweet smiles. I seemed to hear his voice, 'Welcome
+home, Ursula.'
+
+'Oh, I am so glad to be home!' I said, as I went upstairs to my pretty
+bedroom.
+
+When I had finished my unpacking, and had had tea, I sat down in my
+easy-chair, with a book that Miss Gillespie had lent me. Tinker laid his
+head in my lap, and we both disposed ourselves for an idle, luxurious
+evening. The bees were still humming about the honeysuckles; one great
+brown fellow had buried himself in one of my crimson roses; the birds
+were twittering in the acacia-tree, chirping their good-night to each
+other; the sun was setting behind the limes in a glory of pink and golden
+clouds, and a mingled scent of roses, mignonette, and hay seemed to
+pervade the atmosphere.
+
+I laid down my book and fell into a waking dream; my thoughts seemed to
+take bird-flights into all sorts of strange places; the summer sounds and
+scents seemed to lull me into infinite content. Now I heard a drowsy
+cluck-cluck from the poultry-yard,--Dame Partlet remonstrating with her
+lord; then a faint moo from the field where pretty brown-eyed Daisy was
+chewing the cud; down below they were singing in the little dissenting
+chapel; sweet shrill voices reached me every now and then. I could hear
+Nathaniel chanting in a deep bass, as he worked in the back-yard, 'All
+people that on earth do dwell,'--the dear homely Old Hundredth. It was no
+wonder that a light, very light, footstep on the gravel outside did not
+rouse me. The door behind me opened, and Tinker turned his head lazily,
+and his tail began to flop heavier against the floor. The next moment two
+soft arms were round my neck.
+
+'Gladys,--oh, Gladys!' and for the moment I could say no more, in my
+delight and surprise at seeing the dear beautiful face again.
+
+'I wanted to surprise you, Ursula dear,' she said, laughing and kissing
+me. 'How still and quiet you and Tinker were! I believe you were both
+asleep. When I heard you were coming home I planned with Lady Betty that
+I would creep down to the cottage and take you unawares. I made Mrs.
+Barton promise not to betray me.'
+
+'When did you come back?' I asked, bewildered. 'Why did you not write and
+tell me you were coming?'
+
+'Oh, it was decided all in a hurry. The Maberleys heard that their
+daughter, Mrs. Egerton, would arrive in England this week, a whole month
+before they expected her, so they have gone down to Southampton, and left
+me to find my way home alone. I arrived last night, much to Giles's
+astonishment. You know Dora is their only surviving child, and she has
+been in India the last five years. She is bringing her two boys home.'
+
+'Last night. Then you did not get my letter?'
+
+'No; but it will follow me. How good you have been to write so often,
+Ursula! I have quite lived on your letters.'
+
+'Let me see how you look,' was my answer to this; and indeed I thought
+she had never looked more beautiful. There was a lovely colour in her
+face, and she seemed bright and animated, though I could not deny that
+she was still very thin.
+
+'You have not grown fatter,' I went on, pretending to grumble; 'you are
+still too transparent, in my opinion; but Jill's snow-maiden has a little
+life in her.'
+
+'Does Jill call me that?' she returned, in some surprise. 'Oh, I am quite
+well: even Giles says so. He declares he is glad to have me back, and
+poor little Lady Betty quite cried with joy. It was nice, after all,
+coming home.'
+
+'I am so glad to hear you say that.'
+
+'Etta is away, you know: that makes the difference. Gladwyn never seemed
+so homelike before. By the bye, Ursula, Giles has sent you a message;
+he--no, we all three, want you to spend a long evening with us to-morrow.
+He has been called away to Brighton, and will not be back until mid-day;
+but we all three agreed that it would be so nice if you came early in the
+afternoon, and we would have tea in the little oak avenue. Etta never
+cares about these _al fresco_ meals, she is so afraid of spiders and
+caterpillars; but Lady Betty and I delight in it.'
+
+I wish Jill could have heard Gladys talk in this bright, natural way. I
+am sure she would not have recognised her snow-maiden. There was no weary
+constraint in her manner to-night, no heavy pressure of unnatural care on
+her young brow: she seemed too happy to see me again to think of herself
+at all.
+
+When we had talked a little more I began to approach the subject of Eric
+very gradually. At my first word her cheek paled, and the old wistfulness
+came to her eyes.
+
+'What of Eric?' she asked quickly. 'You look a little strange, Ursula.
+Do not be afraid of speaking his name: he is never out of my thoughts,
+waking or sleeping.'
+
+I told her that I knew this, but that I had something very singular to
+narrate, which I feared might excite and disappoint her, but that I could
+assure her of the certainty that he was alive and well.
+
+She clasped her hands almost convulsively together, and looked at me
+imploringly. 'Only tell me that, and I can bear everything else,' she
+exclaimed.
+
+But as she listened her face grew paler and paler, and presently she
+burst into tears, and sobbed so violently that I was alarmed.
+
+'It is nothing,--nothing but joy,' she gasped out at length. 'I could
+not hear you say that you had seen him, my own Eric, and not be overcome.
+Oh, Ursula, if I had only been with you!' And she hid her face on my
+shoulder, and for a little while I could say no more.
+
+When she was calmed I finished all that I had to tell, and read her the
+advertisements, but they seemed to frighten her.
+
+'How dreadful if Etta or Giles should see them!' she said nervously.
+'Etta is so clever, she finds out everything. I would not have her read
+one of them for worlds. Why did you put your name, Ursula?--it is so
+uncommon.'
+
+'No one will connect me with Jack Poynter. I did not think there would be
+any risk,' I replied soothingly. 'I put "for Gladys's sake" in the _Daily
+Telegraph_. You see, we must try to attract his notice.'
+
+'Giles never takes in the _Daily Telegraph_. We have the _Times_ and the
+_Standard_, and the _Morning Post_ for Etta. Which did you put in the
+_Standard_?'
+
+I repeated the advertisement: 'Jack Poynter's friends believe him dead,
+and are in great trouble: he is entreated to undeceive them. One word to
+the old address will be a comfort to his poor sister.'
+
+'That will do,' she answered, in a relieved tone. 'Etta cannot read
+between the lines there. Oh, Ursula, do you think that Eric will see
+them?'
+
+I assured her that there was no doubt on the subject. All the better
+class of workmen had access to some club or society, where they saw the
+leading papers. I thought the _Daily Telegraph_ the most likely to meet
+his eyes, and should continue to insert an advertisement from time to
+time. 'We must be patient and wait a little,' I continued. 'Even if our
+appeals do not reach him, there is every probability that Joe Muggins
+or one of the other workmen will come across him. We want to find out
+where Jack Poynter lives. I mean to write to Joe in a few days, and offer
+him a handsome sum if he can tell me his address.'
+
+'That will be the best plan; but, oh, Ursula, how am I to be patient?
+To think of my dear boy becoming a common workman! he is poor, then; he
+wants money. I feel as though I cannot rest, as though I must go to
+London and look for him myself.'
+
+Gladys looked so excited and feverish that I almost repented my
+confidence. I did all I could to soothe her.
+
+'Surely, dear, it is not so difficult to wait a little, knowing him to be
+alive and well, as it was to bear that long suspense.'
+
+'Oh, but I never believed him to be dead,' she answered quickly. 'I was
+very anxious, very unhappy, about him, often miserable, but in my dreams
+he was always full of life. When I woke up I said to myself, "They are
+wrong; Eric is in the world somewhere; I shall see him again."'
+
+'Just so; and now with my own eyes I have seen him, evidently in perfect
+health and in good spirits.'
+
+'Ah, but that troubles me a little,' she returned, and her beautiful
+mouth began to quiver like an unhappy child's. 'How can Eric, my Eric who
+loved me so, be so light-hearted, knowing that all these years I have
+been mourning for him? I remember how he used,' she went on plaintively,
+'to whistle over his work, and how Giles used to listen to him. Sometimes
+they kept up a duet together, but Eric's note was the sweeter.'
+
+'We must be careful not to misjudge him even in this,' was my answer:
+'how do you know, Gladys, that he has not assured himself that you are
+all well, and, as far as he knows, happy? Or perhaps his heart was very
+heavy in spite of his whistling. A young man does not show his feelings
+like a girl.'
+
+'No doubt you are right,' she replied, sighing, and then she turned her
+head away, and I could see the old tremulous movement of her hands.
+'Ursula,' she said, in a very low voice, 'have you told Mr. Cunliffe
+about this?'
+
+'Uncle Max!' I exclaimed, concealing my astonishment at hearing her
+mention his name of her own accord. 'No; indeed, he is away from home:
+we have not met for the last three weeks. Would you wish me to tell him,
+Gladys?'
+
+She pondered over my question, and I could see the curves of her throat
+trembling. Her voice was not so clear when she answered me:
+
+'He might have helped us. He is kind and wise, and I trusted him once.
+But perhaps it will be hardly safe to tell him: he might insist on Giles
+knowing, and then everything would be lost.'
+
+'What do you mean?' I asked hastily. 'Surely Mr. Hamilton ought to know
+that his brother is alive.'
+
+'Yes, but not now--not until I have seen him. Ursula, you are very good;
+you are my greatest comfort; but indeed you must be guided in this by me.
+You do not know Giles as I do. He is beginning to influence you in spite
+of yourself. If Giles knows, Etta will know, and then we are lost.'
+
+Her tone troubled me: it was the old keynote of suppressed hopeless
+pain: it somehow recalled to me the image of some helpless innocent bird
+struggling in a fowler's net. Her eyes looked at me with almost agonised
+entreaty.
+
+'If Etta knows, we should be lost,' she repeated drearily.
+
+'She shall not know, then,' I returned, pretending cheerfulness, though
+I was inwardly dismayed. 'You and I will watch and wait, Gladys. Do not
+be so cast down, dear. Remember it is never so dark as just before the
+dawn.'
+
+'No,' she replied, with a faint smile, 'you are right there; but it is
+growing dark in earnest, Ursula, and I must go home, or Leah will be
+coming in search of me.'
+
+'Very well; I will walk with you,' I replied; and in five minutes more we
+had left the cottage.
+
+We walked almost in silence, for who could tell if eaves-droppers might
+not lurk in the dark hedgerows? I know this feeling was strong in both
+our minds.
+
+At the gate of Gladwyn we kissed each other and parted.
+
+'I am happier, Ursula,' she whispered. 'You must not think I am
+ungrateful for the news you have given me, only it has made me restless.'
+
+'Hush! there is some one coming down the shrubbery,' I returned, dropping
+her hand, and going quickly into the road. As I did so, I heard Leah's
+smooth voice address Gladys:
+
+'You were so, late, ma'am, that I thought I had better step down to the
+cottage, for fear you might be waiting for me.'
+
+'It is all right, Leah,' was Gladys's answer. 'Miss Garston walked back
+with me. Thank you for your thoughtfulness.' And then I heard their
+footsteps dying away in the distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+NIGHTINGALES AND ROSES
+
+
+I was very busy the next morning. I went round to the Marshalls' cottage
+to see Peggy, and then I paid Phoebe a long visit, and afterwards I went
+to Robert Stokes.
+
+They seemed all glad to welcome me back, especially Phoebe, who lay and
+looked at me as though she never wished to lose sight of me again.
+
+When I had left her room I sat a little while with Susan. She still
+looked delicate, but at my first pitying word she stopped me.
+
+'Please don't say that, Miss Garston. If you knew how I thank God for
+that illness! it has opened poor Phoebe's heart to me as nothing else
+could have opened it.'
+
+'She does indeed seem a different creature,' I returned, full of
+thankfulness to hear this.
+
+'Different,--nay, that is not the word: the heart of a little child has
+come back to her. It rests me now, if I am ever so tired, to go into her
+room. It is always "Sit down, Susan, my woman, and talk to me a bit," or
+she will beg me to do something for her, just as though she were asking a
+favour. I read the Bible to her now morning and evening, and Kitty sings
+her sweet hymns to us. It is more like home now, with Phoebe to smile
+a welcome whenever she sees me. I do not miss father and mother half so
+much now.'
+
+'If you only knew how happy it makes me to hear you say all this, Miss
+Locke!'
+
+'Nay, but I am thinking we owe much of our comfort to you,' she answered
+simply. 'You worked upon her feelings first, and then Providence sent
+that sharp message to her. And we have to be grateful to the doctor, too.
+What do you think, Miss Garston? He is our landlord now, and he won't
+take a farthing of rent from us. He says we are doing him a kindness by
+living in the house, and that he only wished his other tenants took as
+much care of his property; but of course I know what that means.' And
+here Susan's thin hands shook a little. 'The doctor is just a man whose
+right hand does not know what his left hand does; he is just heaping us
+with benefits, and making us ashamed with his kindness.'
+
+'You are a great favourite of his,' I answered, smiling, as I took my
+leave; but Susan answered solemnly,--
+
+'It won't be forgotten in his account, Miss Garston. The measure running
+over will surely be returned to him, and not only to him.' And here she
+looked at me meaningly, and pressed my hand. Poor Susan! she had grown
+very fond of her nurse.
+
+As I walked up to Gladwyn that afternoon I felt a pleasant sense of
+excitement, a sort of holiday feeling, that was novel to me. Miss Darrell
+was away, and Gladys and Lady Betty would be at their ease. We might look
+and talk as we liked, no one would find fault with us.
+
+I was pleased, too, at the thought of seeing Mr. Hamilton again. I was in
+the mood to be gay: perhaps the summer sunshine infected me, for who
+could be dull on such a day? There was not a cloud in the sky, the birds
+were singing, the rooks were cawing among the elms, the very sparrows had
+a jaunty look and cheeped busily in the ivy. As I approached Gladwyn, I
+saw Mr. Hamilton leaning on the gate: he looked as though he had been
+standing there some time.
+
+'Were you watching for me?' I asked, rather thoughtlessly, as he threw
+the gate open with a smile and shook hands with me. I had asked the
+question quite innocently and casually; but the next moment I felt hot
+and ashamed. Why had I supposed such a thing? Why should Mr. Hamilton be
+watching for me?
+
+He did not seem to notice my confusion: he looked very glad to see me.
+I think he was in a gay mood too.
+
+'Yes, I was looking for you. You are a little late, do you know that? I
+was just meditating whether I should walk down the road to meet you. Come
+and take a turn with me on this shady little lawn. Gladys and Lady Betty
+are arranging the tea-table, and are not quite ready for us.'
+
+He led the way to the little lawn in front of the house. Gladwyn was
+surrounded with charming lawns: the avenue of young oaks was at the back.
+We could catch glimpses of Lady Betty's white gown as she flitted
+backward and forward. The front window of Mr. Hamilton's study was before
+us.
+
+'Well,' he said, looking at me brightly, 'we are all glad to welcome
+Nurse Ursula back: the three weeks have seemed very long somehow.'
+
+'Have you any more cases ready for me?' I returned, trying to appear at
+my usual ease with him. It seemed ridiculous, but I was certainly rather
+shy with Mr. Hamilton this afternoon. He looked different somehow.
+
+'If I have, you will not know them to-day. I am not going to talk
+business to you this afternoon. Tell me about your visit: have you
+enjoyed yourself? But I need not ask: your looks answer for you.'
+
+'I have most certainly enjoyed myself. Aunt Philippa was so kind: indeed,
+they were all good to me. Did you hear of Jill's accident, Mr. Hamilton?
+No. I must tell you about it, and of Mr. Tudor's presence of mind.' And I
+narrated the whole circumstance.
+
+'It was a marvellous escape,' he returned thoughtfully. 'Poor child! she
+might have fared badly. Well, Miss Garston, the green velvet gown was
+very becoming.'
+
+I looked up quickly, but there was no mockery in Mr. Hamilton's smile. He
+was regarding me kindly, though his tone was a little teasing.
+
+'I saw you in the church,' I returned quietly.
+
+'Yes, I suppose there is a kind of magnetism in a fixed glance.
+I was looking at you, trying to identify Nurse Ursula with the
+elegantly-dressed woman before me, and somehow failing, when your
+eyes encountered mine. Their serious disapproval most certainly
+recalled Nurse Ursula with a vengeance.'
+
+He was laughing at me now, but I determined to satisfy my curiosity.
+
+'I was so surprised to see you there,' I replied seriously: 'you were so
+strong in your denunciations of gay weddings that your presence as a
+spectator at one quite startled me. Why were you there, Mr. Hamilton?'
+
+'Do you want to know, really?' still in a teasing tone.
+
+'Of course one always likes an answer to a question.'
+
+'You shall have it, Miss Garston. I came to see that velvet gown.'
+
+'Nonsense!'
+
+'May I ask why?'
+
+'Well, it is nonsense; as though you came for such an absurd purpose!'
+But, though I answered Mr. Hamilton in this brusque fashion, I was aware
+that my heart was beating rather more quickly than usual. Did he really
+mean that he had come to see me? Could such a thing be possible? I began
+to wish I had never put that question.
+
+'I either came to see the gown or the wearer: upon my honour I hardly
+know which. Perhaps you can tell me?' But if he expected an answer to
+that he did not get it: I was only meditating how I could break off this
+_téte-à-téte_ without too much awkwardness. No, I did not recognise Mr.
+Hamilton a bit this afternoon: he had never talked to me after this
+fashion before. I was not sure that I liked it.
+
+'After all, I am not certain that I do not like you best in that gray
+one, especially after I have picked you some roses to wear with it:
+something sober and quiet seems to suit Nurse Ursula better.'
+
+'Mr. Hamilton, if you please, I do not want to talk any more about my
+gown.'
+
+'What shall we talk about, then? Shall I--' And then he looked at my face
+and checked himself. His teasing mood, or whatever it was, changed.
+Perhaps he saw my embarrassment, for his manner became all at once very
+gentle. He said we must go in search of the roses; and then he began to
+talk to me about Gladys,--how much brighter she looked, but still thin,
+oh, far too thin,--and was I not glad to have her back again? and all the
+time he talked he was looking at me, as though he wanted to find out the
+reason of something that perplexed him.
+
+'He will think that I am not glad to be home again, that all this gaiety
+has spoiled me for my work,' I thought, with some vexation; but no effort
+of my part would overcome this sudden shyness, and I was much relieved
+when we turned the corner of the house and encountered Lady Betty coming
+in search of us.
+
+'Of course we saw you on the little lawn,' she said eagerly, 'but we were
+too busy arranging the table. Tea is ready now. Where are you going,
+Giles? Oh, don't pick any more roses: we have plenty for Ursula.'
+
+'But if I wish Miss Garston to wear some of my picking, what then,
+Elizabeth?' he asked, in a laughing tone, and Lady Betty tossed her head
+in reply and led me away; but a moment afterwards he followed us with the
+roses, and mollified the wilful little soul by asking Ladybird--his pet
+name for her--to fasten them in my dress. Both the sisters wore white
+gowns. I thought Gladys looked like a queen in hers, as she moved slowly
+under the oak-trees to meet us, the sun shining on her fair hair. As I
+looked at her lovely face and figure, I thought it was no wonder that she
+was poor Max's Lady of Delight. Who could help admiring her?
+
+She met me quite naturally, although her brother was beside us.
+
+'Have we kept you waiting too long? I thought you would not mind putting
+up with Giles's society for a little while. Oh, Thornton was so stupid; I
+suppose he did not approve of the trouble, for he would forget everything
+we asked him to bring.'
+
+'This is quite a feast, Gladys,' observed Mr. Hamilton gaily. And indeed
+it was a pretty picture when we were all seated: a pleasant breeze
+stirred the leaves over our head, the rooks cawed and circled round us,
+Nap laid himself at his master's feet, and a little gray kitten came
+gingerly over the grass, followed by some tame pigeons.
+
+There was a basket of roses on the table, and great piles of strawberries
+and cherries. Gladys poured out the tea in purple cups bordered with
+gold. Mr. Hamilton held out a beautiful china plate for my inspection.
+'This belonged to Gladys's mother,' he said: 'we are only allowed to use
+it on high days and holidays. Etta was unfortunate enough to break a
+saucer once: we have never seen the tea-set since.'
+
+I saw Gladys colour, but she said nothing: only naughty Lady Betty
+whispered in my ear, 'She did it on purpose. I saw her throw it down
+because she was angry with Gladys.' But, happily, Mr. Hamilton was deaf
+to this.
+
+I hardly know what we talked about, but we were all very happy. Gladys,
+as usual, was rather quiet, but I noticed that she spoke freely to her
+brother, without any constraint of manner, and that he seemed pleased
+and interested in all she said; and Lady Betty chatted as merrily as
+possible.
+
+When tea was over we all strolled about the garden, down the long
+asphalt walk that skirted the meadow, where a little brown cow was
+feeding, down to the gardener's cottage and the kitchen-garden, and to
+the poultry-yard, where Lady Betty reigned supreme. Then we sat down on
+the terrace by the conservatory, and Mr. Hamilton threw himself down on
+the grass and played with Nap, as he talked to us.
+
+I could see Leah sewing at her mistress's window, but the sight did not
+disturb me in the least. Yes, I must be fey, I thought. I could find no
+reason for the sudden feeling of contentment and well-being that
+possessed me; in all my life I had never felt happier than I did that
+evening; and yet I was more silent than usual. Mr. Hamilton talked more
+to his sisters than to me, but his manner was strangely gentle when he
+addressed me. I was conscious all that evening that he was watching me,
+and that my reserve did not displease him. Once, when he had been called
+away on business, and Lady Betty had tripped after him, Gladys said, with
+a half-sigh,--
+
+'How young and well Giles looks to-day! He seems so much happier. I wish
+we could always be like this. I am sure if it were not for Etta we should
+understand each other better.'
+
+I assented to this, and Gladys went on:
+
+'I wonder if you have ever heard Mrs. Carrick's name, Ursula?'
+
+What a strange question! I flushed a little as I told her that her old
+friend Mrs. Maberley had put me in possession of all the family secrets.
+'Quite against my will, I assure you,' I added; for I always had a
+lurking consciousness that I had no right to know Mr. Hamilton's affairs.
+
+'Well, it does not matter. I daresay Giles will tell you all about
+it himself some day. You and he seem great friends, Ursula; and
+indeed--indeed I am glad to know it. Poor Giles! Why should you not be
+kind to him?'
+
+What in the world could Gladys mean?
+
+'I was only a child,' she went on; 'but of course I remember Ella. She
+was very beautiful and fascinating, and she bewitched us all. She had
+such lovely eyes, and such a sweet laugh; and she was so full of fun, and
+so high-spirited and charming altogether. Giles was very different in
+those days; but he reminds me of his old self this evening.'
+
+I made no answer. I seemed to have no words ready, and I was glad when
+Gladys rather abruptly changed the subject. Leah was crossing the field
+towards the cottage with a basket of eggs on her arm. As we looked after
+her, Gladys said quickly--
+
+'Your talk last night seems like a dream. This morning I asked myself,
+could it be true--really true--that you saw Eric? I have hardly slept,
+Ursula. Indeed, I do not mean to be impatient; but how am I to bear this
+restlessness?'
+
+'It is certainly very hard.'
+
+'Oh, so hard! But for Eric's sake I must be patient. I saw the
+advertisement this morning in the _Standard_. Lady Betty read it aloud to
+us at breakfast-time; but Giles took no notice. I wished that we dared to
+tell Mr. Cunliffe about it; he might employ a detective: but I am so
+afraid of Etta.'
+
+'I think we may safely wait a little,' I returned. 'I have faith in Joe
+Muggins: a five-pound note may do our work without fear of publicity.'
+
+'If you hear any news, if you can find out where he lives, remember that
+I must be the first to see him: Giles shall be told, but not until I have
+spoken to Eric.'
+
+'Do you think that you will be able to persuade him to come home?'
+
+'I shall not try to persuade him,' she returned proudly. 'I know Eric too
+well for that. Nothing will induce him to cross the threshold of Gladwyn
+until his innocence is established, until Giles has apologised for the
+slur he has thrown upon his character.'
+
+'I am afraid Mr. Hamilton will never do that.'
+
+'Then there will be no possibility of reconciliation with Eric, Ursula.
+If Eric does not come home, if things remain as they are, I have made up
+my mind to leave Giles's roof. I cannot any longer be separated from
+Eric: if he be poor I will be poor too: it will not hurt me to work;
+nothing will hurt me after the life I have been leading these three
+years.' And the old troubled look came back to Gladys's face. Lady Betty
+joined us, and our talk ceased, and soon afterwards we went up into the
+turret-room to prepare for dinner.
+
+After dinner Lady Betty proposed that we should go down the road a little
+to hear the nightingales; but Mr. Hamilton informed her with a smile that
+he had a nightingale on the premises, and, turning to me, he asked me if
+I were in the mood to give them all pleasure, and if I would sing to them
+until they told me to stop.
+
+I was rather dubious on this latter point, for how could I know, I asked
+him, laughing, that they might not keep me singing until midnight?
+
+'You ought to have more faith in our humanity,' he returned, with much
+solemnity, as he opened the piano. Gladys crept into her old seat by me,
+but Mr. Hamilton placed himself in an easy-chair at some little distance.
+As the room grew dusk, and the moonlight threw strange silvery gleams
+here and there, I could see him leaning back with his arms crossed under
+his head, and wondered if he were asleep, he was so still and motionless.
+
+How I thanked God in my heart for that gift of song, a more precious gift
+to me than even beauty would have been! As usual, I forgot everything,
+myself, Gladys, Mr. Hamilton; I seemed to sing with the joyousness of a
+bird that is only conscious of life and freedom and sunshine.
+
+I would sing no melancholy songs that night,--no love-sick adieux, no
+effusions of lachrymose sentimentality,--only sweet old Scotch and
+English ballads, favourites of Charlie's; then grander melodies, 'Let the
+bright seraphim,' and 'Waft her, angels, through the air.' As I finished
+the last I was conscious that Mr. Hamilton was standing beside me; the
+next moment he laid his hand on mine.
+
+'That will do. You must not tire yourself: even the nightingales must
+leave off singing sometimes; thank you so much. No! that sounds cold and
+conventional. I will not thank you. You were very happy singing, were you
+not?'
+
+I could not see his face, but he was so close,--so close to me in the
+moonlight, and there was something in his voice that brought the old
+shyness back.
+
+I was trying to answer, when we heard the front door open and some one
+speaking to Parker. Was that Miss Darrell's voice? Mr. Hamilton heard it,
+for he moved away, and Gladys gave a half-stifled exclamation as he
+opened the door and confronted his cousin.
+
+'Where are you all?' she asked, in a laughing voice. 'You look like bats
+or ghosts in the moonlight. No lights, and past ten o'clock! that is
+Gladys's romantic idea, I suppose. What a dear fanciful child it is! Lady
+Betty, come and kiss me! Oh, I am so glad to be home again!'
+
+'Good-evening, Miss Darrell.'
+
+'Good gracious! is that you, Miss Garston? I never dreamt of seeing you
+here to-night; and you were hiding behind that great piano. Giles, do,
+for pity's sake, light those candles, and let me see some of your faces.'
+
+But Mr. Hamilton seemed to take no notice of her request.
+
+'What brought you back so soon, Etta?' he asked; and it struck me that he
+was not so pleased to see his cousin as usual. 'I thought you intended to
+remain another week.'
+
+'Oh, but I wanted to see Gladys, after these months of absence. I thought
+it would be unkind to remain away any longer. Besides, I was not enjoying
+myself,--not a bit. Mrs. Cameron grows deafer every day, and it was very
+_triste_ and miserable.'
+
+'How did you know I was at home, Etta?' asked Gladys, in her clear voice.
+
+Miss Darrell hesitated a moment: 'A little bird informed me of the fact.
+You did not wish me to remain in ignorance of your return, did you? It
+sounds rather like it, does it not, Giles? Well, if you must be
+inquisitive, Leah was writing to me about my dresses for the cleaner,
+and she mentioned casually that "master had gone to the station to meet
+Miss Gladys."'
+
+'I see; but you need not have hurried home on my account.'
+
+'Dear me! what a cousinly speech! That is the return one gets for
+being a little more affectionate than usual. Giles,'--with decided
+impatience,--'why don't you light those candles? You know how I hate
+darkness; and there is Miss Garston standing like a gray nun in the
+moonlight.'
+
+'It is so late that I must put on my bonnet,' I replied quickly; for I
+was bent on making my escape before the candles were lighted. Never had
+I dreaded Miss Darrell's cold scrutiny as I did that night.
+
+Gladys followed me rather wearily.
+
+'Well it has been very pleasant, but our holiday has been brief,' she
+said, with a sigh; and then she laid her cheek against mine, and it felt
+very soft and cold. With a sudden rush of tenderness I drew it down and
+kissed it again and again.
+
+'Don't let the hope go out of your voice, Gladys: it will all come right
+by and by. Only be strong and patient, my darling.'
+
+'I am strong when I am near you, but not when I am alone,' she answered,
+with a slight shiver; and then we heard Lady Betty's voice calling her,
+and she left me reluctantly.
+
+I thought she would come back, so I did not hurry myself; but presently
+I got tired of waiting, and walked to the head of the staircase.
+
+As I looked down on the lighted hall I saw Mr. Hamilton standing with
+folded arms, as though he had been waiting there some time; at the sound
+of my footstep he looked up quickly and eagerly, and our eyes met, and
+then I knew,--I knew!
+
+'Come, Ursula,' he said, with a sort of impatience, holding out his hand;
+and somehow, without delay or hesitation, just as though his strong will
+was drawing me, I went down slowly and put my hand in his, and it seemed
+as though there was nothing more to be said.
+
+I saw his face light up; he was about to speak, when Miss Darrell swept
+up to us noiselessly with a hard metallic smile on her face.
+
+'Do you know, Miss Garston, Lady Betty tells me that the nightingales are
+singing so charmingly; she and I are just going down the road to listen
+to them, if you can put up with our company for part of the way.'
+
+Giles--I called him Giles in my heart that night, for something told me
+we belonged to each other--said nothing, but his face clouded, and we
+went out together.
+
+No one heard the nightingales, but only Lady Betty commented on that
+fact. Miss Darrell was talking too volubly to hear her. She clung to my
+side pertinaciously, almost affectionately; she wanted to hear all about
+the wedding; she plied me with questions about Sara, and Jill, and Mr.
+Tudor. All the way up the hill she talked until we passed the church and
+the vicarage, until we were at the gate of the White Cottage, and then
+she stopped with an affected laugh.
+
+'Dear me, I have actually walked the whole way; how tired I am!--and no
+wonder, for there is eleven chiming from the church tower. For shame, to
+keep us all up so late, Miss Garston!'
+
+'I will not detain you,' I returned, with secret exasperation.
+
+Mr. Hamilton had not spoken once the whole way, only walked silently
+beside me; but as he set open the gate and wished me good-night, his
+clasp of my hand gave me the assurance that I needed.
+
+'Never mind: he will come to-morrow and tell me all about it,' I said to
+myself as I walked up the narrow garden-path between the rows of sleeping
+flowers. If I lingered in the porch to watch a certain tall figure
+disappear into the darkness, no one knew it, for the stars tell no tales.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+BREAKERS AHEAD
+
+
+It was well that the stars, those bright-eyed spectators of a sleeping
+world, tell no tales of us poor humans, or they might have whispered the
+fact that the reasonable sober-minded Ursula Garston was holding foolish
+vigil that night until the gray dawn drove her away to seek a brief rest.
+
+But how could I sleep?--how could any woman sleep when such a revelation
+had been vouchsafed her?--when a certain look, and those two words,
+'Come, Ursula,' still haunted me,--that strange brief wooing, that was
+hardly wooing, and yet meant unutterable things, that silent acceptance,
+that simple yielding, when I put my hand in his, Giles's, and saw the
+quick look of joy in his eyes?
+
+Ah, the veil had fallen from my eyes at last: for the first time I
+realised how all these weeks he had been drawing me closer to himself,
+how his strong will had subjugated mine. My dislike of him had been
+brief; he had awakened my interest first, then attracted my sympathy, and
+finally won my respect and friendship, until I had grown to love him in
+spite of myself. Strange to say, I had lost all fear of him; as I sat
+holding communion with myself that night, I felt that I should never be
+afraid of him again. 'Perfect love casteth out fear': is not that what
+the apostle tells us? It was true, I thought, for now I did not seem to
+be afraid either of Mr. Hamilton's strange stern nature, of the sadness
+of his past life, or of the mysteries and misunderstandings of that
+troubled household. It seemed to me I feared nothing,--not even my own
+want of beauty, that had once been a trial to me; for if Giles loved me
+how could such minor evils affect me?
+
+Yes, as I sat there under the solemn starlight, with the jasmine sprays
+cooling my hot cheek and the soft night breeze fanning me, I owned, and
+was not ashamed to own, in my woman's heart, and with all the truth of
+which I was capable, that this was the man whom my soul delighted to
+honour; not faultless, not free from blame, full of flaws and
+imperfections, but still a strong grand man, intensely human in his
+sympathies, one who loved his fellows, and who did his life's work in
+true knightly fashion, running full tilt against prejudices and the
+shams of conventionality.
+
+Often during the night I thought of my mother, and how she had told me,
+laughing, that my father had never really asked her to marry him.
+
+'I don't know how we were engaged, Ursula,' she once said, when we
+were talking about Charlie and Lesbia in the twilight; 'we were at a
+ball,--Lady Fitzherbert's,--and of course being a clergyman he did not
+dance, but he took me into the conservatory and gave me a flower: I think
+it was a rose. There were people all round us, and neither he nor I could
+tell how it was done, but when he put me into the carriage I knew we were
+somehow promised to each other, and when he came the next day he called
+me Amy, and kissed me in the most quite matter-of-fact way. I often laugh
+and tell him that he took it all, for granted.'
+
+'Giles will come to-morrow,' I said to myself, as the first pale gleam
+came over the eastern sky, 'and then I shall know all about it.' And I
+fell asleep happily, and dreamt of Charlie, and I thought he was pelting
+me with roses in the old vicarage garden.
+
+'"And the evening and the morning were the first day,"' were my waking
+words when I opened my eyes; for in the inward as well as the outward
+creation, in hearts as well as worlds, all things become new under the
+grace of such miracle. I was not the same woman that I had been
+yesterday, neither should I ever be the same again. I seemed as though I
+were in accord with all the harmonies of nature. 'And surely God saw that
+it was good,' ought to be written upon all true and faithful earthly
+attachments. I was expecting Mr. Hamilton, and yet it gave me a sort of
+shock when I saw him coming up the road: he was walking very fast, with
+his head bent, but his face was set in the direction of the cottage.
+
+I sat down by the window and took out some work, but my hands trembled so
+that I was compelled to lay it aside. It was not that I was afraid of
+what he might say to me, for my heart had its welcome ready, but natural
+womanly timidity caused the slight fluttering of my pulses.
+
+The moments seemed long before I heard the click of the gate, before the
+firm regular footsteps crunched the gravel walk; then came his knock at
+my door, and I rose to greet him. But the moment I saw his face a sudden
+anxiety seized me. What had happened? What made him look so pale and
+embarrassed, so strangely unlike himself? This was not the greeting I
+expected. This was not how we ought to meet on this morning of all
+mornings.
+
+As he shook hands with me quickly and rather nervously, he seemed to
+avoid my eyes. He walked to the window, picked a spray of jasmine, and
+began pulling it to pieces, all the time he talked. As for me, I sat down
+again and took up my work: he should not see that I felt his coldness,
+that he had disappointed me.
+
+'I have come very early, I am afraid,' he began, 'but I thought I ought
+to let you know. Mrs. Hanbury's little girl, the lame one, Jessie, has
+got badly burnt,--some carelessness or other; but they are an ignorant
+set, and the child will need your care.'
+
+'I will go at once. Where do they live?' But somehow as I asked the
+question I felt as though my voice had lost all tone and sounded like
+Miss Darrell's.
+
+He told me, and then gave me the necessary instructions. 'Janet Coombe,
+a servant at the Man and Plough, is ill too, and they sent up for me this
+morning; it seems a touch of low fever,--nothing really infectious,
+though; but the men from the soap-works are having their bean-feast, and
+all the folks are too busy to pay Janet much attention.'
+
+'I will see about her,' I returned. 'Are those the only cases, Mr.
+Hamilton?' He looked round at me then, as though my quiet matter-of-fact
+answer had surprised him, and for a moment he surveyed me gravely and
+wistfully; then he seemed to rouse himself with an effort.
+
+'Yes, those are the only cases at present. Thank you, I shall be much
+obliged if you will attend to them. Little Jessie is a very delicate
+child: things may go hardly with her.' Then he stopped, picked another
+spray of jasmine, and pulled off the little starry flowers remorselessly.
+
+'Miss Garston, I want to say something: I feel I owe you some sort of
+explanation. I wish to tell you that I have only myself to blame. I have
+thought it all over, and I have come to the conclusion that it is no
+fault of yours that I misunderstood you. It is your nature to be kind.
+You did not wish to mislead me.'
+
+'I am not aware that I ever mislead people,' I returned, rather proudly,
+for I could not help feeling a little indignant: Mr. Hamilton was
+certainly not treating me well.
+
+'No, of course not,' looking excessively pained. 'I know you too well to
+accuse you of that. If I misunderstood you, if I imagined things, it was
+my own fault,--mine solely. I would not blame you for worlds.'
+
+'I am glad of that, Mr. Hamilton,' in rather an icy tone.
+
+'No, you could not have told me: I ought to have found it out for myself.
+Do you mind if I go away now? I do not feel quite myself, and I would
+rather talk of this again another time. Perhaps you will tell me all
+about it then.' And he actually took up his hat and shook hands with me
+again. Somehow his touch made me shiver when I remembered the long
+hand-clasp of the previous night,--only ten or eleven hours ago; and yet
+this strange change had been worked in him.
+
+I let him go, though it nearly broke my heart to see him look so careworn
+and miserable. My woman's pride was up in arms, though for very pity and
+love I could have called him back and begged him to tell me in plain
+English and without reservation what he meant by his vague words. Once I
+rose and went to the door, the latch was in my hand, but I sat down again
+and watched him quietly until he was out of sight. I would wait, I said
+to myself; I would rather wait until he came to his senses; and then I
+laughed a little angrily, though the tears were in my eyes. It was
+vexatious, it was bitterly disappointing, it was laying on my shoulders a
+fresh burden of responsibility and anxiety. The happiness that a quarter
+of an hour ago seemed within my reach had vanished and left me worried
+and perplexed. And yet, in spite of the pain Mr. Hamilton had inflicted,
+I did not for one moment lose hope or courage.
+
+Something had gone wrong, that was evident. The perfect understanding
+that had been between us last night seemed ruthlessly disturbed and
+perhaps broken. Could this be Miss Darrell's work? Had she made mischief
+between us? I wondered what part of my conduct or actions she had
+misrepresented to her cousin. It was this uncertainty that tormented
+me: how could I refute mere intangible shadows?
+
+Strange to say, I never doubted his love for a moment. If such a doubt
+had entered my mind I should have been miserable indeed; but no such
+thought fretted me. I was only hurt that he could have brought himself
+to believe anything against me, that he should have listened to her false
+sophistry and not have asked for my explanation; but, as I remembered
+that love was prone to jealousy and not above suspicion, I soon forgave
+him in my heart.
+
+Ah well, we must both suffer, I thought; for he certainly looked very
+unhappy, fagged, and weary, as though he had not slept. If he had told me
+what was wrong I would have found some comfort for him; but under such
+circumstances any woman must be dumb.
+
+He had made me understand that he did not intend to ask me to marry him,
+at least just yet; that for some reason best known to himself he wished
+for no further explanation with me. Well, I could wait until he was ready
+to speak; he need not fear that I should embarrass him. 'Men are strange
+creatures,' I thought, as I rose, feeling tired in every limb, to put on
+my bonnet; but, cast down and perplexed as I was, I would not own for a
+minute that I was really miserable. My faith in Mr. Hamilton was too
+strong for that; one day things would be right between us; one day he
+would see the truth and know it, and there would be no cloud before his
+eyes. I went rather sadly about my duties that day, but I was determined
+that no one else should suffer for my unhappiness, so I exerted myself to
+be cheerful with my patients, and the hard work did me good.
+
+I was tired when I reached home, and I spent rather a dreary evening: it
+was impossible to settle to my book. I could not help remembering how I
+had called this a new day. As I prayed for Mr. Hamilton that night, I
+could not help shedding a few tears; he was so strong, all the power was
+in his hands; he might have saved me from this trouble. Then I remembered
+that we were both unhappy together, and this thought calmed me; for the
+same cloud was covering us both, and I wondered which of us would see the
+sunshine first.
+
+I do not wish to speak much of my feelings at this time: the old adage,
+that 'the course of true love never runs smooth,' was true, alas, in my
+case; but I was too proud to complain, and I tried not to fret overmuch.
+Most women have known troubled days, when the current seems against them
+and the waves run high; their strength fails and they seem to sink in
+deep waters. Many a poor soul has suffered shipwreck in the very sight
+of the haven where it would fain be, for man and woman too are 'born to
+trouble as the sparks fly upward.'
+
+Sometimes my pain was very great; but I would not succumb to it. I worked
+harder than ever to combat my restlessness. My worst time was in the
+evening, when I came home weary and dispirited. We seemed so near, and
+yet so strangely apart, and it was hard at such times to keep to my old
+faith in Mr. Hamilton and acquit him of unkindness.
+
+'Why does he not tell me what he means? Do I deserve this silence?' I
+would say to myself. Then I remembered his promise that he would speak
+to me again about these things, and I resolved to be brave and patient.
+
+I was longing to see Gladys, but she did not come for more than ten days.
+And, alas! I could not go up to Gladwyn to seek her. This was the first
+bitter fruit of our estrangement,--that it separated me from Gladys.
+
+Lady Betty had gone away the very next day to pay a two months' visit to
+an old school-fellow in Cornwall: so Gladys would be utterly alone. Uncle
+Max was still in Norwich, detained by most vexatious lawyer's business:
+so that I had not even the solace of his companionship. If it had not
+been for Mr. Tudor, I should have been quite desolate. But I was always
+meeting him in the village, and his cheery greeting was a cordial to me.
+He always walked back with me, talking in his eager, boyish way. And I
+had sometimes quite a trouble to get rid of him. He would stand for a
+quarter of an hour at a time leaning over the gate and chatting with me.
+By a sort of tacit consent, he never offered to come in, neither did I
+invite him. We were both too much afraid of Miss Darrell's comments.
+
+In all those ten days I only saw Mr. Hamilton once, for on Sunday his
+seat in church had been vacant.
+
+I was dressing little Jessie's burns one morning, and talking to her
+cheerfully all the time, for she was a nervous little creature, when I
+heard his footstep outside. And the next instant he was standing beside
+us.
+
+His curt 'Good-morning; how is the patient, nurse?' braced my faltering
+nerves in a moment, and enabled me to answer him without embarrassment.
+He had his grave professional air, and looked hard and impenetrable. I
+had reason afterwards to think that this sternness of manner was assumed
+for my benefit, for once, when I was preparing some lint for him, I
+looked up inadvertently and saw that he was watching me with an
+expression that was at once sad and wistful.
+
+He turned away at once, when he saw I noticed him, and I left the room as
+quickly as I could, for I felt the tears rising to my eyes. I had to sit
+down a moment in the porch to recover myself. That look, so sad and
+yearning, had quite upset me. If I had not known before, past all doubt,
+that Mr. Hamilton loved me, I must have known it then.
+
+We met more frequently after this. Janet Coombe was dangerously ill, and
+Mr. Hamilton saw her two or three times a day. And, of course, I was
+often there when he came.
+
+He dropped his sternness of manner after a time, but he was never
+otherwise than grave with me. The long, unrestrained talks, the friendly
+looks, the keen interest shown in my daily pursuits, were now things of
+the past. A few professional inquiries, directions about the treatment,
+now and then a brief order to me, too peremptory to be a compliment,
+not to over-tire myself, or to go home to rest,--this was all our
+intercourse. And yet, in spite of his guarded looks and words, I was
+often triumphant, even happy.
+
+Outwardly, and to all appearance, I was left alone, but I knew that it
+was far otherwise in reality. I was most strictly watched. Nothing
+escaped his scrutiny. At the first sign of fatigue he was ready to take
+my place, or find help for me. Mrs. Saunders, the mistress of the Man and
+Plough, told me more than once that the doctor had been most particular
+in telling her to look after me. Nor was this all.
+
+Once or twice, when I had been singing in the summer twilight, I had
+risen suddenly to lower a blind or admit Tinker, and had seen a tall,
+dark figure moving away behind the laurel bushes, and knew that it was
+Mr. Hamilton returning from some late visit and lingering in the dusky
+road to listen to me.
+
+After I had discovered this for the third time, I began to think he came
+on purpose to hear me. My heart beat happily at the thought. In spite of
+his displeasure with me, he could not keep away from the cottage.
+
+After this I sang every evening regularly for an hour, and always in
+the gloaming: it became my one pleasure, for I knew I was singing to him.
+Now and then I was rewarded by a sight of his shadow. More than once I
+saw him clearly in the moonlight. When I closed my piano, I used to
+whisper 'Good-night, Giles,' and go to bed almost happy. It was a little
+hard to meet him the next morning in Janet's room and answer his dry
+matter-of-fact questions. Sometimes I had to turn away to hide a smile.
+
+Gladys's first visit was very disappointing. But everything was
+disappointing in those days. She had her old harassed look, and seemed
+worried and miserable, and for once I had no heart to cheer her, only I
+held her close, very close, feeling that she was dearer to me than ever.
+
+She looked in my face rather inquiringly as she disengaged herself, and
+then smiled faintly.
+
+'I could not come before, Ursula; and you have never been to see me,' a
+little reproachfully, 'though I looked for you every afternoon. I have no
+Lady Betty, you know, and things have been worse than ever. I cannot
+think what has come to Etta. She is always spiteful and sneering when
+Giles is not by. And as for Giles, I do not know what is the matter with
+him.'
+
+'How do you mean?' I faltered, hunting in my work basket for some silk
+that was lying close to my hand.
+
+'That is more than I can say,' she returned pointedly. 'Have you and
+Giles had a quarrel, Ursula? I thought that evening that you were the
+best of friends, and that--' But here she hesitated, and her lovely eyes
+seemed to ask for my confidence; but I could not speak even to Gladys of
+such things, so I only answered, in a business-like tone,--
+
+'It is true that your brother does not seem as friendly with me just now;
+but I do not know how I have offended him. He has rather a peculiar
+temper, as you have often told me: most likely I have gone against some
+of his prejudices.' I felt I was answering Gladys in rather a reckless
+fashion, but I could not bear even the touch of her sympathy on such a
+wound. She looked much distressed at my reply.
+
+'Oh no, you never offend Giles. He thinks far too much of you to let
+any difference of opinion come between you. I see you do not wish me
+to ask you, Ursula; but I must say one thing. If you want Giles to tell
+you why he is hurt or distant with you,--why his manner is different, I
+mean,--ask him plainly what Etta has been saying to him about you.'
+
+I felt myself turning rather pale. 'Are you sure that Miss Darrell has
+been talking about me, Gladys?'
+
+'I have not heard her do so,' was the somewhat disappointing reply, for
+I had hoped then that she had heard something. 'But I was quite as sure
+of the fact as though my ears convicted her. I have only circumstantial
+evidence again to offer you, but to my mind it is conclusive. You parted
+friends that evening with Giles. Correct me if I am wrong.'
+
+'Oh no; you are quite right. Your brother and I had no word of
+disagreement.'
+
+'No; he left the house radiant. When he returned, which was not for an
+hour,--for he and Etta were out all that time in the garden, and they
+sent Lady Betty in to finish her packing,--he was looking worried and
+miserable, and shut himself up in his study. Since then he has been in
+one of his taciturn, unsociable moods: nothing pleases him. He takes no
+notice of us. Even Etta is scolded, but she bears it good-humouredly
+and takes her revenge on me afterwards. A pleasant state of things,
+Ursula!'
+
+'Very,' I returned, sighing, for I thought this piece of evidence
+conclusive enough.
+
+'Now you will be good,' she went on, in a coaxing voice, 'and you will
+ask Giles, like a reasonable woman, what Etta has been saying to him?'
+
+'Indeed, I shall do no such thing,' I answered. And my cheek began to
+flush. 'If your brother is ungenerous enough to condemn me unheard, I
+shall certainly not interfere with his notions of justice. Do not trouble
+yourself about it, Gladys. It will come right some day. And indeed it
+does not matter so much to me, except it keeps us apart.'
+
+Now why, when I spoke so haughtily and disagreeably, and told this little
+fib, did Gladys suddenly take me in her arms and kiss me most sorrowfully
+and tenderly?
+
+'One after another!' she sighed. 'Oh, it is hard, Ursula!' But I would
+not let her talk any more about it, for I was afraid I was breaking down
+and might make a goose of myself: so I spoke of Eric, and told her that
+I had written to Joe Muggins without success, and soon turned her
+thoughts into another channel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+'I CLAIM THAT PROMISE, URSULA'
+
+
+It was soon after this that Uncle Max came home.
+
+I met Mr. Tudor in the village one morning, and he told me with great
+glee that they had just received a telegram telling them that he was on
+his way, and an hour after his arrival he came down to the cottage.
+
+Directly I heard his 'Well, little woman, how has the world treated you
+in my absence?' I felt quite cheered, and told my little fib without
+effort:
+
+'Very well indeed, thank you, Max.'
+
+It is really a psychological puzzle to me why women who are otherwise
+strictly true and honourable in their dealings and abhor the very name
+of falsehood are much addicted to this sort of fibbing under certain
+circumstances; for instance, the number of white lies that I actually
+told at that time was something fabulous, yet the sin of hypocrisy did
+not lie very heavily on my soul.
+
+When I assured Uncle Max with a smiling face that things were well with
+me, his only answer was to take my chin in his hand and turn my face
+quietly to the light.
+
+'Are you quite sure you are speaking the truth? You look rather thin; and
+why are your eyes so serious, little she bear?'
+
+'It is such hot weather,' I returned, wincing under his kindly scrutiny.
+'And we--that is, I have had anxious work lately. I wrote to you about
+poor Janet Coombe. It is a miracle that she has pulled through this
+illness.'
+
+'Yes, indeed: I met Hamilton just now on his way to her, and he declared
+her recovery was owing to your nursing; but we will take that with a
+grain of salt, Ursula: we both know how devoted Hamilton is to his
+patients.'
+
+'He has saved her life,' was my reply, and for a moment my eyes grew dim
+at the remembrance of the untiring patience with which he had watched
+beside the poor girl. It was in the sick-room that I first learned to
+know him,--when metaphorically I sat at his feet, and he taught me
+lessons of patience and tenderness that I should never forget until
+my life's end.
+
+When we had talked about this a little while, Max asked me rather
+abruptly when Captain Hamilton was expected. The question startled me,
+for I had almost forgotten his existence.
+
+'I do not know,' I returned uneasily, for I was afraid Max would think
+I had been remiss. 'Lady Betty is away, and I have only seen Gladys twice
+since my return, and each time I forgot to ask her.'
+
+'Only twice, and you have been at home more than three weeks,' observed
+Max, in a dissatisfied voice.
+
+'I have been so engaged,' I replied quickly, 'and you know how seldom
+Gladys comes to the cottage. Max, do you know you have been here a
+quarter of an hour, and I have never congratulated you on your good
+fortune! I was so glad to hear Mrs. Trevor left you that money.'
+
+'I did not need it,' he returned, rather gloomily. 'I had quite
+sufficient for my own wants. I do not think that I am particularly
+mercenary, Ursula: the books and antiquities were more to my taste.'
+
+Max was certainly not in the best of spirits, but I did all I could to
+cheer him. I told him of Gladys's improved looks, and how much her change
+had benefited her, but he listened rather silently. I saw he was bent on
+learning Captain Hamilton's movements, and reproached myself that I had
+not questioned Gladys. I was determined that I would speak to her about
+her cousin the next time we met.
+
+Max went away soon after this; he was rather tired with his journey, he
+said; but the next morning I received a note from him asking me to dine
+with him the following evening, as he had seen so little of me lately,
+and he wanted to hear all about the wedding.
+
+Of course I was too glad to accept this invitation,--I always liked to go
+to the vicarage,--and this evening proved especially pleasant.
+
+Max roused himself for my benefit, and Mr. Tudor seemed in excellent
+spirits, and we joked Uncle Max a great deal about his fortune, and after
+dinner we made a pilgrimage through the house, to see what new furniture
+was needed.
+
+Max accompanied us, looking very bored, and entered a mild protest to
+most of our remarks. He certainly agreed to a new carpet for the study
+and a more comfortable chair, but he turned a perfectly deaf ear when Mr.
+Tudor proposed that the drawing-room should be refurnished.
+
+'It is such a pretty room, Mr. Cunliffe,' he remonstrated; 'and it
+will be ready by the time you want to get married. Mother Drabble's
+arrangement of chairs and tables is simply hideous. I was quite ashamed
+when Mrs. Maberley and her daughter called the other day.'
+
+'Nonsense, Lawrence!' returned Max, rather sharply. 'What do two
+bachelors want with a drawing-room at all? You and Ursula may talk as
+much as you like, but I do not mean to throw away good money on such
+nonsense. We will have a new book-case and writing-table, and fit up the
+little gray room as your study--and, well, perhaps I may buy a new
+carpet, but nothing more.' And we were obliged to be content with this.
+
+Max brought out a couple of wicker chairs on the terrace presently, and
+proposed that we should have our coffee out of doors. Mr. Tudor grumbled
+a little, because he had a letter to write; but I was not sorry when he
+left me alone with Max. I really liked Mr. Tudor, but we were neither of
+us in the mood for his good-natured chatter.
+
+'I think old Lawrence is very much improved,' observed Max, as we watched
+his retreating figure. 'His sermons have more ballast, and he is
+altogether grown. I begin to have hopes of him now.'
+
+'He is older, of course,' I remarked oracularly, wondering what Max would
+say if he knew the truth. 'Well, Max, did you go up to Gladwyn last
+night?'
+
+'Yes,' he returned, with a quick sigh, 'and Hamilton made me stay to
+dinner. I have found out about Captain Hamilton. He cannot get leave just
+yet, and they do not expect him until the end of November.'
+
+'I am sorry to hear that. Do you not wish that you had taken my advice
+now, and gone down to Bournemouth?' But a most emphatic 'No' on Max's
+part was my answer to this.
+
+'I am very thankful I did nothing of the kind,' he returned, a little
+irritably. 'You meant well, Ursula, but it would have been a mistake.'
+
+'Hamilton told me about his cousin,' he went on; 'but his sister was in
+the room. She coloured very much and looked embarrassed directly Claude's
+name was mentioned.'
+
+'That was because Miss Darrell was there.' But I should have been wiser
+and, held my tongue.
+
+'You are wrong again,' he returned calmly. 'Miss Darrell was dining at
+the Maberleys', and never came in until I was going.'
+
+'How very strange!' was my comment to this.
+
+'Not stranger than Miss Hamilton's manner the whole evening, I never felt
+more puzzled. When I came in she was alone. Hamilton did not follow me
+for five minutes. She came across the room to meet me, with one of her
+old smiles, and I thought she really seemed glad to see me; but
+afterwards she was quite different. Her manner changed and grew listless.
+She did not try to entertain me; she left me to talk to her brother. I
+don't think she looks well, Ursula. Hamilton asked her once if her head
+ached, and if she felt tired, and she answered that her head was rather
+bad. I thought she looked extremely delicate.'
+
+'Oh, Gladys is never a robust woman. She is almost always pale.'
+
+'It is not that,' he returned decidedly. 'I consider she looked very
+ill. I don't believe the change has done her the least good. There is
+something on her mind: no doubt she is longing for her cousin.'
+
+I thought it well to remain silent, though Max's account made me anxious.
+If only I could have spoken to him about Eric! Most likely Gladys was
+fretting because there was no news from Joe Muggins. She was certainly
+not fit for any fresh anxiety. I felt my banishment from Gladwyn acutely.
+If Gladys were ill or dispirited, she would need me more than any one.
+
+I think both Max and I were sorry when Mr. Tudor came back and
+interrupted our conversation. He carried me off presently to show me
+some improvements in the kitchen-garden; but Max was too lazy to join us,
+and we had quite a confidential talk, walking up and down between the
+apple-trees. Mr. Tudor told me that, after all, he was becoming fond of
+his profession, and that the old women did not bore him quite so much.
+When we returned, Max was not on the lawn, but a few minutes afterwards
+he appeared at the study window.
+
+'I was just speaking to Hamilton,' he said. 'He came while you were in
+the kitchen-garden, but he was in a hurry and could not wait. By the bye,
+he told me that I was not to let you sit out there any longer, as the
+dews are so heavy. So come in, my dear.'
+
+I obeyed Max without a word. He had been here, and I had missed him!
+Everything was flat after that.
+
+I took my leave early, feeling as though all my merriment had suddenly
+dried up. How would he have met me? I wondered. Would Max have noticed
+anything different? 'How long will this state of things go on?' I
+thought, as I bade Max good-bye in the porch.
+
+I waited for some days for Gladys to come to me, and then I wrote to
+her just a few lines, begging her to have tea with me the following
+afternoon; but two or three hours afterwards Chatty brought me a note.
+
+'Do not think me unkind, Ursula,' she wrote, 'if I say that it is better
+for us not to meet just now. I have twice been on my way to you, and Etta
+has prevented my coming each time. My life just now is unendurable. Giles
+notices nothing. I sometimes think Etta must be possessed, to treat me as
+she does: I can see no reason for it. I hope I am not getting ill, but I
+do not seem as though I could rouse myself to contend with her. I do not
+sleep well, and my head pains me. If I get worse, I must speak to Giles:
+I cannot be ill in this place.'
+
+Gladys's letter made me very anxious. There was a tone about it that
+seemed as though her nerves were giving way. The heat was intense, and
+most likely anxiety about Eric was disturbing her night's rest. Want of
+sleep would be serious to Gladys's highly-strung organisation. I was
+determined to speak to Mr. Hamilton, or go myself to Gladwyn.
+
+My fears were still further aroused when Sunday came and Gladys was not
+in her usual place. After service Miss Darrell was speaking to some
+friends in the porch. As I passed Mr. Hamilton I paused for a moment, to
+question him: 'Why was Gladys not at church? Why did she never come to
+see me now?'
+
+'We might ask you that same question, I think,' he returned, rather
+pointedly. 'Gladys is not well: she spoke to me yesterday about herself,
+and I was obliged to give her a sleeping-draught. She was not awake when
+we left the house.'
+
+'I will come and see her,' I replied quickly, for Miss Darrell was
+bearing down upon us, and I am sure she heard my last words; and as I
+walked home I determined to go up to Gladwyn that very evening while the
+family were at church.
+
+I thought I had timed my visit well, and was much exasperated when Miss
+Darrell opened the door to me.
+
+'I saw you coming,' she said, in her smooth voice, 'and so I thought I
+would save Leah the trouble. She is the only servant at home, and I sent
+her upstairs to see if Gladys wanted anything. I hope you do not expect
+to see Gladys to-night, Miss Garston?'
+
+'I most certainly expect it,' was my reply. 'I have given up the evening
+service, hearing that she was ill.'
+
+'It is too kind of you; but I am sorry that I could not allow it for a
+moment. Giles was telling me an hour ago that he could not think what
+ailed Gladys: he was afraid of some nervous illness for her unless she
+were kept quiet. I could not take the responsibility of disobeying
+Giles.'
+
+'I will take the responsibility on myself,' I returned coolly. 'You
+forget that I am a nurse, Miss Darrell. I shall do Gladys no harm.'
+
+'Excuse me if I must be the judge of that,' she returned, and her thin
+lips closed in an inflexible curve: 'in my cousin's absence I could not
+allow any one to go near Gladys. Leah is with her now trying to induce
+her to take her sleeping-draught.'
+
+I looked at Miss Darrell, and wondered if I could defy her to her face,
+or whether I had better wait until I could speak to Mr. Hamilton. If
+Gladys were really taking her sleeping-draught, my presence in her room
+might excite her. If I could only know if she were telling me the truth!
+
+My doubts were answered by Leah's entrance. Miss Darrell addressed her
+eagerly:
+
+'Have you given Miss Gladys the draught, Leah?'
+
+'Yes, ma'am, and she seems nicely inclined to sleep. She heard Miss
+Garston's voice, and sent me down with her love, and she is sorry not
+to be able to see her to-night.'
+
+I thought it better to take my leave after this, hoping for better
+success next time. I watched anxiously for Mr. Hamilton the next day, but
+unfortunately I missed him. When I arrived at Janet's he had just left
+the house, and I did not meet him in the village. I was growing desperate
+at hearing no news of Gladys, and had determined to go up boldly to
+Gladwyn that very evening, when I saw Chatty coming in the direction of
+the cottage. She looked very nicely dressed, and her round face broke
+into dimples as she told me that Miss Darrell had sent her to the
+station, and that she meant to call in and have a chat with Mrs. Hathaway
+on her way, as she need not hurry back.
+
+Jem Hathaway was pretty Chatty's sweetheart. I knew him well. He was
+a blacksmith, and lived with his mother in the little stone-coloured
+cottage that faced the green. He was an honest, steady young fellow,
+a great friend of Nathaniel, and Mrs. Barton often told me that she
+considered Chatty a lucky girl to have Jem for a sweetheart.
+
+'And if you please, ma'am,' went on Chatty, looking round-eyed and
+serious, 'my mistress said that I was to give you this.' And she produced
+a slip of paper with a pencilled message. I knew Chatty always called
+Gladys her mistress: so I opened the paper eagerly:
+
+'Why did you go away on Sunday evening without seeing me? I implored Leah
+to bring you up when I heard your voice talking to Etta, and when the
+door closed I turned quite sick with disappointment. Ursula, I must see
+you; they shall not keep you from me. Come up this evening at half-past
+seven, while they are at dinner. Chatty will let you in.'
+
+'Very well: tell your mistress I will come,' I observed; and Chatty
+dropped a rustic courtesy, and said, 'Thank you, ma'am; that will do my
+mistress good,' and tripped on her way.
+
+I went back into my parlour, feeling worried and excited. Gladys had sent
+for me, and I must go; but the idea of slipping into the house in this
+surreptitious way was singularly repugnant to me. I would rather have
+chosen a time when I knew Mr. Hamilton would be absent; but in that case
+I might find it impossible to obtain admittance to Gladys's room. No,
+I must put my own feelings aside, and follow her directions. But, in
+spite of this resolve, I found it impossible to settle to anything until
+the time came for keeping my appointment.
+
+I arrived at Gladwyn just as the half-hour was chiming from the church
+clock. As I walked quickly through the shrubbery I glanced nervously up
+at the windows. Happily, the dining-room was at the back of the house,
+but Leah might be sewing in her mistress's room and see me. As this
+alarming thought occurred to my mind, I walked still more rapidly, but
+before I could raise my hand to the bell the door opened noiselessly, and
+Chatty's smiling face welcomed me.
+
+'I was watching for you,' she whispered. 'Leah is in the housekeeper's
+room, and master and Miss Darrell are at dinner. You can go up to my
+mistress at once.'
+
+I needed no further invitation. As I passed the dining-room door I could
+hear Miss Darrell's little tinkling laugh and Mr. Hamilton's deep voice
+answering her. The next moment Thornton came out of the room, and I had
+only time to whisk round the corner. I confess this narrow escape very
+much alarmed me, and my heart beat a little quickly as I tapped at
+Gladys's door; then, as I heard her weak 'Come in,' I entered.
+
+The room was full of some pungent scent, hot and unrefreshing. Some one
+had moved the dressing-table, and Gladys lay on a couch in the circular
+window, within the curtained enclosure. I always thought it the prettiest
+window in the house. It looked full on the oak avenue, and on the elms,
+where the rooks had built their nests. There was a glimpse of the white
+road, too, and the blue smoke from the chimneys of Maplehurst was plainly
+visible.
+
+The evening sunshine was streaming full on Gladys's pale face, and my
+first action after kissing her was to lower the blind. I was glad of the
+excuse for turning away a moment, for her appearance gave me quite a
+shock.
+
+She looked as though she had been ill for weeks. Her face looked dark and
+sunken, and the blue lines were painfully visible round her temples. Her
+forehead was contracted, as though with severe pain, and her eyes were
+heavy and feverish. When she raised her languid eyelids and looked at me,
+a sudden fear contracted my heart.
+
+'Ursula, thank God you have come!'
+
+'We must always thank Him, dearest, whatever happens,' I returned, as
+I knelt down by her and took her burning hand in mine. 'And now you must
+tell me what is wrong with you, and why I find you like this.'
+
+'I do not know,' she whispered, almost clinging to me. And it struck me
+then that she was frightened about herself. 'As I told Giles, I feel very
+ill. The heat tries me, and my head always aches,--such a dull, miserable
+pain; and, most of all, I cannot sleep, and all sorts of horrid thoughts
+come to me. Sometimes in the night, when I am quite alone, I feel as
+though I were light-headed and should lose my senses. Oh, Ursula, if
+this goes on, what will become of me?'
+
+'We will talk about that presently. Tell me, have you ever been ill in
+this way before?'
+
+'Yes, last summer, only not so bad. But I had the pain and the
+sleeplessness then. Giles was so good to me. He said I wanted change, and
+he took a little cottage at Westgate-on-Sea and sent me down with Lady
+Betty and Chatty, and I soon got all right.'
+
+'So I thought. And now--'
+
+'Oh, it is different this time,' she replied nervously. 'I did not have
+dreadful thoughts then, or feel frightened, as I do now. Ursula, I know
+I am very ill. If you leave me to Etta and Leah, I shall get worse. I
+have sent for you to-night to remind you of your promise.'
+
+'What promise?' I faltered. But of course I knew what she meant. A sense
+of wretchedness had been slowly growing on me as she talked. If it should
+come to that,--that I must remain under his roof! I felt a tingling sense
+of shame and humiliation at the bare idea.
+
+'Of your solemn promise, most solemnly uttered,' she repeated, 'that if I
+were ill you would come and nurse me. I claim that promise, Ursula.'
+
+'Is it absolutely necessary that I should come?' I asked, in a distressed
+voice, for all at once life seemed too difficult to me. How had I
+deserved this fresh pain!
+
+In a moment her manner grew more excited.
+
+'Necessary! If you leave me to Etta's tender mercies I shall die. But
+no--no! you could not be so cruel. They are making me take those horrid
+draughts now, and I know she gives me too much. I get so confused, but it
+is not sleep. My one terror is that I shall say things I do not mean,
+about--well, never mind that. And then she will say that my brain is
+queer. She has hinted it already, when I was excited at your going away.
+There is nothing too cruel for her to say to me. She hates me, and I do
+not know why.'
+
+'Hush! I cannot have you talk so much,' for her excitement alarmed me.
+'Remember, I am your nurse now,--a very strict one, too, as you will
+find. Yes, I will keep my promise. I will not leave you, darling.'
+
+'You promise that? You will not go away to-night?'
+
+'I shall not leave you until you are well again,' I returned, with forced
+cheerfulness. But if she knew how keenly I felt my cruel position, how
+sick and trembling I was at heart! What would he think of me? No, I must
+not go into that. Gladys had asked this sacrifice of me. She had thrown
+herself on my compassion. I would not forsake her. 'God knows my
+integrity and innocence of intention. I will not be afraid to do my duty
+to this suffering human creature,' I said to myself. And with this my
+courage revived, and I felt that strength would be given me for all that
+I had to do.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+IN THE TURRET-ROOM
+
+
+My promise to stay with Gladys soothed her at once, and she lay back on
+her pillows and closed her aching eyes contentedly, while I sat down and
+wrote a hasty note to Mrs. Barton.
+
+When I had finished it, I said quietly that I was going downstairs in
+search of her brother; and when she looked a little frightened at this, I
+made her understand, in as few words as possible, that it was necessary
+for me to obtain his sanction, both as doctor and master of the house,
+and then we should have nothing to fear from Miss Darrell. And when I had
+said this she let me go more willingly.
+
+My errand was not a pleasant one, and I felt very sorry for myself as I
+walked slowly downstairs hoping that I should find Mr. Hamilton alone in
+his study; but they must have lingered longer than usual over dessert,
+for before I reached the hall the dining-room door opened, and they came
+out together; and Miss Darrell paused for a moment under the hall lamp.
+
+She was very much overdressed, as usual, in an _eau de Nile_ gown,
+trimmed with costly lace: her gold bangles jangled as she fanned herself.
+
+'Come out into the garden, Giles,' she said, with a ladylike yawn; 'it is
+so hot indoors. I thought you said that you expected Mr. Cunliffe.'
+
+'Perhaps he will be here by and by,' returned Mr. Hamilton; and then he
+looked up and saw me.
+
+'Miss Garston!' he ejaculated, as though he could scarcely believe his
+eyes, and Miss Darrell broke into an angry little laugh; but I took no
+notice of her. I determined to speak out boldly what I had to say.
+
+'Mr. Hamilton,' I said quickly, 'I have seen Gladys. I am quite shocked
+at her appearance: she certainly looks very ill. If you will allow me,
+I should like to remain and nurse her.'
+
+'But you must allow no such thing, Giles,' interfered his cousin sharply.
+'I have always nursed poor dear Gladys myself, and no one understands her
+as I do.'
+
+'Gladys sent for me just now,' I went on firmly, without taking any
+notice of this speech, 'to beg me to remain with her. She has set her
+heart on my nursing her, and she reminded me of my promise.'
+
+'What promise?' he asked, rather harshly; but I noticed that he looked
+disturbed and ill at ease.
+
+'Some months ago, just before Gladys went to Bournemouth, she asked me to
+make her a promise, that if she were ever ill in this house I would give
+up my work and come and nurse her. She was perfectly well then,--at
+least, in her ordinary health,--and I saw no harm in giving her the
+promise. She claims from me now the fulfilment.'
+
+'Very extraordinary,' observed Miss Darrell, in a sneering voice. 'But
+then dear Gladys was always a little odd and romantic. You remember I
+warned you some time ago, Giles, that if we were not careful and firm--'
+
+'Pshaw!' was the impatient answer, and I continued pleadingly,--
+
+'Gladys seems to me in a weak, nervous state, and I do not think it would
+be wise to thwart her in this. Sick people must be humoured sometimes. I
+think you could trust me to watch over her most carefully.'
+
+'Giles, I will not answer for the consequences if Miss Garston nurses
+Gladys,' interposed Miss Darrell eagerly. 'You have no idea how she
+excites her. They talk, and have mysteries together, and Gladys is always
+more low-spirited when she has seen Miss Garston. You know I have only
+dear Gladys's interest at heart, and in a serious nervous illness like
+this--' But he interrupted her.
+
+'Etta, this is no affair of yours: you can leave me, if you please, to
+make arrangements for my sister. I am very much obliged to you, Miss
+Garston, for offering to nurse Gladys, but there was no need of all this
+explanation; you might have known, I think, that I was not likely to
+refuse.'
+
+He spoke coldly, and his face looked dark and inflexible, but I could see
+he was watching me. I am sure I perplexed and baffled him that night: as
+I thanked him warmly for his consent, he checked me almost irritably:
+
+'Nonsense! the thanks are on our side, as we shall reap the benefit of
+your services. What shall you do about your other patients, may I ask?'
+
+'I will tell you,' I returned, not a bit daunted either by his
+irritability or sternness. In my heart I knew that he was glad that
+I had asked this favour of him. Oh, I understood him too well to be
+afraid of his moods now!
+
+'I must ask you to help me,' I went on. 'Will you kindly send that note
+to Mrs. Barton. It is to beg her to furnish me with all I need.'
+
+'Thornton shall take it at once,' he returned promptly.
+
+'Thank you. Now about my poor people. Little Jessie still needs care, and
+Janet will be an invalid for some time. I do not wish them to miss me.'
+
+His face softened; a half-smile came to his lips. 'There is only one
+village nurse,' he said dubiously.
+
+'True, but I think I can find an excellent substitute. Do you remember my
+speaking to you of a young nurse at St. Thomas's who was obliged to leave
+from ill health? She is better now, only not fit for hospital work. I am
+thinking of writing to her, and asking her to occupy my rooms at the
+cottage for a week or two until Gladys is better. Change of air will do
+Miss Watson good, and it will not hurt her to look after Janet and little
+Jessie.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton looked pleased at this suggestion,--'an excellent idea,'
+and, as though by an afterthought, 'a very kind one. I did not wish to
+add to your burdens, but Janet Coombe is hardly out of the wood yet.'
+
+Miss Darrell tittered scornfully. As I glanced at her, I saw she was
+dragging her gold bangles over her arm until there was a red line on the
+flesh. Her eyes looked dark and glittering, but she was obliged to
+suppress her anger.
+
+'Janet Coombe is only a poor servant. The work is not so attractive to
+Miss Garston, I should think,' she said, in a tone so suggestive that the
+blood rushed to my face. Women know how to stab sometimes. Happily, Mr.
+Hamilton's common sense came to my aid. I quieted down directly at the
+first sound of his voice.
+
+'What makes you so uncharitable, Etta? We all know our village nurse too
+well to believe that insinuation. If Gladys be only nursed with half the
+tenderness that was shown to Janet, I shall be quite content to leave her
+under Miss Garston's care.' Then, turning to me, with something of his
+old cordial manner, 'Well, it is all settled, is it not, that you remain
+here to-night? Is there anything else you wish to say to me?'
+
+'Only one thing,' I replied quietly. 'Will you kindly give orders that
+Gladys's little maid, Chatty, waits upon the sick-room? Leah seems to
+have taken that office upon herself lately, and Gladys has a great
+dislike to her.'
+
+'Really, this passes everything!' exclaimed Miss Darrell angrily. 'What
+has my poor Leah done, to be set aside in this way?'
+
+'She is your maid, is she not, Etta?'
+
+'Yes; but, Giles--'
+
+'And Chatty always waits on my sisters. It is certainly not Leah's
+business to wait on the turret-room.'
+
+'Leah,' raising his voice a little, as Leah came downstairs with a tray
+of linen, 'I want to speak to you a moment. Miss Garston has undertaken
+to nurse my sister, and all her orders are to be carried out. Chatty is
+to attend to the sick-room for the future; there is no need for you to
+neglect your mistress.'
+
+'Very well, sir,' replied the woman civilly; but he did not see the look
+she gave me. I had made an enemy of Leah from that moment: neither she
+nor her mistress would ever forgive me that slight.
+
+'If Miss Garston has no more orders to give me,' observed Miss Darrell,
+with ill-concealed temper, 'I may as well go, for I am rather tired of
+this, Giles.' And she followed Leah, and we could hear them whispering
+in the little passage leading to the housekeeper's room.
+
+'You must not mind Etta's little show of temper,' remarked Mr. Hamilton
+apologetically. 'She is rather put out because Gladys prefers your
+nursing. Between ourselves, she is a little too fussy to suit a nervous
+invalid; but she is kind-hearted and means well. I was rather sorry for
+her just now, but I know how to bring her round.'
+
+'I am no favourite with Miss Darrell,' I returned, wondering secretly at
+his blind infatuation for his cousin.
+
+'No; it is easy to see that you do not understand each other. Etta was
+not quite fair to you just now. That is why I spoke so decidedly. I will
+have no interference with the sick-room: you will have to account to me,
+but to no one else.'
+
+I did not venture to raise my eyes. I was so afraid they might betray me.
+How could I repent my trust in such a man? I felt I could wait cheerfully
+for years, until he chose to break down the barrier between us.
+
+I bade him good-night, after this, and hurried back to Gladys. I had no
+idea that he was following me. As I closed the door, I said, in quite a
+gay tone,--
+
+'Well, darling, I always told you your brother was your best friend, and
+he has proved the truth of my words. I knew we could trust him--' But a
+knock at the door interrupted me. I felt rather confused when he entered,
+for I knew I must have been overheard; but he took no notice, and went
+straight up to Gladys.
+
+'You see, it is to be as you wished,' he said pleasantly, 'and Miss
+Garston has installed herself here as your nurse. Is your mind easier
+now, you foolish child?'
+
+'Oh yes, Giles, and I am so much obliged to you; it is so good of you to
+allow it.'
+
+'Humph! I don't see the goodness much; but never mind that now: you must
+promise me to do all Miss Garston tells you, and get well as soon as you
+can. Make up your mind, my dear, that you will try and overcome all these
+nervous fancies.'
+
+'Yes, Giles,' very faintly.
+
+'You have let yourself get rather too low, and so it will be hard work to
+pull you up again; but we mean to do it between us, eh, Miss Garston?'
+
+I told him that I hoped Gladys would soon be better.
+
+'Oh yes; but Rome was not built in a day,' patting her hand: 'we want a
+little time and patience, that is all.' And he was leaving the room, when
+her languid voice recalled him:
+
+'I mean to be good, and give as little trouble as possible,--and--and--I
+should like you to kiss me, Giles.'
+
+I saw a dusky flush come to his face as he stooped and kissed her. I knew
+it was the first time that she had ever voluntarily kissed him since
+Eric's loss.
+
+'Good-night, my dear,' he said, very gently; but he did not look at me as
+he left the room.
+
+I put Gladys to bed after this, with Chatty's help. She was very faint
+and exhausted, and I sat down in the moonlight to watch her. My thoughts
+were busy enough. There would be little sleep for me that night, I knew.
+It was so strange for me to be under that roof,--so strange and so sweet
+that I should be serving him and his; and then I thought of Uncle Max,
+and how troubled he would be to hear of Gladys's illness, and I
+determined to write to him the next day.
+
+I was rather startled later on, when most of the household had retired to
+rest, to hear a gentle tap at the door.
+
+Of course it was Mr. Hamilton, and I went into the passage, half closing
+the door behind me.
+
+'Is she asleep?' he asked anxiously, as he noticed this action.
+
+'No, not asleep, but quite drowsy. I have given her the draught as you
+wished, but it is singular how she objects to it. She says it only
+confuses her head, and gives her nightmare.'
+
+'We must quiet her by some means,' he returned; and I saw by the light of
+the lamp he carried that his face looked rather grave. 'Perhaps you did
+not know that Etta and I were up with her last night. She was in a
+condition that bordered on delirium.'
+
+'No; I certainly did not know that.'
+
+'She may be better to-night,' he returned quickly: 'her mind is more at
+rest. Poor child! I cannot understand what has brought on this state of
+disordered nerves.'
+
+'Nor I.'
+
+'It is very sad altogether. It is a great relief to me to know you are
+with her. I must have had a professional nurse, for Etta's fussiness was
+driving her crazy. Now, Miss Garston,' in a business-like tone, 'I want
+to know how they have provided for your comfort. Where do you sleep
+to-night?'
+
+I could not suppress a smile, for I knew that there had been no provision
+made for my accommodation: the whole household had metaphorically washed
+their hands of me.
+
+'I shall rest very well on the couch,' I returned, unwilling to disturb
+him.
+
+'Good heavens!' he exclaimed, looking excessively displeased. 'Do you
+mean that Lady Betty's room has not been got ready for you? I told Leah
+myself, as Chatty was in the sick-room; and she certainly understood me.
+This shall be looked into to-morrow. Leah will find I am not to be
+disobeyed with impunity. I thought Lady Betty's room would do so well for
+you, as there is a door of communication, and if you left it open you
+could hear Gladys in a moment.'
+
+'Never mind to-night,' I returned cheerfully. 'I am quite fresh, and
+shall not need much sleep. No doubt the room will be ready for me
+to-morrow.'
+
+'Well, I suppose it is too late to disturb them now; but I feel very much
+ashamed of our inhospitality.' Then, in rather an embarrassed voice, 'I
+am afraid I must have seemed rather ungracious in my manner downstairs,
+but I am really very grateful to you.'
+
+This was too much for me. 'Please don't talk of being grateful to me, Mr.
+Hamilton,' I returned, rather too impulsively. 'You do not know how glad
+I am to do anything for you--all.' The word 'all' was added as though by
+an afterthought, and came in a little awkwardly.
+
+There was a sudden gleam in Mr. Hamilton's eyes; he seemed about to
+speak; impetuous words were on his tongue, then he checked himself.
+
+'Thank you. Good-night, Nurse Ursula,' he said, very kindly, and I went
+back to Gladys, feeling happier than I had felt since that afternoon when
+he had given me the roses.
+
+Gladys was quieter that night; she slept fitfully and uneasily, and
+moaned a little as though she were conscious of pain, but there was no
+alarming excitement.
+
+Early the next morning I heard them preparing Lady Betty's room, and once
+when I went into the passage in search of Chatty I met Leah coming out
+with a dusting-brush: she looked very sullen, and took no notice of my
+greeting. Chatty helped me arrange my goods and chattels: as we worked
+together she told me confidentially that master had been scolding Leah,
+and had told her she ought to be ashamed of herself, and when Miss
+Darrell had taken her part he had been angry with her too. 'Thornton says
+Miss Darrell has been crying, and has not eaten a mouthful of breakfast,'
+went on Chatty; but I silenced these imprudent communications. It was
+quite evident that I was a bone of contention in the household, and that
+Mr. Hamilton would have some difficulty in subduing Leah's contumacy.
+
+I wrote to Ellen Watson that morning, and soon received a rapturous
+acceptance of my invitation. She would be delighted to come to the
+cottage and to look after my poor people.
+
+'I am very much stronger,' she wrote, 'but I must not go back to the
+hospital for two months: a breath of country air will be delicious, and
+it is so good of you, my dear Miss Garston, to think of me. I am sure
+Mrs. Barton will make me comfortable, and I will do all I can for poor
+Janet Coombe and that dear little burnt child.'
+
+I showed Mr. Hamilton the letter, and while he was reading it Chatty
+brought me word that Uncle Max was waiting to speak to me.
+
+'If you like to go down to him I will wait here until you come back,' he
+said; and I was too glad to avail myself of this offer, for Gladys seemed
+more suffering and restless than usual. I found Max walking up and down
+the drawing-room. As he came forward to meet me his face looked quite old
+and haggard.
+
+'I am glad you have not kept me waiting, Ursula. I sent up that message
+in spite of Leah's telling me that you never left the sick-room.'
+
+'Leah is wrong,' I replied coolly. 'Mr. Hamilton insists on my going in
+the garden for at least half an hour daily, while Chatty takes my place.
+I cannot stay long, Max, but all the same I am glad you sent for me.'
+
+'I felt I must see you,' he returned, rather huskily. 'Letters are so
+unsatisfactory; but it was good of you to write, always so kind and
+thoughtful, my dear.' He paused for a moment as though to recover
+himself. 'She is very ill, Ursula?'
+
+'Very ill.'
+
+'How gravely you speak! Are things worse than you told me? You do not
+mean to tell me there is absolute danger?'
+
+'Oh no; certainly not; but it is very sad to see her in such a state. Her
+nerves have quite broken down; all these three years have told on her,
+and there seems some fresh trouble on her mind!'
+
+'God forbid!' he returned quickly.
+
+'Ay, God forbid, for He alone knows what is burdening the mind of this
+young creature: she is too weak to throw off her nervous fancies. She
+blames herself for harbouring such gloomy thoughts, and it distresses her
+not to be able to control them. The night is her worst time. If we could
+only conquer this sleeplessness! I have sad work with her sometimes.'
+
+I spared Max further particulars: he was harassed and anxious enough.
+I would not harrow up his feelings by telling him how often that feeble,
+piteous voice roused me from my light slumbers; how, hurrying to her
+bedside, I would find Gladys bathed in tears, and cold and trembling in
+every limb, and how she would cling to me, pouring out an incoherent
+account of some vague shadowy terror that was on her.
+
+There were other things I could have told him: how in that semi-delirium
+his name, as well as Etta's, was perpetually on her lips, uttered in a
+tone sometimes tender, but more often reproachful, sometimes in a very
+anguish of regret. Now I understood why she dreaded Etta's presence in
+her room: she feared betraying herself to those keen ears. Often after
+one of these outbursts she would strive to collect her scattered
+faculties.
+
+'Have I been talking nonsense, Ursula?' she would ask, in a tremulous
+voice. 'I have been dreaming, I think, and the pain in my head confuses
+me so: do not let me talk so much.' But I always succeeded in soothing
+her.
+
+If I read her secret, it was safe with me. I must know more before I
+could help either her or him. If she would only get well enough for me to
+talk to her, I knew what to say; and I did all I could to console Max.
+But I could not easily allay his anxiety or my own; it was impossible to
+conceal from him that she was in a precarious state, and that unless the
+power of sleep returned to her there was danger of actual brain-fever; in
+her morbid condition one knew not what to fear. Perfect quiet, patience,
+and tenderness were the only means to be employed. As I moved about the
+cool, dark room, where no uneasy lights and shadows fretted her weakened
+eyes, I could not help remembering the comfortless glare and the hot,
+pungent scents that Miss Darrell had left behind her. Most likely she had
+rustled over the matting in her silk gown, and her hard, metallic voice
+had rasped the invalid's nerves. Doubtless there was hope for her now in
+her brother's skilful treatment, and when I told Max so he went away a
+little comforted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+
+WHITEFOOT IS SADDLED
+
+
+After the first day or so the strangeness and novelty of my
+position wore off, and I settled down to my work in the sick-room.
+
+Chatty waited upon us very nicely; but Miss Darrell never came near us.
+Once a day a formal message was brought by Chatty asking after the
+invalid. I used to think this somewhat unnecessary, as Mr. Hamilton could
+report his sister's progress at breakfast-time.
+
+When I encountered Miss Darrell on my way to the garden I always accosted
+her with marked civility; her manner would be a little repelling in
+return, and she would answer me very coldly. In spite of her outward
+politeness, I think she was a little afraid of me at that time. I always
+felt that a concealed sneer lay under her words. She made it clearly
+understood that she considered that I had forced myself into the house
+for my own purposes. Under these conditions I thought it better to avoid
+these encounters as much as possible.
+
+I saw Uncle Max two or three times. He had timed his visits purposely
+that he might join me in my stroll in the garden. We had made the
+arrangement to meet in this way daily. Max's society and sympathy would
+have been a refreshment to me, but we were obliged to discontinue the
+practice. Max never appeared without Miss Darrell following a few minutes
+afterwards. She would come out of the house, brisk and smiling, in
+_grande toilette_,--to take a turn in the shrubberies, as she said.
+Max would look at me and very soon take his leave. At last he told
+me dejectedly that we might as well give it up, as Miss Darrell was
+determined that he should not speak to me alone: so after that I
+contrived to send him daily notes by Chatty, who was always delighted
+to do an errand in the village.
+
+'I can't think what makes Miss Darrell so curious, ma'am,' the girl once
+said to me. 'She asks me every day if I have been down to the vicarage.
+She did it while master was by the other afternoon, and he told her quite
+sharply that it was no affair of hers.'
+
+'Never mind that, Chatty.'
+
+'Oh, but I am afraid she means mischief, ma'am,' persisted Chatty, who
+had a great dislike to Miss Darrell, which she showed by being somewhat
+pert to her, 'for she said in such a queer tone to master, "There, I told
+you so: now you will believe me," and master looked as though he were not
+pleased.'
+
+As I strolled round the garden in Nap's company I often saw Leah
+sitting sewing at her mistress's window: she would put down her work and
+watch me until I was out of sight. I felt the woman hated me, and this
+surveillance was very unpleasant to me. I never felt quite free until
+I reached the kitchen-garden.
+
+Mr. Hamilton visited his sister's room regularly three times a day. He
+never stayed long: he would satisfy himself about her condition, say a
+few cheerful words to her, and that was all.
+
+His manner to me was grave and professional. Now and then, when he had
+given his directions, he would ask me if there were anything he could do
+for me, and if I were comfortable: and yet, in spite of his reserve and
+guarded looks and words, I felt an atmosphere of protection and comfort
+surrounding me that I had not known since Charlie's death.
+
+Every day I had proofs of his thought for me. The flowers and fruits that
+were sent into the sick-room were for me as well as Gladys. I was often
+touched to see how some taste of mine had been remembered and gratified:
+sometimes Chatty would tell me that master had given orders that such a
+thing should be provided for Miss Garston; and in many other ways he made
+me feel that I was not forgotten.
+
+For some days Gladys continued very ill; she slept fitfully and uneasily,
+waking in terror from some dream that escaped her memory. I used to hear
+her moaning, and be beside her before she opened her eyes. 'It is only a
+nightmare,' I would say to her as she clung to me like a frightened
+child; but it was not always easy to banish the grisly phantoms of a
+diseased and overwrought imagination. The morbid condition of her mind
+was aggravated and increased by physical weakness; at the least exertion
+she had fainting-fits that alarmed us.
+
+She told me more than once that a sense of sin oppressed her; she must be
+more wicked than other people, or she thought Providence would not permit
+her to be so unhappy. Sometimes she blamed herself with influencing Eric
+wrongly: she ought not to have taken his part against his brother. '"He
+that hateth his brother is a murderer." Ursula, there were times, I am
+sure, when I hated Giles.' And with this thought upon her she would beg
+him to forgive her when he next came into the room.
+
+He never seemed surprised at these exaggerated expressions of penitence:
+he treated it all as part of her malady.
+
+'Very well, I will forgive you, my dear,' he would say, feeling her
+pulse. 'Have you taken your medicine, Gladys?'
+
+'Oh, but, Giles, I do feel so wretched about it all! Are you sure that
+you really and truly forgive me?'
+
+'Quite sure,' he returned, smiling at her. 'Now you must shut your eyes,
+like a good child, and go to sleep.' But, though she tried to obey him, I
+could see she was not satisfied: tears rolled down her cheeks from under
+her closed eyelids.
+
+'What is it, my darling?' I asked, kissing her. 'Do you feel more ill
+than usual?'
+
+'No, no; it is only this sense of sin. Oh, Ursula, how nice it would be
+to die, and never do anything wrong again!' And so she went on bemoaning
+herself.
+
+I had thought it better to move her into Lady Betty's room. It was a
+large square room opening out of the turret-room, and very light and
+airy. I had a little bed put up for my use, so that I could hear her
+every movement. I told Mr. Hamilton that I could not feel easy to have
+her out of my sight; and he quite agreed with me.
+
+In the daytime we carried her into the turret-room. The little recess
+formed by the circular window made a charming sitting-room, and just held
+Gladys's couch and an easy-chair and a little round table with a basket
+of hot-house flowers on it. Mr. Hamilton declared that we looked very
+cosy when he first found us there.
+
+In the cool of the evening, when Gladys could bear the blind raised, it
+was very pleasant to sit there looking down on the little oak avenue,
+where the girls had set their tea-table that afternoon: we could watch
+the rooks cawing and circling about the elms. Sometimes Mr. Hamilton
+would pass with Nap at his heels and look up at us with a smile. Once a
+great bunch of roses all wet with dew came flying through the open window
+and fell on Gladys's muslin gown. 'Did Giles throw them? Will you thank
+him, Ursula?' she said, raising them in her thin fingers. 'How cool and
+delicious they are?' But when I looked out Mr. Hamilton was not to be
+seen.
+
+Lady Betty wrote very piteous letters begging to be recalled, which Mr.
+Hamilton answered very kindly but firmly. He told her that Gladys
+required perfect quiet, that if she came home she would not be allowed to
+be with her; and when Lady Betty heard that I was nursing her she grew a
+little more content.
+
+Gladys was always more restless and suffering towards evening; 'her bad
+thoughts,' as she called them, came out like bats in the darkness. I
+tried the experiment of singing to her one evening, and I found, to my
+delight, that my voice had a soothing influence: after this I always sang
+to her after she was in bed: I used to take up my station by the window
+and sing softly one song after another, until she was quiet and drowsy.
+
+As I sang I always saw a dark shadow, moving slowly under the oak-trees,
+pacing slowly up and down; sometimes it approached the house and stood
+motionless under the window, but I never took any notice.
+
+'Thank you, dear Ursula,' Gladys would say when I at last ceased; 'I
+feel more comfortable now.' And after a time I would hear her regular
+breathing and know she was asleep. I shall never forget the relief with
+which I watched her first natural sleep: she had had a restless night, as
+usual, but towards morning she had fallen into a quiet, refreshing sleep,
+which had lasted for three hours.
+
+I had finished my breakfast when I heard her stirring, and hurried in to
+her; to my delight, she spoke to me quite naturally, without a trace of
+nervousness:
+
+'I have had such a lovely sleep, Ursula, and without any bad dreams.
+I feel so refreshed.'
+
+'I am so glad to hear it, dear,' I replied; and, overjoyed at this good
+news, I went out into the passage to find Chatty, for I wanted Mr.
+Hamilton to know at once of this improvement. He had been very anxious
+the previous night, and had talked of consulting with an old friend of
+his who knew Gladys's constitution.
+
+On the threshold I encountered Miss Darrell.
+
+'Were you looking for any one?' she asked coldly.
+
+'Yes, for Chatty. I want Mr. Hamilton to know that Gladys has had three
+hours' sleep, and has awakened refreshed and without any nervous
+feelings. Will you be kind enough to tell him?'
+
+'Oh, certainly: not that I attach much importance to such a transient
+improvement. Gladys's case is far too serious for me to be so sanguine.
+I believe you have not nursed these nervous patients before. If Giles had
+taken my advice he would have had a person trained to this special work.'
+
+'Gladys's case does not require that sort of nurse,' I replied quickly.
+'Excuse me, Miss Darrell, but I am anxious that Mr. Hamilton should know
+of his sister's improvement before he goes out. Chatty told me that they
+had sent for him from Abbey Farm.'
+
+'Yes, I believe so,' she replied carelessly. 'Don't trouble yourself Miss
+Garston: I am quite as anxious as yourself that Giles's mind should be
+put at rest. He has had worry enough, poor fellow.'
+
+I was rather surprised and disappointed when, ten minutes afterwards, I
+heard the hall door close, and, hurrying to a window, I saw Mr. Hamilton
+walking very quickly in the direction of Maplehurst. A moment afterwards
+Chatty brought me a message from him. He had been called off suddenly,
+and might not be back for hours. If I wanted him, Atkinson was to take
+one of the horses. He would probably be at Abbey Farm or at Gunter's
+Cottages in the Croft.
+
+This message rather puzzled me. After turning it over in my mind, I went
+in search of Miss Darrell. I found her in the conservatory gathering some
+flowers.
+
+'Did you give my message to Mr. Hamilton?' I asked, rather abruptly. I
+thought she hesitated and seemed a little confused.
+
+'What message? Oh, I remember,--about Gladys. No, I just missed him: he
+had gone out. But it is of no consequence, is it? I will tell him when he
+comes home.'
+
+I would not trust myself to reply. She must have purposely loitered on
+her way downstairs, hoping to annoy me. He would spend an anxious day,
+for I knew he was very uncomfortable about Gladys: perhaps he would write
+to Dr. Townsend. It was no use speaking to Miss Darrell: she was only too
+ready to thwart me on all occasions. I would take the matter into my own
+hands. I went down to the stables and found Atkinson, and asked him to
+ride over to Abbey Farm and take a note to his master.
+
+'I hope Miss Gladys is not worse, ma'am,' he said civilly, looking rather
+alarmed at his errand; but when I had satisfied him on this point he
+promised to find him as quickly as possible.
+
+'There is only Whitefoot in the stable,' he said. 'Master has both the
+browns out: Norris was to pick him up in the village. But he is quite
+fresh, and will do the job easily.' I wrote my note while Whitefoot was
+being saddled, and then went back to the house. Miss Darrell looked at me
+suspiciously.
+
+'I thought I heard voices in the stable-yard,' she said; and I at once
+told her what I had done.
+
+For the first time she seemed utterly confounded.
+
+'You told Atkinson to saddle Whitefoot and go all these miles just to
+carry that ridiculous message! I wonder what Giles will say,' she
+observed indignantly. 'All these years that I have managed his house
+I should never have thought of taking such a liberty.'
+
+This was hard to bear, but I answered her with seeming coolness:
+
+'If Mr. Hamilton thinks I am wrong, he will tell me so. In this house
+I am only accountable to him.' And I walked away with much dignity.
+
+But I knew I had been right when I saw Mr. Hamilton's face that evening,
+for he did not return until seven o'clock. He came up at once, and
+beckoned me into Lady Betty's room.
+
+'Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Miss Garston,' he said gratefully.
+'You have spared me a wretchedly anxious day. A bad accident case at
+Abbey Farm called me off, and I had only time to get my things ready, and
+I was obliged to see the colonel first. If you had not sent me that note
+I should have written to Dr. Townsend. But why did not Chatty bring me a
+message before I went?'
+
+I explained that I had given the message to Miss Darrell.
+
+'That is very strange,' he observed thoughtfully. 'Thornton was helping
+me in the hall when I saw Etta watering her flower-stand. Well, never
+mind; she shall have her lecture presently. Now let us go to Gladys.'
+
+Of course his first look at her told him she was better, and he went
+downstairs contentedly to eat his dinner. After this Gladys made slow but
+steady progress: she gained a little more strength; the habit of sleep
+returned to her; her nights were no longer seasons of terror, leaving her
+dejected and exhausted. Insensibly her thoughts became more hopeful; she
+spoke of other things besides her own feelings, and no longer refused to
+yield to my efforts to cheer her.
+
+I watched my opportunity, and one evening, as we were sitting by the
+window looking out at a crescent moon that hung like a silver bow behind
+the oak-trees, I remarked, with assumed carelessness, that Uncle Max had
+called earlier that day. There was a perceptible start on Gladys's part,
+and she caught her breath for an instant.
+
+'Do you mean that Mr. Cunliffe often comes?' she asked, in a low voice,
+and turning her long neck aside with a quick movement that concealed her
+face.
+
+'Oh yes, every day. I do not believe that he has missed more than once,
+and then he sent Mr. Tudor. You see your friends have been anxious about
+you, Gladys. I wrote to Max often to tell him exactly what progress you
+were making.'
+
+'It was very kind of him to be so anxious,' she answered slowly, and
+with manifest effort. I thought it best to say no more just then, but to
+leave her to digest these few words. That night was the best she had yet
+passed, and in the morning I was struck by the improvement in her
+appearance; she looked calmer and more cheerful.
+
+Towards mid-day I noticed that she grew a little abstracted, and when
+Uncle Max's bell rang, she looked at me, and a tinge of colour came to
+her face.
+
+'Should you not like to go down and speak to Mr. Cunliffe?' she said
+timidly. 'I must not keep you such a prisoner, Ursula.' But when I
+returned indifferently that another day would do as well, and that I had
+nothing special to say to him, I noticed that she looked disappointed. As
+I never mentioned Miss Darrell's name to her, I could not explain my real
+reason for declining to go down. I was rather surprised when she
+continued in an embarrassed tone, as though speech had grown difficult to
+her,--she often hesitated in this fashion when anything disturbed her,--
+
+'I am rather sorry that Etta always sees him alone: one never knows what
+she may say to him. I have begun to distrust her in most things.'
+
+'I do not think that it matters much what she says to him,' I returned
+briskly; for it would never do to leave her anxious on this point. 'You
+know I have provided an antidote in the shape of daily notes.'
+
+'Surely you do not write every day,' taking her fan from the table with
+a trembling hand. 'What can you have to say to Mr. Cunliffe about me?'
+And I could see she waited for my answer with suppressed eagerness.
+
+'Oh, he likes to know how you slept,' I returned carelessly, 'and if you
+are quieter and more cheerful. Uncle Max has such sympathy with people
+who are ill; he is very kind-hearted.'
+
+'Oh yes; I never knew any one more so,' she replied gently; but I
+detected a yearning tone in her voice, as though she was longing for his
+sympathy then. We did not say any more, but I thought she was a trifle
+restless that afternoon, and yet she looked happier; she spoke once or
+twice, as though she were tired of remaining upstairs.
+
+'I think I am stronger. Does Giles consider it necessary for me to stop
+up here?' she asked, once. 'If it were not for Etta I should like to be
+in the drawing-room. But no, that would be an end to our peace.' And here
+she looked a little excited. 'But if Giles would let me have a drive.'
+
+I promised to speak to him on the subject of the drive, for I was sure
+that he would hail the proposition most gladly as a sign of returning
+health; but I told her that in my opinion it would be better for her to
+remain quietly in these two pleasant rooms until she was stronger and
+more fit to endure the little daily annoyances that are so trying to a
+nervous invalid.
+
+'When that time comes you will have to part with your nurse,' I went on,
+in a joking tone. But I was grieved to see that at the first hint of my
+leaving her she clung to me with the old alarm visible in her manner.
+
+'You must not say that! I cannot part with you, Ursula!' she exclaimed
+vehemently. 'If you go, you must take me with you.' And it was some time
+before she would let herself be laughed out of her anxious thoughts.
+
+When I revolved all these things in my mind,--her prolonged delicacy and
+painful sensitiveness, her aversion to her cousin, and her evident dread
+of the future,--I felt that the time had come to seek a more complete
+understanding on a point that still perplexed me: I must come to the
+bottom of this singular change in her manner to Max. I must know without
+doubt and reserve the real state of her feeling with regard to him and
+her cousin Claude. If, as I had grown to think during these weeks of
+illness, one of these two men, and not Eric, was the chief cause of her
+melancholy, I must know which of these two had so agitated her young
+life. But in my own mind I never doubted which it was.
+
+This was the difficult task I had set myself, and I felt that it would
+not be easy to approach the subject. Gladys was exceedingly reserved,
+even with me; it had cost her an effort to speak to me of Eric, and she
+had never once mentioned her cousin Captain Hamilton's name.
+
+A woman like Gladys would be extremely reticent on the subject of lovers:
+the deeper her feelings, the more she would conceal them. Unlike other
+girls, I never heard her speak in the light jesting way with which others
+mention a love-affair. She once told me that she considered it far too
+sacred and serious to be used as a topic of general conversation. 'People
+do not know what they are talking about when they say such things,' she
+said, in a moved voice: 'there is no reverence, and little reticence,
+nowadays. Girls talk of falling in love, or men felling in love with
+them, as lightly as they would speak of going to a ball. They do not
+consider the responsibility, the awfulness, of such an election, being
+chosen out of a whole worldful of women to be the light and life of a
+man's home. Oh, it hurts me to hear some girls talk!' she finished, with
+a slight shudder.
+
+Knowing the purity and uprightness of this girl's nature, I confess I
+hesitated long in intruding myself into that inner sanctuary that she
+guarded so carefully; but for Max's sake--poor Max, who grew more
+tired-looking and haggard every day--I felt it would be cruel to hesitate
+longer.
+
+So one evening, when we were sitting quietly together enjoying the cool
+evening air, I took Gladys's thin hand in mine and asked her if she felt
+well enough for me to talk to her about something that had long troubled
+me, and that I feared speaking to her about, dreading lest I should
+displease her. I thought she looked a little apprehensive at my
+seriousness, but she replied very sweetly, and the tears came into her
+beautiful eyes as she spoke, that nothing I could say or do could
+displease her; that I was so true a friend to her that it would be
+impossible for her to take offence.
+
+'I am glad of that, Gladys dear,' I returned quietly; 'for I have long
+wanted courage to ask you a question. What is the real reason of your
+estrangement from Max?' and then, growing bolder, I whispered in her ear,
+as she shrank from me, 'I do not ask what are your feelings to him, for I
+think I have guessed them,--unless, indeed, I am wrong, and you prefer
+your cousin Captain Hamilton.' I almost feared that I had been too abrupt
+and awkward when I saw her sudden paleness: she began to tremble like a
+leaf until I mentioned Captain Hamilton's name, and then she turned to me
+with a look of mingled astonishment and indignation.
+
+'Claude? Are you out of your senses, Ursula? Who has put such an idea
+into your head?'
+
+I remembered Uncle Max's injunctions to secrecy, and felt I must be
+careful.
+
+'I thought that it could not be Captain Hamilton,' I returned, rather
+lamely: 'you have never mentioned his name to me.' But she interrupted me
+in a tone of poignant distress, and there was a sudden trouble in her
+eyes, brought there by my mention of Claude.
+
+'Oh, this is dreadful!' she exclaimed: 'you come to me and talk about
+Claude, knowing all the time that I have never breathed his name to you.
+Who has spoken it, then? How could such a thought arise in your mind? It
+must be Etta, and we are undone,--undone!'
+
+'My darling, you must not excite yourself about a mere mistake,' I
+returned, anxious to soothe her. 'I cannot tell you how it came into my
+head; that is my little secret, Gladys, my dear: if you agitate yourself
+at a word we shall never understand each other. I want you to trust me as
+you would trust a dear sister,--we are sisters in heart, Gladys,'--but
+here I blushed over my words and wished them unuttered,--'and to tell me
+exactly what has passed between you and Max.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL
+
+THE TALK IN THE GLOAMING
+
+
+I heard Gladys repeat my words softly under her breath,--she seemed to
+say them in a sort of dream,--'what has passed between you and Max.' And
+then she looked at me a little pitifully, and her lip quivered. 'Oh, if I
+dared to speak! but to you of all persons,--what would you think of me?
+Could it be right?--and I have never opened my lips to any one on that
+subject of my own accord; if Lady Betty knows, it is because Etta told
+her. Oh, it was wrong--cruel of Giles to let her worm the truth out of
+him!'
+
+'If Lady Betty and Miss Darrell know, you might surely trust me,--your
+friend,' I returned. 'Gladys, you know how I honour reticence in such
+matters; I am the last person to force an unwilling confidence; but there
+are reasons--no, I cannot explain myself; you must trust me implicitly or
+not at all. I do not think you will ever repent that trust; and for your
+own sake as well as mine I implore you to confide in me.' For a moment
+she looked at me with wide, troubled eyes, then she ceased to hesitate.
+
+'What is it you want to know?' she asked, in a low voice.
+
+'Everything, all that has passed between you and my poor Max, who always
+seems so terribly unhappy. Is it not you who have to answer for that
+unhappiness?'
+
+A pained expression crossed her face.
+
+'It is true that I made him unhappy once, but that is long ago; and men
+are not like us: they get over things. Oh, I must explain it to you, or
+you will not understand. Do not be hard upon me: I have been sorely
+punished,' she sighed; and for a few moments there was silence between
+us. I had no wish to hurry her. I knew her well: she was long in giving
+her confidence, but when once she gave it, it would be lavishly,
+generously, and without stint, just as she would give her love, for
+Gladys was one of those rare creatures who could do nothing meanly or
+by halves.
+
+Presently she began to speak of her own accord:
+
+'You know how good Mr. Cunliffe was to me in my trouble; at least you can
+guess, though you can never really know it. When I was most forlorn and
+miserable I used to feel less wretched and hopeless when he was beside
+me; in every possible way he strengthened and braced me for my daily
+life; he roused me from my state of selfish despondency, put work into my
+hands, and encouraged me to persevere. If it had not been for his help
+and sympathy, I never could have lived through those bitter days when all
+around me believed that my darling Eric had died a coward's death.'
+
+'Do not speak of Eric to-night, dearest,' I observed, alarmed at her
+excessive paleness as she uttered his name.
+
+'No,' with a faint smile at my anxious tone; 'we are talking about some
+one else this evening. Ursula, you may imagine how grateful I was,--how I
+grew to look upon him as my best friend, how I learned to confide in him
+as though he were a wise elder brother.'
+
+'A brother!--oh, Gladys!'
+
+'It was the truth,' she went on mournfully: 'no other thought entered my
+mind, and you may conceive the shock when one morning he came to me, pale
+and agitated, and asked me if I could love him well enough to marry him.
+
+'How I recall that morning! It was May, and I had just come in from
+the garden, laden with pink and white May blossoms, and long trails of
+laburnum, and there he was waiting for me in the drawing-room. Every one
+was out, and he was alone.
+
+'I fancied he looked different,--rather nervous and excited,--but I never
+guessed the reason until he began to speak, and then I thought I should
+have broken my heart to hear him,--that I must give him pain who had been
+so good to me. Oh, Ursula! I had never had such cruel work to do as that.
+
+'But I must be true to him as well as myself: this was my one thought. I
+did not love him well enough to be his wife; he had not touched my heart
+in that way; and, as I believed at that time that I could never care
+sufficiently for any man to wish to marry him, I felt that I dared not
+let him deceive himself with any future hopes.'
+
+'You were quite right, my darling. Do not look so miserable. Max would
+only honour you the more for your truthfulness.'
+
+'Yes, but he knew me better than I knew myself,' she whispered. 'When he
+begged to speak to me again I wanted to refuse, but he would not let me.
+He asked me--and there were tears in his eyes--not to be so hard on him,
+to let him judge for us both in this one thing. He pressed me so, and he
+looked so unhappy, that I gave way at last, and said that in a year's
+time he might speak again. I remember telling him, as he thanked me very
+gratefully, that I should not consider him bound in any way; that I had
+so little hope to give him that I had no right to hold him to anything;
+if he did not come to me when a year had expired, I should know that he
+had changed. There was a gleam in his eyes as I said this that made me
+feel for the first time the strength and purpose of a man's will. I grew
+timid and embarrassed all at once, and a strange feeling came over me.
+Was I, after all, so certain that I should never love him? I could only
+breathe freely when he left me.'
+
+'Yes, dear, I understand,' I returned soothingly, for she had covered her
+face with her hands, as though overpowered with some recollection.
+
+'Ursula,' she whispered, 'he was right. I had never thought of such
+things. I did not know my own feelings. Before three months were over, I
+knew I could give him the answer he wanted. I regretted the year's delay;
+but for shame, I would have made him understand how it was with me.'
+
+'Could you not have given a sign that your feelings were altered, Gladys?
+it would have been generous and kind of you to have ended his suspense.'
+
+'I tried, but it was not easy; but he must have noticed the change in me.
+If I were shy and embarrassed with him it was because I cared for him so
+much. It used to make me happy only to see him; if he did not speak to
+me, I was quite content to know he was in the room. I used to treasure up
+his looks and words and hoard them in my memory; it did not seem to me
+that any other man could compare with him. You have often laughed at my
+hero-worship, but I made a hero of him.'
+
+I was so glad to hear her say this of my dear Max that tears of joy came
+to my eyes, but I would not interrupt her by a word: she should tell her
+story in her own way.
+
+'Etta had spoken to me long before this. One day when we were sitting
+over our work together, and I was thinking happily about Max--Mr.
+Cunliffe, I mean.'
+
+'Oh, call him Max to me,' I burst out, but she drew herself up with
+gentle dignity.
+
+'It was a mistake: you should not have noticed it. I could never call him
+that now.' Poor dear! she had no idea how often she had called him Max in
+her feverish wanderings. 'Well, we were sitting together,--for Etta was
+nice to me just then, and I did not avoid her company as I do now,--when
+she startled me by bursting into tears and reproaching me for not having
+told her about Mr. Cunliffe's offer, and leaving her to hear it from
+Giles; and then she said how disappointed they all were at my refusal,
+and was I really sure that I could not marry him?
+
+'I was not so much on my guard then as I am now, and, though I blamed
+Etta for much of the home unhappiness, I did not know all that I have
+learned since. You have no idea, either, how fascinating and persuasive
+she can be: her influence over Giles proves that. Well, little by little
+she drew from me that I was not so indifferent to Mr. Cunliffe as she
+supposed, and that in a few months' time he would speak to me again.
+
+'She seemed very kind about it, and said over and over again how glad she
+was to hear this; and when I begged her not to hint at my changed
+feelings to Giles, she agreed at once, and I will do her the justice to
+own that she has kept her word in this. Giles has not an idea of the
+truth.'
+
+'Nevertheless, I wish you had kept your own counsel, Gladys.'
+
+'You could not wish it more than I do; but indeed I said very little. I
+think my manner told her more than my words, for I cannot remember really
+saying anything tangible. I knew she plied me with questions, and when I
+did not answer them she laughed and said that she knew.
+
+'I have paid dearly for my want of caution, for I have been in bondage
+ever since. My tacit admission that I cared for Mr. Cunliffe has given
+Etta a cruel hold over me; my thoughts do not seem my own. She knows how
+to wound me: one word from her makes me shrink into myself. Sometimes I
+think she takes a pleasure in my secret misery,--that she was only acting
+a part when she pretended to sympathise with me. Oh, what a weak fool I
+have been, Ursula, to put myself in the power of such a woman!'
+
+'Poor Gladys!' I said, kissing her; and she dashed away her indignant
+tear, and hurried on.
+
+'Oh, let me finish all the miserable story. There is not much to say, but
+that little is humiliating. It was soon after this that I noticed a
+change in Mr. Cunliffe's manner. Scarcely perceptible at first, it became
+daily more marked. He came less often, and when he came he scarcely spoke
+to me. It was then that Etta began to torment me, and, under the garb of
+kindness, to say things that I could not bear. She asked me if Mr.
+Cunliffe were not a little distant in his manners to me. She did not wish
+to distress me, but there certainly was a change in him. No, I must not
+trouble myself, but people were talking. When a vicar was young and
+unmarried, and as fascinating as Mr. Cunliffe, people would talk.
+
+'What did they say? Ah, that was no matter, surely. Well, if I would
+press her, two or three busybodies had hinted that a certain young lady,
+who should be nameless, was rather too eager in her pursuit of the vicar.
+
+'"Such nonsense, Gladys, my dear," she went on, as I remained dumb and
+sick at heart at such an imputation. "Of course I told them it was only
+your enthusiasm for good works. 'She meets him in her district and at the
+mothers' meeting; and what can be the harm of that?' I said to them. 'And
+of course she cannot refuse to sing at the penny readings and people's
+entertainments when she knows that she gives such pleasure to the poor
+people, and it is rather hard that she should be accused of wanting to
+display her fine voice.' Oh, you may be sure that I took your part. Of
+course it is a pity folks should believe such things, but I hope I made
+them properly ashamed of themselves."
+
+'You may imagine how uneasy these innuendoes made me. You know my
+sensitiveness, and how prone I am to exaggerate things. It seemed to
+me that more lay behind the margin of her words; and I was not wrong.
+
+'In a little while there were other things hinted to me, but very gently.
+Ah, she was kind enough to me in those days. Did I not think that I was a
+little too imprudent and unreserved in my manner to Mr. Cunliffe? She
+hated to make me uncomfortable, and of course I was so innocent that I
+meant no harm; but men were peculiar, especially a man like Mr. Cunliffe:
+she was afraid he might notice my want of self-control.
+
+'"You do not see yourself, Gladys," she said, once; "a child would find
+out that you are over head and ears in love with him. Perhaps it would
+not matter so much under other circumstances, but I confess I am a little
+uneasy. His manner was very cold and strange last night: he seemed afraid
+to trust himself alone with you. Do be careful, my dear. Suppose, after
+all, his feelings are changed, and that he fears to tell you so?"
+
+'Ursula, can you not understand the slow torture of these days and weeks,
+the first insidious doubts, the increasing fears, that seemed to be
+corroborated day by day? Yes, it was not my fancy; Etta was right; he
+was certainly changed; he no longer loved me.
+
+'In desperation I acted upon her advice, and resigned my parish work. It
+seemed to me that I was parting with the last shred of my happiness when
+I did so. I made weak health my excuse, and indeed I was far from well;
+but I had the anguish of seeing the unspoken reproach in Mr. Cunliffe's
+eyes: he thought me cowardly, vacillating; he was disappointed in me.
+
+'It was the end of April by this time, and in a week or two the day would
+come when he would have to speak to me again. Would you believe it?--but
+no, you could not dream that I was so utterly mad and foolish,--but in
+spite of all this wretchedness I still hoped. The day came and passed,
+and he never came near me, and the next day, and the next; and then I
+knew that Etta was right,--his love for me was gone.'
+
+'You believed this, Gladys?' but I dared not say more: my promise to Max
+fettered me.
+
+'How could I doubt it?' she returned, looking at me with dry, miserable
+eyes; and I seemed to realise then all her pain and humiliation. 'His not
+coming to me at the appointed time was to be a sign between us that he
+had changed his mind. Did I not tell him so with my own lips? did I not
+say to him that he was free as air, and that no possible blame could
+attach itself to him if he failed to come? Do you suppose that I did
+not mean those words?'
+
+'Could you not have given him the benefit of a doubt?' I returned.
+'Perhaps your manner too was changed and made him lose hope: the
+resignation of all your work in the parish must have discouraged him,
+surely.'
+
+'Still, he would have come to me and told me so,' she replied quickly.
+'He is not weak or wanting in moral courage: if he had not changed to me
+he would have come.
+
+'I have never had hope since that day,' she went on mournfully. 'He is
+very kind to me,--very; but it is only the kindness of a friend. He tries
+to hide from me how much he is disappointed in me, how I have failed to
+come up to his standard; but of course I see it. But for Etta I should
+have resumed my work. You were present when he nearly persuaded me to do
+so; I was longing then to please him; I think it would be a consolation
+to me if I could do something, however humble, to help him; but Etta
+always prevents me from doing so. She has taken all my work, and I do not
+think she wants to give it up, and she makes me ready to sink through the
+floor with the things she says. I dare not open my lips to Mr. Cunliffe
+in her presence; she always says afterwards how anxious I looked, or how
+he must have noticed my agitation: if I ever came down to see you,
+Ursula, she used to declare angrily that I only went in the hope of
+meeting him. She thinks nothing of telling me that I am so weak that she
+must protect me in spite of myself, and sometimes she implies that he
+sees it all and pities me, and that he has hinted as much to her. Oh,
+Ursula, what is the matter?' for I had pushed away my chair and was
+walking up and down the room, unable to endure my irritated feelings.
+She had suffered all this ignominy and prolonged torture under which her
+nerves had given way, and now Max's ridiculous scruples hindered me from
+giving her a word of comfort. Why could I not say to her, 'You are wrong:
+you have been deceived; Max has never swerved for one instant from his
+love to you?' And yet I must not say it.
+
+'I cannot sit down! I cannot bear it!' I exclaimed recklessly, quite
+forgetting how necessary it was to keep her quiet; but she put out her
+hand to me with such a beautiful sad smile.
+
+'Yes, you must sit down and listen to what I have to say: I will not have
+you so disturbed about this miserable affair, dear. The pain is better
+now; one cannot suffer in that way forever. I do not regret that I have
+learned to love Max, even though that love is to bring me unhappiness in
+this world. He is worthy of all I can give him, and one day in the better
+life what is wrong will be put right; I always tell myself this when I
+hear people's lives are disappointed: my illness has taught me this.'
+
+I did not trust myself to reply, and then all at once a thought came to
+me: 'Gladys, when I mentioned Captain Hamilton's name just now--I mean at
+the commencement of our conversation--why did you seem so troubled? He is
+nothing to you, and yet the very mention of his name excited you. This
+perplexes me.'
+
+She hesitated for a moment, as though she feared to answer: 'I know I can
+trust you, Ursula; but will it be right to do so? I mean, for other
+people's sake. But, still, if Etta be talking about him--' She paused,
+and seemed absorbed in some puzzling problem.
+
+'You write to him very often,' I hazarded at last, for she did not seem
+willing to speak.
+
+'Who told you that?' she returned quickly. 'Claude is my cousin,--at
+least step-cousin,--but we are very intimate; there can be no harm in
+writing to him.'
+
+'No, of course not: but if people misconstrue your correspondence?'
+
+'I cannot help that,' rather despondently; 'and I do not see that it
+matters now; but still I will tell you, Ursula. Claude is in love with
+Lady Betty.'
+
+'With Lady Betty?'
+
+'Yes, and Giles does not know. Etta did not for a long time, but she
+found out about it, and since then poor Lady Betty has had no peace. You
+see the poor children consider themselves engaged, but Lady Betty will
+not let Claude speak to Giles until he has promotion. She has got an idea
+that he would not allow of the engagement; it sounds wrong, I feel that;
+but in our unhappy household things are wrong.'
+
+'And Miss Darrell knows?'
+
+'Yes; but we never could tell how she found it out: Claude corresponds
+with me, and Lady Betty only puts in an occasional letter; she is so
+dreadfully frightened, poor little thing! For fear her secret should be
+discovered. We think that Etta must have opened one of my letters;
+anyhow, she knows all there is to know, and she holds her knowledge as a
+rod over the poor child. She has promised to keep her counsel and not
+tell Giles; but when she is in one of her tempers she threatens to speak
+to him. Then she is always hinting things before him just to tease or
+punish Lady Betty, but happily he takes no notice. When you said what you
+did I was afraid she had made up her mind to keep silence no longer.'
+
+'Why do you think your brother would object to Captain Hamilton?' I
+asked, trying to conceal my relief at her words.
+
+'He would object to the long concealment,' she returned gravely. 'But
+from the first I wanted Lady Betty to be open about it; but nothing would
+induce her to let Claude write to him. Our only plan now is to wait for
+Claude to speak to him when he arrives in November. Nothing need be said
+about the past: Claude has been wounded, and will get promotion, and
+Giles thinks well of him.'
+
+She seemed a little weary by this time, and our talk had lasted long
+enough; but there was still one thing I must ask her.
+
+'Gladys, you said you trusted me just now. I am going to put that trust
+to the proof. All that has passed between us is sacred, and shall never
+cross my lips. On my womanly honour I can promise you that; but I make
+one reservation,--what you have just told me about Captain Hamilton.'
+
+She looked at me with an expression of incredulous alarm.
+
+'What can you mean, Ursula? Surely not to repeat a single word about
+Claude?'
+
+'I only mean to mention to one person, with whom the knowledge will be as
+safe as it will be with me, that Lady Betty is engaged to your cousin
+Claude.'
+
+'You will tell Mr. Cunliffe,' she replied, becoming very pale again. 'I
+forbid it, Ursula!' But I hindered all further remonstrance on her part,
+by throwing my arms round her and begging her with tears in my eyes, and
+with all the earnestness of which I was capable, to trust me as I would
+trust her in such a case.
+
+'Listen to me,' I continued imploringly. 'Have I ever failed or
+disappointed you? have I ever been untrue to you in word or deed? Do
+you think I am a woman who would betray the sacred confidence of another
+woman?'
+
+'No, of course not; but--' Here my hand resolutely closed her lips.
+
+'Then say to me, "I trust you, Ursula, as I would trust my own soul. I
+know no word would pass your lips that if I were standing by you I should
+wish unuttered." Say this to me, Gladys, and I shall know you love me.'
+
+She trembled, and turned still paler.
+
+'Why need he know it? What can he have to do with Lady Betty?' she said
+irresolutely.
+
+'Leave that to me,' was my firm answer: 'I am waiting for you to say
+those words, Gladys.' Then she put down her head on my shoulder, weeping
+bitterly.
+
+'Yes, yes, I will trust you. In the whole world I have only you, Ursula,
+and you have been good to me.' And, as I soothed and comforted her, she
+clung to me like a tired child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI
+
+'AT FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING'
+
+
+I passed a wakeful and anxious night, pondering over this strange recital
+that seemed to me to corroborate Max's account. I had no doubt in my own
+mind as to the treachery that had alienated these two hearts. I knew too
+well the subtle power of the smooth false tongue that had done this
+mischief; but the motive for all this evil-doing baffled me. 'What is her
+reason for trying to separate them?' I asked myself, but always
+fruitlessly. 'Why does she dislike this poor girl, who has never harmed
+her? Why does she render her life miserable? It is she who has sown
+discord between Mr. Hamilton and myself. Ah, I know that well, but I am
+powerless to free either him or myself at present. Still, one can detect
+a motive for that. She has always disliked me, and she is jealous of her
+position. If Mr. Hamilton married she could not remain in his house; no
+wife could brook such interference. She knows this, and it is her
+interest to prevent him from marrying. All this is clear enough; but
+in the case of poor Gladys?' But here again was the old tangle and
+perplexity.
+
+I was not surprised that Gladys slept little that night: no doubt
+agitating thoughts kept her restless. Towards morning she grew quieter,
+and sank into a heavy sleep that I knew would last for two or three
+hours. I had counted on this, and had laid my plan accordingly.
+
+I must see Uncle Max at once, and she must not know that I had seen him.
+In her weak state any suspense must be avoided. The few words that I
+might permit myself to say to him must be spoken without her knowledge.
+
+I knew that in the summer Max was a very early riser. He would often be
+at work in his garden by six, and now and then he would start for a long
+country walk,--'just to see Dame Earth put the finishing-touches to her
+toilet,' he would say. But five had not struck when I slipped into
+Chatty's room half dressed. The girl looked at me with round sleepy eyes
+as I called her in a low voice.
+
+'Chatty, it is very early, not quite five, but I want you to get up and
+dress yourself as quietly as you can and come into the turret-room. I am
+going out, and I do not want to wake anybody, and you understand the
+fastenings of the front door. I am afraid I should only bungle at them.'
+
+'You are going out, ma'am!' in an astonished voice. Chatty was thoroughly
+awake now.
+
+'Yes, I am sorry to disturb you, but I do not want Miss Gladys to miss
+me. I shall not be long, but it is some business that I must do.' And
+then I crept back to the turret-room.
+
+Leah slept in a little room at the end of the passage, and I was very
+unwilling that any unusual sound should reach her ears. Chatty seemed
+to share this feeling, for when she joined me presently she was carrying
+her shoes in her hands. 'I can't help making a noise,' she said
+apologetically; 'and so I crept down the passage in my stockings. If
+you are ready, ma'am, I will come and let you out.'
+
+I stood by, rather nervously, as Chatty manipulated the intricate
+fastenings. I asked her to replace them as soon as I had gone, and to
+come down in about half an hour and open the door leading to the garden.
+'I will return that way, and they will only think I have taken an early
+stroll,' I observed. I was rather sorry to resort to this small
+subterfuge before Chatty, but the girl had implicit trust in me, and
+evidently thought no harm; she only smiled and nodded; and as I lingered
+for a moment on the gravel path I heard the bolt shoot into its place.
+
+It was only half-past five, and I walked on leisurely. I had not been
+farther than the garden for three weeks, and the sudden sense of freedom
+and space was exhilarating.
+
+It was a lovely morning. A dewy freshness seemed on everything; the birds
+were singing deliciously; the red curtains were drawn across the windows
+of the Man and Plough; a few white geese waddled slowly across the green;
+some brown speckled hens were feeding under the horse-trough; a goat
+browsing by the roadside looked up, quite startled, as I passed him,
+and butted slowly at me in a reflective manner. There was a scent of
+sweet-brier, of tall perfumy lilies and spicy carnations from the
+gardens. I looked at the windows of the houses I passed, but the blinds
+were drawn, and the bees and the flowers were the only waking things
+there. The village seemed asleep, until I turned the corner, and there,
+coming out of the vicarage gate, was Uncle Max himself. He was walking
+along slowly, with his old felt hat in his hand, reading his little
+Greek Testament as he walked, and the morning sun shining on his
+uncovered head and his brown beard.
+
+He did not see me until I was close to him, and then he started, and an
+expression of fear crossed his face.
+
+'Ursula, my dear, were you coming to the vicarage? Nothing is wrong,
+I hope?' looking at me anxiously.
+
+'Wrong! what should be wrong on such a morning?' I returned playfully.
+'Is it not delicious? The air is like champagne; only champagne never had
+the scent of those flowers in it. The world is just a big dewy bouquet.
+It is good only to be alive on such a morning.'
+
+Max put his Greek Testament in his pocket and regarded me dubiously.
+
+'Were you not coming to meet me, then? It is not a quarter to six yet.
+Rather early for an aimless stroll, is it not, my dear?'
+
+'Oh yes, I was coming to meet you,' I returned carelessly. 'I thought you
+would be at work in the garden. Max, you are eying me suspiciously: you
+think I have something important to tell you. Now you must not be
+disappointed; I have very little to say, and I cannot answer questions;
+but there is one thing, I have found out all you wish to know about
+Captain Hamilton.'
+
+It was sad to see the quick change in his face,--the sudden cloud that
+crossed it at the mention of the man whom he regarded as his rival. He
+did not speak; not a question came from his lips; but he listened as
+though my next word might be the death-warrant to his hopes.
+
+'Max, do not look like that: there is no cause for fear. It is a great
+secret, and you must never speak of it, even to me,--but Lady Betty is
+engaged to her cousin Claude.'
+
+For a moment he stared at me incredulously. 'Impossible! you must have
+been deceived,' I heard him mutter.
+
+'On the contrary, I leave other people to be duped,' was my somewhat cool
+answer. 'You need not doubt my news: Gladys is my informant: only, as I
+have just told you, it is a great secret. Mr. Hamilton is not to know
+yet, and Gladys writes most of the letters. Poor little Lady Betty is in
+constant terror that she will be found out, and they are waiting until
+Captain Hamilton has promotion and comes home in November.'
+
+He had not lost one word that I said: as he stood there, bareheaded, in
+the morning sunshine that was tingeing his beard with gold, I heard his
+low, fervent 'Thank God! then it was not that;' but when he turned to me
+his face was radiant, his eyes bright and vivid; there was renewed hope
+and energy in his aspect.
+
+'Ursula, you have come like the dove with the olive-branch. Is this
+really true? It was good of you to come and tell me this.'
+
+'I do not see the goodness, Max.'
+
+'Well, perhaps not; but you have made me your debtor. I like to owe this
+to you,--my first gleam of hope. Now, you must tell me one thing. Does
+Miss Darrell know of this engagement?'
+
+'She does.'
+
+'Stop a moment: I feel myself getting confused here. I am to ask no
+questions: you can tell me nothing more. But I must make this clear to
+myself: How long has she known, Ursula? a day? a week?'
+
+'Suppose you substitute the word months,' I observed scornfully. 'I know
+no dates, but Miss Darrell has most certainly been acquainted with her
+cousin's engagement for months.'
+
+'Oh, this is worse than I thought,' he returned, in a troubled tone.
+'This is almost too terrible to believe. She has known all I suffered on
+that man's account, and yet she never undeceived me. Can women be so
+cruel? Why did she not come to me and say frankly, "I have made a
+mistake; I have unintentionally misled you: it is Lady Betty, not Gladys,
+who is in love with her cousin"? Good heavens! to leave me in this
+ignorance, and never to say the word that would put me out of my misery!'
+
+I was silent, though silence was a torture to me. Even, now the extent of
+Miss Darrell's duplicity had not clearly dawned on him. He complained
+that she had left him to suffer through ignorance of the truth; but the
+idea had not yet entered his mind that possibly she had deceived him from
+the first. 'Oh, the stupidity and slowness of these honourable men where
+a woman is concerned!' I groaned to myself; but my promise to Gladys kept
+me silent.
+
+'It was too bad of her, was it not?' he said, appealing to me for
+sympathy; but I turned a deaf ear to this.
+
+'Max, confess that you were wrong not to have taken my advice and gone
+down to Bournemouth: you might have spared yourself months of suspense.'
+
+'Do you mean--' And then he reddened and stroked his beard nervously; but
+I finished his sentence for him: he should not escape what I had to say
+to him.
+
+'It is so much easier to come to an understanding face to face; but you
+would not take my advice, and the opportunity is gone. Gladys is in the
+turret-room: you could not gain admittance to her without difficulty:
+what you have to say must be said by letter; but you might trust that
+letter to me, Max.'
+
+He understood me in a moment. I could see the quick look of joy in his
+eyes. I had not betrayed Gladys, I had adhered strictly to my word that I
+would only speak of Lady Betty's engagement; and with his usual delicacy
+Max had put no awkward questions to me: he had respected my scruples, and
+kept his burning curiosity to himself. But he would not have been a man
+if he had not read some deeper meaning under my silence: he told me
+afterwards that the happy look in my eyes told him the truth.
+
+So he merely said very quietly, 'You were right, and I was wrong, Ursula:
+I own my fault. But I will write now: I owe Miss Hamilton some
+explanation. When the letter is ready, how am I to put it into your
+hands?'
+
+'Oh,' I answered in a matter-of-fact way, as though we were speaking of
+some ordinary note, and it was not an offer of marriage from a penitent
+lover, 'when you have finished talking to Miss Darrell,--you will enjoy
+her conversation, I am sure, Max; it will be both pleasant and
+profitable,--you might mention casually that there was something you
+wanted to say to your niece Ursula, and would she kindly ask that young
+person to step down to you for a minute? and then, you see, that little
+bit of business will be done.'
+
+'Yes, I see; but--' but here Max hesitated--'but the answer, Ursula?'
+
+'Oh, the answer!' in an off-hand manner; 'you must not be looking for
+that yet. My patient must not be hurried or flurried: you must give
+her plenty of time. In a day or two--well, perhaps, I might find an
+early stroll conducive to my health; these mornings are so beautiful;
+and--Nonsense, Max! I would do more than this for you'; for quiet,
+undemonstrative Max had actually taken my hand and lifted it to his lips
+in token of his gratitude.
+
+After this we walked back in the direction of Gladwyn, and nothing more
+was said about the letter. We listened to the rooks cawing from the elms,
+and we stood and watched a lark rising from the long meadow before
+Maplehurst and singing as though its little throat would burst with its
+concentrated ecstasy of song; and when I asked Max if he did not think
+the world more beautiful than usual that morning, he smiled, and suddenly
+quoted Tennyson's lines, in a voice musical with happiness:
+
+'All the land in flowery squares,
+Beneath a broad and equal-flowing wind,
+Smelt of the coming summer, as one large cloud
+Drew downward; but all else of heaven was pure
+Up to the sun, and May from verge to verge,
+And May with me from heel to heel.'
+
+'Yes, but, Max, it is July now. The air is too mellow for spring. Your
+quotation is not quite apt.'
+
+'Oh, you are realistic; but it fits well enough. Do you not remember how
+the poem goes on?
+
+"The garden stretches southward. In the midst
+A cedar spread its dark-green layers of shrub.
+The garden-glasses shone, and momently
+The twinkling laurel scattered silver lights."
+
+I always think of Gladwyn when I read that description.'
+
+I laughed mischievously: 'I am sorry to leave you just as you are in a
+poetical vein; but I must positively go in. Good-bye, Max,' I felt I had
+lingered a little too long when I saw the blinds raised in Mr. Hamilton's
+study. But apparently the room was empty. I sauntered past it leisurely,
+and walked down the asphalt path. On my return I picked one or two roses,
+wet with dew. As I raised my head from gathering them I saw Leah standing
+at the side door watching me.
+
+'Oh, it was you,' she grumbled. 'I thought one of those girls had left
+the door unlocked. A pretty piece of carelessness that would have been
+to reach the master's ears! You are out early, ma'am.'
+
+I was somewhat surprised at these remarks, for Leah had made a point of
+always passing me in sullen silence since I had refused her admittance
+into the sick-room. Her manner was hardly civil now, but I thought it
+best to answer her pleasantly.
+
+'Yes, Leah, I have taken my stroll early. It was very warm last night,
+and I did not sleep well. There is nothing so refreshing as a morning
+walk after a bad night. I am going to take these roses to Miss Gladys.'
+But she tossed her head and muttered something about people being mighty
+pleasant all of a sudden. And, seeing her in this mood, I walked away.
+She was a bad-tempered, coarse-natured woman, and I could not understand
+why Mr. Hamilton seemed so blind to her defects. 'I suppose he never sees
+her; that is one reason,' I thought, as I carried up my roses.
+
+Gladys was still asleep. I had finished my breakfast, and had helped
+Chatty arrange the turret-room for the day, when I heard the long-drawn
+sigh that often preluded Gladys's waking. I hastened to her side, and
+found her leaning on her elbow looking at my roses.
+
+'They used to grow in the vicarage garden,' she said wistfully. 'Dark
+crimson ones like these. I have been dreaming.' And then she stopped and
+flung herself back wearily on her pillow. 'Why must one ever wake from
+such dreams?' she finished, with the old hopeless ring in her voice.
+
+'What was the dream, dear?' I asked, smoothing her hair caressingly. It
+was fine, soft hair, like an infant's, and its pale gold tint, without
+much colour or gloss, always reminded me of baby hair. I have heard
+people find fault with it. But when it was unbound and streaming in wavy
+masses over her shoulders it was singularly beautiful. She used to laugh
+sometimes at my admiration of her straw-coloured tresses, or lint-white
+locks, as she called them. But indeed there was no tint that quite
+described the colour of Gladys's hair.
+
+'Oh, I was walking in some fool's paradise or other. There were roses in
+it like these. Well, another blue day is dawning, Ursula, and has to be
+lived through somehow. Will you help me to get up now?' But, though she
+tried after this to talk as usual, I could see the old restlessness was
+on her. A sort of feverish reaction had set in. She could settle to
+nothing, take pleasure in nothing; and I was not surprised that Mr.
+Hamilton grumbled a little when he paid his morning visit.
+
+'How is this? You are not quite so comfortable to-day, Gladys,' he asked,
+in a dissatisfied tone. 'Is your head aching again?'
+
+She reluctantly pleaded guilty to the headache. Not that it was much, she
+assured him; but I interrupted her.
+
+'The fact is, she sat up too late last night, and I let her talk too
+much and over-exert herself.' For I saw he was determined to come to the
+bottom of this.
+
+'I think the nurse was to blame there,' he returned, darting a quick,
+uneasy look at me. I knew what he was thinking: Miss Darrell's speech,
+that Miss Garston always excited Gladys, must have come into his mind.
+
+'If the nurse deserves blame she will take it meekly,' I replied. 'I know
+I was wrong to let her talk so much. I must enforce extra quiet to-day.'
+And then he said no more. I do not think he found it easy to give me the
+scolding that I deserved. And, after all, I had owned my fault.
+
+I had just gone out in the passage an hour later, to carry away a bowl of
+carnations that Gladys found too strong in the room, when I heard Uncle
+Max's voice in the hall. The front door was open, and he had entered
+without ringing. I was glad of this. The door of the turret-room was
+closed, and Gladys would not hear his voice. I should manage to slip
+down without her noticing the fact.
+
+So I busied myself in Lady Betty's room until I heard the drawing-room
+door open and close again, and I knew Miss Darrell was coming in search
+of me. I went out to meet her, with Gladys's empty luncheon-tray in my
+hands. I thought she looked rather cross and put out, as though her
+interview with Uncle Max had disappointed her.
+
+'Mr. Cunliffe is in the drawing-room, and he would like to speak to you
+for a moment.' she said, in a voice that showed me how unwilling she was
+to bring me the message. 'I told him that you never cared to be disturbed
+in the morning, as you were so busy; but he was peremptory.'
+
+'I am never too busy to see Uncle Max: he knows that,' I returned
+quickly. 'Will you kindly allow me a few moments alone with him?' for she
+was actually preparing to follow me, but after this request she retired
+sulkily into her own room.
+
+I found Max standing in the middle of the room, looking anxiously towards
+the door: the moment it closed behind me he put a thick white envelope in
+my hand.
+
+'There it is, Ursula,' he said nervously: 'will you give it to her as
+soon as possible? I have been literally on thorns the last quarter of an
+hour. Miss Darrell would not take any of my hints that I wished to see
+you: so I was obliged at last to say that I could not wait another
+moment, and that I must ask her to fetch you at once.'
+
+'Poor Max! I can imagine your feelings; but I have it safe here,' tapping
+my apron pocket. 'But you must not go just yet.' And I beckoned him
+across the room to the window that overlooked a stiff prickly shrub.
+
+He looked at me in some surprise. 'We are alone, Ursula.'
+
+'Yes, I know: but the walls have ears in this house: one is never safe
+near the conservatory: there are too many doors. Tell me, Max, how have
+you got on with Miss Darrell this morning?'
+
+'I was praying hard for patience all the time,' he replied, half
+laughing. 'It was maddening to see her sitting there so cool and crisp
+in her yellow tea-gown--well, what garment was it?' as I uttered a
+dissenting ejaculation: 'something flimsy and aesthetic. I thought her
+smooth sentences would never stop.'
+
+'Did she notice any change in your manner to her?'
+
+'I am afraid so, for I saw her look at me quite uneasily more than once.
+I could not conceal that I was terribly bored. I have no wish to be
+discourteous to a lady, especially to one of my own church workers; but
+after what has passed I find it very difficult to forgive her.'
+
+This was strong language on Max's part. I could see that as a woman he
+could hardly tolerate her, but he could not bring himself to condemn her
+even to me. He hardly knew yet what he had to forgive: neither he nor
+Gladys had any real idea of the treachery that had separated them.
+
+Max would not stay many minutes, he was so afraid of Miss Darrell coming
+into the room again. I did rather an imprudent thing after that. Max was
+going to the Maberleys', for the colonel was seriously ill, so I begged
+him to go the garden way, and I kept him for a moment under the window of
+the turret-room.
+
+I saw him glance up eagerly, almost hungrily, but the blinds were
+partially down, and there was only a white curtain flapping in the summer
+breeze.
+
+But an unerring instinct told me that the sound of Max's voice would be a
+strong cordial to the invalid, it was so long since she had heard or seen
+him. As we sauntered under the oak-trees I knew Gladys would be watching
+us.
+
+On my return to the room I found her sitting bolt upright in her
+arm-chair, grasping the arms; there were two spots of colour on her
+cheeks; she looked nervous and excited.
+
+'I saw you walking with him, Ursula; he looked up, but I am glad he could
+not see me. Did--did he send me any message?' in a faltering voice.
+
+'Yes, he sent you this.' And I placed the thick packet on her lap. 'Miss
+Hamilton,'--yes, it was her own name: he had written it. I saw her look
+at it, first incredulously, then with dawning hope in her eyes; but
+before her trembling hands could break the old-fashioned seal with which
+he had sealed it I had noiselessly left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII
+
+DOWN THE PEMBERLEY ROAD
+
+
+Three-quarters of an hour had elapsed before I ventured into the room
+again; but at the first sound of my footsteps Gladys looked up, and
+called to me in a voice changed and broken with happiness.
+
+'Ursula, dear Ursula, come here.' And as I knelt down beside her and put
+my arms round her she laid her cheek against my shoulder: it was wet with
+tears.
+
+'Ursula, I am so happy. Do you know that he loves me, that he has loved
+me all through these years? You must not see what he says; it is only for
+my eyes; it is too sweet and sacred to be repeated; but I never dreamt
+that any one could care for me like that.'
+
+I kissed her without speaking; there seemed a lump in my throat just
+then. I did not often repine, but the yearning sense of pain was strong
+on me. When would this cruel silence between me and Giles be broken? But
+Gladys, wrapt in her own blissful thoughts, did not notice my emotion.
+
+'He says that there is much that he can only tell me by word of mouth,
+and that he dare not trust to a letter explanations for his silence, and
+much that I shall have to tell him in return; for we shall need each
+other's help in making everything clear.
+
+'He seems to reproach himself bitterly, and asks my pardon over and over
+again for misunderstanding me so. He says my giving up my work was the
+first blow to his hopes, and then he had been told that I cared for my
+cousin Claude. He believed until this morning that I was in love with
+him; and it was your going to him--oh, my darling! how good you have been
+to me and him!--that gave him courage to write this letter, Ursula.'
+And here she cried a little. 'Was it Etta who told him this falsehood
+about, Claude? How could she he so wicked and cruel?'
+
+'Do not think about her to-day, my dearest,' I returned soothingly. 'Her
+punishment will be great some day. We will not sit in judgment on her
+just now. She cannot touch your happiness again, thank heaven!'
+
+'No,' with a sigh; 'but, as Max says, it is difficult to forgive the
+person who is the chief source of all our trouble. He did say that, and
+then he reproached himself again for uncharitableness, and added that he
+ought to have known me better.
+
+'He does not seem quite certain yet that I can care for him, and he begs
+for just one word to put him out of his suspense, to tell him if I can
+ever love him well enough to be his wife. I don't want him to wait long
+for my answer, Ursula: he has suffered too much already. I think I could
+write a few words that would satisfy him, if I could only trust Chatty to
+take them.'
+
+'You had better wait until to-morrow morning and intrust your letter to
+the "five-o'clock carrier."' And as my meaning dawned on her her doubtful
+expression changed into a smile. 'Do wait, Gladys,' I continued
+coaxingly. 'It is very selfish of me, perhaps, but I should like to give
+that letter to Max.'
+
+'You may have your wish, then, for I was half afraid of sending it by
+Chatty. I have grown so nervous, Ursula, that I start at a shadow. I can
+trust you better than myself. Well, I will write it, and then it will be
+safe in your hands.'
+
+I went away again after this, and left her alone in the quiet shady room.
+I fought rather a battle with myself as I paced up and down Lady Betty's
+spacious chamber. Why need I think of my own troubles? why could I not
+keep down this pain? I would think only of Gladys's and of my dear Max's
+happiness, and I dashed away hot tears that would keep blinding me as I
+remembered the chilly greeting of the morning. And yet once--but no; I
+would not recall that bitter-sweet memory. I left Gladys alone for an
+hour: when I went back she was leaning wearily against the cushions of
+her chair, the closely-written sheets still open on her lap, as though
+she needed the evidence of sight and touch to remind her that it was not
+part of her dream.
+
+'Have you written your letter, Gladys?'
+
+'Yes,' with a blush; 'but it is very short, only a few words. He will
+understand that I am weak and cannot exert myself much. Will you read it,
+Ursula, and tell me if it will do?'
+
+I thought it better to set her mind at rest, so I took it without demur.
+The pretty, clear handwriting was rather tremulous: he would be sorry to
+see that.
+
+'My dear Mr. Cunliffe,'--it said,--'Your letter has made me very happy.
+I wish I could answer it as it ought to be answered; but I know you will
+not misunderstand the reason why I say so little.
+
+'I have been very ill, and am still very weak, and my hand trembles too
+much when I try to write; but I am not ungrateful for all the kind things
+you say; it makes me very happy to know you feel like that, even though I
+do not deserve it.
+
+'You must not blame yourself so much for misunderstanding me: we have
+both been deceived; I know that now. It was wrong of me to give up my
+work; but Etta told me that people were saying unkind things of me, and
+I was a coward and listened to her: so you see I was to blame too.
+
+'I have not answered your question yet, but I think I will do so by
+signing myself,
+
+'Yours, always and for ever,
+
+'Gladys.'
+
+'Will he understand that, Ursula?'
+
+'Surely, dear; the end is plain enough: you belong to Max now.'
+
+'I like to know that,' she returned simply. 'Oh, the rest of feeling that
+he will take care of me now! it is too good to talk about. But I hope I
+am sufficiently thankful.' And Gladys's lovely eyes were full of solemn
+feeling as she spoke.
+
+I thought she wanted to be quiet,--it was difficult for her to realise
+her happiness at once,--so I told her that I had some letters to write,
+and carried my desk into the next room, but she followed me after a time,
+and we had a long talk about Max.
+
+When Mr. Hamilton came up in the evening he noticed the improvement in
+Gladys's appearance.
+
+'You are better to-night, my dear.'
+
+'Oh yes, so much better,' looking up in his face with a smile. 'Giles, do
+you think it would hurt me to have a drive to-morrow? I am so tired of
+these two rooms. A drive alone with Ursula would be delicious. We could
+go down the Redstone lanes towards Pemberley: one always has a whiff of
+sea-air there over the downs.'
+
+Gladys's request surprised me quite as much as it did Mr. Hamilton. She
+had proposed it in all innocence; no idea of encountering Max entered her
+head for a moment; Gladys's simplicity would be incapable of laying plans
+of this sort. Her new-born happiness made her anxious to lay aside her
+invalid habits; she wanted to be strong, to resume daily life, to breathe
+the fresh outer air.
+
+As for Mr. Hamilton, he did not try to conceal his pleasure.
+
+'I see we shall soon lose our patient, nurse,' he said, with one of his
+old droll looks. 'She is anxious to make herself independent of us.--Oh,
+you shall go, by all means. I will go round to the stable and tell
+Atkinson myself. It is an excellent idea, Gladys.'
+
+'I am so glad you do not object. I am so much stronger this evening,
+and I have wanted to go out for days; but, Giles,'--touching his arm
+gently,--'you will make Etta understand that I want to go alone with
+Ursula.'
+
+'Certainly, my dear.' He would not cross her whim; she might have her way
+if she liked; but the slight frown on his face showed that he was not
+pleased at this allusion to Miss Darrell. He thought Gladys was almost
+morbidly prejudiced against her cousin; but he prudently refrained from
+telling her so, and Gladys went to bed happy.
+
+I had taken the precaution of asking Chatty to wake me the next morning.
+I had slept little the previous night, and was afraid that I might
+oversleep myself in consequence. It was rather a trial when her touch
+roused me out of a delicious dream; but one glance at Gladys's pale face
+made me ashamed of my indolence. I dressed myself as quickly as I could,
+and then looked at my little clock. Chatty had been better than her word:
+it had not struck five yet.
+
+Max would not be out for another hour, I thought, but all the same I
+might as well take advantage of the morning freshness: so I summoned
+Chatty to let me out as noiselessly as possible, and then I stole through
+the shrubberies, breaking a silver-spangled cobweb or two and feeling the
+wet beads of dew on my face.
+
+I walked slowly down the road, drinking deep draughts of the pure morning
+air. I had some thoughts of sitting down in the churchyard until I saw
+some sign of life in the vicarage; but as I turned the corner I heard a
+gate swing back on its hinges, and there was Max standing bareheaded in
+the road, as though he had come out to reconnoitre; but directly he
+caught sight of me two or three strides seemed to bring him to my side.
+
+'Have you brought it?' he asked breathlessly.
+
+'Yes, Max.' And I put the letter in his outstretched hand; and then,
+without looking at him, I turned quietly and retraced my steps. I would
+not wait with him while he read it; he should be alone, with only the
+sunshine round him and the birds singing their joyous melodies in his
+ear. No doubt he would join his _Te Deum_ with theirs. Happy Max, who had
+won his Lady of Delight!
+
+But I had not quite crossed the green when I heard his footsteps behind
+me, and turned to meet him.
+
+'Ursula, you naughty child! why have you run away without waiting to
+congratulate me? And yet I'll be bound you knew the contents of this
+letter.'
+
+'Yes, Max, and from my heart I wish you and Gladys every happiness.'
+
+'Good little Ursula! Oh yes, we shall be happy.' And the satisfaction in
+Max's brown eyes was pleasant to see. 'She will need all the care and
+tenderness that I can give her. We must make her forget all these sad
+years. Do you think that she will be content at the old vicarage,
+Ursula?' But as he asked the question there was no doubt--no doubt at
+all--on his face.
+
+'I think she will be content anywhere with you, Max. Gladys loves you
+dearly.'
+
+'Ah,' he said humbly, 'I know it now, I am sure of it; but I wish I
+deserved my blessing. All these years I have known her goodness. She used
+to show me all that was in her heart with the simplicity of a child. Such
+sweet frankness! such noble unselfishness! was it a wonder that I loved
+her? If I were only more worthy to be her husband!'
+
+I liked Max to say this: there was nothing unmanly or strained in this
+humility. The man who loves can never think himself worthy of the woman
+he worships: his very affection casts a glamour over her. When I told Max
+that I thought his wife would be a happy woman, he only smiled and said
+that he hoped so too. He had not the faintest idea what a hero he was
+in our eyes; he would not have believed me if I had told him.
+
+Max said very little to me after that: happiness made him reticent. Only,
+just as he was leaving me, I said carelessly, 'Max, do you ever go to
+Pemberley?'
+
+'Oh yes, sometimes, when the Calverleys are at the Hall,' he returned,
+rather absently.
+
+'Pemberley is a very pretty place,' I went on, stopping to pick a little
+piece of sweet-brier that attracted me by its sweetness: 'it is very
+pleasant to walk there through the Redstone lanes. There is a fine view
+over the down, and at four o'clock, for example--'
+
+'What about four o'clock?' he demanded: and now there was a little
+excitement in his manner.
+
+'Well, if you should by chance be in one of the Redstone lanes about
+then, you might possibly see an open barouche with two ladies in it.'
+
+'Ursula, you are a darling!' And Max seized my wrists so vigorously that
+he hurt me. 'Four--did you say four o'clock?'
+
+'It was very wrong of me to say anything about it. Gladys would be
+shocked at my making an appointment. I believe you are demoralising me,
+Max; but I do not mean to tell her.' And then, after a few more eager
+questions on Max's part, he reluctantly let me go.
+
+I had plenty to tell Gladys when she woke that morning, but I prudently
+kept part of our conversation to myself. She wanted to know how Max
+looked when he got her letter. Did he seem happy? had he sent her any
+message? And when I had satisfied her on these points she had a hundred
+other questions to ask. 'I am engaged to him, and yet we cannot speak
+to each other,' she finished, a little mournfully.
+
+I turned her thoughts at last by speaking about the promised drive. We
+decided she should put on her pretty gray dress and bonnet to do honour
+to the day. 'It is a fête-day, Gladys,' I said cheerfully, 'and we must
+be as gay as possible.' And she agreed to this.
+
+At the appointed time we heard the horses coming round from the stables,
+and Mr. Hamilton came upstairs himself to fetch his sister. Chatty had
+told me privately that Miss Darrell had been very cross all day. She had
+wanted the carriage for herself that afternoon, and had spoken quite
+angrily to Mr. Hamilton about it; but he had told her rather coldly that
+she must give up her wishes for once. Thornton heard master say that he
+was surprised at her selfishness: he had thought she would be glad that
+Miss Gladys should have a drive. 'Miss Darrell looked as black as
+possible, Thornton said, ma'am,' continued Chatty; 'but she did not dare
+argue with master; he always has the best of it with her.'
+
+As we drove off, I saw Miss Darrell watching us from the study window:
+evidently her bad temper had not evaporated, for she had not taken the
+trouble to come out in the hall to speak to Gladys, and yet they had not
+met for a month. Gladys did not see her: she was smiling at her brother,
+who was waving a good-bye from the open door. My heart smote me a little
+as I looked at him. Would he think me very deceitful, I wondered, for
+giving Max that clue? but after a moment I abandoned these thoughts and
+gave myself up to the afternoon's enjoyment.
+
+The air was delicious, the summer heat tempered by cool breezes that
+seemed to come straight from the sea. Gladys lay back luxuriously among
+the cushions, watching the flicker of green leaves over our heads, or the
+soft shadows that lurked in the distant meadows, or admiring the
+picturesque groups of cattle under some wide-spreading tree.
+
+We had nearly reached Pemberley, the white roofs of the cottages were
+gleaming through a belt of firs, when I at last caught sight of Max. He
+was half hidden by some blackberry-bushes. I think he was sitting on a
+stile resting himself; but when he heard the carriage-wheels he came
+slowly towards us and put up his hand as a sign that Atkinson should pull
+up.
+
+I shall never forget the sudden illumination that lit up Gladys's face
+when she saw him: a lovely colour tinged her cheeks as their eyes met,
+and she put out her little gray-gloved hand to touch his. I opened the
+carriage door and slipped down into the road.
+
+'The horses can stand in the shade a little while, Atkinson,' I said
+carelessly: 'I want to get some of those poppies, if the stile be not
+very high.' I knew he would be watching me and looking after Whitefoot,
+who was often a little fidgety, and would take the vicar's appearance on
+the Pemberley road as a matter of course.
+
+I was a long time gathering those poppies. Once I peeped through the
+hedge. I could see two heads very close together. Max's arms were on the
+carriage; the little gray-gloved hands were not to be seen; the sunshine
+was shining on Gladys's fair hair and Max's beard. Were they speaking at
+all? Could Atkinson have heard one of those low tones? And then I went
+on with my poppies.
+
+It was more than a quarter of an hour when I climbed over the stile
+again, laden with scarlet poppies and pale-coloured convolvuli. Gladys
+saw me first. 'Here is Ursula,' I heard her say; and Max moved away
+reluctantly.
+
+'I do not see why we should not drive you back to Heathfield, Max,' I
+remarked coolly; and, as neither of them had any objection to raise, we
+soon made room for Max.
+
+There was very little said by any of us during the drive home; only
+Gladys pressed my hand in token of gratitude; her eyes were shining with
+happiness. As Max looked at the pale, sweet face opposite to him his
+heart must have swelled with pride and joy: nothing could come between
+those two now; henceforth they would belong to each other for time and
+eternity.
+
+Max asked us to put him down at the Three Firs; he had to call at 'The
+Gowans,' he said. 'In two or three days--I cannot wait longer,' he said,
+in a meaning tone, as he bade good-bye to Gladys. She blushed and smiled
+in answer.
+
+'What does Max mean?' I asked, as we left him behind us in the road.
+
+'It is only that he wishes to speak to Giles,' she returned shyly. 'I
+asked him to wait a day or two until I felt better; but he does not wish
+to delay it; he says Giles has always wanted it so, but that he has long
+lost hope about it.'
+
+'I don't see why Max need have waited an hour,' was my reply; but there
+was no time for Gladys to answer me, for we were turning in at the gate,
+and there were Mr. Hamilton and Miss Darrell walking up and down the lawn
+watching for us.
+
+Mr. Hamilton came towards us at once, and gave his hand to Gladys.
+
+'I need not ask how you have enjoyed your drive,' he said, looking at her
+bright face with evident satisfaction.
+
+'Oh, it has been lovely!' she returned, with such unwonted animation that
+Miss Darrell stared at her. 'How do you do, Etta? It is long since we
+have met.--Giles, if you will give me your arm, I think I will go
+upstairs at once, for I am certainly a little tired.--Come, Ursula.'
+
+'We met Mr. Cunliffe in the Pemberley Road, and drove him back,' I
+observed carelessly, when Miss Darrell was out of hearing. I thought it
+better to allude to Max in case Atkinson mentioned it to one of the
+servants.
+
+'You should have brought him in to dinner,' was Mr. Hamilton's only
+comment. 'By the bye, Miss Garston, when do you intend to honour us with
+your company downstairs? Your patient is convalescent now.'
+
+'I have just awoke to that fact,' was my reply, 'and I have told Mrs.
+Barton that she will soon see me back at the White Cottage. Miss Watson
+leaves next Tuesday: I think Gladys could spare me by then.'
+
+Gladys shook her head. 'I shall never willingly spare you, Ursula; but of
+course I shall have no right to trespass on your time.'
+
+'No, of course not,' returned her brother sharply; 'Miss Garston has been
+too good to us already: we cannot expect her to sacrifice herself any
+longer. We will say Tuesday, then. You will come downstairs on Sunday,
+Gladys?'
+
+'Yes,' with a faint sigh.
+
+'We need not talk about my going yet, when Gladys is tired,' I returned,
+feeling inclined to scold Mr. Hamilton for his want of tact. Tuesday, and
+it was Wednesday now,--not quite a week more; but, looking up, I saw Mr.
+Hamilton regarding me so strangely, and yet so sorrowfully, that my
+brief irritability vanished. He was sorry that I was going; he seemed
+about to speak; his lips unclosed, then a sudden frown of recollection
+crossed his brow, and with a curt good-night he left us.
+
+'What is the matter with Giles?' asked Gladys, rather wearily: I could
+see she was very tired by this time. 'Have you and he quarrelled,
+Ursula?'
+
+'Not to my knowledge,' I replied quietly, turning away, that she should
+not see my burning cheeks. 'There is Chatty bringing the tea: are you not
+glad, dear?' And I busied myself in clearing the table.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII
+
+'CONSPIRACY CORNER'
+
+
+Gladys went to bed very early that night: her long drive had disposed her
+for sleep. The summer twilight was only creeping over the western sky
+when I closed her door and went out into the passage: the evening was
+only half over, and a fit of restlessness induced me to seek the garden.
+
+The moon was just rising behind the little avenue, and the soft rush of
+summer air that met me as I stepped through the open door had the breath
+of a thousand flowers on it. Mr. Hamilton was shut safely in his study;
+I was aware of that fact, as I had heard him tell Gladys that night
+that he had a medical article to write that he was anxious to finish.
+Miss Darrell would be reading novels in the drawing-room; there was no
+fear of meeting any one; but some instinct--for we have no word in our
+human language to express the divine impetus that sways our inward
+promptings--induced me to take refuge in the dark asphalt path that
+skirted the meadow and led to Atkinson's cottage and the kitchen-garden.
+
+I was unhappy,--in a mood that savoured of misanthropy; my fate was
+growing cross-grained, enigmatical. Mr. Hamilton's frown had struck
+cold to my heart; I was beginning to lose patience (to lose hope was
+impossible),--to ask myself why he remained silent.
+
+'If he has anything against me,--and his manner tells me that he
+has,--why does he not treat me with frankness?' I thought. 'He calls
+himself my friend, and yet he reposes no trust in me. He breaks my heart
+with his changed looks and coldness, and yet he gives me no reason for
+his injustice. I would not treat my enemy so, and yet all the time I feel
+he loves me.' And as I paced under the dark hanging shrubs I felt there
+was nothing morbid or untrue in those lines, that 'to be wroth with one
+that we love does work like madness on the brain,' and that I was growing
+angry with Mr. Hamilton.
+
+I had just reached a dark angle where the path dips a little, when I was
+startled by hearing voices close to me. There was a seat screened by some
+laurel-bushes that went by the name of 'Conspiracy Corner,' dating back
+from the time when Gladys and Eric were children and had once hidden some
+fireworks among the bushes. It was there that Claude Hamilton had
+proposed to Lady Betty, when Gladys had found them, and the two young
+creatures had appealed to her to help them. The seat was so hidden and
+secluded by shrubs that you could pass without seeing its occupants,
+unless a little bit of fluttering drapery or the gleam of some gold chain
+or locket caught one's eye. I remembered once being very much startled
+when Lady Betty popped out suddenly on me as I passed.
+
+I was just retracing my steps, with a sense of annoyance at finding my
+privacy invaded, when a sentence in Leah's voice attracted my attention:
+
+'I tell you he was driving with them this afternoon: I heard Miss Garston
+tell the master so. It is no good you fretting and worrying yourself,
+Miss Etta, to prevent those two coming together. I've always warned you
+that the vicar cares more for her little finger than he does for all your
+fine airs and graces.'
+
+I stood as though rooted to the spot, incapable of moving a step.
+
+'You are a cruel, false woman!' returned another voice, which I
+recognised as Miss Darrell's, though it was broken with angry sobs. 'You
+say that to vex me and make me wretched because you are in a bad temper.
+You are an ungrateful creature, Leah, after all my kindness; and it was
+you yourself who told me that he was getting tired of Gladys's whims and
+vagaries.'
+
+'I can't remember what I told you,' replied the woman sullenly. 'There
+are no fools like old ones, they say, and you need not believe everything
+as though it is gospel truth. There is not a man in the world worth all
+this worry. Why don't you give it up, Miss Etta? Do you think Mr.
+Cunliffe will ever give you a thought? I would be too proud, if I were
+a lady, to fling myself under a man's feet. Do you think he would like
+your crooked ways about Mr. Eric?'
+
+'Hush, Leah! for pity's sake, hush! What makes you so cruel to me
+to-night?'
+
+'Well now, look here, Miss Etta; I am not going to be hushed up when I
+choose to speak; and who is to hear us, I should like to know? only it is
+your guilty conscience that is always starting at shadows. I mean to
+speak to you pretty plainly, for I am getting sick of the whole business.
+You are playing fast and loose with me about that money. Are you going to
+give it me or not?'
+
+I drew a step nearer. Leah had mentioned Eric's name. Was it not my
+duty,--my bounden duty,--for Gladys's sake, for all their sakes, to hear
+what this woman had to say? Would it be dishonourable to listen when so
+much was at stake? Already I had been startled by a revelation that
+turned me cold with horror. Miss Darrell was Gladys's rival,--her deadly,
+secret rival,--and not one of us, not even Max, guessed at this unhealthy
+and morbid passion. That such a woman should love my pure-minded,
+honourable Max! I recoiled at the mere idea.
+
+'You are so impatient, Leah,' returned the other reproachfully. 'You know
+it is not easy for me to get the money. Giles was complaining the other
+day that so much was spent in the housekeeping; he never thought me
+extravagant before, but he seemed to say that my personal expenses were
+rather lavish. "You have twice as many gowns as Gladys," he said: "and,
+though I do not grudge you things, I think you ought to keep within your
+allowance."'
+
+'I can't help all that, Miss Etta,' and I could tell by the voice that
+the woman meant to be insolent. 'A promise is a promise, and must be
+kept, and poor Bob must not suffer from your procrastinating ways. You
+are far too slippery and shifty, Miss Etta; but I tell you that money I
+must and will have before this week is over, if I have to go to master
+myself about it.'
+
+'You had better go to him, then,' with rising temper. 'I don't quite know
+what Giles will say about retaining you in his service when he knows you
+have a brother at Millbank. A servant with a convict-brother is not
+considered generally desirable in a house.' But Leah broke in upon this
+sneering speech in sudden fury: even in my disgust at this scene I could
+not but marvel at Miss Darrell's recklessness in rousing the evil spirit
+in this woman.
+
+'You to talk of my poor Bob being in Millbank, who ought to be there
+yourself!' she cried, in a voice hoarse and low with passion. 'Are you
+out of your senses, Miss Etta, to taunt me with poor Bob's troubles? What
+is to prevent me from going to master now and saying to him--'
+
+'Oh, hush, Leah! please forgive me; but you made me so angry.'
+
+'From saying to him,' persisted Leah remorselessly, "'You are all of you
+wrong about Mr. Eric. You have hunted the poor boy out of the house, and
+driven him crazy among you; and if he has drowned himself, as folk
+believe, his death lies at Miss Etta's door. It was she who stole the
+cheque. I saw her take it with my own eyes, only she begged me on her
+knees not to betray her; and just then Mr. Eric came in with his letter,
+and the devil entered into me to cast the suspicion on him."'
+
+'Leah,' in a voice of deadly terror, 'for God's sake be silent! if any
+one should hear us! There was a crackling just now in the bushes. Leah,
+you were good to my mother: how can you be so cruel to me?'
+
+'It is no use your whining to me, Miss Etta,' returned the same hard,
+dogged voice; 'Bob must have that money. When I promised to keep your
+disgraceful secret,--when I stood by and helped you ruin that poor boy,
+and Bob cashed your cheque,--I named my price. I wanted to keep Bob out
+of mischief, but his bad companions were too much for him. Now are you
+going to get that money for me or not?'
+
+'I dare not ask Giles for more,' replied Miss Darrell, and I could hear
+she was crying. 'I gave you half the housekeeping money last week and the
+week before. If Giles looks at my accounts I am undone.'
+
+'And there was that cheque that you were to send Miss Gladys when she was
+at Bournemouth, and for which she sent that pretty message of thanks,'
+interposed Leah, with a sneer. 'Shall I tell master where that has gone,
+Miss Etta? And you to speak of my poor Bob because he is at Millbank!'
+
+'Leah, you are killing me,' renewed Miss Darrell. 'I might as well die as
+go on living like this. You are always threatening to turn against me,
+and I give you money whenever you ask me. You shall have my gold bracelet
+with the emerald star. It was my mother's and it will fetch a good deal.
+I cannot get more from Giles now. He is not like himself just now, and I
+dare not make him angry.'
+
+'Oh, you have tried your hand there, Miss Etta. No, I am not asking you,
+so you need not tell me any lies. I knew all about it when you sent me up
+to Hyde Park Gate to spy on my young lady. I have worked willingly for
+you there. I've hated Miss Garston ever since I set eyes on her. She is a
+sharp one, I tell you that, Miss Etta. She means to bring these two
+together, and she will do it in spite of you.'
+
+'I wish I were dead!' moaned Miss Darrell.
+
+But I did not dare to linger another moment. My heart was beating so
+loudly that I feared it would betray me. The faint stir of the bushes
+turned me sick, for I thought they might be moving from their seat. Not
+for worlds would I have confronted them alone in that dark asphalt walk.
+My fears were absurd, but I felt as though Leah were capable of
+strangling me. Granted that this terror was unreasonable and childish,
+I knew I could not breathe freely until I was within reach of Mr.
+Hamilton. As I crept down the path the sensation of a nightmare haunted
+me. I felt as though my feet were weighted with lead. My face was cold
+and damp, and I drew my breath painfully. I almost felt as though I must
+hide myself in the shrubbery until the faintness passed off; but I shook
+off my weakness as I remembered that I might be shut out of the house if
+I allowed them to go in first. As I emerged from the dark overhanging
+trees I grew calmer and walked on more quickly. I dared not cross the
+open lawn, for fear I might be seen, but took the most secluded route
+through the oak avenue. If they should perceive me walking down the
+terrace towards the conservatory they would only think that I had just
+left the house. I could see no signs of them, however, and gained the
+open door safely.
+
+Even in my state of terror I had made my plan, and without giving myself
+a moment to recover my self-possession I knocked at the study door, and,
+at Mr. Hamilton's rather impatient 'Come in,' entered it with the same
+sort of feeling that one would enter an ark of refuge.
+
+He laid down his pen in some surprise when he saw me, and then rose
+quickly from his seat.
+
+'You are ill; you have come to tell me so,' in an anxious voice. 'Don't
+try to speak this moment: sit down--my--Miss Garston'; but I caught his
+arm nervously as he seemed about to leave me.
+
+'Don't go away: I must speak to you. I am not ill: only I have had a
+turn. You may give me some water'; for there was a bottle and glass on
+the table. He obeyed me at once, and watched me as I tried to take it;
+but my hand trembled too much: the next moment he had put it to my lips,
+and had wiped the moisture gently from my forehead.
+
+'It is only faintness; it will pass off directly,' he said quietly. 'I
+will not leave you; but I have some sal volatile in that cupboard, and I
+think you will be the better for it.' And he mixed me some, and stood by
+me without speaking until the colour came back to my face. 'You are
+better now, Ursula--I mean,' biting his lips--'well, never mind. Do you
+feel a little less shaky?'
+
+'Yes, thank you. I did not mean to be so foolish, but it was dark, and
+I got frightened and nervous; and oh, Mr. Hamilton, I must not lose time,
+or they will be coming in.'
+
+'Who will be coming in?' he asked, rather bewildered at this. 'There is
+no one out, is there?'
+
+'Yes, Miss Darrell and Leah. I heard them talking in "Conspiracy Corner";
+you know that seat in the asphalt walk?'
+
+'Well?' regarding me with an astonished air.
+
+'Mr. Hamilton, I am better now. I am not frightened any longer now I am
+with you. Will you please call Leah when she comes in from the garden? I
+want to speak to her in your presence. I have a most serious charge to
+make against her and against your cousin Miss Darrell. It relates,' and
+here I felt my lips getting white again,--'it relates to your brother
+Eric.'
+
+He started, and an expression of pain crossed his face,--a sudden look
+of fear, as though he dreaded what I might have to tell him; but the next
+moment he was thinking only of me.
+
+'You shall speak to Leah to-morrow,' he said gently; 'it is late
+now,--nearly ten o'clock,--and you are ill, and had better go to bed
+and rest yourself. I can wait until to-morrow,' taking my cold hand.
+
+But I would not be silenced. I implored him earnestly to do this for
+me,--to summon Leah into the study, but not to let Miss Darrell know.
+
+'I suppose you think you could not sleep until you had relieved your
+mind,' he said, looking at me attentively. 'Well, they are coming in now.
+Leah is fastening the door. Finish that sal volatile while I fetch her.'
+
+I took it at a draught. But Mr. Hamilton's kindness had been my best
+restorative: I was no longer faint or miserable: he had cheered and
+comforted me.
+
+I heard Leah's voice approaching the study door with perfect calmness.
+
+'Miss Etta has gone up to bed, sir,' I heard her say; 'she has a
+headache: that is what makes her eyes so weak.'
+
+'I should have said myself that she was crying,' returned Mr. Hamilton
+drily. 'Come in here a moment, Leah; I want to speak to you.'
+
+She did not see me until the door was closed behind her, and then I saw
+her glance at me uneasily. Mr. Hamilton had evidently not prepared her
+for my presence in the study.
+
+'Did you or Miss Garston wish to speak to me, sir?' she asked, with a
+veiled insolence of manner that she had shown to me lately; but I could
+see that no suspicion of the truth had dawned on her.
+
+'It is I who wish to speak to you, Leah,' I returned severely; 'and
+I have asked your master to send for you that I might speak in his
+presence. Mr. Hamilton, I am going to repeat the conversation that I have
+just overheard between Leah and her mistress when they were in the seat
+in the asphalt walk: you shall hear it from my lips word for word.'
+
+I never saw a countenance change as Leah's did that moment: her ordinary
+sallow complexion became a sort of dead-white; from insolence, her manner
+grew cringing, almost abject; the shock deprived her of all power of
+speech; only directly I began she caught hold of my gown with both hands,
+as though to implore me to stop; but Mr. Hamilton shook off her touch
+angrily, and asked her if it looked as though she were an honest woman to
+be so afraid of her own words. And then the sullen look came back to her
+face and never left it again.
+
+I repeated every word. I do not believe I omitted a sentence, except
+that part that referred to Uncle Max. I could see Leah shrink and
+collapse as I mentioned her convict-brother, and such a gleam of fierce
+concentrated hatred shot from beneath her drooping lids that Mr. Hamilton
+instinctively moved to my side; but a low groan escaped him when I
+repeated Leah's words about the cheque. 'Good heavens! do you mean that
+Eric never took it?' he exclaimed, in a horror-stricken tone; but the
+woman merely raised her eyes and looked at him, and he was silent again
+until I had finished.
+
+There was a moment's ominous silence after that: perhaps Mr. Hamilton was
+praying for self-control; he had grown frightfully pale, and yet he was a
+man who rarely changed colour: the veins on his forehead were swollen,
+and when he spoke his voice was hoarse with repressed passion.
+
+'What have you to say for yourself, Leah? Do you know I could indict you
+for conspiracy and conniving at theft?'
+
+'I know that very well,' returned the woman, trying to brave it out; but
+she could not meet his indignant look. 'But it is your own flesh and
+blood that is in fault here. Miss Etta is more to blame than I.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton crossed the room and locked the door, putting the key coolly
+in his pocket; then he made me sit down,--for I had been standing all
+this time,--and, as though to enforce obedience, he kept his hand on my
+arm. I could see Leah looking about her as though she were caught in a
+trap: her light-coloured eyes had a scintillating look of fear in them.
+
+'Now, Leah,' observed her master, in a terrible voice, 'if you are to
+expect any mercy at my hand you will make a clean breast; but first you
+will answer my question: Has Miss Garston repeated the conversation
+between you and Miss Etta correctly?'
+
+'Yes, I believe so,' very sullenly.
+
+'You saw Miss Etta take the cheque with your own eyes the night before
+Mr. Eric left home?'
+
+'Yes.' Then, as though these questions tortured her, she said doggedly--
+
+'Look here, sir; I am caught in a trap, and there is no getting
+out of it. I have lost my place and my character, thanks to Miss
+Garston,'--another vindictive look at me. 'If you will promise like
+a gentleman not to take advantage of my evidence, I will tell you all
+about it.'
+
+'I will make no promises,' he returned, in the same stern voice; 'but
+if you do not speak I will send for the police at once, and have you up
+before a magistrate. You have connived at theft; that will be sufficient
+to criminate you.'
+
+'I know all about that,' was the unflinching answer; 'and I know for the
+old mistress's sake you will be glad to hush it all up: it would not be
+pleasant to bring your own cousin before a magistrate, especially after
+promising the old mistress on her death-bed to be as good to Miss Etta as
+though she were your own sister.'
+
+I saw the shadow of some sorrowful recollection cross his face as she
+said this. I had heard from Max how dearly he had loved his aunt
+Margaret: though her daughter had wrought such evil in his life, he would
+still seek to shield her. Leah knew this too, and took advantage of her
+knowledge in her crafty manner.
+
+'It would be best to tell you all, for Mr. Eric's sake. I know Miss Etta
+will be safe with you. She has done a deal of mischief since she has been
+under your roof. Somehow crooked ways come natural to her: the old
+mistress knew that, for she once said to me towards the last, "Leah, I am
+afraid my poor child has got some twist or warp in her nature; but I hope
+my nephew will never find out her want of straightforwardness." And she
+begged me, with tears in her eyes, to watch over her and try to influence
+her, although I was only a servant; and for a little while I tried, only
+the devil tempted me, for the sake of poor Bob.'
+
+'Bob is the name of your brother who is at Millbank?' asked Mr. Hamilton,
+in the same hard voice.
+
+'Yes, sir; he got into a bit of trouble through mixing with bad
+companions. But there,'--with a sudden fierce light in her eyes that
+reminded me of a tigress protecting her young,--'I am not going to
+talk of Bob: lads will get into trouble sometimes. If Mr. Eric had
+not been so interfering at that time, ordering Bob off the premises
+whenever he caught sight of him, and calling him a good-for-nothing
+loafer and all sorts of hard names,--why, he gave Bob a black eye one
+day when he was doing nothing but shying stones at the birds in the
+kitchen-garden,--if it had not been for Mr. Eric's treatment of Bob
+I might have acted better by him.'
+
+'Will you keep to the subject, Leah?' observed her master, in a warning
+voice. 'I wish to hear how that cheque was taken from my study that
+night.'
+
+'Well, sir, if you must know,' returned Leah reluctantly, 'Miss Etta was
+in a bit of a worry about money just then: she had got the accounts wrong
+somehow, and there was a heavy butcher's bill to be paid. She had let it
+run on too long, and all the time you believed it was settled every week:
+it was partly your fault, because you so seldom looked at the accounts,
+and was always trusting her with large sums of money. Miss Etta did not
+mean to be dishonest, but she was extravagant, and sometimes her
+dressmaker refused to wait for the money, and sometimes her milliner
+threatened to dun her; but she would quiet them a bit with a five- or
+ten-pound note filched from the housekeeping, always meaning, as she
+said, to pay it back when she drew her quarterly allowance.
+
+'I used to know of these doings of hers, for often and often she has sent
+me to pacify them with promises. I told her sometimes that she would do
+it once too often, but she always said it was for the last time.
+
+'She got afraid to tell me at last, but I knew all about the butcher's
+bill, for Mr. Dryden had been up to the house asking to see you, as he
+wanted his account settled. You were out when he called, but I never saw
+Miss Etta in such a fright: she had a fit of hysterics in her own room
+after he had left the house, and I had trouble enough to pacify her. She
+said if you found out that Dryden's account had not been settled for
+three months that you would never trust her again; that she was afraid
+Mr. Eric suspected her, and that she did not feel safe with him, and a
+great deal more that I cannot remember.
+
+'It ended with her making up her mind to pawn most of her jewellery, and
+we arranged that Bob should manage the business. He was up at the cottage
+for a night or two, though no one was aware of that fact, for he kept
+close, for fear Mr. Eric should spy upon him.
+
+'He slept at the cottage the very night the cheque was stolen from the
+study'; but as Leah paused here Mr. Hamilton lifted his head from his
+hands and bade her impatiently go on with the history of that night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV
+
+LEAH'S CONFESSION
+
+
+'You know what happened that day, sir,' observed Leah, hesitating a
+moment, for even her hard nature felt some compunction at the look of
+suffering on her master's face. She had eaten his bread for years, and
+had deceived and duped him; but she must have felt remorse stirring in
+her as she saw him drop his head on his clasped hands again, as though
+he were compelling himself to listen without interruption.
+
+'You had been talking to Mr. Eric a long time in the study, Miss Etta
+told me; he had been going on like mad about Mr. Edgar Brown, and having
+to go to Mr. Armstrong's office; but you had been very firm, and had
+refused to hear any more, and he had flung off to his own room in one of
+his passions. Miss Gladys had followed him, and I heard him telling her
+that he had forgotten himself and struck you, and that you had turned
+him out of the study, and that he was in difficulties and must have
+money, for Mr. Edgar had got him into some trouble.'
+
+'You heard this by listening at Mr. Eric's door, for Miss Gladys saw
+you,' I observed, not willing to let this pass.
+
+'What has that got to do with it?' she returned rudely. 'I am speaking
+to the master, not you': but she grew a shade paler as I spoke. 'You
+were up late that night, sir; I was waiting to speak to Miss Etta, and
+encountered you in the passage. I went back to my own room for a little
+while, and then I knocked at her door; but there was no answer. I could
+see the room was dark, but I could hardly believe she was asleep: so I
+went to the bed and called Miss Etta, but I very soon found she was not
+there: her gown was on the couch and her dressing-gown missing from its
+place.
+
+'I had a notion that I might as well follow her, for somehow I guessed
+that she had gone to the study; but I was certainly not prepared to see
+Mr. Eric stooping over your desk. He had a letter in his hand, and had
+just put down his chamber candlestick. All at once it flashed upon my
+mind that Miss Etta had told me that you had received a large cheque that
+night, and that you were going up to London the next day to cash it, and
+she hoped Dryden would not call again before you went. She said it quite
+casually, and I am sure then she had not thought of helping herself. Then
+the thought must have come to her all of a sudden.
+
+'I remembered the cheque, and for an instant I suspected Mr. Eric. But as
+I was watching him I saw the curtain of one of the windows move, and I
+had a glimpse of yellow embroidery that certainly belonged to Miss Etta's
+dressing-gown. In a moment I grasped the truth: she had taken the cheque
+to settle Dryden's bill. But I must make myself certain of the fact: so
+I asked Mr. Eric, rather roughly, what he was doing, and he retorted by
+bidding me mind my own business.
+
+'He had laid his letter on the desk, but when he had gone I walked up
+straight to the window, and nearly frightened Miss Etta into a fit by
+asking her what she had done with the cheque. She was grovelling on her
+knees before me in a moment, calling me her dear Leah and imploring me to
+shield her. I was very fierce with her at first, and was for putting it
+back again, until she told me, trembling all over, that she had endorsed
+it. She had copied your writing, and only an expert could have told the
+difference.
+
+'"It is too late, Leah," she kept saying; "we cannot hide it from Giles
+now, and I must have the money, and you must help me to get it." And then
+she whispered that I should have some of it for Bob.
+
+'"It is a nasty bit of business, Miss Etta," I replied, for I did not
+want to spare her; "it is forgery, that is what they would call it in a
+court of law"; but she would not let me finish, but flung herself upon me
+with a suppressed scream, and I could not shake her off. She kept saying
+that she would destroy herself if I would not help her: so I turned it
+over in my mind. I wanted money for Bob, and--well, sir, the devil had a
+deal to do with that night's business. I had settled it all before an
+hour was over. Bob would go up to London with the cheque, and cash it at
+the bank: he was tall and fair, and a suit of Mr. Eric's old clothes
+would make him quite the gentleman, and no one would notice the scar;
+when he was safely off and you missed the cheque there would be little
+trouble in casting the blame on Mr. Eric. I had taken care to place the
+letter in the desk, and I had plenty of circumstantial evidence to offer.
+
+'Well, you know the rest, sir,--how you called Miss Etta into your study,
+and how she begged you to send for me. I had my story all ready,--my fear
+of thieves, and how I saw Mr. Eric standing with his hand in your desk.
+Of course the cheque could not be found: no one believed the poor young
+gentleman's ravings, especially after his talk with Miss Gladys. We took
+care that the telegram should not be sent too soon. Bob was on his way
+back by then, and before evening Dryden had his money, and Bob was safe
+in Clerkenwell. What is the good of my repeating it all? I shielded Miss
+Etta at Mr. Eric's expense; and, though I was sorry enough to drive him
+away from his home, we had to look to our own safety, and Miss Etta was
+nearly out of her mind with remorse and terror.' But here Mr. Hamilton's
+voice interrupted her harshly.
+
+'Wait a moment, woman: have you ever since that day heard anything of
+that unfortunate boy?'
+
+To my surprise Leah hesitated. 'Miss Etta believes that he is dead, sir;
+but I can't help differing from her, though I never told her the reason;
+but I have fancied more than once,--indeed I am speaking the truth now,
+sir,' as he darted a meaning look at her, 'I have no motive to do
+otherwise.--I have fancied that I have seen some one very like Mr. Eric
+lurking about the road on a dark night. Once I was nearly sure it was Mr.
+Eric, though he wore a workman's dress as a disguise. He was looking at
+the windows; the blind was up in the study, and Miss Gladys was there
+with Mr. Cunliffe; he had made her laugh about something. It was a warm
+night, and rather wet, and the window was open; I was just shutting it
+when I caught sight of him, and nearly called out; but he turned away
+quickly, and hid himself in the shrubbery, and though I went out to look
+for him I was too late, for I could see him walking down the road.'
+
+'You are sure it was Mr. Eric.' Oh, the look of intense relief on Mr.
+Hamilton's face! He must have believed him dead all this time.
+
+'I am nearly sure, sir. I saw him again in town. I was passing the Albert
+Memorial when I looked up at one of the fine houses opposite, and saw a
+young workman on the balcony with a painter's brush in his hand: the sun
+was shining full on his face. I saw him plainly then.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton started from his seat. 'If this be true!--my father's son
+gaining his bread as a house-painter!'
+
+'It is true,' I whispered; 'for I saw him myself, and told Gladys.'
+
+'You saw him!--you!' with an air of utter incredulity.
+
+'Yes; and I tried to speak to him. He was so like the picture in Gladys's
+room, I thought it must be Eric. But he would not hear me, and in a
+moment he was gone. The men called him Jack Poynter, and said he was a
+gentleman, but no one knew where he lived. Oh, I have tried so hard to
+find him for you, but he will not be found.'
+
+'And you did not tell me of this,' very reproachfully.
+
+'Gladys would not let me tell you,' I returned: 'we could not be sure,
+and--' But he put up his hand to stop me.
+
+'That will do,' in a tone of suppressed grief that went to my heart. 'I
+will not wrong you if I can help it; no doubt you did it for the best;
+you did not willingly deceive me.'
+
+'Never! I have never deceived you, Mr. Hamilton.'
+
+'Not intentionally. I will do you justice even now; but, oh,'--and here
+he clinched his right hand, and I saw the veins on it stand out like
+whip-cord,--'how I have been betrayed! Those I have trusted have brought
+trouble and confusion in my household; and, good God! they are women, and
+I cannot curse them.'
+
+I saw Leah quail beneath this burst of most righteous indignation.
+The blinding tears rushed to my eyes as I heard him: in spite of his
+sternness, he had been so simple and so unsuspicious. He trusted people
+so fully, he was so generous in his confidence, and yet the woman he
+loved had played him false, and the pitiful creatures he had sheltered
+under his roof had hatched this conspiracy against his peace.
+
+'You can leave me now,' he continued harshly, turning to Leah. 'I will
+not trust myself to say more to you. If you receive mercy and not justice
+at my hands, it is because your confederate is even more guilty than you.
+I cannot spare the one without letting the other go unpunished. To-morrow
+morning, before the household is up, you and everything belonging to you
+shall leave this house. If you ever set foot in Heathfield again it will
+be at your own peril. Go up to your own room now and pack your boxes; I
+shall take the precaution of turning the key in your door to prevent your
+holding communication with any member of my household.'
+
+'I give you my word, sir--' began Leah, turning visibly pale at the idea
+of finding herself a prisoner.
+
+'Your word!' was the disdainful reply; and then he pointed to the door.
+'Go at once!' But she still lingered. There was a spark of good even in
+this woman. She was unwilling to quit our presence without knowing what
+was to become of her mistress.
+
+'You will not be hard on Miss Etta, sir? She has done wrong, but she is
+a poor creature, and--' But Mr. Hamilton walked to the door and threw it
+open with a gesture that compelled obedience.
+
+The next moment, however, he recoiled with a low exclamation of horror;
+for there, drawn up against the wall, in a strange half-crouching
+attitude, as though petrified with terror, was his miserable cousin.
+
+I heard Leah's shocked 'Miss Etta! How could you be so mad?' And then Mr.
+Hamilton put out his hand, as though to forbid approach; but with a cry
+of despair Miss Darrell seemed to sink to the ground, and held him
+convulsively round the knees, so that he could not free himself.
+
+'Get up, Etta!' he said indignantly. 'It is not to me you have to kneel';
+for he thought her attitude one of supplication. But I knew better. She
+had not strength to stand or support herself, and I passed behind him
+quickly and went to her help.
+
+'You cannot speak to him like that, Miss Darrell. He will not hear you.'
+But, though Leah assisted me, we had some difficulty in inducing her to
+relax her frantic grip. And even when we placed her in a chair she seemed
+as though she would sink again on the ground. She was trembling all over,
+her teeth chattering; the muscles of her face worked convulsively.
+
+'Giles, Giles,' she screamed, as he seemed about to leave her, 'you may
+kill me if you like, but you shall not look at me like this.' But,
+without vouchsafing her any answer, he turned to me.
+
+'Will you wait with my cousin a moment? I will be back directly.' I
+nodded assent. I knew he wished to see Leah safely in her room, but as
+he closed the door Miss Darrell clutched my arm. She seemed really beside
+herself.
+
+'Where has he gone? Will he fetch the police, Miss Garston? Will they put
+me in prison for it?'
+
+'No,' I returned sternly. 'You know you are safe with him. He will not
+hurt a hair of your head, because you are a woman, and his own flesh and
+blood.'
+
+'But he will banish me from his house!' she moaned. 'He will never
+forgive me or let me see his face again. He will tell--oh, I cannot bear
+it!'--her words strangled by a hoarse scream. 'I cannot and will not bear
+it.'
+
+I put my hand on her shoulder. 'You must control yourself,' I said
+coldly. 'Would you wish Mr. Hamilton to treat you as a mad woman? Listen
+to me, Miss Darrell. One part of your secret is safe with me. Try and
+restrain yourself, and I will promise you that it shall never pass my
+lips.'
+
+Even in her hysterical excitement she understood me, and a more human
+expression came into her hard, glaring eyes. 'Say it again; promise me,'
+she moaned. 'I hate you, but I know you are to be trusted.'
+
+'If you behave yourself and try to control your feelings a little,' I
+returned slowly, 'I will say nothing about Uncle Max.' But at the name
+she covered her face with her hands and rocked herself in agony. In spite
+of all her sins I pitied her then.
+
+At that moment Mr. Hamilton returned; but before he could speak I said
+quickly--
+
+'Your cousin is not in a condition to listen to you to-night, and it is
+very late: I am going to take her up to her room and do what I can to
+help her. Will you allow us to go?'
+
+He looked at her and then at me. His face was hard and sombre; there was
+no relenting there. 'Perhaps it will be better,' he returned slowly.
+'Yes, you may go, but do not stay long with her. I may want to speak
+to you again.'
+
+'Not to-night,' I remonstrated; for I could see he was oblivious of the
+time, and it was near midnight. 'To-morrow morning, as early as you like;
+but I cannot come down again.'
+
+'Oh, I see,' the meaning of my words dawning upon him. 'To-morrow
+morning, then. Take her away now.' And, without another glance, he walked
+away to his study table.
+
+'Come, Miss Darrell,' I whispered, touching her; and she rose
+reluctantly. 'Giles,--let me say one word to him,' said she, trying to
+follow him feebly, but I recalled her sternly and made her follow me. I
+had no fear of her now. Leah, whom I dreaded, was locked safely in her
+room, and this poor miserable woman was harmless enough.
+
+She broke into hysterical sobs and moans when I got her into her own
+room. I was afraid Gladys might hear her, and I insisted on her showing
+more self-control. My sharp words had their effect after a time, but it
+was impossible to induce her to undress or go to bed. She had flung
+herself across the foot and lay crouched up in a heap, with all the
+delicate embroidery of her French dressing-gown crushed under her. When
+she was quieter I put pillows under her head and covered her up warmly,
+and then sat down to watch her.
+
+I was about to leave the room once to fetch something I wanted, when she
+suddenly struggled into a sitting posture, and begged me, in a voice of
+horror, not to leave her.
+
+'Leah will murder me if you do!' she cried. 'She has frightened me
+often,--she says such things,--oh, you do not know! I should never have
+been so bad but for Leah!'
+
+'I shall not be long; and Leah is locked in her room; Mr. Hamilton has
+the key,' I returned quietly. But it was with difficulty that she would
+let me go. I suppose even criminals feel the need of sympathy. Miss
+Darrell hated me in her heart, had always hated me, but the sight of even
+an unloved human face was better than solitude. No wonder with such
+thoughts people go mad sometimes.
+
+I was surprised to see Mr. Hamilton walking up and down the long passage,
+as though he were keeping guard. He was going to let me pass him without
+a word, but I stopped and asked what he was doing.
+
+'I was waiting until you were safe in your own room,' was the reply.
+'What has kept you so long?'
+
+'I must go back again,' I returned quickly; 'she is not fit to be left
+alone. I am not afraid of her now, Mr. Hamilton: she can do me no harm.
+Please do not watch any longer.'
+
+'You were ill: have you forgotten that? I ought not to allow you to make
+yourself worse. Why,' with a sort of impatience visible in his manner,
+'need you be troubled about our miserable affairs?'
+
+'Let me go back for a little while,' I pleaded; for I knew if he ordered
+me into my own room I should be obliged to obey him. 'It keeps her in
+check, seeing me there: she is so exhausted that she must sleep soon; and
+then I will lie down.' I suppose he thought there was no help for it, for
+he drew back for me to pass; but I was grieved to hear his footsteps for
+a long time after that pacing slowly up and down, and it was more for his
+sake than my own that I was glad when Miss Darrell's moans ceased, and
+the more quiet regular breathing proved to me that she was asleep.
+
+The passage was empty when I came out, and the first faint streak of dawn
+was visible. It was too late then to think of going to bed. I lay down,
+dressed as I was, and slept for a couple of hours; then the sunshine woke
+me, and I got up and took my bath and felt refreshed.
+
+Chatty brought me my tea early, and told me that Mr. Hamilton was walking
+in the garden. 'And do you know, ma'am,' observed the girl breathlessly,
+'something strange must have happened since last evening; for when I
+looked out of my window before six this morning I saw master standing
+before the door, and there was Leah, in her bonnet, speaking to him, and
+she went off with Pierson, wheeling off her boxes on his truck. I do
+believe she has really gone, ma'am, and not a creature in the house knows
+it.'
+
+'Never mind: it is not our business, Chatty; but I think I will go and
+speak to your master when I have finished my tea.'
+
+'I was to give you a message, ma'am,--that he would be glad if you could
+join him in the garden as soon as you were up, as he had to go some
+distance, and he wanted to tell you about it.' I put down my cup at once
+when I heard this, and hurried out into the garden.
+
+Mr. Hamilton was pacing up and down the asphalt walk as he had paced the
+passage last night. He did not quicken his steps when he saw me, but
+walked towards me slowly, with the gait of a man who has a load on his
+mind.
+
+'I hardly expected you so early. Have you had any rest at all?' looking
+at me rather anxiously.
+
+'Yes, thank you; I have slept for two hours. But you have not, Mr.
+Hamilton'; for he was looking wretchedly worn and ill.
+
+'Was it likely that I could sleep?' he returned impatiently. 'But I have
+no time to waste. Atkinson will be round here directly with the dog-cart.
+I am going off to Liverpool by the 12.10 train.'
+
+'To Liverpool?' in unfeigned surprise.
+
+'Yes; I have been thinking all night what is to be done about my
+unfortunate cousin. She is dependent on me, and I cannot send her away
+without finding her a home. That home,' pausing as though to give
+emphasis to his words, 'can never be under my roof again.'
+
+'I suppose not.'
+
+'The sin is of too black a dye for me to bring myself to forgive her. If
+I were to say that I forgive her I should lie.' And here his face became
+dark again. 'She has disgraced that poor boy Eric, and driven him away
+from his home; she has made Gladys's life wretched: her whole existence
+must have been a tissue of deceit and treachery. How could I sleep when
+I was trying to disentangle this mesh of deception and lies? how do I
+know when she has been true or when wholly false?'
+
+'I fear there has been little truth spoken to you, Mr. Hamilton.' I was
+thinking of Gladys when I said that, but something in my words seemed to
+strike him.
+
+'Is there anything else I ought to know? But no, I have no time for that:
+I must try and make some arrangements at once: she cannot break bread
+with us again. The people I want to find are old patients of mine. I was
+able to serve them once: I feel as though I have a claim on them.'
+
+'But you will be back soon?' for I could not bear him to leave us alone.
+
+'To-morrow morning. I will take the night train up, but I shall be
+detained in London. Take care of Gladys for me, Miss Garston. Do not tell
+her more than you think necessary. Do not let Etta see her, if you can
+help it; but I know you will act for the best.' Then, as he looked at me,
+his face softened for a moment. 'I wish I had not to leave you; but you
+could send for Mr. Cunliffe.'
+
+'Oh, there will be no need for that,' I returned hastily, for the thought
+of the wretched woman upstairs would prevent me from sending for Uncle
+Max. 'Come back as quickly as you can, and I will do my best for Gladys.'
+
+'I know it. I can trust you,' he replied, very gently. 'Take care of
+yourself also.' Then, as the wheels of the dog-cart sounded on the
+gravel, he held out his hand to me gravely, and then turned away. A
+moment afterwards I heard his voice speaking to Atkinson, and as I
+entered the shrubbery Pierson was fastening the gate after them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV
+
+'THIS HOME IS YOURS NO LONGER'
+
+
+There are long gray days in every one's life.
+
+I think that day was the longest that I ever spent: it seemed as though
+the morning would never merge into afternoon, or the afternoon into
+evening. Of the night I could not judge, for I slept as only weary youth
+can sleep.
+
+Sheer humanity, the mere instinct of womankind, had obliged me to watch
+by Miss Darrell through the previous night: for some hours her hysterical
+state had bordered on frenzy. I knew sleep was the best restorative in
+such cases: she would wake quieter. There would be no actual need for my
+services, and unless she sent for me I thought it better to leave her
+alone: she was only suffering the penalty of her own sin, the shame of
+detected guilt. There was no sign of real penitence to give me hope for
+the future.
+
+I found Gladys awake when I returned from the garden: in spite of my
+anxiety, it gave me intense pleasure to hear her greeting words.
+
+'Oh, Ursula, come and kiss me; it is good morning indeed. I woke so
+happy; everything is so lovely,--the sunshine, and the birds, and the
+flowers!' And, with a smile, 'I wished somebody could have seen--"my
+thoughts of Max."' And then, still holding me fast, 'I do not forget my
+poor boy, in spite of my happiness, but something tells me that Eric will
+soon come back.'
+
+'He might have been here now,' I grumbled, 'if you had allowed me to tell
+your brother'; for those few reproachful words haunted me.
+
+'Yes, dear; I know I was wrong,' she answered, with sweet candour. 'Giles
+is so kind now that I cannot think why I was so reserved with him; but of
+course,' flushing a little, 'I was afraid of Etta.'
+
+'I suppose that was the reason,' I returned, busying myself about the
+room; for I did not care to pursue the subject. Mr. Hamilton's few words
+had convinced me that he thought it would be wiser to leave Gladys in
+ignorance of what was going on until Miss Darrell was out of the house.
+She had borne so much, and was still weak and unfit for any great
+excitement. My great fear was lest Miss Darrell should force her way
+into Gladys's presence and disturb her by a scene; and this fear kept
+me anxious and uneasy all day.
+
+Gladys was a trifle restless; she wanted a drive again, and when I made
+her brother's absence a pretext for refusing this, she pleaded for a
+stroll in the garden. It was with great difficulty that I at last induced
+her to remain quietly in her room. But when she saw that I was really
+serious she gave up her wishes very sweetly, and consoled herself by
+writing to Max, in answer to a letter that he had sent under cover to me.
+
+It was nearly noon before Chatty brought me a message that Miss Darrell
+was just up and dressed, and wished to speak to me; and I went at once to
+her.
+
+The usually luxurious room had an untidy and forlorn aspect. The crumpled
+Indian dressing-gown and the breakfast-tray littered the couch;
+ornaments, jewellery, and brushes strewed the dressing-table. Miss
+Darrell was sitting in an easy-chair by the open window. She did not
+move or glance as I entered in the full light. She looked pinched and
+old and plain. Her eyelids were swollen; her complexion had a yellowish
+whiteness; as I stood opposite to her, I could see gray hairs in the
+smooth dark head; before many years were over Miss Darrell would look an
+old woman. I could not help wondering, as I looked at her, how any one
+could have called her handsome.
+
+'Chatty says Leah has gone,' she said, in a voice fretful with misery.
+'I told her that that was too good news to be true. Is it true, Miss
+Garston?'
+
+'Yes; she has gone.'
+
+'I am glad of it,' with a vixenish sharpness that surprised me. 'I hated
+that woman, and yet I was afraid of her too: she got me in her toils, and
+then I was helpless. Where has Giles gone, Miss Garston? Chatty said he
+went off in a dog-cart with his portmanteau.'
+
+How I wished Chatty would hold her tongue sometimes! but most likely Miss
+Darrell had questioned her.
+
+'Mr. Hamilton's business is not our affair,' I returned coldly.
+
+'That means I am not to ask; but all the same you are in his secret,'
+with one of her old sneers. 'Will he be back to-night?'
+
+'No, not to-night; to-morrow morning early.'
+
+'That is all I want to know, Miss Garston,' hesitating a little
+nervously. 'I have never liked you, but all the same I have not injured
+you.'
+
+'Have you not, Miss Darrell?'
+
+'No,' very uneasily; but she did not meet my eyes. 'I defy you to prove
+that I have. Still, if I were your enemy, ought you not to heap coals of
+fire on my head?'
+
+'Possibly.'
+
+My coolness seemed to frighten her; she lost her sullen self-possession.
+
+'Have you no heart?' she said passionately. 'Will you not hold up a
+finger to help me? You have influence with Giles; do not deny it. If you
+ask him to keep me here he will not refuse you, and you will make me your
+slave for life.'
+
+I heard this proposition with disgust. She could cringe to me whom she
+hated. I shook my head, feeling unable to answer her.
+
+'I could help you,' she persisted, fixing her miserable eyes on me. 'Oh,
+I know what you want: you cannot hide from me that you are unhappy. I
+know where the hindrance lies; one word from me would bring Giles to your
+feet. Am I to say that word?'
+
+'No,' I returned indignantly. 'Do you think that I would owe anything
+to you? I would rather be unhappy all my life than be under such an
+obligation. You are powerless to harm me, Miss Darrell; your plots are
+nothing to me.'
+
+'And yet a word from me would bring him to your feet.'
+
+'I do not want him there,' I replied, irritated at this persistence.
+'I do not wish you to mention his name to me; if you do so again I will
+leave you.'
+
+'On your head be your own obstinacy,' she returned angrily; but I could
+see the despair in her eyes, and I answered that.
+
+'Miss Darrell,' I went on, more gently, 'I cannot help you in this. How
+could I ask Mr. Hamilton to keep you under his roof, knowing that you
+have poisoned his domestic happiness? Even if I could be so mad or
+foolish, would he be likely to listen to me?'
+
+'He would listen to you,' half crying: 'you know he worships the ground
+you walk on.'
+
+I tried to keep back the rebellious colour that rose to my face at her
+words.
+
+'Do not cheat yourself with this insane belief,' I returned quietly. 'Mr.
+Hamilton is inexorable when he has decided on anything.'
+
+'Inexorable! you may well say so!' rocking herself in an uncontrollable
+excitement. 'Giles is hard,--cruel in his wrath: he will send me away and
+never see me again.' And now the tears began to flow.
+
+'Miss Darrell,' I continued pityingly, 'for your own sake listen to me a
+moment. You have failed most miserably in the past: let the future years
+be years of repentance and atonement. Mr. Hamilton will not forgive until
+you have proved yourself worthy of forgiveness: remember you owe the
+future to him.'
+
+She stared at me for a moment as though my words held some hope for her;
+then she turned her back on me and went on rocking herself. 'Too late!'
+I heard her mutter: 'I cannot be good without him.' And, with a strange
+sinking of heart, I left the room.
+
+She could bring him to my feet with a word. Was this the truth, or only
+an idle boast? No matter; I would not owe even his love to this woman.
+'I can live without you, Giles,--my Giles,' I whispered; but hot tears
+burnt my cheeks as I spoke.
+
+In the afternoon I saw Miss Darrell pacing up and down the asphalt walk.
+Gladys saw her too, and turned away from the window rather nervously.
+'How restless Etta seems!' she said once; but I made no answer. Towards
+evening I heard her footsteps perambulating the long passage, and softly
+turned the key in the lock without Gladys noticing the movement. Gladys
+noticed very little in that sweet dreamy mood that had come to her; her
+own thoughts occupied her; her lover's letter had more than contented
+her.
+
+About ten o'clock I went in search of Chatty, and came face to face with
+Miss Darrell. She was in her crumpled yellow dressing-gown, and her dark
+hair hung over her shoulders; her eyes looked bright and strange. I moved
+back a step and laid my hand on the handle.
+
+She greeted this action with a disagreeable laugh.
+
+'I suppose you heard me trying the door just now. Yes, I wanted to see
+Gladys; I wished to make some one feel as wretched as I do myself; but
+you were too quick for me. Do you always keep your patients under lock
+and key?'
+
+'Sometimes,' laconically, for I disliked her manner more than ever
+to-night: it was not the first time that I had fancied that she had had
+recourse to some form of narcotic. 'Why do you not go to bed, Miss
+Darrell?'
+
+'Perhaps I shall when I have thoroughly tired myself. These passages have
+rather a ghastly look: they remind me of Leah, too,' with a shudder.
+'Good-night, Miss Garston; pleasant dreams to you. I suppose you have
+not thought better of what I said about Giles?'
+
+'No, certainly not,' retreating into my room and locking the door in a
+panic. I heard a husky laugh answer me. Perhaps last night's watching had
+tired my nerves, for it was long before I could compose myself to sleep.
+
+The night passed quietly, and I woke, refreshed, to the sound of summer
+rain pattering on the shrubs. The little oak avenue looked wet and
+dreary; but no amount of rain or outward dreariness could damp me, with
+the expectation of Mr. Hamilton's return; and I helped Chatty arrange our
+rooms with great cheerfulness.
+
+He came back earlier than I expected. I had hardly finished settling
+Gladys for the day,--she took great pains with her toilet now, and was
+hard to please in the matter of ruffles and ornaments,--when Chatty told
+me that he wished to speak to me a moment.
+
+I made some excuse and joined him without delay. He looked much as he
+had the previous morning,--very worn and tired, and his eyes a little
+sunken; but he greeted me quietly, and even kindly; he asked me if I felt
+better, and how Gladys was. I was rather ashamed of my nervous manner of
+answering, but that odious speech of Miss Darrell would come into my
+mind when he looked at me.
+
+'Chatty says my cousin is in the dining-room: do you mind coming down
+with me for a few minutes? I do not wish to see her alone.'
+
+Of course I signified my willingness to accompany him, and he walked
+beside me silently to the dining-room door.
+
+Miss Darrell was sitting on the circular seat looking out on the oak
+avenue; she did not turn her head, and there was something hopeless in
+the line of her stooping shoulders. I saw her hands clutch the cushions
+nervously as her cousin walked straight to the window.
+
+'Etta,' he began abruptly, 'I wish you to listen to me a moment. I will
+spare you all I can, for Aunt Margaret's sake: I do not intend to be more
+hard with you than my duty demands.'
+
+'Oh, Giles!' raising her eyes at this mild commencement; but they dropped
+again at the sight of the dark impenetrable face, which certainly had no
+look of pity on it. She must have felt then, what I should certainly have
+felt in her place, that any prayers or tears would be wasted on him.
+
+'It would be useless, and worse than useless,' he went on, 'to point out
+to you the heinousness of your sin,--perhaps I should say crime. All
+these years you have not faltered in your relentless course; no pity for
+me and mine has touched your heart; you have allowed our poor lad to
+wander about the world as an outcast; you have suffered Gladys to carry a
+heavy and bitter weight in her bosom. Pshaw! why do I reiterate these
+things? you know them all.'
+
+'Giles, I have loved you in spite of it all! Be merciful to me!' But he
+went on as though he heard her no more than the rain dripping on the
+leaves.
+
+'This home is yours no longer; you are no fit companion for my sisters,
+even if I could bear to shelter a traitor under my roof. If I know my
+present feelings, I will never willingly see your face again: whether I
+ever do see it depends on your future conduct.'
+
+'Oh, for pity's sake, Giles!' She was writhing now. In spite of all her
+sins against him, she had loved him in her perverse way.
+
+'I have found you a home far from here,' he continued in the same
+chilling manner, 'and to-morrow morning you will be taken to it. The
+Alnwicks are kind, worthy people--not rich in this world's goods, or what
+the world would call refined. I was able to help them once when they were
+in bitter straits: in return they have acceded to my request and have
+offered you a home.'
+
+'I will not go!' she sobbed passionately. 'I would rather you should kill
+me, Giles, than treat me with such cruelty!'
+
+'They are old,' he went on calmly, 'but more with trouble than years, and
+they have no one belonging to them, and they promise to treat you like a
+daughter. You will be in comfort, but not luxury: luxury has been your
+curse, Etta. A moderate sum will be paid to you yearly for your dress and
+personal expenses, but if overdrawn or misapplied it will be curtailed
+or stopped altogether. Your maintenance will be arranged between the
+Alnwicks and myself, and, unless I give you permission to write,--which
+is distinctly not my purpose now,--no letter from you will be read or
+answered, and I forbid all such communication.'
+
+'I cannot--I cannot bear it!' she screamed, springing to her feet; but he
+waved her back with such a look that her arms dropped to her side.
+
+'No scene, I beg,' in a tone of disgust. 'Let me finish quietly what I
+have to say.--Miss Garston,' turning to me, 'could you spare Chatty to
+help my cousin pack her clothes and books? for we shall start early in
+the morning. Mr. Alnwick has promised to meet us half-way.'
+
+'I can set Chatty at liberty for the day,' was my answer.
+
+'Very well. Etta, you may as well go at once. Your meals will be served
+in your room. I do not wish you to resume your usual habits: this is my
+house, not yours. Your only course now must be obedience and submission.
+Let your future conduct atone to me for the past, that I may remember
+without shame that I have a cousin Etta.'
+
+He turned away then, but I could see his face working. He had dearly
+loved this miserable creature, and had cared for her as though she had
+been his sister, and he could not leave her without this vague word of
+hope. Did she understand him, I wonder,--that in the future he might
+bring himself to forgive her? I heard her weeping bitterly in her room
+afterwards, and Chatty, in her fussy, good-natured way, trying to comfort
+her: the girl had a kind heart.
+
+Early in the afternoon Mr. Hamilton joined us in the turret-room.
+Directly he came in and sat down by his sister's couch I knew that he
+meant to tell her everything,--that he thought it best that she should
+hear it from him.
+
+He told it very quietly, without any explanation or expression of
+feeling; but it was not possible for Gladys to hear that Eric's name was
+cleared without keen emotion. 'Oh, thank God for this other mercy!' she
+sobbed, bursting into tears; and presently, as he went on, she crept
+closer to him, and before he had finished she had clasped his arm with
+her two hands and her face was hidden in them.
+
+'Oh, Giles! if you only knew what she has made me suffer!' she whispered.
+'We should have understood each other better if Etta had not always come
+between us.'
+
+'You are right; I feel you are right, Gladys,' stroking her fair hair as
+he spoke; then she looked up and smiled affectionately in his face.
+
+'Ursula, will you leave me alone with my brother for a little? There is
+something I want to tell him!' And I went away at once.
+
+As I opened the door, Chatty came down the passage with a pile of
+freshly-ironed linen. Her round face looked unusually disturbed.
+
+'She is going on so, ma'am,' she whispered, 'it is dreadful to hear her.
+She is making us turn out all her drawers, and there are three big trunks
+to fill. She says she is going away for ever.'
+
+'Hush!' I returned, with a warning look, for Miss Darrell was at the door
+watching us. She was in her yellow dressing-gown, and the old pinched
+look was still in her face.
+
+'Why are you stopping to gossip, Chatty?' she said querulously. 'I shall
+not have finished until midnight at this rate. Leah would have packed by
+this time.' And Chatty, with rather a frightened look, carried in her
+pile of clean linen.
+
+I strolled about the garden for an hour, and then went back to the house.
+Mr. Hamilton was just closing the door of his sister's room. He looked
+happier, I thought: the dark, irritable expression had left his face. He
+came forward with a smile.
+
+'Gladys has been telling me, Miss Garston. I am more glad than I can say.
+Cunliffe is a fine fellow; there is no one that I should like so well for
+a brother.'
+
+'I knew you would say so. Uncle Max is so good.'
+
+'Well, he has secured a prize,' with a slight sigh. 'Gladys is a noble
+woman; she will make her husband a happy man. There is little doubt that
+Etta did mischief there; but Gladys was not willing to enter on that part
+of the subject. I begin to think,' with a quick, searching look that
+somewhat disturbed me, 'that we have not yet reached the limits of her
+mischief-making.'
+
+I could have told him that I knew that. I think he meant to have said
+something more; but a slight movement in the direction of Miss Darrell's
+room made us separate somewhat quickly. I saw Mr. Hamilton glance
+uneasily at the half-closed door as he went past it.
+
+I found Gladys in tears, but she made me understand with some difficulty
+that they were only tears of relief and joy.
+
+'But I am sorry too, because I have so often grieved him so,' she said,
+drying her eyes. 'Oh, how good Giles is!--how noble!--and I have
+misunderstood him so! he was so glad about Max, and so very very kind.
+And then we talked about Eric. He says we were wrong to keep it from him,
+that even you were to blame in that. He thinks so highly of you, Ursula;
+but he said even good people make mistakes sometimes, and that this was
+a great mistake. I was so sorry when he said that, that I asked his
+pardon over and over again.'
+
+I felt that I longed to ask his pardon too; and yet the fault had been
+Gladys's more than mine; but I knew she had talked enough, so I kissed
+her, and begged her to lie down and compose herself while I got the tea
+ready.
+
+We did not see Mr. Hamilton again that night. Gladys and I sat by the
+open window, talking by snatches or relapsing into silence. When she had
+retired to rest I stole out into the passage to see what had become of
+tired Chatty, but I repented this charitable impulse when I saw Miss
+Darrell standing in the open doorway opposite, as though she were
+watching for some one.
+
+On seeing me she beckoned imperiously, and I crossed the passage with
+some reluctance.
+
+'Come in a moment: I want to speak to you,' she said hoarsely; and I
+saw she was much excited. 'I sent Chatty to bed. We have finished
+packing,--oh, quite finished. Giles will be satisfied with my obedience;
+and now I want you to tell me what you and he were saying about Mr.
+Cunliffe.' But her white lips looked whiter as she spoke.
+
+'Excuse me, Miss Darrell,' I returned; but she stopped me.
+
+'You are going to say that it is no business of mine. You are always
+cautious, Miss Garston; but I am resolved to know this, or I will refuse
+to leave the house to-morrow morning. Are they engaged? is that what
+Giles meant when he said he was a fine fellow?'
+
+I thought it wiser to tell her the truth. 'They are engaged.'
+
+'And Giles knows it, and gives his consent?'
+
+'Most gladly and willingly.'
+
+'I wish I could kill them both!' was the sullen reply; and then, without
+taking any further notice of me, she sat down on one of the boxes and hid
+her face in her hands, and when I tried to speak to her she shook her
+head with a gesture of impatience and despair.
+
+'The game is played out; I may as well go,' she muttered; and seeing her
+in this mood I thought it better to leave her; but I slept uneasily, and
+often started up in bed fancying I heard something. I remembered her
+words with horror: the whole scene was like a nightmare to me,--the
+disordered and desolate room, with the great heavily-corded trunks, the
+dim light, the wretched woman in her yellow dressing-gown sitting
+crouched on a box. 'Can this be love?' I thought, with a shudder,--'this
+compound of vanity and selfishness?' and I felt how different was my
+feeling for Giles. The barrier might never be broken down between us, I
+might never be to him more than I was now, but all my life I should love
+and honour him as the noblest man I knew on God's earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI
+
+NAP BARKS IN THE STABLE-YARD
+
+
+I was arranging some flowers that Max had sent us the next morning, and
+waiting for Gladys to join me, when Mr. Hamilton came in.
+
+'Where is Gladys?' he asked, looking round the room; but when he heard
+that she had not finished dressing, he would not hear of my disturbing
+her.
+
+'It is no matter,' he went on. 'I shall be back before she is in bed. I
+only wanted to tell her that I have seen Cunliffe. I breakfasted with him
+this morning. He will be up here presently to see her. He looks ten years
+younger, Miss Garston.' And, as I smiled at that, he continued, in rather
+a constrained voice,--
+
+'Mr. Tudor breakfasted with us.'
+
+'Yes, I suppose so,' I returned carelessly. 'What splendid carnations
+these are, Mr. Hamilton! You have not any so good at Gladwyn.'
+
+'Cunliffe must spare me some cuttings,' he replied, rather absently;
+then, without looking at me, and in a peculiar voice, 'Is it still a
+secret, Miss Garston, or may I be allowed to congratulate you?'
+
+I dropped the carnations as though they suddenly scorched me.
+
+'Why should you congratulate me, Mr. Hamilton?'
+
+'I thought you considered me a friend,' he replied, rather nervously.
+'But, of course, if it be still a secret, I must beg your pardon for my
+abruptness.'
+
+'I don't know what you mean,' I said, very crossly, but my cheeks were
+burning. 'If this be a joke, I must tell you once for all that I dislike
+this sort of jokes: they are not in good taste': for I was as angry with
+him as possible, for who knew what nonsense he had got into his head? He
+looked at me in quite a bewildered fashion; my anger was evidently
+incomprehensible to him. We were playing at cross-purposes.
+
+'Do you think I am in the mood for joking?' he said, at last. 'Have you
+ever heard me jest on such subjects, Miss Garston? I thought we agreed on
+that point.'
+
+'Do you mean you are serious?'
+
+'Perfectly serious.'
+
+'Then in that case will you kindly explain to me why you think I am to be
+congratulated?'
+
+He looked uncomfortable. 'I have understood that you and Mr. Tudor
+were engaged, or, at least, likely to become so. Do you mean,' as
+my astonished face seemed to open room for doubt, 'that it is not
+true?--that Etta deceived me there?'
+
+'Miss Darrell!' scornfully; then, controlling my strong indignation
+with an effort, I said, more quietly, 'I think that we ought to beg Mr.
+Tudor's pardon for dragging in his name in this way: he would hardly
+thank us. If I am not mistaken, he is in love with my cousin Jocelyn.'
+
+'Impossible! What a credulous fool I have been to believe her! Your
+cousin Jocelyn,--do you mean Miss Jill?'
+
+'Yes,' I returned, smiling, for a sense of renewed happiness was stealing
+over me. 'The foolish fellow is always following me about to talk of her.
+I do believe he is honestly in love with her. He saved her life, and that
+makes it all the worse.'
+
+'All the better, you mean,' regarding me gravely. That fixed, serious
+look made me rather confused.
+
+'Would you mind telling me, Mr. Hamilton,' I interposed hurriedly, 'what
+put this absurd idea into your head?'
+
+'It was Etta,' he returned, in a low voice. 'It was that night when you
+had been singing to us, and she came home unexpectedly.'
+
+'Yes, yes, I remember'; but I could not meet his eyes.
+
+'She told me when we got home that Mr. Tudor was in love with you, and
+that she believed you were engaged, or that, at least, there was an
+understanding between you; and she added that if I did not believe her I
+might watch for myself, and I should see that you were always together.'
+
+'Well?' rather impatiently.
+
+'I will beg your pardon afterwards for following Etta's advice, but I did
+watch, and it was not long before I came round to her opinion.'
+
+'Mr. Hamilton!'
+
+'Wait a moment before you get angry with me again. I never saw you in a
+passion before'; but I knew he was laughing at me. 'Etta was certainly
+right in one thing: I seemed always finding you together.'
+
+'That was because I often met Mr. Tudor in the village, and he turned
+back and walked with me a little; but we always talked of Jill.'
+
+'How could I know that?' in rather an injured voice. 'Were you talking of
+Miss Jocelyn in the vicarage kitchen-garden that evening?'
+
+'Probably,' was my cool reply; for how could I remember all the subjects
+of our conversation?
+
+'And when you went to Hyde Park Gate, you were together then,--Leah saw
+you,--and--' But I could bear no more.
+
+'How could I know that I should be watched and spied upon, and all my
+innocent actions misrepresented?' I exclaimed indignantly. 'It was not
+fair, Mr. Hamilton. I could not have believed it of you, that you should
+listen to such things against me. That boy, too!'
+
+'Nonsense!' speaking in his old good-humoured voice, and looking
+exceedingly pleased. 'He is five-and-twenty, and a very good-looking
+fellow: a girl might do worse for herself than marry Lawrence Tudor.'
+
+'But I intend to have him as my cousin some day,' was my reply; but at
+this moment Chatty came in to tell Mr. Hamilton that the boxes were in
+the cart, and Miss Darrell waiting in the carriage.
+
+'Confound it! I had forgotten all about Etta,' he returned impatiently.
+'Well, it cannot be helped: we must finish our conversation this
+evening.' And with a smile that told of restored confidence he went off.
+
+I sat down and cried a little for sheer happiness, for I knew the barrier
+was broken at last, and that we should soon arrive at a complete
+understanding. It was hard that he should have to leave me just then; and
+the thought of resuming the conversation in the evening made me naturally
+a little nervous. 'Supposing I go back to the White Cottage,' I thought
+once; but I knew he would follow me there, and that it would seem idle
+coquetting on my part. It would be more dignified to wait and hear what
+he had to say. I should go back to the White Cottage in a day or two.
+
+Gladys came out of her room when she heard the wheels, and proposed that
+we should go down into the drawing-room. 'Poor poor Etta!' she sighed. 'I
+try to pity and be sorry for her, but it is impossible not to be glad
+that she has gone. I want to look at every room, Ursula, and to realise
+that I am to have my own lovely home in peace. We must send for Lady
+Betty; and Giles must know about Claude. I do not believe that he will
+be angry: oh no, nothing will make Giles angry now.'
+
+Max found us very busy in the drawing-room. I was just carrying out a
+work-box and a novel that belonged to Miss Darrell, and Gladys had picked
+up a peacock-feather screen, and a carved ivory fan, and two or three
+little knick-knacks. 'Take them all away, Ursula dear,' she pleaded, with
+a faint shudder; but as she put them in my arms there were Max's eyes
+watching us from the threshold.
+
+I saw her go up to him as simply as a child, and put her hands in his,
+and as I closed the door Max took her in his arms. The peacock screen
+fell at my feet, the ivory fan and a hideous little Chinese god rolled
+noisily on the oilcloth. I smiled as I picked them up. My dear Max and
+his Lady of Delight were together at last. I felt as though my cup of joy
+were full.
+
+Max remained to luncheon, but he went away soon afterwards. Gladys must
+rest, and he would come again later in the evening. I was rather glad
+when he said this, for I wanted to go down to the White Cottage and see
+Mrs. Barton, and I could not have left the house while he was there. Yes,
+Max was certainly right: it would be better for him to come again when
+Mr. Hamilton was at home.
+
+I made Gladys take possession of her favourite little couch in the
+drawing-room, but she detained me for some time talking about Max, until
+I refused to hear another word, and then I went up to my own room, and
+put on my hat.
+
+I thought Nap would like a run down the road,--and I could always make
+Tinker keep the peace,--so I went into the stable-yard in search of him.
+He was evidently there, for I could hear him barking excitedly. The next
+moment a young workman came out of the empty coach-house, and walked
+quickly to the gate, followed closely by Nap, jumping and fawning on him.
+
+'Down, down, good dog!' I heard him say, and then I whistled back Nap,
+who came reluctantly, and with some difficulty I contrived to shut him up
+in the stable-yard. There seemed no man about the premises. Then I
+hurried down the road in the direction of the village: my heart was
+beating fast, my limbs trembled under me. I had caught sight of a perfect
+profile and a golden-brown moustache as the young workman went out of the
+gate, and I knew it was the face of Eric Hamilton.
+
+My one thought was that I must follow him, that on no account must I lose
+sight of him. As I closed the gate I could see him in the distance, just
+turning the corner by the Man and Plough; he was walking very quickly in
+the direction of the station. I quickened my steps, breaking into a run
+now and then, and soon had the satisfaction of lessening the distance
+between us; my last run had brought me within a hundred yards of him,
+and slackened my pace, and began to look the matter in the face.
+
+I remembered that the London train would be due in another quarter of an
+hour; no doubt that was why he was walking so fast. I must keep near him
+when he took his ticket. I had no fear of his recognising me; he had only
+seen me twice, without my bonnet, and now I wore a hat that shaded my
+face, and my plain gray gown was sufficiently unlike the dress I had
+worn at Hyde Park Gate. I had a sudden qualm as the thought darted into
+my mind that he might possibly have a return-ticket; but I should know if
+he got into the Victoria train, and I determined on taking a ticket for
+myself.
+
+I had a couple of sovereigns and a little loose silver in my purse. I had
+assured myself of this fact as I walked down the hill. As soon as the
+young workman had entered the booking-office, I followed him closely, and
+to my great relief heard him ask for a third-class ticket for Victoria.
+When he had made way for me I took the same for myself, and then, as I
+had seven minutes to spare, I went into the telegraph-office and dashed
+off a message to Gladys.
+
+'Called to town on important business; may be detained to-night. Will
+write if necessary.'
+
+As I gave in the form I could hear the signal for the up train, and had
+only time to reach the platform when the Victoria train came in.
+
+The young workman got into an empty compartment, and I followed and
+placed myself at the other end. I had no wish to attract his notice; the
+ill success of my former attempt had frightened me, and I felt I dared
+not address him, for fear he should leave the train at the next station.
+Some workmen had got in and were talking noisily among themselves. I did
+not feel that the opportunity would he propitious.
+
+When we had actually left Heathfield I stole a glance at the young man:
+he had drawn his cap over his eyes, and seemed to feign sleep, no doubt
+to avoid conversation with the noisy crew opposite us; but that he was
+not really asleep was evident from the slight twitching of the mouth and
+a long-drawn sigh that every now and then escaped him.
+
+I could watch him safely now, and for a few minutes I studied almost
+painfully one of the most perfect faces I had ever seen. It was thin and
+colourless, and there were lines sad to see on so young a face; but it
+might have been a youthful Apollo leaning his head against the wooden
+wainscotting.
+
+Once he opened his eyes and pushed back his cap with a gesture of
+weariness and impatience. He did not see me: those sad, blue-gray eyes
+were fixed on the moving landscape; but how like Gladys's they looked!
+I turned aside quickly to hide my emotion. I thought of Gladys and Mr.
+Hamilton, and a prayer rose to my lips that for their sake I might
+succeed in bringing the lost one back.
+
+The journey seemed a long one. All sorts of fears tormented me. I
+remembered Mr. Hamilton was in London: there was danger of encountering
+him at Victoria. It was five now: he might possibly return to dinner. I
+could scarcely breathe as this new terror presented itself to me, for if
+Eric caught sight of his brother all would be lost.
+
+When the train stopped, I followed the young workman as closely as
+possible. As we were turning in the subterranean passage for the District
+Railway, my heart seemed to stop. There was Mr. Hamilton reading his
+paper under the clock: we actually passed within twenty yards of him, and
+he did not raise his eyes. I am sure Eric saw him, for he suddenly dived
+into the passage, and I had much trouble to keep him in sight: as it was,
+I was only just in time to hear him ask for a third-class single to
+Bishop's Road.
+
+I did not dare enter the same compartment, but I got into the next,
+and now and then, when our train stopped at the different stations,
+I could hear him distinctly talking to a fellow-workman, in a refined,
+gentlemanly voice, that would have attracted attention to him anywhere.
+Once the other man called him Jack, and asked where he hung out, and I
+noticed this question was cleverly eluded, but I heard him say afterwards
+that he was in regular work, and liked his present governor, and that the
+old woman who looked after him was a tidy, decent lady, and kept things
+comfortable. My thoughts strayed a little after this. The sight of Mr.
+Hamilton had disturbed me. What would he think when Gladys showed him
+my telegram? He had promised to finish our conversation this evening.
+I felt with a strange soreness of longing that I should not see Gladwyn
+that night. My absence of mind nearly cost me dear, for I had no idea
+that we had reached Bishop's Road until Eric passed my window, and with a
+smothered exclamation I opened the door: happily, the passengers were
+numerous and blocked up the stairs, so I reached the street to find him
+only a few yards before me.
+
+My patience was being severely exercised after this, for Eric did not go
+straight to his lodgings. He went into a butcher's first, and after a few
+minutes' delay--for there were customers in the shop--came out with a
+newspaper parcel in his hand. Then he went into a grocer's, and through
+the window I could see him putting little packets of tea and sugar in his
+pocket.
+
+His next business was to the baker's, and here a three-cornered crusty
+loaf was the result. The poor young fellow was evidently providing his
+evening meal, and the sight of these homely delicacies reminded me that
+I was tired and hungry and that a cup of tea would be refreshing. Eric
+carried his steak and three-cornered loaf jauntily, and every now and
+then broke into a sweet low whistle that reminded me of his nickname
+among his mates of 'Jack the Whistler.'
+
+We were threading the labyrinth of streets that lie behind Bishop's Road
+Station; I was beginning to feel weary and discouraged, when Eric stopped
+suddenly before a neat-looking house of two stories, with very bright
+geraniums in the parlour window, and taking out his latch-key let himself
+in, and closed the door with a bang.
+
+I stalked carelessly to the end of the street, and read the name. 'No. 25
+Madison Street,' I said to myself, and then I went up to the door and
+knocked boldly. My time had come now, I thought, trying to pull myself
+together, for I felt decidedly nervous.
+
+A stout, oldish woman with rather a pleasant face opened the door; her
+arms were bare, and she dried her hands on her apron as she asked me my
+business.
+
+'Your lodger Jack Poynter has just come in,' I said quietly. 'I have a
+message for him. Can I see him, please?'
+
+'Oh ay,--you can see him surely.' And she stepped back into the passage
+and called out, 'Jack, Jack! here is a young woman wants to speak to
+you.' But I shut the door hurriedly and interrupted her:
+
+'Let me go up to his room: you can tell me where it is'; for it never
+would do to speak to him in the passage.
+
+'Well, perhaps he may be washing and brushing himself a bit after his
+journey,' she returned good-humouredly: 'he is a tidy chap, is Jack. If
+you go up to the top landing and knock at the second door, that is his
+sitting-room; he sleeps at the back, and Sawyer has the other room.'
+
+I followed these instructions, and knocked at the front-room door; but no
+voice bade me come in; only a short bark and a scuffle of feet gave me
+notice of the occupant: so I ventured to go in.
+
+It was a tidy little room, and had a snug aspect. A white fox-terrier
+with a pretty face retreated growling under a chair, but I coaxed her to
+come out. The steak and the loaf were on the table. But I had no time for
+any further observation, for a voice said, 'What are you barking at,
+Jenny?' and the next moment Eric entered the room.
+
+He started when he saw me caressing the dog.
+
+'I beg your pardon for this intrusion,' I began nervously, for I saw I
+was not recognised; 'but I have followed you from Heathfield to tell you
+the good news. Mr. Hamilton, it is all found out; Miss Darrell stole that
+cheque.'
+
+I had blurted it out, fearing that he might start away from me even then:
+he must know that his name was cleared, and then I could persuade him to
+listen to me. I was right in my surmise, for as I said his name he put
+his hand on the door, but my next words made him drop the handle.
+
+'What?' he exclaimed, turning deadly pale, and I could see how his lips
+quivered under his moustache. 'Say that again: I do not understand.'
+
+'Mr. Hamilton,' I repeated slowly, 'you need not have rushed past your
+poor brother in that way at Victoria, for he is breaking his heart, and
+so is Gladys, with the longing to find you. Your name is cleared: they
+only want to ask your forgiveness for all you have suffered. It was a
+foul conspiracy of two women to save themselves by ruining you. Leah has
+made full confession. Your cousin Etta took the cheque out of your
+brother's desk.'
+
+'Oh, my God!' he gasped, and, sitting down, he hid his face in his hands.
+The little fox-terrier jumped on his knee and began licking his hands.
+'Don't, Jenny: let me be,' he said, in a fretful, boyish voice that made
+me smile. 'I must think, for my brain seems dizzy.'
+
+I left him quiet for a few minutes, and Jenny, after this rebuke, curled
+herself up at his feet and went to sleep. Then I took the chair beside
+him, and asked him, very quietly, if he could listen to me. He was
+frightfully pale, and his features were working, but he nodded assent and
+held his head between his hands again, but I know he heard every word.
+
+I told him as briefly as I could how Gladys had languished and pined all
+these years, how she had clung to the notion of his innocence and would
+not believe that he was dead. He started at that, and asked what I meant.
+Had Giles really believed he was dead?
+
+'He had reason to fear so,' I returned gravely; and I told him how his
+watch and scarf had been found on the beach at Brighton, and how the
+hotel-keeper had brought them to Mr. Hamilton.
+
+He seemed shocked at this. 'I had been bathing,' he said, in rather an
+ashamed voice: 'some boy must have stolen them, and then dropped his
+booty for fear of the police. I missed them when I came out of the water,
+and I hunted about for them a long time. As I was leaving the beach I saw
+one of Giles's friends coming down towards me, and I got it into my head
+that I was recognised. I dared not go back to the hotel. Besides, my
+money was running short. I took a third-class ticket up to London, and
+on my way fell in with a house-painter, who gave me lodging for a few
+nights.'
+
+'Yes, and then--' for he hesitated here.
+
+'Well, you see, I was just mad with them at home. I thought I could never
+forgive Giles that last insult. My character and honour were gone. Etta
+had been my secret enemy all along, because she knew I read her truly.
+Leah had given in her false evidence. My word was nothing. I was looked
+upon as a common thief. I swore that I would never cross the threshold of
+Gladwyn again until my name was cleared. They should not hear of me; if
+they thought me dead, so much the better!'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Eric, and you never considered how Gladys would suffer!'
+
+'Yes, that was my only trouble; but I thought they would turn her against
+me in time. I was nearly mad, I tell you: but for Phil Power I believe I
+should have been desperate; but he stuck to me, and was always telling me
+that a man can live down anything. Indeed, but for Phil and his pretty
+little wife I should have starved, for I had no notion of helping myself,
+and would not have begged for a job to save my life, for I could not
+forget I was a gentleman. But Phil got me work at his governor's. So
+I turned house-painter, and rather liked my employment. I used to tell
+myself that it was better than old Armstrong's office. Why, I make two
+pounds a week now when we are in full work,' finished the poor lad
+proudly.
+
+My heart was yearning over him, he was so boyish and weak and impulsive;
+but I would not spare him. I told him that it was cowardly of him to hide
+himself,--that it would have been braver and nobler to have lived his
+life openly. 'Why not have let your brother know what you were doing?' I
+continued. 'For years this shadow has been over his home. He has believed
+you dead. He has even feared self-destruction. This fear has embittered
+his life and made him a hard, unhappy man.'
+
+'Do you mean Giles has suffered like that?' he exclaimed; and his gray
+eyes grew misty.
+
+'Yes, in spite of all your sins against him, he has loved you dearly; and
+Gladys--' But he put up his hand, as though he could hear no more.
+
+'Yes, I know, poor darling; but I have often seen her, often been near
+her; but I heard her laugh, and thought she was happy and had forgotten
+me. How long is it since Leah confessed, Miss--Miss--' And here he
+laughed a little nervously. 'I do not know who you are, and yet you
+must be a friend.'
+
+'I am Ursula Garston, a very close friend of your sister Gladys, and
+I have been nursing her in this last illness.'
+
+'What! has she been ill?' he asked anxiously. And when I had given him
+full particulars he questioned me again about Leah's confession, and I
+had to repeat all I could remember of her words.
+
+'Then I was not cleared when you spoke to me at Hyde Park Gate?' he
+returned, with a relieved air. 'So it did not matter my giving you the
+slip. You frightened me horribly, Miss Garston, I can tell you that. I
+saw those advertisements, too, to Jack Poynter, and I was very near
+leaving the country; but I am glad I held on, as Phil advised,' drawing
+a long breath as he spoke.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII
+
+'AT LAST, URSULA, AT LAST!'
+
+
+We were interrupted at this moment by the landlady's voice calling to
+Eric from the bottom of the stairs.
+
+'Jack,--I say, Jack, what has become of the steak I promised to cook for
+you? I'll be bound Jenny has eaten it.'
+
+Eric gave a short laugh and went out into the passage, and I heard him
+say, in rather a low voice,--
+
+'A lady, a friend of my sister's, has just brought me some news. I expect
+she is as tired and hungry as I am. Do you think,' coaxingly, 'that you
+could get tea for us in the parlour, Mrs. Hunter? and perhaps you will
+join us there'; for class-instinct had awoke in Eric at the sight of a
+lady's face, and I suppose, in spite of my Quakerish gray gown, I was
+still young enough to make him hesitate about entertaining me in his
+bachelor's room.
+
+There was a short parley after this. Then Mrs. Hunter came up panting,
+and, still wiping her hands from imaginary soap-suds, carried off the
+steak and the three-cornered loaf. 'It will be ready in about twenty
+minutes, Jack,' she observed, with a good-natured nod.
+
+Eric employed the interval of waiting by questioning me eagerly about his
+sisters. Then he tried to find out, in a gentlemanly way, how I contrived
+to be so mixed up with his family. This led to a brief _résumé_ of my own
+history and work, and by the time Mrs. Hunter called us I felt as though
+I had known Eric for years.
+
+Mrs. Hunter beamed on us as we entered. There was really quite a tempting
+little meal spread on the round table, though the butter was not fresh
+nor the forks silver, but the tea was hot and strong, and the bread was
+new. And Eric produced from his stores some lump sugar and a pot of
+strawberry jam, and I did full justice to the homely fare.
+
+When Mrs. Hunter went into the kitchen to replenish the teapot I took the
+opportunity of consulting Eric about a lodging for the night. It was too
+late to return to Heathfield. Besides, I had made up my mind that Eric
+should accompany me. Aunt Philippa and Jill were in Switzerland, and the
+house at Hyde Park Gate would be empty. I could not well go to an hotel
+without any luggage. Eric seemed rather perplexed, and said we must take
+Mrs. Hunter into our confidence, which we did, and the good woman soon
+relieved our minds.
+
+She said at once that she knew an excellent person who let lodgings round
+the corner,--a Miss Moseley. Miss Gunter, who had been a music-mistress
+until she married the young chemist, had lived with her for six years;
+and Miss Crabbe, who was in the millinery department at Howell's, the big
+shop in Kimber Street, was still there. Miss Gunter's room was vacant,
+and she was sure Miss Moseley would take me in for the night and make me
+comfortable.
+
+I begged Mrs. Hunter to open negotiations with this obliging person, and
+she pulled down her sleeves at once, and tied her double chin in a very
+big black bonnet. While she was gone on this charitable errand, Eric and
+I sat by the parlour window in the gathering dusk, and I told him about
+Gladys's engagement to Uncle Max.
+
+He seemed much excited by the news. 'I always thought that would be a
+case,' he exclaimed: 'I could see Mr. Cunliffe cared for her even then.
+Well, he is a first-rate fellow, and I am awfully glad.' And then he fell
+into a reverie, and I could see there were tears in his eyes.
+
+Mrs. Hunter returned presently with the welcome news that Miss Moseley
+was airing my sheets at the kitchen fire, and, after a little more talk,
+Eric walked with me to Prescott Street and gave me in charge to Miss
+Moseley, after promising to be with me soon after nine the next morning.
+
+I found Miss Moseley a cheerful talkative person, with very few teeth and
+a great deal of good-nature. She gave me Miss Gunter's history as she
+made the bed. I could see that her marriage with the young chemist was
+a great source of glorification to all connected with her. She was still
+holding forth on the newly-furnished drawing-room, with its blue sofa
+and inlaid chiffonier, as she lighted a pair of candles in the brass
+candlesticks, and brought me a can of hot water. I am afraid I was rather
+thankful when she closed the door and left me alone, for I was tired, and
+longed to think over the wonderful events of the day. I slept very
+sweetly in the old-fashioned brown bed that was sacred to the memory of
+Miss Gunter, and woke happily to the fact that another blue day was
+shining, and that in a few hours Eric and I would be at Heathfield. I
+ate my frugal breakfast in a small back parlour overlooking the blank
+wall of a brewery, and before I had finished there was a quick tap at the
+door, and Eric entered. A boyish blush crossed his handsome face as I
+looked at him in some surprise. He had laid aside his workman's dress,
+and wore the ordinary garb of a gentleman. Perhaps his coat was a little
+shabby and the hat he held in his hand had lost its gloss, but no one
+would have noticed such trifles with that bright speaking face and air
+of refinement; and, though he looked down at his uncovered hands and
+muttered something about stopping to buy a pair of gloves, I hastened to
+assure him that it was so early that it did not matter. 'I should hardly
+have recognised you, Mr. Eric,' I ventured to observe, for I saw he was
+a little sensitive about his appearance; and then he told me in his frank
+way that the clothes he wore were the same in which he left Gladwyn
+nearly four years ago.
+
+'They have been lying by all this time,' he went on, 'and they are sadly
+creased, I am afraid. I have grown a little broader, and they don't seem
+to fit me, somehow, but I did not want Gladys to see me in anything
+else.'
+
+We had decided to take the ten o'clock train to Heathfield, so I did
+not keep him long waiting for me. On our way to the station we met a
+house-painter: he looked rather dubiously at Eric.
+
+'All right, Phil,' he laughed, 'I am going home; but I shall turn up
+again all right: this lady has brought me good news.' And he wrung Phil's
+hand with a heartiness that spoke volumes.
+
+He was very excited and talkative at first, but as soon as we left
+Victoria behind us he became quieter, and soon afterwards perfectly
+silent; and I did not disturb him. He grew more nervous as we approached
+Heathfield, and when the train stopped he had not an atom of colour in
+his face.
+
+'I do not know what I shall say to Giles,' he said, as we walked up the
+hill. 'It will be very awkward for both of us, Miss Garston. Of course
+I know that--'
+
+But I begged him not to anticipate the awkwardness. 'You will be welcomed
+as we only welcome our dearest and best,' I assured him. 'Your brother's
+heart has been sore for you all these years: you need not fear one word
+of reproach from him.' But he only sighed, and asked me not to walk so
+quickly; his courage was failing; I could see the look of nervous fear
+on his face.
+
+We had arranged that he should accompany me to Gladwyn. Gladys never left
+her room before twelve, and I thought that I could shut him safely in the
+dining-room while I prepared her for his arrival. I knew Mr. Hamilton was
+never at home at this hour, but I had not reckoned on the disorganised
+state of the house, or the difference my brief absence would make in the
+usual routine.
+
+I blamed myself for rashness and want of consideration when, on opening
+the gate, I saw Gladys crossing one of the little lawns around the house,
+with Max and Mr. Hamilton. At my faint exclamation Eric let go the gate
+rather too suddenly, and it swung back on its hinges so noisily that they
+all looked round, and the poor boy stood as though rooted to the spot.
+But the next moment there was the gleam of a white gown, and Gladys came
+running over the grass towards us with outstretched hands, and in another
+second the brother and sister were locked in each other's arms.
+
+'Oh, my darling,' we heard her say, as she put up her face and kissed
+him, and then her fair head seemed to droop lower and lower until it
+touched Eric's shoulder. I glanced anxiously at Mr. Hamilton.
+
+'Take her into the house, Eric,' he said, in his ordinary voice; but how
+white his face looked! 'It has been too sudden, and she has fainted.'
+And, without a word, Eric lifted her in his strong arms and carried her
+of his own accord to the little blue couch in the drawing-room, and then
+stood aside while his brother administered the usual remedy. Not a look
+had passed between them yet: they were both too much absorbed in Gladys.
+
+She soon opened her eyes, and pushed away the vinaigrette I was holding
+to her.
+
+'It is nothing, Ursula. I am well, quite well. Where is my dear boy? Do
+not keep him from me.' And then Eric knelt down beside her, and put his
+arm round her with a sort of sob.
+
+'I ought not to have startled you so, Gladys. I have made you look so
+pale.' But she laughed again, and pushed back his hair from his forehead,
+and feasted her eyes on his face as though they could never be satisfied.
+
+'Eric, darling, it seems like a dream; and it was Ursula, dear good
+Ursula, who has given you back to us. We must thank her presently; but
+not now. Oh, I must look at you first. He looks older, does he not,
+Giles?--older and more manly. And what broad shoulders, and such a
+moustache!' but Eric silenced her with a kiss.
+
+'That will do, Gladys dear,' he whispered, springing to his feet; and
+then, with downcast eyes and a flush on his face, he held out his hand
+to his brother. It was taken and held silently, and then Mr. Hamilton's
+disengaged hand was laid on his shoulder caressingly.
+
+'Welcome home, my dear boy,' he said; but his voice was not quite so
+clear as usual.
+
+'I am very sorry, Giles,' he faltered; but Mr. Hamilton would not let him
+speak.
+
+'There is nothing to be sorry for, now,' he said significantly. 'Have you
+shaken hands with Mr. Cunliffe, Eric? Gladys, can you spare your boy for
+a few moments while I carry him off?' And, as Gladys smiled assent, Mr.
+Hamilton signed to Eric to follow him.
+
+Max sat down beside Gladys when they had left the room, and Gladys made
+a space for me on the couch.
+
+'You must tell us how it happened,' she said, fixing her lovely eyes on
+me. 'Dear Ursula, we owe this fresh happiness to you: how can I thank you
+for all your goodness to us?' But I would not allow her to talk in this
+fashion, and I left Max to soothe her when she cried a little, and then
+I told them both how I had found Eric in the stable-yard with Nap, and
+how I had tracked him successfully to his lodgings.
+
+'She is a brave, dear child, is she not, Gladys?' observed Max. Then,
+with a mischievous look in his brown eyes, 'You are proud of your
+presumptive niece, are you not, dear?' And then, in spite of Gladys's
+confusion, for she was still a little shy with him, I burst out laughing,
+and she was obliged to join me, for it had never entered into our heads
+that Gladys would be my aunt. The laugh brought back her colour and did
+her good; but she would not look at Max for a long time after that,
+though he was on his best behaviour and said all sorts of nice things
+to us both.
+
+It was a long time before Mr. Hamilton brought Eric back to us. They
+both looked very happy, but Eric's eyes had a strangely softened look
+in them. The gong sounded for luncheon just then, and Mr. Hamilton asked
+me, in rather a surprised tone, why I had not taken off my hat and
+jacket, so I ran off to my room in a great hurry. As he opened the door
+for me, he said, in rather an odd tone, 'Do you know you have not wished
+me good-morning, Miss Garston?' I muttered some sort of an answer, but he
+merely smiled, and told me not to keep them waiting. Gladys came in to
+luncheon, and took her usual place; but neither she nor Eric made much
+pretence of eating, though Mr. Hamilton scolded them both for their want
+of appetite. Nobody talked much, and there was no connected conversation:
+I think we were all too much engrossed in watching Gladys. Max was in the
+background for once, but he did not seem to think of himself at all: the
+sight of Gladys's sweet face, radiant with joy, was sufficient pleasure
+for him; but now and then she turned to him in a touching manner, as
+though to show she had not forgotten him, and then he was never slow
+to respond.
+
+When luncheon was over, Mr. Hamilton begged me to take Gladys to the
+turret-room and persuade her to lie down.
+
+'I am going to send Cunliffe away until dinner-time,' he said, with
+a sort of good-natured peremptoriness: 'under the circumstances he is
+decidedly _de trop_. Yes, my dear, yes,' as Gladys looked pleadingly at
+him, 'Eric shall come and talk to you. I am not so unreasonable as that.'
+And I think we all understood the feeling that made Gladys put her arms
+round her brother's neck, though we none of us heard her whisper a word.
+Max consented very cheerfully to efface himself for the remainder of the
+afternoon, and Gladys accompanied me upstairs. I waited until Eric joined
+us, and then I left them together.
+
+'Oh, Gladys, he was so good, and I did not deserve it!' he burst out
+before I had closed the door. 'I never knew Giles could be like that.'
+But I took care not to hear any more. I hardly knew what to do with
+myself that afternoon, but I made up my mind at last that I would finish
+a letter I had begun to Jill. The inkstand was in the turret-room, but I
+thought I would fetch one out of the drawing-room; but when I reached
+the head of the staircase I drew back involuntarily, for Mr. Hamilton was
+standing at the bottom of the stairs, leaning against the wall with
+folded arms, as though he were waiting for somebody or something. An
+unaccountable timidity made me hesitate; in another second I should have
+gone back into my room, but he looked up, and, as before, our eyes met.
+
+'Come,' he said, holding out his hand, and there was a sort of impatience
+in his manner. 'How long are you going to keep me waiting, Ursula?' And I
+went down demurely and silently, but I took no notice of his outstretched
+hands.
+
+I was trying to pass him in a quiet, ordinary fashion, as though there
+were no unusual meaning in his deep-set eyes; but he stopped me somewhat
+coolly by taking me in his arms.
+
+'At last, Ursula, at last!' was all he said, and then he kissed me....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I remember I told Giles, when I had recovered myself a little, that he
+had taken things too much for granted.
+
+He had brought me into the drawing-room, and was sitting beside me on the
+little couch. To my dazzled eyes the room seemed full of sunshine and the
+sweet perfume of flowers: to this day the scent of heliotrope brings back
+the memory of that afternoon when Giles first told me that he loved me.
+He seemed rather perplexed at first by my stammering little speech, and
+then I suppose my meaning dawned on him, for his arm pressed me more
+closely.
+
+'I think I understand: you mean, do you not, Ursula, that I have not
+asked you in plain English to be my wife? I thought we understood each
+other too well for any such word to be necessary. Ever since you told me
+that fellow Tudor was nothing to you, I felt you belonged to me.'
+
+'I do not see that,' I returned shyly, for Giles in his new character was
+rather formidable. He had taken such complete possession of me, and, as I
+had hinted, had taken everything for granted. 'Because Mr. Tudor was
+simply a friend, it did not follow that I cared for any one else.'
+
+'Yes; but you do care for me a good deal, darling, do you not?' in a
+most persuasive voice. 'But, for my own comfort, I want you to tell me
+if you are quite content to accept such a crabbed old bachelor for your
+husband.'
+
+It was a little difficult to answer, but I made him understand that
+I looked upon him in a very different light, and I think I managed to
+content him.
+
+'And you are really happy, dear?'
+
+'Yes, very happy'; but the tears were in my eyes as I answered. He seemed
+distressed to see them, and wanted me to tell him the reason; but I think
+he understood me thoroughly when I whispered how glad Charlie would have
+been. I asked him presently how long he had cared for me, but, to my
+surprise, he declared that he hardly knew himself: he had been interested
+in me from the first hour of our meeting, but it was when he heard me
+sing in Phoebe Locke's room that the thought came to him that he must try
+and win me for his wife.
+
+I think it was in answer to this that I said some foolish word about my
+want of beauty. I was a little sensitive on the subject, but, to my
+dismay, Giles's face darkened, and he dropped my hand.
+
+'Never say that to me again, if you love me, Ursula,' he said, in such
+a grieved voice that I could hardly bear to hear it. 'Do you think I
+would have married you if you had been handsome? Do you know what you
+are talking about, child? Has no one told you about Ella?'
+
+'Oh yes,' I returned, terrified at his sternness, for he had never spoken
+to me in such a tone before. 'Yes, indeed, and I know she was very
+beautiful.'
+
+'She was perfectly lovely,'--in the same hard voice. Oh, how he must have
+suffered, my poor Giles! 'And the memory of that false loveliness has
+made me loathe the idea of beauty ever since. No, I would never have let
+myself love you if you had been handsome, Ursula.'
+
+'I am glad I am not,' I returned, in a choked voice, for all this was
+very painful to me. Something in my tone attracted his notice, for he
+stooped and looked in my face, and his manner instantly changed.
+
+'Oh, you foolish child,' very caressingly, 'there are actually tears in
+your eyes! You are not afraid of me, Ursula? I am always excited when I
+speak of Ella: she very nearly destroyed my faith in women.'
+
+'I cannot bear to think how you suffered,' I faltered, but he would not
+let me finish.
+
+'Never mind; you have been my healer; you have always rested me so. Never
+call yourself plain again in my hearing. No other face could be half so
+dear to me.' And then, with his old smile, 'Do you know, dear, when I saw
+you in that velvet gown at your cousin's wedding you looked so handsome
+that I went home in a bad humour, and then Etta told me about Tudor.
+Well, I have you safe now.' But I will not transcribe all Giles's speech;
+it was so lover-like, it made me understand, once for all, what I was to
+him, and how little he cared for life unless I shared it with him.
+
+By and by he went on to speak of our mutual work, and here again he more
+than contented me.
+
+'I do not mean to rob the poor people of their nurse, Ursula,' he said
+presently. 'When you come to Gladwyn as its mistress, I hope we shall
+work together as we do now.'
+
+I told him I hoped so too; that I never wished to lay down my work.
+
+'You are quite right, dear,' he answered cheerfully. 'We will not be
+selfish in our happiness. True, your work must be in limits. When I come
+home I shall want to see my wife's face. No,' rather jealously, 'I could
+not spare you of an evening, and in the morning there will be household
+duties. You must not undertake too much, Ursula.'
+
+I told Giles, rather demurely, that there was plenty of time for the
+consideration of this point. He was inclined to bridge over the present
+in a man's usual fashion, but my new position was too overwhelming for me
+to look beyond the deep abiding consciousness that Giles loved me and
+looked to me for happiness.
+
+So I turned a deaf ear when he asked me presently if I should mind Lady
+Betty sharing our home; 'for,' he went on, 'the poor child has no other
+home, and she is so feather-headed that no sensible man will think of
+marrying her.' It was not my place to enlighten Giles about Claude, but
+I thought it very improbable that Lady Betty would be long at Gladwyn;
+but I was a little oppressed by this sort of talk, and yet unwilling that
+he should notice my shyness, so I took the opportunity of saying it was
+tea-time, and did he not think that Gladys and Eric had been talking long
+enough?
+
+He seemed unwilling to let me go, but I pleaded my nurse's duties, and
+then he told me, laughing, that I was a wilful woman, and that I might
+send Eric to him. As it happened, Eric was coming in search of Giles, and
+I found him in the passage.
+
+Gladys was lying on her couch, looking worn out with happiness. She
+was beginning to speak about Eric, when something in my face seemed to
+distract her. She watched me closely for a moment, then threw her arms
+round me and drew my head on her shoulder.
+
+'Is it so, Ursula? Oh, my dear dear sister! I am so glad!' And she seemed
+to understand without a word when my over-excited feelings found vent in
+a flood of nervous tears, for she only kissed me quietly, and stroked my
+hair, until I was relieved and happy again.
+
+'Dear Ursula,' she whispered, 'how can I help being glad, for Giles's
+sake?'
+
+'And not for mine?' drying my eyes, and feeling very much ashamed of
+myself.
+
+'Ah, you will see how good Giles will be,' was her reply to this. 'You
+will be a happy woman, Ursula. You are exactly suited to each other.' And
+I knew she was right.
+
+Max's turn came presently.
+
+I was sitting alone in the drawing-room before dinner. Giles had brought
+me some flowers, and had rushed off to dress himself; and I was looking
+out on the garden and the strip of blue sky, and buried in a happy
+reverie, when two hands suddenly lifted me up, and a brown beard brushed
+my face.
+
+'Little she-bear, do you know how glad I am!' Max joyously exclaimed. And
+indeed he looked very glad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII
+
+'WHAT 0' THE WAY TO THE END?'
+
+
+Two days afterwards I went back to the White Cottage and took up my old
+life again,--my old life, but how different now!
+
+I shall never forget how Phoebe welcomed me back, and how she and Susan
+rejoiced when I told them the news. Strange to say, neither of them
+seemed much surprised. They had expected it, Susan said, in rather an
+amused tone, for it was easy to see the doctor had thought there was no
+one like me, and was always hinting as much to them. 'Why, I have seen
+him watch you as though there were nothing else worth looking at,'
+finished Susan, with simple shrewdness.
+
+I kept my own counsel with regard to Aunt Philippa and Jill, for I had
+made up my mind to go up to Hyde Park Gate as soon as they had returned,
+and tell them myself. But I wrote to Lesbia, with strong injunctions of
+secrecy.
+
+The answer came by return of post.
+
+It was a most loving, unselfish little letter, and touched me greatly.
+
+'I shall be your bridesmaid, Ursula,' it said, 'whether you ask me or
+not. Nothing will keep me away that day. I shall love to be there for
+dear Charlie's sake.
+
+'The news has made me so happy. Mother scolded me when she found me
+crying over your letter, but she cried herself too. We both agreed that
+no one deserved happiness more. I am longing to see your Mr. Hamilton,
+Ursie dear. He has one great virtue in my eyes already, that he
+appreciates you,' and so on, in Lesbia's gentle, sisterly way.
+
+The fact of our engagement made a great sensation in the place. People
+who had hitherto ignored the village nurse came to call on me. I suppose
+curiosity to see Mr. Hamilton's _fiancée_ brought a good many of them.
+
+My new position was not without its difficulties. Giles, who was
+impatient and domineering by nature, chafed much against the restraints
+imposed upon him by my loneliness.
+
+His brief calls did not suffice him. I would not let him come often or
+stay long. Max asked us to the vicarage sometimes, and now and then
+Gladys or Lady Betty would call for me and carry me off to Gladwyn for
+the evening; and of course I saw Giles frequently when he visited his
+patients, but with his dislike to conventionality it was rather difficult
+to keep him in good-humour. He could not be made to see why I should not
+marry him at once and put an end to this awkward state of things.
+
+We had our first lovers' quarrel on this point,--our first and our
+last,--for I never had to complain of my dear Giles again.
+
+I think hearing about Lady Betty's long engagement with Claude Hamilton
+had made him very sore. He had been bitterly angry both with poor little
+Lady Betty and also with Gladys. He declared the secrecy had hurt him
+more than anything; but Eric acted as peacemaker, and he was soon induced
+to condone his sisters' trangression.
+
+He came down to talk over the matter with me, and to tell me of the
+arrangements he had made for them.
+
+It seemed that a letter from Claude had arrived that very mail; telling
+Giles of his promotion, and asking leave to come and fetch his dear
+little Lady Betty. It was an honest, manly letter, Giles said; and as
+Claude was in a better position, and Lady Betty had five thousand pounds
+of her own, there seemed no reason against their marrying.
+
+He had talked to both Max and Gladys, and they were willing that Claude
+and Lady Betty should be married at the same time. The New Year had been
+already fixed for Gladys's, and Max meant to get leave of absence for two
+or three months and take her to Algiers; and as Claude would have to
+start for India early in March, Giles thought the double wedding would be
+best. They could get their _trousseaux_ together, and the fuss would be
+got over more easily.
+
+I expressed myself as charmed with all these arrangements, for I thought
+it would be very dull for Lady Betty to be left behind at Gladwyn; and
+then I asked Giles what he had settled about Eric.
+
+He told me that Eric was still undecided, but he rather thought of going
+to Cirencester to enter the agricultural college there.
+
+'You see, Ursula,' he went on, 'the lad is a bit restless. He has given
+up his absurd idea of becoming an artist,--I never did believe in those
+daubs of his,--but he feels he can never settle down to city life. He is
+very much improved, far more manly and sensible than I ever hoped to see
+him; but he is of different calibre from myself,'
+
+'Do you think farming will suit him?' I asked anxiously.
+
+'Better than anything else, I should say,' was the reply. 'Eric is an
+active, capable fellow, and he was always fond of out-door pursuits. He
+is young enough to learn. I have promised to keep Dorlicote Farm in my
+own hands until he is ready to take it. It is only ten miles from here,
+and has a very good house attached to it, and Eric will find himself in
+clover.' Then, as though some other thought were uppermost in his mind,
+he continued, 'I am so glad that you and he are such friends, Ursula, for
+he will often take up his quarters at Gladwyn.'
+
+It was after this that Giles asked me to marry him at once. He was
+strangely unreasonable that morning, and very much bent on having his own
+way. My objections were overruled one by one; he absolutely refused to
+listen to my arguments when I tried to show him how much wiser it would
+be to have his sisters and Eric settled before he brought me home as
+mistress to Gladwyn.
+
+It was the first time our wills had clashed; and, though I knew that I
+was right and that he was wholly in the wrong, it was very painful for me
+to refuse his loving importunities and to turn a deaf ear when he told me
+how he was longing for his wife; but I held firmly to my two points, that
+I would settle nothing without Aunt Philippa's advice, and that I would
+not marry him until Easter.
+
+I told him so very gently, but Giles was not quite like himself that day.
+Lady Betty's secrecy was still rankling in his mind, and he certainly
+used his power over me to make me very unhappy, for he accused me of
+coldness and over-prudence, and reproached me with my want of confidence
+in his judgment. My pride took fire at last, and rose in arms against his
+tyranny. 'You must listen to me, Giles,' I returned, trying to keep down
+a choking feeling. 'You are not quite just to me to-day, but you do not
+mean what you say. You will be sorry afterwards for your words. If I do
+not accede to your wishes, it is not because I do not love you well
+enough to marry you to-morrow, if it were expedient to do so; but under
+the circumstances it will be wiser to wait. I will marry you at Easter,
+If Uncle Max comes back by that time, for neither you nor I would like
+any one else to perform the ceremony. Will you not be content with this?'
+
+'No,' he returned gloomily. 'You are keeping me waiting for a mere
+scruple: neither Gladys nor Lady Betty would say a dissenting word if
+I brought you to Gladwyn at once. You are disappointing me very much,
+Ursula. I could not have believed that my wishes were so little to you.'
+But he was not able to finish this cutting speech, for I could bear no
+more, and suddenly burst into such an agony of tears that Giles was quite
+frightened.
+
+I found out then the goodness of his heart and his deep unselfish
+affection for me. He reproached himself bitterly for causing me such
+pain, begged my pardon a dozen times for his ill temper, and so coaxed
+and petted me that I could not refuse to be comforted.
+
+He laughed and kissed me when I implored him to take back his words about
+my coldness.
+
+'My darling!--as though I meant it!' he said; but he had the grace to
+look very much ashamed of himself. 'Of course you were right,--you always
+are, Ursula: we will wait until Easter if you think it best. Miss
+Prudence shall have her own way in the matter; but I will not wait a day
+longer for all the Uncle Maxes in the world.' And so we settled it.
+
+I remember how I tried to make up to Giles for his disappointment, and to
+show him how much I cared for him. We were dining at the vicarage that
+evening with Gladys and Eric, and as he walked home with me in the
+moonlight he took me to task very gently for being too good to him.
+
+'You have been like a little angel this evening, Ursula, and I have not
+deserved it. I believe I love you far more for not giving me my own way.
+It was pure selfishness: I see it now.'
+
+'I hope it is the last time that your will will not be mine,' I answered,
+rather sadly. 'If you knew what it cost me to refuse you, Giles!' But one
+of his rare smiles answered me.
+
+It was the end of September when I went up to Hyde Park Gate to tell my
+wonderful piece of news to Aunt Philippa and Jill. Jill was very naughty
+at first, and declared that she should forbid the banns; her dear Ursula
+should not marry that ugly man. But she changed her opinion after a long
+conversation with Giles, and then her enthusiasm knew no bounds. It was
+amusing to see the admiring awe with which Aunt Philippa looked at me. My
+engagement had raised her opinion of me a hundredfold. I was no longer
+the plain eccentric Ursula in her eyes; the future Mrs. Hamilton was a
+person of far greater consequence.
+
+I could see that her surprise could scarcely be concealed. I used to
+notice her eyes fixed on me sometimes in a wondering way. She told Lesbia
+that she could hardly understand such brilliant prospects for dear
+Ursula. I had not Sara's good looks; and yet I was marrying a far richer
+man than Colonel Ferguson.
+
+'I think Mr. Hamilton a very distinguished man, my dear,' she continued,
+much to Lesbia's amusement. 'He is peculiar-looking, certainly, and a
+little too dark for my taste; but his manners are charming, and he is
+certainly very much in love with Ursula. She looks very nice, and is very
+much improved; but still, one hardly expected such a match for her.'
+
+Lesbia retailed this little speech with much gusto. Dear Aunt Philippa!
+she certainly did her duty by me then: nothing could exceed her kindness
+and motherliness. And Sara came very often, looking the prettiest and
+happiest young matron in the world, and almost overwhelmed me with advice
+and petting.
+
+They had come to the conclusion that my position was a somewhat awkward
+one, and that it would not do for me to go on living at the White
+Cottage. They wanted me to give up my work at Heathfield until after my
+marriage; and at last Aunt Philippa conceived the brilliant idea of
+taking a house at Brighton for the winter.
+
+'You have never liked Hyde Park Gate, Ursula,' she said, very kindly;
+'and we shall all be glad to escape London fogs this year: your uncle
+will not mind the expense, and I think the plan will suit admirably.
+Heathfield is only twenty minutes from Brighton, and Mr. Hamilton will be
+able to visit you far more comfortably, and you can sleep a night or two
+at Sara's when you want to go up to London to get your _trousseau_.'
+
+I thanked Aunt Philippa warmly for her kind thought, and then I wrote to
+Giles, and asked his opinion. I found that he entirely agreed with Aunt
+Philippa.
+
+'I think it an excellent plan, dear,' he wrote; 'and you must thank your
+good aunt for her consideration for us both. I shall see you far oftener
+at Brighton than at the White Cottage. Miss Prudence will be less active
+there: I shall be allowed to enjoy a reasonable conversation without the
+speech--"Oh, do please go away now, Giles; you have been here nearly an
+hour"--that invariably closed our cottage interviews.' I could see Giles
+was really pleased with Aunt Philippa's proposition, so I promised to go
+back to Heathfield and settle my affairs, and join them directly the
+house in Brunswick Place was ready; and by the middle of October we were
+all settled comfortably for the winter.
+
+I found Giles was right. I saw him oftener, and there was less restraint
+on our intercourse. He would come over to luncheon whenever he had a
+leisure day, and take me for a walk, or drop in to dinner and take the
+last train back. Gladys and Lady Betty came over perpetually. I used to
+help them with their shopping, and often go back with them for a few
+hours. Max was also a frequent visitor, and Mr. Tudor. Aunt Philippa kept
+open house, and made all my visitors welcome. I think she was a little
+sorry that Mr. Tudor came so perseveringly: but she was true to her
+principles to let things take their course and not to fan the flame by
+opposition. She was always kind to the young man, and though she
+generally contrived to keep Jill beside her when he dropped in for
+afternoon tea or encountered them on the parade, she did it so quietly
+that no one noticed any significance in the action.
+
+But I think Aunt Philippa's maternal fears would have been up in arms if
+she had overheard a conversation between Jill and myself one wintry
+afternoon.
+
+Aunt Philippa had gone up to town to see Sara, who was a little ailing,
+and she and Uncle Brian were to return later. Gladys and Giles were to
+dine with us, and Max would probably join them. Aunt Philippa was very
+fond of these impromptu entertainments, but she had not extended the
+invitation to Mr. Tudor, who had called the previous day, and I had got
+it into my head that Jill was a little disappointed.
+
+She sat rather soberly by the fire that afternoon; but when Miss
+Gillespie left us she took her usual seat on the rug, and her black locks
+bobbed into my lap as usual, but I thought the firelight played on a very
+serious face.
+
+'What makes you so silent this afternoon, Jill?' I asked, rather
+curiously; but she did not answer for a moment, only drew down my
+hand, and looked at the diamonds that were flashing in the ruddy
+blaze,--Giles's pledge that he had placed there; then she laid her cheek
+against them, and said suddenly--
+
+'I was only thinking, Ursie dear: I often think about things. Do you
+remember that evening at Hyde Park Gate when the lamp fell on me, and
+I might have been burnt to death?'
+
+'Oh yes, Jill,' with a shudder, for I never cared to recall that scene.
+
+'Well, I was thinking,' still dreamily. Then, with a change of manner
+that startled me, 'Ursie, if a person saves another person's life, don't
+you think that life ought to belong to them?--that is, if they wish it?'
+with a sudden blush that rather alarmed me.
+
+'Stop, my dear,' I returned coolly. 'This is very vague. I do not think
+I quite understand. A person and another person, and them, too: it is
+terribly involved. Which is which? As the children say.'
+
+Jill gave a nervous little laugh, but her eyes gave me no doubt of her
+meaning: they looked strangely dark and soft.
+
+'Mr. Tudor saved my life,' she whispered. 'Ursie, if he wants it, that
+life ought to belong to him.'
+
+'Jill, my dear,' for I was thoroughly startled now. Things were growing
+serious; but Jill gave me a little push in her childish way.
+
+'Ursie, don't pretend to look so surprised: you knew all about it: I saw
+it in your face. Don't you remember what he said that night, that he did
+not know what would become of him if I died, that he could not bear it?
+Did you see how he looked when he said it?'
+
+I remained silent, for I could not deny that Mr. Tudor had betrayed
+himself at that moment; but she went on very quietly, 'Ursie dear, I know
+Mr. Tudor cares for me; he does not always hide it, though he tries to do
+so. You see he is so real and honest that he cannot help showing things.'
+
+'Jill,' I exclaimed anxiously, 'what would your mother say if she knew
+this?'
+
+'I think she does know it,' replied Jill calmly. 'She does not care for
+Mr. Tudor to come so often, but she is good to him all the same. Neither
+father nor mother will be pleased about it, because he is not rich, poor
+fellow; not that I think that matters,' finished Jill, in a grave,
+old-fashioned manner.
+
+'My dear child,' in a horrified tone, 'you talk as though you were sure
+of your own mind, and you are hardly seventeen.'
+
+'So I am sure,' was the confused answer. 'If Mr. Tudor cares enough for
+me to wait for a good many years,--until I am one-and-twenty,--he will
+find me all ready: of course I belong to him, Ursula: has he not saved my
+life? There is no hurry,' went on Jill, in her matter-of-fact way; 'he is
+very nice, and I shall always like him better than any one else; but
+I should not care to be engaged until I am one-and-twenty. One wants
+a little fun and a good deal of work before settling down into an engaged
+person,' finished the girl, with a droll little laugh.
+
+I was spared the necessity of any reply to this surprising confession by
+the entrance of our three visitors, for Max had encountered them at the
+station, of course by accident, and had walked up with them. That fact
+was sufficient to account for Gladys's soft bloom and the satisfied look
+in her eyes: she looked so lovely in the new furs Giles had bought her,
+that I did not wonder that Max was a little absent in his replies to me.
+Jill had made some excuse and left us, and it was really a very good
+idea of Giles's to ask me to come out on the balcony and look at the sea.
+He wrapped me in his plaid and placed me in a sheltered corner, and we
+stood watching the twinkling lights, and the dark water under the glimmer
+of starlight. He had a great deal to tell me, first how happy Eric was in
+his new work, and what cheerful letters he wrote to Gladys, and next
+about Captain Hamilton, with whom he professed himself much pleased.
+
+'Lady Betty is just as much a child as ever. It is ridiculous to think of
+her as a married woman,' he went on; 'but Claude declares himself to be
+perfectly satisfied. Well, there is no accounting for tastes,' with a
+change of intonation that was very intelligible.
+
+'And how is Phoebe, Giles?'
+
+'Oh, first-rate,' he answered cheerfully; 'she likes her new couch much
+better than the bed. I tell her if she goes on improving like this we
+shall have her in the next room before Easter. By the bye, Ursula, have
+you digested the contents of my last letter? Shall we go to the Pyrenees
+to spend our honeymoon? It will be too early for Switzerland; we might
+go later on, or to the Italian lakes.'
+
+'Anywhere with you, Giles,' I whispered; and he gave me silent thanks for
+that pretty speech.
+
+He did not say any more for a little time, and I stood by him watching
+the dark, wintry sea. Once my life had been dark and wintry too, but how
+mercifully I had been drawn out of the deep waters and brought to this
+dear haven of rest! As I crept nearer to Giles he seemed to utter my
+unspoken thought.
+
+'I am very happy to-night, Ursula, I have been thinking as I travelled
+down what it will be to me to have you always near me, to share my work
+and life. I am so glad you love Gladwyn so dearly.'
+
+'Love Gladwyn,--your home, Giles: is there anything strange in that?'
+
+'No, dear, perhaps not; but I like to hear you say so. There will not
+be a wish of yours ungratified if I can help it. I mean to spoil you
+dreadfully, Ursula.'
+
+I told him, smiling, that I was not afraid of this threat, and just then
+Max's voice interrupted us:
+
+'Little she-bear, do you know this is dreadfully imprudent? Is this the
+way Hamilton means to take care of you?'
+
+'Wait a moment, Ursula,' whispered Giles. 'Do you hear that ballad-singer
+in the square?' A voice clear and shrill seemed to float to us in the
+darkness: 'Sweet and low, sweet and low, wind of the western sea,' she
+sang. The waves seemed to splash in harmonious accompaniment; the lights
+were flickering, the carriages rolling under the faint starlight. I saw
+Giles's face--as I loved to see it--grave, thoughtful, and satisfied.
+
+'After all,' he said, as though answering some inward questioning, 'a man
+cannot know what his life will bring him. Do you remember what Robert
+Browning says:
+
+"What o' the way to the end?--The end crowns all."
+
+The end crowns all to me, Ursula.' And Giles's deep-set eyes gave me no
+doubt of his meaning.
+
+
+
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Uncle Max, by Rosa Nouchette Carey</h1>
+<pre>
+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 <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Uncle Max</p>
+<p>Author: Rosa Nouchette Carey</p>
+<p>Release Date: June 17, 2005  [eBook #16080]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNCLE MAX***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (https://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>UNCLE MAX</h1>
+
+<h2>BY ROSA NOUCHETTE CAREY</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">author of 'nellie's memories,' 'wee wifie,' 'robert ord's atonement,'
+etc</span>.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>1894</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CONTENTS</h3>
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. <span class="smcap">Out of the Mist</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. <span class="smcap">Behind the Bars</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. <span class="smcap">Cinderella</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. <span class="smcap">Uncle Max Breaks The Ice</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. '<span class="smcap">When The Cat Is Away</span>'</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. <span class="smcap">The White Cottage</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. <span class="smcap">Giles Hamilton, Esq</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. <span class="smcap">New Brooms Sweep Clean</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. <span class="smcap">The Flag of Truce</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. <span class="smcap">A Difficult Patient</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. <span class="smcap">One of God's Heroines</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. <span class="smcap">A Missed Vocation</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. <span class="smcap">Lady Betty</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. <span class="smcap">Lady Betty Leaves Her Muff</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. <span class="smcap">Up At Gladwyn</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. <span class="smcap">Gladys</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. '<span class="smcap">Why Not Trust Me, Max</span>?'</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. <span class="smcap">Miss Hamilton's Little Scholar</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX. <span class="smcap">The Picture In Gladys's Room</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX. <span class="smcap">Eric</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI. '<span class="smcap">I Ran Away, Then</span>!'</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII. '<span class="smcap">They Have Blackened His Memory Falsely</span>'</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII. <span class="smcap">The Mystery at Gladwyn</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV. '<span class="smcap">Weeping may endure for a Night</span>'</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV. '<span class="smcap">There is no one like Donald</span>'</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI. <span class="smcap">I hear about Captain Hamilton</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII. <span class="smcap">Max opens his Heart</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII. <span class="smcap">Crossing the River</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX. <span class="smcap">Miss Darrell has a Headache</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX. <span class="smcap">With Timbrels and Dances</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI. <span class="smcap">Wedding-Chimes</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">CHAPTER XXXII. <span class="smcap">A Fiery Ordeal</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">CHAPTER XXXIII. <span class="smcap">Jack Poynter</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">CHAPTER XXXIV. <span class="smcap">I communicate with Joe Muggins</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">CHAPTER XXXV. <span class="smcap">Nightingales and Roses</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">CHAPTER XXXVI. <span class="smcap">Breakers Ahead</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">CHAPTER XXXVII. '<span class="smcap">I claim that Promise, Ursula</span>'</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">CHAPTER XXXVIII. <span class="smcap">In the Turret-Room</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX">CHAPTER XXXIX. <span class="smcap">Whitefoot is saddled</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XL">CHAPTER XL. <span class="smcap">The Talk in the Gloaming</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLI">CHAPTER XLI. '<span class="smcap">At five o'clock in the Morning</span>'</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLII">CHAPTER XLII. <span class="smcap">Down the Pemberley Road</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLIII">CHAPTER XLIII. '<span class="smcap">Conspiracy Corner</span>'</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLIV">CHAPTER XLIV. <span class="smcap">Leah's Confession</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLV">CHAPTER XLV. '<span class="smcap">This Home is yours no longer</span>'</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLVI">CHAPTER XLVI. <span class="smcap">Nap barks in the Stable-yard</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLVII">CHAPTER XLVII. <span class="smcap">At last, Ursula, at last</span>!'</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XLVIII">CHAPTER XLVIII. '<span class="smcap">What o' the Way to the End</span>?'</a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1><a name="UNCLE_MAX" id="UNCLE_MAX"></a>UNCLE MAX</h1>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>OUT OF THE MIST</h3>
+
+
+<p>It appears to me, looking back over a past experience, that certain days
+in one's life stand out prominently as landmarks, when we arrive at some
+finger-post pointing out the road that we should follow.</p>
+
+<p>We come out of some deep, rutty lane, where the hedgerows obscure the
+prospect, and where the footsteps of some unknown passenger have left
+tracks in the moist red clay. The confused tracery of green leaves
+overhead seems to weave fanciful patterns against the dim blue of the
+sky; the very air is low-pitched and oppressive. All at once we find
+ourselves in an open space; the free winds of heaven are blowing over us;
+there are four roads meeting; the finger-post points silently, 'This way
+to such a place'; we can take our choice, counting the mile-stones rather
+wearily as we pass them. The road may be a little tedious, the stones may
+hurt our feet; but if it be the right road it will bring us to our
+destination.</p>
+
+<p>In looking back it always seems to me as though I came to a fresh
+landmark in my experience that November afternoon when I saw Uncle Max
+standing in the twilight, waiting for me.</p>
+
+<p>There had been the waste of a great trouble in my young life,&mdash;sorrow,
+confusion, then utter chaos. I had struggled on somehow after my twin
+brother's death, trying to fight against despair with all my youthful
+vitality; creating new duties for myself, throwing out fresh feelers
+everywhere; now and then crying out in my undisciplined way that the
+task was too hard for me; that I loathed my life; that it was impossible
+to live any longer without love and appreciation and sympathy; that so
+uncongenial an atmosphere could be no home to me; that the world was an
+utter negation and a mockery.</p>
+
+<p>That was before I went to the hospital, at the time when my trouble was
+fresh and I was breaking my heart with the longing to see Charlie's face
+again. Most people who have lived long in the world, and have parted with
+their beloved, know what that sort of hopeless ache means.</p>
+
+<p>My work was over at the hospital, and I had come home again,&mdash;to rest, so
+they said, but in reality to work out plans for my future life, in a sort
+of sullen silence, that seemed to shut me out from all sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>It had wrapped me in a sort of mantle of reserve all the afternoon,
+during which I had been driving with Aunt Philippa and Sara. The air
+would do me good. I was moped, hipped, with all that dreary hospital
+work, so they said. It would distract and amuse me to watch Sara making
+her purchases. Reluctance, silent opposition, only whetted their
+charitable mood.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't be disagreeable, Ursula. You might as well help me choose my new
+mantle,' Sara had said, quite pleasantly, and I had given in with a bad
+grace.</p>
+
+<p>Another time I might have been amused by Aunt Philippa's majestic
+deportment and Sara's brisk importance, her girlish airs and graces; but
+I was too sad at heart to indulge in my usual satire. Everything seemed
+stupid and tiresome; the hum of voices wearied me; the showroom at
+Marshall and Snelgrove's seemed a confused Babel,&mdash;everywhere strange
+voices, a hubbub of sound, tall figures in black passing and repassing,
+strange faces reflected in endless pier-glasses,&mdash;faces of puckered
+anxiety repeating themselves in ludicrous <i>vrai-semblance</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I saw our own little group reproduced in one. There was Aunt Philippa,
+tall and portly, with her well-preserved beauty, a little full-blown
+perhaps, but still 'marvellously' good-looking for her age, if she could
+only have not been so conscious of the fact.</p>
+
+<p>Then, Sara, standing there slim and straight, with the furred mantle just
+slipping over her smooth shoulders, radiant with good health, good looks,
+perfectly contented with herself and the whole world, as it behooves a
+handsome, high-spirited young woman to be with her surroundings, looking
+bright, unconcerned, good-humoured, in spite of her mother's fussy
+criticisms: Aunt Philippa was always a little fussy about dress.</p>
+
+<p>Between the two I could just catch a glimpse of myself,&mdash;a tall
+girl, dressed very plainly in black, with a dark complexion, large,
+anxious-looking eyes, that seemed appealing for relief from all this
+dulness,&mdash;a shadowy sort of image of discontent and protest in the
+background, hovering behind Aunt Philippa's velvet mantle and Sara's
+slim supple figure.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Ursula,' said Sara, still good-humouredly, 'will you not give us
+your opinion? Does this dolman suit me, or would you prefer a long jacket
+trimmed with skunk?'</p>
+
+<p>I remember I decided in favour of the jacket, only Aunt Philippa
+interposed, a little contemptuously,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'What does Ursula know about the present fashion? She has spent the last
+year in the wards of St. Thomas's, my dear,' dropping her voice, and
+taking up her gold-rimmed eye-glasses to inspect me more critically,&mdash;a
+mere habit, for I had reason to know Aunt Philippa was not the least
+near-sighted. 'I cannot see any occasion for you to dress so dowdily,
+with three hundred a year to spend absolutely on yourself; for of course
+poor Charlie's little share has come to you. You could surely make
+yourself presentable, especially as you know we are going to Hyde Park
+Mansions to see Lesbia.'</p>
+
+<p>This was too much for my equanimity. 'What does it matter? I am not
+coming with you, Aunt Philippa,' I retorted, somewhat vexed at this
+personality; but Sara overheard us, and strove to pour oil on the
+troubled waters.</p>
+
+<p>'Leave Ursula alone, mother: she looks tolerably well this afternoon;
+only mourning never suits a dark complexion&mdash;' But I did not wait to
+hear any more. I wandered about the place disconsolately, pretending to
+examine things with passing curiosity, but my eyes were throbbing and my
+heart beating angrily at Sara's thoughtless speech. A sudden remembrance
+seemed to steal before me vividly: Charlie's pale face, with its sad,
+sweet smile, haunted me. 'Courage, Ursula; it will be over soon.' Those
+were his last words, poor boy, and he was looking at me and not at Lesbia
+as he spoke. I always wondered what he meant by them. Was it his long
+pain, which he had borne so patiently, that would soon be over? or was
+it that cruel parting to which he alluded? or did he strive to comfort
+me at the last with the assurance&mdash;alas! for our mortal nature, so sadly
+true&mdash;that pain cannot last for ever, that even faithful sorrow is
+short-lived and comforts itself in time, that I was young enough to
+outlive more than one trouble, and that I might take courage from this
+thought?</p>
+
+<p>I looked down at the black dress, such as I had worn nearly two years
+for him, and raged as I remembered Sara's flippant words. 'My darling,
+I would wear mourning for you all my life gladly,' I said, with an inward
+sob that was more anger than sorrow, 'if I thought you would care for me
+to do it. Oh, what a world this is, Charlie! surely vanity and vexation
+of spirit!'</p>
+
+<p>I did not mean to be cross with Sara, but my thoughts had taken a gloomy
+turn, and I could not recover my spirits: indeed, as we drove down Bond
+Street, where Sara had some glittering little toy to purchase, I
+reiterated my intention of not calling at Hyde Park Mansions.</p>
+
+<p>'I do not want any tea,' I said wearily, 'and I would rather go home.
+Give my love to Lesbia; I will see her another day.'</p>
+
+<p>'Lesbia will be hurt,' remonstrated Sara. 'What a little misanthrope you
+are, Ursula! St. Thomas's has injured you socially; you have become a
+hermit-crab all at once, and it is such nonsense at your age.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, let me be, Sara!' I pleaded; 'I am tired, and Lesbia always chatters
+so; and Mrs. Fullerton is worse. Besides, did you not tell me she was
+coming to dine with us this evening?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, to be sure; but she wanted us to meet the Percy Glyns. Mirrel and
+Winifred Glyn are to be there this afternoon. Never mind, Lesbia will
+understand when I say you are in one of your ridiculous moods.' And Sara
+hummed a little tune gaily, as though she meant no offence by her words
+and was disposed to let me go my own way.</p>
+
+<p>'The carriage can take you home, Ursula; we can walk those few yards,'
+observed Aunt Philippa, as she descended leisurely, and Sara tripped
+after her, still humming. But I took no notice of her words: I had had
+enough dulness and decorum to last me for some time, and the Black Prince
+and his consort Bay might find their way to their own stables without
+depositing me at the front door of the house at Hyde Park Gate. I told
+Clarence so, to his great astonishment, and walked across the road in an
+opposite direction to home, as though my feet were winged with
+quicksilver.</p>
+
+<p>For the Park in that dim November light seemed to allure me; there was
+a red glow of sunset in the distance; a faint, climbing mist between the
+trees; the gas-lamps were twinkling everywhere. I could hear the ringing
+of some church bell; there was space, freedom for thought, a vague,
+uncertain prospect, out of which figures were looming curiously,&mdash;a
+delightful sense that I was sinning against conventionality and Aunt
+Philippa.</p>
+
+<p>'Halloo, Ursula!' exclaimed a voice in great astonishment; and there, out
+of the mist, was a kind face looking at me,&mdash;a face with a brown beard,
+and dark eyes with a touch of amusement in them; and the eyes and the
+beard and the bright, welcoming smile belonged to Uncle Max.</p>
+
+<p>As I caught at his outstretched hand with a half-stifled exclamation
+of delight, a policeman turned round and looked at us with an air of
+interest. No doubt he thought the tall brown-bearded clergyman in the
+shabby coat&mdash;it was one of Uncle Max's peculiarities to wear a shabby
+coat occasionally&mdash;was the sweetheart of the young lady in black. Uncle
+Max&mdash;I am afraid I oftener called him Max&mdash;was only a few years older
+than myself, and had occupied the position of an elder brother to me.</p>
+
+<p>He was my poor mother's only brother, and had been dearly loved by
+her,&mdash;not as I had loved Charlie, perhaps; but they had been much to each
+other, and he had always seemed nearer to me than Aunt Philippa, who was
+my father's sister; perhaps because there was nothing in common between
+us, and I had always been devoted to Uncle Max.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Ursula,' he said, pretending to look grave, but evidently far too
+pleased to see me to give me a very severe lecture, 'what is the meaning
+of this? Does Mrs. Garston allow young ladies under her charge to stroll
+about Hyde Park in the twilight? or have you stolen a march on her,
+naughty little she-bear?'</p>
+
+<p>I drew my hand away with an offended air: when Uncle Max wished to tease
+or punish me he always reminded me that the name of Ursula signified
+she-bear, and would sometimes call me 'the little black growler'; and at
+such times it was provoking to think that Sara signified princess. I have
+always wondered how far and how strongly our baptismal names influence
+us. Of course he would not let me walk beside him in that dignified
+manner: the next instant I heard his clear hearty laugh, and then I
+laughed too.</p>
+
+<p>'What an absurd child you are! I was thinking over your letter as I
+walked along. It did not bring me to London, certainly; I had business of
+my own; but, all the same, I have walked across the Park this evening to
+talk to you about this extraordinary scheme.'</p>
+
+<p>But I would not let him go on. He was about to cross the road, so I took
+his arm and turned him back. And there was the gray mist creeping up
+between the trees, and the lamps glimmering in the distance, and the
+faint pink glow had not yet died away.</p>
+
+<p>'It is so quiet here,' I pleaded, 'and I could not get you alone for a
+moment if we went in. Uncle Brian will be there, and Jill, and we could
+not say a word. Aunt Philippa and Sara have gone to see Lesbia. I have
+been driving with them all the afternoon. Sara has been shopping, and how
+bored I was!'</p>
+
+<p>'You uncivilised little heathen!' Then, very gravely, 'Well, how is poor
+Lesbia?'</p>
+
+<p>'Do not waste your pity on her,' I returned impatiently. 'She is as well
+and cheerful as possible. Even Sara says so. She is not breaking her
+heart about Charlie. She has left off mourning, and is as gay as ever.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are always hard on Lesbia,' he returned gently. 'She is young,
+my dear, you forget that, and a pretty girl, and very much admired.
+It always seems to me she was very fond of the poor fellow.'</p>
+
+<p>'She was good to him in his illness, but she never cared for Charlie as
+he did for her. He worshipped the very ground she walked on. He thought
+her perfection. Uncle Max, it was pitiful to hear him sometimes. He would
+tell me how sweet and unselfish she was, and all the time I knew she was
+but an ordinary, commonplace girl. If he had lived to marry her he would
+have been disappointed in her. He was so large-hearted, and Lesbia has
+such little aims.'</p>
+
+<p>'So you always say, Ursula. But you women are so severe in your judgment
+of each other. I doubt myself if the girl lives whom you would have
+considered good enough for Charlie. Yes, yes, my dear,'&mdash;as I uttered a
+dissenting protest to this,&mdash;'he was a fine fellow, and his was a most
+lovable character; but it was his last illness that ripened him.'</p>
+
+<p>'He was always perfect in my eyes,' I returned, in a choked voice.</p>
+
+<p>'That was because you loved him; and no doubt Lesbia possessed the same
+ideal goodness for him. Love throws its own glamour,' he went on, and
+his voice was unusually grave; 'it does not believe in commonplace
+mediocrity; it lifts up its idol to some fanciful pedestal, where the
+poor thing feels very uncomfortable and out of its element, and then
+persists in falling down and worshipping it. We humans are very droll,
+Ursula: we will create our own divinities.'</p>
+
+<p>'Lesbia would have disappointed him,' I persisted obstinately; but I
+might as well have talked to the wind. Uncle Max could not find it in
+his heart to be hard to a pretty girl.</p>
+
+<p>'That is open to doubt, my dear. Lesbia is amiable and charming, and I
+daresay she would have made a nice little wife. Poor Charlie hated clever
+women, and in that respect she would have suited him.'</p>
+
+<p>After this I knew it was no good in trying to change his opinion. Uncle
+Max held his own views with remarkable tenacity; he had old-fashioned
+notions with respect to women, rather singular in so young a man,&mdash;for he
+was only thirty; he preferred to believe in their goodness, in spite of
+any amount of demonstration to the contrary; it vexed him to be reminded
+of the shortcomings of his friends; by nature he was an optimist, and had
+a large amount of faith in people's good intentions. 'He meant well, poor
+fellow, in spite of his failures,' was a speech I have heard more than
+once from his lips. He was always ready to condone a fault or heal a
+breach; indeed, his sweet nature found it difficult to bear a grudge
+against any one; he was only hard to himself, and on no one else did he
+strive to impose so heavy a yoke. I was only silent for a minute, and
+then I turned the conversation into another channel.</p>
+
+<p>'But my letter, Uncle Max!'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, true, your letter; but I have not forgotten it. How old are you,
+Ursula? I always forget.'</p>
+
+<p>'Five-and-twenty this month.'</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure; I ought to have remembered. And you have three hundred a
+year of your own.'</p>
+
+<p>I nodded.</p>
+
+<p>'And your present home is distasteful to you?' in an inquiring tone.</p>
+
+<p>'It is no home to me,' I returned passionately. 'Oh, Uncle Max, how can
+one call it home after the dear old rectory, where we were so happy,
+father, and mother, and Charlie&mdash;and&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know, poor child; and you have had heavy troubles. It cannot be
+like the old home, I am well aware of that, Ursula; but your aunt is a
+good woman. I have always found her strictly just. She was your father's
+only sister: when she offered you a home she promised to treat you with
+every indulgence, as though you were her own daughter.'</p>
+
+<p>'Aunt Philippa means to be kind,' I said, struggling to repress my
+tears,&mdash;tears always troubled Uncle Max: 'she is kind in her way, and so
+is Sara. I have every comfort, every luxury; they want me to be gay and
+enjoy myself, to lead their life; but it only makes me miserable; they do
+not understand me; they see I do not think with them, and then they laugh
+at me and call me morbid. No one really wants me but poor Jill: I am so
+fond of Jill.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why cannot you lead their life, Ursula?'</p>
+
+<p>'Because it is not life at all,' was my resolute answer: 'to me it is the
+most wearisome existence possible. Listen to me, Uncle Max. Do you think
+I could possibly spend my days as Sara does,&mdash;writing a few notes, doing
+a little fancy-work, shopping and paying visits, and dancing half the
+night? Do you think you could transform such a poor little Cinderella
+into a fairy princess, like Sara or Lesbia? No; the drudgery of such a
+life would kill me with <i>ennui</i> and discontent.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not the life I would choose for you, certainly,' he said, pulling
+his beard in some perplexity: 'it is far too worldly to suit my taste; if
+Charlie had lived you would have made your home with him. He often talked
+to me about that, poor fellow. I thought a year or two at Hyde Park Gate
+would do you no harm, and might be wholesome training; but it has proved
+a failure, I see that.'</p>
+
+<p>'They would be happier without me,' I went on, more quietly, for he was
+evidently coming round to my view of the case. 'Aunt Philippa does not
+mean to be unkind, but she often lets me see that I am in the way, that
+she is not proud of me. She would have taken more interest in me if I had
+been handsome, like Sara; but a plain, dowdy niece is not to her taste.
+No, let me finish, Uncle Max,'&mdash;for he wanted to interrupt me here.
+'They made a great fuss about my training at the hospital last year,
+but I am sure they did not miss me; Sara spoke yesterday as though she
+thought I was going back to St. Thomas's, and Aunt Philippa made no
+objection. I heard her tell Mrs. Fullerton once "that really Ursula was
+so strong-minded and different from other girls that she was prepared for
+anything, even for her being a female doctor."'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, my dear, you are certainly rather peculiar, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Uncle Max,' I said mournfully, 'are you going to misunderstand me
+too? Providence has deprived me of my parents and my only brother: is it
+strong-minded or peculiar to be so lonely and sad at heart that gaiety
+only jars on me? Can I forget my mother's teaching when she said,
+"Ursula, if you live for the world you will be miserable. Try to do your
+duty and benefit your fellow-creatures, and happiness must follow"?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, poor Emmie, she was a good woman: you might do worse than take
+after her.'</p>
+
+<p>'She would not approve of the life I am leading at Hyde Park Gate,' I
+went on. 'She and Aunt Philippa never cared for each other. I often think
+that if she had known she would not have liked me to be there. Sundays
+are wretched. We go to church?&mdash;yes, because it is respectable to do so;
+but there is a sort of reunion every Sunday evening.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish I could offer you a home, Ursula; but&mdash;' here Uncle Max
+hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>'That would not do at all,' I returned promptly. 'Your bachelor home
+would not do for me; besides, you might marry&mdash;of course you will,' but
+he flushed rather uncomfortably at that, and said, 'Pshaw! what
+nonsense!' We had paused under a lamp-post, and I could see him plainly:
+perhaps he knew this, for he hurried me on, this time in the direction of
+home.</p>
+
+<p>'I am five-and-twenty,' I continued, trying to collect the salient points
+of my argument. 'I am indebted to none for my maintenance; I am free, and
+my own mistress; I neglect no duty by refusing to live under Uncle
+Brian's roof; no one wants me; I contribute to no one's happiness.'</p>
+
+<p>'Except to Jill's,' observed Uncle Max.</p>
+
+<p>'Jill! but she is only a child, barely sixteen, and Sara is becoming
+jealous of my influence. I shall only breed dissension in the household
+if I remain. Uncle Max, you are a good man,&mdash;a clergyman; you cannot
+conscientiously tell me that I am not free to lead my own life, to choose
+my own work in the world.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps not,' he replied, in a hesitating voice. 'But the scheme is a
+peculiar one. You wish me to find respectable lodgings in my parish,
+where you will be independent and free from supervision, and to place
+your superfluous health and strength&mdash;you are a muscular Christian,
+Ursula&mdash;at the service of my sick poor, and for this post you have
+previously trained yourself.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think it will be a good sort of life,' I returned carelessly, but how
+my heart was beating! 'I like it so much, and I should like to be near
+you, Uncle Max, and work under you as my vicar. I have thought about this
+for years. Charlie and I often talked of it. I was to live with him and
+Lesbia and devote my time to this work. He thought it such a nice idea
+to go and nurse poor people in their homes. And he promised that he
+would come and sing to them. But now I must carry out my plan alone, for
+Charlie cannot help me now.' And as I thought of the sympathy that had
+never failed me my voice quivered and I could say no more.</p>
+
+<p>'I wish we were all in heaven,' growled Uncle Max,&mdash;but his tone was a
+little husky,&mdash;'for this world is a most uncomfortable place for good
+people, or people with a craze. I think Charlie is well out of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Under which category do you mean to place me?' I asked, trying to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, there is a craze in most women. They have such an obstinate
+faith in their own good intentions. If they find half a dozen fools to
+believe in them, they will start a crusade to found a new Utopia. Women
+are the most meddlesome things in creation: they never let well alone.
+Their pretty little fingers are in every human pie. That is why we get so
+much unwholesome crust and so little meat, and, of course, our digestion
+is ruined.'</p>
+
+<p>'Uncle Max&mdash;' But he would not be serious any longer.</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula, I utterly refuse to inhale any more of this mist. I think a
+comfortable arm-chair by the fire would be far more conducive to comfort.
+You have given me plenty of food for thought, and I mean to sleep on it.
+Now, not another word. I am going to ring the bell.' And Uncle Max was as
+good as his word.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>BEHIND THE BARS</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was quite true, as I had told Uncle Max, that the scheme had been no
+new one; it was no sudden emanation from a girl's brain, morbid with
+discontent and fruitless longings; it had grown with my youth and had
+become part of my environment. As a child the thought had come to me as
+I followed my father into one cottage after another in his house-to-house
+visitation. He had been a conscientious, hard-working clergyman; in fact,
+his work killed him, for he overtasked a constitution that was not
+naturally strong. I accompanied my mother, too, in her errands of mercy,
+and saw a great deal of the misery engendered by drink, ignorance, and
+want of forethought. In the case of the sick poor, the gross
+mismanagement and want of cleanly and thrifty habits led to an amount
+of discomfort and suffering that even now makes me shudder. The parish
+was overgrown and insufficiently worked; the greater part of the
+population belonged to the working-classes; dissenting chapels and
+gin-palaces flourished. Often did my childish heart ache at the
+surroundings of some squalid home, where the parents toiled all day for
+worse than naught, just to satisfy their unhealthy cravings, while the
+children grew up riotous, half starved, and full of inherited vices.
+There was a little child I saw once, a cripple, dying slowly of some sad
+spinal disease, lying in a dark corner, on what seemed to me a heap of
+rags. Oh, God, I can see that child's face now! I remember when we heard
+of its death my mother burst into tears. They were tears of joy, she told
+me afterwards, that another suffering child's life was ended; 'and there
+are hundreds and hundreds of these little creatures, Ursula,' she said,
+'growing up in sin and misery; and the world goes on, and people eat and
+drink and are merry, for it is none of their business, and yet it is not
+the will of the Father that one of these little ones should perish.'</p>
+
+<p>I had learned much from my father, but still more from my mother.
+Uncle Max had called her a good woman, but she was more than that:
+she possessed one of those rare unselfish natures that cannot remain
+satisfied with their own personal happiness: they wish to include
+the whole world. She wanted to inculcate in me her own spirit of
+self-sacrifice. I can remember some of her short, trenchant sentences
+now.</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind happiness: that is God's gift to a few: do your duty.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you have loved your fellow-creatures sufficiently you will not be
+afraid to die. A good conscience will smooth your pillow.'</p>
+
+<p>And once, in her last illness, when Charlie asked if she were
+comfortable, 'Not very, but I shall soon be quite comfortable, for I
+shall hope to forget in heaven how little I have done, after all, here;
+and yet I always wanted to help others.'</p>
+
+<p>Oh, how good she was! And Charlie was good too, after the fashion of
+young men: not altogether thoughtless, full of the promptings of his kind
+heart; but Uncle Max was right when he said his last illness had ripened
+him: it was not the old careless Charlie who had wooed Lesbia who lay
+there: it was another and a better Charlie.</p>
+
+<p>In the old days he had rallied me in a brotherly manner on my
+old-fashioned, grave ways. 'You are not a modern young lady, Ursie,' he
+would say; and he would often call me 'grandmother Ursula'; but all the
+same he would listen to my plans with the utmost tolerance and good
+nature.</p>
+
+<p>Ah, those talks in the twilight, before the fatal disease developed
+itself, and he lay in idle fashion on the couch with his arms under his
+head, while I sat on the footstool or on the rug in the firelight! We
+were to live together,&mdash;yes, that was always the dream; even when
+Lesbia's fair face came between us, he would not hear of any difference.
+I was to live with him and Lesbia, Lesbia was rich, and, though Charlie
+had little, they were to marry soon.</p>
+
+<p>I was to form a part of that luxurious household, but my time was to be
+my own, and I was to devote it to the sick poor of Rutherford. 'Mind,
+Ursula, you may work, but I will not have you overwork,' Charlie had once
+said, more decidedly than usual; 'you must come home for hours of rest
+and refreshment. You have a beautiful voice, and it shall be properly
+trained; you may sing to your invalids as much as you like, and sometimes
+I will come and sing too; but you must remember you have social duties,
+and I shall expect you to entertain our friends.' And it was the idea of
+this dual life of home sympathy and outside work that had so strongly
+seized upon my imagination.</p>
+
+<p>When Charlie died I was too sick at heart to carry out my plan. 'How can
+one work alone?' I would say sorrowfully to myself; but after a time the
+emptiness of my life and dissatisfaction with my surroundings brought
+back the old thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>I remembered the dear old rectory life, where every one was in earnest,
+and contrasted it with the trifling pursuits that my aunt and cousin
+called duties. My present existence seemed to shut me in like prison
+bars. Only to be free, to choose my own life! And then came emancipation
+in the shape of hard hospital work, when health and spirits returned to
+me; when, under the stimulus of useful employment and constant exercise
+of body and mind, I slept better, fretted less, and looked less
+mournfully out on the world. Uncle Max was right when he said a year
+at St. Thomas's would save me.</p>
+
+<p>By and by the idea dawned upon me that I might still carry out my plan;
+there were poor people at Heathfield, where Uncle Max's parish was. What
+should hinder me from living there under Uncle Max's wing and trying to
+combine the two lives, as Charlie wished?</p>
+
+<p>I was young, full of activity. I did not wish to shut myself out from my
+kind. I could discharge my duties to my own class and enjoy a moderate
+amount of pleasure. I was young enough to desire that; but the greater
+part of my time would be placed at the disposal of my poorer neighbours.
+People might think it singular at first, but they would not talk for
+ever, and the life would be a happy one to me.</p>
+
+<p>All this had been said in that voluminous letter of mine to Uncle Max;
+he might argue and shake his head over it, thereby proving himself a
+wise man, but he could not but know that I was absolutely under my own
+control, as far as a woman could be. I need ask no one's advice in the
+disposal of my own life; his own and Uncle Brian's guardianship was
+merely nominal now. After five-and-twenty I was declared my own
+mistress in every sense of the word.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Brian came out to meet us as soon as he heard Uncle Max's voice
+in the hall; the two were very great friends, and they shook hands
+cordially.</p>
+
+<p>'Glad to see you, Cunliffe; why did you not let us know that you were
+coming up to town? We could have put you up easily&mdash;eh, Ursula?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, indeed, Uncle Brian'; and then I added coaxingly, 'Do please send
+for your portmanteau, Uncle Max; you know Lesbia is coming this evening,
+and you are such a favourite with her.' I knew this would be a strong
+inducement, for Uncle Max's soft heart would insist on treating Lesbia
+as though she were a widowed princess.</p>
+
+<p>'All right,' he returned in his lazy way, and then I took the matter into
+my own hands by leaving the room at once to consult with Mrs. Martin,
+Aunt Philippa's housekeeper. As I closed the door I glanced back for
+another look at Uncle Max. He had thrown himself into an easy-chair, as
+though he were tired, and was leaning back with his hands under his head
+in Charlie's fashion, looking up at Uncle Brian, who was standing on the
+rug.</p>
+
+<p>I always thought Uncle Brian a very handsome man. He had clear, well-cut
+features and a gray moustache, and he was quiet and dignified. He always
+looked to me, with his brown complexion, more like an Indian officer than
+a wealthy banker. There was nothing commercial in his appearance; but I
+should have admired him more if he had been less cold and repressive in
+manner; but he was an undemonstrative man, even to his own children.</p>
+
+<p>I remember hinting this once to Uncle Max, and he had rebuked me more
+severely than he had ever done before.</p>
+
+<p>'I do not like young girls like you, Ursula, to be so critical about
+their elders. Garston is an excellent fellow; he has plenty of brains,
+and always does the right thing, however difficult it may be. Men are not
+like women, my dear: they often hide their deepest feelings. Your poor
+uncle has never been quite the same man since Ralph's death, and just as
+he was getting over his boy's loss a little he had a fresh disappointment
+with Charlie: he always meant to put him in Ralph's place.'</p>
+
+<p>I was a little ashamed of my criticism when Max said this. I felt I had
+not made sufficient allowance for Uncle Brian: the death of his only son
+must have been a dreadful blow. Ralph had died at Oxford; they said he
+had overworked himself in trying for honours and then had taken a chill.
+He was a fine, handsome young fellow, nearly two-and-twenty, and his
+father's idol: no wonder Uncle Brian had grown so much older and graver
+during the last few years.</p>
+
+<p>And he had been fond of Charlie, and had meant to have him in Ralph's
+place; my poor boy would have been a rich one if he had lived. Uncle
+Brian had taken him into the bank, and Lesbia and her fortune were
+promised to him, but the goodly heritage was snatched away before his
+eyes, and he was called away in the fresh bloom of his youth.</p>
+
+<p>I always thought Uncle Brian liked Max better than any other man: he
+was always less stiff and frigid in his presence. I could hear his low
+laugh&mdash;Uncle Brian never laughed loudly&mdash;as I closed the door; Max had
+said something that amused him. They would be quite happy without me,
+so I ran up to the schoolroom on the chance of getting a chat with Jill.</p>
+
+<p>The schoolroom was on the second floor, where Jill, I, and Fr&auml;ulein all
+slept. Sara had a handsome room next to her mother's, and a little
+boudoir furnished most daintily for her special use. I do not believe
+she ever sat in it, unless she had a cold or was otherwise ailing; the
+drawing-room was always full of company, and Sara was the life of the
+house. I used to peep in at the pretty room sometimes as I went up to
+bed; there were few notes written at the inlaid escritoire, and the
+handsomely-bound books were never taken down from the shelves. Draper,
+Aunt Philippa's maid, fed the canaries and dusted the cabinets of china.
+Sometimes Sara would trip into the room with one of her cronies for a
+special chat; the ripple of their girlish laughter would reach us as Jill
+and I sat together. 'Whom has Sara got with her this afternoon?' Jill
+would say peevishly. 'Do listen to them; they do nothing but laugh. If
+Fr&auml;ulein had set her all these exercises she would not feel quite so
+merry,' Jill would finish, throwing the obnoxious book from her with a
+little burst of impatience.</p>
+
+<p>I always pitied Jill for having to spend her days in such a dull room;
+the furniture was ugly, and the windows looked out on a dismal back-yard,
+with the high walls of the opposite building. Aunt Philippa, who was a
+rigid disciplinarian with her young daughter, always said that she had
+chosen the room 'because Jill would have nothing to distract her from her
+studies.' The poor child would put up her shoulders at this remark and
+draw down the corners of her lips in a way that would make Aunt Philippa
+scold her for her awkwardness. 'You need not make yourself plainer than
+you are, Jocelyn,' she would say severely; for Jill's awkward manners
+troubled her motherly vanity. 'What is the good of all the dancing and
+drilling and riding with Captain Cooper if you will persist in hunching
+your shoulders as though you were deformed? Fr&auml;ulein has been complaining
+of you this morning; she seems excessively displeased at your
+carelessness and want of application.' 'I know I shall get stupid, shut
+up in that dull hole with Fr&auml;ulein,' Jill would say passionately, after
+one of these maternal lectures. Aunt Philippa was really very fond of
+Jill; but she misunderstood the girl's nature. The system had answered
+so well with Sara that she could not be brought to comprehend why it
+should fail with her other child. Sara had grown up blooming and radiant
+in spite of the depressing influences of Fr&auml;ulein and the dull, narrow
+schoolroom. Her music and singing masters had come to her there. Little
+Madame Blanchard had chirped to her in Parisian accent for the hour
+together over <i>les modes</i> and <i>le beau Paris</i>. Sara had danced and
+drilled with the other young ladies at Miss Dugald's select
+establishment, and had joined them at the riding-school or in the
+cavalcade under Captain Cooper.</p>
+
+<p>Sara had worn her bondage lightly, and had fascinated even grim old Herr
+Schliefer. Her tact and easy adaptability had kept Fr&auml;ulein Sonnenschein
+in a state of tepid good-humour. Every one, even cross old Draper,
+idolised Sara for her beauty and sprightly ways. When Aunt Philippa
+declared her education finished, she tripped out of the schoolroom as
+happily as possible to take possession of her grand new bedroom and the
+little boudoir, where all her girlish treasures were arranged. She had
+not been the least impatient for her day of freedom: it would all come in
+good time. When the sceptre was put into her hands and her sovereignty
+acknowledged by the whole household, the young princess was not a bit
+excited. She put on her court dress and made her courtesy to her majesty
+with the same charming unconsciousness and ease of manner. No wonder
+people were charmed with such good-humour and freshness. If the glossy
+hair did not cover a large amount of brains, no one found fault with her
+for that.</p>
+
+<p>Jill raged and stormed fiercely under Sara's light-hearted philosophy;
+when her sister told her to be patient under Fr&auml;ulein's yoke, that a good
+time was coming for her also, when lesson-books would be shut up, and
+Herr Schliefer would cease to scatter snuff on the carpet as he sat
+drumming with his fingers on the keyboard and grunting out brief
+interjections of impatience.</p>
+
+<p>'What does it matter about Herr Schliefer?' Jill would say, in a sort of
+fury. 'I like him a hundred times better than I do that mincing little
+poll-parrot of a Madame Blanchard: she is odious, and I hate her, and I
+hate Fr&auml;ulein too. It is not the lessons I mind; one has to learn lessons
+all one's life; it is being shut up like a bird in a cage when one's
+wings are ready for flight. I should like to fly away from this room,
+from Fr&auml;ulein, from the whole of the horrid set; it makes me cross,
+wicked, to live like this, and all your sugar-plums will do me no good.
+Go away, Sara; you do not understand as Ursula does, it makes me feel bad
+to see you standing there, looking so pretty and happy, and just laughing
+at me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course I laugh at you, Jocelyn, when you behave like a baby,'
+returned Sara, trying to be severe, only her dimples betrayed her. 'Well,
+as you are so cross, I shall go away. There is the chocolate I promised
+you. Ta-ta.' And Sara put down the <i>bonbonni&egrave;re</i> on the table and walked
+out of the room.</p>
+
+<p>I was not surprised to see Jill push it away. No one understood the poor
+child but myself; she was precocious, womanly, for her age; she had
+twenty times the amount of brains that Sara possessed, and she was
+starving on the education provided for her.</p>
+
+<p>To dance and drill and write dreary German exercises, when one is
+thirsting to drink deeply at the well of knowledge; to go round and round
+the narrow monotonous course that had sufficed for Sara's moderate
+abilities, like the blind horse at the mill, and never to advance an inch
+out of the beaten track, this was simply maddening to Jill's sturdy
+intellect. She often told me how she longed to attend classes, to hear
+lectures, to rub against full-grown minds.</p>
+
+<p>'Now. Me-ess Jocelyn, we will do a little of ze Wallenstein, by the
+immortal Schiller. Hold up the head, and leave off striking the table
+with your elbows.' Jill would give a droll imitation of Fr&auml;ulein, and
+end with a groan.</p>
+
+<p>'What does she know-about Schiller? She cannot even comprehend him. She
+is dense,&mdash;utterly dense and stupid; but because she knows her own
+language and has a correct deportment she is fit to teach me.' And Jill
+ground her little white teeth in impotent wrath. Jill always appeared to
+me like an infant Pegasus in harness; she wanted to soar,&mdash;to make use of
+her wings,&mdash;and they kept her down. She was not naturally gay, like Sara,
+though her health was good, and she was as powerful as a young Amazon.
+Her nature was more sombre and took colour from her surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>She was like a child in the sunshine; plenty of life and movement
+distracted her from interior broodings and made her joyous; when she was
+riding with the young ladies from Miss Dugald's, she would be as merry as
+the others.</p>
+
+<p>But her dreary schoolroom and Fr&auml;ulein's society chafed her nervous
+sensibilities dangerously; there were only a few brown sparrows, or
+a stray cat intent on game, to be seen from her window. From the
+drawing-room, from Sara's boudoir, from her mother's bedroom, there was
+a charming view of the Park. In the spring the fresh foliage of the
+trees, and the velvety softness of the grass, would be delicious; down
+in the broad white road, carriages were passing, horses cantering,
+happy-looking people in smart bonnets, in gorgeous mantles, driving about
+everywhere; children would be running up and down the paths in the Park,
+flower-sellers would stand offering their innocent wares to the
+passengers. Jill would sit entranced by her mother's window watching
+them; the sunshine, the glitter, the hubbub, intoxicated her; she made up
+stories by the dozen, as her dark eyes followed the gay equipages. When
+Fr&auml;ulein summoned her she went away reluctantly; the stories got into
+her head, and stopped there all the time she laboured through that long
+sonata.</p>
+
+<p>'Why are your fingers all thumbs to-day, Fr&auml;ulein?' Herr Schliefer
+would demand gloomily. Jill, who was really fond of the stern old
+professor, hung her head and blushed guiltily. She had no excuse to
+offer: her girlish dreams were sacred to her; they came gliding to her
+through the most intricate passages of the sonata, now with a <i>staccato</i>
+movement,&mdash;brisk, lively,&mdash;with fitful energy, now <i>andante</i>, then
+<i>crescendo, con passione</i>. Jill's unformed girlish hands strike the
+chords wildly, angrily. '<i>Dolce, dolce</i>,' screams the professor in her
+ears. The music softens, wanes, and the dreams seem to die away too.
+'That will do, Fr&auml;ulein: you have not acquitted yourself so badly after
+all.' And Jill gets off her music-stool reluctant, absent, half awake,
+and her day-dream broken up into chaos.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>CINDERELLA</h3>
+
+
+<p>As I opened the schoolroom door a half-forgotten picture of Cinderella
+came vividly before me.</p>
+
+<p>The fire had burnt low; a heap of black ashes lay under the grate; and by
+the dull red glow I could see Jill's forlorn figure, very indistinctly,
+as she sat in her favourite attitude on the rug, her arms clasping her
+knees and her short black locks hanging loosely over her shoulders. She
+gave a little shrill exclamation of pleasure when she saw me.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, you dear darling bear, do come and hug me,' she cried, trying to get
+up in a hurry, but her dress entangled her.</p>
+
+<p>'Where is Fr&auml;ulein?' I asked, pushing her back into her place, while I
+knelt down to manipulate the miserable fire. 'Jill, you look just like
+Cinderella when the proud sisters drove away to the ball. My dear, were
+you asleep? Why are you sitting in the dark, with the fire going out, and
+the lamp unlighted? There, it only wanted to be stirred; we shall have
+light by which to see other's faces directly,'</p>
+
+<p>'Fr&auml;ulein has a headache and has gone to lie down,' returned Jill, and,
+though I could not see her clearly, I knew at once by her voice that she
+had been crying; only she would have been furious if I had noticed the
+fact. 'I hope I am not very wicked, but Fr&auml;ulein's headaches are the
+redeeming points in her character; she has them so often, and then she
+is obliged to lie down.'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course you have offered to bathe her head?' I asked, a little
+mischievously, but Jill, who was unusually subdued, took the question
+in good part.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, and I spoke to her quite civilly; but I suppose she saw the
+savage gleam of delight in my eyes, for she was as cross as possible, and
+went away muttering that "Meess Jocelyn had the heart like the flint; if
+it had been Meess Sara, now&mdash;" and then she banged the door, so the pain
+could not have been so bad after all. It is my belief,' went on Jill,
+'that Fr&auml;ulein always has a headache when she has a novel to finish.
+Mamma does not like her to set me an example of novel-reading, so she
+is obliged to lock herself in her own room.'</p>
+
+<p>I took no notice of this statement, as I rather leaned to this view of
+the subject myself. Fr&auml;ulein's round placid face and excellent appetite
+showed no signs of suffering, and her constant plea of a bad headache was
+only received with any credulity by Aunt Philippa herself; neither Sara
+nor I had much respect for Fr&auml;ulein Sonnenschein, with her thick little
+figure, and big head covered with flimsy flaxen plaits. We were both
+aware of the smooth selfishness of her character, though Sara chose to
+ignore it for Jill's benefit. She was industrious, painstaking, and
+capable of a great deal of dull routine in the way of duties, but she
+was far too fond of her own comfort, and all the affection of which she
+was capable was lavished upon her own relatives; she had cared for Sara
+moderately, but her other pupil, Jill, was a thorn in her side. So I
+passed over Fr&auml;ulein's headache without comment, and took Jill to task
+somewhat sharply for the comfortless state of the room. A good scolding
+would rouse her from her dejection; the blinds were up and the curtains
+undrawn; the remains of a meal, the usual five-o'clock schoolroom tea,
+were still on the table. Jill's German books were heaped up beside her
+empty cup and the glass dish that contained marmalade; the kettle
+spluttered and hissed in the blaze; Jill's little black kitten, Sooty,
+was dragging a half-knitted stocking across the rug.</p>
+
+<p>'I forgot to ring for Martha,' faltered Jill; 'she will come presently.
+Don't be cross, Ursula. I like the room as it is; it is deliciously
+untidy, just like Cinderella's kitchen; but there is no hope of the fairy
+godmother; and you are going away, and I shall be ten times more
+miserable.'</p>
+
+<p>It was this that was troubling her, then; for I had told her my plans and
+all about my letter to Uncle Max. Perhaps she had heard his voice in the
+hall, for Jill's pretty little ears heard everything that went on in the
+house: she admitted her knowledge at once when I taxed her with it.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, I know Mr. Cunliffe is here. I heard papa go out and speak to
+him; his voice sounded quite cheerful; and now he has come and it will
+all be settled; and you will go away and be happy with your poor people,
+and forget that I am fretting myself to death in this horrid room.'</p>
+
+<p>She had drawn me down on the rug forcibly,&mdash;for she had the strength of
+a young Titaness,&mdash;and was wrapping her arms around me with a sort of
+fierce impatience. Her big eyes looked troubled and affectionate. Few
+people admired Jill; she was undeveloped and awkward, full of angles, and
+a little brusque in manner; she had a way of thrusting out her big feet
+and squaring her shoulders that horrified Aunt Philippa. She was very
+big, certainly, and would never possess Sara's slim grace. Her hair had
+been cropped in some illness, and had not grown so fast as they expected,
+but hung in short thick lengths about her neck; it was always getting
+into her eyes, and was being pushed back impatiently, but she would much
+oftener throw her head back with a fling like an unbroken pony, for she
+was jerky as young things often are.</p>
+
+<p>But, though, people found fault with Jill, and often said that she would
+never be as handsome as Sara, I liked her face. Perhaps it was a little
+irregular and her complexion slightly sallow, but when she was flushed or
+excited and she opened her big bright eyes, and one could see her little
+white teeth gleaming as she laughed, I have thought Jill could look
+almost beautiful; but her good looks depended on her expression.</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose it will be settled,' I replied, with a quick catch at my
+breath, for the mere mention of the subject excited me; 'but you will be
+a good child and not fret if I do go away. No, I shall never forget you,'
+as a close hug answered me; 'I love you too dearly for that; but I want
+you to be brave about it, dear, for I cannot be happy wasting my time and
+doing nothing. You know how ill I was before I went to St. Thomas's, so
+that Uncle Max was obliged to tell Aunt Philippa that I must have change
+and hard work, or I should follow Charlie.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, and we were all so frightened about you, you poor thing; you
+looked so pinched and miserable. Well, I suppose I must let you go, as
+you are so wicked as to disobey the proverb that "Charity begins at
+home."'</p>
+
+<p>'Listen to me, dear,' I returned, quite pleased to find her so
+reasonable. 'I am very glad to know that I have been a comfort to you,
+but I shall hope to be so still. I will write long letters to you, Jill,
+and tell you all about my work, and you shall answer them, and talk to me
+on paper about the books you have read, and the queer thoughts you have,
+and how patient and strong you have grown, and how you have learned to
+put up with Fr&auml;ulein's little ways and not aggravate her with your
+untidiness.' And here Jill's hand&mdash;and it was by no means a small
+hand&mdash;closed my lips rather abruptly. But I was used to this sort of
+sledge-hammer form of argument.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it is all very fine for you to sit there and moralise, Ursula, like
+a sort of sucking Diogenes,' grumbled Jill, 'when you know you are going
+to have your own way and live a deliciously sort of three-volume-novel
+life, not like any one else's, unless it were Don Quixote, or one of the
+Knights of the Round Table, poking about among a lot of strange people,
+doing wonderful things for them, until they are all ready to worship you.
+It is all very well for you, I say; but what would you do if you were
+me?' cried Jill, in her shrill treble, and quite oblivious of grammatical
+niceties; 'how would you like to be poor me, shut up here with that old
+dragon?'</p>
+
+<p>This was a grand opportunity for airing my philosophy, and I rushed at
+it. To Jill's amazement, I shook my hair back in the way she usually
+shook her rough black mane, and, opening my eyes very widely, tried to
+copy Jill's falsetto.</p>
+
+<p>'How thankful I am Jocelyn Garston and not Ursula Garston,' I said,
+with rapid staccato. 'Poor Ursula! I am fond of her, but I would not
+change places with her for the world. She has known such a lot of trouble
+in her life, more than most girls, I believe; she has lost her lovely
+home,&mdash;such a sweet old place,&mdash;and her mother and father and Charlie,
+all her nearest and her most beloved, and she is so sad that she wants
+to work hard and forget her troubles.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh dear!' sighed Jill at this.</p>
+
+<p>'How happy I am compared with her!' I went on, relapsing unconsciously
+into my own voice. 'I am young and strong; I have all my life before me.
+True, poor Ralph has gone, but I was only a child, and did not miss him.
+I have a good father and an indulgent mother' ('Humph!' observed Jill at
+this point, only she turned it into a cough); 'if my present schoolroom
+life is not to my taste, I am sensible enough to know that the drudgery
+and restraint will not last for long; in another year, or a year and a
+half, Fr&auml;ulein, whom I certainly do not love, will go back to her own
+country. I shall be free to read the books I like, to study what I
+choose, or to be idle. I shall have Sara's cheerful companionship instead
+of Fr&auml;ulein's heavy company; I shall ride; I shall walk in the sunshine;
+I shall be a butterfly instead of a chrysalis; and if I care to be
+useful, all sorts of paths will be open to me.'</p>
+
+<p>'There, hold your tongue,' interrupted Jill, with a rough kiss; 'of
+course I know I am a wicked, ungrateful wretch, and that I ought to be
+more patient. Yes, you shall go, Ursula; you are a darling, but I will
+not want to keep you; you are too good to be wasted on me; it would be
+like pouring gold into a sieve. Well, I did cry about it this afternoon,
+but I won't be such a goose any more. I will live my life the same way,
+in spite of all of them, you will see if I don't, Ursula. Who is it who
+says, "The thoughts of youth are long long thoughts"? I have such big
+thoughts sometimes, especially when I sit in the dark. I send them out
+like strange birds, all over the world,&mdash;up, up, everywhere,&mdash;but they
+never come back to me again,' finished Jill mournfully; 'if they build
+nests I never know it: I just sit and puzzle out things, like poor little
+grimy Cinderella.'</p>
+
+<p>Jill's eloquence did not surprise me. I knew she was very clever, and
+full of unfledged poetry, and I had often heard her talk in that way; but
+I had no time to answer her, for just then the first gong sounded, and I
+could hear Sara running up to her room to dress for dinner. Jill jumped
+up, and tugged at the bell-rope rather fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>'Martha must have forgotten all about the tea-things; very likely the
+lamp is smoky and will have to be trimmed. I must not come and help you,
+Ursie dear, for I have to learn my German poetry before I dress.' And
+Jill pulled down the blinds and drew the curtains with a vigorous hand.
+Martha looked quite frightened at the sight of Jill's energy and her own
+remissness.</p>
+
+<p>'Why did you not ring before, Miss Jocelyn?' she said, plaintively, and
+in rather an injured voice, as she carried away the tea-tray.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Max passed me in the passage; Clarence was following with his
+portmanteau; he looked surprised to see me still in my bonnet with my fur
+cape trailing over one arm; but I nodded to him cheerfully and went
+quickly into my room.</p>
+
+<p>My life at St. Thomas's had inured me to hardness; it had contrasted
+strangely with my luxurious surroundings at Hyde Park Gate. Aunt Philippa
+certainly treated me well in her way. I had a full share of the loaves
+and the fishes of the household; my room was as prettily furnished as
+Jill's; a bright fire burnt in the grate; there were pink candles on the
+dressing-table. Martha, who waited upon us both, had put out my black
+evening dress on the bed, and had warmed my dressing-gown; she would come
+to me by and by with a civil offer of help.</p>
+
+<p>I was rather puzzled at the sight of a little breast-knot of white
+chrysanthemums that lay on the table, until I remembered Uncle Max; no
+one had ever brought me flowers since Charlie's death; he had gathered
+the last that I ever wore&mdash;some white violets that grew in a little
+hollow in the ground of Rutherford Lodge. I hesitated painfully before
+I pinned the modest little bouquet in my black dress, but I feared Uncle
+Max would be hurt if I failed to appear in it. I wore mother's pearl
+necklace as usual, and the little locket with her hair; somehow I took
+more pleasure in dressing myself this evening, when I knew Uncle Max's
+kind eyes would be on me.</p>
+
+<p>I had not hurried myself, and the second gong sounded before I reached
+the drawing-room, so I came face to face with Lesbia, who was coming out
+on Uncle Brian's arm. She kissed me in her quiet way, and said, 'How do
+you do, Ursula?' just as though we had met yesterday, and passed on.</p>
+
+<p>I thought she looked prettier than ever that evening&mdash;like a snow
+princess, in her white gown, with a little fleecy shawl drawn round her
+shoulders, for she took cold easily. She had a soft creamy complexion,
+and fair hair that she wore piled up in smooth plaits on her head; she
+had plaintive blue eyes that could be brilliant at times, and a lovely
+mouth, and she was tall and graceful like Sara.</p>
+
+<p>They made splendid foils to each other; but in my opinion Sara carried
+the palm: she was more piquant and animated; her colouring was brighter,
+and she had more expression; but Charlie's Lily, as he called her, was
+quite as much admired, and indeed they were both striking-looking girls.</p>
+
+<p>I saw that Uncle Max took a great deal of notice of Lesbia, who sat next
+to him. I could not hear their conversation, but a pretty pink colour
+tinged Lesbia's face, and her eyes grew dark and bright as she listened,
+and I saw her glance at her left hand where the half-hoop of diamonds
+glistened that Charlie had placed there; she had not quite forgotten the
+dear boy then, for I am sure she sighed, but the next moment she had
+turned from Uncle Max, and was engaged in an eager discussion with Sara
+about some private theatricals in which Sara was to take a part.</p>
+
+<p>When we went back to the drawing-room we found Fr&auml;ulein in her favourite
+red silk dress, trying to repair the damage that Sooty had wrought in her
+half-knitted stocking, and Jill, looking very bored and uncomfortable,
+turning over the photograph album in a corner. She looked awkward and
+sallow in her Indian muslin gown: the flimsy stuff did not suit her any
+more than the pink coral beads she wore round her neck. Her black locks
+bobbed uneasily over the book. She looked bigger than ever when she stood
+up to speak to Lesbia.</p>
+
+<p>'How that child is growing!' observed Aunt Philippa behind her fan to
+Fr&auml;ulein, whose round face was beaming with smiles at the entrance of the
+ladies. 'That gown was made only a few weeks ago, and she is growing out
+of it already. Jocelyn, my love, why do you hunch your shoulders so when,
+you talk to Lesbia? I am always telling you of this awkward habit.'</p>
+
+<p>Poor Jill frowned and reddened a little under this maternal admonition;
+her eyes looked black and fierce as she sat down again with her
+photographs. This hour was always a penance to her; she could not speak
+or move easily, for fear of some remark from Aunt Philippa. When her
+mother and Fr&auml;ulein interchanged confidences behind the big spangled fan,
+the poor child always thought they were talking about her.</p>
+
+<p>Her bigness, her awkwardness, troubled Jill excessively. Her clumsy hands
+and feet seemed always in her way.</p>
+
+<p>'I know I am the ugly duckling,' she would say, with tears in her eyes;
+'but I shall never turn into a swan like Sara and Lesbia,&mdash;not that I
+want to be like them!'&mdash;with a little scorn in her voice. 'Lesbia is too
+tame, too namby-pamby, for my taste; and Sara is stupid. She laughs and
+talks, but she never says anything that people have not said a hundred
+times before. Oh, I am so tired of it all! I grow more cross and
+disagreeable every day,' finished Jill, who was very frank on the
+subject of her shortcoming.</p>
+
+<p>I would have stopped and talked to Jill, only Lesbia tapped me on the arm
+rather peremptorily.</p>
+
+<p>'Come into the back drawing-room,' she said, in a low voice. 'I want to
+speak to you.&mdash;Jill, why do you not practise your new duet with Sara? She
+will play nothing but valses all the evening, unless you prevent it'</p>
+
+<p>But Jill shook her head sulkily; she felt safer in her corner. Sara was
+strumming on the grand pianoforte as we passed her; her slim fingers were
+running lazily over the keys in the 'Verliebt und Verloren' valse.
+Clarence was lighting the candles; William was bringing in the coffee;
+and Colonel Ferguson was following rather unceremoniously. People were
+always dropping in at Hyde Park Gate: perhaps Sara's bright eyes
+magnetised them. We had colonels and majors and captains at our will,
+for there was a martial craze in the house: to-night it was grave,
+handsome Colonel Ferguson.</p>
+
+<p>He was rather a favourite with Uncle Brian and Aunt Philippa, perhaps
+because his troubles interested them; he had buried his young wife and
+child in an Indian grave, and some people said that he had come to
+England to look out for a second wife.</p>
+
+<p>He was a very handsome man, and still young enough to find favour in a
+girl's sight, and his wealth made him a <i>grand parti</i> in the parents'
+eyes. At present he had bestowed equal attention on Sara and Lesbia,
+though close observers might have noticed that he lingered longest by
+Sara's side.</p>
+
+<p>'How do you do, Colonel Ferguson?' said Sara, nodding to him in her
+bright, unconcerned way, as she finished her valse. 'Mother is over
+there talking to Fr&auml;ulein: you will find your coffee ready for you.' And
+her glossy little head bent over the keys again, while the lazy music
+trickled through her fingers. Though Colonel Ferguson did as he was told,
+I fancied he would keep a close watch over the young performer.</p>
+
+<p>The inner drawing-room had heavy velvet hangings that closed over the
+archway; on cold evenings the curtains would be drawn rather closely;
+there would be a bright fire, and a single lamp lighted. Very often Uncle
+Brian would retire with his book or paper when Sara's valses wearied him
+or the room filled with young officers. Since Ralph's death he had
+certainly become rather taciturn and unsociable. Aunt Philippa, who loved
+gaiety, never accompanied him, but now and then Jill would creep from her
+corner, when her mother was not looking, and slip behind the ruby
+curtains. I have caught her there sometimes sitting on the rug, with her
+rough head against her father's knee; they would both of them look a
+little shamefaced, as if they were guilty of some fault.</p>
+
+<p>'Go to bed, Jill; it is time for little girls to be asleep,' he would
+say, patting her cheek. Jill would nestle it on his coat-sleeve for a
+moment, as she obeyed him. Her father had the softest place in her heart.
+She always would have it that her mother was hard on her, but she never
+complained of want of kindness from her father.</p>
+
+<p>'Colonel Ferguson comes very often,' remarked Lesbia, a little peevishly,
+as she walked to the fireplace to warm herself: she was a chilly being,
+and loved warmth. 'His name is Donald, is it not? some one told me so:
+Donald Ferguson. Well, he is not bad; he may do for Sara. She has plenty
+of quicksilver to balance his gravity.'</p>
+
+<p>I was rather surprised at this beginning; but without waiting for any
+answer, she went on.</p>
+
+<p>'What is this Mr. Cunliffe tells me?' she asked, fixing her blue eyes
+on my face with marked interest. 'You are going to carry out your old
+scheme, Ursula, about nursing poor people and singing to them. He tells
+me you have chosen Heathfield for your future home, and that he is to
+find you lodgings. Sit down, dear, and tell me all about it,' she went on
+eagerly. 'I thought you had given up all that when&mdash;when&mdash;' but here she
+stopped and her lips trembled; of course she meant when Charlie died, but
+she rarely spoke his name. I would not let her see my astonishment,&mdash;she
+had never seemed so sisterly before,&mdash;but I took the seat close to her
+and talked to her as openly as though she were Jill or Uncle Max; now and
+then I paused, and we could hear Colonel Ferguson's deep voice: he was
+evidently turning over the pages of Sara's music.</p>
+
+<p>'Go on, Ursula; I like to hear it,' Lesbia would say when I hesitated;
+she was not looking at me, but at the fire, with her cheek supported
+against her hand.</p>
+
+<p>'What do you think of it?' I asked, presently, when I had finished and
+we had both been silent a few minutes listening to one of Mendelssohn's
+Songs without Words that Sara was playing very nicely.</p>
+
+<p>'What do I think of it?' she replied, and her voice startled me, it was
+so full of pain. 'Oh, Ursula, I think you are to be envied! If I could
+only come with you and work too!&mdash;but there is mother, she could not do
+without me, and so we must just go on in the same old way.'</p>
+
+<p>I was so shocked at the hopelessness of her tone, so taken aback at her
+words, that I could not answer her for a moment: it seemed inconceivable
+to me that she could be saying such things. Poor pretty Lesbia, whom
+Charlie had loved and whom I considered a mere fragile butterfly. She
+was quite pale now, and her eyes filled suddenly with tears.</p>
+
+<p>'You do not believe me, Ursula; no, I was right&mdash;you never understood me.
+I often told dear Charlie so. You think, because I laugh and dance and do
+as other girls do, that I have forgotten&mdash;that I do not suffer. Do you
+think I shall ever find any one so good and kind in this world again? Oh,
+you are hard on me, and I am so miserable, so unhappy, without Charlie.
+And I am not like you: I cannot work myself into forgetfulness; I must
+stop with mother and do as she bids me, and she says it is my duty to be
+gay.'</p>
+
+<p>I was so ashamed of myself, of my mean injustice, that I was very nearly
+crying myself as I asked her pardon.</p>
+
+<p>'Why do you say that?' she returned, almost pettishly, only she looked so
+miserable. 'I have nothing to forgive. I only want you to be good to me
+and not think the worst, for I'm really fond of you, Ursula, only you are
+so reserved and cold with me,'</p>
+
+<p>'My poor dear,' I returned, taking the pretty face between my hands and
+kissing it. 'I will never be unkind to you again. Forgive me if I have
+misunderstood you: for Charlie's sake I want to love you.' And then she
+put her head down on my shoulder and cried a little, and bemoaned herself
+for being so unhappy; and all the time I comforted her my guilty
+conscience owned that Uncle Max was right.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>UNCLE MAX BREAKS THE ICE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Uncle Max was one of those men who like to take their own way about
+things; he never hurried himself, or allowed other people's impatience
+to get the better of him. 'There is a time for everything, as Solomon
+says,' was his favourite speech when any one reproached him with
+procrastination; 'depend upon it, the best work is done slowly. What is
+the use of so much hurry? When death comes we shall be sure to leave
+something unfinished.'</p>
+
+<p>So for two whole days he just chatted commonplaces with Aunt Philippa,
+rallied Sara, who loved a joke, and talked politics with Uncle Brian, and
+never mentioned one word about my scheme; if I looked anxiously at him he
+pretended to misunderstand my meaning, and, in fact, behaved from
+morning to night in a most provoking way.</p>
+
+<p>At last I could bear it no longer, and one wet afternoon, when I knew he
+was in the drawing-room, making believe to write his letters, but in
+reality getting a deal of amusement out of Sara's sprightly conversation,
+for she was never silent for two minutes if she could help it, I shut
+myself up in my own room, and would not go near him. I knew he would ask
+where Ursula was every half-hour, and would soon guess that I was out of
+humour about something; and possibly in an hour or two his conscience
+would prick him, and he would feel that I deserved reparation.</p>
+
+<p>This little piece of ill-tempered artifice bore excellent fruit, for
+before I had nearly finished the piece of plain sewing I had set myself
+as a sort of penance, there was a tap at the door, and Sara came in,
+looking very excited, with her bright eyes full of wonder.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Ursula, there is such a fuss downstairs! Uncle Max has been telling
+us all about your absurd scheme. Mother is as cross as possible; she is
+so angry, and yet half crying at the same time.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Uncle Brian,' I exclaimed eagerly,&mdash;'what does he say?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you know father's way. He just smiled as though the whole thing
+were beneath his notice, and went on reading his paper, and when mother
+appealed to him he said, coolly, that it was none of his business or hers
+either if Ursula chose to make a fool of herself; she had the right to do
+so,&mdash;something like that, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>'How very pleasant!' I remarked satirically, for I hated the way Uncle
+Brian put down his foot on things that displeased him. I preferred Aunt
+Philippa's voluble arguments to that.</p>
+
+<p>'To make things worse,' went on Sara cheerfully, 'Mrs. Fullerton and
+Lesbia have come in, and mother and Mrs. Fullerton are trying which can
+talk the faster. Lesbia asked for you, and then did not speak another
+word. What shall you do, Ursula, dear?'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall just go down and ask Aunt Philippa for a cup of tea,' I returned
+coolly, folding up my work. Sara looked half frightened at my boldness,
+and then she began to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>'It is so absurd, you know,' she returned, linking her arm in mine
+affectionately. 'What ever put such nonsense in your head? you are so
+comfortable here with us, and you have your own way, and I never tease
+you now about going to balls. It is so silly of you trying to make
+yourself miserable, and living in poky lodgings. You might as well be
+a fakir, or a dervish, or a Protestant nun, or anything else that is
+unpleasant.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, you do not know anything about it,' I answered rather angrily.
+'You and I are different people, Sara; we shall never think the same
+about anything.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I don't know,' she returned, half affronted: 'when people try to
+be extra good I always find they succeed in making themselves extra
+disagreeable. It is far more religious, in my opinion, to be pleasant
+to every one, and make them believe that there is something cheerful
+in life, instead of pulling a long face and doing such dreadfully bad
+things.' And after this little fling, in which she tried to be very
+severe, only as usual her dimples betrayed her, she begged me quite
+earnestly to smooth my hair, as though I were breaking one of the
+commandments by keeping it rough; and, having obliged her in this
+particular, and allowed her to peep at her own pretty face over my
+shoulder, we went down to the drawing-room as though we were the best
+of friends.</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible to quarrel with Sara; she was as gay and irresponsible
+as a child; one might as well have been angry with a butterfly for
+brushing his gold-powdered wings across your face; the gentle flappings
+of Sara's speeches never raised a momentary vexation in my mind. I was
+often weary of her, but then we do weary of children's company sometimes;
+in certain moods her bright sparkling effervescence seemed to jar upon
+me: but I never liked to see her sad. Sadness did not become Sara; when
+she cried, which was as seldom as possible, and only when some one died,
+or she lost a pet canary, all her beauty dimmed, and she looked limp and
+forlorn, like a crushed butterfly or a draggled flower.</p>
+
+<p>I do not think I was quite as cool and unconcerned as I wished to appear
+when I marched into the drawing-room, and, after greeting Mrs. Fullerton
+and Lesbia, asked Aunt Philippa for a cup of tea.</p>
+
+<p>Quite a hubbub of voices had struck on my ear as I opened the door, and
+yet complete silence met me. Lesbia, indeed, whispered 'Poor Ursula' as I
+kissed her, but Mrs. Fullerton looked at me with grave disapproval. Aunt
+Philippa was sitting bolt upright behind the tea-tray, and handed me my
+cup, rather as Lady Macbeth did the dagger. I received it, however, as
+though it were my due, and glanced at Uncle Max; but he was too wise to
+look at me, so I said, as coolly as possible, 'Why are you so silent, and
+yet you were talking loudly enough before Sara and I came into the room?'
+For there is nothing like taking the bull of a dilemma by the horns; and
+I had plenty of, let us say, native impudence, only, personally, I should
+have given it another name; and then, of course, I brought the storm upon
+me.</p>
+
+<p>Sara was right. Aunt Philippa certainly talked the faster; Mrs. Fullerton
+tried her best to edge in a word now and then,&mdash;a very scathing word,
+too,&mdash;but there was no silencing that flow of rapid talk. I quite envied
+her pure diction and the ingenious turn of her sentences; she made so
+much of her own admirable foresight and care of me, and so little of my
+merits.</p>
+
+<p>'I always said something like this would happen, Ursula. I have told your
+uncle often,&mdash;Brian, why don't you speak?&mdash;yes, indeed, I have told him
+often that I never met any one so strong-minded and self-willed. You need
+not laugh, Sara,&mdash;unless you do it to provoke me,&mdash;but I have been like a
+mother to Ursula. Thank heaven, my daughters are not of this pattern!
+they do not mistake eccentricity for goodness, or flaunt ridiculous
+notions in the faces of their elders.'</p>
+
+<p>This was too bad of Aunt Philippa; only she had lost her temper, and was
+feeling utterly aggrieved, and Mrs. Fullerton, who was a meddlesome,
+good-humoured woman, and who had nothing of which to complain in life
+except a little over-plumpness and too much money, was agreeing with her
+like a good neighbour and friend.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Max was smiling, and pulling his beard behind his paper; but he
+made no attempt to check the flow of feminine eloquence. He had said his
+say like a man, and had taken my part behind my back, and he knew women
+were like new wine,&mdash;very sound and sweet, but they must find their vent.
+Aunt Philippa would be kinder ever after if we let her scold us properly,
+and took our scolding with a good grace.</p>
+
+<p>Once or twice Uncle Brian let his eye-glasses dangle, and spoke a peevish
+word or two.</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense, my dear! have I not said over and over again that this is
+none of our business? Ursula is old enough to know her own mind; if she
+chooses to be eccentric we cannot hinder her. All this talk goes for
+nothing.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, but, Mr. Garston, young people want guidance,' observed Mrs.
+Fullerton impressively, for Aunt Philippa was beginning to sob, partly
+from the effects of wasted eloquence, and perhaps with a little shortness
+of breathing: anyway, her anger was working itself out. 'If you were to
+advise Ursula as you would Sara, your influence might induce her to
+change her mind.'</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot endorse your opinion, Mrs. Fullerton,' returned Uncle Brian
+drily. 'I am far too keen an observer of human nature to think we can
+talk sense to deaf ears with any benefit.&mdash;Ursula, my child,' turning to
+me with a smile that might have been kinder, but perhaps he meant it to
+be so, 'there is not a grain of sense in your scheme: in spite of
+Cunliffe's eloquence, it will not hold water; in fact, in a little while
+you will be glad to come back to us again. When you do, I think I can
+promise that we will not laugh at you more than once a day, and then
+moderately.'</p>
+
+<p>Now, this speech of Uncle Brian's made me very angry. No doubt he meant
+to be kind, and to show me that if my scheme failed I might come home to
+them again; but I was so much in earnest that his satire and his laughing
+at me hurt me more than all Aunt Philippa's hard speeches. So I flushed
+up, and for the first time tears came into my eyes; for he had prophesied
+failure, and I could not bear that, and I might have said words in my
+sudden irritation for which I should have been sorry afterwards, only
+Lesbia, who had sat behind me all this time, as silent and soft-breathed
+as a mouse, got up quickly and took my hand and stood by me.</p>
+
+<p>'I think you have all said plenty of hard things to Ursula, and no one
+has been kind to her. I think she deserves praise and not all this blame;
+if she cannot lead the comfortable life we do, thinking how we are to get
+the most pleasure and enjoy ourselves, it is because she is better than
+we are, and thinks more about her duty. Mrs. Garston,&mdash;I do not mean to
+be rude, I am far too fond of you all, because you have all been so good
+to me,'&mdash;and here Lesbia's while throat swelled,&mdash;'but I cannot bear to
+hear Ursula so blamed. Mr. Cunliffe, I know you agree with me, you said
+so many nice things when Ursula was out of the room.'</p>
+
+<p>This little burst of eloquence surprised us all. Uncle Max said
+afterwards that he was quite touched by it. Lesbia was generally so quiet
+and undemonstrative that her words took Aunt Philippa by storm. She might
+have been offended by Lesbia saying that I was better than the rest of
+them,&mdash;a fact that my conscience most emphatically contradicted; but when
+Lesbia kissed her, and begged her to think better of things, she cried a
+little because Charlie was not there to see how pretty she could look,
+and then cheered up, and made overtures that I might come and kiss her
+too, which I did most willingly, and with a full heart, remembering she
+was my father's sister and had been good to me according to her lights.</p>
+
+<p>When Uncle Max saw that reconciliation was imminent, and that by Lesbia's
+help I was likely to have the best of it, my own way, and a good deal of
+petting to follow,&mdash;for they would all make more of me during the short
+time I would be with them,&mdash;he threw down his paper in high good-humour
+and joined us.</p>
+
+<p>'That is what I call sensible, Mrs. Garston,' he said, paying her a
+compliment at once, as she sat flushed and fanning herself, 'and Ursula
+ought to feel herself very grateful to you for your forbearance and
+acquiescence in her plan.'</p>
+
+<p>I do not believe he knew any more than myself where the forbearance had
+been, but he took it all for granted.</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing puts heart into a person more than feeling sure of one's
+friends' sympathy. Now, we all of us, even Garston, in spite of his
+disapproval, wish Ursula good success in her scheme; some of us think
+better of it than others; for my own part, I am so convinced that she
+will have so many difficulties and disappointments to hamper her that
+I cannot bear to say a discouraging word.' And yet he had said dozens,
+only I was magnanimous and forgave him.</p>
+
+<p>This settled the matter, for Aunt Philippa grew so sorry for me that she
+was almost out of breath again pitying me. 'I do not believe she can help
+it,' she said, in rather an audible aside to Mrs. Fullerton; 'her mother
+had a sort of craze about these things, and seemed to think it part of
+her religion to make herself uncomfortable; and poor Herbert was quite as
+bad, only he was a clergyman, and it did not matter so much with him; so
+I suppose the poor child inherits it. This sort of thing runs in
+families,' went on Aunt Philippa, in an awe-struck voice, as though it
+were a species of insanity. 'I am only thankful that my own girls have
+not got these notions.'</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Fullerton found out now that it was time to go home and dress for
+dinner, so Lesbia came round to me and whispered that I must come and see
+her soon, for she wanted to talk to me, and not to Sara, who was always
+running in and out.</p>
+
+<p>'I am very fond of Sara, and like to see her, she amuses me so; but when
+I want advice or sympathy I feel I must come to you now, Ursula.' And
+though she had never said so much to me before, I knew she meant it; that
+there was some change in her, some want of nature or heaven knows what
+feminine need, when she missed me, and wanted me, and found some comfort
+in the thought of me.</p>
+
+<p>There was no time for more discussion, and indeed we were all a little
+weary of it; but after dinner Uncle Max, who seemed in excellent spirits,
+as though he had done something wonderful and was proud of his own
+achievements, beckoned me into the inner drawing-room under pretence of
+showing me some engravings, and when we found ourselves alone, he said
+pleasantly, though abruptly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Ursula, I thought you would be glad to have an opportunity of
+thanking me, for of course you feel very grateful to me for all the
+trouble I have taken.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, indeed!' I returned scornfully, for it would never do to encourage
+this vainglorious spirit. 'I should have felt more disposed to thank you
+if you had not kept me for two days in suspense!'</p>
+
+<p>'That is the result of doing a woman a good turn,' shaking his head
+mournfully. 'The moment she gets her own way, she turns upon you and
+rends you. Fie, fie on you, little she-bear!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Max, do be quiet a moment.'</p>
+
+<p>'Max, indeed! Where are your manners, child? What would Garston say if he
+heard your flippancy?' But by the way he stroked his beard and looked at
+me, I saw he was not displeased. No one would have taken him for my uncle
+who had seen us together, for he was a young-looking man, and I was old
+for my age.</p>
+
+<p>'I do want you to be serious a moment,' I went on plaintively. 'I am
+really very obliged to you for having broken the ice: after all, I have
+not been badly submerged. I soon rose to the surface when Lesbia held out
+a helping hand.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, now, Ursula, do you not agree with me?&mdash;was not Lesbia a darling?'</p>
+
+<p>'She was very nice and sisterly,' I confessed. 'She has more in her than
+I ever thought. Poor little thing! I am afraid she is very unhappy, only
+she hides it so.'</p>
+
+<p>'Just so. That shows her good sense: the world is very intolerant of a
+protracted grief; its victims must learn to dry their eyes quickly.'</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Max was becoming philosophical: this would never do.</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind about Lesbia,' I observed impatiently, 'we can talk about
+her in the next room; what I want to know is, how soon I may come to
+Heathfield.' For I knew how dilatory men can be about other people's
+business, and I fully expected that Uncle Max would put me off to the
+summer.</p>
+
+<p>'You may come as soon as you like,' he returned, rather too carelessly.
+'Shall we say next week, or will that be too early?'</p>
+
+<p>I suppressed my astonishment cleverly, but was down on him in a moment.</p>
+
+<p>'I should like to have some place found for me first,' I remarked
+sententiously; 'you must take lodgings for me first, and then I can
+settle my plans.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, that is done already,' he observed cheerfully. 'I have spoken to
+Mrs. Barton about you, and she has very nice rooms vacant. I wanted them
+for Tudor, until I mooted the vicarage plan. It is a tidy little place,
+Ursula, and I think you will be very comfortable there.'</p>
+
+<p>I felt that Uncle Max deserved praise, and I gave it to him without
+stint or limit; he took it nobly, like a man who feels he has earned
+his reward.</p>
+
+<p>'I fancy I have done a neat thing,' he said modestly.</p>
+
+<p>'Directly I read your letter and saw that you were in earnest, I went
+down to Mrs. Barton and had a long talk with her. Do you remember the
+White Cottage, Ursula, that stands just where the road dips a little,
+after you have passed the vicarage? It is on the main road that leads to
+the common: there is a field, and one or two houses, and on the right the
+road branches off to Main Street, where my poorer parishioners live. Oh,
+I see that you have forgotten. Well, there is a low white cottage,
+standing far back from the road, with rather a pretty garden, and a field
+at the back: people call it the White Cottage; though it is smothered in
+jasmine in the summer; and there is a nice little parlour with a bedroom
+over it. That will do capitally, I fancy. Old Mrs. Meredith lived there
+until her death, and she left her furniture to Mrs. Barton.'</p>
+
+<p>I expressed myself as being well pleased at this description, and then
+inquired a little anxiously if there were room for my piano and my books.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, it is quite a good-sized room; that is why I wanted it for
+Tudor. You will not mind it being a little low: it is only a cottage,
+remember. There is a nice easy couch, I spotted that at once, and a
+capital easy-chair, and some corner cupboards that will, hold a store of
+good things; you can make it as pretty as possible.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Mrs. Barton, Max,&mdash;is she a pleasant person?'</p>
+
+<p>'There could not be a pleasanter. You will find yourself in clover,
+Ursula, you will indeed; she is a nice little woman, and has all the
+cardinal virtues, I believe; she is a widow and has a big son who works
+at Roberts's, the builder's. Nathaniel is very big, very big indeed, so
+much so that I feel it my duty to warn you of his size, for fear you
+should receive a shock. The cottage just holds him when he sits down,
+and his mother's one anxiety is that he should not bring down the kitchen
+ceiling more than once a year, as it hurts his head and comes expensive;
+he has a black collie they call Tinker, the cleverest dog in the place,
+so Nathaniel says; and these three constitute the household of the White
+Cottage.'</p>
+
+<p>I was charmed with Uncle Max's account; the cottage seemed cosy and
+homelike. I knew I could trust his opinion; he was a good judge of
+character, and was seldom wrong in his estimate of a man, woman, or
+child, and he would be especially careful to intrust me to a thoroughly
+reliable person. I begged him therefore to close with Mrs. Barton at
+once; she asked a very moderate price for her rooms, and I could have
+afforded higher terms. It would not take me long to pack my books and
+other treasures: some of them I should be obliged to leave behind, but
+I must take all Charlie's books and my own, and my favourite pictures and
+bits of china, and a store of fine linen for my own use. I was somewhat
+demoralised by the luxury at Hyde Park Gate, and liked to make myself
+comfortable after my own way. Poor Charlie used to laugh at me and say
+I should be an old maid, and, as I considered this fact inevitable, I
+took his teasing in good part.</p>
+
+<p>I told Uncle Max that I thought I could be ready in another week, and
+that I saw no good in delay. He assented to this, and was kind enough
+to add that the sooner I came the better. I was a little dismayed to
+find that he had not considered himself bound to keep my counsel; he had
+talked about my plan to his curate, Mr. Tudor, and I gathered from his
+manner, for he refused to tell me any more, that he had discussed it
+with another person.</p>
+
+<p>This was too bad, but I would not let him see that this vexed me. I
+wanted to settle in and begin my work quietly before the neighbourhood
+knew of my existence; but if Uncle Max published my intended arrival in
+every house he visited, I felt I could not even worship in comfort, for
+fear the congregation should be eying me suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>I thought it better to change the subject: so I began to question him
+about Mr. Tudor and Mrs. Drabble, the latter being the ruling power at
+the vicarage; and he fell upon the bait and swallowed it eagerly, so my
+vexation passed unnoticed.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Max did not live quite alone. His house was large, far too large
+for an unmarried man, and he was very sociable by nature, so he induced
+his curate to take up his abode with him; but the two men and Mrs.
+Drabble, the housekeeper, and the maid under her, could not fill it, and
+several rooms were shut up. Lawrence Tudor had been a pupil of Uncle Max,
+and the two were very much attached to each other. Uncle Max had brought
+him up once or twice to Hyde Park Gate, and we had all been much pleased
+with him. He was not in the least good-looking, but I remember Sara said
+he was gentlemanly and pleasant and had a nice voice. I knew his frank
+manner and evident affection for Uncle Max prepossessed me in his favour;
+he had been very athletic in his college days, and was passionately fond
+of boating and cricket, and he was very musical and sang splendidly.</p>
+
+<p>The little Uncle Max had told me about him had strongly interested me.
+The Tudors had been wealthy people, and Uncle Max had spent more than one
+long vacation at their house, coaching Walter Tudor, who was going in for
+an army examination, and reading Greek with Lawrence (or Laurie, as they
+generally called him) and another brother, Ben.</p>
+
+<p>Lawrence had meant to enter the army too. Nelson, the eldest of all, was
+already in India, and had a captaincy. They were all fine, stalwart young
+men, fond of riding and hunting and any out-of-door pursuit. But there
+never would have been a parson among them but for the failure of the
+company in which Mr. Tudor's money was invested. He had been one of the
+directors, and from wealth he was reduced to poverty.</p>
+
+<p>There was no money to buy Walter a commission, so he enlisted, bringing
+fresh trouble to his parents by doing so. Ben entered an office, but
+Lawrence was kept at Oxford by an uncle's generosity, and under strong
+pressure consented to take orders.</p>
+
+<p>The poor young fellow had no special vocation, and he owned to Max
+afterwards that he feared that he had done the wrong thing. I am afraid
+Max thought so too, but he would not discourage him by saying so; on the
+contrary, he treated him in a bracing manner, telling him that he had
+put his hand to the plough, and that there must be no looking backward,
+and bidding him pluck up heart and do his duty as well as he could; and
+then he smoothed his way by asking him to be his curate and live with
+him, so saving him from the loneliness and discomfort of some curates'
+existence, who are at the mercy of their landladies and laundresses.</p>
+
+<p>So the two lived merrily together, and Lawrence Tudor was all the better
+man and parson for Uncle Max's genial help and sympathy; and though Mrs.
+Drabble grumbled and did not take kindly to him at first, she made him
+thoroughly comfortable, and mended his socks and sewed on his buttons in
+motherly fashion. Mrs. Drabble was quite a character in her way; she was
+a fair, fussy little woman, who looked meek enough to warrant the best of
+tempers; she had a soft voice and manner that deceived you, and a vague
+rambling sort of talk that landed you nowhere; but if ever woman could be
+a mild virago Mrs. Drabble was that woman. She worshipped her master, and
+never allowed any one to find fault with him; but with Mr. Tudor, or the
+maid, or any one who interfered with her, she could be a flaxen-haired
+termagant; she could scold in a low voice for half an hour together
+without minding a single stop or pausing to take breath. Mr. Tudor used
+to laugh at her, or get out of her way, when he had had enough of it; she
+only tried it on her master once, but Max stood and stared at her with
+such surprise and such puzzled good-humour that she grew ashamed and
+stopped in the very middle of a sentence.</p>
+
+<p>But, with all her temper, neither of them could have spared Mrs. Drabble,
+she made them so comfortable.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>'WHEN THE CAT IS AWAY'</h3>
+
+
+<p>Aunt Philippa had one very good point in her character: she was not of
+a nagging disposition. When she scolded she did it thoroughly, and was
+perhaps a long time doing it, but she never carried it into the next day.</p>
+
+<p>Jill always said her mother was too indolent for a prolonged effort; but
+then poor Jill often said naughty things. But we all of us knew that Aunt
+Philippa's wrath soon evaporated; it made her hot and uncomfortable while
+it lasted, and she was glad to be quit of it: so she refrained herself
+prudently when I spoke of my approaching departure; and, being of a
+bustling temperament, and not averse to changes unless they gave her much
+trouble, she took a great deal of interest in my arrangements, and bought
+a nice little travelling-clock that she said would be useful to me.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing her so pleasant and reasonable, I made a humble petition that Jill
+might be set free from some of her lessons to help me pack my books and
+ornaments. She made a little demur at this, and offered Draper's services
+instead; but it was Jill I wanted, for the poor child was fretting sadly
+about my going away, and I thought it would comfort her to help me. So
+after a time Aunt Philippa relented, after extorting a promise from Jill
+that she would work all the harder after I had gone; and, as young people
+seldom think about the future except in the way of foolish dreams, Jill
+cheerfully gave her word. So for the last few days we were constantly
+together, and Fr&auml;ulein had an unexpected holiday. Jill worked like a
+horse in my service, and only broke one Dresden group; she came to me
+half crying with the fragment in her hand,&mdash;the poor little shepherdess
+had lost her head as well as her crook, and the pink coat of the shepherd
+had an unseemly rent in it,&mdash;but I only laughed at the disaster, and
+would not scold her for her awkwardness. China had a knack of slipping
+through Jill's fingers; she had a loose uncertain grasp of things that
+were brittle and delicate; she had not learned to control her muscles or
+restrain her strength. She had a way of lifting me up when I teased her
+that turns me giddy to remember: I was quite a child in her hands. She
+was always ashamed of herself when she had done it, and begged my pardon,
+and as long as she put me on my feet again I was ready to forgive
+anything. Jill felt a sort of forlorn consolation in using up her
+strength in my service: she would hardly let me do anything myself;
+I might sit down and order her about from morning to night if I chose.</p>
+
+<p>I made her very happy by leaving some of my possessions under her
+care&mdash;some books that I knew she would like to read, and other treasures
+that I had locked up in my wardrobe. Jill had the key and could rummage
+if she liked, but she told me quite seriously that it would comfort her
+to come and look at them sometimes. 'It will feel as though you were
+coming back some day, Ursie,' she said affectionately.</p>
+
+<p>Late one afternoon I left her busy in my room, and went to the Albert
+Hall Mansions to bid good-bye to Lesbia. I had called once or twice, but
+had always missed her. So I slipped across in the twilight, as I thought
+at that hour they would have returned from their drive.</p>
+
+<p>The Albert Hall Mansions were only a stone's throw from Uncle Brian's
+house, so I considered myself safe from any remonstrance on Aunt
+Philippa's part. I liked to go there in the soft, early dusk; the smooth
+noiseless ascent of the lift, and the lighted floors that we passed, gave
+one an odd, dreamy feeling. Mrs. Fullerton had a handsome suite of
+apartments on the third floor, and there was a beautiful view from her
+drawing-room window of the Park and the Albert Memorial. It was a nice,
+cheerful situation, and Mrs. Fullerton, who liked gaiety, preferred it
+to Rutherford Lodge, though Lesbia had been born there and she had passed
+her happiest days in it.</p>
+
+<p>I found Mrs. Fullerton alone, but she seemed very friendly, and was
+evidently glad to see me. I suppose I was better company than her own
+thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>I liked Mrs. Fullerton, after a temperate fashion. She was a nice little
+woman, and would have been nicer still if she had talked less and thought
+more. But when one's words lie at the tip of one's tongue there is little
+time for reflection, and there are sure to be tares among the wheat.</p>
+
+<p>She was looking serious this evening, but that did not interfere with her
+comeliness or her pleasant manners. I found her warmth gratifying, and
+prepared to unbend more than usual.</p>
+
+<p>'Sit down, my dear. No, not on that chair: take the easy one by the fire.
+You are looking rather fagged, Ursula. It seems to be the fashion with
+young people now: they get middle-aged before their time. Oh yes, Lesbia
+is out. It is the Engleharts' "At Home," and she promised to go with Mrs.
+Pierrepoint. But she will be back soon. Now we are alone, I want to ask
+you a question. I am rather anxious about Lesbia. Dr. Pratt says there
+is a want of tone about her. She is too thin, and her appetite is not
+good. The child gets prettier every day, but she looks far too delicate.'</p>
+
+<p>I could not deny this. Lesbia certainly looked far from strong, and then
+she took cold so easily. I hinted that perhaps late hours and so much
+visiting (for the Fullertons had an immense circle of acquaintances,
+with possibly half a dozen friends among them) might be bad for her.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Fullerton looked rather mournful at this.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope you have not put that in her head,' she returned uneasily.
+'All yesterday she was begging me to give up the place and go back to
+Rutherford Lodge. Major Parkhurst is going to India in February, and so
+the house will be on our hands.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think the change will be good for Lesbia. It is such a pretty place,
+and she was always so fond of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it is pretty enough,' with a discontented air; 'but life in a
+village is a very tame affair. There are not more than four families in
+the whole place whom we can visit, and when we want a little gaiety we
+have to drive into Pinkerton.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think it would be good for Lesbia's health, Mrs. Fullerton.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, well,' a little peevishly, 'we must talk to Dr. Pratt about it.
+But how is Lesbia to settle well if I bury her in that poky little
+village? Perhaps I ought not to say so to you, Ursula; but poor dear
+Charlie has been dead these two years, so there can be no harm in
+speaking of such things now. But Sir Henry Sinclair is here a great deal,
+and there is no mistaking his intentions, only Lesbia keeps him at such
+a distance.'</p>
+
+<p>I thought it very bad taste of Mrs. Fullerton always to talk to me about
+Lesbia's suitors. Lesbia never mentioned such things herself. As far as I
+could judge, she was very shy with them all. I could not believe that the
+placid young baronet had any chance with her. She might possibly marry,
+but poor Charlie's successor would hardly be a thick-set, clumsy young
+man, with few original ideas of his own. Colonel Ferguson would have been
+far better; but he evidently preferred Sara.</p>
+
+<p>I was spared any reply, for Lesbia entered the room at that moment. She
+looked more delicately fair than usual, perhaps because of the contrast
+with her heavy furs. Her hair shone like gold under her little velvet
+bonnet, but, though she was so warmly dressed, she shivered and crept as
+close as possible to the fire.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Fullerton had some notes to write, so she went into the dining-room
+to write them and very good-naturedly left us by ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>Lesbia looked at me rather wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>'I have missed you twice, Ursula. I am so sorry; and now you go the day
+after to-morrow. I wish I could do something for you. Is there nothing
+you could leave in my charge?'</p>
+
+<p>'Only Jill,' I said, half laughing. 'If you would take a little more
+notice of her after I have gone, I should be so thankful to you.'</p>
+
+<p>I thought Lesbia seemed somewhat amused at the request.</p>
+
+<p>'Poor old Jill! I will do my best; but she never will talk to me. I think
+I should like her better than Sara if she would only open her lips to me.
+Well, Ursula, what have you and mother been talking about?'</p>
+
+<p>'About Rutherford Lodge,' I returned quickly. 'Do you really want to go
+back there?'</p>
+
+<p>'Did mother talk about that?' looking excessively pleased. 'Oh yes, I
+am longing to go back. I don't want to frighten you, Ursie, dear,&mdash;and,
+indeed, there is no need,&mdash;but this life is half killing me. I am too
+close to Hyde Park Gate; one never gets a chance of forgetting old
+troubles; and then mother is always saying gaiety is good for me, and she
+will accept every invitation that comes; and I get so horribly tired; and
+then one cannot fight so well against depression.'</p>
+
+<p>I took her hand silently, but made no answer; but I suppose she felt my
+sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>'You must not think I am wicked and rebellious,' she went on, with a
+sigh. 'I promised dear Charlie to be brave, and not let the trouble spoil
+my life; he would have it that I was so young that happiness must return
+after a time, and so I mean to do my best to be happy, for mother's sake,
+as well as my own; and I know Charlie would not like me to go on
+grieving,' with a sad little smile.</p>
+
+<p>'No, darling, and I quite understand you.' And she cheered up at that.</p>
+
+<p>'I knew you would, and that is why I want to tell you things. I have
+tried to do as mother wished, but I do not think her plan answers;
+excitement carries one away, and one can be as merry as other girls
+for a time, but it all comes back worse than ever.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mere gaiety never satisfied an aching heart yet.'</p>
+
+<p>'No; I told mother so, and I begged her to go back to Rutherford because
+it is so quiet and peaceful there and I think I shall be happier. I shall
+have my garden and conservatory, and there will be plenty of riding and
+tennis. I am very fond of our vicar's wife, Mrs. Trevor, and I rather
+enjoy helping her in the Sunday-school and at the mothers' meeting; not
+that I do much, for I am not like you, Ursula, but I like to pretend to
+be useful sometimes.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see what you mean, Lesbia: your life will be more natural and less
+strained than it is here.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, and time will hang less heavy on my hands. I do love gardening,
+Ursula. I know I shall forget my troubles when I find myself with dear
+old Patrick again, grumbling because I will pick the roses. I shall sleep
+better in my little room, and wake less unhappy. Oh, mother!' as Mrs.
+Fullerton entered at that moment with a half-finished note in her hand,
+'I am telling Ursula how home-sick I am, and how I long for the dear old
+Lodge. Do let us go back, mother darling: I want to hunt for violets
+again in the little shady hollow beyond the lime-tree walk.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, dearest, we will go if you really wish it so much,' returned Mrs.
+Fullerton, with a sigh. 'Why, my pet, did you think I should refuse?' as
+Lesbia put her arms round her neck and thanked her. 'When a mother has
+only got one child she is not likely to deny her much: is she, Ursula?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, mother, how good you are to me!' returned Lesbia, and her blue eyes
+were shining with joy. When Mrs. Fullerton had left the room again she
+told me that she had often cried herself to sleep with the longing to be
+in her old home again; she loved every flower in the garden, every animal
+about the place, and she grew quite bright and cheerful as she planned
+out her days. No, there was nothing morbid about Lesbia's nature; she was
+an honest, well-meaning girl, who had had a great disappointment in her
+life; she meant to outlive it if she could, to be as happy as possible.
+A wise instinct told her that her best chance of healing lay in country
+sights and sounds: the fresh gallop over the downs, the pleasant saunter
+through the sweet Sussex lanes, the sweet breath of her roses and
+carnations, would all woo her back to health and cheerfulness. When the
+pretty colour came back into Lesbia's face her mother would not regret
+her sacrifice; and then I remembered that Charlie's friend Harcourt
+Manners lived about half a dozen miles from Rutherford, and always
+attended the Pinkerton dances, and he was a nice intelligent fellow.
+But I scolded back the foolish thoughts, and felt ashamed of myself for
+entertaining them.</p>
+
+<p>I parted from Lesbia very affectionately, for she seemed loath to say
+good-bye, but I knew poor Jill would be grumbling at my absence; the
+others were dining out, and I had promised to join the schoolroom tea,
+which was to be half an hour later on my account, but it was nearly six
+before I made my appearance, very penitent at my delay, and fully
+expecting a scolding.</p>
+
+<p>I found Jill, however, kneeling on the rug, making toast, with Sooty in
+her arms; she had blacked her face in her efforts, but looked in high
+good-humour.</p>
+
+<p>'Fr&auml;ulein has gone out for the whole evening: that freckled Fr&auml;ulein
+Misschenstock has been here, and has invited her to tea and supper. Mamma
+said she could go, as you would remain with me, so we shall be alone and
+cosy for the whole evening. Now, you may pour out tea, if you like, for I
+have all this buttered toast on my mind. I am as hungry as a hunter; but
+there is a whole seed-cake, I am glad to see. Now, darling, be quick, for
+you have kept me so long waiting.' And Jill brushed vigorously at her
+blackened cheek, and beamed at me.</p>
+
+<p>But, alas! we had reckoned without our host, and a grand disappointment
+was in store for us, though, as it turned out, things were not as bad as
+they appeared to be at first.</p>
+
+<p>I was praising Jill's buttered toast, for I knew she prided herself
+on this delicacy, and she had just cut herself a thick wedge of the
+seed-cake, which she was discussing with a school-girl's appetite, when
+I heard Uncle Brian's voice calling for Ursula rather loudly: so I ran to
+the head of the staircase, and, to my surprise, saw him coming up in his
+slow, dignified manner.</p>
+
+<p>'Look here, Ursula, I shall be late at the Pollocks', and your aunt and
+Sara have gone on, and there is Tudor in the drawing-room, just arrived
+with a message from Cunliffe. Of course we must put him up; but the
+trouble is there is no dinner, and of course he is famished: young men
+always are.'</p>
+
+<p>My heart sank as I thought of Jill, but there was no help for it. Max's
+friends were sacred. Mr. Tudor must be made as comfortable as possible.</p>
+
+<p>'It cannot be helped, Uncle Brian,' I returned, trying to keep the
+vexation I felt out of my voice. 'Supposing you send Mr. Tudor up to the
+schoolroom, and we will give him some tea. Jill has made some excellent
+buttered toast, and Clayton can get some supper for him by and by in the
+dining-room: there is sure to be a cold joint,&mdash;or perhaps Mrs. Martin
+will have something cooked for him.'</p>
+
+<p>'That must do,' he replied, somewhat relieved at this advice. 'We shall
+be back soon after tea, so you will not have him long on your hands.
+Entertain him as well as you can, there's a good girl.' He had quite
+forgotten, and so had I for the moment, that Fr&auml;ulein was out for the
+evening, and that possibly Aunt Philippa might object to a young man
+joining the schoolroom tea; but, as it proved afterwards, she was more
+shocked at Uncle Brian than at any one else: she said he ought to have
+given up his dinner and stayed with his guest.</p>
+
+<p>'I confess I do not see what Ursula could have done better,' she
+remarked severely; 'she could not spend the evening alone with him in the
+drawing-room; and of course he wanted his tea. That comes of allowing
+Fr&auml;ulein to neglect her duties: she is too fond of spending her time with
+Fr&auml;ulein Misschenstock.'</p>
+
+<p>I did not dare break the news to Jill, for fear she should lock herself
+in her own room, for she never liked the society of young men; they
+laughed at her too much, in a civil sort of way: so I hurried down into
+the drawing-room and explained matters to Mr. Tudor, whom I found walking
+about the room and looking somewhat ill at ease.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed rather amused at the idea of the schoolroom tea, but owned that
+he was hungry and tired, as he had had a fourteen-mile walk that day.</p>
+
+<p>'It is all Mr. Cunliffe's fault that I am quartered on you in this way,'
+he said, laughing a little nervously&mdash;and very likely Uncle Brian's
+dignified reception had made him uncomfortable; 'but he would insist on
+my bringing my bag, and Mr. Garston has a dinner-engagement, and cannot
+attend to business until to-morrow morning.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid you would like a dinner-engagement too, after your fourteen
+miles,' I returned, in a sympathetic voice, for he did look very tired.
+'We will give you some tea now, and then you can get rid of the dust of
+the journey, and by that time Mrs. Martin will have done her best to
+provide you with some supper.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see I have fallen in good hands,' he replied, brightening at this in
+a boyish sort of way. 'Where is the schoolroom? I did not know there was
+such an apartment, but of course Mrs. Garston told me that her youngest
+daughter had not finished her studies. I think I saw her once: she was
+very tall, and had dark hair.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; that was Jill&mdash;I mean Jocelyn, but we always call her Jill. Will
+you come this way, please? Fr&auml;ulein is out, and we were having a good
+time by ourselves.'</p>
+
+<p>'And I have come to spoil it,' he answered regretfully, as I opened the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget Jill's face when she saw us on the threshold. She
+quite forgot to shake hands with Mr. Tudor in her dismay, but stood
+hunching her shoulders, with Sooty still clasped in her arms and her
+great eyes staring at him, till he said a pleasant word to her, and then
+she flushed up, and subsided into her chair. I stole an anxious glance at
+the cake; to my great relief, Jill had been quietly proceeding with her
+meal in my absence, for I knew that in her chagrin she would refuse to
+touch another morsel. I wondered a little what Mr. Tudor would think of
+her ungracious reception of him; but he showed his good-breeding by
+taking no notice of it and confining his remarks to me.</p>
+
+<p>Jill's ill-humour thawed by and by when she saw how he entered into the
+spirit of the fun. He vaunted his own skill with the toasting-fork, and,
+in spite of fatigue, insisted on superintending another batch of the
+buttered toast; he was very particular about the clearness of the fire,
+and delivered quite an harangue on the subject. Jill's sulky countenance
+relaxed by and by; she opened her lips to contradict him, and was met so
+skilfully that she appealed to me for assistance.</p>
+
+<p>By the time tea was over, we were as friendly with Mr. Tudor as though we
+had known him all our lives, and Jill was laughing heartily over his racy
+descriptions of schoolroom feasts and other escapades of his youth. He
+looked absurdly young, in spite of his clerical dress; he had a bright
+face and a peculiarly frank manner that made me trust him at once; he did
+not look particularly clever, and Jill had the best of him in argument,
+but one felt instinctively that he was a man who would never do a mean or
+an unkind action, that he would tell the truth to his own detriment with
+a simple honesty that made up for lack of talent.</p>
+
+<p>I could see that Jill's bigness and cleverness surprised him. He
+evidently found her amusing, for he tried to draw her out; perhaps he
+liked to see how her great eyes opened and then grew bright, as she
+tossed back her black locks or shook them impatiently. When Jill was
+happy and at ease her face would grow illuminated; her varying
+expression, her animation, her quaint picturesque talk, made her
+thoroughly interesting. I was never dull in Jill's company; she had
+always something fresh to say; she had a fund of originality, and drew
+her words newly coined from her own mint.</p>
+
+<p>I do not believe that Mr. Tudor quite understood her, for he was a simple
+young fellow. But she piqued his curiosity. I must have appeared quite a
+tame, commonplace person beside her. When Jill went out of the room to
+fetch something, he asked me, rather curiously, how old she was, and when
+I told him that she was a mere child, not quite sixteen, he said, half
+musing, that she seemed older than that. She knew so much about things,
+but he supposed she was very clever.</p>
+
+<p>We went down into the drawing-room after this, and Jill kept me company
+while Mr. Tudor supped in state, with Clayton and Clarence to wait on
+him. He came up after a very short interval, and said, half laughing,
+that his supper had been a most formal affair.</p>
+
+<p>'By the bye, Miss Garston,' he observed, as though by an afterthought,
+'I hear you are coming down to Heathfield.' He stole a glance at Jill as
+he spoke. She had discarded her Indian muslin and coral necklace as being
+too grand for the occasion, and wore her ruby velveteen, that always
+suited her admirably. She looked very nice, and quite at her ease,
+sitting half-buried in Uncle Brian's arm-chair, instead of being bolt
+upright in her corner. She had drawn her big feet carefully under her
+gown, and was quite a presentable young lady.</p>
+
+<p>I thought Mr. Tudor was rather impressed with the transformation
+Cinderella in her brown schoolroom frock, with a smutty cheek and rumpled
+collar, was quite a different person:&mdash;presto&mdash;change&mdash;the young princess
+in the ruby dress has smooth locks and a thick gold necklace. She has big
+shining eyes and a happy child's laugh. Her little white teeth gleam in
+the lamplight. I do not wonder in the least that Mr. Tudor looks at Jill
+as he talks to me. It is a habit people have with me.</p>
+
+<p>But I answered him quite graciously.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I am coming down to Heathfield the day after to-morrow. I suppose
+I ought to say <i>Deo volente</i>. I hope you all mean to be good to me, Mr.
+Tudor, and not laugh at my poor little pretensions.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall not laugh, for one,' he replied, looking me full in the face
+now with his honest eyes. 'I think it is a good work, Miss Garston. The
+vicar'&mdash;he always called Uncle Max the vicar&mdash;'was talking about it up
+at Gladwyn the other day, and Mr. Hamilton said&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Gladwyn? Is that the name of a house?' I asked, interrupting Mr. Tudor
+a little abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure. Have you not heard of Gladwyn?' And at that he looked a
+little amused. But I was not fated to hear more of Gladwyn that night,
+for the next moment Aunt Philippa came bustling into the room, and Sara
+and Uncle Brian followed her.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE WHITE COTTAGE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Good-bye is an unpleasant word to say, and I said mine as quickly as
+possible, but I did not like the remembrance of Jill's wet cheek that
+I had kissed: I was haunted by it during the greater part of my brief
+journey. For some inexplicable reason I had chosen to arrive at
+Heathfield late in the afternoon; I wanted to slip into my new home in
+the dusk. I knew that Uncle Max would meet me at the station and look
+after my luggage, so I should have no trouble, and I hoped that I should
+wake up among my neighbours the next morning before they knew of my
+arrival.</p>
+
+<p>When we stopped at some station a little while before we reached
+Heathfield, the guard put a gentleman in my compartment: I fancied they
+had not noticed me, for a large black retriever followed him.</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman lifted his hat directly he saw me, and apologised for
+his dog's presence, until I assured him it made no difference to me; and
+then he drew a newspaper from his bag and tried to read by the somewhat
+flickering light. As I had nothing else to do, and his attention was
+evidently very much absorbed, I looked at him from time to time in an
+idle, furtive sort of way.</p>
+
+<p>He had taken off his hat and put it on the seat; his dark smooth-shaven
+face reminded me of a Romish priest, but he had no tonsure; instead of
+that he had thick closely-cropped hair without a hint or suspicion of
+baldness, was strongly built and very broad, and looked like a man who
+had undergone training.</p>
+
+<p>I was rather given to study the countenances of my fellow-passengers,&mdash;it
+was a way I had,&mdash;but I was not particularly prepossessed with this man's
+face; it looked hard and stern, and his manner, though perfectly
+gentlemanly, was a little brusque. I abandoned the Romish priest theory
+after a second glance, and told myself he was more like a Roman
+gladiator.</p>
+
+<p>As we approached Heathfield, he folded up his paper and patted his dog,
+who had sat all this time at his feet, with his head on his knees. It was
+a beautiful, intelligent animal, and had soft eyes like a woman, and by
+the way he wagged his tail and licked the hand that fondled his glossy
+head I saw he was devoted to his master.</p>
+
+<p>Just then I encountered a swift, searching glance from the stranger,
+which rather surprised me. He had looked at me, as he spoke, in an
+indifferent way; but this second look was a little perplexing; it was
+as though he had suddenly recognised me, and that the fact amused him;
+and yet we had never met before,&mdash;it was such an uncommon face, so
+singular altogether, that I could never have forgotten it.</p>
+
+<p>I grew irritated without reason, for how could a stranger recognise me?
+Happily the lights from the station flashed before my eyes at that
+moment, and I began nodding and smiling towards a corner by the
+bookstall, where a felt hat and brown head were all that I could see
+of Uncle Max.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, here you are, Ursula, punctual to a minute,' exclaimed Max, as he
+shook hands. 'Halloo, Hamilton, where did you spring from?' going to the
+carriage door to speak to my fellow-passenger. I was so provoked at this,
+fearing an introduction, for Max was such a friendly soul, that I went to
+the luggage-van and began counting my boxes, and Max did not hurry
+himself to look after me.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, then,' he observed cheerily, when he condescended to join me, 'is
+your luggage all right? Do you mean all those traps are yours? Bless me,
+Ursula, what will Mrs. Barton say? Put them on the fly, you fellows, and
+be sharp about it. Come along, child; it is pelting cats and dogs, if you
+know what that means: you have a wet welcome to Heathfield.'</p>
+
+<p>I took the news philosophically, and assured him it did not matter in the
+least. We could hear the rain beating against the windows as we reached
+the booking-office. A closed waggonette with a pair of horses was waiting
+at the door; my fellow-passenger, whom Max had addressed as Hamilton, was
+standing on the pavement, speaking somewhat angrily to the coachman. I
+heard the man's answer as he touched his hat.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Darrell said I was to bring the waggonette, sir: it did not rain so
+badly when the order was brought round to the stables.'</p>
+
+<p>'I could have taken a fly easily: it is worse than folly bringing out
+the horses this wet night. Jump in, Nap. What, must I go first? Manners
+before a wet coat.'</p>
+
+<p>I heard no more, for Max hurried me into a fly, and the waggonette passed
+us on the road.</p>
+
+<p>'Who was that?' I asked curiously.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, that is Mr. Hamilton. Why did you not wait for me to introduce
+him to you, Ursula? He is a rich doctor who lives in these parts; he
+practises for his own pleasure among the poor people; he will not attend
+gentle-folks. He told me that he had studied medicine meaning to make it
+his profession, but a distant relative died and left him a fortune, and
+by so doing spoiled his career.'</p>
+
+<p>'That was rather ungracious of him; but he looks the sort of man who
+could do plenty of grumbling. Where does he live, Max?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, at Gladwyn: I cannot show you the house now, because we do not pass
+it. There is the church, Ursula, and there is Tudor in his mackintosh
+coming out of the vicarage: that is the best of Lawrence, he never shirks
+his duty; he hates the job, but he does it. He is going down to see old
+Smithers and get sworn at for his pains.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you got any cases ready for me, Max?' I asked, with a little
+tingling of excitement.</p>
+
+<p>'Hamilton has. I was at Gladwyn the other evening, and had a talk with
+him. He was a little off-hand about your mission; he thinks you must be
+romantic, and all that sort of thing. You would have laughed to have
+heard him talk, and I let him go on just for the joke of it. It was rich
+to hear him say that he did not believe in hysterical goodness; a girl
+would do anything now to get herself talked about&mdash;no, I did not mean to
+repeat that,' interrupting himself, with an annoyed air. 'Hamilton always
+says more than he means. Look, Ursula, there is the White Cottage; that
+bow-window to the right belongs to your parlour. Now, my dear, I will
+open the gate, and you must just run up the path as quickly as you can,
+for you can hardly hold up an umbrella in this wind. You see the cottage
+does not boast of a carriage-drive.'</p>
+
+<p>That odious Mr. Hamilton&mdash;or Dr. Hamilton, which was it? No wonder he
+looked like a Romish priest if he could make those Jesuitical remarks!
+I felt I almost hated him, but I resolved to banish him from my mind,
+as I ran past the dripping laurels that bordered the narrow path. The
+cottage door was open as soon as our fly had stopped at the gate; and
+by the light I could see the neat flower-borders and clipped yews, and
+a leafless wide-spreading tree with a seat under it. As I made my way
+into the porch, a very big man without his coat passed me with a civil
+'good-evening.' I thought it must be Nathaniel, from his great height,
+and of course the prim-looking little widow in black, standing on the
+threshold, was Mrs. Barton. She had a nice, plaintive face, and spoke
+in a mild, deprecating voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Good-evening, Mrs. Barton. What dreadful weather! I hope my wet boxes
+will not spoil the oilcloth.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is easily wiped off, Miss Garston; but I am thinking the damp must
+have made you chilly. Come into the parlour: there is a fine rousing fire
+that will soon warm you. A fire is a deal of comfort on a wet, cool
+night. I have lighted one in your bedroom too.'</p>
+
+<p>Evidently Mrs. Barton spared herself no trouble. I was a fire-worshipper,
+and loved to see the ruddy flame lighting up all the odd corners, and I
+was glad to think both my rooms would be cheerful. The parlour looked the
+picture of comfort; my piano was nicely placed, and the davenport, and
+the chair that I had sent with it. A large old-fashioned couch was drawn
+across the window, the round table had a white cloth on it, and the
+tea-tray and a cottage loaf were suggestive of a meal. The room was long
+and rather low, but the bow-window gave it a cosy aspect; one glance
+satisfied me that I had space for the principal part of my books, the
+rest could be put in my bedroom. When Mrs. Barton stirred the fire and
+lighted the candles the room looked extremely cheerful, especially as
+Tinker, the collie, had taken a fancy to the rug, and had stretched
+himself upon it after giving me a wag of his tail as a welcome. Mrs.
+Barton would hardly give me time to warm my hands before she begged me
+to follow her upstairs and take off my things while they brought in the
+luggage.</p>
+
+<p>I found my bedroom had one peculiarity: you had to descend two broad
+steps before you entered it.</p>
+
+<p>It was the same size as the parlour, and had a bow-window. The furniture
+was unusually good; it had belonged to the previous lodger, Mrs.
+Meredith, who had bequeathed it to Mrs. Barton at her death.</p>
+
+<p>I was thankful to see a pretty iron bedstead with a brass ring and blue
+chintz hangings, instead of the four-poster I had dreaded. There was a
+commodious cupboard and a handsome Spanish mahogany chest of drawers that
+Mrs. Barton pointed out with great pride. A bright fire burned in the
+blue-tiled fireplace; there was an easy-chair and a round table in the
+bow-window; a pleasant perfume of lavender-scented sheets pervaded the
+room, and a winter nosegay of red and white chrysanthemums was prettily
+arranged in a curious china bowl. I praised everything to Mrs. Barton's
+satisfaction, and then she went downstairs to see to the tea, first
+giving me the information that Nathaniel was coming upstairs with the
+big trunk, and would I tell him where to place it?</p>
+
+<p>He entered the next moment, carrying the heavy trunk on his shoulder as
+easily as though it were a toy. He was a good-looking man, with a fair
+beard and a pair of honest blue eyes, and in spite of his size and
+strength&mdash;for he was a perfect son of Anak&mdash;seemed rather shy and
+retiring.</p>
+
+<p>I left him loosening the straps of my box, and went downstairs to find
+Uncle Max.</p>
+
+<p>He had made himself quite at home, and was sitting in the big easy-chair
+contemplating the fire.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Ursula, how do you like your rooms? Oh yes, there are two cups and
+saucers,' as I looked inquiringly at the table, 'because Mrs. Barton
+expects me to remain to tea. She is frying ham and eggs at the present
+moment; I hope you do not mind such homely country fare; but to-morrow
+you will be your own housekeeper.'</p>
+
+<p>I assured Uncle Max that I had fallen in love with the White Cottage, and
+that I liked Mrs. Barton excessively, that my bedroom was especially cosy
+and was most comfortably furnished. 'You will see how pretty this room
+will look when I put up my new curtains and pictures,' I went on; 'it is
+a little bare at present, but it will soon have a more furnished
+appearance. I mean to be so busy to-morrow settling all my treasures.'
+And I spoke with so much animation that Uncle Max smiled at what he
+called my youthful enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>'You may be as busy as you like all day,' he returned, in his pleasant
+way, 'so that you come up to the vicarage in the afternoon to see Mrs.
+Drabble. Lawrence will be out: that fellow always is out,'&mdash;in a humorous
+tone of vexation. 'He makes himself so confoundedly agreeable that people
+are always asking him to dinner: he is terribly secular, is Lawrence, but
+he is young and will mend. Come up to the vicarage and dine with me,
+Ursula; I want you to taste Mrs. Drabble's pancakes: they are food for
+angels, as Lawrence always says.'</p>
+
+<p>I accepted the invitation a little regretfully, for it seemed hard to
+leave my hermitage the first evening; but then Uncle Max had been so good
+to me that it would never do to disappoint him, and, as Mr. Tudor would
+be out, we should be very cosy together.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barton brought in the ham and eggs at this moment, and I sat down
+before my gay little tea-tray, marvelling secretly at the scarlet
+flamingo. There were plenty of homely delicacies on the table,&mdash;hot cakes
+and honey, and a basket of brown-and-yellow pippins. Uncle Max shook his
+head and pretended the hot cakes would ruin his digestion, but he enjoyed
+them all the same, and made an excellent meal.</p>
+
+<p>We sat for a long time talking over the fire, chiefly of Lesbia and Jill,
+for he took a warm interest in them both; but about eight o'clock he
+remembered he had an engagement, and went off rather hurriedly, and I
+went upstairs and unpacked one of my boxes, and arranged my clothes in
+the chest of drawers and in the big, roomy cupboard.</p>
+
+<p>When the church clock struck ten, I went down again in search of hot
+water. At the sound of my footstep, Mrs. Barton came out in the passage
+and invited me into the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>'There is only Nat there at his books,' she said, in her plaintive voice;
+'he works late sometimes, though I tell him he uses up candle and
+firelight. Please make yourself at home, Miss Garston; we shall always
+be pleased to see you in our kitchen, when you like to pop in.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope I shall not come too often,' I returned, looking round at its
+bright snug appearance. A square of dark carpet covered part of the
+red-tiled floor; the round deal table in the centre was hidden under a
+crimson cloth, and two big elbow-chairs stood on each side of the wide
+fireplace. Nathaniel sat in one, with a little round table in front of
+him, covered with books and papers, with a small lamp for his own use.
+Mrs. Barton's work-box and mending-basket were on the centre table, the
+hearth had just been swept up, there was a smell of hot bread, and a row
+of freshly-baked loaves were cooling on the dresser; the firelight shone
+on the gleaming pewter and brass utensils, and a great tabby cat sat
+purring on the elbow of Nathaniel's chair. I thought he seemed a little
+confused at my entrance, for he got up rather awkwardly and shuffled his
+papers together, so I took pity on his embarrassment, and only spoke to
+Mrs. Barton.</p>
+
+<p>She took me into the little outer kitchen to show me where she did her
+cooking, and I asked her in a low voice what he was studying.</p>
+
+<p>'He does a little of everything,' she said, with a sort of suppressed
+pride in her voice. 'Sometimes it is history, and oftener summing; he
+will have it that a man cannot have too much learning, and that he wants
+to improve himself; he is always fretting because he never had a chance
+when he was young, all along of his having to work when his poor father
+died, and so he is all for making up for lost time; sometimes Dr.
+Hamilton comes in and helps him with the Latin and&mdash;what do you call
+those figures?'</p>
+
+<p>I suggested mathematics, and she nodded assent.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Nat is a sight cleverer already than his master,' she went on. 'I am
+thinking that if he goes on learning more and more, that Mr. Roberts will
+be taking him into the business some day. Nat is a sort of foreman now,
+for his master thinks a deal of Nathaniel, and no wonder, for it is not
+only his learning, and his sitting up late, and getting up early in the
+winter's morning, and creeping downstairs without his boots so as not
+to wake me; for all he is such a good son; but I will say it, that there
+is not a young man in these parts that can beat Nat,' finished the little
+widow, in a broken voice.</p>
+
+<p>I said I was glad to hear it, for she evidently expected me to say
+something; and then I asked how long Dr. Hamilton had given him lessons
+in Latin and mathematics. She was only too ready to tell me, and seemed
+pleased at my interest.</p>
+
+<p>'Ever since Nat hurt his arm in the railway accident; and I will say that
+Dr. Hamilton brought him round in a wonderful way; he found him at his
+books one evening, and ordered him off to bed in a hurry; but when he
+came next time he had a long talk with Nat, and promised to give him an
+hour when he could spare it. Sometimes Nat goes up to Gladwyn, but
+oftener Dr. Hamilton drops in here; he has taken a fancy to our kitchen,
+he says; but that is his way of putting it. There are plenty of folks who
+find fault with the doctor, and say he is not what he ought to be to his
+own flesh and blood; but I always will have it, and Nathaniel says the
+same, that the doctor has a fine character. Why, Nat swears by him,'</p>
+
+<p>I was beginning to be afraid that Mrs. Barton would never arrive at a
+full stop,&mdash;she was a little like Mrs. Drabble in that; they were both
+discursive and parenthetical speakers, only Mrs. Drabble's meaning was
+more involved,&mdash;but before I had time to answer, a deep voice from the
+kitchen startled us.</p>
+
+<p>'Mother, how long do you mean to keep Miss Garston in that cold, dark
+place? It is enough to starve her,' And at this rebuke Mrs. Barton
+hurried me into the front kitchen. I was tired by this time, and glad to
+bid them both good-night. And yet the widow's talk interested me. It was
+not Mr. Hamilton's fault that he had a face like a Romish priest;
+evidently he had his good points, like other people, in spite of his
+rudeness in laughing at me. But I could not&mdash;no, I could not tolerate
+that remark of his, 'that a girl would do anything to make herself talked
+about.' It was odious, cynical, utterly malevolent. I hoped Uncle Max
+would defer the introduction as long as possible. I never wished to know
+anything of Gladwyn or its master. These thoughts occupied me until I
+fell asleep; and then I dreamt of Jill.</p>
+
+<p>Once or twice I woke in the night, disturbed by a low growl from Tinker,
+who slept in the passage. I heard afterwards that his dreams were always
+haunted by cats. He was an inveterate enemy to all the feline species,
+with the exception of Peter, the great tabby cat. They had long ago sworn
+an armistice, and, in his way, Tinker took a great deal of notice of
+Peter.</p>
+
+<p>It was strange to look round the low cottage room by the flickering,
+fast-dying firelight. The rain still pattered on the garden paths. I was
+rather dismayed to find that it had not ceased the next morning; it is so
+pleasant to wake up in a fresh place and see the bright sunshine. This
+piece of good luck was denied me, however. When I looked out of my window
+I could only see dripping laurels and great pools in the gravel walks.
+The gray sky had not a break in it. I was glad when I was ready to go
+down to my parlour, for the fire and breakfast-table would look cheerful
+by comparison; and afterwards I would set to work so busily that I should
+not have time to notice the rain.</p>
+
+<p>And so it proved; for until my early dinner&mdash;or rather luncheon&mdash;was
+served, I was employed in unpacking and arranging my books and ornaments.</p>
+
+<p>On my journeys to and fro I often paused at the low staircase window
+to reconnoitre the weather. There was no garden behind the cottage; a
+small gravelled yard, where Mrs. Barton kept her poultry and some rabbits
+belonging to Nathaniel, opened by a gate into a field. There was a
+cow-house there, and a white cow was standing rather disconsolately
+under some trees. I found out afterwards that both the field and the cow
+belonged to Mrs. Barton, so I could always rely on a good supply of sweet
+new milk.</p>
+
+<p>Nathaniel had put up my book-shelves when I had sent them with the other
+furniture, so I had only to arrange the books. I made use, too, of some
+nails he had driven in for my pictures.</p>
+
+<p>The parlour really looked very nice when I had finished; the new
+cream-coloured curtains were up, and I had tied them back with amber
+silk; two or three sunny little landscapes, and Charlie's portrait, a
+beautifully-painted photograph, hung on the walls; my favourite books
+were in their places, and the mantelpiece and the corner cupboards held
+some of the lovely old china that had belonged to mother. Aunt Philippa
+had wished me to leave it behind, as she feared it might be broken; but
+I liked to feast my eyes on the soft rich colours, and every piece was
+precious to me.</p>
+
+<p>When I had disposed the furniture to the best advantage,&mdash;had placed my
+davenport and work-table and special chair in the bow-window, and had
+replaced the shabby red cloth by a handsome tapestry one,&mdash;I called Mrs.
+Barton to see the room.</p>
+
+<p>She held up her hands in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear me, Miss Garston, it looks quite a different place. What will
+Nathaniel say when he sees it?&mdash;he is so fond of books and pretty things.
+It only wants sunshine and a bird-cage, and perhaps a geranium or two,
+to make it quite a bower. May I make so bold, ma'am, as to ask who that
+pleasant-faced young gentleman is in the oak frame?'&mdash;but I think she
+was sorry that she had asked the question when I told her it was my
+twin-brother, now in heaven.</p>
+
+<p>'That is where my husband and my dear little daughter both are,' she
+said, with moist eyes, as she turned away from the picture. 'Oh, there is
+a deal of trouble in the world, but you are young to know it, ma'am.' And
+then she looked kindly at me, and went away, to give Nathaniel his
+dinner.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>GILES HAMILTON, ESQ.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was quite late in the afternoon when I put the last finishing-touches
+to my sitting-room, and it was already dusk when I left the cottage and
+walked quickly up the road that led to the vicarage.</p>
+
+<p>My busy day had not tired me, and I should have enjoyed a solitary ramble
+in spite of the wet roads and dark November sky, only I knew Uncle Max
+would be waiting for me. A keen sense of independence, of liberty, of
+congenial work in prospective, seemed to tingle in my veins, as though
+new life were coursing through them. I was no longer trammelled by the
+constant efforts to move in other people's grooves. I was free to think
+my own thought and lead my own life without reproof or hindrance.</p>
+
+<p>The vicarage was a red, irregular house, shut off from the road by
+a low wall, with a court-yard planted somewhat thickly with shrubs: the
+living-rooms were chiefly at the back of the house, and their windows
+looked out on a pleasant garden: a glass door in the hall opened on a
+broad gravel terrace bordered by standard rose-trees, and beyond lay a
+smooth green lawn almost as level as a bowling-green; a laurel hedge
+divided it from an extensive kitchen-garden, to which Uncle Max and Mr.
+Tudor devoted a great deal of their spare time and superfluous energies.</p>
+
+<p>It was far too large a house for an unmarried man: the broad staircase
+and spacious rooms seemed to require the echo of children's voices. Uncle
+Max used to call it the barracks, but I think in his heart he liked the
+roomy emptiness; when he was restless he would prowl up and down the wide
+landing from one unused room to another. It was an old-fashioned house,
+and more than one generation had grown up in it. Uncle Max was fond of
+telling me about his predecessors' histories. Two little children had
+died in the big nursery overlooking the garden. There was a little brown
+room where a <i>ci-devant</i> vicar had written his sermons, with a big
+cupboard in the wall where he hung his cassock. He had a grown-up family,
+but his wife was dead. One day he married again and brought home a slim,
+pale-faced girl&mdash;a certain Priscilla Howe&mdash;to be the mistress of his
+house. There were stories rife in the village that her step-children were
+too much for poor, pretty Priscilla; that while her husband wrote his
+sermons in the little brown room the young wife pined and moped in her
+green sitting-room.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Max found a picture of her one day in a garret where they stored
+apples; a faint musty smell clung to the canvas. 'Priscilla Howe' was
+written in one corner; there was a childish look on the small oval face;
+large melancholy eyes seemed appealing to one out of the canvas. She was
+dressed in a heavy white material like dimity, and held a few primroses
+between her fingers. What an innocent, pathetic little bride the
+stern-faced vicar must have brought home!</p>
+
+<p>I read her epitaph afterwards when Uncle Max showed me her
+grave,&mdash;'Priscilla, wife of Ralph Combermere, aged twenty, and her infant
+son.' What a sad little inscription! But Uncle Max read something sadder
+still one day. A letter in faded ink was found in a corner of the same
+old garret, and the signature was 'Priscilla'; there was only one
+sentence legible in the whole, and to whom it was written remained a
+mystery: 'Trust me, dear love, that I shall ever do my duty, in spite of
+flaunts and jeers and most unkindly looks; and if God spares me health,
+which I cannot believe, He may yet right me in the eyes that no longer
+look at me with fondness.'</p>
+
+<p>Poor Priscilla! so her husband had ceased to love her. No wonder the poor
+child dwindled and pined among 'the flaunts and jeers and most unkindly
+looks' of her step-children. One could imagine her clasping her baby to
+her sad heart as she closed her eyes to the bitter misunderstanding of
+this life. 'Where the weary are at rest,'&mdash;they might have written those
+words upon her tomb.</p>
+
+<p>The thought of Priscilla used to haunt me when I roamed about the
+passages on windy days; the old garret especially seemed haunted by her
+memory. Uncle Max once said to me that he could have constructed a
+romance out of her poor little history. 'She came from a place called
+Ecclesbourne Hall,' he said, one day. 'She was an heiress; old Ralph
+Combermere knew what he was about when he transplanted the pale primrose.
+Do you know, Ursula, this room is supposed to be haunted? And one of the
+maids told me seriously that Mistress Combermere walks here on windy
+nights with her babe in her arms. Fancy such a report in an English
+vicarage!'</p>
+
+<p>When I reached the house the little maid who opened the door informed me
+that Uncle Max was in his study: it was a large room with a bow-window
+overlooking the garden, and I knew Uncle Max never used any other room
+except for his meals. I had volunteered to announce myself. I was never
+formal with Max, so I knocked at the door, and, without waiting to hear
+his voice in reply, marched in without ceremony.</p>
+
+<p>But the next moment I stood discomfited on the threshold, for instead of
+Uncle Max's familiar face I saw a dark, closely-cropped head bending over
+the table as though searching for something, and the ruddy firelight
+reflected the broad shoulders and hairless profile of the obnoxious Mr.
+Hamilton.</p>
+
+<p>My first idea was to escape, and my fingers were already on the
+door-handle, when he turned abruptly and saw me. 'I beg your pardon,'
+coming towards me and speaking in the deep peculiar voice I had already
+heard. 'I was hunting for the matches that Cunliffe always mislays. You
+are Miss Garston, are you not? I was told to expect you.' And then he
+actually shook hands with me in an off-hand way.</p>
+
+<p>I am not generally devoid of presence of mind, but at that moment I
+behaved as awkwardly as a school-girl. If I could only have thought of
+some excuse for leaving him,&mdash;an errand or a message to Mrs. Drabble; but
+no form of words would occur to me. I could only mutter an apology for my
+abrupt entrance, and ask after Uncle Max, stammering with confusion all
+the time, and then take the chair he was placing for me, while he renewed
+his search for the match-box.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Cunliffe has only gone down to the village to post his letters: he
+will be back in a few minutes. Ah! here are the matches. Now we shall be
+able to see each other.' And he coolly lighted Uncle Max's reading-lamp
+and two candles, and stirred the fire with such a vigorous hand that the
+huge lump of coal splintered into fragments.</p>
+
+<p>'There; I do like a mighty blaze. Take that newspaper, Miss Garston, if
+the flame scorches your face. I know young ladies are afraid of their
+complexions.' Why need he have said that, as though my brown skin were
+Sara's pretty pink cheeks? 'Why do you not throw off your wraps if the
+room be too hot?' And he spoke so imperatively that I actually obeyed
+him, and got rid of my hat and ulster, which he deposited on the couch.</p>
+
+<p>I did not like the look of Mr. Hamilton any better than I had liked it
+yesterday. His dark, smoothly-shaven face was not to my taste; it looked
+stern and forbidding. He had a low forehead, and there was a hard set
+look about the mouth, and the eyes were almost disagreeable in their
+keenness.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps I was prejudiced, but he looked to me like a man who rarely
+laughed, and who would take a pleasure in saying bitter things; his voice
+was not unpleasant, but it had a peculiar depth in it, and now and then
+there was an odd break in it that was almost a hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' he said, looking full at me, but, I was sure, not in the least
+wishful to set me at my ease, 'I suppose I ought to introduce myself. My
+name is Hamilton.'</p>
+
+<p>I bowed. I certainly did not think it necessary that I should tell him
+that I was aware of that fact.</p>
+
+<p>'We met yesterday, when you were good enough to put up with Nap's
+company. I was half disposed to introduce myself then: only I feared you
+would be shocked at such a piece of unconventionality; young ladies have
+such strict ideas of decorum.'</p>
+
+<p>'And very properly so, too,' I put in severely, for my irritation was
+getting the better of my nervousness. I could not bear the tone in which
+he said 'young ladies.' I felt convinced he had an antipathy to the whole
+sex.</p>
+
+<p>'Our skies were very uncivil in their welcome,' he went on, quite
+disregarding my remark: 'it was the wettest night we have had for an age.
+I was quite savage when I found the horses had been taken out of their
+warm stables: the coachman was an ass, as I told him.'</p>
+
+<p>'You scolded him somewhat severely.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! did you hear me?' smiling a little at that, as though he were
+amused. 'I am afraid I speak my mind pretty freely, in spite of
+bystanders. Well, Miss Garston, so I hear you have come down as a sort of
+female Quixote among us. Heathfield is to be the scene of your mission.'</p>
+
+<p>I was so angry at the tone in which he said this that I made no reply.
+What right had a perfect stranger to meddle in my business? It was all
+Uncle Max's fault; if he had only held his tongue.</p>
+
+<p>'Cunliffe was up at Gladwyn the other night,' he continued in the same
+off-hand way, 'and he told us all about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sorry to hear it,' very stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>'Sorry! Why? Good deeds ought to be talked about, ought they not, <i>pro
+bono publico</i>, eh? Why not, Miss Garston?'</p>
+
+<p>'Good intentions are not deeds.'</p>
+
+<p>'True; you have me there. I suppose you think you must not reckon on your
+chickens before they are hatched; the <i>pro bono publico</i> scheme is not
+properly hatched yet, except in theory. I am afraid I shall make you
+angry if I tell you I was rather amused at the whole thing.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad to afford you amusement, Mr. Hamilton.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, I see you are deeply offended; what a pity, and in five minutes too!
+That comes of my unfortunate habit of speaking my mind. Let me follow
+this out. I am afraid Cunliffe has been a traitor; that fellow is not
+reliable: no parsons are. Let me hear what you have against me, Miss
+Garston. I have spoken against your pet theory, and you are aggrieved in
+consequence,'</p>
+
+<p>He spoke in a half-jesting manner, but his ironical voice challenged me.</p>
+
+<p>I felt I detested him, and he should know why.</p>
+
+<p>'I expected to be misunderstood,' I returned coldly, 'but hardly to be
+accused of hysterical goodness. To be sure, a girl will do anything
+nowadays to get herself talked about!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh,' in a low voice, 'that rascal! But I will be even with him. How many
+more of my speeches did Cunliffe repeat?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I had heard enough,' I replied hastily. 'Does it not strike you as
+a little hard, Mr. Hamilton, that one should be judged beforehand in this
+harsh manner?&mdash;that because some girls are full of vagaries, the whole
+sex must be condemned?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, if you put it in that cut-and-dried way, I must plead guilty: in
+fact, I should owe you some sort of apology, only'&mdash;with a stress on the
+word&mdash;'my speech was not intended for the house-top. I am rather a
+sceptic about female missions, Miss Garston, and do not always measure my
+words when I am discussing abstract theories with a friend. In my opinion
+Cunliffe is the one you ought to blame, though if the speech rankles I
+will take my share.'</p>
+
+<p>'I certainly wish you had not said it, Mr. Hamilton.'</p>
+
+<p>'There, now,'&mdash;in an injured voice,&mdash;'that is the way you treat my
+handsome apology, and I am not a man ever to own myself in the wrong,
+mind you. What does it matter, may I ask, what I think of girls in the
+abstract? I had not met you, Miss Garston, or discussed the subject in
+its bearings: so where may the offence lie? Of course you have no answer
+ready; of course you have taken offence where none is meant. This is so
+like a woman&mdash;to undertake to renovate society, and lose her temper at
+the first adverse word.'</p>
+
+<p>He was looking at me with a peculiar but not unkindly smile as he spoke;
+in fact, his expression was almost pleasant; but I was too much
+prejudiced to be softened. I did not care in the least what he thought
+of my temper; I was quite sure he had one of his own.</p>
+
+<p>'No one likes to meet discouragement on the threshold,' I answered
+curtly.</p>
+
+<p>'Not if it comes out with timbrels and dances, like Jephtha's
+daughter, to be sacrificed: that was discouragement on the threshold
+with a vengeance. I was always sorry for that old fellow. Well, <i>apropos</i>
+of that touching remark,&mdash;which, by the way, is exquisitely
+feminine,&mdash;supposing we strike a truce. I daresay you look upon me as an
+interfering stranger; but the fact is, I am the poor folk's doctor down
+here; so you cannot work without me. That alters the case, eh?'&mdash;with a
+smile meant to be propitiatory, but really too triumphant for my taste.</p>
+
+<p>'Under those circumstances I could wish that you had less narrow views of
+women's work,' I returned, with some warmth.</p>
+
+<p>He opened his eyes so widely at this that at any other moment I should
+have been amused.</p>
+
+<p>'By all that is wonderful, it is the first time I have been accused of
+narrowness.' And here he gave a gruff little laugh. 'I think I had better
+leave yon alone, Miss Garston, and label you "dangerous." There is a hot
+sparkle in your eyes that warns me to keep off the premises. "Trespassers
+will be taken up." I begin to feel uncomfortable. Cunliffe has put me <i>en
+parole</i>, and I dare not break bounds. Can you manage to sit in
+the same room a little longer with such a heretic?'</p>
+
+<p>'Heretics can be converted.'</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders at this.</p>
+
+<p>'Not such a hardened sceptic as myself. Now, look here, Miss Garston.
+I will say something civil. I believe you are in earnest; so it shall be
+<i>pax</i> between us; and I will promise not to thwart you. As for women's
+mission in general, I believe their principal mission is not to stop at
+home and mind their own business; in fact, home and homely duties are the
+last straws that break the back of the emancipated woman.' And with these
+audacious words Mr. Hamilton stirred the fire again with prodigious
+energy. Happily, Uncle Max came into the room at that moment; so I was
+spared any reply.</p>
+
+<p>Max must have thought that I was suspiciously glad to see him, for he
+looked from one to the other rather anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>'Sorry to be so late, Ursula; but I met Pardoe, and he entrapped me into
+an argument. Well, how have you and my friend Hamilton got on together?'</p>
+
+<p>I turned away without answering, but Mr. Hamilton responded, in a
+melancholy voice&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I have been suppressed, like the dormouse in Alice's teapot. There is
+very little left of me. I had no idea your niece had such a taste for
+argument, Cunliffe. I take it rather unkindly that I was not warned off
+the track.'</p>
+
+<p>'So you two have been quarrelling.' And Uncle Max looked a little vexed.
+'What a fellow you are, Hamilton, for stroking a person the wrong way! Of
+course Ursula has believed all your cross-grained remarks?'</p>
+
+<p>'Swallowed them whole and entire; and a fit of moral indigestion is the
+result. Well, I must be going; but first let me administer a palliative,
+Miss Garston. What time do you have breakfast? If it be before ten, I
+shall be happy to introduce you to a very eligible case.'</p>
+
+<p>I would have given much to dispense with Mr. Hamilton's patronage; but
+under the circumstances it would have been absurd to refuse his offer.
+I could not sacrifice my work to my temper; but I recognised with a
+sinking heart that Mr. Hamilton would cross my daily path. The idea
+was as delightful to me as the anticipation of a daily east wind. I
+restrained myself, however, and briefly mentioned that I would be ready
+by nine.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, that is an hour too early: I will call for you at ten. Let me see,
+you are at the White Cottage. You are not curious about your first
+patient; in that you are not a true daughter of Eve. Well, good-bye, Miss
+Garston; good-bye, Cunliffe.' And he left the room without shaking hands
+with me again.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Max followed him out into the hall, and they stood so long talking
+that I lost patience, and went into the kitchen to see Mrs. Drabble.</p>
+
+<p>She received me in a resigned way, as usual, and talked without taking
+breath once while she buttered the hot cakes and prepared the tea-tray.
+I understood her to say that Mr. Tudor's collars were her chief cares in
+life; that no young gentleman she had ever known was so hard to please in
+the matter of starch; that her master was a lamb in comparison; and did
+I not think he was looking ill and overworking himself?</p>
+
+<p>I had some difficulty in finding out to whom she was alluding, but I
+imagined she meant her master, who was certainly looking a little thin,
+and then she went off on another tack.</p>
+
+<p>'Folks seem mighty curious about you, Miss Ursula; people do say
+that only a young lady crossed in love would think of doing such an
+out-of-the-way thing as putting up at the White Cottage and nursing
+poor people. There was Rebecca Saunders,&mdash;you know Rebecca at the
+post-office,&mdash;she said to me last night, "So your young lady has come,
+Mrs. Drabble; the vicar was at the station, I hear, and Dr. Hamilton came
+down by the same train: wasn't that curious, now? I am thinking she must
+be a mighty independent sort of person to take this work on her; there
+has been trouble somewhere, take my word for it, for it is not in young
+folks' nature to go in for work and no play."'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I mean to play as well as work,' I returned, laughing. 'Don't tell
+me any more, Mrs. Drabble; people will talk in a village, but I would
+rather not hear what they say.' And then I went back to the study and
+made tea for Uncle Max, and tried to pretend that I felt quite myself,
+and was not the least uneasy in my mind,&mdash;as though I could deceive Max.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Ursula,' he said, shaking his head at me, 'did Hamilton or Mrs.
+Drabble give you those hot cheeks?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Uncle Max,' I returned hastily, 'I am so sorry Mr. Hamilton is your
+friend.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why so, little she-bear?'</p>
+
+<p>'Because&mdash;because&mdash;I detest him: he is the most disagreeable,
+insufferable, domineering person I have ever met.'</p>
+
+<p>'Candid; but then you were always outspoken, my dear. Now, shall I tell
+you what this disagreeable, insufferable, domineering person said to me
+in the hall?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, nothing he said will make any difference in my opinion, I assure
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Possibly not, but it is too good to be lost. He said, "That little girl
+actually believes in herself and her work; it is quite refreshing to meet
+with such <i>na&iuml;vet&eacute;</i> nowadays. Ursula did you call her? Well, the name
+just suits her." How do you like that, poor little bear?'</p>
+
+<p>'I like it as well as I liked all Mr. Hamilton's speeches. Max, do you
+really care for that odious man? Must I be civil to him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, I hope you will be civil, Ursula,' replied Uncle Max, in an
+alarmed voice. 'My dear, Giles Hamilton, Esq., is my most influential
+parishioner; he is rich; he doctors all my poor people <i>gratis</i>, bullies
+them one moment, and does them a good turn in the next; he is clever,
+kind-hearted, and has no end of good points, and, though he is eccentric
+and has plenty of faults, we chum together excellently, and I am very
+intimate with his people.'</p>
+
+<p>'His people&mdash;who are they?' I asked irritably.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it is a queer household up at Gladwyn,' returned Max, rather
+uneasily. 'Hamilton has a cousin living with him, as well as his two
+sisters; her name is Darrell,&mdash;Etta Darrell; she is a stylish-looking
+woman, about five-and-thirty; one never knows a lady's age exactly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Are his sisters very young, then? Does Miss Darrell manage the house?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. How could you guess that?' looking at me in surprise. 'Gladys,
+Miss Hamilton, is about three-and-twenty, but she is very delicate;
+the younger one, Elizabeth, is two years younger; they are Hamilton's
+half-sisters,&mdash;his father married twice: that accounts for a good deal.'</p>
+
+<p>'How do you mean,&mdash;accounts for a good deal, Max?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why people say that Hamilton doesn't always get on with his sisters,'
+he returned reluctantly: 'there are often misunderstandings in
+families,&mdash;want of harmony, and that sort of thing. Mind, I do not
+say it is true.'</p>
+
+<p>'But you are so often at Gladwyn, you ought to know, Max.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, of course; and now and then I have seen Hamilton a little stern
+with his sisters; he is rather irritable by nature. I don't quite
+understand things myself, but I have got it into my head that they would
+be happier without Miss Darrell; she is a splendid manager, but it puts
+Miss Hamilton out of her right place.'</p>
+
+<p>'But she is an invalid, you say?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, not an invalid, only very delicate, and a little morbid; not
+quite what a girl ought to be. You could do some good there, Ursula,'
+rather eagerly. 'Miss Hamilton has no friends of her own age; she is
+reserved,&mdash;peculiar. You might be a comfort to her; you are sympathetic,
+sensible, and have known trouble yourself. I should like to see you use
+your influence there.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will try, if you wish it, Max. And her name is Gladys?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Gladys, of Gladwyn,' he returned, with a smile, but I thought he
+said it with rather a singular intonation, but it had a musical sound,
+and I repeated it again to myself,&mdash;'Gladys, of Gladwyn.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>NEW BROOMS SWEEP CLEAN</h3>
+
+
+<p>We were interrupted just then by Mrs. Drabble, who came in for the
+tea-things, and, as usual, held a long colloquy with her master on sundry
+domestic affairs. When she had at last withdrawn, Uncle Max did not
+resume the subject. I was somewhat disappointed at this, and in spite
+of my strong antipathy to Mr. Hamilton I wanted to hear more about his
+sisters.</p>
+
+<p>He disregarded my hints, however, and began talking to me about my work.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know anything about the family Mr. Hamilton mentioned?' I asked,
+rather eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; Mary Marshall's is a very sad case; she has seven children,
+not one of them old enough to work for himself; and she is dying, poor
+creature, of consumption. Her husband is a navvy, and he is at work at
+Lewes; I believe he is pretty steady, and sends the greater part of his
+wages to his wife, but there are too many mouths to feed to allow of
+comforts; his old blind mother lives with them. I believe the neighbours
+are kind and helpful, and Peggy, the eldest child, is a sharp little
+creature, but you can imagine the miserable condition of such a home.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, indeed.' And I shuddered as I recalled many a sad scene in my
+father's home.</p>
+
+<p>'I have sent in a woman once or twice to clean up the place; and Mrs.
+Drabble has made excellent beef-tea, but the last lot turned sour from
+being left in the hot kitchen one night, and the cat upset the basin of
+calf's-foot jelly,&mdash;at least the children said so. I go there myself,
+because Tudor says the air of the place turns him sick: he looked as
+white as a ghost after his last visit, and declared he was poisoned with
+foul air.'</p>
+
+<p>'I daresay he was right, Max; poor people have such an objection to open
+their windows.'</p>
+
+<p>'I believe you there. I have talked myself nearly hoarse on that subject.
+Hamilton and I propose giving lectures in the schoolroom on domestic
+hygiene. There is a fearful want of sanitary knowledge in women belonging
+to the lower class; want of cleanliness, want of ventilation, want of
+whitewashing, are triple evils that lead to the most lamentable results.
+We cannot get people to understand the common laws of life; the air of
+their rooms may be musty, stagnant, and corrupt, and yet they are
+astonished if their children have an attack of scarlet fever or
+diphtheria.'</p>
+
+<p>I commended the notion of the lectures warmly, and asked with whom the
+idea had originated.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Hamilton, of course: he is the moving spirit of everything. We have
+planned the whole thing out. There is to be a lecture every Friday
+evening; the first is to be on household hygiene, the sanitary condition
+of houses, ventilation, cleanliness, etc. In the second lecture Hamilton
+will speak of the laws of health, self-management, personal cleanliness,
+to be followed by a few simple lectures on nursing, sick-cookery, and
+the treatment of infantile diseases. We want all the mothers to attend.
+Do you think it a good idea, Ursula?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is an excellent one,' I returned reluctantly, for I grudged the
+praise to Mr. Hamilton. He could benefit his fellow-creatures, and give
+time and strength and energy to the poor sick people, and yet sneer at me
+civilly when I wanted to do the same, just because I was a woman. Perhaps
+Max was disappointed with my want of enthusiasm, for he ceased talking
+of the lectures, and said he had some more letters to write before
+dinner, and during the rest of the evening, though we discussed a hundred
+different topics, Mr. Hamilton's name was not again mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Max walked with me to the gate of the White Cottage, and bade me a
+cheerful good-night.</p>
+
+<p>'I like to feel you are near me, Ursula,' he said, quite affectionately;
+'an old bachelor like myself gets into a groove, and the society of a
+vigorous young woman, brimful of philanthropy and crotchets, will rub me
+up and do me good; one goes to sleep sometimes,' he finished, rather
+mournfully, and then he walked away in the darkness, and I stood for a
+minute to watch him.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to me that Max was a little different this evening. He was
+always kind, always cheerful; he never wrapped himself up in gloomy
+reserve like other people, however depressed or ill at ease he might be;
+but Mrs. Drabble was right, he was certainly thinner, and there was an
+anxious careworn look about his face when he was not speaking. I was
+certain, too, that his cheerfulness and ready flow of conversation were
+not without effort. I had asked him once if he were quite well, and he
+had looked at me in evident astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>'Perfectly well, thank you,&mdash;in a state of rude health. Nothing ever ails
+me. Why do you ask?' But I evaded this question, for I knew Max hated to
+be watched; and, after all, what right had I to intrude into his private
+anxieties? doubtless he had plenty of these, like other men. The
+management of a large parish was on his shoulders, and he was too
+conscientious and hard-working to spare himself; but somehow the shadow
+lying deep down in Max's honest brown eyes haunted me as I unlatched the
+cottage door.</p>
+
+<p>I heard Nathaniel's voice in the kitchen, and went in to bid him and his
+mother good-night. Mrs. Barton was not there, however, but, to my
+chagrin, Mr. Hamilton occupied her seat. He looked up with a rather
+quizzical glance as I entered: he and Nathaniel had the round table
+between them, strewn with books and papers; Nathaniel was writing, and
+Mr. Hamilton was sitting opposite to him.</p>
+
+<p>'I beg your pardon,' I said hurriedly. 'I thought Mrs. Barton was here.'</p>
+
+<p>'She has gone to bed,' returned Mr. Hamilton coolly: 'my friend Nathaniel
+and I are hard at work, as you see. Do you know anything of mathematics,
+Miss Garston?&mdash;no, you shake your head&mdash;' I do not know what more he
+would have said, but I escaped with a quick good-night.</p>
+
+<p>As I went upstairs I made a resolution to avoid the kitchen in future:
+I might at any moment stumble upon Mr. Hamilton. I had forgotten that he
+gave Nathaniel lessons sometimes in the evening. What a ubiquitous mortal
+this man appeared, here, there, and everywhere! It had given me rather a
+shock to see him so comfortably domiciled in Mrs. Barton's cosy kitchen;
+he looked as much at home there as in Uncle Max's study. How bright
+Nathaniel had looked as he raised his head to bid me good-night! I was
+obliged to confess that they had seemed as happy as possible.</p>
+
+<p>It was very late when he left the cottage; I was just sinking off to
+sleep when I heard his voice under my window. Tinker heard it too, and
+barked, and then the gate shut with a sudden sharp click and all was
+still. Nathaniel must have crept up to bed in his stocking-feet, as they
+say in some parts, for I never heard him pass my door.</p>
+
+<p>I was glad to be greeted by sunshine the next morning; the day seemed to
+smile on my new work like an unuttered benison, as I went down to my
+solitary breakfast. I resolved that nothing Mr. Hamilton could say should
+damp or put me out of temper, and then I sat down and read a sad rambling
+letter from Jill, which was so quaint and original, in spite of its
+lugubriousness, that it made me smile.</p>
+
+<p>I was standing by the door, caressing Tinker, who was in a frolicking
+mood this morning, when I saw Mr. Hamilton cross the road; he wore a dark
+tweed suit and a soft felt hat,&mdash;a costume that did not suit him in the
+least; he held open the gate for me, and made a sign that I should join
+him. As I approached without hurrying myself in the least, he looked
+inquiringly at the basket I carried.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope you do not intend to pauperise your patients,' was his first
+greeting.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no,' was my reply, but I did not volunteer any information as to the
+contents of the basket. There was certainly a jar of beef-tea that Mrs.
+Drabble had given me, and a few grapes; but the little store of soap,
+soda, fine rags, and the two or three clean towels and cloths would have
+surprised him a little, though he might have understood the meaning of
+the neat housewife.</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad you wear print dresses,' was his next remark; 'they are proper
+for a nurse. Stuff gowns that do not wash are abominations. I am taking
+you to a very dirty place, Miss Garston, but what can you expect when
+there are seven children under thirteen years of age and the mother is
+dying? She was a clean capable body when she was up; it is hard for her
+to see the place like a pig-sty now. Old Mrs. Marshall is blind, and as
+helpless as the children,' He spoke abruptly, but not without feeling.</p>
+
+<p>'The neighbours are good to them, Uncle Max tells me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; they come in and tidy up a bit, that is their expression; now
+and then they wash the baby or take off a batch of dirty clothes, but
+they have their own homes and children. I tell my patient that she would
+be far more comfortable in a hospital; but she says she cannot leave the
+children, she would rather die at home. That is what they all say.'</p>
+
+<p>'But the poor creatures mean what they say, Mr. Hamilton.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but it is all nonsense!' he returned irritably. 'She can do nothing
+for the children; she cannot have a moment's quiet or a moment's comfort,
+with all those grimy noisy creatures rushing in and out. I found her
+sitting up in bed yesterday, in danger of breaking a blood-vessel through
+coughing, because one of the imps had fallen down and cut his head and
+she was trying to plaster it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Her husband ought to be with her,' I said, somewhat indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>'He is on a job somewhere, and cannot come home; they must have bread
+to eat, and he must work. This is the house,' pointing to a low white
+cottage at the end of a long straggling street of similar houses; two or
+three untidy-looking children were playing in the front garden with some
+oyster-shells and a wooden horse without a head. One little white-headed
+urchin clapped his hands when he saw Mr. Hamilton, and a pretty little
+girl with a very dirty face ran up to him and clasped him round the knee.</p>
+
+<p>''As 'oo any pennies to-day?' she lisped.</p>
+
+<p>'No nonsense; run away, children,' he said, in a rough voice that did not
+in the least alarm them, for they scampered after us into the porch until
+an elder girl, with a year-old baby in her arms, met us on the threshold
+and scolded them away.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton shook a big stick at them.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall give no pennies to children with dirty faces. Well, Peggy, how
+is mother? Have the boys gone to school, both of them? That is right.
+This is the lady who is coming to look after mother.'</p>
+
+<p>Here Peggy dropped a courtesy, and said, 'Yes, sir,' and 'yes please,
+mum.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mind you do all she tells you. Now out of my way. I want to speak to
+your grandmother a moment, and then I will come into the other room.'</p>
+
+<p>I followed him into the untidy, miserable looking kitchen. An old woman
+was sitting by the fire with an infant in her arms; we found out that it
+belonged to the neighbour who was washing out some things in the yard.
+She came in by and by, clattering over the stones in her thick clogs,&mdash;a
+brisk, untidy-looking young woman,&mdash;and looked at me curiously as she
+took her baby.</p>
+
+<p>'I must be going home now, granny,' she said, in a loud, good-humoured
+voice. 'Peggy can rinse out the few things I've left.'</p>
+
+<p>Granny had a pleasant, weather-beaten face, only it looked sunken and
+pale, and the poor blind eyes had a pathetic, unseeing look in them. To
+my surprise, she looked neat and clean. I had yet to learn the slow
+martyrdom the poor soul had endured during the last few months in that
+squalid, miserable household. To her, cleanliness was next to godliness.
+She had brought up a large family well and thriftily, and now in her old
+age and helplessness her life had no comfort in it. I was rather
+surprised to see Mr. Hamilton shake the wrinkled hand heartily.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Elspeth, what news of your son? Is he likely to come home soon?'</p>
+
+<p>'Nay, doctor,' in a faint old treble: 'Andrew cannot leave his job for
+two or three months to come. He is terrible down-hearted about poor Mary.
+Ay, she has been a good wife to him and the bairns; but look at her now!
+Poor thing! Poor thing!'</p>
+
+<p>'We must all dree our weird. You are a canny Scotch-woman, and know what
+that means. Come, you must cheer up, for I have brought a young lady with
+me who is going to put your daughter-in-law a little more comfortable and
+see after her from time to time.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, but that is cheering news,' returned Elspeth; and one of the rare
+tears of old age stole down her withered cheek. 'My poor Mary! she is
+patient, and never complains; but the good Lord is laying a heavy cross
+on her.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is true,' muttered Mr. Hamilton, and then he said, in a
+business-like tone, 'Now for the patient, Miss Garston'; and as he led
+the way across the narrow passage we could hear the hard, gasping cough
+of the sick woman.</p>
+
+<p>Peggy, with the baby still in her arms, was trying to stir a black,
+cindery fire, that was filling the room with smoke. The child was crying,
+and the poor invalid was sitting up in bed nearly suffocated by her
+cough. The great four-post bed blocked up the little window. The remains
+of a meal were still on the big round table. Some clothes were drying by
+the hearth; a thin tortoise-shell cat was licking up a stream of milk
+that was filtering slowly across the floor, in the midst of jugs, cans,
+a broken broom, some children's toys, and two or three boots. The bed
+looked as though it had not been made for days; the quilt and valance
+were deplorably dirty; but the poor creature herself looked neat and
+clean, and her hair was drawn off from her sunken cheeks and knotted
+carefully at the back of her head. Mr. Hamilton uttered an exclamation
+of impatience when he saw the smoke, and almost snatched the poker out
+of Peggy's hands.</p>
+
+<p>'Take the child away,' he said angrily. 'Miss Garston, if you can find
+some paper and wood in this infernal confusion, I shall be obliged to
+you: this smoke must be stopped.'</p>
+
+<p>I found the broken lid of a box that split up like tinder, and Peggy
+brought me an old newspaper, and then I stood by while Mr. Hamilton
+skilfully manipulated the miserable fire.</p>
+
+<p>'All these ashes must be removed,' he said curtly, as he rose with
+blackened hands: 'the whole fireplace is blocked up with them.' And then
+he went to the pump and washed his hands, while I sent Peggy after him
+with a nice clean towel from my basket. While he was gone I stepped up
+to the bed and said a word or two to poor Mrs. Marshall.</p>
+
+<p>She must have been a comely creature in her days of health, but she was
+fearfully wasted now. The disease was evidently running its course; as
+she lay there exhausted and panting, I knew her lease of life would not
+be long.</p>
+
+<p>'It was the smoke,' she panted. 'Peggy is young: she muddles over the
+fire. Last night it went out, and she was near an hour getting it to
+light.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is burning beautifully now,' I returned; and then Mr. Hamilton came
+back and began to examine his patient, professionally. I was surprised
+to find that his abrupt manner left him; he spoke to Mrs. Marshall so
+gently, and with such evident sympathy, that I could hardly believe it
+was the same person; her wan face seemed to light up with gratitude; but
+when he turned to me to give some directions for her treatment he spoke
+with his old dryness.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall be here about the same time to-morrow,' he finished; and then he
+nodded to us both, and went away.</p>
+
+<p>'Mrs. Marshall,' I said, as I warmed the beef-tea with some difficulty in
+a small broken pipkin, 'do you know of any strong capable girls who would
+clean up the place a little for me?'</p>
+
+<p>'There is Weatherley's eldest girl Hope still at home,' she replied,
+after a moment's hesitation, 'but her mother will not let her work
+without pay. She is a poor sort of neighbour, is Susan Weatherley, and
+is very niggardly in helping people.'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course I should pay Hope,' I answered decidedly; and when the
+beef-tea was ready I called Peggy and sent her on my errand. One glance
+at the place showed me that I could do nothing for my patient without
+help. Happily, I had seen some sheets drying by the kitchen fire, but
+they would hardly be ready for us before the evening; but when Mrs.
+Marshall had taken her beef-tea I covered her up and tried to smooth the
+untidy quilt. Then, telling her that we were going to make her room a
+little more comfortable, I pinned up my dress and enveloped myself in a
+holland apron ready for work.</p>
+
+<p>Peggy came back at this moment with a big, strapping girl of sixteen, who
+looked strong and willing. She was evidently not a woman of words, but
+she grinned cheerful acquiescence when I set her to work on the grate,
+while I cleared the table and carried out all the miscellaneous articles
+that littered the floor.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Marshall watched us with astonished eyes. 'Oh dear! oh dear!' I
+heard her say to herself, 'and a lady too!' but I took no notice.</p>
+
+<p>I sent Hope once or twice across to her mother for various articles we
+needed,&mdash;black lead, a scrubbing-brush, some house flannel and soft
+soap,&mdash;and when she had finished the grate I set her to scrub the floor,
+as it was black with dirt. I was afraid of the damp boards for my
+patient, but I covered her up as carefully as possible, and pinned some
+old window-curtains across the bed. Neglect and want of cleanliness had
+made the air of the sick-room so fetid and poisonous that one could
+hardly breath it with safety.</p>
+
+<p>Now and then I looked in the other room and spoke a cheerful word to
+granny. Peggy was doing her best for the children, but the poor baby
+seemed very fretful. Towards noon two rough-headed boys made their
+appearance and began clamouring for their dinner. The same untidy young
+woman whom I had seen before came clattering up the yard again in her
+clogs and helped Peggy spread great slices of bread and treacle for the
+hungry children, and warmed some food for the baby. I saw granny trying
+to eat a piece of bread and dripping that they gave her and then lay it
+down without a word: no wonder her poor cheeks were so white and sunken.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Drabble had promised me some more beef-tea, so I warmed a cupful for
+granny and broke up a slice of stale bread in it: it was touching to see
+her enjoyment of the warm food. The eldest boy, Tim, was nearly eleven
+years old, and looked a sharp little fellow, so I set him to clean up the
+kitchen with Peggy and make things a little tidier, and promised some
+buns to all the children who had clean faces and hands at tea-time.</p>
+
+<p>I left Hope still at work when I went up to the White Cottage to eat some
+dinner. Mrs. Barton had made a delicate custard-pudding, which I carried
+off for the invalid's and granny's supper. My young healthy appetite
+needed no tempting, and my morning's work had only whetted it. I did not
+linger long in my pretty parlour, for a heavy task was before me. I was
+determined the sick-room should have a different appearance the next
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>I sent Hope to her dinner while I washed and made my patient comfortable.
+The room felt fresher and sweeter already; a bright fire burned in the
+polished grate; Hope had scoured the table and wiped the chairs, and the
+dirty quilt and valance had been sent to Mrs. Weatherley's to be washed.
+When Hope returned, and the sheets were aired, we re-made the bed. I had
+sent a message early to Mrs. Drabble begging for some of the lending
+blankets and a clean coloured quilt, which she had sent down by a boy.
+The scarlet cover looked so warm and snug that I stood still to admire
+the effect; poor Mary fairly cried when I laid her back on her pillow.</p>
+
+<p>'It feels all so clean and heavenly,' she sobbed; 'it is just a comfort
+to lie and see the room.'</p>
+
+<p>'I mean granny to come and have her tea here,' I said, for I was longing
+for the dear old woman to have her share of some of the comfort; and I
+had just led her in and put her in the big shiny chair by the fire, when
+Uncle Max put his head in and looked at us.</p>
+
+<p>'Just so,' he said, nodding his head, and a pleased expression came into
+his eyes. 'Bravo, Ursula! Tudor won't know the place again. How you must
+have worked, child!' And then he came in and talked to the sick woman.</p>
+
+<p>I had taken a cup of tea standing, for I was determined not to go home
+and rest until I left for the night. I could not forget the poor fretful
+baby, and, indeed, all the children were miserably neglected. I made up
+my mind that Hope and I would wash the poor little creatures and put them
+comfortably to bed. My first day's work was certainly exceptionally hard,
+but it would make my future work easier.</p>
+
+<p>The baby was a pale, delicate little creature, very backward for its age;
+it left off fretting directly I took it in my lap, and began staring at
+me with its large blue eyes. Hope had just filled the large tub, and the
+children were crowding round it with evident amusement, when Uncle Max
+came in. He contemplated the scene with twinkling eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'"There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,"' he began humorously. 'My
+dear Ursula, do you mean to say you are going to wash all those children?
+The tub looks suggestive, certainly.'</p>
+
+<p>I nodded.</p>
+
+<p>'Who would have believed in such an overplus of energy? Hard work
+certainly agrees with you.' And then he went out laughing, and we set to
+work, and then Hope and I carried in the children by detachments, that
+the poor mother might see the clean rosy faces. I am afraid we had to
+bribe Jock, the youngest boy, for he evidently disliked soap and water.</p>
+
+<p>Peggy and the baby slept in the mother's room; there was a little bed in
+the corner for them. I did not leave until granny had been taken upstairs
+and poor tired Peggy was fast asleep with the baby beside her.</p>
+
+<p>The room looked so comfortable when I turned for a last peep. I had drawn
+the round table to the bed, and left the night-light and cooling drink
+beside the sick woman; she was propped up with pillows, and her breathing
+seemed easier. When I bade her good-night, and told her I should be round
+early in the morning, she said, 'Then it will be the first morning I
+shall not dread to wake. Thank you kindly, dear miss, for all you have
+done'; and her soft brown eyes looked at me gratefully.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FLAG OF TRUCE</h3>
+
+
+<p>It could not be denied that I was extremely tired as I walked down the
+dark road; but in spite of fatigue my heart felt lighter than it had done
+since Charlie's death, and the warm glow from the window of my little
+parlour seemed to welcome me, it looked so snug and bright. My low chair
+was drawn to the fire, a sort of tea-supper was awaiting me, and Mrs.
+Barton came out of the kitchen as soon as I had lifted the latch, to ask
+what she could do for me.</p>
+
+<p>The first words surprised me greatly. Mr. Hamilton had called late in the
+afternoon, and had seemed somewhat surprised to hear I was still at the
+cottage, but he had left no message, and Mrs. Barton had no idea what he
+wanted with me.</p>
+
+<p>I was half inclined to think that he had another case ready for me, but
+I had done my day's work and refused to think of the morrow. The first
+volume of <i>Kingsley's Life</i> was lying on the little table: I had brought
+it from the vicarage the preceding evening. I passed a delicious hour in
+my luxurious chair, and went to bed reluctantly that I might be fit for
+the next day's fatigue.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as I had breakfasted the next morning and read my letters, a
+chatty one from Sara and an affectionate note from Lesbia, I went down
+to the cottage.</p>
+
+<p>I found my patient a little easier; she had passed a better night, and
+seemed, on the whole, more cheerful. Hope had arrived, and was scrubbing
+the kitchen, as I had enjoined her. Baby seemed poorly and fretful. I
+gave her in charge of Peggy, and set myself to the work of putting my
+patient and the sick-room in order, after which I intended to wash the
+baby and see after granny's and the children's dinner.</p>
+
+<p>I had just brushed up the hearth and put the kettle to boil, when Mr.
+Hamilton's shadow crossed the window, and the next moment he was in the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>I was sure that a half-smile of approbation came to his lips as he
+looked round the room; he lifted his eyebrows as though in surprise as
+he noticed everything,&mdash;the neat hearth, white boards, and bright window,
+and lastly the comfortable appearance of the bed, with its scarlet quilt
+and clean sheets.</p>
+
+<p>'This is quite a transformation-scene, Miss Garston,' he said, in an
+approving tone. 'No wonder you were not at home in the afternoon. My
+patient looks cheery too: one would think I had set the fairy Order to
+work.' I felt that this was meant for high praise, and I received it
+graciously. I knew I had worked well and achieved wonders; but then I had
+Hope's strong arms to help me: it had been straightforward work, too,
+with no complication: any charwoman could have done it as well. I was
+sorry that his commendation set Mrs. Marshall's tongue going; she became
+so voluble, in spite of her cough, that I was obliged to enforce silence.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton's visit was very brief. I asked him to prescribe for the
+baby, but he said nothing ailed it in particular; it had always been
+sickly, and had been so neglected of late, most likely sour food had been
+given it. Mrs. Tyler, the next-door neighbour, who had looked after it,
+was a thoughtless body. 'You must take it in hand yourself, Miss
+Garston,' he finished; 'keep it warm and clean, and see the food properly
+prepared: that will be better than any medicine.' And then he went off
+with his usual abruptness, only I saw him stop at the gate to give
+pennies to Janie and little Jock.</p>
+
+<p>There was still so much to do that I determined to spend the whole day at
+the cottage. I sent off all the dirty things for Mrs. Tyler to wash at
+home, for she was so noisy and untidy that I did not care to have her on
+the premises, and I thought granny could sit in Mrs. Marshall's room and
+hold baby while Peggy waited on me and ran errands.</p>
+
+<p>Hope worked splendidly: when she had scoured the kitchen and front
+passage, she went upstairs and scrubbed the two rooms where granny and
+the children slept. I had made a potato pie with some scraps of meat
+Peggy had brought from the butcher's, and had seen the dish emptied by
+the hungry children. When I had fed the sandy cat and had had my own
+dinner, which Mrs. Barton had packed in a nice clean basket, and had
+peeped at my patient, I went upstairs to help Hope, and Peggy went
+with me. The state of the sleeping-rooms had horrified me in the morning;
+the windows had evidently not been open for weeks, and the sheets on
+granny's bed were black with dirt. Hope had washed the bedstead, and
+Peggy had lighted a fire, that the room might be habitable by night. Tim
+came up while we were busy, and stared at us. I was helping Peggy drag
+the mattresses and bedclothes into the passage. The open windows and the
+wet boards reeking with soft soap evidently astonished him.</p>
+
+<p>'Where be us to sleep to-night?' quoth Tim; 'it is colder than in the
+yard.' But Peggy, who was excited by her work, bade him hold his tongue
+and not stand gaping there blocking up the passage.</p>
+
+<p>I had been singing over my work, just to put heart into all of us and
+make us forget what a very disagreeable business it was, when Tim again
+made his appearance and said there was a gentleman in the kitchen. 'He
+thought he knowed him, but wasn't sure, but he had asked for the lady.'
+I went down at once, and found it was Mr. Tudor; he was sitting very
+comfortably by the fire, with all the children round him; little Janie
+was on his knee; her face was clean, and her pretty curls had been nicely
+brushed, so I did not mind her cuddling up to him, and I knew he was fond
+of children and always ready to play with them.</p>
+
+<p>He put her down and shook hands with me, and said the vicar had sent him
+to look after me, as he could not come himself. I thought he looked a
+little amused at my appearance; and no wonder. I had quite forgotten that
+I had tied a handkerchief over my head to keep the dust from off my hair;
+with my holland bib-apron and sleeves, and pinned-up dress, I must have
+looked an odd figure; but when I said so he laughed, and observed that he
+rather admired my novel costume: it reminded him of a Highland peasant he
+had once seen.</p>
+
+<p>'Was that you who were singing just now, Miss Garston?' he asked
+presently, looking at me with some attention.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' I returned. 'You seem surprised. Surely you have heard me sing at
+Hyde Park Gate?' But he shook his head very decidedly.</p>
+
+<p>'I should not have forgotten your voice if I had once heard it,' he said,
+in such a pleasant manner that the straightforward compliment did not
+embarrass me. 'You ought not to let such a talent rust, Miss Garston: the
+vicar must utilise you for our Penny Readings.'</p>
+
+<p>I was horrified at this notion, and told him very seriously that nothing
+would induce me to sing on a platform, but that it was not my intention
+to let it rust, only I had my own ideas how best to utilise it.</p>
+
+<p>He looked curious at this, but I changed the subject by asking him if he
+would like to see Mrs. Marshall. He hesitated, coloured slightly as
+though the question were distasteful, then he put down Janie from his
+knee,&mdash;for the child had clambered up again,&mdash;and said the vicar had
+undertaken the case, as he was rather new to the work, but he would see
+her if I wished it.</p>
+
+<p>I was provoking enough to say that I did wish it, for I wanted him to
+see the comfortable appearance of the room that he so dreaded to enter.
+I felt sorry for Mr. Tudor in my heart that his work should be so
+distasteful to him: he was a fine, manly young fellow, who would have
+made a splendid sailor or soldier, but sick-rooms and old women were not
+to his taste, and yet he was very gentle and sympathising in his manners,
+and all the poor people liked him.</p>
+
+<p>Granny was dozing by the fire, and the baby was asleep on the mother's
+bed, and as I opened the door I quite enjoyed Mr. Tudor's start of
+astonishment at the changed scene. I did not let him stay long, but I
+thought his kind looks and pleasant voice would cheer poor Mary. He said
+very little to either her or Elspeth, but what he said was sensible and
+to the point.</p>
+
+<p>I sent him away after this, for my work was waiting for me. He went off
+laughing, and protesting that he had no idea that I had taken up the
+<i>r&ocirc;le</i> of a charitable charwoman, and that the vicar would remonstrate
+with me on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>I think we all felt the brighter for Mr. Tudor's little visit, though he
+had said nothing specially clever; but he was an honest, genial creature,
+and I liked him thoroughly. I stopped at the cottage late that evening,
+for Mrs. Marshall wanted a letter written to her husband, and I could not
+refuse to do it. I was almost too tired to enjoy Kingsley that night, and
+found myself dozing over it, so I shut it up and went to bed.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton did not make his appearance until later the next day, when
+I was presiding over the children's dinner. I had just carried in a plate
+of lentil soup to granny, whom I now kept entirely in the sick-room, as
+she was too old to bear the children's noise, and the constant draughts
+from the opening door would soon have laid her on a sick-bed. I had baby
+in my lap, and was feeding her when he looked in on us.</p>
+
+<p>I rose at once to follow him into the sick-room, but he waved me back.</p>
+
+<p>'Do not disturb yourself, Miss Garston; you all look very comfortable.
+Jock, are you trying to swallow that spoon? You will find it a hard
+morsel.' And then he went into the other room, and, to my surprise, we
+did not see him again.</p>
+
+<p>I left a little earlier that evening, as I knew Uncle Max meant to pay me
+a visit; but it was already dark when I closed the little gate behind me.
+I had not gone many paces when I heard footsteps behind me, and, somewhat
+to my dismay, Mr. Hamilton joined me.</p>
+
+<p>'Have you only just finished your day's work?' he said, in evident
+surprise. 'This will never do, Miss Garston; we shall have you knocking
+yourself up if you use up your time and strength so recklessly, and I
+want you for another case.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am quite prepared for that,' I answered; but I am afraid my voice was
+a little weary. 'You called on me yesterday, Mr. Hamilton. I was sorry to
+be out, but there was so much to do that I stayed at the cottage until
+quite late in the evening.'</p>
+
+<p>'Just so,' in rather a vexed tone. 'The village nurse will be on a
+sick-bed herself if this goes on.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, what nonsense!' I returned, laughing, for I forgot for the moment in
+the darkness that I was speaking to the formidable Mr. Hamilton. 'I do
+not always mean to work quite so hard. Mr. Tudor called me a charitable
+charwoman last evening; but this is an exceptional case,&mdash;so many
+helpless beings, and such shocking mismanagement and neglect. When I put
+things on a proper footing I shall not spend so much time there.'</p>
+
+<p>'What do you mean by putting things on a proper footing?' he asked, with
+some show of interest.</p>
+
+<p>'When the place has been properly cleaned it will be kept tolerably tidy
+with less labour. Hope Weatherley has been hard at work for two days, and
+things are now pretty comfortable.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose&mdash;excuse me if the question seems impertinent, but I imagine
+that you paid Hope out of your own purse?'</p>
+
+<p>'For those two days, certainly. It was necessary for my own comfort,
+speaking selfishly, that the place should be made habitable. My nursing
+would have been a mere mockery unless we could have got rid of the dirt,'</p>
+
+<p>'You are perfectly right. I had no idea you were such a practical person.
+But, if you will allow me to give you a hint, Marshall earns good wages,
+and there ought to be sufficient money to pay for a moderate amount of
+help.'</p>
+
+<p>'I told Mrs. Marshall so this morning,' I returned, pleased to find
+myself talking with such ease to Mr. Hamilton; but he seemed quite
+different to-night; evidently his <i>brusquerie</i> was a mere mannerism that
+he laid aside at times; he had lost that sneering manner that I so much
+disliked. I remembered Uncle Max said that he was kind-hearted and
+eccentric.</p>
+
+<p>'We had a long talk,' I went on. 'Marshall sends the money regularly, and
+I am to manage it. Mrs. Tyler is to wash for us, and I think we can
+afford to have Hope for at least an hour a day, to do the rough work;
+Peggy is so little to do everything.'</p>
+
+<p>'Heaven help poor Peg!' he ejaculated; 'for she will soon have all those
+children on her hands. Mrs. Marshall cannot last long. Well, Miss
+Garston, how many hours do you intend to spend at the cottage daily?'</p>
+
+<p>'I should think two hours in the morning and an hour and a half in the
+late afternoon or evening might do, unless there be a change for the
+worse, or Elspeth falls ill; she is very old and feeble.'</p>
+
+<p>'She was half starved, poor old creature,&mdash;fairly clemmed, as they say
+in the North. Here we are at your place, Miss Garston. How bright and
+inviting your parlour looks! I wonder if I may ask to come in for a few
+minutes, while I tell you about the other case?'</p>
+
+<p>Of course I could not do less than invite him to enter, after that; but
+I am afraid my manner lacked enthusiasm, and betrayed the fact that I was
+unwilling to entertain Mr. Hamilton as a guest, for when I saw his face
+in the lamplight he was regarding me with some amusement.</p>
+
+<p>'Cunliffe has done me no end of mischief,' he said, as he offered to
+relieve me of my wraps: 'that unfortunate speech has strongly prejudiced
+you against me. Confess, now, you think me a very disagreeable person,
+because I happened to disagree with you that evening.'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly not on that account,' I returned, falling into the trap; and
+then we both laughed, for I had as good as owned that I thought him
+disagreeable. That laugh made us better friends. I felt I no longer
+disliked him: it was certainly not his fault that Providence had given
+him that type of face, and I supposed one could get used to it.</p>
+
+<p>'I was in an evil mood that afternoon,' he went on, and then I knew
+instinctively that he wanted to efface his satirical words from my
+memory. 'Things had gone wrong somehow,&mdash;for this world of ours is a
+mighty muddle sometimes.' And here he gave an impatient sigh. 'It is a
+relief to human nature to vent one's spleen on the first handy person
+that crosses one's path, and, pardon me for saying so, you were just a
+little aggressive yourself,' looking at me rather dubiously, as though
+he were not quite sure how I should take this hit. My conscience told me
+that I had been far from peaceable; on the contrary, I had been decidedly
+cross; not that I would confess that this was the case, so I only
+returned mildly that I considered that he had been hard on me that day,
+and had handled my pet theory very roughly.</p>
+
+<p>'Come, now you are talking like a reasonable woman, and I will plead
+guilty to some severity. Let me own that I distrusted you, Miss Garston.
+I have a horror of gush, and what I call the working mania of young
+ladies, and you had not proved to me then that you could work. At the
+present day, if a girl is restless and bad-tempered, and cannot get on
+with her own people, she takes up hospital-nursing, and a rare muddle she
+makes of it sometimes. I own hospital work is better than the convent of
+the Middle Ages, where the troublesome young ladies were safely immured;
+but, as I said before, I distrust the hysterical restlessness of the
+age.'</p>
+
+<p>'No doubt you have a fair amount of argument on your side,' I replied,
+so meekly that he looked at me, and then got up from his chair and said
+hastily that I was tired, and he was thoughtless to keep me waiting for
+my tea.</p>
+
+<p>'Let me give you some, while you tell me about the case,' was my
+hospitable reply; for, though I felt no special desire to prolong our
+<i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i>, mere civility prompted my offer.</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated, then, to my surprise, sat down again, and said he would be
+very much obliged if I would give him a cup of tea, as he was tired too,
+and had to go farther and keep his dinner waiting.</p>
+
+<p>I went out of the room to remove my hat and speak to Mrs. Barton. When
+I came back he was standing before Charlie's photograph, and evidently
+studying it with some attention, but he made no remark about it; and I
+told him of my own accord that it was the portrait of my twin-brother,
+who had died two years ago.</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed! There is no likeness; at least I should not have known it was
+your brother. This is often the case between relations,' he continued
+hastily, as though he feared he had hurt me. 'What a snug little berth
+you have, Miss Garston, and everything so ship-shape too! I suppose that
+is your piano; but I am afraid you will have little time to practise.'
+And then, as I handed him his tea, he threw himself down in the
+easy-chair and seemed prepared to enjoy himself.</p>
+
+<p>Looking at Mr. Hamilton this evening, I could have believed he had two
+sides to his character: he presented such a complete contrast to the Mr.
+Hamilton in Uncle Max's study that I was quite puzzled by it. He had
+certainly a clever face, and his smile was quick and bright; it was only
+in rest that his mouth looked so stern and hard. I found myself wondering
+once or twice if he had known any great trouble that had embittered him.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I must tell you about poor Phoebe Locke,' he began suddenly. 'I
+want you to find out what you can do for her. The Lockes are respectable
+people: Phoebe and her sister were dressmakers. They live a little lower
+down,&mdash;at Woodbine Cottage.</p>
+
+<p>'Some years ago spinal disease came on, and now Phoebe is bedridden. She
+suffers a good deal at times, but her worst trouble is that her nerves
+are disordered, most likely from the dulness and monotony of her life.
+She suffers cruelly from low spirits; and no wonder, lying all day in
+that dull little back room. Her sister cannot sit with her, as Phoebe
+cannot bear the noise of the sewing-machine, and the sight of the outer
+world seems to irritate her. The neighbours would come in to cheer her
+up, but she does not seem able to bear their loud voices. It is
+wonderful,' he continued musingly, 'how education and refinement train
+the voice: strange to say, though my voice is not particularly low, and
+certainly not sweet, it never seems to jar upon her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very likely not,' I returned quickly; 'no doubt she depends upon you for
+all her comforts: to most invalids the doctor's visit is the one bright
+spot in the day.'</p>
+
+<p>'It seems strange that we do not project our own shadows sometimes, and
+make our patient shiver,' he said, with a touch of gruffness. 'It is
+little that I can do for Phoebe, except order her a blister or ice when
+she needs it. One cannot touch the real nervous suffering: there is where
+I look to you for help; a little cheerful talk now and then may lighten
+her burden. Anyhow, it would be a help for poor Miss Locke, who has a sad
+time of it trying to earn food for them both. There is a little niece
+who lives with them, a subdued, uncanny little creature, who looks as
+though the childhood were crushed out of her; you might take her in hand
+too.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder if Phoebe would like me to sing to her,' I observed quietly.
+'I have found it answer sometimes in nervous illnesses.'</p>
+
+<p>I thought my remark surprised him.</p>
+
+<p>'It is a good idea,' he said slowly. 'You might try it. Of course it
+would depend a great deal on the quality of voice and style of singing.
+I wonder if you would allow me to judge of this,'&mdash;looking meaningly at
+the piano; but I shook my head at this, and he did not press the point.</p>
+
+<p>We had very little talk after this, for he went away almost directly,
+first arranging to meet me at Mrs. Marshall's about four the next day and
+go with me to Woodbine Cottage.</p>
+
+<p>'You will find plenty of work, Miss Garston,' were his final words, 'so
+do not waste your strength unnecessarily.' And then he left the room, but
+came back a moment afterwards to say that his sisters meant to call on
+me, only they thought I was hardly settled yet: 'we must get Mr. Cunliffe
+to bring you up to Gladwyn: we must not let you mope.'</p>
+
+<p>I thought there was little chance of this, with Uncle Max and Mr. Tudor
+always looking after me. Mr. Hamilton had hardly closed the door before
+Uncle Max opened it again.</p>
+
+<p>'So the enemy has tasted bread and salt, Ursula,' he said, looking
+excessively pleased: 'that is right, my dear: do not give way to absurd
+prejudices. You and Hamilton will get on splendidly by and by, when you
+get used to his brusque manner.' And, though I did not quite endorse this
+opinion, I was obliged to acknowledge to myself that the last half-hour
+had not been so unpleasant after all.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>A DIFFICULT PATIENT</h3>
+
+
+<p>I had a little talk with granny the next day.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Marshall was dozing uneasily, and I was sitting by granny, nursing
+the baby, and waiting for Mr. Hamilton, when I felt her cold wrinkled
+hand laid on mine.</p>
+
+<p>'What is it, Elspeth?' I asked, thinking she wanted something.</p>
+
+<p>'What put it in your head, my bairn, to do the Lord's work? that is what
+I am wanting to know. I have been listening to you this morning singing
+like a bird about the house, with all the bit creatures chirping about
+you, and I said to myself, "What could have put it into her head to leave
+all her fine friends, and come and wait on the likes of us old and sick
+folk and young bairns?"'</p>
+
+<p>I do not know what there was in this speech that made me cry, but I
+know I had some difficulty in answering, but I told her a little about
+Charlie, and how sad I was, and how I loved the work, and she patted my
+hand softly all the time.</p>
+
+<p>'Never fret, my bairn. You will not be lonely long: the Lord will see to
+that. He would not let you work for Him and do nothing for you in return.
+Nay, that is not His way. Look at me: as doctor said the other day, I
+have dreed my weird; few and evil have been my days, like Jacob, but here
+I sit like a lady by the fire, warm and comfortable and hearty, thank
+God; and Andrew's wife lies on her death-bed, poor woman.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but, Elspeth, you sit there in the dark.'</p>
+
+<p>'Eh, but it is peaceful and quiet-like, and the Lord bides with me, "and
+darkness and light are both alike to him,"' finished Elspeth reverently.
+And then I heard the click of the gate, and rose hastily, only the baby
+cried as I laid her on Elspeth's lap, and I had to stay a moment to
+pacify her.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton came in and stood by us.</p>
+
+<p>'Do not hurry yourself; I can easily wait a few minutes if you are not
+ready. Are you sure you are not too tired to come?' he continued, looking
+at me a little inquisitively, and I was certain that he noticed the trace
+of tears on my face. Why was it I never could speak of my darling quite
+calmly?</p>
+
+<p>'I am perfectly ready, and baby has left off crying,' I returned, taking
+up my basket, and then we left the house together.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope you do not suffer from low spirits, like the rest of us,' he
+said, in rather a kind tone, as we walked on. 'It is to be expected that
+a cross-grained fellow like myself should have fits of the blues
+occasionally. That is one thing I particularly admire about Cunliffe!
+however worried he is, one never sees him out of humour; his ups and
+downs are never perceptible. I do believe he is less selfish than other
+people.'</p>
+
+<p>'There is no one like Uncle Max,' I rejoined fervently.</p>
+
+<p>'Is it not odd that we should suit each other so well?' he asked
+presently, 'for we are complete contrasts. I can bear him to say things
+to me that I would knock any other fellow down for saying. That is why I
+let him preach to me, because he honestly believes what he says and tries
+to act up to his profession.' He broke off here, for by this time we had
+reached Woodbine Cottage, and he unlatched the gate for me.</p>
+
+<p>A thin-faced child with a cropped head and clean white pinafore opened
+the door, and dropped an alarmed courtesy when she saw us.</p>
+
+<p>'Please sir, Aunt Susan is out, and Aunt Phoebe is very bad this
+afternoon, and cannot see any one. She is lying in the dark, and I was
+to let none of the neighbours in while Aunt Susan was away.'</p>
+
+<p>'All right, Kitty; but Aunt Phoebe will see me.' And he walked into the
+passage, and told the child to close the door gently. The room we passed
+was strewn with work-material, and looked cold and comfortless, but a
+small kitchen opposite had a warm cosy aspect. Mr. Hamilton passed both
+rooms and tapped at a door lower down the passage, and then without
+waiting for an answer entered, and beckoned me to follow him.</p>
+
+<p>A dark curtain had been drawn across the window, and the dim glow of a
+cindery fire scarcely gave sufficient light to discern the different
+pieces of furniture. Mr. Hamilton gave vent to a suppressed exclamation
+of impatience as he seized the poker, but I could not but notice the
+skilful and almost noiseless manner in which he manipulated the coals.
+Then he looked round for a match, and lighted a candle on the
+mantelpiece, in spite of a peevish remonstrance from the patient.</p>
+
+<p>'You will make my head worse, doctor: nothing but the dark eases it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense, Phoebe! I know better than that,' he returned cheerfully,
+and then he stepped up to the bed, and I followed him. The woman who
+lay there was still young in years, she could not have been more than
+three- or four-and-thirty, but every semblance of youth was crushed out
+of her by some subtile and mysterious suffering; it might have been the
+face of a dead woman, only for the living eyes that looked at us.</p>
+
+<p>The hopeless wistful look in those eyes gave me a singular shock. I had
+never seen human eyes with the same expression; they seemed as though
+they were appealing against some awful destiny. Once when Charlie and
+I were staying at Rutherford a beautiful spaniel belonging to Lesbia had
+been accidentally shot while straying in some wood. The poor animal had
+dragged himself with pain and difficulty to the garden-gate, and there we
+found him. I shall never forget the wistfulness of the poor creature's
+eyes when his mistress knelt down and caressed him. He died a few minutes
+afterwards, licking her hand. I could not help thinking of Tito when I
+first saw Phoebe Locke; for the same unreasoning anguish seemed in the
+sick woman's eyes. A tormented soul looked out of them.</p>
+
+<p>There was something rigid and uncompromising in the whole aspect of the
+sick-room; there was nothing to tone down and soften the harsh details of
+bodily suffering; everything was in spotless order; the sheets were white
+as the driven snow; a formidable phalanx of medicine-bottles stood on the
+small square table; there were no books, no pictures, no flowers; a
+sampler hung over the mantelpiece, that was all. I saw Mr. Hamilton
+glance disapprovingly at the row of bottles.</p>
+
+<p>'I told Kitty to clear all that rubbish away,' he said curtly. 'Why do
+you not have something pleasanter to look at, Phoebe?&mdash;some flowers, or
+a canary? you would find plenty of amusement in watching a canary.'</p>
+
+<p>'Birds are never still for a moment; they would drive me mad,' returned
+Phoebe, in the hollow tones that seemed natural to her. 'Flowers are
+better; but what have I to do with flowers? Doctor,' her voice rising
+into a shrill crescendo, 'you must give me something to send me to sleep,
+or I shall go mad. I think, think, think, until my head is in a craze
+with pain and misery.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, well, we will see about it,' humouring her as though she were a
+child. 'Will you not speak to this lady, Phoebe? She has come down here
+to help us all,&mdash;sick people, and unhappy people, and every one that
+wants help.'</p>
+
+<p>'She can't do anything for me,' muttered Phoebe restlessly; 'no one&mdash;not
+even you, doctor, can do anything for me. I am doomed,&mdash;doomed before my
+time.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton looked at me meaningly, as though to say, 'Now you see what
+you have to do: this is more your work than mine.' I obeyed the hint, and
+accosted the sick woman as cheerfully as though her dismal speech had not
+curdled my blood.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope I shall be some comfort to you; it is hard indeed if no one can
+help you, when you have so much to bear!'</p>
+
+<p>'To bear!' repeating my words as though they stung her. 'I have lain here
+for three years&mdash;three years come Christmas Eve, doctor&mdash;between these
+four walls, summer and winter, winter and summer, and never knew except
+by heat or cold what season of the year it was. And I am young,&mdash;just
+turned four-and-thirty,&mdash;and I may lie here thirty years more, unless
+I die or go mad.'</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Phoebe,' remonstrated Mr. Hamilton,&mdash;and how gently he
+spoke!&mdash;'have I not told you over and over that things may mend yet if
+you will only be patient and good? You are just making things worse by
+bearing them so badly. Why, a friend of mine has been seven years on her
+back like you, and she is the happiest, cheeriest body: it is quite a
+pleasure to go into her room.'</p>
+
+<p>'Maybe she is good, and I am wicked,' returned Phoebe sullenly. 'I cannot
+help it, doctor: it is one of my bad days, and nothing but wicked words
+come uppermost. The devil has a deal of power when a woman is chained as
+I am.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't you think you could exorcise the demon by a song, Miss Garston?'
+observed Mr. Hamilton, in an undertone. 'This is just the case where
+music may be a soothing influence; something must be tried for the poor
+creature.'</p>
+
+<p>The proposition almost took away my breath. Sing now! before Mr.
+Hamilton! And yet how in sheer humanity could I refuse? I had often sung
+before to my patients, and had never minded it in the least; but before
+Mr. Hamilton!</p>
+
+<p>'You need not think of me,' he continued provokingly,&mdash;for of course I
+was thinking of him: 'I am no critic in the musical line. Just try how it
+answers, will you?' And he walked away and turned his back to us, and
+seemed absorbed in the sampler.</p>
+
+<p>For one minute I hesitated, and then I cleared my throat. 'I am going to
+sing something, Phoebe. Mr. Hamilton thinks it will do you good.' And
+then, fearful lest her waywardness should stop me, I commenced at once
+with the first line of the beautiful hymn, 'Art thou weary? art thou
+languid?'</p>
+
+<p>My voice trembled sadly at first, and my burning face and cold hands
+testified to my nervousness; but after the first verse I forgot Mr.
+Hamilton's presence and only remembered it was Charlie's favourite hymn
+I was singing, and sang it with a full heart.</p>
+
+<p>When I had finished, I bent over Phoebe and asked if I should sing any
+more, and, to my great delight, she nodded assent. I sang 'Abide with
+me,' and several other suitable hymns, and I did not stop until the hard
+look of woe in Phoebe's eyes had softened into a more gentle expression.</p>
+
+<p>As I paused, I looked across the room. Mr. Hamilton was still standing by
+the mantelpiece, perfectly motionless. He had covered his eyes with his
+hand, and seemed lost in profound thought. He absolutely started when I
+addressed him.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, we will go if you have finished,' but he did not look at me as he
+spoke. 'Phoebe, has the young lady done you any good? Did you close your
+eyes and think you heard an angel singing? Now you must let me take her
+away, for she is very tired, and has worked hard to-day. To-morrow, if
+you ask her, she will come again.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall not wait to be asked,' I returned, answering the dumb, wistful
+look that greeted the doctor's words. 'Oh yes, I shall come again
+to-morrow, and we will have a little talk, and I will bring you some
+flowers, and if you care to hear me sing I have plenty of pretty songs.'
+And then I kissed her forehead, for I felt strongly drawn to the poor
+creature, as though she were a strange, suffering sister, and I thought
+that the kiss and the song and the flowers would be a threefold cord
+of sympathy for her to bind round her harassed soul through the long
+hours of the night.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton followed me silently out, and on the threshold we
+encountered Susan Locke. She was a thin, subdued-looking woman, dressed
+in rusty black, with a careworn, depressed expression that changed into
+pleasure at the sight of Mr. Hamilton.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, doctor, this is good of you, surely,&mdash;and you so busy! It is one of
+Phoebe's bad days, when nothing pleases her and she will have naught to
+say to us, but groan and groan until one's heart is pretty nigh broken.
+I was half hoping that you would look in on us and give her a bit of a
+word.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Garston has done more than that,' replied Mr. Hamilton. 'I
+think you will find your sister a little cheered. Give her something
+comfortable to eat and drink, and speak as cheerfully as you can.
+Good-night, Miss Locke.' And then he motioned to me to precede him down
+the little garden. Mr. Hamilton was so very silent all the way home that
+I was somewhat puzzled; he did not speak at all about Phoebe,&mdash;only said
+that he was afraid that I was very tired, and that he was the same; and
+when we came in sight of the cottage he left me rather abruptly; if it
+had not been for his few approving words to Susan Locke, I should have
+thought something had displeased him.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Max made me feel a little uncomfortable the next morning. I met
+him as I was starting for my daily work, and he walked with me to Mrs.
+Marshall's.</p>
+
+<p>'I was up at Gladwyn last evening, Ursula,' he began. 'Miss Elizabeth
+is still away, but the other ladies asked very kindly after you. Miss
+Hamilton means to call on you one afternoon, only she seems puzzled to
+know how she is ever to find you at home. I cannot think what put
+Hamilton into such a bad temper; he scarcely spoke to any of us, and
+looked horribly cranky, only I laughed at him and he got better; he
+never mentioned your name. You have not fallen out again, eh, little
+she-bear?' looking at me rather anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh dear, no; we are perfectly civil to each other; I understand him
+better now.' But all the same I could not help wondering, as I parted
+from Max, what could have made Mr. Hamilton so strangely silent.</p>
+
+<p>It was still early in the afternoon when I found myself free to go and
+see Phoebe; she had been on my mind all day, and had kept me awake for
+a long time; those miserable eyes haunted me. I longed so to comfort her.
+Miss Locke opened the door; I thought she seemed pleased to see me, but
+she eyed my basket of flowers dubiously.</p>
+
+<p>'Phoebe is looking for you, Miss Garston, though she says nothing about
+it; it is not her way; but I see her eyes turning to the door every now
+and then, and she made Kitty open the curtains. If I may make so bold,
+those flowers are not for Phoebe, surely?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, indeed they are, Miss Locke. Dr. Hamilton wishes her to have
+something pleasant to look at.' But Miss Locke only shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>'The neighbours have sent in flowers often and often, and she has made me
+carry them out of the room; the vicar used to send them too, but he knows
+now that it is no manner of use: she always says they do not put flowers
+in tombs, only outside them: she will have it she is living in a tomb.'</p>
+
+<p>'We must get this idea out of her head,' I returned cheerfully, for I was
+obstinately bent on having my own way about the flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Kitty was sewing on a little stool by the window; the curtains were
+undrawn, so that the room was tolerably light, and might have been
+cheerful, only an ugly wire blind shut out all view of the little garden.</p>
+
+<p>I could not help marvelling at the strange perversity that could wilfully
+exclude every possible alleviation; there must be some sad warp or twist
+of the mental nature that could be so prolific of unwholesome fancies. As
+I turned to the bed I thought Phoebe looked even more ghastly in the
+daylight than she had done last evening; her skin was yellow and
+shrivelled, like the skin of an old woman; her eyes looked deep-set and
+gloomy, but their expression struck me as more human; her thin lips even
+wore the semblance of a smile.</p>
+
+<p>When I had greeted her, and had drawn from her rather reluctantly that
+she had had some hours' sleep the previous night, I spoke to Kitty. The
+little creature looked so subdued and moped in the miserable atmosphere
+that I was full of pity for her, so I showed her a new skipping rope that
+I had bought on my way, and bade her ask her aunt Susan's permission to
+go out and play.</p>
+
+<p>The child's dull eyes brightened in a moment. 'May I go out, Aunt
+Phoebe?' she asked breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, go if you like,' was the somewhat ungracious answer.</p>
+
+<p>'She is glad enough to get away from me,' she muttered, when Kitty had
+shut the door gently behind her. 'Children have no heart; she is an
+ungrateful, selfish little thing; but they are all that; we clothe her
+and feed her, and it is little we get out of her in return; and Susan
+is working her fingers to the bone for the two of us.'</p>
+
+<p>I took no notice of this outburst, and commenced clearing away the
+medicine-bottles to make room for my basket of chrysanthemums and
+ivy-leaves. Uncle Max had procured them for me, but I had no idea as
+I arranged them that they had come from Gladwyn.</p>
+
+<p>Phoebe watched my movements very gloomily; she evidently disapproved
+of the whole proceeding. I carried out the bottles to Miss Locke, and
+begged her to throw them away: 'they are of no use to her,' I observed.
+'Mr. Hamilton intends to send her a new mixture, and this array of
+half-emptied phials is simply absurd: it is just a whim. If your sister
+asks for them when I have gone, you can tell her that Miss Garston
+ordered them to be destroyed.'</p>
+
+<p>On my return to the room I found Phoebe lying with her eyes closed. I
+could have laughed outright at her perversity, for of course she had shut
+them to exclude the sight of the flower-basket, though it was the
+loveliest little bit of colour, the dark-red chrysanthemum nestled so
+prettily among trails of tiny variegated ivy. I resolved to punish her
+for this piece of morbid obstinacy, and took down the wire blind; she was
+speechless with anger when she found out what I had done, but I was
+resolved not to humour these ridiculous fancies; the dull wintry light
+was not too much for her.</p>
+
+<p>'You must not be allowed to have your own way so entirely,' I said,
+laughing: 'your sister is very wrong to give in to you. Mr. Hamilton
+wishes your room to be more cheerful: he says the dull surroundings
+depress and keep you low and desponding, and I must carry out his orders,
+and try how we are to make your room a little brighter. Now'&mdash;as she
+seemed about to speak&mdash;'I am going to sing to you, and then we will have
+a talk.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't care to hear singing to-day, my head buzzes so with all this
+flack,' was the sullen answer; but I took no notice of this ill-tempered
+remark, and began a little Scotch ballad that I thought was bright and
+spirited.</p>
+
+<p>She closed her eyes again, with an expression of weariness and disgust
+that made me smile in spite of my efforts to keep serious; but I soon
+found out that she was listening, and so I sang one song after another,
+without pausing for any comment, and pretended not to notice when the
+haggard weary eyes unclosed, and fixed themselves first on the flowers,
+next on my face, and last and longest at the strip of lawn, with the bare
+gooseberry bushes and the narrow path edged with privet.</p>
+
+<p>When I had sung several ballads, I waited for a minute, and then
+commenced Bishop Ken's evening hymn, but my voice shook a little as I saw
+a sudden heaving under the bedclothes, and in another moment the large
+slow tears coursed down Phoebe's thin face. It was hard to finish the
+hymn, but I would not have dispensed with the Gloria.</p>
+
+<p>'What is it, Phoebe?' I asked gently, when I had finished. 'I am sorry
+that I have made you cry.'</p>
+
+<p>'You need not be sorry,' she sobbed at last, with difficulty: 'it eases
+my head, and I thought nothing would ever draw a tear from me again. I
+was too miserable to cry, and they say&mdash;I have read it somewhere, in the
+days when I used to read&mdash;that there is no such thing as a tear in hell.'</p>
+
+<p>I tried not to look astonished at this strange speech. I must let this
+poor creature talk, or how should I ever find out the root of her
+disease? so I answered quietly that no doubt she was right, that in that
+place of outer darkness there should be weeping, without tears, and a
+gnashing of teeth, beside which our bitterest human sorrow would seem
+like nothing.</p>
+
+<p>'That is true,' she returned, with a groan; 'but, Miss Garston, hell has
+begun for me here; for three years I have been in torment, and rightly
+too,&mdash;and rightly too,&mdash;for I never was a good woman, never like Susan,
+who read her Bible and went to church. Oh, she is a good creature, is
+Susan.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad to hear it, Phoebe: so, you see, your affliction, heavy as it
+is,&mdash;and I am not saying it is not heavy,&mdash;is not without alleviation.
+The Merciful Father, who has laid this cross upon you, has given you this
+kind companion as a consoler. What a comfort you must be to each other!
+what a divine work has been given to you both to do,&mdash;to bring up that
+motherless little creature, who must owe her very life and happiness to
+you!'</p>
+
+<p>She lay and looked at me with an expression of bewildered astonishment,
+and at this moment Miss Locke opened the door, carrying a little tea-tray
+for her sister. I had a glimpse of Kitty curled up on the mat outside the
+door, with the skipping-rope still in her hand. She had evidently been
+listening to the singing, for she crept away, but in the distance I could
+hear her humming 'Ye banks and braes' in a sweet childish treble that was
+very harmonious and true.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>ONE OF GOD'S HEROINES</h3>
+
+
+<p>No. I was quite right when I told poor Phoebe that her sad case was not
+without alleviation. I was still more sure of the truth of my words when
+I saw with what care Miss Locke had prepared the invalid's meal, and how
+gently she helped to place her in a proper position. There was evidently
+no want of love between the sisters; only on one side the love was more
+self-sacrificing and unselfish than the other. It needed only a look at
+Susan Locke's spare form and thin, careworn face to tell me that she was
+wearing herself out in her sister's service. Phoebe looked in her face
+and broke into a harsh laugh, to poor Susan's great alarm.</p>
+
+<p>'What do you think Miss Garston has been saying, Susan? That we must be a
+comfort to each other. Fancy my being a comfort to you! You poor thing,
+when I am the plague and burden of your life,' And she laughed again, in
+a way that was scarcely mirthful.</p>
+
+<p>'Nay, Phoebe, you have no need to say such things,' returned her sister
+sadly; but she was probably used to this sort of speeches. 'I am bound to
+take care of you and Kitty, who are all I have left in the world. It is
+not that I find it hard, but that you might make it easier by looking a
+little cheered sometimes.'</p>
+
+<p>Phoebe took this gentle rebuke somewhat scornfully.</p>
+
+<p>'Cheered! The woman actually says cheered, when I am already on the
+border-land of the place of torment. Was I not as good as dead and buried
+three years ago? And did not father always tell us that hell begins in
+this world for the wicked?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, that was father's notion; and I was never clever enough to argue
+with him. But you are not wicked, my woman, only a bit tiresome and
+perverse and wanting in faith.' And Miss Locke, who was used to these
+wild moods, patted her sister's shoulder, and bade her drink her tea
+before it got cold, in a sensible matter-of-fact way, that was not
+without its influence on the wayward creature; for she did not refuse
+the comforting draught.</p>
+
+<p>I took my leave soon after this, after promising to repeat my visit on
+the next evening. Phoebe bade me good-bye rather coldly, but I took no
+notice of her contrary mood. Miss Locke followed me out of the room, and
+asked me anxiously what I thought of her sister.</p>
+
+<p>'It is difficult to judge,' I returned, hesitating a little. 'You must
+remember this is only my second visit, and I have not made much way with
+her. She is in a state of bodily and mental discomfort very painful to
+witness. If I am not mistaken, she is driving herself half-crazy with
+introspection and self-will. You must not give way to this morbid desire
+to increase her own wretchedness. She needs firmness as well as
+kindness.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Locke looked at me wistfully a moment.</p>
+
+<p>'What am I to do? She would fret herself into a fever if I crossed her
+whims. Directly you have left the house she will be asking for that wire
+blind again, though it would do her poor eyes good to see the thrushes
+feeding on the lawn, and there is the little robin that comes to us every
+winter and taps at the window for crumbs; but she would shut them all
+out,&mdash;birds, and sunshine, and flowers.'</p>
+
+<p>'Just as she would shut out her Father's love, if she could; but it is
+all round her, and no inward or outward darkness can hinder that. Miss
+Locke, you must be very firm. You must not move the flowers or replace
+the blind on any pretext whatever. She must be comforted in spite of
+herself. She reminds me of some passionate child who breaks all its
+toys because some wish has been denied. We are sorry for the child's
+disappointment, but a wise parent would inflict punishment for the fit
+of passion.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Locke sighed; her mouth twitched with repressed emotion. She was
+evidently an affectionate, reticent woman, who found it difficult to
+express her feelings.</p>
+
+<p>'I am keeping you standing all this time,' she said apologetically, 'and
+I might have asked you to sit down a minute in our little kitchen. Let me
+pour you out a cup of tea, Miss Garston. Kitty and I were just going to
+begin.'</p>
+
+<p>I accepted this offer, as I thought Miss Locke evidently wanted to speak
+to me. She seemed pleased at my acquiescence, and told Kitty to stay with
+her aunt Phoebe a few minutes.</p>
+
+<p>'I have baked a nice hot cake with currants in it, Kitty,' she said
+persuasively, 'and you shall have your share, hot and buttered, if you
+will be patient and wait a little.'</p>
+
+<p>'She is a good little thing,' I observed, as the child reluctantly
+withdrew to her dreary post, after a longing look at the table, while
+Miss Locke placed a rocking-chair with a faded green cushion by the fire,
+and opened the oven door to inspect the cake. 'It is dull work for the
+little creature to be so much in the sick-room. It is hardly a wholesome
+atmosphere for a child.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Locke shook her head as though she endorsed this opinion.</p>
+
+<p>'What am I to do?' she returned sorrowfully. 'Kitty is young, but she
+has to bear our burdens. I spare her all I can; but when I am at my
+dressmaking Phoebe cannot be left alone, and she has learned to be quiet
+and handy, and can do all sorts of things for Phoebe. I know it is not
+good for her living alone with us, but the Lord has ordered the child's
+life as well as ours,' she finished reverently.</p>
+
+<p>'We must see what can be done for Kitty,' was my answer. 'She can be
+free to play while I am with your sister. I sent her out with her new
+skipping-rope this evening. What brought her back so soon?'</p>
+
+<p>'It was the singing,' returned Miss Locke, smiling. 'The street door
+was just ajar, and Kitty crept in and curled herself up on the mat. It
+sounded so beautiful, you see; for Kitty and I only hear singing at
+church, and it is not often I can get there, with Phoebe wanting me;
+so it did us both good, you may be sure of that.'</p>
+
+<p>I could not but be pleased at this simple tribute of praise, but
+something else struck me more, the unobtrusive goodness and self-denial
+of Susan Locke. What a life hers must be! I hinted at this as gently as
+I could.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, Phoebe has always been a care to me,' she sighed. 'She was never as
+strong and hearty as other girls, and she wanted her own way, and fretted
+when she could not get it. Father spoiled her, and mother gave in to her
+more than she did to me; and when trouble came all along of Robert Owen,
+and he used her cruel, just flinging her aside when he saw some one he
+fancied more than Phoebe, and driving her mad with spite and jealousy,
+then she let herself go, as it were. She was never religious, not to
+speak of, all the time she kept company with Robert, so when her hopes
+of him came to an end she had nothing to support her. It needs plenty of
+faith to make us bear our troubles patiently.'</p>
+
+<p>'And then her health failed.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; and mother died, and father followed her within six months, and
+Phoebe could not be with them, and she took on about that; she has had a
+deal of trouble, and that is why I cannot find it in my heart to be hard
+on her; she was that fond of Robert, though he was a worthless sort of
+fellow, that, as the saying is, she worshipped the ground he walked on.
+Ah, Phoebe was bonnie-looking then, though she was never over-strong,
+and had not much colour; but he need not have called her a sickly
+ill-tempered wench when he threw her over and married Nancy. It was
+a cruel way to serve a woman that loved him as Phoebe did.'</p>
+
+<p>'She has certainly had her share of trouble. How long ago did this happen
+to your sister?'</p>
+
+<p>'It must be five years since Robert and Nancy were married. Phoebe was
+never the same woman since then, though her health did not fail for a
+year or more afterwards; Mr. Hamilton always says she has had a good
+riddance of Robert. He never thought much of him, and he has told me that
+it is far better that Phoebe never had a chance of marrying him, for she
+would have been a sad burden to any man; and she would not have had you
+to nurse her.' And Miss Locke's careworn face brightened. 'That is just
+what I tell myself, when I am out of heart about her; the Lord knew
+Robert would have been a cruel husband to her,&mdash;for he is not too kind
+to Nancy,&mdash;and so He kept Phoebe away from him. Phoebe is not one to bear
+unkindness,&mdash;it just maddens her,&mdash;and we have all spoilt her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Just so, and she knows her power over you. I am afraid she gives you a
+great deal to bear, Miss Locke.'</p>
+
+<p>'I never mind it from her,' she answered simply. 'She is all I have in
+the world except Kitty, and I am thinking what I can do for her from
+morning to night; that is the best and the worst of my work, one need
+never stop thinking for it. Sometimes, when I am tired, or things have
+gone wrong with my customers, or I am a bit behindhand with the rent,
+I wish I could talk it over with her; it would ease me somehow; but I
+never do give way to the feeling, for it would only fret and worry her.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are wrong,' I returned warmly. 'Mr. Hamilton would tell you so if
+you asked him. Any worry, any outside trouble, would be better for Phoebe
+than this unhealthy feeding on herself. Take my advice, Miss Locke, talk
+about yourself and your own troubles. Phoebe is fond of you, it will
+rouse her to enter more into your life.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Locke shook her head, and the tears came into her mild hazel eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'There is One who knows it all. I'll not be troubling my poor Phoebe,'
+she said, and her hands trembled a little. Kitty came in at this moment
+and said her aunt Phoebe wanted her, so we were obliged to break off the
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>I thought about it all rather sadly as I sat by my solitary fire that
+evening with Tinker's head on my lap. He had taken to me, and I always
+found him waiting for my return; but it was less of Phoebe than of Susan
+I was thinking. I was so absorbed in my reflections that Uncle Max's
+voice outside quite startled me.</p>
+
+<p>'May I come in, Ursula?' he said, thrusting in his head. 'I have been
+at the choir-practice, so I thought I would call as I passed.'</p>
+
+<p>Of course I gave him a warm welcome, and he drew his chair to the
+opposite side of the fire, and declared he felt very comfortable: then
+he asked me why I was looking grave, and if I were tired of my solitude.
+I disclaimed this indignantly, and gave him a sketch of my day's work,
+ending with my talk to Susan Locke.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed interested, and listened attentively.</p>
+
+<p>'It is such a sad case, Max,&mdash;poor Phoebe's, I mean,&mdash;but I am almost
+as sorry for her sister. Susan Locke is such a good woman.'</p>
+
+<p>'You would say so if you knew all, Ursula, but Miss Locke would never
+tell you herself. When Phoebe's illness came on, and Hamilton told them
+that she might not get well for a year or two, or perhaps longer, Susan
+broke off her own engagement to stay with her sister. Her father was just
+dead, and the child Kitty had to live with them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Locke engaged!' I exclaimed, in some surprise, for it had never
+struck me that the homely middle-aged woman had this sort of experience
+in her life.</p>
+
+<p>Max looked amused.</p>
+
+<p>'In that class they do not always choose youth and beauty. Certainly
+Susan Locke was neither young nor handsome, but she was a neat-looking
+body, only she has aged of late. Do you want to know all about it? Well,
+she was engaged to a man named Duncan: he was a widower with three or
+four children; he had the all-sorts shop down the village, only he moved
+last year. He was a respectable man and had a comfortable little
+business, and I daresay he thought Miss Locke would make a good mother to
+his children. She told me all about it, poor thing! She would have liked
+to marry Duncan; she was fond of him, and thought he would have made her
+a steady husband; but with Phoebe on her hands she could not do her duty
+to him or the children.</p>
+
+<p>'"And there is Kitty; and he has enough of his own; and a sickly body
+like Phoebe would hinder the comfort of the house, and I have promised
+mother to take care of her." And then she asked my opinion. Well, I could
+not but own that with the shop and the house to mind, and five children,
+counting Kitty, and a bedridden invalid, her hands would be over-weighted
+with work and worry.</p>
+
+<p>'"I think so too," she answered, as quietly as possible, "and I have no
+right to burden Duncan. I am sure he will listen to reason when I tell
+him Phoebe is against our marrying." And she never said another word
+about it. But Duncan came to me about six months afterwards and asked me
+to put up his banns.</p>
+
+<p>'"I wanted Susan Locke," he said, in a shamefaced manner, "but that
+sister of hers hinders our marrying; so, as I must think of the children,
+I have got Janet Sharpe to promise me. She is a good, steady lass, and
+Susan speaks well of her."'</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Max had told his story without interruption. I listened to it with
+almost painful interest.</p>
+
+<p>With what quiet self-denial this homely woman had put aside her own hopes
+of happiness for the sake of the sickly creature dependent on her! She
+had owned her affection for Duncan with the utmost simplicity; but in her
+unselfishness she refused to burden him with her responsibilities. If she
+married him she must do her duty by him and his children, and she felt
+that Phoebe would be a drag on her strength and time.</p>
+
+<p>'She is a good woman, Uncle Max,' I observed, when he had finished.
+'She is working herself to death, and Phoebe never gives her a word
+of comfort.'</p>
+
+<p>'How can you expect it?' he replied quietly. 'You cannot draw comfort out
+of empty wells, and poor Phoebe's heart is like a broken cistern, holding
+nothing.'</p>
+
+<p>'But surely you talk to her, Uncle Max?'</p>
+
+<p>'I have tried to do so,' he answered sadly; 'but for the last year she
+has refused to see me, and Hamilton has advised me to keep away. If I
+cross the threshold it is to see Miss Locke. I thought it was a whim at
+first, and I sent Tudor in my stead; but she was so rude to him, and
+lashed herself into such a fury against us clerics, that he came back
+looking quite scared, and asked why I had sent him to a mad woman.'</p>
+
+<p>'She was angry with me to-day.' And I told him about the blind.</p>
+
+<p>'That is right, Ursula,' he said encouragingly. 'You have made a good
+beginning: the singing may do more to soften her strange nature than all
+our preaching. You will be a comfort to Miss Locke, at any rate.' And
+then he stopped, and looked at me rather wistfully, as though he longed
+to tell me something but could not make up his mind to do it 'You will be
+a comfort to us all if you go on in this way,' he continued; and then he
+surprised me by asking if I had not yet seen the ladies from Gladwyn.</p>
+
+<p>The question struck me as rather irrelevant, but I took care not to say
+so as I answered in the negative.</p>
+
+<p>'You have been here nearly a week; they might have risked a call by this
+time,' he returned, knitting his brows as though something perplexed him;
+but I broke in on his reflections rather impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>'I declare, Max, you have quite piqued my curiosity about these people;
+some mystery seems to attach to Gladwyn. I shall expect to see something
+very wonderful.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then you will be disappointed,' he returned quietly, not a bit offended
+by my petulance. 'I cannot help wishing you to make acquaintance with
+them, as they are such intimate friends of mine, and I think it will be a
+mutual benefit.'</p>
+
+<p>Then, as I made no reply to this, he went on, still more mildly:</p>
+
+<p>'I confess I should like your opinion of them. I have a great reliance in
+your intuition and common sense; and you are so deliciously frank and
+outspoken, Ursula, that I shall soon know what you think. Well, I must
+not stay gossiping here. Your company is very charming, my dear, but I
+have letters to write before bedtime. You will see our friends in church
+on Sunday. I hear Miss Elizabeth comes home to-morrow; she is the lively
+one,&mdash;not quite of the Merry Pecksniff order, but still a bright, chatty
+lady.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"From morning till night<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It is Betty's delight<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To chatter and talk without stopping."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>'You know the rest, Ursula, my dear. By the bye,' opening the door, and
+looking cautiously into the passage, 'I wonder whom the Bartons are
+entertaining in the kitchen to-night? I hear a masculine voice.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is only Mr. Hamilton,' I returned indifferently. 'I heard him come
+in half an hour ago; he is giving Nathaniel a lesson in mathematics.'</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure. What a good fellow he is!' in an enthusiastic tone. 'Well,
+good-night, child: do not sit up late.' And he vanished.</p>
+
+<p>I am afraid I disregarded this injunction, for I wanted to write to my
+poor Jill&mdash;who was never absent from my mind&mdash;and Lesbia; and I was loath
+to leave the fireside, and too much excited for sleep.</p>
+
+<p>When I had finished my letters I still sat on gazing into the bright
+caverns of coal, and thinking over Susan Locke's history.</p>
+
+<p>'How many good people there are in the world!' I said, half aloud; but I
+almost jumped out of my chair at the sound of a deep, angry voice on the
+other side of the door.</p>
+
+<p>'It is a thriftless, wasteful sort of thing burning the candle at both
+ends. Women have very little common sense, after all.'</p>
+
+<p>I extinguished the lamp hastily, for of course Mr. Hamilton's growl was
+meant for me, though it was addressed to Nathaniel. I heard him close the
+door a moment afterwards, and Nathaniel crept back into the kitchen. I
+woke rather tired the next day, and owned he was right, for I found my
+duties somewhat irksome that morning. The feeling did not pass off, and
+I actually discovered that I was dreading my visit to Phoebe, only of
+course I scouted it as nonsense.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Locke was out, and Kitty opened the door. Her demure little face
+brightened when she saw me, and especially when I placed a large
+brown-paper parcel in her arms, of that oblong shape dear to all
+doll-loving children, and bade her take it into the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>'It is too dark and cold for you to play outside, Kitty,' I observed,
+'so perhaps you will make the acquaintance of the blue-eyed baby I have
+brought you; when Aunt Susan comes in, you can ask her for some pieces to
+dress her in, for her paper robe is rather cold.'</p>
+
+<p>Kitty's eyes grew wide with surprise and delight as she ran off with her
+treasure; the baby-doll would be a playmate for the lonely child, and
+solace those weary hours in the sick-room. I would rather have brought
+her a kitten, but I felt instinctively that no animal would be tolerated
+by the invalid.</p>
+
+<p>It was somewhat dark when I entered the room, but one glance showed me
+that my directions had been obeyed; the window was unshaded, and the
+flowers were in their place.</p>
+
+<p>Phoebe was lying watching the fire. I saw at once that she was in a
+better mood. The few questions I put to her were answered quietly and
+to the point, and there was no excitement or exaggeration in her manner.</p>
+
+<p>I did not talk much. After a minute or two I sat down by the uncurtained
+window and began to sing as usual. I commenced with a simple ballad, but
+very soon my songs merged into hymns. It began to be a pleasure to me to
+sing in that room. I had a strange feeling as though my voice were
+keeping the evil spirits away. I thought of the shepherd-boy who played
+before Saul and refreshed the king's tormented mind; and now and then an
+unuttered prayer would rise to my lips that in this way I might be able
+to comfort the sad soul that truly Satan had bound.</p>
+
+<p>When my voice grew a little weary, I rose softly and took down the old
+brown sampler, as I wished to replace it by a little picture I had
+brought with me.</p>
+
+<p>It was a sacred photograph of the Crucifixion, in a simple Oxford frame,
+and had always been a great favourite with me; it was less painful in its
+details than other delineations of this subject: the face of the divine
+sufferer wore an expression of tender pity. Beneath the cross the Blessed
+Virgin and St. John stood with clasped hands,&mdash;adopted love and most
+sacred responsibility,&mdash;receiving sanction and benediction.</p>
+
+<p>I had scarcely hung it on the nail before Phoebe's querulous voice
+remonstrated with me.</p>
+
+<p>'Why can you not leave well alone, Miss Garston? I was thanking you in my
+heart for the music, but you have just driven it away. I cannot have that
+picture before my eyes; it is too painful.'</p>
+
+<p>'You will not find it so,' I replied quietly; 'it is a little present I
+have brought you. My dead brother bought it for me when he was a boy at
+school, and it is one of the things I most prize. He is dead, you know,
+and that makes it doubly dear to me. That is why I want you to have it,
+because I have so much and you so little.'</p>
+
+<p>My speech moved her a little, for her great eyes softened as she looked
+at me.</p>
+
+<p>'So you have been in trouble, too,' she said softly. 'And yet you can
+sing like a bird that has lost its way and finds itself nearly at the
+gate of Paradise.'</p>
+
+<p>'Shall I tell you about my trouble?' I returned, sitting down by the
+bed. It wrung my heart to talk of Charlie, but I knew the history of
+his suffering and patience would teach Phoebe a valuable lesson.</p>
+
+<p>An hour passed by unheeded, and when I had finished I exclaimed at the
+lateness of the hour.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, you have tired yourself; you look quite pale,' was her answer; 'but
+you have made me forget myself for the first time in my life.' She
+stopped, and then with more effort continued, 'Come again to-morrow, and
+I will tell you my trouble; it is worse than yours, and has made me the
+crazy creature you see. Yes, I will tell you all about it'; but, half
+crying, as though she had little hope of contesting my will, 'You will
+not leave that picture to make my heart ache more than, it does now?'</p>
+
+<p>'My poor Phoebe,' I said, kissing her, 'when your heart once aches for
+the thought of another's sorrow your healing will have begun. Let that
+picture say to you what no one has said to you before, "that all your
+life you have been an idolater, that you have worshipped only yourself
+and one other&mdash;"'</p>
+
+<p>'Whom? What do you mean? Have you heard of Robert?' she asked excitedly.</p>
+
+<p>'To-morrow is Sunday,' I returned, touching her softly. 'I am going to
+church in the morning, and I shall not be here until evening; but we
+shall have time then for a long talk, and you shall tell me everything.'
+And then, without waiting for an answer, I left the room. It was late
+indeed. Miss Locke had long returned, and was busying herself over her
+sister's supper; she held up her finger to me smiling as I passed, and
+I peeped in.</p>
+
+<p>Kitty was lying on the rug, fast asleep, with the doll in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>'I found them like this when I came in,' whispered Miss Locke; 'she must
+have been listening to the music and fallen asleep. How late you have
+stopped with Phoebe! it is nearly eight o'clock!'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not think the time has been wasted,' I answered cheerfully, as
+I bade her good-night and stepped out into the darkness. Is time ever
+wasted, I wonder, when we stop in our daily work to give one of these
+weak ones a cup of cold water? It is not for me to answer; only our
+recording angel knows how some such little deed of kindness may brighten
+some dim struggling life that seems over-full of pain.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>A MISSED VOCATION</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was pleasant to wake to bright sunshine the next morning, and to hear
+the sparrows twittering in the ivy.</p>
+
+<p>It had been my intention to set apart Sunday as much as possible as a day
+of rest and refreshment. Of course I could not expect always to control
+the various appeals for my help or to be free from my patients, but by
+management I hoped to secure the greater part of the day for myself.</p>
+
+<p>I had told Peggy not to expect me at the cottage until the afternoon;
+everything was in such order that there was no necessity for me to forgo
+the morning service. My promise to Phoebe Locke would keep me a prisoner
+for the evening, but I determined that her sister and Kitty should be set
+free to go to church, so my loss would be their gain.</p>
+
+<p>I thought of Jill as I dressed myself. She had often owned to me that the
+Sundays at Hyde Park Gate were not to her taste. Visitors thronged the
+house in the afternoon; Sara discussed her week's amusements with her
+friends or yawned over a novel; the morning's sermon was followed as a
+matter of course by a gay luncheon party. 'What does it mean, Ursula?'
+Jill would say, opening her big black eyes as widely as possible: 'I do
+not understand. Mr. Erskine has been telling us that we ought to renounce
+the world and our own wills, and not to follow the multitude to do
+foolishness, and all the afternoon mother and Sara having been talking
+about dresses for the fancy-ball. Is there one religion for church and
+another for home? Do we fold it up and put it away with our prayer-books
+in the little book-cupboard that father locks so carefully?' finished
+Jill, with girlish scorn.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Jill! she had a wide, generous nature, with great capabilities, but
+she was growing up in a chilling atmosphere. Young girls are terribly
+honest; they dig down to the very root of things; they drag off the
+swathing cloths from the mummy face of conventionality. What does it
+mean? they ask. Is there truth anywhere? Endless shams surround them;
+people listen to sermons, then they shake off the dust of the holy place
+carefully from the very hem of their garments; their religion, as Jill
+expressed it, is left beside their prayer-books. Ah! if one could but see
+clearly, with eyes purged from every remnant of earthliness,&mdash;see as the
+angels do,&mdash;the thick fog of unrisen and unprayed prayers clinging to the
+rafters of every empty church, we might well shudder in the clogging
+heavy atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>Jill had not more religion than many other girls, but she wanted to be
+true; the inconsistency of human nature baffled and perplexed her; she
+was not more ready to renounce the world than Sara was, but she wished
+to know the inner meaning of things, and in this I longed to help her.
+I could not help thinking of her tenderly and pitifully as I walked
+down the road leading to the little Norman church. I was early, and the
+building was nearly empty when I entered the porch; but it was quiet and
+restful to sit there and review the past week, and watch the sunshine
+lighting up the red brick walls and touching the rood-screen, while a
+faint purple gleam fell on the chancel pavement.</p>
+
+<p>Two ladies entered the seat before me, and I looked at them a little
+curiously.</p>
+
+<p>They were both very handsomely dressed, but it was not their fashionable
+appearance that attracted me. I had caught sight of a most beautiful and
+striking face belonging to one of them that somehow riveted my attention.</p>
+
+<p>The lady was apparently very young, and had a tall graceful figure, and
+strange colourless hair that looked as though it ought to have been
+golden, only the gloss had faded out of it; but it was lovely hair, fine
+and soft as a baby's.</p>
+
+<p>As she rose she slightly turned round, and our eyes met for a moment;
+they were large, melancholy eyes, and the face, beautiful as it was, was
+very worn and thin, and absolutely without colour. I could see her
+profile plainly all through the service, but the dull impassive
+expression of the countenance that she had turned upon me gave me a
+sensation of pain; she looked like a person who had experienced some
+great trouble or undergone some terrible illness. I could not make up
+my mind which it could be.</p>
+
+<p>The other lady was much older, and had no claims to beauty. I could see
+her face plainly, for she looked round once or twice as though she were
+expecting some one.</p>
+
+<p>She must have been over thirty, and had rather a singular face; it was
+thin, dark-complexioned, and very sallow; she was a stylish-looking
+woman, but her appearance did not interest me. To my surprise, just as
+the service commenced, Mr. Hamilton came in and joined them. So these
+must be the ladies from Gladwyn, I thought. That beautiful pale girl must
+be his sister Gladys, and the other one Miss Darrell.</p>
+
+<p>I tried to keep my attention to my own devotions, but every now and
+then my eyes would stray to the lovely face before me. Mr. Hamilton's
+behaviour was irreproachable. I could hear his voice following all the
+responses, and he sang the hymns very heartily.</p>
+
+<p>I think he knew I was behind him, for he handed me a hymn-book, with a
+slight smile, when I was offering to share mine with a young woman. Miss
+Darrell gave me a curiously penetrating look when she came out that did
+not quite please me, but the girl who followed her did not seem to notice
+my presence. I sat still in my place for a minute, as I did not wish to
+encounter them in the porch. I had lingered so long that the congregation
+had quite dispersed when I got out, but, to my surprise, I could see the
+three walking very slowly down the road. Could they have been waiting for
+me? I wondered; but I dismissed this idea as absurd.</p>
+
+<p>But I could not forget the face that had so interested me; and when I
+encountered Uncle Max on his way to the children's service I questioned
+him at once about the two ladies.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, you are right, Ursula,' he said, a little absently. 'The one with
+fair hair was Miss Gladys: her cousin, Miss Darrell, sat by Hamilton.'</p>
+
+<p>'But you never told me how beautiful she was,' I replied, in rather
+an injured voice. 'She has a perfect face, only it is so worn and
+unhappy-looking.'</p>
+
+<p>'You must not keep me,' observed Max hurriedly; 'Miss Darrell wants to
+speak to me before service.' And he rushed off, leaving me standing in
+the middle of the path rather wondering at his abruptness, for the bell
+had not commenced.</p>
+
+<p>A little farther on, I came face to face with Miss Darrell; she was
+walking with Mr. Tudor, and seemed talking to him with much animation.</p>
+
+<p>She bowed slightly, as he took off his hat to me, in a graceful well-bred
+manner, but her face prepossessed me even less than it had done in the
+morning. She had keen, dark eyes like Mr. Hamilton's, only they somehow
+repelled me. I was somewhat quick with my likes and dislikes, as I had
+proved by the dislike I had taken to Mr. Hamilton. This feeling was
+wearing off, and I was no longer so strongly prejudiced against him. I
+might even find Miss Darrell less repelling when I spoke to her. She was
+evidently a gentlewoman; her movements were quiet and graceful, and she
+had a good carriage.</p>
+
+<p>I was somewhat surprised on reaching the cottage to find Mr. Hamilton
+sitting by my patient. He had Janie on his knee, and seemed as though he
+had been there for some time, but he rose at once when he saw me.</p>
+
+<p>'I was waiting for you, Miss Garston,' he said quietly. 'I wanted to give
+you some directions about Mrs. Marshall'; and when he had finished, he
+said, a little abruptly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'What made you so long coming out of church this morning? I was waiting
+to introduce my sister and cousin to you, but you were determined to
+disappoint me.'</p>
+
+<p>I was a little confused by this.</p>
+
+<p>'Did you recognise me?' I asked, rather tamely.</p>
+
+<p>'No,&mdash;not in that smart bonnet,' was the unexpected reply. 'I did not
+identify the wearer with the village nurse until I heard your voice in
+the Te Deum: you can hardly disguise your voice, Miss Garston: my cousin
+Etta pricked up her ears when she heard it.' And then, as I made no
+answer, he picked up his hat with rather an amused air and wished me
+good-bye.</p>
+
+<p>I was rather offended at the mention of my bonnet; the little gray wing
+that relieved its sombre black trimmings could hardly be called smart,&mdash;a
+word I abhorred,&mdash;but he probably said it to tease me.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, the doctor has been telling us you have a voice like a skylark,'
+observed Elspeth, 'but I have been thinking it must be more like an
+angel's voice, my bairn, since you mostly use it to sing the Lord's
+praises, and to cheer the sick folk round you: that is more than a
+skylark does.'</p>
+
+<p>So he had been praising my voice. What an odd man!</p>
+
+<p>I stayed at the cottage about two hours, and read a little to the
+children and Elspeth, and then I started for the Lockes'.</p>
+
+<p>Kitty clapped her hands when she heard she was to go to church with her
+aunt Susan. I found out afterwards the child had always gone alone.</p>
+
+<p>Phoebe was evidently expecting me, for her eyes were fixed on the door
+as I entered, and the same shadowy smile I had seen once before swept
+over her wan features when she saw me. She seemed ready and eager to
+talk, but I adhered to my usual programme. I was rather afraid that our
+conversation would excite her, so I wanted to quiet her first. I sang a
+few of my favourite hymns, and then read the evening psalms. She heard
+me somewhat reluctantly, but when I had finished her face cleared, and
+without any preamble she commenced her story.</p>
+
+<p>I never remember that recital without pain. It positively wrung my heart
+to listen to her. I had heard the outline of her sad story from her
+sister's lips, but it had lacked colour; it had been a simple statement
+of facts, and no more.</p>
+
+<p>But now Phoebe's passionate words seemed to clothe it with power; the
+very sight of the ghastly and almost distracted face on the pillow gave
+a miserable pathos to the story. It was in vain to check excitement while
+the unhappy creature poured out the history of her wrongs: the old old
+story, of a credulous woman's heart being trampled upon and tortured by
+an unworthy lover, was enacted again before me.</p>
+
+<p>'I just worshipped the ground he walked on, and he threw me aside like a
+broken toy,' she said over and over again. 'And the worst of it is that,
+villain as he is, I cannot unlove him, though I am that mad with him
+sometimes that I could almost murder him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Love is strong as death, and jealousy is cruel as the grave,' I
+muttered, half to myself, but she overheard me.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, that is just true,' she returned eagerly: 'there are times when I
+hate Robert and Nancy and would like to haunt them. Did I not tell you,
+Miss Garston, that hell had begun with me already? I was never a good
+woman,&mdash;never, not even when I was happy and Robert loved me. I was
+just full of him, and wanted nothing else in heaven and earth; and when
+the trouble came, and father and mother died, and I lay here like a
+log,&mdash;only a log has not got a living heart in it,&mdash;I seemed to go mad
+with the anger and unhappiness, and I felt "the worm that dieth not, and
+the fire that is not quenched."'</p>
+
+<p>I stooped over and wiped her poor lips and poor head, for she was
+fearfully exhausted, and then in a perfect passion of pity closed her
+face between my hands and bade God bless her.</p>
+
+<p>'What do you mean?' she said, staring at me; but her voice trembled.
+'Haven't I been telling you how wicked I am? Do you think that is a
+reason for His blessing me?'</p>
+
+<p>'I think His blessing has always been with you, my poor Phoebe, like the
+sunlight that you try to shut out from your windows. You hide yourself
+in your own darkness, and pretend that the all-embracing love is not for
+you. Well may you call your present existence a tomb; but you must not
+wrong your Almighty Father. Not He, but you yourself have walled yourself
+up with your own sinful hands, and then you wonder at the weight that
+lies upon your heart.'</p>
+
+<p>'Can I forget my trouble when I am not able to move?' she said bitterly.
+And it was sad to see how her hands beat upon the bedclothes. But I held
+them in mine. They were icy cold. The action seemed to calm her frenzy.</p>
+
+<p>'You cannot forget,' I returned quietly; 'but all this time, all these
+weary years, you might have learned to forgive Robert.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nay, I will have nothing to do with forgiving,' was the hard answer.</p>
+
+<p>'And yet you say you love him, Phoebe. Why, the very devils would laugh
+at such a notion of love.'</p>
+
+<p>'Didn't I say I both loved and hated him?' very fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>'Speak the truth, and say you hate him, and God forgive you your sin. But
+it is a greater one than Robert has committed against you.'</p>
+
+<p>'How dare you say such things to me, Miss Garston?' trying to free her
+hands; but still I held them fast. 'You will make me hate you next. I am
+not a pleasant-tempered woman.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you do, I will promise you forgiveness beforehand. Why, you poor
+creature, do you think I could ever be hard on you?'</p>
+
+<p>The fierce light in her eyes softened. 'Nay, I did not mean what I said;
+but you excite me with your talk. How can you know what I feel about
+these things? You cannot put yourself in my place.'</p>
+
+<p>'The heart knoweth its own bitterness, Phoebe; and it may be that in your
+place I should fail utterly in patience; but if we will not lie still
+under His hand, and learn the lesson He would fain teach us, it may be
+that fresh trials may be sent to humble us.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think things could be much worse with me?' becoming excited
+again; but I stroked her hand, and begged her gently to let me finish
+my speech.</p>
+
+<p>'Phoebe, as you lie there on your cross, the whole Church throughout the
+world is praying for you Sunday after Sunday when the prayer goes up for
+those who are desolate and oppressed. And who so desolate and oppressed
+as you?'</p>
+
+<p>'True, most true,' she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>'You are cradled in the supplications of the faithful. A thousand hearts
+are hearing your sorrows, and yet you say impiously that you are on the
+border-land of hell; but no, you will never go there. There are too many
+marks of His love upon you. All this suffering has more meaning than
+that.'</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to describe the look she gave me; astonishment,
+incredulity, and something like dawning hope were blended in it; but
+she remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>'You have missed your vocation, that is true. You were set apart here
+to do most divine work; but you have failed over it. Still, you may
+be forgiven. How many prayers you might have prayed for Robert! You
+might have been an invisible shield between him and temptation. There
+is so much power in the prayers of unselfish love. This room, which
+you describe as a tomb, or an antechamber of hell, might have been an
+inner sanctuary, from which blessings might flow out over the whole
+neighbourhood. Silent lessons of patience might have been preached here.
+Your sister's weary hands might have been strengthened. You could have
+mutually consoled each other; and now&mdash;' I paused, for here conscience
+completed the sentence. I saw a tear steal under her eyelid, and then
+course slowly down her face.</p>
+
+<p>'I have made Susan miserable, I know that; and she is never impatient
+with me if I am ever so cross with her. Ah, I deserve my punishment, for
+I have been a selfish, hateful creature all my life. I do think sometimes
+that an evil spirit lives in me.'</p>
+
+<p>'There is One who can cast it out; but you must ask Him, Phoebe. Such a
+few words will do: "Lord help me!" Now we have talked enough, and Susan
+will be coming back from church. I mean to sing you the evening hymn, and
+then I must go.' And, almost before I had finished the last line, Phoebe,
+exhausted with emotion, had sunk into a refreshing sleep, and I crept
+softly out of the room to watch for Susan's return.</p>
+
+<p>I felt strangely weary as I walked home. It was almost as though I had
+witnessed a human soul struggling in the grasp of some evil spirit. It
+was the first time I had ever ministered to mental disease. Never before
+had I realised what self-will, unchastened by sorrow and untaught by
+religion, can bring a woman to. Once or twice that evening I had doubted
+whether the brain were really unhinged; but I had come to the conclusion
+that it was only excess of morbid excitement.</p>
+
+<p>My way home led me past the vicarage. Just as I was in sight of it, two
+figures came out of the gate and waited to let me pass. One of them was
+the churchwarden, Mr. Townsend, and the other was Mr. Hamilton. It was
+impossible to avoid recognition in the bright moonlight; but I was rather
+amazed when I heard Mr. Hamilton bid Mr. Townsend good-night, and a
+moment after he overtook me.</p>
+
+<p>'You are out late to-night, Miss Garston. Do you always mean to play
+truant from evening service?'</p>
+
+<p>I told him how I had spent my time, but I suppose my voice betrayed
+inward fatigue, for he said, rather kindly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'This sort of work does not suit you; you are looking quite pale this
+evening. You must not let your feelings exhaust you. I am sorry for
+Phoebe myself, but she is a very tiresome patient. Do you think you have
+made any impression on her?'</p>
+
+<p>He seemed rather astonished when I briefly mentioned the subject of our
+talk.</p>
+
+<p>'Did she tell you about herself? Come, you have made great progress. Let
+her get rid of some of the poison that seems to choke her, and then there
+will be some chance of doing her good. She has taken a great fancy to
+you, that is evident; and, if you will allow me to say so, I think you
+are just the person to influence her.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is a very difficult piece of work,' I returned; but he changed the
+subject so abruptly that I felt convinced that he knew how utterly jaded
+I was. He told me a humorous anecdote about a child that made me laugh,
+and when we reached the gate of the cottage he bade me, rather
+peremptorily, put away all worrying thoughts and to go to bed, which
+piece of advice I followed as meekly as possible, after first reading
+a passage out of my favourite <i>Thomas &agrave; Kempis</i>; but I thought of Phoebe
+all the time I was reading it:</p>
+
+<p>'The cross, therefore, is always ready, and everywhere waits for thee.
+Thou canst not escape it wheresoever thou runnest; for wheresoever thou
+goest, thou carriest thyself with thee and shalt ever find thyself.... If
+thou bear the cross cheerfully, it will bear thee, and lead thee to the
+desired end, namely, where there shall be an end of suffering, though
+here there shall not be. If thou bear it unwillingly, thou makest for
+thyself a (new) burden, and increasest thy load, and yet,
+notwithstanding, thou must bear it.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>LADY BETTY</h3>
+
+
+<p>The next evening I was refused admittance to Phoebe's room. Miss Locke
+met me at the door, looking more depressed than usual, and asked me to
+follow her into the kitchen, where we found Kitty in the rocking-chair by
+the hearth, dressing her new doll.</p>
+
+<p>'It is just as she treated the vicar and Mr. Tudor,' she observed
+disconsolately. 'I don't quite know what ails her to-day; she had a
+beautiful night, and slept like a baby, and when I took her breakfast to
+her she put her arms round my neck and asked me to kiss her,&mdash;a thing she
+has not done for a year or more; and she went on for a long time about
+how bad she had been to me, and wanting me to forgive her and make it up
+with her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well?' I demanded, rather impatiently, as Susan wiped her patient eyes
+and took up her sewing.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, poor lamb! I told her I would forgive her anything and everything
+if she would only let me go on with my work, for I had Mrs. Druce's
+mourning to finish; but she would not let me stir for a long time, and
+cried so bitterly&mdash;though she says she never can cry&mdash;that I thought of
+sending for you or Dr. Hamilton. But she cried more when I mentioned you,
+and said, No, she would not see you; you had left her more miserable than
+she was before: and she made me promise to send you away if you came this
+evening, which I am loath to do after all your kindness to her.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have brought her some fresh flowers this evening,' was my reply. 'Do
+not distress yourself, Miss Locke; we must expect Phoebe to be contrary
+sometimes.' And the words came to my mind, "And ofttimes it casteth him
+into the fire, and oft into the water." 'You have discharged your duty,
+but I am not going just yet. Let me help you with that work. I am very
+fond of sewing, and that is a nice easy piece. Shall you mind if I sing
+to you and Kitty a little?'</p>
+
+<p>I need not have asked the question when I saw the fretted look pass from
+Miss Locke's face.</p>
+
+<p>'It is the greatest pleasure Kitty and I have, next to going to church,'
+she said humbly. 'Your voice does sound so sweet; it soothes like a
+lullaby. It is my belief,' speaking under her breath so that the child
+should not hear her, 'that she is just trying to punish herself by
+sending you away.'</p>
+
+<p>I thought perhaps this might be the case, for who could understand all
+the perversities of a diseased mind? But if Phoebe's will was strong for
+evil, mine was stronger still to overcome her for her own good. I was
+determined on two things: first, that I would not leave the house without
+seeing her; and, secondly, that nothing should induce me to stay with her
+after this reception. She must be disciplined to civility at all costs.
+Max had been wrong to yield to her sick whims.</p>
+
+<p>I must have sung for a long time, to judge by the amount of work I
+contrived to do, and if I had sung like a whole nestful of skylarks I
+could not have pleased my audience more. I was sorry to set Miss Locke's
+tears flowing, because it hindered her work; tears are such a simple
+luxury, but poor folk cannot always afford to indulge in them.</p>
+
+<p>I had just commenced that beautiful song, 'Waft her, angels, through the
+air,' when the impatient thumping of a stick on the floor arrested me; it
+came from Phoebe's room.</p>
+
+<p>'I will go to her,' I said, waving Miss Locke back and picking up my
+flowers. 'Do not look so scared: she means those knocks for me.' And I
+was right in my surmise. I found her lying very quietly, with the traces
+of tears still on her face; she addressed me quite gently.</p>
+
+<p>'Do not sing any more, please; I cannot bear it; it makes my heart ache
+too much to-night.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well,' I returned cheerfully. 'I will just mend your fire, for it
+is getting low, and put these flowers in water, and then I will bid you
+good-night.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are vexed with me for being rude,' she said, almost timidly. 'I told
+Susan to send you away, because I could not bear any more talk. You made
+me so unhappy yesterday, Miss Garston.'</p>
+
+<p>I was cruel enough to tell her that I was glad to hear it, and I must
+have looked as though I meant it.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, don't,' she said, shrinking as though I had dealt her a blow. 'I
+want you to unsay those words: they pierce me like thorns. Please tell me
+you did not mean them.'</p>
+
+<p>'How can I know to what you are alluding?' I replied, in rather an
+unsympathetic tone; but I did not intend to be soft with her to-day: she
+had treated me badly and must repent her ingratitude. 'I certainly meant
+every word I said yesterday,'</p>
+
+<p>To my great surprise, she burst into tears, and repeated word for word
+a fragment of a sentence that I had said.</p>
+
+<p>'It haunts me, Miss Garston, and frightens me somehow. I have been saying
+it over and over in my dreams,&mdash;that is what upset me so to-day: "if we
+will not lie still under His hand,"&mdash;yes, you said that, knowing I have
+never lain still for a moment,&mdash;"and if we will not learn the lesson He
+would fain teach us, it may be that fresh trials may be sent to humble
+us."'</p>
+
+<p>Pity kept me silent for a moment, but I knew that I must not shirk my
+work.</p>
+
+<p>'I am sorry if the truth pains you, Phoebe, but it is no less the truth.
+How am I to look at you and think that God has finished His work?'</p>
+
+<p>She put up both her hands and motioned me away with almost a face of
+horror, but I took no notice. I arranged the flowers and tended the fire,
+and then offered her some cooling drink, which she did not refuse, and
+then I bade her good-night.</p>
+
+<p>'What!' she exclaimed, 'are you going to leave me like that, and not a
+word to soothe me, after making me so unhappy? Think of the long night I
+have to go through.'</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind the length of the night, if only you can hear His voice in
+the darkness. You wanted to send me away, Phoebe; well, and to-morrow I
+shall not come; I shall stay at home and rest myself. You can send me
+away, and little harm will happen; but take care you do not send Him
+away.' And I left the room.</p>
+
+<p>When I told Miss Locke that I was not coming the next evening she looked
+frightened. 'Has my poor Phoebe offended you so badly, then?' she asked
+tremulously.</p>
+
+<p>'I am not offended at all,' I replied; 'but Phoebe has need to learn
+all sorts of painful lessons. I shall have all the warmer welcome on
+Wednesday, after leaving her to herself a little.' But Miss Locke only
+shook her head at this.</p>
+
+<p>The next day was so lovely that I promised myself the indulgence of a
+long country walk; there was a pretty village about two miles from
+Heathfield that I longed to see again. But my little plan was frustrated,
+for just as I was starting I heard Tinker bark furiously; a moment
+afterwards there was a rush and scuffle, followed by a shriek in a
+girlish treble; in another moment I had seized my umbrella and flown to
+the door. There was a fight going on between Tinker and a large black
+retriever, and a little lady in brown was wandering round them,
+helplessly wringing her hands, and crying, 'Oh, Nap! poor Nap!'</p>
+
+<p>I took her for a child the first moment, she was so very small. 'Do not
+be frightened, my dear,' I said soothingly, 'I will make Tinker behave
+himself.' And a well-aimed blow from my umbrella made him draw off
+growling. In another moment I had him by the collar, and by dint of
+threats and coaxing contrived to shut him up in the kitchen. He was not
+a quarrelsome dog generally, but, as I heard afterwards, Nap was an old
+antagonist; they had once fallen out about Peter, and had never been
+friends since.</p>
+
+<p>I found the little brown girl sitting in the porch with her arms round
+the retriever's neck; she was kissing his black face, and begging him to
+forget the insult he had received from that horrid Barton dog.</p>
+
+<p>'Poor old Tinker is not horrid at all, I assure you,' I said, laughing;
+'he is a dear fellow, and I am already very fond of him.'</p>
+
+<p>'But he nearly killed Nap,' she returned, with a little frown; 'he is
+worse than a savage, for he has no notion of hospitality. Nap and I came
+to call,' rising with an air of great dignity. 'I suppose you are Miss
+Garston. I am Lady Betty.'</p>
+
+<p>I had never heard of such a person in Heathfield; but of course Uncle Max
+would enlighten me. As I looked at her more closely I saw my mistake in
+thinking she was a child; little brown thing as she was, she was fully
+grown up, and, though not in the least pretty, had a bright piquant face,
+a <i>nest retrouss&eacute;</i>, and a pair of mischievous eyes.</p>
+
+<p>She was dressed rather extravagantly in a brown velvet walking-dress,
+with an absurd little hat, that would have fitted a child, on the top of
+her dark wavy hair; she only wanted a touch of red about her to look like
+a magnified robin-redbreast.</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' she said impatiently, as I hesitated a moment in my surprise,
+'I have told you we have come for a call, Nap and I; but if you are going
+out&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, that is not the least consequence,' I returned, waking up to a sense
+of my duty. 'I am very pleased to see you and Nap; but you must not stop
+any longer in this cold porch; the wind is rather cutting. There is a
+nice fire in my parlour.' And I led the way in.</p>
+
+<p>I was rather puzzled about Nap, for I seemed to recognise his sleek head
+and mild brown eyes; and yet where could I have seen him? He trotted in
+contentedly after his mistress, and stretched himself out on the rug
+Tinker's fashion; but Lady Betty, instead of seating herself, began to
+walk round the room and inspect my books and china, making remarks upon
+everything in a brisk voice, and questioning me in rather an inquisitive
+manner about sundry things that attracted her notice; but, to my great
+surprise and relief, she passed Charlie's picture without remark or
+comment&mdash;only I saw her glancing at it now and then from under her long
+lashes. This mystified me a little; but I thought her whole behaviour a
+little peculiar. I had never before seen callers on their first visit
+perambulating the room like polar bears, or throwing out curious feelers
+everywhere. As a rule, they sat up stiffly enough and discussed the
+weather.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Betty was evidently a character; most likely she prided herself on
+being unlike other people. I was just beginning to wish that she would
+sit down and let me question her in my turn, when she suddenly put up her
+eye-glasses and burst into a most musical little laugh.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, do come here, Miss Garston; this is too amusing! There goes her
+majesty Gladys of Gladwyn, accompanied by her prime minister. Don't they
+look as though they were walking in the Row?&mdash;heads up&mdash;everything in
+perfect trim! They are coming to call&mdash;yes!&mdash;no!&mdash;They are going to the
+Cockaignes first. What an escape! my dear creature, if they come here I
+shall fly to Mrs. Barton. The prime minister's airs will be too much for
+my gravity.'</p>
+
+<p>I gave her a very divided attention, for I was watching Miss Hamilton and
+her companion with much interest. I could see that Miss Darrell was
+chatting volubly; but Miss Hamilton's face looked as grave and impassive
+as it had looked on Sunday. When they had passed out of sight I turned to
+Lady Betty rather eagerly; she had dropped her eye-glasses, but an amused
+smile still played round her lips.</p>
+
+<p>'<i>La belle cousine</i> is improving the occasion as usual. Poor Gladys, how
+bored she looks! but there is no escape for her this afternoon, for the
+prime minister has her in tow. I wonder from what text she is preaching?
+Ezekiel's dry bones, I should think, from her majesty's face.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know the Hamiltons of Gladwyn very intimately?' I asked
+innocently; but I grew rather out of patience when Lady Betty
+first lifted her eye-glass and stared at me, with the air of a
+non-comprehending kitten, and then buried her face in a very fluffy
+little muff in a fit of uncontrolled merriment.</p>
+
+<p>I was provoked by this, and determined not to say a word. So presently
+she came out of her muff and asked me, with mirthful eyes, for whom I
+took her.</p>
+
+<p>'You are Lady Betty, I understood,' was my stiff response.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, of course; every one calls me that, except the vicar, who will
+address me as Miss Elizabeth. I never will answer to that name; I hate it
+so. The servants up at Gladwyn never dare to use it. I would get Etta to
+dismiss them if they did. Is it not a shame that people should not have a
+voice in the matter of their name,&mdash;that helpless infants should be
+abandoned to the tender mercies of some old fogey of a sponsor? Miss
+Garston, if I were ever to hear you address me by that name it would be
+the death-warrant to our friendship.'</p>
+
+<p>'Let me know who you really are first, and then I will promise not to
+offend your peculiar prejudice.'</p>
+
+<p>'Dear me!' she answered pettishly, 'you talk just like Giles. He often
+laughs at me and makes himself very unpleasant. But then, as I often tell
+him, philanthropists are not pleasant people with whom to live; a man
+with a hobby is always odious. Well, Miss Garston, if you will be so
+prying, my name is Elizabeth Grant Hamilton; only from a baby I have been
+called Lady Betty.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall remember,' I replied quietly, for really the little thing seemed
+quite ruffled. This was evidently more than a whim on her part. 'It would
+have seemed to me a liberty to use a family pet name. But of course if
+you wish me to do so&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'I do wish it,' rather peremptorily. 'That is partly why Mr. Cunliffe and
+I are not good friends,&mdash;that, and other reasons.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I am sorry you do not like Uncle Max,' I said, rather impulsively;
+but she drew herself up after the manner of an aggrieved pigeon. She was
+rather like a bright-eyed bird, with her fluffy hair and quick movements.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I like him well enough, but I do not understand him. Men are not
+easy to understand. He is quiet, but he is disappointing. We must not
+expect perfection in this world,' finished the little lady sententiously.</p>
+
+<p>'I have never met any one half as good as Uncle Max,' was my warm retort.
+'He is the most unselfish of men.'</p>
+
+<p>'Unselfish men make mistakes sometimes,' she returned drily. 'Giles and
+he are great friends. He is up at Gladwyn a great deal; so is Mr. Tudor.
+Mr. Tudor is not a finished character, but he has good points, and one
+can tolerate him. There, how vexing, we were just beginning to talk
+comfortably, and I see the shadow of her majesty's gown at the gate.
+Come, Nap, we must fly to Mrs. Barton's for refuge. <i>Au revoir</i>, Miss
+Garston.' And, kissing her little gloved hand, this strangest of Lady
+Betties vanished, followed by the obedient Nap.</p>
+
+<p>My pulses quickened a little at the prospect of seeing the beautiful face
+of Gladys Hamilton in my little room; but it was not she who entered
+first, but Miss Darrell, whose sharp incisive glance had taken in every
+detail of my surroundings before her faultlessly-gloved hand had released
+mine; and even when I turned to greet Miss Hamilton, her peculiar and
+somewhat toneless voice claimed my attention.</p>
+
+<p>'How very fortunate,' she began, seating herself with elaborate caution
+with her back to the light. 'We hardly hoped to find you at home, Miss
+Garston. My cousin Giles informed us how much engaged you were. We have
+been so interested in what Mr. Cunliffe told us about it. It is such a
+romantic scheme, and, as I am a very romantic person, you may be sure of
+my sympathy. Gladys, dear, is this not a charming room? Positively you
+have so altered and beautified it that I can hardly believe it is the
+same room. I told a friend of ours, Mrs. Saunders, that it would never
+suit her, as it was such a shabby little place.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is very nice,' returned Miss Hamilton quietly. 'I hope,' fixing her
+large, beautiful eyes on me, 'that you are comfortable here? We thought
+perhaps you might be a little dull.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have no time to be dull,' I returned, smiling, but Miss Darrell
+interrupted me.</p>
+
+<p>'No, of course not; busy people are never dull. I told you so, Gladys, as
+we walked up the road. Depend upon it, I said, Miss Garston will hardly
+have a minute to give to our idle chatter. She will be wanting to get to
+her sick people, and wish us at Hanover. Still, as my cousin Giles said,
+we must do the right thing and call, though I am sure you are not a
+conventional person; neither am I. Oh, we are quite kindred souls here.'</p>
+
+<p>I tried to receive this speech in good part, but I certainly protested
+inwardly against the notion that Miss Darrell and I would ever be kindred
+souls. I felt an instinctive repugnance to her voice; its want of tone
+jarred on me; and all the time she talked, her hard, bright eyes seemed
+to dart restlessly from Miss Hamilton to me. I felt sure that nothing
+could escape their scrutiny; but now and then, when one looked at her in
+return, she seemed to veil them most curiously under the long curling
+lashes.</p>
+
+<p>She was rather an elegant-looking woman, but her face was decidedly
+plain. She had thin lips and rather a square jaw, and her sallow
+complexion lacked colour. One could not guess her age exactly, but she
+might have been three-or four-and-thirty. I heard her spoken of
+afterwards as a very interesting-looking person; certainly her figure
+was fine, and she knew how to dress herself,&mdash;a very useful art when
+women have no claim to beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Darrell's voluble tongue seemed to touch on every subject. Miss
+Hamilton sat perfectly silent, and I had not a chance of addressing her.
+Once, when I looked at her, I could see her eyes were fixed on my
+darling's picture. She was gazing at it with an air of absorbed
+melancholy: her lips were firmly closed, and her hands lay folded in
+her lap.</p>
+
+<p>'That is the picture of my twin-brother,' I said softly, to arouse her.</p>
+
+<p>To my surprise, she turned paler than ever, and her lips quivered.</p>
+
+<p>'Your twin brother, yes; and you have lost him?' But here Miss Darrell
+chimed in again:</p>
+
+<p>'How very interesting! What a blessing photography is, to be sure? Do you
+take well, Miss Garston? They make me a perfect fright. I tell my cousins
+that nothing on earth will induce me to try another sitting. Why should I
+endure such a martyrdom, if it be not to give pleasure to my friends?'</p>
+
+<p>To my surprise, Miss Hamilton's voice interrupted her: it was a little
+like her step-brother's voice, and had a slight hesitation that was not
+in the least unpleasant. She spoke rather slowly: at least it seemed so
+by comparison with Miss Darrell's quick sentences.</p>
+
+<p>'Etta, we have not done what Giles told us. We hope you will come and
+dine with us to-morrow. Miss Garston, without any ceremony.'</p>
+
+<p>'Dear me, how careless of me!' broke in Miss Darrell, but her forehead
+contracted a little, as though her cousin's speech annoyed her. 'Giles
+gave the message to me, but we were talking so fast that I quite forgot
+it. My cousin will have it that you are dull, and our society may cheer
+you up. I do not hold with Giles. I think you are far too superior a
+person to be afraid of a little solitude; strong-minded people like you
+are generally fond of their own society; but all the same I hope you do
+not mean to be quite a recluse.'</p>
+
+<p>'We dine at seven, but I hope you will come as much earlier as you like,'
+interposed Miss Hamilton. 'No one will be with us but Mr. Tudor.'</p>
+
+<p>'You forget Mr. Cunliffe, Gladys,' observed Miss Darrell, in rather a
+sharp voice. 'I am sure I do not know what the poor man has done to
+offend you; but ever since last summer&mdash;' But here Miss Hamilton rose
+with a gesture that was almost queenly, and her impassive face looked
+graver than ever.</p>
+
+<p>'I did not know you had invited Mr. Cunliffe, Etta, or I should certainly
+have mentioned him. Good-bye, Miss Garston: we shall look for you soon
+after six.'</p>
+
+<p>There was something wistful in her expression; it seemed as though she
+wanted me to come, and yet I was a complete stranger to her. I felt very
+reluctant to dine at Gladwyn, but that look overruled me.</p>
+
+<p>'I will try to come early,' was my answer, and then I drew back to let
+them pass.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Darrell bade me good-bye a little stiffly; something had evidently
+put her out. As they went down the narrow garden path I could see she was
+speaking to Miss Hamilton rather angrily, but Miss Hamilton seemed to
+take no notice.</p>
+
+<p>What did it all mean? I wondered; and then I suddenly bethought myself of
+my other visitor. I had wholly forgotten her existence in my interest in
+her beautiful sister. What could have become of Lady Betty?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>LADY BETTY LEAVES HER MUFF</h3>
+
+
+<p>This question was speedily answered.</p>
+
+<p>The gate had scarcely closed behind my visitors when I heard a gay little
+laugh behind me, and Lady Betty tripped across the passage and took
+possession of the easy-chair in the friendliest way.</p>
+
+<p>'Now we can have a chat and be cosy all by ourselves,' she said, with
+childish glee; and then she stopped and looked at me, and her rosy little
+mouth began to pout, and a sort of baby frown came to her forehead.</p>
+
+<p>'You don't seem pleased to see me again. Shall I go away? Are you busy,
+or tired, or is there anything the matter?' asked Lady Betty, in an
+extremely fractious voice.</p>
+
+<p>'There is nothing the matter, and I am delighted to see you, and'&mdash;with a
+sudden inspiration&mdash;'if you will be good enough to stay and have tea with
+me I will ask Mrs. Barton to send in one of her excellent tea-cakes.'</p>
+
+<p>This was evidently what Lady Betty wanted, for she nodded and took off
+her hat, and began to unbutton her long tan-coloured gloves in a cool,
+business-like way that amused me. I ran across to the kitchen, and gave
+Mrs. Barton a <i>carte blanche</i> for a sumptuous tea, and when I returned I
+found Lady Betty quite divested of her walking-apparel, and patting her
+dark fluffy hair to reduce it to some degree of smoothness. She had a
+pretty little head, and it was covered by a mass of short curly hair that
+nothing would reduce to order.</p>
+
+<p>'This is just what I like,' she said promptly. 'When Giles told us about
+you, and I made up my mind to call, I hoped you would ask me to stay. I
+do dislike stiffness and conventionality excessively. I hope you mean to
+be friends with us, Miss Garston, for I have taken rather a fancy to you,
+in spite of your grave looks. Dear me! do you always look so grave?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no,' I returned, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>'That is right,' with an approving nod; 'you look ever so much nicer and
+younger when you smile. Well, what did the prime minister say? Was she
+very gushing and sympathetic? Did she patronise you in a ladylike way,
+and pat you on the head metaphorically, until you felt ready to box her
+ears? Ah! I know <i>la belle cousine's</i> little ways.'</p>
+
+<p>This was so exact a description of my conversation with Miss Darrell that
+I laughed in a rather guilty fashion. Lady Betty clapped her hands
+delightfully.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I have found you out. You are not a bit solemn, really, only you put
+on the airs of a sister of mercy. So you don't like Etta; you need not be
+afraid of telling me so; she is the greatest humbug in the world, only
+Giles is so foolish as to believe in her. I call her a humbug because she
+pretends to be what she is not; she is really a most prosaic sort of
+person, and she wants to make people believe that she is a soft romantic
+body.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are not very charitable in your estimate of your cousin, Lady
+Betty,'</p>
+
+<p>'Then she should not lead Gladys such a life. Poor dear majesty, to be
+ruled by her prime minister! I should like to see Etta try to dictate to
+me. Why, I should laugh in her face. She would not attempt it again. I
+can't think how it is,' looking a little grave, 'that she has Gladys so
+completely under her thumb. Gladys is too proud to own that she is afraid
+of her, but all the same she never dares to act in opposition to Etta.'</p>
+
+<p>Lady Betty's confidence was rather embarrassing, but I hardly knew how to
+check it. I began to think the household at Gladwyn must be a very queer
+one. Uncle Max had already hinted at a want of harmony between Mr.
+Hamilton and his step-sisters, and Miss Darrell seemed hardly a favourite
+with him, although he was too kind-hearted to say so openly.</p>
+
+<p>'Has your cousin lived long with you?' I ventured to ask.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; ever since Gladys and I were little things; before mamma died.
+Auntie lived with us too: poor auntie, we were very fond of her, but she
+was a sad invalid; she died about three years ago. Etta has managed
+everything ever since.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean that Miss Darrell is housekeeper? I should have thought that
+would have been your sister's place.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Gladys is called the mistress of her house, but none of the servants
+go to her for orders. If she gives any, Etta is sure to countermand
+them,'</p>
+
+<p>'It is partly Gladys's fault,' went on Lady Betty, in her frank outspoken
+way. 'She tried for a little while to manage things; but either she was a
+terribly bad housekeeper, or Etta undermined her influence in the house;
+everything went wrong, and Giles got so angry,&mdash;men do, you know, when
+the dear creatures' comforts are invaded: so there was a great fuss, and
+Gladys gave it up; and now the prime minister manages the finances, and
+gives out stores, and, though I hate to say it, things never went more
+smoothly than they do now. Giles is scarcely ever vexed.'</p>
+
+<p>I am ashamed to say how much I was interested in Lady Betty's childish
+talk, and yet I knew it was wrong not to check her. What would Miss
+Hamilton say if she were to hear of our conversation? Jill was rather
+a reckless talker, but she was nothing compared with this daring little
+creature. Lady Betty told me afterwards, when we were better acquainted,
+that it had amused her so to see how widely I could open my eyes when I
+was surprised. I believe she did it out of pure mischief.</p>
+
+<p>Our talk was happily interrupted by the appearance of Mrs. Barton and the
+tea-tray, which at once turned Lady Betty's thoughts into a new channel.</p>
+
+<p>There was so much to do. First she must help to arrange the table, and,
+as no one else could cut such thin bread-and-butter, she must try her
+hand at that. Then Nap must have his tea before we touched ours; and when
+at last we did sit down she was praising the cake, and jumping up for the
+kettle, and waiting upon me 'because I was a dear good thing, and waited
+on poor people,' and coaxing me to take this or that as though I were her
+guest, and every now and then she paused to say 'how nice and cosy it
+was,' and how she was enjoying herself, and how glad she felt to miss
+that stupid dinner at Gladwyn, where no one talked but Giles and Etta,
+and Gladys sat as though she were half asleep, until she, Lady Betty,
+felt inclined to pinch them all.</p>
+
+<p>We were approaching the dangerous subject again, but I warded it off by
+asking how she and her sister employed their time.</p>
+
+<p>She made a little face at me, as though the question bothered her. 'Oh,
+I do things, and Gladys&mdash;does things,' rather lucidly.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, but what things, may I ask?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why do you want to know?' was the unexpected retort. 'I don't question
+you, do I? Giles says women are dreadfully curious.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think you are dreadfully mysterious; but, as you are evidently ashamed
+of your occupations, I will withdraw my question.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do believe you are cross, Miss Garston: you are not a saint, after
+all, though Giles says you sing like a cherub: I don't know where he ever
+heard one, but that is his affair. Well, as you choose to get pettish
+over it, I will be amiable, and tell you what we do. Etta says we waste
+our time dreadfully, but as it is our time and not hers, it is none of
+her business.'</p>
+
+<p>I thought it prudent to remain silent, so she wrinkled her brows and
+looked perplexed.</p>
+
+<p>'Gladys&mdash;let me see what Gladys does: well, she used to teach in the
+schools, but she does not teach now; she says the infants make her
+head ache; that is why she has dropped the Sunday-school. Now Etta
+has her class. Then there was the mothers' meeting; well, I never
+knew why she gave that up,&mdash;I wonder if she knows herself,&mdash;but Etta
+has got it. And she has left off singing at the penny readings and
+village entertainments; Etta would have replaced her there, only she has
+no voice. I think she works a little for the poor people at the East End
+of London, but she does it in her own room, because Etta laughs at her
+and calls her 'Madam Charity.' Gladys hates that. She takes long walks,
+and sketches a little, and reads a good deal; and&mdash;there, that is all I
+know of her majesty's doings.'</p>
+
+<p>Poor Miss Hamilton! it certainly did not sound much of a life.</p>
+
+<p>'And about yourself, Lady Betty?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Lady Betty is here, there, and everywhere,' mimicking me in a droll
+way. 'Lady Betty walks a little, talks a little, plays a little, and
+dances when she gets a chance. At present, lawn-tennis is a great object
+in her life; last winter, swimming in Brill's bath and riding from Hove
+to Kemp Town or across the Brighton Downs were her hobbies. In the summer
+a gardening craze seized her, and just now she is in an idle mood. What
+does it matter? a short life and a merry one,&mdash;eh, Miss Garston?'</p>
+
+<p>I would not expostulate with this civilised little heathen, for she was
+evidently bent on provoking a lecture, and I determined to disappoint
+her. We had sat so long over our tea that the room was quite dark, and I
+rose to kindle the lamp. Lady Betty, as usual, was anxious to assist me,
+and went to the window to lower the blind. The next moment I heard an
+exclamation of annoyance, and as she came back to the table her little
+brown face was all aglow with some suppressed irritation.</p>
+
+<p>'What is the matter, Lady Betty?' I asked, in some surprise.</p>
+
+<p>'It is that provoking Etta again,' she began. 'She has guessed where I
+am, and has sent for me, the meddlesome old&mdash;' But here a tap at our room
+door stopped her outburst.</p>
+
+<p>As Lady Betty made no response, I said, 'Come in,' and immediately a
+respectable-looking woman appeared in the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>She looked like a superior lady's-maid, and had a plain face much marked
+by the smallpox, and rather dull light-coloured eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Leah,' demanded Lady Betty, rather sulkily, 'what is your business
+with Miss Garston?'</p>
+
+<p>'My business is with you, Lady Betty,' returned the woman
+good-humouredly. 'Master came in just now and asked where you were;
+I think he told Miss Darrell that it was too late for you to be out
+walking: so Miss Darrell said she believed you were at the White Cottage,
+for she saw your muff lying on Miss Garston's table; so she told me to
+step up here, as it was too dark for you to walk alone, and I was to tell
+you that they would be waiting dinner.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is just like her interference,' muttered Lady Betty. 'But I suppose
+there would be a pretty fuss if I let the dinner spoil. Help me on with
+my jacket, Leah; as you have come when no one wanted you, you had better
+make yourself useful.'</p>
+
+<p>She spoke with the peremptoriness of a spoiled child, but the woman
+smiled pleasantly and did as she was bid. She seemed a civil sort of
+person, evidently an old family servant. Something had struck me in her
+speech. Miss Darrell had seen Lady Betty's muff, and knew of her presence
+in the cottage, and yet she had made no remark on the subject; this
+seemed strange, but would she not wonder still more at my silence?</p>
+
+<p>'Lady Betty,' I said hastily, as this occurred to me, 'your cousin will
+think it odd that I never spoke of you this afternoon; but you ran out of
+the room so quickly, and then I forgot all about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Etta will know I was only playing at hide-and-seek. Most likely she
+will think I bound you to secrecy. What a goose I was to leave my muff
+behind me,&mdash;the very one Etta gave me, too! why, she would see a pin;
+nothing escapes her: does it, Leah?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not much, Lady Betty: she has fine eyes for dust, I tell her. The new
+housemaid had better be careful with her room. Now, ma'am, if you are
+ready?'</p>
+
+<p>'Good-bye, Miss Garston; we shall meet to-morrow,' returned Lady Betty,
+standing on tiptoe to kiss me, and as they went out I heard her say in
+quite a friendly manner to Leah, as though she had already forgotten her
+grievance,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Is not Miss Garston nice, Leah? She has got such a kind face.' But I did
+not hear Leah's reply.</p>
+
+<p>I had not seen the last of my visitors, for about an hour afterwards, as
+I was finishing a long chatty letter to Jill, there was the sharp click
+of the gate again, and Uncle Max came in.</p>
+
+<p>'Are you busy, Ursula?' he said apologetically, as I looked up in some
+surprise. 'I only called in as I was passing. I am going on to the
+Myers's: old Mr. Myers is ill and wants to see me.' But for all that
+Max drew his accustomed chair to the fire, and looked at the blazing
+pine-knot a little dreamily.</p>
+
+<p>'You keep good fires,' was his next remark. 'It is very cold to-night:
+there is a touch of frost in the air; Tudor was saying so just now. So
+you have had the ladies from Gladwyn here this afternoon?'</p>
+
+<p>'How do you know that?' I asked, in a sharp pouncing voice, for I was
+keeping that bit of news for a tidbit.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I met them,' he returned absently, 'and they told me that you were
+to dine with them to-morrow. I call that nice and friendly, asking you
+without ceremony. What time shall you be ready, Ursula? for of course I
+shall not let you go alone the first time.'</p>
+
+<p>I was glad to hear this, for, though I was not a shy person, my first
+visit to Gladwyn would be a little formidable; so I told him briefly that
+I would be ready by half-past six, as they wished me to go early, and it
+would never do to be formal on my side. And then I gave him an account of
+Lady Betty's visit, but it did not seem to interest him much: in fact, I
+do not believe that he listened very attentively.</p>
+
+<p>'She is an odd little being,' he said, rather absently, 'and prides
+herself on being as unconventional as possible. They have spoiled her
+among them, Hamilton especially, but her droll ways amuse him. She has
+sulked with me lately because I will not give in to her absurd fad about
+Lady Betty. I tell her that she ought not to be ashamed of her baptismal
+name; the angels will call her by it one day.'</p>
+
+<p>'She is very amusing. I think I shall like her, Max; but Miss Darrell
+does not please me. She is far too gushing and talkative for my taste;
+she patronised and repressed me in the same breath. If there is anything
+I dislike, it is to be patted on the head by a stranger.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Hamilton did not pat you on the head, I suppose.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Hamilton! Oh dear, no; she is of another calibre. I have quite
+fallen in love with her: her face is perfect, only rather too pale, and
+her manners are so gentle, and yet she has plenty of dignity; she reminds
+me of Clytie, only her expression is not so contented and restful: she
+looks far too melancholy for a girl of her age.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pshaw!' he said, rather impatiently, but I noticed he looked
+uncomfortable. 'What can have put such ideas in your head?&mdash;you have
+only seen her twice: you could not expect her to smile in church.'</p>
+
+<p>Max seemed so thoroughly put out by my remark that I thought it better
+to qualify my speech. 'Most likely Miss Darrell had been nagging at her.'</p>
+
+<p>His face cleared up directly. 'Depend upon it, that was the reason she
+looked so grave,' he said, with an air of relief. 'Miss Darrell can say
+ill-tempered things sometimes. Miss Hamilton is never as lively as Miss
+Elizabeth; she is always quiet and thoughtful; some girls are like that,
+they are not sparkling and frothy.'</p>
+
+<p>I let him think that I accepted this statement as gospel, but in my heart
+I thought I had never seen a sadder face than that of Gladys Hamilton; to
+me it looked absolutely joyless, as though some strange blight had fallen
+on her youth. I kept these thoughts to myself, like a wise woman, and
+when Max looked at me rather searchingly, as though he expected a verbal
+assent, I said, 'Yes, you are right, some girls are like that,' and left
+him to glean my meaning out of this parrot-like sentence.</p>
+
+<p>I could make nothing of Max this evening: he seemed restless and ill at
+ease; now and then he fell into a brown study and roused himself with
+difficulty. I was almost glad when he took his leave at last, for I had
+a feeling somehow&mdash;and a curious feeling it was&mdash;that we were talking at
+cross-purposes, and that our speeches seemed to be lost hopelessly in a
+mental fog; the cipher to our meaning seemed missing.</p>
+
+<p>But he bade me good-night as affectionately as though I had done him a
+world of good: and when he had gone I sat down to my piano and sang all
+my old favourite songs, until the lateness of the hour warned me to
+extinguish my lamp and retire to bed.</p>
+
+<p>I was just sinking into a sweet sleep when I heard Nathaniel's voice
+bidding some one good-night, and in another moment I could hear firm
+quick footsteps down the gravel walk, followed by Nap's joyous bark.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton had been in the house all the time I had been amusing
+myself. I do not know why the idea annoyed me so. 'How I wish he would
+keep away sometimes!' I thought fretfully. 'He will think I am practising
+for to-morrow: I will not sing if they press me to do so.' And with this
+ill-natured resolve I fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p>My dinner-engagement obliged me to go to Phoebe quite early in the
+afternoon. Miss Locke looked surprised as she opened the door, but she
+greeted me with a pleased smile.</p>
+
+<p>'Phoebe will hardly be looking for you yet,' she said, leading the way
+into the kitchen in the evident expectation of a chat; 'she did finely
+yesterday in spite of her missing you; when I went in to her in the
+morning she quite took my breath away by asking if there were not an
+easier chair in the house for you to use. "'Deed and there is, Phoebe,
+woman," said I, quite pleased, for the poor thing is far too
+uncomfortable herself to look after other people's comforts, and it was
+such a new thing to hear her speak like that: so I fetched father's big
+elbow-chair with a cushion or two and his little wooden footstool, and
+there it stands ready for you this afternoon.'</p>
+
+<p>'That was very thoughtful of Phoebe,' was my reply.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, now, I thought you would be pleased, though it is only a trifle.
+But that is not all. Widow Drayton was sitting with me last afternoon,
+when all at once she puts up her finger and says, "Hark! Is not that your
+Kitty's voice?" And so I stole out into the passage to listen. And there,
+to be sure, was Kitty singing most beautifully some of the hymns you sang
+to Phoebe; and if she could not make out all the words she just went on
+with the tune, like a little bird, and Phoebe lay and listened to her,
+and all the time&mdash;as I could see through the crack of the door&mdash;her eyes
+were fixed on the picture you gave her, and I said to myself, "Phoebe,
+woman, this is as it should be. You may yet learn wisdom out of the lips
+of babes and sucklings."'</p>
+
+<p>'I am very glad to hear all this, Miss Locke,' I returned cheerfully.
+'Kitty will be able to take my place sometimes. She will be a valuable
+little ally. Now, as my time is limited, I will go to Phoebe.'</p>
+
+<p>I was much struck by the changed expression on Phoebe's face as soon
+as I had entered the room. She certainly looked very ill, and when I
+questioned her avowed she had suffered a good deal of pain in the night;
+but the wild hard look had left her eyes. There was intense depression,
+but that was all.</p>
+
+<p>She evidently enjoyed the singing as much as ever: and I took care to
+sing my best. When I had finished I produced a story that I thought
+suitable, and began to read to her. She listened for about half an hour
+before she showed a symptom of weariness. At the first sign I stopped.</p>
+
+<p>'Will you do something to please me in return?' I asked, when she had
+thanked me very civilly. 'I want you to go on with this book by yourself
+now. I know what you are going to say&mdash;that you never read&mdash;that it makes
+your head ache and tires you. But, if you care to please me, you will
+waive all these objections, and we can talk over the story to-morrow.'
+Then I told her about my invitation for this evening, and about the
+beautiful Miss Hamilton, whose sweet face had interested me. And when we
+had chatted quite comfortably for a little while I rose to take my leave.</p>
+
+<p>Of course she could not let me go without one sharp little word.</p>
+
+<p>'You have been kinder to me to-day,' she said, pausing slightly. 'I
+suppose that is because I let you take your own way with me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Every one likes his own way,' I said lightly. 'If I have been kinder to
+you, as you say, possibly it is because you have deserved kindness more.'
+And I smiled at her and patted the thin hand, as though she were a child,
+and so 'went on my way rejoicing,' as they say in the good old Book.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>UP AT GLADWYN</h3>
+
+
+<p>Uncle Max had never been famous for punctuality. He was slightly Bohemian
+in his habits, and rather given to desultory bachelor ways; but his
+domestic timekeeper, Mrs. Drabble, ruled him most despotically in the
+matter of meals, and it was amusing to see how she kept him and Mr. Tudor
+in order: neither of them ventured to keep the dinner waiting, for fear
+of the housekeeper's black looks; such an offence they knew would be
+expiated by cold fish and burnt-up steaks. Uncle Max might invite the
+bishop to dine, but if his lordship chose to be late Mrs. Drabble would
+take no pains to keep her dinner hot.</p>
+
+<p>'If gentlemen like to shilly-shally with their food, they must take
+things as they find them,' she would say; and if her master ever ventured
+to remonstrate with her, she took care that he should suffer for it for a
+week.</p>
+
+<p>'We must humour Mother Drabble,' Mr. Tudor would say good-humouredly.
+'Every one has a crotchet, and, after all, she is a worthy little woman,
+and makes us very comfortable. I never knew what good cooking meant until
+I came to the vicarage.' And indeed Mrs. Drabble's custards and flaky
+crust were famed in the village. Miss Darrell had once begged very humbly
+that her cook Parker might take a lesson from her, but Mrs. Drabble
+refused point-blank.</p>
+
+<p>'There were those who liked to teach others, and plenty of them, but she
+was one who minded her own business and kept her own recipes. If Miss
+Darrell wanted a custard made she was willing to do it for her and
+welcome, but she wanted no gossiping prying cooks about her kitchen.'</p>
+
+<p>As I knew Max's peculiarity, I was somewhat surprised when, long before
+the appointed time, Mrs. Barton came up and told me that Mr. Cunliffe was
+in the parlour. I had commenced my toilet in rather a leisurely fashion,
+but now I made haste to join him, and ran downstairs as quickly as
+possible, carrying my fur-lined cloak over my arm.</p>
+
+<p>'You look very nice, my dear,' he said, in quite fatherly fashion. 'Have
+I ever seen that gown before?'</p>
+
+<p>The gown in point had been given to me by Lesbia, and had been made in
+Paris: it was one of those thin black materials that make up into a
+charming demi-toilette, and was a favourite gown with me.</p>
+
+<p>I always remember the speech Lesbia made as she showed it to me. 'When
+you put on this gown, Ursula, you must think of the poor little woman
+who hoped to have been your sister.' This was one of the pretty little
+speeches that she often made. Poor dear Lesbia! she always did things so
+gracefully. In Charlie's lifetime I had thought her cold and frivolous,
+for she had not then folded up her butterfly wings; but even then she
+was always doing kind little things.</p>
+
+<p>It was a dark night, neither moon nor stars to be seen, and after we had
+passed the church the darkness seemed to envelop us, and I could barely
+distinguish the path. Max seemed quite oblivious of this fact, for he
+would persist in pointing out invisible objects of interest. I was told
+of the wide stretch of country that lay on the right, and how freshly the
+soft breezes blew over the downs.</p>
+
+<p>'There is the asylum, Ursula,' he observed cheerfully, waving his hand
+towards the black outline. 'Now we are passing Colonel Maberley's house,
+and here is Gladwyn. I wish you could have seen it by daylight.'</p>
+
+<p>I wished so too, for on entering the shrubbery the darkness seemed to
+swallow us up bodily, and the heavy oak door might have belonged to a
+prison. The sharp clang of the bell made me shiver, and Dante's lines
+came into my mind rather inopportunely, 'All ye who enter here, leave
+hope behind.' But as soon as the door opened the scene was changed like
+magic; the long hall was deliciously warm and light: it looked almost
+like a corridor, with its dark marble figures holding sconces, and small
+carved tables between them.</p>
+
+<p>'I will wait for you here, Ursula,' whispered Uncle Max; and I went off
+in charge of the same maid that I had seen before. Lady Betty had called
+her Leah, and as I followed her upstairs I thought of that tender-eyed
+Leah who had been an unloved wife.</p>
+
+<p>Leah was very civil, but I thought her manner bordered on familiarity:
+perhaps she had lived long in the family, and was treated more as a
+friend than a servant. She was an exceedingly plain young woman, and her
+light eyes had a curious lack of expression in them, and yet, like Miss
+Darrell's, they seemed able to see everything.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing me glance round the room,&mdash;it was a large, handsomely furnished
+bedroom, with a small dressing-room attached to it,&mdash;she said, 'This is
+Miss Darrell's room. Mrs. Darrell used to occupy it, and Miss Etta slept
+in the dressing-room, but ever since her mother's death she has had both
+rooms.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed,' was my brief reply: but I could not help thinking that Miss
+Darrell had very pleasant and roomy quarters. There were evidences of
+luxury everywhere, from the bevelled glass of the walnut-wood wardrobe to
+the silver-mounted dressing-case and ivory brushes on the toilet-table. A
+pale embroidered tea-gown lay across the couch, and a book that looked
+very much like a French novel was thrown beside it. Miss Darrell was
+evidently a Sybarite in her tastes.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Max was waiting for me at the foot of the stairs, and took me into
+the drawing-room at once.</p>
+
+<p>To our surprise, we found Miss Hamilton there alone. The room was only
+dimly lighted, and she was sitting in a large carved chair beside the
+fire with an open book in her lap.</p>
+
+<p>I wonder if Max noticed how like a picture she looked. She was dressed
+very simply in a soft creamy cashmere, and her fair hair was piled up on
+her head in regal fashion: the smooth plaits seemed to crown her; a
+little knot of red berries that had been carelessly fastened against her
+throat was the only colour about her; but she looked more like Clytie
+than ever, and again I told myself that I had never seen a sweeter face.</p>
+
+<p>She greeted me with gentle warmth, but she hardly looked at Max; her
+white lids dropped over her eyes whenever he addressed her, and when she
+answered him she seemed to speak in a more measured voice than usual. Max
+too appeared extremely nervous; instead of sitting down, he stood upon
+the bear-skin rug and fidgeted with some tiny Chinese ornaments on the
+mantelpiece. Neither of them appeared at ease: was it possible that they
+were not friends?</p>
+
+<p>'You are not often to be found in solitude, Miss Hamilton,' observed Max;
+and it struck me his voice was a little peculiar. 'I do not think I have
+ever seen you sitting alone in this room before.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' she answered quickly, and then she went on in rather a hesitating
+manner: 'Etta and Lady Betty have been shopping in Brighton, and they
+came back by a late train, and now Etta is shut up with Giles in his
+study. Some letters that came by this morning's post had to be answered.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Darrell is Hamilton's secretary, is she not?'</p>
+
+<p>'She writes a good many of his letters. Giles is rather idle about
+correspondence, and she helps him with his business and accounts. Etta
+is an extremely busy person.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Hamilton used to be busy too,' returned Max quietly. 'I always
+considered you an example to our ladies. I lost one of my best workers
+when I lost you.'</p>
+
+<p>A painful colour came into Miss Hamilton's face.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no,' she protested, rather feebly. 'Etta is far cleverer than I at
+parish work. Teaching does not make her head ache.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yours used not to ache last summer,' persisted Uncle Max, but she did
+not seem to hear him. She had turned to me, and there was almost an
+appealing look in her beautiful eyes, as though she were begging me to
+talk.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, do you know, Miss Garston,' she said nervously, 'that Giles was very
+nearly sending for you last night? He was with Mrs. Blagrove's little
+girl until five this morning; the poor little creature died at half-past
+four, and he told us that he thought half a dozen times of sending for
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish he had done so. I should have been so glad to help.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, he knew that, but he said it would have been such a shame rousing
+you out of your warm bed; and he had not the heart to do it. So he
+stopped on himself; there was really nothing to be done, but the parents
+were in such a miserable state that he did not like to leave them. He was
+so tired this afternoon that he dropped asleep instead of writing his
+letters: that is why Etta has to do them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who is talking about Etta?' observed Miss Darrell, coming in at that
+moment, with a quick rustle of her silk skirt, looking as well-dressed,
+self-possessed, and full of assurance as ever. 'Why are you good people
+sitting in the dark? Thornton would have lighted the candles if you had
+rung, Gladys; but I suppose you forgot, and were dreaming over the fire
+as usual. Miss Garston, I suppose I ought to apologise for being late,
+but we are such busy people here; every moment is of value; and though
+Gladys asked you to come early, I never thought you would be so good as
+to do so. Friendly people are scarce, are they not, Mr. Cunliffe? By the
+bye,' holding up a taper finger loaded with sparkling rings, 'I have a
+scolding in store for you. Why did you not examine my class as usual last
+Sunday?&mdash;the children tell me you never came near them.'</p>
+
+<p>'I had so little time that I asked Tudor to take the classes for me,' he
+returned quickly, but he was looking at Miss Hamilton as he spoke. 'I am
+always sure of the children in that class: they have been so thoroughly
+well taught that there is very little need for me to interfere.'</p>
+
+<p>'It would encourage their teachers if you were to do so,' returned Miss
+Darrell, smiling graciously. She evidently appropriated the praise to
+herself, but I am sure Uncle Max was not thinking of her when he spoke.
+Just then Lady Betty came into the room, followed by Mr. Tudor.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Betty looked almost pretty to-night. She wore a dark ruby velveteen
+that exactly suited her brown skin; her fluffy hair was tolerably smooth,
+and she had a bright colour. She came and sat down beside me at once.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I am so vexed that we are so late! but it was all Etta's fault: she
+would look in at every shop-window, and so of course we lost the proper
+train.'</p>
+
+<p>'What does the child say?' asked Miss Darrell good-humouredly. She seemed
+in excellent spirits this evening; but how silent Miss Hamilton had
+become since her entrance! 'Of course poor Etta is blamed; she always is
+if anything goes wrong in the house; Etta is the family scapegoat. But
+who was it, I wonder, who wanted another turn on the pier? Not Etta,
+certainly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Just as though those few minutes would have mattered; and I did want
+another look at the sea,' returned Lady Betty pettishly; 'but no, you
+preferred those stupid shops. That is why I hate to go into Brighton with
+you.' But Miss Darrell only laughed at this flimsy display of wrath.</p>
+
+<p>Just then Mr. Tudor had taken the other vacant chair beside me. 'How is
+the village nurse?' he asked, in his bright way. I certainly liked Mr.
+Tudor, he had such a pleasant, friendly way with him, and on his part he
+seemed always glad to see me. If I had ever talked slang, I might have
+said that we chummed together famously. He was a year younger than
+myself, and I took advantage of this to give him advice in an
+elder-sisterly fashion.</p>
+
+<p>'You must take care that the clergy do not spoil the village nurse,'
+observed Miss Darrell, who had overheard him, and this time the taper
+finger was uplifted against Mr. Tudor.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, there is no fear of that,' he returned manfully; 'Miss Garston is
+too sensible to allow herself to be spoiled; but it is quite right that
+we all should make much of her.'</p>
+
+<p>'We will ask Giles if he agrees with this,' replied Miss Darrell, in
+a funny voice, and at that moment Mr. Hamilton entered the room.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know why I thought he looked nicer that evening: one thing, I
+had never seen him in evening dress, and it suited him better than his
+rough tweed; he was quieter and less abrupt in manner, more dignified and
+less peremptory, but he certainly looked very tired.</p>
+
+<p>He accosted me rather gravely, I thought, though he said that he was glad
+to see me at Gladwyn. His first remark after this was to complain of the
+lateness of the dinner.</p>
+
+<p>'Parker is not very punctual this evening, Etta,' he observed, looking
+at his watch.</p>
+
+<p>'I think it was our fault, Giles,' returned his cousin plaintively. 'We
+kept Thornton such a long time in the study, and no doubt that is the
+cause of the delay. Parker is seldom a minute behindhand; punctuality is
+her chief point, as Mrs. Edmonstone told me when I engaged her. You see,'
+turning to Uncle Max, 'we are such a regular household that the least
+deviation in our nature quite throws us into confusion. I am so sorry,
+Giles, I am, indeed; but will you ring for Thornton, and that will remind
+him of his duty?'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Darrell's submissive speech evidently disarmed Mr. Hamilton, and
+deprived him of his Englishman's right to grumble to his womankind: so he
+said, quite amiably, that they would wait for Parker's pleasure a little
+longer, and then relapsed into silence.</p>
+
+<p>The next moment I saw him looking at me with rather an odd expression;
+it was as though he were regarding a stranger whom he had not seen
+before; I suppose the term 'taking stock' would explain my meaning.
+Just then dinner was announced, and he gave me his arm.</p>
+
+<p>The dining-room was very large and lofty, and was furnished in dark oak.
+A circular seat with velvet cushions ran round the deep bay-window. A
+small oval table stood before it. Dark ruby curtains closed in the bay.</p>
+
+<p>My first speech to Mr. Hamilton was to regret that he had not sent for me
+the previous night.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no,' he said pleasantly. 'I am quite glad now that your rest was
+not disturbed.' And then he went on looking at me with the same queer
+expression that his face had worn before.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know, Miss Garston, your remark quite startled me? Somehow
+I do not seem to recognise my nurse to-night. When I came into the
+drawing-room just now I thought there was a strange young lady sitting
+by Tudor.'</p>
+
+<p>Of course I was curious to know what he meant; but he positively refused
+to enlighten me, and went on speaking about his poor little patient.</p>
+
+<p>'She was an only child; but nothing could have saved her. The Blagroves
+are well-to-do people,&mdash;Brighton shopkeepers,&mdash;so they hardly come under
+the category of your patients. Miss Garston, you call yourself a servant
+of the poor, do you not?'</p>
+
+<p>'I should not refuse to help any one who really needed it,' was my reply.
+'But, of course, if people can afford to hire service I should think my
+labour thrown away on them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! just so. But now and then we meet with a case where hirelings can
+give no comfort. With the Blagroves, for example, there was nothing to be
+done but just to watch the child's feeble life ebb away. A miracle only
+could have saved her; but all the same it was impossible to go away and
+leave them. They were young people, and had never seen death before.'</p>
+
+<p>I was surprised to hear him speak with so much feeling. And I liked that
+expression 'servant of the poor.' It sounded to me as though he had at
+last grasped my meaning, and that I had nothing more to fear from his
+sarcasm.</p>
+
+<p>I wondered what had wrought such a sudden change in him, for I had only
+worked such a few days. Certainly it would make things far easier if I
+could secure him as an ally; and I began to hope that we should go on
+more smoothly in the future.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton was evidently a man whom it would take long to know. His was
+by no means a character easy to read. One would be sure to be startled by
+new developments and curious contradictions. I had known him only for ten
+days; but then we had met constantly in that short time. I had seen him
+hard in manner and soft in speech, cool, critical, and disparaging, at
+one moment satirical and provoking, the next full of thoughtfulness and
+readiness to help. No wonder I found it difficult to comprehend him.</p>
+
+<p>When we had finished discussing the Blagroves, Mr. Hamilton turned
+his attention to his other guests, and tried to promote the general
+conversation: this left me at liberty to make my own observations.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Hamilton sat at the top of the table facing her brother, and Uncle
+Max and Mr. Tudor were beside her; but she did not speak to either of
+them unless they addressed her, and her replies seemed to be very brief.
+If I had been less interested in her I might have accused her of want of
+animation, for it is hardly playing the <i>r&ocirc;le</i> of a hostess to look
+beautiful and be chary of words and smiles.</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible to attribute her silence to absence of mind, for she
+followed with grave attention every word that was spoken; but for some
+inexplicable reason she had withdrawn into herself. Uncle Max left her
+to herself after a time, and began to talk politics with Mr. Hamilton,
+and Mr. Tudor was soon compelled to follow his example.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Mr. Tudor! I rather pitied him, for his other neighbour, Lady Betty,
+had turned suddenly very sulky, and I had my surmises that Miss Darrell
+had said something to affront her; for she made snapping little answers
+when any one spoke to her, and, though they laughed at her, and nobody
+seemed to mind, most likely they thought it prudent to give her time to
+recover herself.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Darrell's radiant good-humour was a strange contrast to her two
+cousins' silence. She threw herself gallantly into the breach, and talked
+fast and well on every topic broached by the gentlemen. She was evidently
+clever and well read, and had dabbled in literature and politics.</p>
+
+<p>Her energy and vivacity were almost fatiguing. She seemed able to keep up
+two or three conversations at once. The lowest whisper did not escape her
+ear; if Mr. Hamilton spoke to me, I saw her watchful eye on us, and she
+joined in at once with a sprightly word or two; the next moment she was
+answering Uncle Max, who had at last hazarded a remark to his silent
+neighbour. Miss Hamilton had no time to reply; her cousin's laugh and
+ready word were before her.</p>
+
+<p>I found the same thing happen when Mr. Tudor addressed me: before he had
+finished his sentence she had challenged the attention of the table.</p>
+
+<p>'Giles,' she said good-humouredly, 'do you know what Mr. Tudor said in
+the drawing-room just now, that it was the bounden duty of the Heathfield
+folk to spoil and make much of Miss Garston?'</p>
+
+<p>Both Mr. Tudor and I looked confused at this audacious speech, but he
+tried to defend himself as well as he could.</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, Miss Darrell, that was not quite what I said; the whole style
+of the sentence is too laboured to belong to me: "bounden duty,"&mdash;no, it
+does not sound like me at all.'</p>
+
+<p>'We need not quarrel about terms,' she persisted; 'your meaning was just
+the same. Come, Mr. Tudor, you cannot unsay your own words, that it was
+right for you all to make much of Miss Garston.'</p>
+
+<p>I thought this was spoken in the worst possible taste, and I am sure Mr.
+Hamilton thought so too, for he smiled slightly and said, 'Nonsense,
+Etta! you let your tongue run away with you. I daresay that was not
+Tudor's meaning at all; he is the most matter-of-fact fellow I know, and
+could not coin a compliment to save his life. Besides which, I expect he
+has found out by this time that it would be rather difficult to spoil
+Miss Garston. That cuts both ways, eh!' looking at me rather
+mischievously.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, if all the gentlemen are in conspiracy to defend Miss Garston, I
+will say no more,' returned Miss Darrell, with a shrug, but she did not
+say it quite pleasantly. 'Gladys dear, I think we had better retire
+before I am quite crushed: Giles's frown has quite flattened me out. Miss
+Garston, if you are ready,' making me a mocking little courtesy; but Miss
+Hamilton waited for me at the door and linked her arm in mine, taking
+possession of me in a graceful way that evidently pleased Max, for he
+looked at us smiling.</p>
+
+<p>'Come into the conservatory, Gladys,' whispered Lady Betty in her
+sister's ear. 'Etta has a cold coming on, and will be afraid of following
+us.'</p>
+
+<p>The conservatory led out of the drawing-room, and was lighted by coloured
+lamps that gave a pretty effect; it was full of choice flowers, and two
+or three cane chairs filled up the centre. It was not so warm as the
+drawing-room, certainly, but it was pleasant to sit there in the dim
+perfumed atmosphere and peep through the open window at the firelight.
+Miss Darrell followed us to the window with a discontented air.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope you are not going to stay there many minutes, Gladys: you will
+certainly give yourself and Miss Garston a bad cold if you do. There is
+something wrong with the warming-apparatus, and Giles says it will be
+some days before it will be properly warmed. I thought I told you so this
+morning.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not think Miss Garston will take cold, Etta, and it is very
+pleasant here'; but, though Miss Darrell retreated from the window, I
+think we all felt as much constrained as though she had joined us, for
+not a word could escape her ears if she chose to listen.</p>
+
+<p>But this fact did not seem to daunt Lady Betty for long, for she soon
+began chattering volubly to us both.</p>
+
+<p>'I am not so cross now as I was,' she said frankly. 'I am afraid I was
+very rude to Mr. Tudor at dinner; but what could I do when Etta was so
+impertinent? No, she is not there, Gladys; she has gone out of the room,
+looking as cross as possible. But what do you think she said to me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind telling us what she said, dear,' returned Miss Hamilton
+soothingly.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but I want to tell Miss Garston: she looks dreadfully curious, and
+I do not like her to think me cross for nothing. I am not like that, am
+I, Gladys? Well, just before we went in to dinner, she begged me in a
+whisper not to talk quite so much to Mr. Tudor as I had done last time.
+Now, what do you want, Leah?' pulling herself up rather abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>'I have only brought you some shawls, Lady Betty, as Miss Darrell says
+the conservatory is so cold. She has told Thornton to mention to his
+master when he takes in the coffee that Miss Gladys is sitting here, and
+she hopes he will forbid it.'</p>
+
+<p>'You can take away the shawls, Leah,' returned Miss Hamilton quietly, but
+there was a scornful look on her pale face as she spoke. 'We are not
+going to remain here, since Miss Darrell is so anxious about our health.
+Shall we come in, Miss Garston? Perhaps it is a trifle chilly here.' And,
+seeing how the wind blew, and that Miss Darrell was determined to have
+her way in the matter, I acquiesced silently; but I was not a bit
+surprised to see Lady Betty stamp her little foot as she followed us.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Darrell was lying back on a velvet lounge, and welcomed us with
+a provoking smile.</p>
+
+<p>'I thought the threat of telling Giles would bring you in, Gladys,' she
+said, laughing. 'What a foolish child you are to be so reckless of your
+health! Every one knows Gladys is delicate,' she went on, turning to me;
+'everything gives her cold. Giles has been obliged to forbid her
+attending evening service this winter: you were terribly rebellious about
+it, were you not, my dear? but of course Giles had his way. No one in
+this house ventures to disobey him.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Hamilton did not answer: she was standing looking into the fire, and
+her lips were set firmly as though nothing would make her unclose them.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, do sit down,' continued her cousin pettishly; 'it gives one such an
+uncomfortable feeling when a tall person stands like a statue before
+one.' And as Miss Hamilton quietly seated herself, she went on, 'Don't
+you think religious people are far more self-willed than worldly ones,
+Miss Garston? I daresay you are self-willed yourself. Gladys made as much
+fuss about giving up evening service as though her salvation depended on
+her going twice or three times a day. "What is to prevent you reading the
+service in your own room?" I used to say to her. "It cannot be your duty
+to disobey your brother and make yourself ill."'</p>
+
+<p>'The illness lay in your own imagination, Etta,' observed Miss Hamilton
+coldly. 'Giles would never have found out my chest was delicate if you
+had not told him so.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Darrell gave her favourite little shrug, and inspected her rings.</p>
+
+<p>'See what thanks I get for my cousinly care,' she said good-humouredly.
+'I suppose, Gladys, you were vexed with me for telling him that you were
+working yourself to death,&mdash;that the close air of the schoolroom made
+your head ache, and that so much singing was too much for your strength.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you please, Etta, we will talk about some other subject; my health,
+or want of health, will not interest Miss Garston.' She spoke with
+dignity, and then, turning to me with a winning smile, 'Giles has told me
+about your singing. Will you be good enough to sing something to us? It
+would be a great pleasure: both Lady Betty and I are so fond of music.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Garston looks very tired, Gladys; it is almost selfish to ask her,'
+observed Miss Darrell softly; and then I knew that Miss Hamilton's
+request did not please her.</p>
+
+<p>I had vowed to myself that no amount of pressing should induce me to sing
+that evening, but I could not have refused that gentle solicitation. As I
+unbuttoned my gloves and took my place at the grand piano, I determined
+that I would sing anything and everything that Miss Hamilton wished; Miss
+Darrell should not silence me; and with this resolve hot on me I
+commenced the opening bars of 'The Lost Chord,' and before I had finished
+the song Miss Hamilton had crept into the corner beside me, and remained
+there as motionless as though my singing had turned her into stone.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>GLADYS</h3>
+
+
+<p>I do not know how the majority of people feel when they sing, but with me
+the love of music was almost a passion. I could forget my audience in a
+moment, and would be scarcely aware if the room were empty or crowded.</p>
+
+<p>For example, on this evening I had no idea that the gentlemen had entered
+the room, and the first intimation of the fact was conveyed to me by
+hearing a 'Bravo!' uttered by Mr. Hamilton under his breath.</p>
+
+<p>'But you must not leave off,' he went on, quite earnestly. 'I want you to
+treat us as you treat poor Phoebe Locke, and sing one song after another
+until you are tired.'</p>
+
+<p>I was about to refuse this request very civilly but decidedly, for I
+had no notion of obeying such an arbitrary command, when Miss Hamilton
+touched my arm.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, do please go on singing as Giles says: it is such a pleasure to hear
+you.' And after this I could no longer refuse.</p>
+
+<p>So I sang one song after another, chiefly from memory, and sometimes I
+could hear a soft clapping of hands, and sometimes there was breathless
+silence, and a curious feeling came over me as I sang. I thought that the
+only person to whom I was singing was Miss Hamilton, and that I was
+pleading with her to tell me the reason of her sadness, and why there was
+such a weary, hopeless look in her eyes, when the world was so young with
+her and the God-given gift of beauty was hers.</p>
+
+<p>I was singing as though she and I were alone in the room, when Max
+suddenly whispered in my ear, 'That will do, Ursula,' and as soon as the
+verse concluded I left off. But before I could rise Miss Darrell was
+beside us.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, thank you so much, Miss Garston; you are very amiable to sing so
+long. Giles was certainly loud in your praises, but I was hardly prepared
+for such a treat. Why, Gladys dear, have you been crying? What an
+impressionable child you are! Miss Garston has not contrived to draw
+tears from my eyes.'</p>
+
+<p>But, without making any reply, Miss Hamilton quietly left the room. Were
+her eyes wet, I wonder? Was that why Max stopped me? Did he want to
+shield her from her cousin's sharp scrutiny? If so, he failed.</p>
+
+<p>'It is such a pity Gladys is so foolishly sensitive,' she went on,
+addressing Uncle Max: 'natures of this sort are quite unfit for the stern
+duties of life. I am quite uneasy about her sometimes, am I not, Giles?
+Her spirits are so uneven, and she has so little strength. Parochial work
+nearly killed her, Mr. Cunliffe. You said yourself how ill she looked in
+the summer.'</p>
+
+<p>'True; but I never thought the work hurt her,' replied Max, rather
+bluntly. 'I think it was a mistake for Miss Hamilton to give up all her
+duties; occupation is good for every one.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is my opinion,' observed Mr. Hamilton. 'Etta is always making a
+fuss about Gladys's health, but I tell her there is not the least reason
+for alarm; many people not otherwise delicate take cold easily. It is
+true I advised her to give up evening service for a few weeks until she
+got stronger.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed!' And here Max looked a little perplexed. 'I thought you told me,
+Miss Darrell, that your cousin found our service too long and wearisome,
+and this was the reason she stayed away.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no; you must have misunderstood me,' returned Miss Darrell, flushing
+a little. 'Gladys may have said she liked a shorter sermon in the
+evening, but that was hardly her reason for staying away; at least&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course not. What nonsense you talk, Etta!' observed Mr. Hamilton
+impatiently. 'You know what a trouble I had to coax Gladys to stay at
+home; she was rather obstinate about it,&mdash;as girls are,&mdash;but I asked her
+as a special favour to myself to remain.'</p>
+
+<p>Max's face cleared up surprisingly, and as Miss Hamilton at that moment
+re-entered the room, he accosted her almost eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Hamilton, we have been talking about you in your absence; your
+brother and I have been agreeing that it is really a great pity that you
+should have given up all your parish duties; it is a little hard on us
+all, is it not, Tudor? Your brother declares occupation will do you good.
+Now, I am sure your cousin will not have the slightest objection to give
+up your old class, and she can take Miss Matthews's, and then I shall
+have two good workers instead of one.'</p>
+
+<p>For an instant Miss Hamilton hesitated; her face relaxed, and she looked
+at Max a little wistfully; but Miss Darrell interposed in her sprightly
+way:</p>
+
+<p>'Do as you like, Gladys dear. Mr. Cunliffe will be too glad of your help,
+I am sure, as he sees how much you wish it. We all think you are fretting
+after your old scholars; home duties are not exciting enough, and even
+Giles notices how dull you are. Oh, you shall have my class with
+pleasure; anything to see you happy, love. Shall we make the exchange
+to-morrow?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, thank you, Etta; I think things had better be as they are.' And
+Miss Hamilton walked away proudly, and spoke to Mr. Tudor; the sudden
+brightness in her face had dimmed, and I was near enough to see that her
+hand trembled.</p>
+
+<p>'There, you see,' observed Miss Darrell complacently. 'I have done my
+best to persuade her in public and private to amuse herself and not give
+way to her feelings of lassitude. "Do a little, but not much," I have
+often said to her; but with Gladys it must be all or none.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula, do you know how late it is?' asked Max, coming up to me. He
+looked suddenly very tired, and I saw at once that he wished me to go: so
+I made my adieux as quickly as possible, and in a few minutes we had left
+the house, accompanied by Mr. Tudor.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Max was very quiet all the way home. I had expected him to be full
+of questions as to how I had enjoyed my evening, but his only remark was
+to ask if I were very tired, and then he left me to Mr. Tudor.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, how do you like the folks up at Gladwyn?' demanded Mr. Tudor.
+'Lady Betty was not in the best of humours to-night, and hardly deigned
+to speak to me; but I am sure you must have admired Miss Hamilton.'</p>
+
+<p>'I like both of them,' was my temperate reply: 'you must not be hard on
+poor little Lady Betty. Miss Darrell had been lecturing her, and that
+made her cross.'</p>
+
+<p>'So I supposed,' was the prompt answer. 'Well, what did you think of the
+Dare-all,&mdash;as the vicar calls her sometimes? is she not like a pleasant
+edition of Tupper's <i>Proverbial Philosophy</i>,&mdash;verbose and full of long
+sentences? How many words did she coin to-night, do you think?'</p>
+
+<p>There was a little scorn in the young man's voice. Miss Darrell was
+evidently not a favourite in the vicarage, yet most people would have
+called her elegant and well-mannered, and, if she had no beauty, she was
+not bad-looking. She was so exceedingly well made up, and her style of
+dress was so suitable to her face, that I was not surprised to hear
+afterwards from Lady Betty that many people thought her cousin Etta
+handsome. Now when Mr. Tudor made this spiteful little speech I felt
+rather pleased, for my dislike to Miss Darrell had increased rather
+than diminished by the evening's experiences; under her smooth speeches
+there lurked an antagonistic spirit; something had prejudiced her against
+me even at our first meeting; I was convinced that she did not like me,
+and would not encourage my visit to Gladwyn. Mr. Tudor and I talked a
+good deal about Lady Betty; he described her as most whimsical and
+sound-hearted, half-child and half-woman, with a touch of the brownie;
+her brother often called her Brownie, or little Nix, to tease her. She
+was very fond of her sister, he went on to say, but there was not much
+companionship between them. Miss Hamilton was very intellectual, and read
+a good deal, and Lady Betty never read anything but novels; they all made
+a pet of her,&mdash;even Mr. Hamilton, who was not much given to pets,&mdash;but
+she was hardly an influence in the house.</p>
+
+<p>'She has not backbone enough,' he finished, 'and the Dare-all rules them
+all with a rod of iron&mdash;"cased in velvet."'</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Max listened to all this in silence, and as they parted with me at
+the gate of the White Cottage he only said 'Good-night, Ursula,' in a
+depressed voice. He was evidently rather cast down about something;
+perhaps Miss Hamilton's decision had disappointed him; she had been
+his favourite worker, and had helped him greatly; he seemed to feel it
+hard that she should withdraw her services so suddenly. How wistfully she
+had looked at him as he pleaded with her! it was the first time I had
+seen her look at him of her own accord, and yet she had denied his
+request,&mdash;very firmly and gently.</p>
+
+<p>'I must be friends with her, and then perhaps she will tell me all about
+it some day,' I thought; for I was convinced that there was more than met
+the eye; but it was some time before I could banish these perplexing
+thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>I saw a good deal of Lady Betty during the next week or two. I met her
+frequently on my way to the Lockes', and she would walk with me to the
+gate, and two or three times she made her appearance at the Marshall's';
+'for it's no use calling at the White Cottage of an afternoon,' she would
+say disconsolately, 'for you are never at home, you inhospitable
+creature.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, do you think I live here, Lady Betty!' I returned, smiling. 'Do you
+know I am becoming a most punctual person? I am always back at the White
+Cottage by five, and sometimes a little earlier, and I shall always be
+pleased if you will come in and have tea with me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should like it of all things,' replied Lady Betty, with a sigh; 'and I
+will come sometimes, you will see if I don't. But I know Etta will make a
+fuss; she always does if I stay out after dark; and it is dark at four
+now. That is why I pop in here to see you, because Etta is always busy in
+the mornings and never takes any notice of what we do.'</p>
+
+<p>'But surely Miss Darrell will not object to your coming to see me?' I
+asked, somewhat piqued at this.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh dear, no,' returned Lady Betty, jumbling her words as though she
+found my question embarrassing. 'Etta never objects openly to anything we
+do, only she throws stumbling-blocks in our way. I do not know why I have
+got it into my head that she would not like Gladys or me to come here
+without her, but it is there all the same,&mdash;the idea, I mean; it was
+something she said the other night to Mrs. Maberley that gave me this
+impression. Mrs. Maberley wanted to call on you, because she said you
+were Mr. Cunliffe's niece, and people ought to take notice of you. And
+Etta said, "Oh dear, yes; and it was a very kind thought on Mrs.
+Maberley's part, and Mr. Cunliffe would think it so. That was why Giles
+had invited you to Gladwyn. But there was no hurry, and you evidently
+were not prepared to enter into society. You had rather strong-minded
+views on this subject, and she was not quite sure whether Giles was wise
+to encourage the intimacy with his sisters."'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Darrell said this to Mrs. Maberley?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. Was it not horrid of Etta? I felt so cross. And Mrs. Maberley is
+such an old dear: only rather old-fashioned in her notions about girls.
+So Etta's speech rather frightened her, I could see. Of course she has
+not called yet? I am almost inclined to tell Giles about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, I hope you will do nothing of the kind, Lady Betty. I am sorry
+Miss Darrell does not like me; but I do not see that it matters so very
+much what people think of us.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but when Etta takes a dislike to people she tries to prevent us
+from knowing them: that is the provoking part of it. She is so dreadfully
+jealous, and I expect it was your singing that gave umbrage. Etta is not
+at all accomplished; she never cared much for Gladys to sing, because she
+had such a sweet voice, and it put her in the background. Ah! I know how
+mean it sounds, but it is just the truth about Etta. And if I were to
+drop in for five-o'clock tea, as you say, Leah would be sure to make her
+appearance and say I was wanted at Gladwyn.'</p>
+
+<p>I found Lady Betty's confidential speeches rather embarrassing, and when
+I knew her a little better I took her to task rather seriously for her
+want of reticence. But she only pouted, and said, 'When one looks at you,
+Miss Garston, one cannot help telling you things: they all tumble out
+without one's will. That is what Gladys means when she says you have a
+sympathetic face. I wish you would get her to talk to you.'</p>
+
+<p>As Lady Betty persisted in haunting the Marshalls' cottage, I
+determined to make her useful. So I set her to read to Elspeth, or to
+give sewing-lessons to Peggy, or to amuse the younger children, while
+I was engaged with my patient; and I soon found that she was a most
+helpful little body.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton found her sitting in the kitchen one day surrounded by the
+children. She was telling them a story. The baby was sucking her thumb
+contentedly on her lap. Poor Mary was worse that day, and I had begged
+Lady Betty to keep the little ones quiet.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton came into the sick-room looking very much pleased. 'I only
+wish you could make Lady Betty a useful member of society, Miss Garston,'
+he said, with one of the rare smiles that always lit up his dark face so
+pleasantly. 'She is a good little thing, but she wants ballast. As a
+rule, young ladies are terribly idle.'</p>
+
+<p>I had called up at Gladwyn a few days after we had dined there, but, to
+my great disappointment, I did not see Miss Hamilton. Miss Darrell was
+alone, so my visit was as brief as possible.</p>
+
+<p>She told me at once that her cousins had gone over to Brighton for an
+afternoon's shopping, and that Mr. Hamilton had run up to London for a
+few hours. And then she commenced plying me with questions in a ladylike
+way about my work and my past life, but in such a skilful manner that it
+was almost impossible to avoid answering. She was so sure that I must be
+dull, living all alone. Oh, of course I was too good and unselfish to say
+so, but all the same I must be miserably dull. What could have put such a
+singular idea in my head, she wondered. When young ladies did this sort
+of thing there was generally some painful reason: they were unhappy at
+home, or they had had some disastrous love-affair. Of course&mdash;laughing
+a little affectedly&mdash;she had no intention of hinting at such a reason in
+my case; any one could see at a glance that I was not that sort of
+person; I was far too sensible and matter-of-fact: gentlemen would be
+quite afraid of me, I was so strong-minded. But all the same she pleaded
+guilty to a feeling of natural curiosity why such an idea had come into
+my head.</p>
+
+<p>When I had warded off this successfully,&mdash;for I declined to enlighten
+Miss Darrell on this subject,&mdash;she flew off at a tangent to Aunt
+Philippa.</p>
+
+<p>'It was such a pity when relations did not entirely harmonise. An aunt
+could never replace a mother. Ah! she knew that too well: and when there
+were daughters&mdash;and she had heard from Mr. Cunliffe that my cousin Sara
+was excessively pretty and charming&mdash;no doubt there would be natural
+misunderstandings and jealousies. In spite of all my goodness, I was only
+human. Of course she understood perfectly how it all happened, and she
+felt very sorry for me.'</p>
+
+<p>I disclaimed the notion of any family disagreement with some warmth, but
+I do not think she believed me. She had evidently got it into her head
+that I was a strong-minded young woman with an uncertain temper, who
+could not live peaceably at home. No doubt she had hinted this to Mrs.
+Maberley and other ladies. She would make this the excuse for
+discouraging any degree of intimacy with her cousins. I should not be
+asked very often to Gladwyn if it depended on Miss Darrell; but Mr.
+Hamilton had a will of his own, and if he chose me as a companion for
+his sisters, Miss Darrell would find it difficult to exclude me.</p>
+
+<p>One could see at a glance that Mr. Hamilton was master in his own house.
+Miss Darrell seemed perfectly submissive to him. There was something
+almost obsequious in her manner to him. She watched his looks anxiously,
+and, though she coaxed and flattered him, she did not seem quite certain
+how he would take her speeches.</p>
+
+<p>'We are a strange household; don't you think so, Miss Garston?' she
+observed presently. 'Giles is our lord and master. None of us poor women
+dare to contradict him. When dear mamma was alive, she had a great deal
+of influence over him. He was very fond of her. Her death made a great
+difference in the house.'</p>
+
+<p>'It must have been a great trouble to you, Miss Darrell.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, indeed. I was almost broken-hearted. She had been the dearest and
+most indulgent of mothers; but Giles was very good to me. Gladys and Lady
+Betty were very devoted to her; perhaps you have heard them speak of Aunt
+Margaret. Ah! I forgot, you have only seen Gladys twice.' And here she
+looked at me rather sharply, but I nodded acquiescence. 'Gladys was
+always a favourite with her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Hamilton must be a general favourite,' I replied, a little
+unguardedly.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! I suppose you think her handsome,' in rather a forced manner: 'many
+people say she is too pale, and rather too statuesque, for their taste.'</p>
+
+<p>'In my opinion she is very beautiful,' I replied quickly, 'I told Uncle
+Max the other day that I thought her face almost perfect.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what did he say?' she asked, rather eagerly. 'Did he agree with
+you?' But I was obliged to confess that I had forgotten his answer.</p>
+
+<p>'I know Mr. Cunliffe thinks Gladys cold,' she went on. 'He is too
+kind-hearted to say so; but I know he feels hurt at her desertion of her
+post. It was a strange whim on her part to give up all her parish work.
+I am afraid it was a little bit of temper. Gladys has a temper, though
+you may not think so. She is very firm, and does not brook the least
+interference on my part. Poor dear! if it were not wrong, I should say
+she was a little jealous of my influence with Giles, because he likes
+me to do things for him; but how am I to help doing what he asks me,
+when I owe the very bread I eat to his kindness?'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Darrell was poor and dependent then. This piece of news surprised
+me. I thought of the glittering rings and silver-mounted dressing-case
+and all the luxurious appliances in her toilet, and wondered if Mr.
+Hamilton had paid for them.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Darrell seemed to read my thoughts in a most wonderful way.</p>
+
+<p>'Poor mother left very little except personal jewellery. Yes, I owe
+everything to Giles's generosity. He is good enough to say that I earn my
+allowance,&mdash;and indeed I am never idle; but,' interrupting herself, 'I do
+not want to talk of myself; I am a very insignificant person,&mdash;just
+Giles's housekeeper; Gladys is mistress of the house. I only wanted you
+to explain to Mr. Cunliffe that I am not to blame for Gladys's strange
+whim. Let me explain a little. She was looking very ill and overworked,
+and I begged Giles to lecture her. I told him that there was no need for
+Gladys to do quite so much; in fact, she was putting herself a little too
+forward in the parish, considering how young she was, and the vicar an
+unmarried man. So Giles and I gave her a word. I am sure he spoke most
+gently, and I was very careful indeed in only giving her a hint that
+people, and even Mr. Cunliffe, might misconstrue such devotion. I never
+saw Gladys in such a passion; and the next day she had flung everything
+up. She told the vicar that the schoolroom made her head ache, and that
+her throat was delicate, and she could not sing. Poor Mr. Cunliffe was
+in such despair that I was obliged to offer my services. It is far too
+much for me; but what can I do? the parish must not suffer for Gladys's
+wilfulness. Now if you could only explain things a little to Mr.
+Cunliffe; he looked so hurt the other night when Gladys refused to take
+her old class. No wonder he misses her, for she used to teach the
+children splendidly; but if he knew it was only a little temper on
+Gladys's part he would look over it and be friends with her again. But
+you must have noticed yourself, Miss Garston, how little he had to say
+to her.'</p>
+
+<p>I had found it impossible to check Miss Darrell's loquacity or to edge in
+a single word; but as soon as her breath failed I rose to take my leave,
+and she did not seek to detain me.</p>
+
+<p>'You will explain this to Mr. Cunliffe, for Gladys's sake,' she said,
+holding my hand. 'I do want him to think well of her, and I can see his
+good opinion is shaken.'</p>
+
+<p>But to this I made no audible reply; but, as I shook off the dust of
+Gladwyn, I told myself that Uncle Max should not hear Miss Darrell's
+version from my lips. She wished to make me a tool in her hands; but her
+breach of confidence had a very different result from what she expected.
+Miss Darrell's words had cleared up a perplexity in my mind: I could read
+between the lines, and I fully exonerated Miss Hamilton.</p>
+
+<p>The following afternoon I had a most unexpected pleasure. When I came
+back to the cottage after my day's work Mrs. Barton met me at the door
+and told me that Miss Hamilton was in the parlour.</p>
+
+<p>I had thought she meant Lady Betty; but, to my surprise, I found Miss
+Hamilton seated by the fire. A pleased smile came to her face as I
+greeted her most warmly. She must have seen how glad I was; but she
+shrank back rather nervously when I begged her to take off her furred
+mantle and stay to tea.</p>
+
+<p>She was not sure that she could remain. Lady Betty was alone, as Giles
+and Etta were dining at the Maberleys'. She had been asked, and had
+refused; but Etta had taken in her work, as Mrs. Maberley had wanted them
+to go early. Perhaps she had better not stay, as it would not be kind to
+Lady Betty. But I soon overruled this objection. I told Miss Hamilton
+that I saw Lady Betty frequently, but that she herself had never called
+since her first visit, and that now I could not let her go.</p>
+
+<p>I think she wanted me to press her; she was arguing against her own
+wishes, it was easy to see that. By and by she asked me in a low voice if
+I were sure to be alone, or if I expected any visitors; and when I had
+assured her decidedly that no one but Uncle Max ever came to see me, and
+that I knew he was engaged this evening, her last scruple seemed to
+vanish, and she settled herself quite comfortably for a chat. We talked
+for a little while on indifferent subjects. She told me about the
+neighbourhood and the people who lived in the large houses by the church,
+and about her brother's work in the parish, and how if rich people sent
+for him he always kept them waiting while he went to the poor ones.</p>
+
+<p>'Giles calls himself the poor people's doctor: he attends them for
+nothing. He cannot always refuse rich people if they will have him, but
+he generally sends them to Dr. Ramsbotham. You see, he never takes money
+for his services, and as people know this, they are ashamed to send for
+him; and yet they want him because he is so clever. Giles is so fond of
+his profession; he is always regretting that he had a fortune left him,
+for he says it would have been far pleasanter to make one. Giles never
+did care for money; he is ready to fling it away to any one who asks
+him.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Hamilton kept up this desultory talk all tea-time. She spoke with
+great animation about her brother, and I could hardly believe it was the
+same girl who had sat so silently at the head of the table that evening
+at Gladwyn. The sad abstracted look had left her face. It seemed as
+though for a little while she was determined to forget her troubles.</p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Barton had taken away the tea-tray, she asked me, with the same
+wistful look in her eyes, to sing to her if I were not tired, and I
+complied at once.</p>
+
+<p>I sang for nearly half an hour, and then I returned to the fireside. I
+saw that Miss Hamilton put up her hand to shield her face from the light;
+but I took no notice, and after a little while she began to talk.</p>
+
+<p>'I never heard any singing like yours, Miss Garston; it is a great gift.
+There is something different in your voice from any one else's: it seems
+to touch one's heart.'</p>
+
+<p>'If my singing always makes you sad, Miss Hamilton, it is a very dubious
+gift.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, but it is a pleasant sadness,' she replied quickly. 'I feel as
+though some kind friend were sympathising with me when you sing: it tells
+me too that, like myself, you have known trouble.'</p>
+
+<p>I sighed as I looked at Charlie's picture. Her eyes followed my glance,
+and I saw again that tremulous motion of her hands.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know,' she said hurriedly; but her beautiful eyes were full of
+tears. 'I have always been so sorry for you. You must feel so lonely
+without him.'</p>
+
+<p>The intense sympathy with which she said these few words seemed to break
+down my reserve. In a moment I had forgotten that we were strangers, as I
+told her about my love for Charlie, and the dear old life at the rectory.</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible to doubt the interest with which she listened to me. If
+I paused for an instant, she begged me very gently to tell her more about
+myself; she was so sorry for me; but it did her good to hear me.</p>
+
+<p>When I spoke of the life at Hyde Park Gate, and told her how little I was
+fitted for that sort of existence, she put down her shielding hand, and
+looked at me with strange wistfulness.</p>
+
+<p>'No, you are too real, too much in earnest, to be satisfied with that
+sort of life. Mr. Cunliffe used to tell us so. And I seemed to understand
+it all before I saw you. I always felt as though I knew you, even before
+we met. I hope,' hesitating a little, 'that we shall see a great deal of
+you. I know Giles wishes it.'</p>
+
+<p>'You cannot come here too often, Miss Hamilton. It will always be such a
+pleasure to me to see you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I did not mean that,' she returned nervously. 'I may not be able
+to come here,&mdash;that is, not alone; there are reasons, and you must not
+expect me; but I hope you will come to Gladwyn whenever you have an hour
+to spare. Giles said so the other day. I think he meant you to be friends
+with us. You must not mind,' getting still more nervous, 'if Etta is a
+little odd sometimes. Her moods vary, and she does not always make people
+feel as though they were welcome; but it is only her manner, so you must
+not mind it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no; I shall hope to come and see you and Lady Betty some time.'</p>
+
+<p>'And,' she went on hurriedly, 'if there is anything that I can do to help
+you, I hope you will tell me so. Perhaps I cannot visit the people; but
+there are other things,&mdash;needlework, or a little money. Oh, I have so
+much spare time, and it will be such a pleasure.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; you shall help me,' I returned cheerfully, for she was looking
+so extremely nervous that I wanted to reassure her; but we were prevented
+from saying any more on this subject, for just then we heard the click of
+the little gate, and the next moment Uncle Max walked into the room.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>'WHY NOT TRUST ME, MAX?'</h3>
+
+
+<p>Max looked very discomposed when he saw Miss Hamilton; he shook hands
+with her gravely, and sat down without saying a word. I wondered if it
+were my fancy, or if Miss Hamilton had really grown perceptibly paler
+since his entrance.</p>
+
+<p>'What does this mean, Uncle Max?' I asked gaily, for this sort of
+oppressive silence did not suit me at all. 'I understood that you and
+Mr. Tudor were dining at the Glynns' to-night.'</p>
+
+<p>'Lawrence has gone without me,' he replied. 'I had a headache, and so I
+sent an excuse; but, as it got better, I thought I would come up and see
+how you were getting on.'</p>
+
+<p>'A headache, Uncle Max!' looking at him rather anxiously, for I had never
+heard him complain of any ailment before. I had been dissatisfied with
+his appearance ever since I had come to Heathfield; he had looked worn
+and thin for some time, but to-night he looked wretched.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it is nothing,' he returned quickly. 'Miss Hamilton, I hardly
+expected to find you here with Ursula. I thought you were all going
+to the Maberleys'.'</p>
+
+<p>'Etta and Giles have gone,' she replied quietly. 'I ought not to be here,
+as Lady Betty is alone at Gladwyn; but Miss Garston persuaded me to
+remain; but it is getting late. I must be going,' rising as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>'There is not the slightest need for you to hurry,' observed Max; 'it is
+not so very late, and I will walk up with you to Gladwyn.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, I hope you will do nothing of the kind,' she said hurriedly.
+'Miss Garston, will you please tell him that there is no need, no need
+at all? indeed, I would much rather not.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Hamilton had lost all her repose of manner; she looked as nervous
+and shy as any school-girl when Max announced his intention of escorting
+her; and yet how could any gentleman have allowed her to go down those
+dark roads alone?</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Max thought she was unreasonable, for there was a touch of satire
+in his voice as he answered her:</p>
+
+<p>'I certainly owe it to my conscience to see you safe home. What would
+Hamilton say if I allowed you to go alone?&mdash;Ursula,' turning to me with
+an odd look, 'it is a fine starlight night; suppose you put on your
+hat,&mdash;a run will do you good,&mdash;and relieve Miss Hamilton's mind.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, do come,' observed Miss Hamilton, in a relieved voice; but, as she
+spoke, her lovely eyes seemed appealing to him, and begging him not to be
+angry with her; but he frowned slightly, and turned aside and took up a
+book. How was it those two contrived to misunderstand each other so
+often? Max looked even more hurt than he had done at Gladwyn.</p>
+
+<p>I was not surprised to find that when I left the room Miss Hamilton
+followed me, but I was hardly prepared to hear her say in a troubled
+voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, how unfortunate I am! I would not have had this happen for worlds.
+Etta will&mdash;oh, what am I saying?&mdash;I am afraid Mr. Cunliffe is offended
+with me because I did not wish him to go home with me&mdash;but,' a little
+proudly and resentfully, 'he is too old a friend to misunderstand me, so
+he need not have said that.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think Uncle Max is not well to-night,' I replied soothingly. 'I never
+heard him speak in that tone before; he is always so careful not to hurt
+people's feelings.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know,' stifling a sigh; 'it is more my fault than his; he is
+looking wretchedly ill; and&mdash;and I think he is a little offended with me
+about other things; it is impossible to explain, and so he misjudges me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why do you not try to make things a little clearer?' I asked. 'Could you
+not say a word to him as we walk home? Uncle Max is so good that I cannot
+bear him to be vexed about anything, and I know he is disappointed that
+you will not work in the school.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know; but you do not understand,' she returned gently. 'I should
+like to speak to him, if I dared, but I think my courage will fail; it is
+not so easy as you think.' And then as we went downstairs she took my
+arm, and I could feel that her hand was very cold. 'I wish he had not
+asked you to come: it shows he is hurt with me; but all the same I should
+have asked you myself.'</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Max took up his felt hat directly he saw us, and followed us
+silently into the entry; he did not speak as we went down the little
+garden together; and as we turned into the road leading to the vicarage
+it was Miss Hamilton who spoke first. She was still holding my arm,
+perhaps that gave her courage, and she looked across at Max, who was
+walking on my other side.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Cunliffe, I am so sorry you were hurt with me the other night,
+when Etta spoke about the schools. I am not giving up work for my own
+pleasure; I loved it far too much; but there are reasons,'</p>
+
+<p>I heard Max give a quick, impatient sigh in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>'So you always say, Miss Hamilton; you remember we have talked of this
+before. I have thought it my duty more than once to remonstrate with you
+about giving up your work, but one seems to talk in the dark; somehow you
+have never given me any very definite reasons,&mdash;headaches,&mdash;well, as
+though I did not know you well enough to be sure you are the last person
+to think of ailments.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but one's friends are over-careful; but still you are right; it is
+not only that. Mr. Cunliffe, I wish you would believe that I have good
+and sufficient reasons for what I do, even if I cannot explain them. It
+makes one unhappy to be misunderstood by one's clergyman, and,'
+hesitating a moment, 'and one's friends,'</p>
+
+<p>'Friends are not left so completely in the dark,' was the pointed answer.
+'It is no use, Miss Hamilton. I find it impossible to understand you. I
+have no right to be hurt. No, of course not, no right at all,'&mdash;and here
+Max laughed unsteadily,&mdash;'but still, as a clergyman, I thought it could
+not be wrong to remonstrate when my best worker deserted her post.'</p>
+
+<p>There was no response to this, only Miss Hamilton's hand lay a little
+heavily on my arm, as though she were tired. I though it best to be
+silent. No word of mine was needed. I could tell from Max's voice and
+manner how bitterly he was hurt.</p>
+
+<p>But when he next spoke it was on a different subject.</p>
+
+<p>'I must beg your pardon, Miss Hamilton, for having wronged you in my
+thoughts about something else. I find your brother has forbidden you to
+attend evening service for the present. And no doubt he is right; but
+your cousin gave me to understand that you stayed away for a very
+different reason.'</p>
+
+<p>'What did Etta tell you?' she asked quickly. But before he could answer
+a dark figure seemed to emerge rather suddenly from the roadside. Miss
+Hamilton dropped my arm at once. 'Is that you, Leah? Have my brother and
+Miss Darrell returned from Maplehurst?' And I detected an anxious note
+in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, ma'am,' returned Leah civilly; 'and Miss Darrell seemed anxious at
+your being out so late, because you would take cold, and master begged
+you would wrap up and walk very fast.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I shall take no harm,' returned Miss Hamilton impatiently.
+'Good-night, Miss Garston, and thank you for a very happy evening.
+Good-night, Mr. Cunliffe, and thank you, too. There is no need to come
+any farther: Leah will take care of me.' And she waved her hand and moved
+away in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>'What a bugbear that woman is!' I observed, rather irritably, as we
+retraced our steps in the direction of the Man and Plough, the little inn
+that stood at the junction of the four roads. Everything looked dark and
+eerie in the faint starlight. Our footsteps seemed to strike sharply
+against the hard, white road; there was a suspicion of frost in the air.
+When Max spoke, which was not for some minutes, he merely remarked that
+we should have a cold Christmas, and then he asked me if I would dine
+with him at the vicarage on Christmas Day. He and Mr. Tudor would be
+alone.</p>
+
+<p>'Christmas will be here in less than a fortnight, Ursula,' he went on,
+rather absently, but I knew he was not thinking of what he was saying.
+And when we reached the White Cottage he followed me into the parlour,
+sat down before the fire, and stretched out his hands to the blaze, as
+though he were very cold.</p>
+
+<p>I stood and watched him for a moment, and then I could bear it no longer.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Max!' I exclaimed, 'I wish you would tell me what makes you look so
+wretchedly ill to-night. Even Miss Hamilton noticed it. I am sure there
+is something the matter.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense, child! What should be the matter?' But Max turned his face
+away as he spoke. 'I told you that I had a headache; but that is nothing
+to make a fuss about. Mrs. Drabble shall make me a good strong cup of tea
+when I get home.'</p>
+
+<p>Max's manner was just a trifle testy, but I was not going to be repelled
+after this fashion. On the contrary, I put my hand on his shoulder and
+obliged him to look at me.</p>
+
+<p>'It is not only a headache. You are unhappy about something; as though
+I do not see that. Max, you know we have always been like brother and
+sister, and I want you to tell me what has grieved you.'</p>
+
+<p>That touched him, as I knew it would, for he had dearly loved his sister.</p>
+
+<p>'I wish your mother were here now,' he returned, in a moved voice. 'I
+wish poor Emmie were here: there were not many women like her. One could
+have trusted her with anything.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think I am to be trusted too, Max.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, yes, you are like her, Ursula. You have got just the same quiet
+way. Your voice always reminds me of hers. She was a dear, good sister
+to me, more like a mother than a sister. I think if she had lived she
+would have been a great comfort to me now, Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know I am not so good as my mother, but I should like to be a comfort
+to you in her place.'</p>
+
+<p>I suppose Max's ear detected the suppressed pain in my voice, for as he
+looked at me his manner changed; the old affectionate smile came to his
+lips, and he put his hands lightly on me, as though to keep me near him.
+'You have been a comfort to me, my dear. You and I have always understood
+each other. I think you are as good as gold, Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then why not trust me, Max? Why not tell me what makes you so unhappy?'</p>
+
+<p>'Little she-bear,' he said, still smiling, 'you must not begin to growl
+at me after this fashion, because I am somewhat hipped and want a change.
+There is no need to be anxious about me. A man in my position must have
+his own and other people's difficulties to bear. No, no, my dear, you
+have a wise head, but you are too young to take my burdens on your
+shoulders. What should you know about an old bachelor's worries?'</p>
+
+<p>'An old bachelor,' I returned indignantly, 'when you know you are young
+and handsome, Max! How can you talk such nonsense?'</p>
+
+<p>I could see he was amused at this.</p>
+
+<p>'You must not expect me to believe that; a man is no judge of his own
+looks: but I never thought much about such things myself. I detest the
+notion of a handsome parson. There, we will dismiss the subject of your
+humble servant. I want to ask you a favour, Ursula.' And then I knew that
+all my coaxing had been in vain, and that he did not mean to tell me what
+troubled him and made him look so pinched and worn.</p>
+
+<p>But, in spite of this preface, he kept me waiting for a long time, while
+he sat silently looking into the fire and stroking his brown beard.</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula,' he began at last, still gazing into the red cavern of coals, as
+though he saw visions there, 'I want you and Miss Hamilton to be great
+friends. I am sure that she has taken to you, and she likes few people,
+and it will be very good for her to be with you.'</p>
+
+<p>Max's speech took me somewhat by surprise. I had not expected him to
+mention Miss Hamilton's name.</p>
+
+<p>'She is not happy,' he went on, 'and she is more lonely than other
+girls of her age. Miss Elizabeth is a nice bright little thing, but,
+as Lawrence says, she wants ballast; she is a child compared to
+Gladys,&mdash;Miss Hamilton, I mean.' And here Max stammered a little
+nervously.</p>
+
+<p>'No, you are right, she is not happy,' I returned quietly; 'she gives me
+the impression that she has known some great trouble.'</p>
+
+<p>'Every one has his troubles,' he replied evasively. 'Most people indulge
+in the luxury of a private skeleton. Now I have often thought that Miss
+Hamilton and her sister would have been far happier without Miss Darrell;
+she has rather a peculiar temper, and I have often fancied that she has
+misrepresented things. It is always difficult to understand women, even
+the best of them,' with a smothered sigh, 'but I confess Miss Darrell is
+rather a problem to me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am not surprised to hear you say that,' I returned quickly: 'you are
+just the sort of man, Max, to be hoodwinked by any designing person. I am
+less charitable than you, and women are sharper in these matters. I have
+already found out that Miss Darrell makes Miss Hamilton miserable.'</p>
+
+<p>'Gently, gently, Ursula,' in quite a shocked voice; 'there is no need to
+put things quite so strongly: you are rather hasty, my dear. Miss Darrell
+may be a little too managing, and perhaps jealous and exacting; but I
+think she is very fond of her cousins.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed!' rather drily, for I did not agree with Max in the least; he was
+always ready to believe the best of every one.</p>
+
+<p>'Hamilton, too, is really devoted to his sisters, but they do not
+understand him. I believe Miss Hamilton is very proud of her brother, but
+she does not confide in him. He has often told me, in quite a pained way,
+how reserved they are with him. I believe Miss Darrell is far more his
+<i>confidante</i> than his sisters.'</p>
+
+<p>'No doubt,' I returned, quite convinced in my own mind that this was the
+case.</p>
+
+<p>'So you must see yourself how much Miss Hamilton needs a friend,' he went
+on hurriedly. 'I want you to be very good to her, Ursula; perhaps you may
+think it a little strange if I say that I think it will be as much your
+duty to befriend Miss Hamilton as to minister to Phoebe Locke.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder who is speaking strongly now, Max.'</p>
+
+<p>'But if it be the truth,' he pleaded, a little anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>'You need not fear,' was my answer: 'if Miss Hamilton requires my
+friendship, I am very willing to bestow it. I will be as good to her as
+I know how to be, Max. Is it likely I should refuse the first favour you
+have ever asked me?' And, as he thanked me rather gravely, I felt that he
+was very much in earnest about this. He went away after this, but I think
+I had succeeded in cheering him, for he looked more like himself as he
+bade me good-night; but after he had gone I sat for a long time,
+reflecting over our talk.</p>
+
+<p>I felt perplexed and a little saddened by what had passed. Max had not
+denied that he was unhappy, but he had refused to confide in me. Was his
+unhappiness connected in any way with Miss Hamilton? This question
+baffled me; it was impossible for me to answer it.</p>
+
+<p>I could not understand his manner to her. He was perfectly kind and
+gentle to her, as he was to all women, but he was also reserved and
+distant; in spite of their long acquaintance, for he had visited at
+Gladwyn for years, there was no familiarity between them. Miss Hamilton,
+on her part, seemed to avoid him, and yet I was sure she both respected
+and liked him. There was some strange barrier between them that hindered
+all free communication. Max was certainly not like himself when Miss
+Hamilton was present; and on her side she seemed to freeze and become
+unapproachable the moment he appeared. But this was not the only thing
+that perplexed me. The whole atmosphere of Gladwyn was oppressive. I had
+a subtile feeling of discomfort whenever Miss Darrell was in the room;
+her voice seemed to have a curious magnetic effect on one; its tuneless
+vibrations seemed to irritate me; if she spoke loudly, her voice was
+rather shrill and unpleasant. She knew this, and carefully modulated it.
+I used to wonder over its smoothness and fluency.</p>
+
+<p>And there was another thing that struck me. Mr. Hamilton seemed fond of
+his step-sisters, but he treated them with reserve; the frank jokes that
+pass between brothers and sisters, the pleasant raillery, the blunt
+speeches, the interchange of confidential looks, were missing in the
+family circle at Gladwyn. Mr. Hamilton behaved with old-fashioned
+courtesy to his sisters; he was watchful over their comfort, but he was
+certainly a little stiff and constrained in his manner to them: he seemed
+to unbend more freely to his cousin than to them; he had scolded her
+good-humouredly once or twice, after quite a brotherly fashion, and she
+had taken his rebukes in a way that showed they understood each other.
+I grew tired at last of trying to adjust my ideas on the subject of the
+Hamilton family. I was rather provoked to find how they had begun to
+absorb my interest. 'Never mind, I have promised Uncle Max to be good to
+her,' was my last waking thought that night, 'and I am determined to keep
+my word.' And I fell asleep, and dreamt that I was trying to save Miss
+Hamilton from drowning, and that all the time Miss Darrell was standing
+on the shore, laughing and pelting us with stones, and when a larger one
+than usual struck me, I awoke.</p>
+
+<p>I wondered if it were accident or design that brought Miss Darrell across
+my path the next day. I had just left the Lockes' cottage, feeling
+somewhat tired and depressed: Phoebe had been in one of her contrary
+moods, and had given me a good deal of trouble, but the evil spirit had
+been quieted at last, and I had taken my leave after reprimanding her
+severely for her rudeness. I was just closing the garden gate, when Miss
+Darrell came up to me in the dusk, holding out her hand with her tingling
+little laugh.</p>
+
+<p>'How odd that we should have met just here! I hardly knew you, Miss
+Garston, in that long cloak, you looked so like a Sister of Charity.
+I think you are very wise to adopt a uniform.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, but I have hardly adopted one,' I returned, folding the fur
+edges of my cloak closer to me, for it was a bitterly cold evening. 'Are
+you going home, Miss Darrell? because you have passed the turning that
+leads to Gladwyn.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I do not mind a longer round,' was the careless answer. 'I am very
+hardy, and a walk never hurts me. If it were Gladys, now&mdash;by the bye,
+have you seen my cousin Giles to-day?'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' I returned, wondering a little at her question.</p>
+
+<p>'You are lucky to have escaped him,' with another laugh. 'Dear, dear,
+how angry Giles was last night, to be sure, when we came home and found
+Gladys out! he was far too angry to say much to her; he only asked her if
+she had taken leave of her senses, and that some people&mdash;I do not know
+whom he meant&mdash;ought to be ashamed of themselves.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed!' somewhat sarcastically, for I confess this speech made me feel
+rather cross. I wondered if Mr. Hamilton could really have said it. I
+determined that I would ask him on the first opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>'It was a very injudicious proceeding,' went on Miss Darrell smoothly.
+'Gladys was to blame, of course; but still, if you remember, I told you
+how delicate she was, and how we dreaded night air for her: young people
+are so careless of their health, but of course, as Giles said, we thought
+she would be safe with you. You see, Giles looks upon you in the
+character of nurse, Miss Garston, and forgets you are young too. "Depend
+upon it, they have forgotten the time," I said to him: "when two girls
+are chattering their secrets to each other, they are not likely to
+remember anything so sublunary." You should have seen Giles's expression
+of lordly disgust when I said that.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should rather have heard Mr. Hamilton's answer.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't be too sure of that,' returned Miss Darrell, in a mocking voice
+that somehow recalled my dream. 'I am afraid it would not please you.
+Giles is no flatterer. He said he thought you would have been far too
+sensible for that sort of nonsense, but that one never knew, and that it
+was not only young and pretty girls like Gladys who could be romantic,
+and for all your staid looks you were not Methuselah: rather a dubious
+speech, Miss Garston.'</p>
+
+<p>'True!' far too dubious to be entirely palatable to my feminine pride;
+but I was careful not to hint this to Miss Darrell, and she went on in
+the same light jesting way.</p>
+
+<p>'It is terribly hard to satisfy Giles, he is so critical; he sets
+impossible standards for people, and then sneers if they do not reach
+them. He had conceived rather a high opinion of you, Miss Garston. He
+told me one day that he would be glad for you to be intimate with his
+sisters, as they would only learn good from you, and that he hoped that
+I would encourage your visits. I trust that he has not changed his
+opinion since then; but Giles is so odd when people disappoint him. I
+said last night that we would invite you for to-morrow, and then you
+and Gladys could finish your talk; but he was as cross as possible, and
+begged that I would invite no one for Thursday, as he was very busy, and
+Gladys must find another opportunity for her talk. There, how I am
+chattering on!&mdash;and perhaps I ought not to have said all that; but I
+thought you would wonder at our want of neighbourliness, and of course we
+cannot expect you to understand Giles's odd temper: it is a great pity
+he has got this idea in his head.'</p>
+
+<p>'What idea, Miss Darrell?'</p>
+
+<p>'Dear, dear, how sharp you are! how you take me up! Of course it is only
+Giles's ill temper: he cannot really think you wanting in ballast.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I understand now. Please go on.'</p>
+
+<p>'But I have no more to say,' rather bewildered by my abruptness. 'Of
+course we shall see you soon, when all this has blown over. If you like,
+I will tell Giles I have seen you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Please tell Mr. Hamilton nothing. I will speak to him myself.
+Good-night, Miss Darrell; I am rather cold and tired after my day's work.
+I do not in the least expect that Miss Hamilton has taken any harm.' And
+I made my escape. I do not know what Miss Darrell thought of me, but she
+walked on rather thoughtfully; as for me, I felt tingling all over with
+irritation. If Mr. Hamilton had dared to imply these things of me, I
+should hardly be able to keep my promise to Uncle Max, for I would
+certainly decline to visit at Gladwyn.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>MISS HAMILTON'S LITTLE SCHOLAR</h3>
+
+
+<p>Miss Darrell's innuendoes were not to be borne with any degree of
+patience. Mr. Hamilton's opinion might be nothing to me,&mdash;how often I
+repeated that!&mdash;but all the same I owed it to my dignity to seek an
+explanation with him.</p>
+
+<p>The opportunity came the very next day.</p>
+
+<p>He called to speak to me about a new patient, a little cripple boy who
+had broken his arm; the father was a labourer, and there were ten
+children, and the mother took in washing. 'Poor Robin has not much chance
+of good nursing,' he went on; 'Mrs. Bell is not a bad mother, as mothers
+go, but she is overworked and overburdened; she has a good bit of
+difficulty in keeping her husband out of the alehouse. Good heavens! what
+lives these women lead! it is to be hoped that it will be made up to them
+in another world: no washing-tubs and ale-houses there, no bruised bodies
+and souls, eh, Miss Garston?'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton was talking in his usual fashion; he had taken the arm-chair
+I had offered him, and seemed in no hurry to leave it, although his
+dinner-hour was approaching. When he had given me full directions about
+Robin, and I had promised to go to him directly after my breakfast the
+next morning, I said to him in quite a careless manner that I hoped Miss
+Hamilton was well and had sustained no ill effects from her visit to me.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no: she is better than usual. I think you roused her and did her
+good. Gladys mopes too much at home. All the same,' in a tolerant tone,
+'you ought not to have kept her so late; as Etta very wisely remarked, it
+was no good for her to stay in on Sundays and remain out a couple of
+hours later another night; you see, Gladys takes cold so easily.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hear you were very much inclined to blame the village nurse, Mr.
+Hamilton.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who?&mdash;I?' looking at me in a little surprise. 'I do not remember that I
+said anything very dreadful. Etta was in a fuss, as usual; you managing
+women like to make a fuss sometimes: she sent off Leah, and wanted me to
+lecture Gladys for her imprudence; but I was not inclined to be bothered,
+and said it was Gladys's affair if she chose to make herself ill, but all
+the same she ought to be ashamed of such skittishness at her age. I don't
+believe Gladys knew I was joking; that is the worst of her, she never
+sees a joke; Etta does, though, for she burst out laughing when my lady
+walked off to bed in rather a dignified manner. I hope you are not easily
+offended too, Miss Garston?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh dear, no,' I returned coolly, 'only I should be sorry if you had in
+any way changed your opinion of my steadiness. Miss Darrell hinted that
+you were vexed with me for keeping your sister, and thought that I was
+to blame.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton looked so bewildered at this that I exonerated him from that
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>'What nonsense has that girl been talking?' he said, rather irritated.
+'I always tell her that tongue of hers will lead her into trouble; I know
+she talked plenty of rubbish that night. When she said it was a pity that
+you and Gladys were always chattering secrets, I told her that though you
+were not a Methuselah, you were hardly the sort of person to indulge in
+that sort of sentimentality, that I could answer for your good sense in
+that, and that Etta need not be so hard on a pretty young girl like
+Gladys. That was not accusing you of want of steadiness.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, thank you. I am so glad that I know what you really said.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, I was not aware that my good or bad opinion mattered to Miss
+Garston: you have certainly never given me the impression that you mind
+very much what I say or think.'</p>
+
+<p>Was Mr. Hamilton cross? He looked quite moody all at once; his face wore
+that hard disagreeable look that I so disliked. He had been so pleasant
+in his manners ever since that evening at Gladwyn that I was rather sorry
+that this agreeable state of things should be disturbed. He was evidently
+not to blame for Miss Darrell's misrepresentations, so I hastened with
+much policy to throw oil on the troubled waters.</p>
+
+<p>'I do not know why you should say that. It ought not to be a matter of
+indifference what people think of us.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ought it not? Would you like to know my opinion of you after nearly
+a month of acquaintance? Let me warn you, I have entirely changed my
+opinion since our stormy interview in Cunliffe's study.'</p>
+
+<p>I do not know what there was in Mr. Hamilton's look and manner that made
+me say hastily,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, I would rather not know, and I hope you will not tell me. I am
+quite sure you do not misconstrue my motives now.'</p>
+
+<p>'You may be quite sure of that,' rather grimly, as though my last speech
+displeased him. 'It is difficult not to think you older than you are, you
+are so terribly sensible and matter-of-fact. How can Gladys get on with
+you, I wonder? Do you put a moral extinguisher on all her romance?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am not quite so matter-of-fact as you make out, Mr. Hamilton.'</p>
+
+<p>He shot an odd sort of glance at me. 'When you sing, one can believe
+that; there is nothing prosaic in a nestful of larks. Poor Phoebe, I do
+believe you are doing her good: she looks far more human already. By the
+bye, when are you coming to sing to us again? I told Etta that I was
+engaged on Thursday, and she declared it was our only free day until
+Christmas.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall be too busy to come till after then,' I replied quietly, for I
+did not wish him to think that I was ready to jump at any invitation to
+Gladwyn. He seemed rather disconcerted at my coldness.</p>
+
+<p>'Why, it is more than ten days to Christmas! I hope you do not mean to
+be stiff and unneighbourly, Miss Garston. I am afraid,' with a decidedly
+quizzical look, 'that pride is a serious defect of yours.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps so; but, you see, I do not wish to be different from my
+neighbours,' I replied quietly; but my speech was received by Mr.
+Hamilton with a hearty laugh.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, you are right: we are a proud lot,' he observed, as he rose to
+take leave. 'Well, Miss Garston, after Christmas is over, we shall hope
+to see you for an evening; but any afternoon you are free they will be
+glad to see you. Etta makes excellent tea. What a craze five-o'clock tea
+is with you women! I have protested against it in vain: the girls are in
+majority against me.' With this speech he took himself off. I was much
+relieved at this peaceable ending to our interview. Now he was gone I
+could scarcely believe that I had ventured on a joke with the formidable
+Mr. Hamilton, a joke which he had taken in excellent part. I began to
+feel less in awe of him: he certainly knew how to shake hands heartily,
+and I could recapitulate Lady Betty's criticism on myself and apply it
+to him, for when Mr. Hamilton smiled he looked quite a different
+man,&mdash;years younger, and much better looking. Well, I was glad that
+he had such a good opinion of my common sense.</p>
+
+<p>My hands were likely to be full of business until after Christmas. Mrs.
+Marshall was growing gradually weaker, and Mr. Hamilton was doubtful
+whether she would last to see the New Year in. Her husband would be home
+on Christmas Eve; his work at Lewes would be finished by then, and he
+hoped to find work nearer home. Poor Mary told me this with tears in her
+eyes; her one prayer was that she might be spared to see Andrew again.
+'He has been a good husband to me, and has kept out of the public-house
+for the sake of his wife and the children, and I cannot die easy until I
+have said good-bye to him,' finished the poor woman; but when I repeated
+this to Mr. Hamilton he shook his head. 'A few hours may take her off any
+day,' he said; 'it is only a wonder that she has lasted so long. I
+believe she is keeping herself alive by the sheer force of her longing
+to see her husband. Women are strange creatures, Miss Garston.'</p>
+
+<p>My new patient was likely to give me plenty of occupation. I found the
+poor little fellow, looking very forlorn and dull, lying in a dark corner
+of a large chilly garret, which was evidently shared by two or three
+brothers.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bell, who had left her washing-tub to accompany me upstairs, stood
+drying her arms on her apron, and talking in a high-pitched querulous
+voice. 'No one can say I have not been unfortunate this year,' she
+grumbled. 'There's Bell, he gets worse and worse. I fetched him myself
+out of the Man and Plough last Saturday night, where he was drinking the
+money that was to buy the children bread. "Do you call yourself a man or
+a brute?" I says, but in my opinions it's wronging the poor bruteses to
+compare them with such as him. "Work!" says he; "why don't you work
+yourself?" when I am at that wash-tub from morning till night.'</p>
+
+<p>'And now poor Robin is adding to your trouble, Mrs. Bell,' I observed,
+with a pitying look at the child's white face and large wistful eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, he has gone and done it now,' she returned, with a touch of motherly
+feeling; 'it was a slide those bad boys had made, and Robbie came down on
+it with his crutch under him. He is always in trouble, is Robbie, has had
+more illnesses than all the children put together; there is nothing Robin
+can't take: whooping-cough,&mdash;why, he nearly whooped himself to death;
+measles and scarlet fever,&mdash;why, he was as nearly gone as possible, the
+doctor said. He has always been puny and weakly from a baby. But there's
+Bell, now, makes more of a fuss over Rob than over the others; if there
+is anything that will keep him away from the Man and Plough, it is Rob
+asking him to take him out somewhere.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, father's promised to sit with me this evening,' observed Robin, in
+a faint little treble.</p>
+
+<p>'Then we must make the room comfortable for father,' I said quickly.
+'Mrs. Bell, I must not hinder you any more; but if you could spare one
+of the girls to help me tidy up a little.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, Sally can come,' she returned; 'the place does look like a piggery.
+You see, Tom and Ned and Willie sleep here along of Robin, and boys know
+naught about keeping a place tidy; Sally reds it up towards evening. But
+there, doctor said Robbie must have a fire, and I've clean forgotten it:
+I will send up Sally with some sticks and a lump or two of coal.'</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bell was not a bad sort of woman, certainly, but, like many of her
+class, she was not a good manager; and when a woman has ten children, and
+a husband rather too fond of the Man and Plough, and is obliged to stand
+at her washing-tub for hours every day, one cannot expect to find the
+house in perfect order.</p>
+
+<p>We had soon a bright little fire burning, which gave quite a cheery
+aspect to the large bare attic; the sloping roof and small window did not
+seem to matter so much. With Sally's help I moved Robin's little bed to a
+lighter part of the room, where the roof did not slope so much, and where
+the wintry sunlight could reach him. Robin seemed much pleased with this
+change of position, and when I had washed and made him comfortable he
+declared that he felt 'first-rate.'</p>
+
+<p>I had so much to do for my patient that I was obliged to let Sally tidy
+up the room in her usual scrambling way. The child had been sadly
+neglected by that time, and he was getting faint. I had to prepare some
+arrow-root for his dinner, and then hurry off to the Marshalls' before I
+had my own. I was obliged to omit my visit to Phoebe that day, and divide
+my time between Mrs. Marshall and Robin. When I had given Robin his tea,
+and had put a chair by the fire for father, I went off, feeling that I
+could leave him more comfortably. The eldest boy, Tom, a big, strapping
+lad of fourteen, who went to work, had promised to keep the other boys
+quiet, 'that the little chap might not be disturbed,' and as Robin again
+declared that he felt first-rate, if it weren't for his arm, I hoped that
+he might be able to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>'Father stopped with me ever so long, until the boys came to bed,' were
+Robin's first words the next morning; 'and doctor came, and said we
+looked quite snug, and he is going to send father some books to read, and
+some papers, and father said he was more comfortable than downstairs, as
+I did not mind his pipe, and Tom has hung my linnet there,' pointing to
+the window, 'and if you open the cage, miss, you will see him hop all
+over the bedclothes, and chirp in the beautifullest way.'</p>
+
+<p>We had a great deal of cleaning to do that day. I shall never forget Lady
+Betty's face when she came upstairs and saw me down on my knees at work
+in my corner of the room; for Sally was little, and the room was large,
+and I was obliged to go to her assistance.</p>
+
+<p>'Good gracious, Miss Garston!' she said, in quite a shocked voice, 'you
+do not mean to tell me that you consider it your duty to scrub floors?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, no,' I returned, laughing, for really her consternation was
+ludicrous, 'I should consider it a waste of strength, generally; but
+we never know what comes in a day's work. Sally is so little that I am
+obliged to help her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why can't Mrs. Bell do it?' asked Lady Betty indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>'Mrs. Bell has hardly time to cook the children's dinner. Please don't
+look so shocked. I don't often scrub floors, and I have nearly finished
+now. What have you brought in that basket, little Red Riding-Hood?' for
+in her little crimson hood-like bonnet she did not look so unlike Red
+Riding-Hood.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Giles asked Gladys to send some things for poor little Robin, and
+she packed them herself. There is a jar of beef-tea, and some jelly, and
+some new-laid eggs, and sponge-cakes, and a roll or two; and Gladys hopes
+you will let her know what Robin wants, for he used to be her little
+scholar, and she is so interested in him.'</p>
+
+<p>Of course I knew Lady Betty would chatter about me when she returned
+home, but I was rather vexed when Mr. Hamilton took me to task the next
+morning and gave me quite a lecture on the subject; he made me promise at
+last that I would never do anything of the kind again. I hardly know what
+made me so submissive. I think it was his threat of keeping any more
+patients from me, and then he seemed so thoroughly put out.</p>
+
+<p>'It is such folly wearing yourself out like this, Miss Garston,' he said
+angrily. 'I wonder why women never will learn common sense. If you work
+under me I will thank you to obey my directions, and I do not choose my
+nurse to waste her time and strength in scrubbing floors. Yes, Robin boy,
+I am very angry with nurse; but there is no occasion for you to cry about
+it; and&mdash;why, good heavens! if you are not crying too, Miss Garston! Of
+course; there, I told you so; you have just knocked yourself up.'</p>
+
+<p>His tone so aggravated me that I plucked up a little spirit.</p>
+
+<p>'I am not a bit knocked up,'&mdash;and, in rather a choky voice, 'I am not
+crying; I never cry before people; only I am a little tired. I was up all
+last night with Mrs. Marshall, and you talk so much.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, very well,' rather huffily; but he was in a bad humour that day. 'I
+won't talk any more to you. But I should like to know one thing: when are
+you going home?'</p>
+
+<p>'In another hour; my head aches, rather, and I think I shall lie down.'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course your head aches; but there, you have given me a promise, so I
+will not say any more. Try what a good nap will do. I am going round by
+the Lockes', and I shall tell Phoebe not to expect you this afternoon. It
+won't hurt her to miss you sometimes; it will teach her to value her
+blessings more, and people cannot sing when they have a headache.' And he
+walked off without waiting for me to thank him for his thoughtfulness.
+What did he mean by saying that I was crying, the ridiculous man, just
+because there were tears in my eyes? I certainly could not fancy myself
+crying because Mr. Hamilton scolded me!</p>
+
+<p>I had a refreshing nap, and kept my dinner waiting, but I must own I was
+a little touched when Mrs. Barton produced a bottle of champagne which
+she said Mr. Hamilton had brought in his pocket and had desired that I
+was to have some directly I woke. 'And I was to tell you, with his
+compliments, that his sister Gladys would sit with Robin all the
+afternoon, and that Lady Betty was at the Marshalls', and he was going
+again himself, and Phoebe Locke was better, and he hoped you would not
+stir out again to-day.'</p>
+
+<p>How very kind and thoughtful of Mr. Hamilton! He had sent his sisters
+to look after my patients, that I might be able to enjoy my rest with a
+quiet conscience. I was sorry that he should think that I was so easily
+knocked up; but it was not over-fatigue, nor yet his scolding, that had
+brought the tears to my eyes. To-day was the second anniversary of
+Charlie's death, and through that long, wakeful night, as I sat beside
+poor Mary's bed, I was recalling the bitter hours when my darling went
+down deeper into the place of shadows,&mdash;when he fought away his young
+life, while Lesbia and I wept and prayed beside him. No wonder a word
+unnerved me; but I could not tell Mr. Hamilton this.</p>
+
+<p>When we met the next day he asked me, rather curtly, if the headache had
+gone; but when I thanked him, somewhat shyly, for the medicine he had
+sent, he got rather red, and interrupted me with unusual abruptness.</p>
+
+<p>'You have nothing for which to thank me,' he said, in quite a repellent
+tone. 'I am glad you obeyed orders and stopped at home; I was afraid you
+might be contumacious, as usual,'&mdash;which was rather ungracious of him,
+after the promise he had extracted from me.</p>
+
+<p>I questioned Robin about Miss Hamilton's visit; she had remained with the
+boy some hours, reading to him and amusing him, and, in Robin's favourite
+language, 'getting on first-rate; only, just as I was drinking my mugful
+of tea, parson comes, and Miss Hamilton she says she will be late, and
+gets up in a hurry, and&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Wait a minute, Robin: do you mean Mr. Cunliffe or Mr. Tudor?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, the vicar, to be sure; and he seemed finely surprised to see Miss
+Hamilton there. "So you've come to see your old scholar," he says,
+smiling, and Miss Hamilton says, "Yes; but she must go now," and she
+drops her glove, and parson looks for it, but it was too dark, and for
+all his groping it could not be found. "I must just go without it," says
+Miss Hamilton; "but I have got my muff, and it does not matter," and she
+says good-bye, and goes away. Parson found it, though,' went on Robin
+garrulously. 'When Sally lighted the candle he spies it at once, and puts
+it in his pocket. "Miss Hamilton will be fine and glad when you tell her
+it is found," I says to parson; but he just looks at me in an odd sort of
+way, and says, "Yes, Robin, certainly."&mdash;'And you won't forget to give it
+to her, to-morrow, sir?' but he did not seem to hear me. "Good-night,
+my man," he said. "So Miss Hamilton did not think you were too old to be
+kissed." And he kissed me just in the same place as she did. What did you
+say, miss?'</p>
+
+<p>'I did not say anything, Robin.'</p>
+
+<p>'Didn't you, miss? I thought I heard you say "poor man," or something
+like that. Is not Miss Hamilton beautiful? I think she is almost as
+beautiful as my picture of the Virgin Mary. I asked parson if he did not
+think so, and he said yes. Do you think she will come again soon?'</p>
+
+<p>'We shall see, Robbie dear.' But, as I spoke, something told me that we
+should not see Miss Hamilton there again.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PICTURE IN GLADYS'S ROOM</h3>
+
+
+<p>The days flew rapidly by, and I was almost too busy to heed them as they
+passed. Each morning I woke with fresh energy to my day's work; the hours
+were so full of interest and varied employment that my evening rest came
+all too soon. I grew so fond of my patients, especially of poor little
+Robin, that I never left them willingly; and the knowledge that I was
+necessary to them, that they looked to me for relief and comfort, seemed
+to fill my life with sweetness.</p>
+
+<p>As I said to myself daily, no one need complain that one's existence is
+objectless, or altogether desolate, as long as there are sick bodies and
+sick souls to which one can minister. For 'Give, and it shall be given
+unto you,' is the Divine command, and sympathy and help bestowed on our
+suffering fellow-creatures shall be repaid into our bosoms a hundredfold.
+I was right in my surmise: Miss Hamilton did not again visit her little
+scholar; but Lady Betty came almost daily, and was a great help in
+amusing the child. I was with him for an hour in the morning, and again
+in the late afternoon; but Mrs. Marshall took up the greater part of my
+time; she was growing more feeble every day, and needed my constant care.
+Unless it were absolutely necessary, I was unwilling to sacrifice my
+night's rest, or to draw too largely on my stock of strength; but I had
+fallen into the habit, during the last week or two, of going down to the
+cottage in the evening about eight or nine, and settling her comfortably
+for the night. I found these late visits were a great boon to her, and
+seemed to break the length of the long winter night, and so I did not
+regret my added trouble. Poor Phoebe had to be content with an hour
+snatched from the busier portion of the day; but she was beginning to
+occupy herself now. I kept her constantly supplied with books; and Miss
+Locke assured me that she read them with avidity; her poor famished mind,
+deprived for so many years of its natural aliment, fastened almost
+greedily on the nourishment provided for it. From the moment I induced
+her to open a book her appetite for reading returned, and she occupied
+herself in this manner for hours.</p>
+
+<p>She never spoke to her sister about what she read, but when Kitty and she
+were alone she would keep the child entranced for an hour together by the
+stories she told her out of Miss Garston's books.</p>
+
+<p>'Sometimes Kitty sings to her, and sometimes they have a rare talk,' Miss
+Locke would say. 'I am often too busy to do more than look in for five
+minutes or so, to see how they are getting on. Phoebe grumbles far less;
+it is wonderful to hear her say, sometimes, that she did not know it was
+bedtime, when I go in to fetch the lamp. Reading? ay, she is always
+reading; but she sleeps a deal, too.'</p>
+
+<p>I used to look round Phoebe's room with satisfaction now; it had quite
+lost its stiff, angular look. A dark crimson foot-quilt lay on the bed,
+a stand of green growing ferns was on the table, and two or three books
+were always placed beside her.</p>
+
+<p>Some gay china figures that I had hunted out of the glass cupboard in the
+parlour enlivened the mantelpiece, and a simple landscape, with sheep
+feeding in a sunny field, hung opposite the bed. Some pretty cretonne
+curtains had replaced the dingy dark ones. Phoebe herself had a soft
+fleecy gray shawl drawn over her thin shoulders. Mr. Hamilton again and
+again commented on her improved appearance, but I always listened rather
+silently; the evil spirit that had taken possession of Phoebe had not
+finally left her; 'and why could not we cast it out?' used to come to
+my lips sometimes as I looked at her; but all the same I knew the
+Master-hand was needed for that.</p>
+
+<p>Christmas Day fell this year on a Tuesday. On Sunday afternoon I had
+finished my rounds and was returning home to tea, when, as I was passing
+the Marshalls' cottage, Peggy ran after me bareheaded to say her father
+had just arrived, and would I come in for a moment, as mother seemed a
+little faint, and granny was frightened.</p>
+
+<p>I hastened back with the child; for, of course, in poor Mary's state the
+least shock might prove fatal. I found Marshall stooping over the bed and
+supporting his wife with clumsy fondness, with the tears rolling clown
+his weather-beaten face.</p>
+
+<p>'I'm 'most 'feard she's gone, missis,' he said hoarsely. 'Poor lass,
+I took her too sudden, and she had not the strength of the little un
+there.'</p>
+
+<p>I bade him lay her down gently, and then applied the necessary remedies,
+and, to my great relief, my patient presently revived. It was touching to
+see the weak hand trying to feel for her husband; as it came into contact
+with the rough coat-sleeve, a smile came upon the death-like face.</p>
+
+<p>'It is Andrew himself,' she whispered; 'I feared it was naught but a
+dream, mother; it is Andrew's own self, and he is looking well and
+hearty. Ay, lad,' with a loving look at him, 'I could not have died in
+peace till I had seen you again; and now God's will be done, for He has
+been good to me and granted me my heart's desire.'</p>
+
+<p>Poor Marshall looked weary and travel-stained, so I beckoned Peggy out
+of the room, and with her help there was soon a comfortable meal on the
+table,&mdash;part of the meat-pie that was left from the children's dinner,
+a round or two of hot toast, and a cup of smoking coffee.</p>
+
+<p>The poor man looked a little bewildered when he saw these preparations
+for his comfort, and he wiped his eyes again with his rough coat-sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>'I have been so long without wife or child that I can't make it out to
+see them all flocking round me again. There is Tim a man almost. Well,
+I have been tramping it since five this morning, and I am nearly ready
+to drop; so thank you kindly, missis, and with your leave I will fall
+to.'</p>
+
+<p>When I returned to Mary I found her looking wonderfully revived and
+cheerful.</p>
+
+<p>'Isn't it grand to think that the Lord has let me have my own way about
+seeing Andrew?' she said, with a smile: 'he will be here now, poor lad,
+to see the last of me and look after the children. Now, you must not let
+me keep you, Miss Garston, for Andrew is that handy he can nurse as well
+as mother there before she lost her eyesight. I have been a deal of
+trouble to you, and now you must go home and rest.'</p>
+
+<p>I was glad to be set at liberty, for I hoped that I might be in time to
+attend evening service; but just as I had finished tea, and was trying to
+think that I was not so very tired, and that it would not be wiser to
+stay at home, the outer door unlatched, and the next moment there was a
+quick tap at the parlour door, and Lady Betty bustled in, looking very
+rosy from the cold.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I can't stop a moment,' she said breathlessly; 'I have given Etta
+the slip, and in five minutes she will be looking for me; but I took it
+in my head to ask you to go and see Gladys. She is in her room with a
+cold, and looks dreadfully dull, and I know it will do her so much good
+if you will go and talk to her. Giles is out, and every one else, so no
+one will disturb you: so do go, there's a good soul.' And actually before
+I could answer, the impetuous little creature had shut the door in my
+face, and I could hear her running down the garden path.</p>
+
+<p>I had not seen Miss Hamilton since the evening Uncle Max discovered us
+together, and I could not resist the temptation of finding her alone.
+Lady Betty had said she was in her room, and looked dreadfully dull. I
+had promised Max to be good to her, so of course it was my duty to go and
+cheer her up. I made this so plain to my conscience that in five minutes
+more I was on the road to Gladwyn, and before the church bells had
+stopped ringing I had entered the dark shrubberies, and was looking at
+the closed windows, wondering which of them belonged to Miss Hamilton's
+room.</p>
+
+<p>I was agreeably surprised when a pretty-looking maid admitted me. I had
+taken a strange dislike to Leah, and the man who had waited upon us at
+dinner that evening had a dark, unprepossessing face; but this girl
+looked bright and cheerful, and took my message to Miss Hamilton at once
+without a moment's hesitation. She returned almost immediately. Miss
+Hamilton was in her room, but she would be very glad to see me, and the
+girl looked glad too as she led the way to the turret-room. Miss Hamilton
+was standing on the threshold, and met me with outstretched hands; she
+looked ill and worn, and had a soft white shawl drawn closely round her
+as though she were chilly, but her eyes brightened at the sight of me.</p>
+
+<p>'This is good of you, Miss Garston; I never expected such a pleasure.
+That will do, Chatty; you can close the door.' And, still holding my
+hand, she drew me into the room. It was a pretty room, but furnished
+far more simply than Miss Darrell's. The deep bay-window formed a recess
+large enough to hold the dressing-table and a chair or two, and was
+half-hidden by the blue cretonne curtains; besides this there were two
+more windows. Miss Hamilton had been sitting in a low cushioned chair
+by the fire; a small table with a lamp and some books was beside her;
+a Persian kitten lay on the white rug. On a stand beside a chair was a
+large, beautifully-painted photograph in a carved frame; the folding
+doors were open, and a vase of flowers stood before it.</p>
+
+<p>'What has put this benevolent idea into your head?' she asked, as she
+drew forward a comfortable wicker chair with a soft padded seat. 'I
+thought I had a long, dull evening before me, with no resource but my own
+thoughts, for I was tired of reading. I could scarcely believe Chatty
+when she said that you were in the drawing-room.'</p>
+
+<p>I told Miss Hamilton of Lady Betty's visit, and she laughed quite
+merrily.</p>
+
+<p>'Good little Betty! She is always trying to give me pleasure. She wanted
+to stay with me herself, only Etta said it was no use for two people to
+stop away from church. They have all gone, even Thornton and Leah. I
+believe only Parker and Chatty are in the house.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is Chatty the housemaid?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, the under-housemaid; but Catherine's father is ill, so she has gone
+to nurse him&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'And Leah&mdash;who is Leah? I mean what is her capacity in the household?'
+as Miss Hamilton looked rather surprised at my question.</p>
+
+<p>'She used to be Aunt Margaret's attendant, and now she is Etta's
+maid,&mdash;at least, we call her so,&mdash;but she makes herself useful in many
+ways. She is rather a superior person, and well educated, but I like
+Chatty to wait on me best; she is such a simple, honest little soul.
+I know people say servants have not much feeling, but I am sure Chatty
+would do anything for me and Lady Betty.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you think Leah would not?' I asked, rather stupidly.</p>
+
+<p>'I did not say so, did I?' she answered quickly. 'We always look upon
+Leah as Etta's servant. She was devoted to her old mistress, and of
+course that makes Etta care for her so much. To me she is not a pleasant
+person. Etta has spoiled her, and she gives herself airs, and takes too
+much upon herself. Do you know'&mdash;with an amused smile&mdash;'Lady Betty and I
+think that Etta is rather afraid of her? She never ventures to find fault
+with her, and once or twice Lady Betty has heard Leah scolding Etta when
+something has put her out. I should not care to be scolded by my maid:
+should you, Miss Garston?'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' I returned, rather absently, for, unperceived by Miss Hamilton, my
+attention was arrested by the photograph. It was the portrait of a young
+man, and something in the face seemed familiar to me.</p>
+
+<p>The next moment I was caught. A distressed look crossed Miss Hamilton's
+face, and she made a sudden movement, as though she would close the
+photograph; but on second thoughts she handed it to me.</p>
+
+<p>'Should you like to see it more closely? It is a photograph of my
+twin-brother, Eric. They think&mdash;yes, they are afraid that he is dead.'</p>
+
+<p>Her lips had turned quite white as she spoke, and in my surprise, for
+I never knew there had been another brother, I did not answer, but only
+bent over the picture.</p>
+
+<p>It was the face of a young man about nineteen or twenty,&mdash;a beautiful
+face, that strangely resembled his sister's; the large blue-gray eyes
+were like hers, but the fair budding moustache scarcely hid the weak,
+irresolute mouth. Here the resemblance stopped, for Miss Hamilton's firm
+lips and finely-curved chin showed no lack of power; but in her brother's
+face&mdash;attractive as it was&mdash;there were clearly signs of vacillation.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, what do you think of it?' she asked, with a quick catch of her
+breath.</p>
+
+<p>'It is a beautiful face,' I returned, rather hesitating. 'Very striking,
+too. One could not easily forget it; and it is strangely like you: but&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know,'&mdash;taking it out of my hand and closing the carved
+panels,&mdash;'but you think it weak. Oh yes, we cannot all be strong alike.
+Our Creator has ordained that, and it is for us to be merciful. Poor
+Eric! He would be three-and-twenty now. He was just twenty when that was
+taken.'</p>
+
+<p>'And he is dead?'</p>
+
+<p>'They say so. They think he is drowned; but we have no real proof,
+and we cannot be sure of it. He is alive in my dreams. That is the best
+of not really knowing,' she went on, in a sad voice: 'one can go on
+praying for him, for, perhaps, after all, he may one day come back;
+not from the dead,&mdash;oh no, I do not believe that for a moment; but if
+he be alive&mdash;' her eyes dilating and her manner full of excitement.</p>
+
+<p>I pressed her to tell me about him, adding softly that I could feel for
+her more than any one else, as I had lost my own twin-brother. But she
+looked kindly at me and shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>'Not to-night, I do not feel well enough, and it always makes me so ill
+and excited to speak about it, and we should not have time. Perhaps some
+day, when I get more used to you. Oh yes, some day, perhaps.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, I do not wish to intrude upon your trouble, Miss Hamilton,'
+I returned, colouring at this repulse. But she took my hand and pressed
+it gently.</p>
+
+<p>'You must not be hurt with me. I have never spoken to any one about Eric.
+Mr. Cunliffe knows. But he&mdash;he&mdash;is different, and he was very kind to me.
+I must always be grateful.' The tears came into her eyes, and she hurried
+on:</p>
+
+<p>'I should like you to know, only I am such a coward. I am so sure of
+your sympathy, you seem already such a friend. Why do you call me Miss
+Hamilton? I am younger than you. I should like to hear you say Gladys.
+Miss Hamilton seems so stiff from you, and for years I have thought of
+you as Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>'You mean that Uncle Max has often talked of me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes,' with an involuntary sigh, 'of you and your brother. He was
+always so fond of you both. He used to say very often that he wished that
+I knew you; that you were so good, so unlike other people; that you bore
+your trouble so beautifully.'</p>
+
+<p>'I bore my trouble well! Oh, Miss Hamilton, it is impossible that he
+could have said that, when he knew how rebellious I was.' But here I
+could say no more.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't cry, Ursula,' she said, very sweetly; 'you are not rebellious now.
+Oh, I used to be so sorry for you; you little thought at that dreadful
+time, when you were so lonely and desolate, that a girl whom you had
+never seen, and perhaps of whom you had never heard, was praying for you
+with all her heart. That is what I mean by saying that I have known you
+for a long time.'</p>
+
+<p>By mutual impulse we bent forward and kissed each other,&mdash;a quiet
+lingering kiss that spoke of full understanding and sympathy. I had
+promised Uncle Max to be good to this girl, to do all I could to help
+her, but I did not know as I gave that promise how my heart would cleave
+to her, and that in time I should grow to love her with that rare
+friendship that is described in Holy Writ as 'passing the love of women.'
+We were silent for a little while, and then by some sudden impulse I
+began to speak of Max; I told her that I felt a little anxious about him,
+that he did not seem quite well or quite happy.</p>
+
+<p>'I have thought so myself,' she returned, very quietly.</p>
+
+<p>'Max is so good that I cannot bear to see him unhappy,&mdash;he is so
+unselfish, so full of thought for other people, so earnest in his work,
+so conscientious and self-denying.'</p>
+
+<p>'True,' she replied, taking up a little toy screen that lay in her lap
+and shielding her face from the flame: 'he is all that. If any one
+deserves to be happy, it is your uncle.'</p>
+
+<p>I was glad to hear her say this, but her voice was a little constrained.</p>
+
+<p>'He seems very far from happy just now,' was my answer: 'he looks worn
+and thin, as though he were overworking himself. I asked him the other
+night what ailed him. Are you cold, Miss Hamilton? I thought you shivered
+just now.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no,' she returned, a little impatiently: 'you were speaking of your
+uncle.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. I could not get him to tell me what was the matter; he began to
+joke: you know his way; men are so tiresome sometimes.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not always easy to understand them,' she said, turning away her
+face: 'perhaps they do not wish to be understood. It must be a great
+comfort to Mr. Cunliffe to have you so near him. I have thought lately
+that he has seemed a little lonely.'</p>
+
+<p>'But he comes here very often,' I said, rather quickly; 'he need not be
+dull, with so many friends.'</p>
+
+<p>To my surprise, Miss Hamilton's fair face flushed almost painfully.</p>
+
+<p>'He does not come so often as he used; perhaps he finds us a little too
+quiet. I am sorry for Giles's sake&mdash;oh yes, I do not mean that,' as I
+looked at her rather reproachfully. 'Of course we all like Mr. Cunliffe.'</p>
+
+<p>I was about to reply to this, when Miss Hamilton suddenly grew a little
+restless, and the next moment the door-bell sounded.</p>
+
+<p>I rose at once. 'They have come back from church. I will bid you good-bye
+now.' And, as I expected, she made no effort to keep me.</p>
+
+<p>'You will come again,' she said, kissing me affectionately. 'I have so
+enjoyed our little talk; you have done me good, indeed you have, Ursula,'
+watching me from the threshold. I knew I could not escape my fate, so I
+walked downstairs as coolly as I could, and encountered them all in the
+hall. Miss Darrell gave a little shriek when she saw me.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear me, Miss Garston, how you startled me! Who would have thought of
+finding you here on Sunday evening, when all good people are at church!'
+but here Mr. Hamilton put her aside with little ceremony: he really
+seemed as though he were glad to see me.</p>
+
+<p>'You came to sit with Gladys: it was very kind and thoughtful of you.
+Poor girl, she seemed rather dull, but now you have cheered her up.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps Miss Garston will extend her cheering influence, Giles,'
+observed Miss Darrell in her most staccato manner, 'and remain to supper.
+Leah will see her home.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am going to perform that office myself, Etta. Will you stay?' looking
+at me in a friendly manner.</p>
+
+<p>'Not to-night,' I returned hurriedly; 'and, indeed, I can very well
+walk alone.' But Mr. Hamilton settled that question by putting on his
+greatcoat.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, of course Giles will walk with you: how could he do less?' replied
+Miss Darrell, with a scarcely perceptible sneer. 'You have timed your
+visit so well that he will be just back to supper. So you have been
+sitting with dear Gladys? I wonder how you knew she had a cold: private
+information, I suppose. I should hardly have thought Gladys was well
+enough to see visitors, she was so feverish when I left her; but that
+stupid Chatty makes such mistakes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Hamilton was not at all feverish, I assure you. My visit has done
+her no harm.' And I turned to Lady Betty, who stood on tiptoe to kiss me
+and breathed a 'thank you' into my ear; but Miss Darrell could not
+forbear from a parting fling as she bade me good-night.</p>
+
+<p>'We shall wait supper for you, Giles,' she said rather pointedly; but Mr.
+Hamilton took no notice; he only bade me be careful, as it was rather
+slippery by the gate, and then he began telling me about the sermon, and,
+strangely enough, he endorsed my opinion of Max.</p>
+
+<p>'I tell him he must have a change after Christmas; he looks knocked up,
+and a trifle thin. It will not hurt Tudor to work a little harder; you
+may tell Cunliffe I say so. Halloo! I think you had better take my arm,
+Miss Garston; it is confoundedly dark and slippery.' But I declined this,
+as I was tolerably sure-footed.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton seemed in excellent spirits, and talked well and with great
+animation, as though he were bent on amusing me; he was a clever man,
+and had a store of useful information which he did not always care to
+produce. I never heard him talk better than on this occasion: there were
+flashes of wit and brilliancy that surprised me: I was almost sorry when
+I reached the cottage.</p>
+
+<p>'Good-night, Miss Garston, and thank you again for your deed of charity,'
+he said quite heartily, and as though he meant it. Really, I never liked
+Mr. Hamilton so much before; but then he had never shown himself so
+genial. I saw Lady Betty the next morning, and asked her after Miss
+Hamilton, but I almost regretted my question when the naughty little
+thing treated me to one of her usual confidences: there was no inducing
+her to hold her tongue when she was in the humour for chatting.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it was such fun!' she said, her eyes dancing with mischief. 'Etta
+was so cross when you were gone; she declared it was a conspiracy between
+us three, and that you only wanted Giles to walk home with you. No, I did
+not mean to repeat that, so please don't look so angry. Etta did not
+really think so, but she will say these things about people. I tell
+Gladys Etta wants Giles herself. She scolded Chatty for being so stupid,
+and said if Leah had been at home she would have shown more sense; and
+then she went up to Gladys's room in a nice temper, but Gladys would not
+listen, said she was tired, and ordered Etta out of the room. When Gladys
+is like that Etta can do nothing with her, so she sulked until Giles came
+home, and then began teasing him about his gallantry, and wondering how
+he enjoyed his walk, and you know her way.'</p>
+
+<p>'Lady Betty, I am busy; besides which, I do not wish to hear any more of
+your cousin's improving conversation.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, there is nothing more to tell,' she returned triumphantly. 'Giles
+silenced her so completely that she did not dare to open her lips again.
+Oh, she is properly frightened of Giles when he is in one of his moods.
+He told her that he disliked observations of this sort, that in his
+opinion they were both undignified and vulgar, especially when they
+related to a person whom he so much respected as Miss Garston. "And allow
+me to remark," he continued, looking at poor little me rather fiercely,
+as though I were in fault too, "that I shall consider it an honour if
+Miss Garston bestows her friendship on any member of my household. I am
+very glad she seems to like Gladys, and I only hope she will do the poor
+girl good and come every day if she likes, and that is all I mean to say
+on the subject." But I think he said quite enough; don't you, Miss
+Garston?' finished naughty Lady Betty, looking up at me with such
+innocent eyes that I could not have scolded her any more than I could
+have scolded a kitten.</p>
+
+<p>But if only Lady Betty could learn to hold her tongue&mdash;!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>ERIC</h3>
+
+
+<p>That afternoon I had rather an adventure. I was just walking up the hill
+on my way to the post-office, when a handsome carriage came round the
+corner by the church rather sharply, and the same moment a little dog
+crossing the road in the dusk seemed to be under the horses' feet.</p>
+
+<p>That was my first impression. My next was that the coachman was trying
+to pull up his horses. There was a sudden howl, the horses kicked and
+plunged, some one in the carriage shrieked, and then the little dog was
+in my arms, and even in the dim light I could feel one poor little leg
+was broken.</p>
+
+<p>The horses were quieted with difficulty, and the footman got down and
+went to the carriage window.</p>
+
+<p>'It is poor little Flossie, ma'am,' he said, touching his hat: 'she must
+have got out into the road and recognised the carriage, for she was under
+the horses' feet. This lady got her out somehow.' And indeed I had no
+idea how I had managed it. One of the horses had reared, and his front
+hoof almost touched me as I snatched up Flossie. I suppose it was a risky
+thing to do, for I never liked the remembrance afterwards, and I do not
+believe I could have done it again.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh dear! oh dear!' observed a pleasant voice, 'do let me thank the lady.
+Stand aside, Williams.' And a pretty old lady with white hair looked out
+at me.</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid the poor dog's leg is broken,' I observed, as the little
+animal lay in my arms uttering short barks of pain. 'Happily your man
+pulled up in time, or it must have been killed.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh dear! oh dear! what will the colonel say to such carelessness?'
+exclaimed the old lady. 'He's so fond of Flossie, and makes such a fuss
+with her. And Mr. Hamilton has gone to Brighton, or I would have sent
+Flossie in for him to attend to her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Will you let me see what I can do, Mrs. Maberley?' I said, for I had
+recognised the pretty old lady at once. 'I am the village nurse, Miss
+Garston, and I think I can bind up poor Flossie's leg.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Garston!' in quite a different voice; it seemed to have grown
+rather formal. 'Oh, I am so much obliged to you, but I am ashamed to give
+you the trouble; only for poor Flossie's sake,' hesitating, 'will you
+come into the carriage and let me drive you to Maplehurst?' And to this
+I readily consented. I could never bear to see an animal in pain, and the
+little creature, a beautiful brown-and-white spaniel, was already licking
+my hand confidingly.</p>
+
+<p>I could see Mrs. Maberley was embarrassed by my presence, for she talked
+in rather a nervous manner about it being Christmas Eve, and how busy the
+young ladies were decorating the church.</p>
+
+<p>'I wanted to speak to Miss Darrell for a moment,' she went on, 'and I
+found her and Lady Betty putting up wreaths in the chancel, and that
+good-looking Mr. Tudor was helping them. I was so sorry poor dear Gladys
+was not there; but Miss Darrell says her cold is so much better that she
+is downstairs again. I am afraid she is very delicate and takes after
+her poor mother.'</p>
+
+<p>'I saw Miss Hamilton yesterday, and I certainly thought she looked very
+ill.'</p>
+
+<p>'So Miss Darrell told me. What a good, unselfish little creature she is,
+Miss Garston! I do not know what Mr. Hamilton and his sisters would do
+without her. Ah, here we are at Maplehurst, and Tracy is looking out for
+us. Tracy, is the colonel at home? No, I am thankful to hear it. Poor
+little Flossie has met with an accident, and this lady has saved her
+life, but she tells me her leg is broken. Now, Miss Garston, will you
+believe it that I am such a coward that I could not be of the least
+assistance? Tracy, take Miss Garston into the morning room, and do your
+best to help her.' And Mrs. Maberley trotted away as fast as she could,
+while Tracy ushered me into a bright snug-looking room and asked me very
+civilly what she could do for me.</p>
+
+<p>Tracy was a handy, sensible woman, and in a few minutes I had managed,
+with her help, to strap up poor Flossie's leg in the most successful
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure, ma'am, Mr. Hamilton couldn't have done better himself,'
+observed Tracy, looking at me with respectful admiration, while I petted
+Flossie, who was now lying comfortably in her basket, trying to lick her
+bandages. 'I must go and tell my mistress that it is done, for she will
+be fretting herself ill over poor Flossie.'</p>
+
+<p>I expect Tracy sounded my praises, for when Mrs. Maberley entered the
+room in her pretty cap with gray ribbons there was not a trace of
+formality in her manner as she thanked me with tears in her eyes for
+my kindness to Flossie.</p>
+
+<p>'To think of a young creature being so clever!' she said, folding her
+soft dimpled hands together. 'My dear, the colonel will be so grateful to
+you: he dotes on Flossie. You must stay and have tea with me, and then he
+can thank you himself. No, I shall take no refusal. Tracy, tell Marvel to
+bring up the tea-tray at once. My dear,' turning to me, when Tracy had
+left the room, 'I am almost ashamed to look you in the face when I
+remember how long you have been in Heathfield and that I have never
+called on you; but Etta told me that you did not care to have visitors.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know, Mrs. Maberley; but that is quite a mistake,' I returned,
+somewhat eagerly, for I had fallen in love with the pretty old lady, and
+her tall, aristocratic colonel with his white moustache and grand
+military carriage, and had watched them with much interest from my place
+in church. She was such a dainty old lady, like a piece of Dresden china,
+with her pink cheeks and white curls and old-fashioned shoe-buckles; and
+she had such beautiful little hands, plump and soft as a baby's, which
+she seemed to regard with innocent pride, for she was always settling the
+lace ruffles round her wrists and pinching them up with careful fingers.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear, dear! I thought Etta told me,' she began rather nervously.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Darrell makes mistakes, like other people,' I answered, smiling.
+'I shall be very pleased to know my neighbours; it is quite true that I
+am not often at home, and just now I am very busy, but all the same I do
+not mean to shut myself out from society. One owes a duty to one's
+neighbours.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Miss Garston, I am quite pleased to hear you talk so sensibly.
+I was afraid from what Etta said that you were a little eccentric and
+strong-minded, and I have such a dislike to that in young people; young
+ladies are so terribly independent at the present day, in my opinion, and
+I know the colonel thinks the same. They are sadly deficient in good
+manners and reverence. That is why I am so fond of the Hamilton girls:
+they are perfect young gentlewomen; they never talk slang or slip-shod
+English, and they know how to respect gray hairs. The colonel is devoted
+to Gladys: I tell him he is as fond of her as though she were his own
+daughter.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think every one must be fond of Miss Hamilton.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, poor darling! and she is much to be pitied,' returned Mrs.
+Maberley, with a sigh. 'Oh, here comes Marvel with the tea. Now, Miss
+Garston, my dear, take off that bonnet and jacket: I like people to look
+as though they were at home. Marvel, draw up that chair to the fire, and
+give Miss Garston a table to herself, and put the muffins where she can
+reach them; there, now I think we look comfortable: young people always
+look nicer without their bonnets; it was a pity to hide your pretty
+smooth hair. Now tell me a little about yourself. I am sure Etta is
+wrong: you do not look in the least strong-minded. Tracy said it was
+wonderful how such slender little fingers could ever do hospital work.
+She has fallen in love with you, my dear; and Tracy has plenty of
+penetration. I never can understand why she does not take to Etta; and
+Etta is so good to her; but there, we all have our prejudices.'</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Mrs. Maberley's ripple of talk had died away, I told her a
+little about my work, and how much I liked my life at Heathfield, and
+then I spoke of my great interest in Gladys Hamilton.</p>
+
+<p>It was really very pleasant sitting in this warm, softly-lighted room and
+talking to this charming, kind-hearted old lady. Christmas Eve was not so
+dull, after all, as I had expected; it was nice to feel that I was making
+a new friend,&mdash;that the little service I had rendered Mrs. Maberley had
+broken down the barrier between us and overcome her prejudice. I knew
+that Miss Darrell had set her against me, and that for some reason of
+her own she wished to prevent her calling upon me.</p>
+
+<p>Did Miss Darrell dislike my coming to Heathfield? Was she afraid of
+finding me in her way? Was she at all desirous of making my stay irksome
+to me? These were some of the questions I was continually asking myself.</p>
+
+<p>I noticed that Mrs. Maberley sighed and shook her head when I spoke of
+Miss Hamilton. As I warmed to my subject, and praised her beauty and
+gentleness and intelligence, she sighed still more.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, she is a dear girl, a dear good girl; but she has never been the
+same since Eric went. Does she talk to you about Eric, Miss Garston? Etta
+says she talks of nothing else to her.'</p>
+
+<p>I opened my eyes rather widely at this statement, for I could not forget
+what Miss Hamilton had said to me that night: 'I have never spoken to any
+one about Eric.' Was it likely that she would choose Miss Darrell for a
+<i>confidante</i>? But I kept my incredulity to myself, and simply related to
+Mrs. Maberley the circumstance that I had seen the photograph by accident
+the previous evening, and only knew then that Miss Hamilton had had a
+twin-brother.</p>
+
+<p>'How very singular!' she observed, putting down her tea-cup in a hurry.
+'I should have thought every one in the place would have spoken about the
+young man, he was such a favourite; and it was no use Mr. Hamilton trying
+to keep it a secret. Why, the postmaster's wife told me before Eric had
+been gone twenty-four hours, and then I went to Mr. Cunliffe. Why, child,
+do you mean your uncle has never told you about it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, Uncle Max never repeats anything; he would be the last person
+from whom I should hear it.'</p>
+
+<p>'And yet he was up at Gladwyn every day,&mdash;ay, twice a day; and people
+said&mdash;But what an old gossip I am! Well, about poor Eric, there can be
+no harm in your knowing what all the world knows, even Marvel and Tracy;
+it is a very sore subject with poor Mr. Hamilton, and no one dares to
+mention Eric's name to him; but, as Etta says, Gladys can never hold her
+tongue about him when they two are alone together.' I certainly held mine
+at that moment. I began to wonder what Miss Darrell would say next.</p>
+
+<p>'So you have seen his picture, Miss Garston, my dear: well, now, is it
+not a beautiful face?&mdash;not sufficiently manly, as the colonel says; but
+then, poor fellow, he had not a strong character. Still, it was a lovely
+sight to see them together: our gardens join, you know, and often and
+often, as I have sat under our beech, I have seen Gladys and Eric walking
+up and down the little avenue, with his arm round her, and their two
+heads shining like gold, and she would be talking to him and smiling
+in his face, until it made me quite young to see them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wait a moment, Mrs. Maberley, please. I am deeply interested; but would
+Gladys&mdash;would Miss Hamilton like me to know all this?'</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure she would,&mdash;though perhaps she would not care for the pain
+of telling it herself; but it would be better for you to hear it from me
+than from Mrs. Barton, or Mrs. Drabble, or any other gossiping person
+that takes it into her head to tell you, for you could not be much longer
+at Heathfield without hearing of it, when, as I say, every Jack and Tom
+in the village knows it,&mdash;though how it all got about is more than I can
+say. I tell the colonel, Leah must have had a hand in it: I know it was
+she who told Tracy.'</p>
+
+<p>I saw by this time that Mrs. Maberley had quite made up her mind to tell
+me the story herself; she was garrulous, like many other old ladies, and
+perhaps she enjoyed a little gossip about her neighbours, so I only
+essayed one other feeble protest.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope Mr. Hamilton will not mind&mdash;' but she answered me quite
+briskly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Well, poor fellow, he knows by this time people will talk; I daresay
+he thinks Mr. Cunliffe has told you. Now, I do not want to blame Mr.
+Hamilton; he is a great favourite of mine ever since he cured the
+colonel's gout, and I would not be hard on him for worlds; but I have
+always been afraid that he did not rightly understand Eric; the brothers
+were so different. Mr. Hamilton is very hard-working and rather
+matter-of-fact, and Eric was quite different, more like a girl, dreamy
+and enthusiastic and terribly idle, and then he fancied himself an
+artist. Mr. Hamilton could not bear that.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why not? An artist's is a very good profession.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but he did not believe in his talent; and then Eric was intended
+for the law; his brother had sent him to Oxford, but he would not work,
+and he was extravagant, and got into debt,&mdash;and, oh yes, there was no end
+of trouble. I do not know how it was,' went on Mrs. Maberley, 'but Eric
+always seemed in the wrong. Etta used to take his part,&mdash;which was very
+good of her, as Eric could not bear her and treated her most rudely. Mr.
+Hamilton used to complain that Gladys encouraged him in his idleness; he
+sometimes came in here of an evening looking quite miserable, poor
+fellow, and would say that his sisters and Eric were leagued against him;
+that but for Etta he would be at his wits' end what to do. Eric would not
+obey him; he simply defied his authority; he was growing more idle every
+day, and when he remonstrated with him, Gladys took his part. Oh dear, I
+am afraid they were all very wretched.'</p>
+
+<p>'You think Mr. Hamilton did not understand his young brother.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, perhaps not. You see, Mr. Hamilton had not the same temptations;
+he was always steady and hard-working from a boy, and never cared much
+about his own comfort. As for getting into debt, why, he would have
+considered it wicked to do so. I know the colonel thought once or twice
+that he was a little hard on Eric. I remember his saying once 'that boys
+will be boys, and that all are not good alike, and that he must not use
+the curb too much.' It was a pity, certainly, that Mr. Hamilton was so
+angry about his painting. I daresay it was only a temporary craze. I am
+afraid, though, Eric must have behaved very badly. I know he struck his
+elder brother once. Anyhow, things went on from bad to worse; and one day
+a dreadful thing happened. A cheque of some value, I have forgotten the
+particulars, was stolen from Mr. Hamilton's desk, and the next day Eric
+disappeared.'</p>
+
+<p>'Was he accused of taking it?'</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure. Leah saw him with her own eyes. You must ask Mr. Cunliffe
+about all that; my memory is apt to be treacherous about details. I know
+Leah saw him with his hand in his brother's desk, and though Eric vowed
+it was only to put a letter there,&mdash;a very impertinent letter that he had
+written to his brother,&mdash;still the cheque was gone, and, as they heard
+afterwards, cashed by a very fair young man at some London Bank; and the
+next morning, after some terrible quarrel, during which Gladys fainted,
+poor girl, Eric disappeared, and the very next thing they heard of him,
+about three weeks afterwards, was that his watch and a pocket-book
+belonging to him had been picked up on the Brighton beach close to Hove.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean that this is all they have ever heard of him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. I believe Mr. Hamilton employed every means of ascertaining his
+fate. For some months he refused to believe that he was dead. I am not
+sure if Gladys believes it now. But Etta did from the first. "He was weak
+and reckless enough for anything," she has often said to me. Of course it
+is very terrible, and one cannot bear to think of it, but when a young
+man has lost his character he has not much pleasure in his life.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not think Miss Hamilton really believes that he is dead.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps not, poor darling. But Mr. Hamilton has no doubt on the subject,
+my dear Miss Garston. He is much to be pitied: he has never been the same
+man since Eric went. I am afraid that he repents of his harshness to the
+poor boy. He told the colonel once that he wished he had tried milder
+treatment.'</p>
+
+<p>'One can understand Mr. Hamilton's feelings so well. You are right, Mrs.
+Maberley: he is much to be pitied.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, and, to make matters worse, Gladys was very ill, and refused to see
+or speak to him in her illness. I believe the breach is healed between
+them now; but she is not all that a sister ought to be to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps Miss Darrell usurps her place,' I replied a little incautiously,
+but I saw my mistake at once. Mrs. Maberley was evidently a devout
+believer in Miss Darrell's merits.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, my dear, you must not say such things. Mr. Hamilton has told me over
+and over again that he does not know how he would have got through that
+miserable time but for his cousin Etta's kindness. She did everything for
+him, and nursed Gladys in her illness. I am sure she would have died but
+for Etta. Dear me! Flossie looks restless. I do believe she hears her
+master's step outside.&mdash;Yes, Flossie, that is his knock.&mdash;But I wonder
+whom he is bringing in with him.' And Mrs. Maberley straightened herself
+and smoothed the folds of her satin gown, and tried to look as usual,
+though there were tears in her bright eyes and her hands were a little
+tremulous. I do not know why I felt so sure that it would be Mr.
+Hamilton, but I was not at all surprised when he followed the tall old
+colonel into the room. But he certainly looked astonished when he saw me.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Garston!' he ejaculated, darting one of his keen looks at me. But
+when he had shaken hands he sat down by Mrs. Maberley somewhat silently.</p>
+
+<p>I was rather sorry to see Mr. Hamilton, for our talk had unsettled me
+and made me feel nervous in his presence. I was afraid he would read
+something from our faces. And I certainly saw him look at me more than
+once, as though something had aroused his suspicion. For the first time
+I was unwilling to encounter one of those straight glances. I felt
+guilty, as though I must avoid his eyes, but all the more I felt he
+was watching me.</p>
+
+<p>I was anxious to put a stop to this uncomfortable state of things, but
+I could not silence Mrs. Maberley, who was relating to her husband the
+story of poor Flossie's accident. My presence of mind and skill were so
+much lauded, and the colonel said so many civil things, that I felt
+myself getting hotter every moment.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton came at last to my relief.</p>
+
+<p>'I think Miss Garston resembles me in one thing, colonel. She hates to be
+thanked for doing her duty. You will drive her away if you say any more
+about Flossie. Oh, I thought so,' as I stretched out my hand for my hat:
+'I thought I interpreted that look aright. Well, I must be going too. I
+only brought him back safe to you, Mrs. Maberley.&mdash;By the bye, colonel,
+I shall tell Gladys that you have never asked after her.'</p>
+
+<p>'My sweetheart, Gladys! To be sure I have not. Well, how is she, my dear
+fellow?'</p>
+
+<p>'As obstinate as ever, colonel. Came downstairs to-day, and declares she
+will go to early service to-morrow, because it will be Christmas Day,
+and she has never missed yet. Women are kittle cattle to manage. Now,
+Miss Garston, if you are ready, I will see you a little on your way.'</p>
+
+<p>I knew it was no good to remonstrate, so I held my peace, Mrs. Maberley
+kissed me quite affectionately, and begged me to come whenever I had an
+hour to spare.</p>
+
+<p>'I wish I had known you before, my dear. But there, we all make mistakes
+sometimes.' And she patted me on the shoulder. 'Edbrooke, will you see
+them out? He will be your friend for ever, after your goodness to
+Flossie: won't you, Edbrooke?'</p>
+
+<p>I never felt so afraid of Mr. Hamilton before. I was wondering what I
+should say to him, and hoping that he had not noticed my nervousness,
+when he startled me excessively by saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'What makes you look so odd this evening? You are not a bit yourself,
+Miss Garston. Come! I shall expect you to confess. Mrs. Maberley is an
+old friend of mine, and I am very much attached to her. I should like to
+know what you and she have been talking about?'</p>
+
+<p>It was too dark for Mr. Hamilton to see my face, so I answered a little
+flippantly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I daresay you would like to know. Women are certainly not much more
+curious than men, after all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, as to that, I am not a bit curious,' was the contradictory answer.
+'But all the same I intend to know. So you may as well make a clean
+breast of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'But&mdash;but you have no right to be so inquisitive, Mr. Hamilton.'</p>
+
+<p>'Again I say I am not inquisitive, but I mean to know this. Mrs. Maberley
+had been crying. I could see the tears in her eyes. You looked inclined
+to cry too, Miss Garston. Now,'&mdash;after a moment's hesitation, as though
+he found speech rather difficult,&mdash;'I know the dear old lady has only one
+fault. She is rather too fond of gossiping about her neighbours, though
+she does it in the kindest manner. May I ask if her talk this evening
+at all related to a family not a hundred miles away from Maplehurst?'</p>
+
+<p>His voice sounded hard and satirical in the darkness. 'I wish you would
+not ask me such a question, Mr. Hamilton,' I returned, much distressed.
+'It was not my fault: I did not wish&mdash;' But he interrupted me.</p>
+
+<p>'Of course; I knew it. When am I ever deceived by a face or manner? Not
+by yours, certainly. So my good old friend told you about that miserable
+affair. I wish she had held her tongue a little longer. I wish&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>But I burst out, full of remorse,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Mr. Hamilton, I am so sorry! I have no right to know, but indeed
+I was hardly to blame.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who says you are to blame?' he returned, so harshly that I remained
+silent: 'it is no fault of yours if people will not be silent. But all
+the same I am sorry that you know; your opinion of me is quite changed
+now, eh? You think me a hard-hearted taskmaster of a brother. Well, it
+does not matter: Gladys would have made you believe that in time.'</p>
+
+<p>His voice was so full of concentrated bitterness that I longed to say
+something consoling; in his own fashion he had been kind to me, and I
+did not wish to misjudge him.</p>
+
+<p>'I know your sister Gladys sufficiently to be sure that she will never
+act ungenerously by her brother,' I returned hotly. 'Mr. Hamilton, you
+need not say such things: it is not for me to judge.'</p>
+
+<p>'But all the same you will judge,' he replied moodily. 'Oh, I know how
+you good women cling together: you know nothing of a man's nature; you
+cannot estimate his difficulties; because he has not got your sweet
+nature, because he cannot bear insolence patiently&mdash;Oh,' with an
+abruptness that was almost rude but for the concealed pain in his voice,
+'I am not going to excuse myself to you: why should I? I have only to
+account to my Maker and my own conscience,' And he was actually walking
+off in the darkness, for we were now in sight of the parlour window, but
+I called him back so earnestly that he could not refuse to obey.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Hamilton, pray do not leave me like this; it makes me unhappy. Do
+you know it is Christmas Eve?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, what of that?' with a short laugh.</p>
+
+<p>'People ought not to quarrel and be disagreeable to each other on
+Christmas Eve.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid, Miss Garston, that I do feel intensely disagreeable this
+evening.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but you must try and forgive me all the same. I could not quite
+help myself; but indeed I do not mean to judge you or any one, and I
+should like you to shake hands.'</p>
+
+<p>'There, then,' with a decidedly hearty grasp; and then, without releasing
+me, 'So you don't think so very badly of me, after all?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am very sorry for you,' was my prudent answer; 'I think you have had
+a great deal to bear. Good-night, Mr. Hamilton.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wait a minute; you have not answered my question. You must not have
+it all your own way. I repeat, has Mrs. Maberley given you a very bad
+impression of my character?'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly not; oh, she spoke most kindly; I should not have been afraid
+if you had heard the whole of our conversation.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish I had heard it.'</p>
+
+<p>'She made me feel very sorry for you all. Oh, what trouble there is in
+the world, Mr. Hamilton! It does seem so blind and foolish to sit in
+judgment on other people! how can we know their trials and temptations?'</p>
+
+<p>'That is spoken like a sensible woman. Try to keep a good opinion of us,
+Miss Garston: we shall be the better for your friendship. Well, so we are
+friends again, and this little misunderstanding is healed: so much the
+better; I should hate to quarrel with you. Now run in out of the cold.'</p>
+
+<p>I hastened to obey him, but he stood at the gate until I had entered
+the house; his voice and manner had quite changed during the last few
+minutes, and had become strangely gentle, reminding me of his sister
+Gladys's voice. What a singular man he was!&mdash;and yet I felt sorry for
+him. 'I wonder if he is really to blame!' I thought, as I opened the
+parlour door.</p>
+
+<p>The lamp was alight; the fire burnt ruddily; Tinker was stretched on the
+rug as usual, but something else was on the rug too.</p>
+
+<p>A girlish figure in a dark tweed gown was huddled up before the grate; a
+head, with short thick locks of hair tossing roughly on her neck, turned
+quickly at my entrance.</p>
+
+<p>'Jill!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, it is I, Ursie dear! Oh, you darling bear, what a time you have
+been!' Two strong arms pulled me down in the usual fashion, and a hot
+cheek was pressed lovingly against mine.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Jill, Jill, what does this mean?' I exclaimed, in utter amazement;
+but for a long time Jill only laughed and hugged me, and there was no
+getting an answer to my question.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>'I RAN AWAY, THEN!'</h3>
+
+
+<p>'Now, Jill,' I demanded, at last, taking her by the shoulders, 'I insist
+on knowing what this means.' And when I spoke in that tone Jill always
+obeyed me at once.</p>
+
+<p>So she shook her untidy mane, and looked at me with eyes that were
+brimful of fun and naughtiness.</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, Ursie dear, if you will know, you shall; but first sit down
+in that cosy-looking chair, and I will put my elbows in your lap, in the
+dear old fashion, and then we can talk nicely. What a snug little room
+this is! it looked just delicious when I came in, and Mrs. Barton made me
+such a nice cup of tea, and then I went upstairs to look at your bedroom,
+and there was a beautiful fire there, and Mrs. Barton says you always
+have one: so you are not so poor and miserable, after all.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am not at all poor, thank you; and I work so hard that I think I
+deserve to be warm and comfortable. And when people live alone, a fire
+is a nice, cheerful companion. But this is not answering my question,
+Jocelyn.'</p>
+
+<p>Now Jill hated me to call her Jocelyn, so she made a face at me, and
+said, in rather a grumpy voice, 'Well, I ran away, then!'</p>
+
+<p>'Ran away from Hyde Park Gate! Were you mad, Jill?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh dear, no,&mdash;not from Hyde Park Gate. Did you not get my letter? Oh,
+I remember, I forgot to post it: it is in my blotting-case now. Then you
+did not know that Sara has scarlatina?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, indeed; but I am very sorry to hear it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, she is nearly well now; but no one knows how she caught it. There
+was a terrible fuss when Dr. Armstrong pronounced it scarlatina. Mamma
+made father take lodgings at Brighton at once, and Fr&auml;ulein and I were
+packed off there at a minute's notice. You can fancy what my life has
+been for the last ten days, mewed up in a dull, ugly parlour with that
+old cat.'</p>
+
+<p>'My poor, dear Jill! But why did you not write to me, and I would have
+come over at once?'</p>
+
+<p>'So I did write, twice, and I do believe that horrid creature never
+posted my letters,&mdash;I daresay they are in her pocket now,&mdash;and I could
+not get out by myself until to-day. Now just think, Ursula, what sort of
+a Christmas Day I was likely to have; and then you never came to me, and
+I got desperate; so when Fr&auml;ulein said she had one of her headaches,' and
+here Jill made a comical grimace, 'I just made up my mind to take French
+leave, and spend Christmas Day with you, and here I am; and scold me if
+you dare, and I will hug you to death.' And, indeed, Jill's powerful
+young arms were quite capable of fulfilling her threat.</p>
+
+<p>'It is not for me to scold you,' I replied quietly; 'but I am afraid
+you will get into trouble for this piece of recklessness. Think how
+frightened poor Fr&auml;ulein will be when she misses you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Fr&auml;ulein, indeed! a deceitful creature like that. Why, Ursula, what
+do you think? I just peeped into her room to be sure that she was safe
+and it was all dark: she was not there at all. Oh, oh, my lady, I said to
+myself, so that is your little game, is it? And, just to be certain, I
+rang at the bell at 37 Brunswick Place, where the Schumackers live, and
+asked the servant if Fr&auml;ulein Hennig was still there, and when I heard
+that she was having tea I nearly laughed in his face. What do you think
+of that for an instructress of youth,&mdash;getting up the excuse of a
+headache, and leaving me over those stupid lessons, while she paid a
+visit on her own account? Does she not deserve a thorough good fright
+as a punishment?'</p>
+
+<p>'I think Aunt Philippa ought to be undeceived. I have never trusted
+Fr&auml;ulein Hennig since you told me she shut herself up in her bedroom to
+read novels. Jill, my dear, you have acted very wrongly, and I am afraid
+we shall all get into trouble over this school-girl trick of yours. I
+must think what is best to be done under the circumstances.'</p>
+
+<p>'You may think as much as you like,' returned Jill obstinately, 'but I
+have come to spend my Christmas Day with you, and nothing will induce me
+to go back to Fr&auml;ulein: I shall murder her if I do. Now, Ursie darling,'
+in a coaxing voice, 'do be nice, and make much of me. You can't think how
+delicious it is to see your face again; it is such a dear face, and I
+like it ever so much better than Sara's and Lesbia's.'</p>
+
+<p>I was unable to reply to this flattering speech, for Jill suddenly put up
+her hand&mdash;I noticed it was a little inky&mdash;and said, 'Hark, there is some
+one coming up to the door?' and for the moment we both believed that it
+was Fr&auml;ulein; but, to Jill's immense relief, it was only Mr. Tudor, with
+a great bough of holly in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>'We have just finished at the church, and I have brought you this, Miss
+Garston,' he began, and then he stopped, and said, 'Miss Jocelyn here!'
+in a tone of extreme surprise, and Jill got up rather awkwardly and shook
+hands with him. I could see that she felt shy and uncomfortable. I was
+very pleased to see Mr. Tudor, for I knew he would help us in this
+emergency. Jill was such a child, in spite of her womanly proportions,
+that I was sure that her escapade would not seriously shock him; he was
+young enough himself to have a fellow-feeling for her; and I was not
+wrong. Mr. Tudor looked decidedly amused when I told him Jill had taken
+French leave. He tried to look grave until I had finished, but the effort
+was too much for him, and he burst out laughing.</p>
+
+<p>Jill, who was looking very sulky, was so charmed by his merriment that
+she began to laugh too, and we were all as cheerful as possible until I
+called them to order, and asked Mr. Tudor if he would send off a telegram
+at once.</p>
+
+<p>'A telegram! Oh, Ursula!' And Jill's dimples disappeared like magic.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, Fr&auml;ulein would not have a moment's sleep to-night if she did not
+know you were safe. Do not be afraid, Jill: we will spend our Christmas
+Day together, in spite of all the Fr&auml;uleins in the world.' And then I
+wrote off the telegram, and a short note, and gave them to Mr. Tudor. The
+telegram was necessarily brief:</p>
+
+<p>'Jocelyn safe with me. Will not return until Thursday. Write to explain.'</p>
+
+<p>The note was more explanatory.</p>
+
+<p>I apologised profusely to Fr&auml;ulein for her pupil's naughtiness, but
+begged her to say nothing to her mother, as I would communicate myself
+with Aunt Philippa and let her know what had happened. Under the
+circumstances I thought it better to keep Jocelyn with me over Christmas
+Day, until I heard from Aunt Philippa. But she might depend on my
+bringing her back myself.</p>
+
+<p>'It is far too polite,' growled Jill, who had been reading the letter
+over my shoulder. 'How can you cringe so to that creature?'</p>
+
+<p>'I consider it a masterpiece of diplomacy,' observed Mr. Tudor, as I
+handed it for his inspection. 'Civil words pay best in the long-run; and
+you know it was very naughty to run away, Miss Jocelyn.'</p>
+
+<p>'It was nothing of the kind,' returned Jill rebelliously. 'And I would do
+it again to-morrow. I am more than sixteen; I am not a child now, and I
+have a right to come and see Ursula if I like.' And Jill threw back her
+head, and the colour came into her face, and she looked so handsome that
+I was not surprised to see Mr. Tudor regard her attentively. I never saw
+a face so capable of varying expression as Jill's.</p>
+
+<p>Jill declared she was glad when Mr. Tudor was gone. But I think she liked
+him very well on the whole; and, indeed, no one could dislike such a
+bright, kind-hearted fellow. As soon as he had left the house I had to
+call a council. It was quite certain my bed would not hold Jill; so, at
+Mrs. Barton's suggestion, some spare mattresses were dragged in my room
+and a bed made up on the floor. Jill voted this delicious; nothing could
+have pleased her more, and she was so talkative and excited that I had
+the greatest trouble in coaxing her to be quiet and let me go to sleep:
+in fact, I had to feign sleep to make her hold her tongue.</p>
+
+<p>But I was much too restless to sleep, and once when I crept out of bed to
+replenish the fire I stood still for a moment to look at Jill.</p>
+
+<p>She was sleeping as placidly as an infant in its cradle, her short black
+locks pushed back from her face, and one arm stretched on the coverlet.
+I was surprised to see how fine Jill's face really was. The ugly
+duckling, as Uncle Brian called her, was fast changing into a swan. At
+present she was too big and undeveloped for grace; her awkward manners
+and angularities made people think her rough and uncouth. 'I expect she
+will eclipse Sara's commonplace prettiness some day; but, poor child,
+no one understands her,' I sighed, and as I tucked her up more warmly,
+with a kiss, Jill's sleepy arms found their way to my neck and held me
+there. 'Is not it delicious, Ursie dear?' she murmured drowsily.</p>
+
+<p>I was glad to see that Miss Hamilton was at the early service. She looked
+pale and delicate, but there was a brighter look upon her face when she
+nodded to me in the porch. Her brother was putting her into a fly, and
+Miss Darrell and Lady Betty followed.</p>
+
+<p>I was rather surprised to see him close the door after them and step back
+into the porch. And the next moment he joined us.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Miss Garston,' holding out his hand, with a friendly smile, 'you
+see Gladys contrived to have her way. A happy Christmas to you! But I see
+you are not alone,' looking rather inquisitively at Jill, who looked very
+big and shy as usual.</p>
+
+<p>'I think you have heard of my cousin Jocelyn?' I returned, without
+entering into any further particulars. I should have been sorry for
+Jill's escapade to reach Mr. Hamilton's ears. But he shook hands with
+her at once, and said, very pleasantly, that he had heard of her from
+Mr. Cunliffe. And then, after a few more words, we parted.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton was unusually genial this morning. There was nothing in his
+manner to recall our stormy interview on the previous evening. Perhaps he
+wished to efface the recollection from my memory, for there was something
+significant in his smile, as though we perfectly understood each other.</p>
+
+<p>I had lain awake for a long time thinking over Mrs. Maberley's talk and
+that uncomfortable walk from Maplehurst. Mr. Hamilton's voice and words
+haunted me; the suppressed irritation and pain that almost mastered him,
+and how he had flung away from me in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>I was glad to remember that I had called him back and spoken a
+conciliatory word. No doubt he had been to blame. I could imagine him
+hard and bitter to a fault. But he had suffered; there were lines upon
+his face that had been traced by no common experience. No, it was not for
+me to judge him. As he said, what could I know of a man's nature? And I
+was still more glad when I saw Mr. Hamilton in the church porch, and knew
+that the day's harmony was not disturbed, and that there was peace
+between us. His bright, satisfied smile made me feel more cheerful.</p>
+
+<p>'What a strange-looking man!' observed Jill, in rather a grumbling voice,
+as we walked up the hill. 'Is that Mr. Hamilton? I thought he was young;
+but he is quite old, Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, dear, not more than three-or four-and-thirty, Uncle Max says.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I call that old,' returned Jill, with the obstinacy of sixteen.
+'He is an old bachelor, too, for of course nobody wants to marry him; he
+is too ugly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Jill, how absurd you are! Mr. Hamilton is not ugly at all. You will
+soon get used to his face. It is only rather peculiar.' And I quite meant
+what I said, for I had got used to it myself.</p>
+
+<p>'Humph!' observed Jill significantly. But she did not explain the meaning
+of her satirical smile, and I proceeded to call her attention to the
+hoar-frost that lay on the cottage roof, and the beauty of the clear
+winter sky. 'It is a glorious Christmas morning,' I finished.</p>
+
+<p>We had a very merry breakfast, for Jill was almost wild with spirits, and
+then we went to church again. Gladys was in her usual place, and looked
+round at me with a smile as I entered. When the service was over, I went
+to the Marshalls', accompanied by Jill, who announced her intention of
+not letting me out of her sight, for I had to preside over the children's
+Christmas dinner, and to look after my patient. We visited Robin next,
+and then went on to the Lockes', and Jill sat open-eyed and breathless
+in a corner of the room as I sang carols to Phoebe in the twilight.</p>
+
+<p>She rose reluctantly when I put my hand on her shoulder and told her
+that we must hurry back to the cottage to make ourselves smart for the
+evening. Jill seldom troubled her head about such sublunary affairs as
+dress.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall be obliged to wear my old tweed,' she said contentedly. 'I have
+only to smooth my hair, and then I shall be ready.' And she grumbled not
+a little when I insisted on arranging a beautiful spray of holly as a
+breast-knot, and twisting some very handsome coral beads that Charlie had
+given me round her neck. Jill always looked better for a touch of warm
+colour: the dark-red berries just suited her brown skin. 'You will do
+better now,' I said, pushing her away gently, 'so you need not pout and
+hunch your shoulders. Have I not told you that it is your duty to make
+the best of yourself?&mdash;we cannot be all handsome, but we need not offend
+our neighbours' eyes.' But, as usual, Jill turned a deaf ear to my
+philosophy.</p>
+
+<p>The study looked very cosy when we entered it, and Uncle Max gave us a
+warm welcome. To be sure, he shook his head at Jill, and told her that he
+was afraid she was a naughty girl, but both he and Mr. Tudor prudently
+refrained from teasing her on the subject of her escapade. On the
+contrary, they treated her with profound respect, as though she were
+a grown-up, sensible young lady, and this answered with Jill. She grew
+bright and animated, forgot her shyness, and talked in her quaint racy
+manner. I could see that Mr. Tudor was much taken with her. She was so
+different from the stereotyped young lady; her cleverness and originality
+amused him; and I am sure Uncle Max was equally surprised and pleased.</p>
+
+<p>I could see Max was making strenuous efforts to be cheerful, but every
+now and then he relapsed into gravity. After dinner I drew him aside a
+moment to speak to him about Jill: to my relief, he promised to be the
+bearer of a letter to Aunt Philippa.</p>
+
+<p>'I want to go up to town for a day or two,' he said, 'and I may as well
+do this business for you. How happy the child looks, Ursula! I wish you
+could keep her a little longer. She is very much improved. I had no idea
+that there was so much in her; she will be far more attractive than Sara
+when she has developed a moderate amount of vanity.' And I fully endorsed
+this opinion.</p>
+
+<p>We went home early, for I could see Max was very tired, but both he and
+Mr. Tudor insisted on escorting us. It was a beautiful starlight night,
+clear and frosty: our footsteps rang crisply on the ground: not a breath
+of wind stirred the skeleton branches that stretched above our heads: a
+solemn peacefulness seemed to close us round. Jill's mirthful laugh quite
+startled the echoes. She and Mr. Tudor were following very slowly. Once
+or twice we stood still and waited for them, but Mr. Tudor was in the
+middle of some amusing story, and so they took no notice of us.</p>
+
+<p>I told Max about my visit to Mrs. Maberley, and of the conversation
+that had taken place between us. I thought he started a little when
+I mentioned Eric Hamilton's name.</p>
+
+<p>'What a pity!' he said quietly. 'I had hoped she would have told you
+herself. I was waiting for her to do so.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Max, surely you might have told me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Who?&mdash;I? I should not have presumed. You must remember that I was in
+Hamilton's confidence, and,' after a moment's hesitation, 'in hers too.
+Ursula,' with a sudden passionate inflexion in his voice, 'you have no
+idea how she loved that poor boy, and how she suffered: it nearly killed
+her. Now you know why I say that she is lonely and wants a friend.' 'But
+she has you, Max,' I exclaimed involuntarily, for I knew what he must
+have been to them in their trouble; Max could be as tender as a woman;
+but he started aside as though I had struck him; and his voice was quite
+changed as he answered me.</p>
+
+<p>'You mistake, Ursula. I was only her clergyman: if she confided in me it
+was because she could not do otherwise; she is naturally reserved. She
+would find it easier to be open with you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not think so, Max. I&mdash;But what does it matter what I think? There
+is one question I want to ask: do you think Mr. Hamilton was at all to
+blame?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am Hamilton's friend,' he returned, in a tone that made me regret that
+I had asked the question, and then he stood still and waited for the
+others to join us. Indeed, he did not speak again, except to wish us
+good-night.</p>
+
+<p>'It is the loveliest Christmas Day I have ever spent,' cried Jill,
+flinging herself on me, and she was no light weight. 'I do like Mr. Tudor
+so; he is nicer than any one I know, more like a nice funny boy than a
+man, only he tells me he can be grave sometimes. What was the matter with
+Mr. Cunliffe?&mdash;he looks tired and worried and not inclined to laugh.' And
+so Jill chattered on without waiting for my answers, talking in the very
+fulness of her young heart, until I pretended again to be asleep, and
+then she consented to be quiet.</p>
+
+<p>I saw Max for a few minutes the next day when he came to fetch my letter.
+He looked more like himself, only there was still a tired expression
+about his eyes; but he talked very cheerfully of what he should do during
+the few days he intended to remain in town.</p>
+
+<p>I made him promise to be very diplomatic with Aunt Philippa, and he most
+certainly kept his word, for the next morning I received a letter that
+surprised us both, and that drove Jill nearly frantic with joy.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Philippa's letter was very long and rambling. She began by
+expressing herself as deeply shocked and grieved at Jocelyn's behaviour,
+which was both dishonourable and unlady-like, and had given her father
+great pain. 'Dear old dad! I don't believe it,' observed Jill, pursing
+her lips at this.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Philippa regretted that she could no longer trust her young
+daughter,&mdash;she was sure Sara would never have behaved so at her age,&mdash;and
+she felt much wounded by Jocelyn's defiant action. At the same time, she
+was equally deceived in Fr&auml;ulein Hennig, she was certainly more to blame
+than Jocelyn. Mr. Cunliffe had told her things that greatly surprised
+her. Uncle Brian was very angry, and insisted that she should be
+dismissed. Under these distressing circumstances, and as it would not be
+safe for Jocelyn to come back to Hyde Park Gate until the rooms had been
+properly disinfected, she must beg me as a favour to herself and Uncle
+Brian to keep Jocelyn with me until they went to Hastings. Mr. Cunliffe
+knew of a finishing governess, a Miss Gillespie, who was most highly
+recommended as a well-principled and thoroughly cultured person, only she
+would not be at liberty for three or four weeks. As I reached this point
+of Aunt Philippa's letter, I was obliged to lay it down to prevent myself
+from being strangled.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Jill, there is no need to hug me to death: it is Uncle Max that
+you have to thank, and not me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but you see it would never do to hug him, for he is not a bit my
+uncle, so I am doing it by deputy,' observed Jill recklessly. 'Oh,
+Ursula, what a darling you are! and what a dear fellow he is! To think
+of my staying here three or four weeks! You will let me help you nurse
+people, won't you?' very coaxingly.</p>
+
+<p>'We will see about that presently; but, Jill, you have never opened your
+mother's letter. Now, as it is perfectly impossible that you can sleep on
+the floor for weeks, and as I do not intend to keep such a chatterbox in
+my room, I am going to see what Mrs. Barton advises.' And leaving Jill to
+digest Aunt Philippa's scolding as well as she could, I went in search of
+the little widow.</p>
+
+<p>I found, to my relief, that there was another room in the cottage, though
+it could not boast of much furniture beyond a bed and wash-stand: so,
+after a little consideration, I started off to the vicarage to hold a
+consultation with Mrs. Drabble.</p>
+
+<p>The upshot of our talk was so satisfactory, and Mrs. Barton and Nathaniel
+worked so well in my service, that when bedtime came Jill found herself
+the possessor of quite a snug room. There were curtains up at the window,
+and strips of carpet on the floor. A dressing-table had been improvised
+out of a deal packing-case, and covered with clean dimity. Jill's
+travelling-box stood in one corner, and on the wall there was a row of
+neat pegs for Jill's dresses. Jill exclaimed at the clean trim look of
+the room, but I am sure she regretted her bed on the floor. She came down
+presently in her scarlet dressing-gown to give me a final hug and
+reiterate her petition for work.</p>
+
+<p>'Mamma has talked a lot of rubbish about my keeping up my studies and
+practising two hours a day, and she means to disinfect my books and send
+them down, but I have made up my mind that I will not open one. I am
+going to enjoy myself, and nurse sick people, and do real work, instead
+of grinding away at that stupid German.' And Jill set her little white
+teeth, and looked determined, so I thought it best not to contradict
+her.</p>
+
+<p>'I am so glad Uncle Max thought of Miss Gillespie, dear.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who is she? I hate her already. I expect she is only an Anglicised
+Fr&auml;ulein,' observed Jill, with a vixenish look.</p>
+
+<p>'You are quite wrong. Miss Gillespie is Scotch, and she is very nice and
+good, and pretty too, for I have often heard Uncle Max talk of her. Her
+father was Max's great friend, and at his death the daughters were
+obliged to go out in the world. Miss Gillespie is the eldest. No, she is
+not very young,&mdash;nearly forty, I believe,&mdash;but she is so nice-looking;
+she was engaged to a clergyman, but he died, and they had been engaged
+so many years, and so now she will not marry. She is very cheerful,
+however, and all her pupils love her, and I am sure you will be happy
+with her, Jill.'</p>
+
+<p>Jill would not quite allow this, but the next day she recurred to the
+subject, and asked me a good many questions about Miss Gillespie, and
+when I told her that it was settled that Miss Gillespie should join them
+at Hastings she really looked quite pleased; but nothing would induce her
+to open the case of books Aunt Philippa had sent down, and when I told
+Uncle Max he only laughed.</p>
+
+<p>'Let her be as idle as she likes. She is over-educated now, and knows far
+more than most girls of her age. Take her about with you, and make her
+useful.' And I followed this advice implicitly, but for a different
+reason,&mdash;there was no keeping Mr. Tudor out of the house; so when I was
+engaged, and Jill could not be with me, I took advantage of a general
+invitation that Miss Hamilton had given me, and sent her up to Gladwyn.</p>
+
+<p>They were all very kind to her, and she seemed to amuse Miss Darrell, but
+after a time Mr. Tudor began going there too, and then indeed I should
+have been at my wits' end, only Mrs. Maberley came to my rescue. She took
+a fancy to Jill, and Jill reciprocated it, and presently she and Lady
+Betty began to spend most of their idle hours at Maplehurst.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>'THEY HAVE BLACKENED HIS MEMORY FALSELY'</h3>
+
+
+<p>I loved having Jill with me, but I could not deny to myself or other
+people that I found her a great responsibility. In the first place, I
+had so little leisure to devote to her, for just after Christmas I was
+unusually busy. Poor Mrs. Marshall died on the eve of the New Year, and
+both Mr. Hamilton and I feared that Elspeth would soon follow her.</p>
+
+<p>A hard frost had set in, and granny's feeble strength seemed to succumb
+under the pressure of the severe cold; she had taken to her bed, and lay
+there growing weaker every day. Poor Mary had died very peacefully, with
+her hand in her husband's. I had been with her all day, and I did not
+leave until it was all over.</p>
+
+<p>Jill was as good as gold, and helped me with Elspeth and the children,
+and she always spent an hour or two with Robin; but by and by she began
+asking to go up to Gladwyn of her own accord, or proposing to have tea
+with Mrs. Maberley.</p>
+
+<p>'Of course I would prefer to stop with you, Ursie dear,' she said
+affectionately; 'I would rather talk to you than to any one else; but
+then, you see, you are never at home, and when you do come in, poor
+darling, you are so tired that you are only fit for a nap.' And I could
+not deny that this was the truth. After my hard day's work I was not
+always disposed for Jill's lively chatter, and yet her bright face was
+a very pleasant sight for tired eyes.</p>
+
+<p>I used to question her sometimes about her visits to Gladwyn, and she
+was always ready to talk of what had passed in the day. She and Lady
+Betty had struck up quite a friendship: this rather surprised me, as
+they were utterly dissimilar, and had different tastes and pursuits. Jill
+was far superior in intelligence and intellectual power; she had wider
+sympathies, too; and though Lady Betty had a fund of originality, and was
+fresh and <i>na&iuml;ve</i>; I could hardly understand Jill's fancy for her, until
+Jill said one day,</p>
+
+<p>'I do like that dear Lady Betty, she is such a crisp little piece of
+human goods; no one has properly unfolded her, or tested her good
+qualities; she is quite new and fresh, a novelty in girls. One never
+knows what she will say or do next: it is that that fascinates me, I
+believe; because,' went on Jill, and her great eyes grew bright and
+puzzled, 'it is not that she is clever; one gets to the bottom of her
+at once; there is not enough depth to drown you.'</p>
+
+<p>Jill did not take so readily to Gladys; she admired her, even liked her,
+but frankly owned that she found her depressing. 'If I talk to her long,
+I get a sort of ache over me,' she observed, in her graphic way. 'It is
+not that she looks dreadfully unhappy, but that there is no happiness in
+her face. Do you know what I mean? for I am apt to be vague. It rests me
+to look at you, Ursula; there is something quiet and comfortable in your
+expression; now, Miss Hamilton looks as though she had lost something she
+values, or never had it, and must go on looking for it, like that poor
+ghost lady who wanted to find her lost pearl.'</p>
+
+<p>Jill never could be induced to say much in Mr. Hamilton's favour, though
+he was very civil to her and paid her a great deal of attention. 'Oh,
+him!' she would say contemptuously, if I ever hazarded an observation: 'I
+never take much notice of odd-looking, ugly men: they may be clever, but
+they are not in my line. Mr. Hamilton stares too much for my taste, and
+I don't believe he is kind to his sisters; they are half afraid of him.'
+And nothing would induce her to alter her opinion.</p>
+
+<p>But Miss Darrell thoroughly amused her. Jill's shrewd, honest eyes were
+hardly in fault there: she used to narrate with glee any little fact she
+could glean about 'the lady with two faces,' as she used to call her.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, she is a deep one,' Jill would say. 'I could not understand her at
+first. I thought she was just bright and talkative and good-natured, and
+I thought it nice to sit and listen to her, and she was very kind, and
+petted me a good deal, and I did not find her out at first.'</p>
+
+<p>'Find her out! what do you mean, Jill?' I asked innocently.</p>
+
+<p>'Why, that she is not good-natured a bit, really,' with a sagacious nod
+of her head. 'She keeps a stock of smiles for Cousin Giles and any chance
+visitor. She is not half so nice and charming when Miss Hamilton and Lady
+Betty are alone with her. Oh, I heard her one day, when I was in the
+conservatory with Lady Betty. Lady Betty held up her finger and said,
+'Hush!' and there she was talking in such a disagreeable, sneering voice
+to Miss Hamilton, only I stopped my ears and would not listen. And now
+she has got used to me she says unpleasant little things before my face,
+and then when "dear Cousin Giles" comes in'&mdash;and here Jill looked
+wicked&mdash;'she is all sweetness and amiability, quite charming, in fact.
+Now, that is what I hate, for a person to wear two faces, and have
+different voices: it shows they are not true.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, perhaps you are right, dear'; for, without being uncharitable
+to Miss Darrell, I wished to put Jill on her guard a little.</p>
+
+<p>'I don't like the way she talks about you,' went on Jill indignantly.
+'She always begins when we are alone; not exactly saying things so much
+as implying them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed! What sort of things?' I asked carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, she is always hinting that it is rather odd for you to be living
+alone; she calls you deliciously unconventional and strong-minded,
+but I know what she means by that. Then she is so curious: she is always
+trying to find out how often Mr. Cunliffe or Mr. Tudor comes to see you,
+or if you go to the vicarage; and she said one day that she thought you
+preferred gentlemen's society to ladies', as they could never induce you
+to come up to Gladwyn, but of course you saw plenty of her cousin Giles
+in the village.'</p>
+
+<p>I felt my cheeks burn at this unwarrantable accusation, but Jill begged
+me not to disturb myself.</p>
+
+<p>'She won't make those sort of speeches to me again,' she said calmly.
+'She had a piece of my mind then that will last her for a long time.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope you were not rude, Jill?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no! I only flew into a passion, and asked her how she dared to imply
+such a thing?&mdash;that my cousin Ursula was the best and the dearest woman
+in the world, and that no one else could hold a candle to her. "Ursula
+care for gentlemen's society!" I exclaimed: "why, at Hyde Park Gate we
+never could get her to remain in the drawing-room when those stupid
+officers were there: she never would talk to any of them, except old
+Colonel Trevanion, who is nearly blind! You do not understand Ursula: she
+is a perfect saint: she is the simplest, most unselfish, grandest-hearted
+creature; and you make out that she is a silly flirt like Sara." And then
+I had to hold my tongue, though I was as red as a turkey-cock, for there
+was Mr. Hamilton staring at us both, and asking if I were in my senses,
+and why I was quarrelling about my cousin, for of course my voice was as
+gruff and cross as possible.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Jill!' I exclaimed, much distressed, 'how could you say such absurd
+things?&mdash;you know I never like you to talk in this exaggerated fashion. A
+saint, indeed! A pretty sort of saint Mr. Hamilton must think me!' for it
+nettled me to think that he had ever heard Jill's ridiculous nonsense.</p>
+
+<p>'Wait a moment, till I have finished: you are not too saintly to be cross
+sometimes. I will tell him that, if you like. Well, when he said this
+about quarrelling, Miss Darrell gave him one of her sweet smiles.</p>
+
+<p>'"Nonsense, Giles, as though I mind what this dear foolish child says;
+she is indulging in a panegyric on her cousin's virtues, because I said
+she was a little masculine and strong-minded and rather looked down upon
+us poor women. I have pressed her over and over again to spend an evening
+with us, but she always puts us off. I am afraid we Gladwyn ladies are
+not to her taste."</p>
+
+<p>'"Don't be silly, Etta. Have I not told you poor old Elspeth is
+dying?&mdash;Miss Garston will not leave her, you may be sure of that." And
+then Mr. Hamilton said to me in quite a nice way,&mdash;oh, I did not dislike
+him so much that evening,&mdash;"I daresay you misunderstand Etta. I assure
+you we all think most highly of your cousin, and she will always be a
+welcome guest here, and I hope you will induce her to come soon."
+Wasn't it nice of him? Dear Etta did not dare to say another word.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very nice, Jill; but indeed I do not want to hear any more of Miss
+Darrell's speeches.' And I got up hastily and opened the piano to put
+a stop to the conversation. Jill was always pleased when I would sing
+to her, but somehow my voice was not quite in order that evening.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Jill surprised me very much by asking me if I knew that Miss
+Hamilton was going to Bournemouth for the rest of the winter.</p>
+
+<p>'Mrs. Maberley has invited her, and Mr. Hamilton thinks it will do her so
+much good: they are going early next week. She wants to see you, Ursula;
+she says you have not met since Christmas. Could you go this afternoon?
+Miss Darrell will be out.'</p>
+
+<p>I considered for a moment, and then said yes, I would certainly go up to
+Gladwyn. It made me feel a little dull to think Miss Hamilton was going
+away; we had not exchanged a word since that Sunday evening, but I had
+thought of her so much since then. My patients had engrossed my time, but
+hardly my thoughts. Poor Elspeth was slowly dying, and I had to be
+constantly with her. Marshall had not yet resumed work, but he was in
+poor spirits from the loss of his wife, and could hardly be a comfort to
+the poor creature. I put off my visit to Phoebe until the evening, and
+walked up to Gladwyn with Jill; she and Lady Betty were going for a walk,
+and were to have tea with the Maberleys. I learned afterwards that Mr.
+Tudor met them quite accidentally about three miles from Heathfield, and
+had accompanied them to Maplehurst, where he made himself so pleasant to
+the old lady that he was pressed to remain. Oh, Mr. Tudor, I am afraid
+you are not quite so artless as you look! I began to wish Aunt Philippa
+would soon recall Jill.</p>
+
+<p>I found Miss Hamilton alone, and she seemed very glad to see me; her fair
+face quite flushed with pleasure when she saw me enter the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>'I was afraid it was some stupid visitor,' she said frankly, 'when I
+heard the door-bell ring. Did it trouble you to come? How tired you look!
+there, you shall take Giles's chair,' putting me with gentle force in a
+big blue-velvet chair that always stood by the fire; and then she took
+off my wraps and unfastened my gloves, and made me feel how glad she was
+to wait on me.</p>
+
+<p>'You are going away,' I said, rather lugubriously, for I felt all at
+once how I should miss her. She looked a little better and brighter, I
+thought, or was it only temporary excitement?</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' she returned seriously, but not sadly, 'I think it will be better.
+I am almost glad to go away, except that I shall not see you,' looking at
+me affectionately.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, if you wish to go,' for I was so relieved to hear her say this.</p>
+
+<p>'It is not that I wish it, exactly, but that I feel it will be better:
+things are so uncomfortable just now, more than usual, I think. Etta
+seems always worrying herself and me; sometimes I fancy that she wants
+to get rid of me, that I am too troublesome,' with a faint smile. 'She
+worries about my health and want of spirits. I suppose I am rather a
+depressing element in the house, and, as I get rather tired of all this
+fuss, I think it will be better to leave it behind for a little.'</p>
+
+<p>'That sounds as though you were driven away from home, Miss Hamilton.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Hamilton!' reproachfully; 'that is naughty, Ursula. I do not call
+you Miss Garston.'</p>
+
+<p>'Gladys, then.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps my restlessness is driving me away,' she returned sadly. 'I do
+feel so restless without my work. I never minded Etta's fussiness so
+much. I daresay she means it kindly, but it harasses me. I am one of
+those reserved people who do not find it easy to talk of their feelings,
+bodily or mental, except to a chosen few. You are one,&mdash;perhaps not the
+only one.'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course not,' for she hesitated. 'You do not suppose that I laid such
+flattering unction to my soul?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but I could tell you anything,' she returned seriously. 'You seem to
+draw out one's thoughts while one is thinking them. Yes, I am sorry to
+leave you even for a few weeks; but, for many reasons, Giles is right,
+and the change will be good for me.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you will only come back looking better and brighter I will gladly let
+you go.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not promise you that,' she answered quickly, 'unless you remove
+the pressure of a very heavy burden; but I shall be quieter and more at
+peace, and I am very fond of Colonel and Mrs. Maberley: they are dear
+people, and they spoil me dreadfully.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am thankful some one spoils you, Gladys.'</p>
+
+<p>She smiled at that.</p>
+
+<p>'Uncle Max is still away,' I observed, after a brief silence. 'He went to
+Torquay to see an invalid friend, and he is still there. Mr. Tudor does
+not expect him back until the end of next week.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know,' she returned, in a low voice; 'but we shall be at
+Bournemouth before then. Will you bid him good-bye for me, Ursula, and
+say that I hope his visit has rested and refreshed him? He was not very
+well, you told me.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, but he is better now: he writes very cheerfully. Gladys, when you
+come back you will be stronger, I hope. I really do hope you will resume
+your work then; it will be far better for you to do so.'</p>
+
+<p>'You cannot judge,' she said gently. 'I am afraid that I shall be unable
+to do that.' And somehow her manner closed the subject; but I was
+determined to make her speak on another subject.</p>
+
+<p>'I want to tell you something that I think you ought to know,' I began,
+rather abruptly. 'Mrs. Maberley spoke to me about your brother Eric.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula!'</p>
+
+<p>'I could not let you go away and not know this: it did not seem honest.
+It has troubled me a great deal. Mrs. Maberley would tell me, and she
+told it so nicely; and Mr. Hamilton is aware that I know, and I am afraid
+he is not pleased about it.'</p>
+
+<p>She put up her hands to her face for a moment, with a gesture full of
+distress.</p>
+
+<p>'I meant to tell you myself,' she said, in a stifled voice, 'but not now;
+not until I felt stronger.'</p>
+
+<p>'And now you will not have that pain, Gladys. I think you ought to be
+relieved that some one else has told me.' But she shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>'How do I know what they said? And Giles is aware of it, you say. Oh,
+Ursula, for pity's sake, tell me, has he talked to you about Eric?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, not in the way you mean: he only said that we must not judge or
+misjudge other people. He seemed afraid that I should misjudge him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I am thankful to know that. I could not bear to have the poor boy
+discussed between you two. Giles would have made you believe everything,
+he has such a way with him, and you would not know any better. Oh,
+Ursula,' in a piteous voice, 'you must not listen to them; they are all
+so hard on my poor darling. Faulty as he was, he was innocent of the
+crime laid to his charge; they have accused him falsely. Eric never
+took that cheque.'</p>
+
+<p>I could see she was strongly agitated. Her delicate throat swelled with
+emotion, and she took hold of my hands and held them tightly, and her
+large blue-gray eyes were fixed on my face with such a beseeching
+expression that I could have promised to believe anything. And yet she
+was right. Mr. Hamilton had a way with him that influenced people
+strongly; he could speak with a power and authority that seemed to
+dominate one in spite of one's self. It has always appeared to me that we
+poor women are easily silenced and subjugated by a strong masculine will.
+It is difficult to assert a timid individuality in the presence of a
+regnant force.</p>
+
+<p>I answered her as gently as I could. 'Dear Gladys, you will make yourself
+ill. Will it give you any relief to speak out? I will listen to anything
+you have to say.'</p>
+
+<p>She drew a deep breath, and the colour ebbed back into her face.</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps it may be a relief: I am weary of silence,&mdash;of trying to bear
+it alone; and other things are wearing me out. Etta is not so far wrong,
+after all.' And then she stopped, and looked at me wistfully, and her
+lips trembled. 'Ursula, you are a nurse; you go about comforting sick
+bodies and sick minds. If I am ill,&mdash;one must be ill sometimes,&mdash;will you
+promise to come and take care of me, in spite of all Etta may do or say?'</p>
+
+<p>I hesitated for a moment, for it seemed to me impossible to give an
+unconditional promise, but she continued reproachfully, 'You cannot have
+the heart to refuse! I wanted to ask you this before. You would not,
+surely, leave me to eat out my heart in this loneliness! If you knew what
+it is to have Etta with one at such times! an east wind would be more
+merciful and comforting. I know I am expressing myself far too strongly,
+but all this excites me. Do promise me this, Ursula. Giles will not
+hinder you coming: he appreciates you thoroughly: it will only be Etta
+who may try to oppose you.'</p>
+
+<p>Gladys was right; I had not the heart to refuse: so I gave her the
+required promise, and she grew calmed at once.</p>
+
+<p>'Now that is settled, I can breathe more freely,' she said presently.
+'I am afraid I am growing fanciful, but lately I have had such a horror
+of being ill. Giles would be kind, I know,&mdash;he is always kind in
+illness,&mdash;but he lets Etta influence him. Ursula, she influenced him and
+turned him against my poor boy; with all Giles's faults,&mdash;and he can be
+very hard and stern and unforgiving,&mdash;I am sure that of his own accord he
+would never have been so harsh to Eric.'</p>
+
+<p>'But Mrs. Maberley told me that Miss Darrell took your brother Eric's
+part.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know, she believes in Etta, and so does Giles; but she is not
+true; she has a dangerous way of implying blame when she is apparently
+praising a person: have you never noticed this? Giles was always more
+angry with Eric after Etta had been into the study to intercede for him.
+If she would only have let him alone; but that is not Etta's way: she
+must make or mar people's lives.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a concentrated bitterness in Gladys's voice, and her face grew
+stern.</p>
+
+<p>'There was no love between them. Eric detested Etta, and on her side I
+know she disliked him. Eric never would tell me the reason; he was always
+hinting that he had found her out, and that she knew it, and that in
+consequence she wanted to get rid of him; but I thought it was all fancy
+on the poor boy's part, and I used to laugh at him. I wish I had not
+laughed now, for there was doubtless truth in what he said.'</p>
+
+<p>'You were very fond of him, Gladys?' I asked softly, and as I spoke her
+face changed, and its expression grew soft and loving in a moment.</p>
+
+<p>'Love him? he was everything to me: he was my twin, you know,&mdash;and so
+beautiful. Oh, I never saw a man's face so beautiful as his; he had such
+bright ways, too, and such a ringing laugh,&mdash;I wake up sometimes and
+fancy I hear it; and then came his whistle and light footstep springing
+up the stairs; but it is only a part of my dream.' She sighed, and went
+on: 'He was so fond of me, and used to tell me everything, and he was
+never cross to me, however put out and miserable he was; and I know they
+made him very miserable. Giles was so strict with him, and would not give
+him any liberty, and when Eric rebelled he was cruel to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, not cruel, surely!' I could not help the involuntary exclamation.
+I thought Gladys looked at me a little strangely before she answered:</p>
+
+<p>'It seemed cruel to us; he was very harsh,&mdash;oh, terribly harsh; but I
+think&mdash;nay, I am sure&mdash;he has repented of his hardness. I was slow to
+forgive him: perhaps it would be more true to say I have not wholly
+forgiven him yet; but I know now that he has suffered, that he would undo
+a great deal of the past if he could, and this makes me more merciful.
+Sometimes in my heart I feel quite sorry for Giles.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MYSTERY AT GLADWYN</h3>
+
+
+<p>Just then Leah entered the room to replenish the fire, and Gladys dropped
+my hand hastily and took up a screen.</p>
+
+<p>'When my brother comes in we will have tea, Leah,' she said quickly.
+'Where is Thornton, that he does not come in to do this?'</p>
+
+<p>'I was passing through the hall, and I thought I would have a look at the
+fire, ma'am,' observed Leah, as she stooped to throw on a log. As she did
+so, I saw her take a furtive look at us both,&mdash;it gave me an unpleasant
+feeling,&mdash;and a moment afterwards she said in a soft, civil voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'There is no reason why Thornton should not bring tea now, if you like,
+ma'am. Master never cares to be waited for, and most likely he will be
+late this afternoon. I can walk home with Miss Garston when she is ready.
+I am sure my mistress would spare me.'</p>
+
+<p>'We will see about that presently, Leah; when I want Thornton I will ring
+for him.' Gladys spoke somewhat haughtily, and Leah left the room without
+another word; but I was sorry and troubled in my very heart to see Gladys
+motion me to be silent, and then go quickly to the door and open it and
+stand there for a moment. Her colour was a little heightened when she
+came back to her seat.</p>
+
+<p>'She has gone now, but we must be careful and not speak loudly. I hate
+myself for being so suspicious, but I have found out that some of our
+conversations have been retailed to Etta. I am afraid Leah listens at the
+door. She came in just now to interrupt our talk: it is Thornton's place
+to put coals on the drawing-room fire.'</p>
+
+<p>I felt an uncomfortable sensation creeping over me.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think she even heard us just now?'</p>
+
+<p>'I fear so; and now Etta will know we have been talking about Eric. Oh, I
+am glad I am going away! it gets too unbearable. Ursula, I shall write to
+you, and you must answer me. Think what a comfort your letters will be to
+me; I shall be able to depend on what you say. Lady Betty is so careless,
+she knows what Etta is, and yet she will leave her letters about, and
+more than once they have not reached me. I am afraid that Leah is a
+little unscrupulous in such matters.'</p>
+
+<p>I was aghast as I listened to her, but she changed the subject quickly.</p>
+
+<p>'What were we talking about? Oh, I said Giles was hard; and so he was;
+but Eric was faulty too.</p>
+
+<p>'He was very idle; he would not work, and he thought of nothing but his
+painting. Giles always says I encouraged him in his idleness; but this is
+hardly the truth. I used to try and coax him to open his books, but he
+had got this craze for painting, and he spent hours at his easel. I
+thought it was a great pity that Giles forced him to take up law; if he
+had talent it was surely better for him to be an artist; but Giles and
+Etta persisted in ignoring his talent. They called his pictures daubs,
+and ridiculed his artistic notions.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you really believe that he would have worked successfully as an
+artist?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is difficult for me to judge. Eric was so young, and had had little
+training, and then he only painted in a desultory way: as I have told
+you, he was very idle. I think if Giles had been more fatherly with him,
+and had remonstrated with him more gently, and showed him the sense and
+fitness of things, Eric would have been reasonable; but Etta made so much
+mischief between them that things only got worse and worse. Eric was
+extravagant; he never managed money well, and he got into debt, and that
+made Giles furious, and when Eric lost his temper&mdash;for he was very hot
+and soon got into a passion&mdash;Giles's coolness and hard sneering speeches
+nearly drove Eric wild. He came to me one day in the garden looking as
+white as a sheet,&mdash;that was the day before the cheque was missed,&mdash;and
+told me, in a conscience-stricken voice, that it was all up between him
+and Giles, he had got into a passion and struck Giles across the face.</p>
+
+<p>'"I don't know why he did not knock me down," cried the poor lad. "I
+deserved it, for I saw him wince with the pain; but he only took me by
+the shoulder&mdash;you know how strong Giles is&mdash;and turned me out of the room
+without saying a word, and there was the mark of my hand across his
+cheek. I feel like Cain, I do indeed, Gladys, 'For he that hateth his
+brother is a murderer'; and I hate Giles." And the poor boy&mdash;he was only
+twenty, Ursula&mdash;put his head down on my shoulder and sobbed like a child.
+If only Giles could have seen him then!'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know what passed between them?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; I heard a little from both of them. Some of Eric's bills had been
+opened accidentally by Giles. Etta had told Giles that they were his,
+and he had called Eric to account. And then it seems that Eric's affairs
+were mixed up with another young man's, Edgar Brown, a very wild young
+fellow, with whom Giles had forbidden Eric to associate. They had been
+school-fellows, and Giles knew his father, Dr. Brown, and disliked him
+much; and it seems that Eric had promised to break with him, and had not
+kept his promise; and when Giles called him mean and dishonourable, Eric
+had forgotten himself, and struck Giles.</p>
+
+<p>'"It is all over between us, I tell you, Gladys," the poor boy kept
+saying. "Giles says he shall take me away from Oxford, and I am to be put
+in an attorney's office: he declares I shall ruin him. I cannot stop here
+to be tormented and bullied, and I will never go near old Armstrong: why,
+the life would be worse than a convict's. I shall just go and enlist, and
+then there is a chance of getting rid of this miserable life." But I did
+not take much notice of this speech, for I knew Eric had no wish to enter
+the army; and certainly he would never do such a rash thing as enlist: he
+always declared he would as soon be a shoeblack. What does that look
+mean, Ursula?' for I was glancing uneasily at the door. Was it my fancy,
+or did I really hear the faint rustle of a dress on the tessellated
+pavement of the hall? In another moment Gladys understood, and her voice
+dropped into a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>'Come closer to me. I mean to tell you all in spite of them. I will be as
+quick as I can, or Giles will be here.</p>
+
+<p>'I never saw Eric in such a state as he was that day. He seemed nearly
+beside himself: nothing I could say seemed to give him any comfort. He
+shut himself up in his room and refused to eat. He would not admit me for
+a long time, but when he at last opened the door I saw that his table was
+strewn with papers, and a letter directed to Giles lay beside them.</p>
+
+<p>'We sat down and had a long talk. He told me that he had got into more
+difficulties than even Giles suspected. He had been led away by Edgar
+Brown. I brought him all the money I had, which was little enough, and
+promised him my next quarter's allowance. I remember he spoke again of
+enlisting, and said that any life, however hard, would be preferable to
+the present one. He could not stay here and be slandered by Etta and
+bullied by Giles. He seemed very unhappy, and once he put down his head
+upon his arms and groaned. It was just then that I heard a slight
+movement outside the door, and opened it just in time to see Leah gliding
+round the corner. Ursula, she had heard every word that my poor boy had
+said, and it is Leah's evidence that has helped to criminate him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I see. But did you not put your brother on his guard?'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' she returned sadly, 'I made the grievous mistake of keeping Leah's
+eavesdropping to myself. I thought Eric had enough to trouble him,
+without adding to his discomfort. I would give much now to have done
+otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>'I stayed up late with him, and did not leave him until he had promised
+to go to bed. Giles was still in the study when I went to my room, but he
+came up shortly afterwards, for I could hear his footsteps distinctly
+passing my door. He must have passed Leah in the passage, for I heard him
+say, "You are up late to-night, Leah," but her answer escaped me.</p>
+
+<p>'I can tell you no more on my own evidence; but Eric's account, which I
+believe as surely as I am holding your hand now, is this:</p>
+
+<p>'He heard Giles come up to bed, and a sudden impulse prompted him to go
+down to the study and place his letter on Giles's desk. It was a very
+wild, foolish letter, written under strong excitement. I saw it
+afterwards, and felt that it had better not have been written. Among
+other things, he informed Giles that he would sooner destroy himself than
+go into Armstrong's office, and that he (Giles) had made his life so
+bitter to him that he thought he might as well do it: oh, Ursula, of
+course it was wrong of him, but indeed he had had terrible provocation.
+He had made up his mind to put this letter on Giles's desk before he
+slept: so he slipped off his boots, that I might not hear him pass my
+door, and crept down to the study. He had his chamber candlestick, as he
+feared that he might have some difficulty with the fastenings, for he had
+heard Giles put up the chain and bell. All our doors on that floor have
+chains and bells; it is one of Giles's fads. To his great surprise,
+the door was ajar, and when he put down the candle on the table he had
+a passing fancy that the thick curtains that were drawn over one of the
+windows moved slightly, as though from a draught of air. He blamed
+himself afterwards that he had not gone up to the window and examined
+it, but in his perturbed mood he did not take much notice; but he was
+certainly startled when he turned round to see Leah, in her dark
+dressing-gown, standing in the threshold watching him with a queer look
+in her eyes. There was something in her expression that made him feel
+uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>'"I thought it was thieves," she said, and now she looked not at him, but
+across at the curtain. "What are you doing with master's papers, Mr.
+Eric?"</p>
+
+<p>'"Mind your own business," returned Eric sulkily: "do you think I am
+going to account to you for my actions?" And he took up his candlestick
+and marched off.'</p>
+
+<p>'And he left that woman in possession?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' returned Gladys in a peculiar tone, and then she hurried on:
+'The next morning Giles missed a cheque for a large amount that he had
+received the previous night and placed in one of the compartments of
+his desk, and in its place he found Eric's letter. Do you notice the
+discrepancy here? Eric vowed to me that he had placed the letter on the
+desk, that he never dreamt of opening it, that he always believed Giles
+kept it locked, that if Giles had been careless and left the key in it
+he knew nothing about it. His business to the study was to put his letter
+where Giles would be likely to find it on entering the room. Ursula, how
+did that letter get into the desk?</p>
+
+<p>'We were all summoned to the study when the cheque was missed. Etta
+fetched me. She said very little, and looked unusually pale. Giles was in
+a terrible state of anger, she informed me, and Leah was speaking to him.</p>
+
+<p>'Alas! she had been speaking to some purpose. I found Eric almost dumb
+with fury. Giles had refused to believe his assertion of innocence, and
+he had no proof. Leah's statement had been overwhelming, and bore the
+outward stamp of veracity.</p>
+
+<p>'She told her master that, thinking she heard a noise, and being fearful
+of thieves, she had crept down in her dressing-gown to the study, and, to
+her horror, had seen Mr. Eric with his hand in his brother's desk, and
+she could take her oath that he put some paper or other in his pocket.
+She had not liked to disturb her master, not knowing that there was money
+in the case.</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula, I cannot tell you any more that passed. That woman had
+effectually blackened my poor boy's honour. No one believed his word,
+though he swore that he was innocent. I heard high words pass between
+the brothers. I know Giles called Eric a liar and a thief, and Eric
+rushed at him like a madman, and then I fainted. When I recovered I
+found Lady Betty crying over me and Leah rubbing my hands. No one else
+was there. Eric had dashed up to his room, and Giles and Etta were in
+the drawing-room. I told Leah to go out of my sight, for I hated her; and
+I felt I did hate her. And when she left us alone I managed, with Lady
+Betty's help, to crawl up to Eric's room. But, though we heard him raging
+about it, he would not admit us. So I went and lay down on my bed and
+slept from sheer grief and exhaustion.</p>
+
+<p>'When I woke from that stupor,&mdash;for it was more stupor than sleep,&mdash;it
+was late in the afternoon. I shall always believe the wine Leah gave me
+was drugged. How I wish I had dashed the glass away from my lips! But I
+was weak, and she had compelled me to drink it.</p>
+
+<p>'Lady Betty was still sitting by me. She seemed half frightened by my
+long sleep. She said Eric had come in and had kissed me, but very
+lightly, so as not to disturb me. And she thought there were tears
+in his eyes as he went out. Ursula, I have never seen him since. He
+left the house almost immediately afterwards, but no one saw him go. By
+some strange oversight Giles's telegram to the London Bank to stop the
+cheque did not reach them in time. And yet Etta went herself to the
+telegraph-office. As you may have perhaps heard, a tall fair young man,
+with a light moustache, cashed the cheque early in the afternoon. Yes, I
+know, Ursula, the circumstantial evidence is rather strong just here. I
+am quite aware that it was possible for Eric after leaving our house to
+be in London at the time mentioned, but no one can prove that it was
+Eric.</p>
+
+<p>'Edgar Brown is tall and fair, and there are plenty of young men
+answering to that description; and I maintain, and shall maintain to my
+dying day,&mdash;and I am sure Mr. Cunliffe agrees with me,&mdash;that it was not
+Eric who presented that cheque. The clerk told Giles that the young man
+had a scar across his cheek and a slight cut, though he was decidedly
+good-looking. But Giles refused to believe this. He says the clerk made
+a mistake about the last.</p>
+
+<p>'The next morning I received a letter from Eric, written at the Ship
+Hotel, Brighton, containing the exact particulars that I have given, and
+reiterating in the most solemn way that he was perfectly innocent of the
+shameful crime laid to his charge.</p>
+
+<p>'"You will believe me, Gladys, I know," he went on. "You will not let my
+enemies blacken my memory if you can help it. If I could only be on the
+spot to clear up the mystery; for there is a mystery about the cheque.
+But I have sworn never to cross the threshold of Gladwyn again until this
+insult is wiped out and Giles believes in my innocence. If we never meet
+again, my sweet sister, you will know I loved you as well as I could love
+anything; but I was never good and unselfish like you. And I fear&mdash;I
+greatly fear&mdash;that I shall never weather through this." That was all.
+The letter ended abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>'The following afternoon a messenger from the Ship asked to see Mr.
+Hamilton; and after Giles had been closeted with him for a few minutes he
+came out, looking white and scared, with Eric's watch and scarf in his
+hands. The man had told him the young gentleman had gone out and had not
+returned, and they had been found on the beach, at the extreme end of
+Hove, and they feared something had happened to him. He had ordered
+dinner at a certain time, but he had not made his appearance. The next
+morning they had heard reports in the town that caused them to institute
+inquiries. A letter in the pocket of the coat, directed to Eric Hamilton,
+Gladwyn, Heathfield, enabled them to communicate with his relatives. And
+they had lost no time in doing so. I never saw Giles so terribly upset.
+He looked as though he had received a blow. He went to Brighton at once,
+and afterwards to London, and employed every means to set our fears at
+rest, for a horrible suspicion that he had really made away with himself
+was in all our minds.</p>
+
+<p>'I was far too ill to notice all that went on. A fever seemed about me,
+and I could not eat or sleep. I think I should have done neither, that my
+poor brain must have given way under the shock of my apprehensions, but
+for Mr. Cunliffe.</p>
+
+<p>'He was a true friend,&mdash;a good Samaritan. He bound up my wounds and
+poured in oil and wine of divinest charity. He did not believe that Eric
+was guilty of either dishonesty or self-destruction. In his own mind he
+was inclined to believe that he wished us to think him dead. It was all
+a mystery; but we must wait and pray; and in time he managed to instil
+a faint hope into my mind that this might be so.</p>
+
+<p>'Etta was rather kind to me just then. She looked ill and worried, and
+seemed taken up with Giles. It was well that he should have some one to
+look after his comforts, for there was a breach between us that seemed as
+though it would never be healed. I saw that he was irritable and
+miserable,&mdash;that the thought of Eric robbed him of all peace. But I could
+make no effort to console him, for I felt as though my heart was
+breaking. I&mdash;' And here she hid her face in her hands, and I could see
+she was weeping, and I begged her earnestly to say no more, that I quite
+understood, and she might be sure of my sympathy with her and Eric. She
+kissed me gratefully, and said, 'Yes, I know. I am glad to have told you
+all this. Now you understand why I am so grateful to Mr. Cunliffe, why I
+am so sorry'&mdash;and here her lips quivered&mdash;'if I disappoint him. I feel as
+though he has given me back Eric from the dead. It is true I doubt
+sometimes, when I am ill or gloomy, but generally my faith is strong
+enough to withstand Etta's incredulity.'</p>
+
+<p>'Does Miss Darrell believe that he is dead?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; and she is so angry if any one doubts the fact. I don't know why
+she hates the poor boy so: even Mr. Cunliffe has reproved her for her
+want of charity. I think she fears Mr. Cunliffe more than any one, even
+Giles: she is always so careful what she says before him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Gladys, I think I hear your brother's voice in the hall, and your cheeks
+are quite wet: he will wonder what we have been talking about.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will ring for Thornton, and the tea: he shall find me clearing the
+table. Don't offer to help me, Ursula.' And I sat still obediently,
+watching her slow, graceful movements about the room in the firelight:
+her fair hair shone like a halo of gold, and the dark ruby gown she wore
+gathered richer and deeper tints. That beautiful, sad face, how I should
+miss it!</p>
+
+<p>It was some little time before Mr. Hamilton entered the room. Thornton
+had lighted the candles and arranged the tea-tray, and Gladys had placed
+herself at the table.</p>
+
+<p>He testified no surprise at seeing me, but walked to the fire, after
+greeting me, and warmed himself.</p>
+
+<p>'They told me you were here,' he said abruptly: 'I was at the cottage
+just now. Have you not had your tea? Why, it is quite late, Gladys, and
+I want to take Miss Garston away.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is there anything the matter, Mr. Hamilton?' for I was beginning to
+understand his manner better now.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I have some business for you, that is all,&mdash;another patient; but I
+will not tell you about it yet: you must have a good meal before you go
+out into the cold. I shall ring the bell for some more bread-and-butter;
+I know you dined early; and this hot cake will do you no good.' And, as
+I saw he meant to be obeyed, I tried to do justice to the delicious brown
+bread and butter; but our conversation had taken away my appetite.</p>
+
+<p>He stood over me rather like a sentinel until I had finished.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, then, I may as well tell you. Susan Locke is ill,&mdash;acute pneumonia.
+I have just been down to see her, and I am afraid it is a sharp attack.
+Well, if you are ready, we may as well be going; the neighbour who is
+with her seems a poor sort of body. They sent for you, but Mrs. Barton
+said you were with Elspeth, and when Kitty went there you were nowhere to
+be found.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>WEEPING MAY ENDURE FOR A NIGHT</h3>
+
+
+<p>I could not suppress an exclamation when Mr. Hamilton mentioned the name.</p>
+
+<p>Susan Locke! Poor, simple, loving-hearted Susan! What would become of
+Phoebe if she died?</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton seemed to read my thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' he said, looking at me attentively, 'I knew you would be sorry;
+Miss Locke was a great favourite of yours. Poor woman! it is a sad
+business. I am afraid she is very ill: they ought to have sent for me
+before. Now, if you are ready, we will start at once.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will not keep you another minute. Good-bye, Ursula.' And Gladys kissed
+me, and quietly followed us to the door. It was snowing fast, and the
+ground was already white with the fallen flakes. Mr. Hamilton put up his
+umbrella, and stood waiting for me under the shrubs, but a sudden impulse
+made me linger.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys was still standing in the porch; her fair hair shone like a halo
+in the soft lamplight, her eyes were fixed on the falling snow. I had
+said good-bye to her so hastily: I ran back, and kissed her again.</p>
+
+<p>'I wish you were not going, Gladys; I shall miss you so.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is nice to hear that,' she returned gently. 'I shall remember those
+words, Ursula. Write to me often; your letters will be my only comfort.
+There, Giles is looking impatient; do not keep him waiting, dear.' And
+she drew back, and a moment afterwards I heard the door shut behind us.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton did not speak as I joined him, and I thought that our walk
+would be a silent one, until he said presently, in rather a peculiar
+tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Miss Garston, I suppose I ought to congratulate you for succeeding
+where I have failed.' Of course I knew what he meant, but I pretended to
+misunderstand him, and he went on,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'You have won my sister's heart. Gladys cares for few people, but she
+seems very fond of you.'</p>
+
+<p>'The feeling is reciprocated, I can assure you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad to know that,' he returned heartily. 'I only wish you
+could teach Gladys to be like other girls; she is too young and too
+pretty to take such grave views of life; it is unnatural at her age. One
+disappointment, however bitter, ought not to cloud her whole existence.
+Try to make her see things in a more reasonable light. Gladys is as good
+as gold. Of course I know that she is a fine creature; but it is not like
+a Christian to mourn over the inevitable in this undisciplined way.'</p>
+
+<p>He spoke with great feeling, and with a gentleness that surprised me.
+I felt sure then of his affection for his young sister; I wished Gladys
+could have heard him speak in this fatherly manner. But, in spite of my
+sympathy, it was difficult for me to answer him. I felt that this was a
+subject that I could not discuss with Mr. Hamilton, and yet he seemed to
+wish me to speak.</p>
+
+<p>'You must give her time to recover herself,' I said, rather lamely.
+'Gladys is very sensitive; she is more delicately organised than most
+people; her feelings are unusually deep. She has had a severe shock; it
+will not be easy to comfort her.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I suppose not,' with a sigh; 'her faith has suffered shipwreck;
+but you must try to win her back to peace. Oh, you have much to do at
+Gladwyn, as well as other places. I want you to feel at home with us,
+Miss Garston. Some of us have our faults, we want knowing; but you must
+try and like us better, and then you will not find us ungrateful.'</p>
+
+<p>He stopped rather abruptly, as though he expected an answer, but I only
+stammered out that he was very kind, and that I hoped when Gladys
+returned from Bournemouth that I should often see her.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, to be sure,' he returned hastily. 'I forgot that her absence would
+make a difference. You do not like poor Etta: I have noticed that. Well,
+perhaps she is a little fussy and managing; but she is a kind-hearted
+creature, and very good to us all. I do not know what I should have done
+without her; my sisters do not understand me, they are never at their
+ease with me. I feel this a trouble; I want to be good to them; but there
+always seems a barrier that one cannot break down. I suppose,' with
+intense bitterness, 'they lay the blame of that poor boy's death at my
+door, as though I would not give my right hand to have him back again.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, Mr. Hamilton,' I exclaimed, shocked to hear him speak in this
+way, 'things are not so bad as that. I know Gladys would be more to you
+if she could.' But he turned upon me almost fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>'Do not tell me that,' he said harshly, 'for I cannot believe you. Gladys
+cared more for Eric's little finger than the whole of us put together;
+she looks upon me as his destroyer, as a hard taskmaster who oppressed
+him and drove him out of his home. Oh, you want to contradict me; you
+would tell me how gentle Gladys is, and how submissive. No, she is never
+angry, but her looks and words are cold as this frozen snow; she has not
+kissed me of her own accord since Eric left us. I sometimes think it is
+painful for her to live under my roof.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Hamilton!'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, what now?' in the same repellent tone.</p>
+
+<p>'You are wrong; you are unjust. Gladys does not feel like that; she has
+tried to forgive you in her heart for any past mistake; she sees you
+regret much that has passed, and she is no longer bitter against you.
+I wish you would believe this. I wish you could understand that she, too,
+longs to break down the barrier. Perhaps I ought not to say it, but I
+think Miss Darrell keeps you apart from your sisters.'</p>
+
+<p>'What, Etta!' in an astonished tone. 'Why, she is always making
+excuses for Gladys's coldness. Come, Miss Garston, I cannot have you
+misunderstand my poor little cousin in this way. You have no idea how
+faithful and devoted she is. She has actually refused a most advantageous
+offer of marriage to remain with us. She told me this in confidence; the
+girls do not know it: perhaps I ought not to have repeated it; but you
+undervalue Etta. Few women would sacrifice themselves so entirely for
+their belongings.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, indeed,' was my reply to this; but I secretly marvelled at this
+piece of intelligence, and there was no time to ask any questions, for
+we had reached the cottage, and the next minute I was standing by Susan
+Locke's bedside.</p>
+
+<p>There was no need to tell me that poor Susan was in danger; the
+inflammation ran high; the flushed face, the difficult breathing,
+the strength and fulness of the rapid pulse, filled me with grave
+forebodings. Mr. Hamilton remained with me some time, and when he took
+his leave he promised to come again as early as possible in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>'I will stay altogether if you wish it,' he said kindly, 'if you feel
+the least uneasiness at being alone.' But I disclaimed all fear on this
+score. I only begged him to remain with the patient a few minutes while
+I spoke to Phoebe, and he agreed to this.</p>
+
+<p>It was late; but I knew she would not be asleep. How could she sleep,
+poor soul, with this fresh stroke threatening her? As I opened the door
+I heard her calling to me in a voice broken with sobs.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Miss Garston, I have been longing for you to come to me; you have
+been here for hours. I have been lying listening to your footsteps
+overhead. Do you know, the suspense is killing me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I am so sorry for you, Phoebe: it is hard to bear, is it not?
+But I could not leave your sister. We are doing all we can to ease her
+sufferings, but she is very very ill.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think that I do not know that? She is dying! My only sister is
+dying!' And here her tears burst out again. 'Ah, Miss Garston, those
+dreadful words are coming true, after all.'</p>
+
+<p>'What words, my poor Phoebe?' And I knelt down by her side and smoothed
+the hair from her damp forehead.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you know what I mean. I have repeated them before; they haunt me day
+and night, and you refused to take them back. "If we will not lie still
+under His hand, and learn the lesson He would teach us, fresh trials may
+be sent to humble us,"&mdash;fresh trials; and, oh, my God, Susan is dying!'</p>
+
+<p>'You must not say that to her nurse, Phoebe; you must try and strengthen
+my hands: indeed, all hope is not lost: the inflammation is very high,
+but who knows if your prayers may not save her?'</p>
+
+<p>'My prayers! my prayers!' covering her face while the tears trickled
+through her wasted fingers; 'as though God would listen to me who have
+been a rebel all my life.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, but you are not rebellious now: you have fought against Him all
+these years, but now all His waves and billows have gone over your head,
+and you cannot breast them alone.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, and I have deserved it all. I do try to pray, Miss Garston, I do
+indeed, but the words will not come. I can only say over and over again,
+"Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee," and then I stop
+and my heart seems breaking.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, and what can be better than that cry of your poor despairing heart
+to your Father! Do you think that He will not have pity on His suffering
+child? Be generous in your penitence, Phoebe, and trust yourself and
+Susan in His hands.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, but you do not know all,' she continued, fixing her miserable eyes
+on me. 'I have not been good to Susan: I have let her sacrifice her life
+for me, and have taken it all as a matter of course. I made her bear all
+my bad tempers and never gave her a good word. She was too tired,&mdash;ah,
+she was often tired,&mdash;and then she took this chill, and I made her wait
+on me all the same. She told me she was ill and in great pain, and I kept
+her standing for a long time; and I would not bid her good-night when she
+went away; and I heard her sigh as she closed the door, and I called her
+back and she did not hear me; and now&mdash;' But here hysterical sobs checked
+her utterance.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but you are sorry now, and Susan has forgiven you. I think she
+wanted to send you a message, but she is in too great pain to speak. I
+heard her say, "Poor Phoebe," but I begged her not to make the effort;
+you see she is thinking of you still.'</p>
+
+<p>'My poor Susan! But she must not miss you; I am wicked and selfish to
+keep you like this. Go to her, Miss Garston!' And I was thankful to be
+dismissed.</p>
+
+<p>My heart was full when I re-entered the sick-room. Mr. Hamilton looked
+rather scrutinising as he rose to give me his place.</p>
+
+<p>'Your thoughts must be here,' he said meaningly. 'Forgive me, if I give
+you that hint: do not forget Providence is watching over that other room.
+One duty at a time, Miss Garston.' And, though I coloured at this
+wholesome rebuke, I knew he was correct.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, he is right,' I thought, as I stood listening to poor Susan's
+oppressed and difficult breathing: 'the Divine Teacher is beside His
+child. It is not for us to question this discipline or plead for an
+easier lesson.' But none the less did the fervent petition rise from my
+heart that the angel of death might not be suffered to enter this house.</p>
+
+<p>The night wore on, but, alas! there was no improvement. When Mr. Hamilton
+came through the snow the next morning he looked grave and dissatisfied,
+and then he asked me if I wanted any help; but I shook my head. 'Mrs.
+Martin is in the house: she will look after Phoebe and Kitty.'</p>
+
+<p>When he had gone, I wrote a little note and gave it to Kitty:</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot leave Susan for a minute, she is so very ill. Mr. Hamilton can
+see no improvement. He is coming again at mid-day. She suffers very much;
+but we will not give up hope, you and I;' and I bade Kitty carry it to
+her aunt.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Hamilton returned, he brought a little covered basket with him,
+and bade me rather peremptorily take my luncheon while he watched beside
+the patient.</p>
+
+<p>This act of thoughtfulness touched me. I wondered who had packed the
+basket: there was the wing of a chicken, some delicate slices of tongue,
+a roll, and some jelly. A little note lay at the bottom:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Giles has asked me to provide a tempting luncheon: he says you have
+had a sad night with poor Miss Locke, and are looking very tired. Poor
+Ursula! you are spending all your strength on other people.</p>
+
+<p>In another half-hour I shall leave Gladwyn. I think I am glad to go,
+things are so miserable here, and one loses patience sometimes. I wish
+I could know poor Susan Locke's fate before I go; but Giles seems to have
+little hope. Take care of yourself for my sake, Ursula. I have grown to
+love you very dearly.</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;Your affectionate friend,</p>
+
+<p>Gladys.</p></div>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton came again early in the evening, and I took the opportunity
+of paying Phoebe another visit.</p>
+
+<p>She was lying with her eyes closed, and looked very ill and
+exhausted,&mdash;alarmingly so, I thought: her emotion had nearly spent
+itself, and she was now passive and waiting for the worst.</p>
+
+<p>'Let me know when it happens,' she whispered. 'I have no hope now, but I
+will try and bear it.' And she drew my hands to her lips and kissed them:
+'they have touched Susan, they are doing my work, they are blessed hands
+to me.' And then she seemed unable to bear more.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Hamilton paid his final visit he announced his intention of
+remaining in the house. 'There will be a change one way or another before
+long, and I shall not leave you by yourself to-night,' he said quietly;
+and in my heart I was not sorry to hear this. He told me that there was a
+good fire downstairs, and that he meant to take possession of a very
+comfortable arm-chair, but that he wanted to remain in the sick-room for
+half an hour or so.</p>
+
+<p>I fancied that his professional eyes had already detected some change.
+Presently he walked away to the fireplace and stood looking down into the
+flames in rather an absent way.</p>
+
+<p>I could not help looking at him once or twice, he seemed so absorbed in
+thought; his dark face looked rigid, his lips firmly closed, and his
+forehead slightly puckered.</p>
+
+<p>More than once I had puzzled myself over a fancied resemblance of Mr.
+Hamilton to some picture I had seen. All at once I remembered the
+subject. It was the picture of a young Christian sleeping peacefully just
+before he was called to his combat with wild beasts in the amphitheatre:
+the keeper was even then opening the door: the lions were waiting for
+their prey. The face was boyish, but still Mr. Hamilton reminded me of
+him. And there was a picture of St. Augustine sitting with his mother
+Monica, that reminded me of Mr. Hamilton too. I had called him plain, and
+Jill thought him positively ugly, but, after all, there was something
+noble in his expression, a power that made itself felt.</p>
+
+<p>Just then the lines of his face relaxed and softened; he half smiled,
+looked up, and our eyes met. I was terribly abashed at the thought that
+he should find me watching him; but, to my surprise, his face brightened,
+and he roused himself and crossed the room.</p>
+
+<p>'I was dreaming, I think, but you woke me. Are you very tired? Shall I
+take your place?' But before I could reply his manner changed, and he
+stooped over the bed, and then looked at me with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>'I thought so. The breathing is certainly less difficult: the
+inflammation is diminishing. I see signs of improvement.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank God!' was my answer to this, and before long this hope was
+verified: the pain and difficulty of breathing were certainly less
+intense, the danger was subsiding.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton went downstairs soon after this, and I settled to my
+solitary night-watch, but it was no longer dreary: every hour I felt more
+assured that Susan Locke would be restored to her sister.</p>
+
+<p>Once or twice during the night I crept into Phoebe's room to gladden her
+heart with the glad news, but she was sleeping heavily and I would not
+disturb her. 'Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the
+morning,' I said to myself, as I sat down by Susan's bedside. I was very
+weary, but a strange tumult of thoughts seemed surging through my brain,
+and I was unable to control them. Gladys's pale face and tear-filled eyes
+rose perpetually before me: her low, passionate tones vibrated in my ear.
+'They have accused him falsely,' I seemed to hear her say: 'Eric never
+took that cheque.'</p>
+
+<p>What a mystery in that quiet household! No wonder there was something
+unrestful in the atmosphere of Gladwyn,&mdash;that one felt oppressed and ill
+at ease in that house.</p>
+
+<p>Fragments of my conversation with Mr. Hamilton came unbidden to my
+memory. How strange that that proud, reserved man should have spoken so
+to me, that he had suffered his heart's bitterness to overflow in words
+to me, who was almost a stranger: 'They lay the blame of that poor boy's
+death at my door, as though I would not give my right hand to have him
+back again.' Oh, if Gladys had only heard the tone in which he said this,
+she must have believed and have been sorry for him.</p>
+
+<p>'They are too hard upon him,' I said to myself. 'If he has been stern
+and injudicious with his poor young brother, he has long ago repented
+of his hardness. He is very good to them all, but they will not try to
+understand him: it is not right of Gladys to treat him as a stranger.
+I am sorry for them all, but I begin to feel that Mr. Hamilton is not the
+only one to blame.'</p>
+
+<p>I wished I could have told him this, but I knew the words would never
+get themselves spoken. I might be sorry for him in my heart, but I could
+never tell him so, never assure him of my true sympathy. I was far too
+much in awe of him: there are some men one would never venture to pity.</p>
+
+<p>But all the same I longed to do him some secret service; he had been kind
+to me, and had helped me much in my work. If I could only succeed in
+bringing him and Gladys nearer together, if I could make them understand
+each other, I felt I would have spared no pains or trouble to do so.</p>
+
+<p>If he were not so infatuated on the subject of his cousin's merits, I
+thought scornfully, I should be no more sanguine about my success; but
+Miss Darrell had hoodwinked him completely. As long as he believed in all
+she chose to tell him, Gladys would never be in her proper place.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as it was light I heard Mr. Hamilton stirring in the room below.
+He came up for a moment to tell me that he was going home to breakfast;
+he looked quite fresh and brisk, and declared that he had had a capital
+night's sleep.</p>
+
+<p>'I am going to find some one to take your place while you go home and
+have a good seven hours' rest,' he said, in his decided way. 'I suppose
+you are aware that you have not slept for forty-eight hours? Kitty is
+going to make you some tea.' And with this he took himself off.</p>
+
+<p>I went into Phoebe's room presently. Kitty told me that she was awake at
+last. As soon as she saw me she put up her hands as though to ward off my
+approach.</p>
+
+<p>'Wait a moment,' she said huskily. 'You need not tell me; I know what you
+have come to say; I have no longer a sister: Susan is a saint in heaven.'</p>
+
+<p>For a moment I hesitated, afraid to speak. She had nerved herself to bear
+the worst, and I feared the revulsion of feeling would be too great. As I
+stood there silently looking down at her drawn, haggard face, I felt she
+would not have had strength to bear a fresh trial. If Susan had died
+Phoebe would not have long survived her.</p>
+
+<p>'You are wrong,' I said, very gently. 'I have no bad news for you this
+morning. The inflammation has diminished. Susan breathes more easily:
+each breath is no longer acute agony.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean that she is better?' staring at me incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>'Most certainly she is better. The danger is over; but we must be very
+careful, for she will be ill for some time yet. Yes, indeed, Phoebe, you
+may believe me. Do you think I would deceive you? God has heard your
+prayers, and Susan is spared to you.'</p>
+
+<p>I never saw a human countenance so transformed as Phoebe's was that
+moment; every feature seemed to quiver with ecstasy; she could not speak,
+only she folded her hands as though in prayer. Presently she looked up,
+and said, as simply as a child,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I am so happy! I never thought I should be happy again. You may
+leave me now, Miss Garston, for I want to thank God, for the first time
+in my life. I feel as though I must love Him now for giving Susan back
+to me.' And then again she begged me to leave her.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton did not forget me. I had just put the sick-room in order
+when a respectable young woman made her appearance. She told me that her
+name was Carron, that she was a married woman and a friend of Miss
+Locke's, and she would willingly take my place until evening.</p>
+
+<p>I was thankful to accept this timely offer of help, and went home and
+enjoyed a deep dreamless sleep for some hours. When I woke it was
+evening. Jill was standing by my bedside with a tray in her hands.
+The room was bright with firelight. Jill's big eyes looked at me
+affectionately.</p>
+
+<p>'How you have slept, Ursie dear! just like a baby! I have been in and out
+half-a-dozen times; but no, you never stirred. I told Mr. Hamilton so,
+when he inquired an hour ago. Now, you are to drink this coffee, and when
+you are quite awake I will give you his message.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am quite awake now,' I returned, rubbing my eyes vigorously.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, then, let me see. Oh, Miss Locke is going on well, and Mrs. Carron
+will stop with her until eight o'clock. Phoebe has been ill, and they
+sent for him; but it was only faintness and palpitation, and she is
+better now. He has been to see Elspeth, and she is poorly; but there is
+no need for you to trouble about her. Miss Darrell is sending her broth
+and jelly, and Peggy waits on her very nicely. Lady Betty and I went to
+see her to-day, and she was as comfortable and cheery as possible, and
+told us that she felt like a lady in that big bed downstairs. Mr.
+Hamilton says she will not die just yet, but one of these days she will
+go off as quietly as a baby. She asked after you, Ursie, and sent you a
+power of love, and I hope it will do you good.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what have you been doing with yourself all day, Jill?' I asked,
+rather anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, lots of things,' tossing back her thick locks. 'Let me see. Lady
+Betty came to fetch me for a walk, and we met Mr. Tudor. He is all alone,
+poor man, and very dull without Mr. Cunliffe; he told us so: so Lady
+Betty brought him back to lunch. And Miss Darrell was so cross, and told
+poor Lady Betty that she was very forward to do such a thing; they had
+such a quarrel in the drawing-room about it. Mr. Tudor came in and
+found Lady Betty crying, so he made us come out in the garden, and we
+played a new sort of Aunt Sally. Mr. Tudor stuck up an old hat of Mr.
+Hamilton's,&mdash;at least we found out it was not an old one after all,&mdash;and
+we snowballed it, and Mr. Hamilton came out and helped us. After tea, we
+all told ghost-stories round the fire. Miss Darrell does not like them,
+so she went up to her room. Mr. Tudor had to see a sick man, but he came
+back to dinner; but I would not stay, for I thought you would be waking,
+Ursie, so Mr. Hamilton brought me home.'</p>
+
+<p>'Jill!' I asked desperately, 'have they not written for you to join them
+at Hastings yet? I begin to think you have been idle long enough.'</p>
+
+<p>'Had you not better go to sleep again, Ursie dear?' returned Jill,
+marching off with my tray. But she made a little face at me as she went
+out of the door. 'I shall get into trouble over this,' I thought. 'I
+really must write to Aunt Philippa.' But I was spared the necessity, for
+the very next day Jill came to me at Miss Locke's to tell me, with a very
+long face, that her mother had written to say that Miss Gillespie was
+coming the following week, and Jill was to pack up and join them at
+Hastings the very next day.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>'THERE IS NO ONE LIKE DONALD'</h3>
+
+
+<p>Mrs. Carron very kindly took my place that I might be with Jill that last
+evening, and we spent it in Jill's favourite fashion, talking in the
+firelight.</p>
+
+<p>She was a little quiet and subdued, full of regret at leaving me, and
+more affectionate than ever.</p>
+
+<p>'I have never been so happy in my life,' she said, in rather a melancholy
+voice. 'When I get to Hastings, my visit here will seem like a dream, it
+has been so nice, somehow; you are such a dear old thing, Ursula, and I
+am so fond of Lady Betty, I shall ask mother to invite her in the
+holidays.'</p>
+
+<p>'And there is no one else you will regret, Jill?' I asked, anxious to
+sound her on one point.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; I am sorry to bid good-bye to Mr. Tudor. He has been such fun
+lately. I really do think he is quite the nicest young man I know.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know many young men, my dear?' was my apparently innocent remark;
+but Jill was not deceived by this smooth speech.</p>
+
+<p>'Of course I do,' in a scornful voice; 'they come to see Sara, and I
+hate them so, flimsy stuck-up creatures, with their white ties and absurd
+little moustaches. Each one is more stupid and vapid than the other. And
+Sara must think so too; for she smiles on them all alike.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are terribly hard on the young men of your generation, Jill; I
+daresay I should think them very harmless and pleasant.' But she shook
+her head vigorously.</p>
+
+<p>'Why cannot they be natural, and say good-natured things, like Mr. Tudor?
+He is real, and not make-believe, pretending that he is too bored to live
+at all. One would think there was no truth anywhere, nothing but tinsel
+and sham, to listen to them. That is why I like Mr. Tudor: he has the
+ring of the true metal about him. Even Miss Darrell agrees with me
+there.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you discuss Mr. Tudor with Miss Darrell?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why not?' opening her eyes widely. 'I like to talk about my friends,
+and I feel Mr. Tudor is a real friend. She was so interested,&mdash;really
+interested, I mean, without any humbug,&mdash;at least, pretence,' for here I
+held up my finger at Jill. 'She wanted to know if you liked him too, and
+I said, "Oh yes, so much; he was a great favourite of yours," and she
+seemed pleased to hear it.'</p>
+
+<p>'You silly child! I wish you would leave me and my likes and dislikes out
+of your conversations with Miss Darrell.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, do you know, I try to do so, because I know how you hate her,&mdash;at
+least, dislike her: that is a more ladylike term,&mdash;you are so horribly
+particular, Ursula; but somehow your name always gets in, and I never
+know how, and there is no keeping you out. Sometimes she makes me
+dreadfully angry about you, and sometimes she says nice things; but
+there, we will not talk about the double-faced lady to-night. I
+understand her less than ever.'</p>
+
+<p>We glided into more serious subjects after this. I made Jill promise to
+be more patient with her life, and work from a greater sense of duty, and
+I begged her most earnestly to fight against discontent, and exorcise
+this youthful demon of hers, and again she promised to do her best.</p>
+
+<p>'I feel better about things, somehow: you have done me good, Ursie; you
+always do. I must make mother understand that I am nearly a woman, and
+that I do not intend to waste my time any longer dreaming childish
+dreams. I suppose mother is really fond of me, though she does find fault
+with me continually, and is always praising Sara.' Jill went on talking
+in this way for some time, and then we went upstairs together.</p>
+
+<p>I was rather provoked to find Mr. Tudor at the station the next morning.
+I suppose my steady look abashed him, for he muttered something about
+Smith's bookstall, as though I should be deceived by such a flimsy
+excuse. After all, Mr. Tudor was not better than other young men; in
+spite of Jill's praises, he was capable of this mild subterfuge to get
+his own way.</p>
+
+<p>Jill was so honestly and childishly pleased to see him that I ought to
+have been disarmed. She went off with him to the bookstall, while I
+looked after her luggage, and they stood there chattering and laughing
+until I joined them, and then Mr. Tudor grew suddenly quiet.</p>
+
+<p>As the train came up, I heard him ask Jill how long they were to stay at
+Hastings, and if they would be at Hyde Park Gate before Easter.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall be up in town then,' he remarked carelessly, 'to see some of my
+people.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, and you must come and see us,' she returned cheerfully.
+'Good-bye, Mr. Tudor. I am so sorry to leave Heathfield.'</p>
+
+<p>But, after all, Jill's last look was for me: as she leaned out of the
+carriage, waving her hand, she did not even glance at the young man who
+was standing silent and gloomy beside me. I felt rather sorry for the
+poor boy, as he turned away quite sadly.</p>
+
+<p>'I must go down to the schools: good-bye, Miss Garston,' he said
+hurriedly. One would have thought he had to make up for lost time, as he
+strode through the station and up the long road. Had Jill really taken
+his fancy, I wondered? had her big eyes and quaint speeches bewitched
+him? Mr. Tudor was a gentleman, and we all liked him; but what would
+Uncle Brian and Aunt Philippa say if a needy, good-looking young curate
+were suddenly to present himself as a lover for their daughter Jocelyn?
+Why, Jill would be rich some day,&mdash;poor Ralph was dead, and she and Sara
+would be co-heiresses. Her parents would expect her to make a grand
+match.</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head gravely over poor Lawrence's prospects as I took my way
+slowly up the hill. I was rather glad when his broad shoulders were out
+of sight; I should be sorry if any disappointment were to cloud his
+cheery nature.</p>
+
+<p>I missed Jill a great deal at first, but in my heart I was not sorry
+to get rid of the responsibility; a lively girl of sixteen, with strong
+individuality and marked precocity, is likely to be a formidable charge;
+but Mrs. Barton lamented her absence in no measured terms.</p>
+
+<p>'It seems so dull without Miss Jocelyn,' she said, the first evening.
+'She was such a lively young lady, and made us all cheerful. Why, she
+would run in and out the kitchen a dozen times a day, to feed the
+chickens, or pet the cat, or watch me knead the bread. She and Nathaniel
+got on famously together, and often I have found her helping him with the
+books, and laughing so merrily when he made a mistake. I used to think
+Nathaniel did it on purpose sometimes, just for the fun of it.'</p>
+
+<p>Yes, we all missed Jill, and I for one loved the girl dearly. It made me
+quite happy one day when she wrote a long letter, telling me that she was
+delighted with her new governess.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Gillespie is as nice as possible,' she wrote. 'I already feel quite
+fond of her; my lessons are as interesting now as they used to be dull
+with Fr&auml;ulein. She knows a great deal, and is not ashamed to confess when
+she is ignorant of anything; she says right out that she cannot answer my
+questions, and proposes that we should study it together. I quite enjoy
+our walks and talks, for she takes so much interest in all I tell her.
+She is a little dull and sad sometimes, as though she were thinking of
+past troubles; but I like to feel that I can cheer her up and do her
+good. Mother and Sara are delighted with her; she plays so beautifully,
+and they say that she is such a gentlewoman. When we come downstairs in
+the evening she will not allow me to creep into a corner; she makes me
+join in the conversation, and coaxes me to play my pieces; and she tries
+to prevent mother making horrid little remarks on my awkwardness.</p>
+
+<p>'"It will all come right, Mrs. Garston," I heard her say one day. "It is
+far wiser not to notice it: young girls are so sensitive, and Jocelyn is
+keenly alive to her shortcomings." And mother actually nodded assent to
+this, and the next moment she called me up, and said how much I had
+improved in my playing, and that Colonel Ferguson had told her that I
+had been exceedingly well taught.</p>
+
+<p>'By the bye, I am quite sure that Colonel Ferguson intends to be my
+brother-in-law: he is always here in the evening, and yesterday he sent
+Sara such a magnificent bouquet.'</p>
+
+<p>Jill's chatty letters were always amusing. She had prepared me
+beforehand, so I was not surprised at receiving a voluminous letter from
+Aunt Philippa a few days afterwards, informing me of Sara's engagement to
+Colonel Ferguson.</p>
+
+<p>'Your uncle and I are delighted with the match,' she wrote. 'Colonel
+Ferguson belongs to a very good old family, and he has private property.
+Your uncle says that he is a very intelligent man, and is much respected
+in the regiment.</p>
+
+<p>'Mrs. Fullerton thinks it is a pity for Sara to marry a widower; but I
+call that nonsense; he is a young-looking man for his age, and every one
+thinks him so handsome. Sara, poor darling, is as happy as possible. I
+believe that they are to be married soon after Easter, as he wants to get
+some salmon fishing in Norway: so we shall come up to Hyde Park Gate
+early next week, and see about the trousseau, for there is no time to be
+lost.'</p>
+
+<p>Sara added a few words in her pretty girlish handwriting.</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder if you will be very much surprised by mamma's letter, Ursula
+dear. We all thought he liked Lesbia, but no, he says that was entirely a
+mistake on our part, he never really thought of her at all.</p>
+
+<p>'Of course I am very happy. I think there is no one like Donald in the
+world. I cannot imagine why such a wise, clever man should fall in love
+with a silly little body like me. I suppose I must please him in some
+way, for, really, he seems dreadfully in love.</p>
+
+<p>'You must come to my wedding, Ursula, and I must choose your dress
+for you; of course father will pay for it, but I promise you it shall
+be pretty, and suitable to your complexion. I mean to have eight
+bridesmaids. Jocelyn will be one, of course, and I shall get that tall,
+fair Grace Underley to act as a foil to her bigness. I shall not ask
+poor Lesbia to be one; it would be too trying for her, and I know you
+will not care about it; but you must come for a week, and see all my
+pretty things, and help poor mamma, for she has only Jocelyn: so remember
+you are to keep yourself disengaged the week after Easter.'</p>
+
+<p>I wrote back that same evening warm congratulations to Sara and Aunt
+Philippa, and promised to come when Sara wanted me. A gay wedding was not
+to my taste, but I knew I owed this duty to them: they had been kind to
+me in their own fashion and according to their lights, and I would not
+fail them. Easter would fall late this year,&mdash;in the middle of April:
+there were still three months before Sara would be married, and most
+likely by that time I should need a few days' rest and change.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning I heard from Lesbia. It was a kind, sad little letter;
+she told me she was glad about Sara's engagement, and as they were still
+at Hastings she and her mother had called at Warrior Square, and had
+found Sara and her <i>fianc&eacute;</i> together.</p>
+
+<p>'I think it has improved Sara already,' it went on; 'she was looking
+exceedingly pretty, and in good spirits, and she seemed very proud of
+her tall, grave-looking soldier. Mother and I always liked Colonel
+Ferguson. He and Sara are complete contrasts; I think her brightness
+and good-humour, as well as her beauty, have attracted him, for he is
+honestly in love! I liked the quiet, deferential way in which he treated
+her. I am sure he will make a kind husband. Mrs. Garston looked as happy
+as possible. I did not see Jocelyn; she was out riding with her father.</p>
+
+<p>'We are going down to dear Rutherford in March, but I have promised Sara
+to come up for the wedding. Don't sigh, Ursula: it is all in the day's
+work, and one has to do trying things sometimes.</p>
+
+<p>'I have come to think that perhaps dear Charlie is better off where he
+is. He was so enthusiastic and so true that life must have disappointed
+him. Perhaps I should have disappointed him too; but no, I should have
+loved him too well to do that.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall love to be at Rutherford during the spring. Everything will
+remind me of those sweet spring days two years ago. Oh, those walks and
+rides, and the evening when we listened to the nightingale and he told me
+that he loved me! I remember the very patch of grass where I stood. There
+was a little clump of alders, and I can see how he looked then. Oh,
+Ursula, these memories are very sad, but they are sweet, too; for Charlie
+is our Charlie still, is he not?'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Lesbia!' I sighed, as I folded up her letter and prepared for my
+day's work. 'It must be hard for her to witness Sara's happiness, when
+her own life is so clouded. Her heart is still true to Charlie; but she
+is so young, and life is so long. I trust that better things are in store
+for her.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Locke was recovering very slowly. Years of anxiety and hard work
+had overtaxed her strength sorely. Mr. Hamilton used to shake his head
+over her tardy progress, and tell her that she was a very unsatisfactory
+patient, and that he had expected to cure her long before this.</p>
+
+<p>'If it were not for you and my dear Miss Garston, I should never be lying
+here now,' she returned gratefully. 'I must have died; you know that,
+doctor; and even now, in spite of all the good things you send me, I am
+so weary and fit for nothing I feel as though I should never sit up
+again.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, we shall have you up before long,' he returned cheerfully. 'You
+are only rather slow about it. You are not troubling about your work or
+anything else, I hope, because the rent is paid, and there is plenty in
+the cupboard for Phoebe and Kitty.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know you have paid the rent, and I shall never be grateful enough to
+you, doctor; for what should I have done, with this long illness making
+me behindhand with everything? I am afraid Miss Garston puts her hand in
+her pocket sometimes. I hope the Lord will bless you both for your
+goodness to two helpless women. Ay, and he will bless you, doctor!'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure I hope so,' he returned, in a good-humoured tone, shaking her
+hand. 'There! mind what your nurse says, and keep yourself easy: you will
+find Phoebe a different person when you see her next.'</p>
+
+<p>I was afraid Phoebe would find her sister much changed when they met.
+Miss Locke had greatly aged since her illness; her hair was much grayer,
+and her face was sunken, and I doubted whether she would ever be the same
+woman again. Mr. Hamilton and I had already discussed the sisters'
+future.</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid they will be terribly pinched,' he said once. 'Miss Locke
+is suffering now from years of overwork. She will never be able to work
+as hard as she has done. And she has to provide for that child Kitty, as
+well as for poor Phoebe.'</p>
+
+<p>'We must think what is to be done,' I replied. 'Miss Locke is a very good
+manager: she is careful and thrifty. A little will go a long way with
+her.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton said no more on the subject just then, but a few days
+afterwards he told me that he intended to buy the cottage. He had a good
+deal of house-property in Heathfield, and a cottage more or less did not
+matter to him.</p>
+
+<p>'They shall live in it rent-free, and I will take care of the repairs.
+There will be no need for Miss Locke to work so hard then. She is a good
+woman, and I thoroughly respect her. Of course I know she is a favourite
+of yours, Miss Garston, but you must not think that influences me.'</p>
+
+<p>'As though I should imagine such a thing!' I returned, in quite an
+affronted tone. But Mr. Hamilton only laughed.</p>
+
+<p>'You are such an insignificant person, you see,' he went on
+mischievously. 'You are of so little use to your generation. People do
+not benefit by your example, or defer to your opinion. There is no St.
+Ursula in the calendar.' Now what did he mean by all this rigmarole? But
+he only laughed again in a provoking way, and went out.</p>
+
+<p>I had had both the sisters on my hands. Those hours of fearful suspense
+had told on Phoebe, and for a week or two we were very anxious about her.</p>
+
+<p>I kept the extent of her illness from Susan, and she never knew that
+Mr. Hamilton visited her daily. Strange to say, Phoebe gave us little
+trouble. She bore her bodily sufferings with surprising patience, and
+even made light of them; and she would thank me most gratefully when I
+waited on her.</p>
+
+<p>I was never long in her room. There was no reading or singing now.
+Nothing would induce her to keep me from Susan. She used to beg me to
+go back to Susan and leave her to Kitty. I never forgot Susan's look of
+astonishment when I told her this.</p>
+
+<p>'Somehow, it doesn't sound like Phoebe,' she said, looking at me a
+little wistfully. 'Are you sure you understand her, Miss Garston?&mdash;that
+something has not put her out? She has often sulked with me like that.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Phoebe never sulks now,' I returned, smiling at this view of the
+case. 'She is not like the same woman, Susan. She thinks of other people
+now.' Miss Locke heard me silently, but I saw that she was still
+incredulous. She was not sanguine enough to hope for a miracle; and
+surely only a miracle could change Phoebe's sullen and morbid nature.</p>
+
+<p>The sisters were longing to meet, but the helplessness of the one and the
+long-protracted weakness of the other kept them long apart, though only a
+short flight of stairs divided them.</p>
+
+<p>At last I thought we might venture to bring Susan into Phoebe's room.</p>
+
+<p>The weather was less severe, and Susan seemed a little stronger, so Kitty
+and I hurried ourselves in preparation for a festive tea in Phoebe's
+room.</p>
+
+<p>She watched us with unconcealed interest as we spread the tea-cloth, and
+arranged the best china, and then placed an easy-chair by her bedside.</p>
+
+<p>The room really looked very bright and cosy. A little gray kitten that I
+had brought Kitty was asleep on the quilt; Phoebe had taken a great fancy
+to the pretty, playful little creature, and it was always with her;
+Kitty's large wax doll was lying with its curly head on her pillow.</p>
+
+<p>Susan trembled very much as she entered the room, leaning heavily on
+my arm. Phoebe lay quite motionless, watching her as she walked slowly
+towards the bed, then her face suddenly grew pitiful, and she held out
+her arms.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, how ill you look, my poor Susan, and so old and gray! but what does
+it matter, so that I have got my Susan back? If you had died, I should
+have died too; God never meant to punish me like that.' And she stroked
+and kissed her face as though she were a child, and for a little while
+the two sisters mingled their tears together.</p>
+
+<p>Susan was too weak for much emotion, so I placed her comfortably in her
+easy-chair, and bade her look at Phoebe without troubling to talk; but
+her heart was too full for silence.</p>
+
+<p>'Why, my woman,' she burst out, 'you look real bonnie! I do believe your
+face has got a bit of colour in it, and you remind me of the old Phoebe;
+nay,' as Phoebe laughed at this, 'I never thought to hear you laugh
+again, my dearie.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is with the pleasure of seeing you,' returned Phoebe. 'If you only
+knew what I suffered while you lay ill! "there is no improvement," they
+said, and Miss Garston looked at me so pityingly; and if you had died and
+never spoken to me again,&mdash;and I had refused to bid you good-night,&mdash;you
+remember, Susan! oh, I think my heart would have broken if you had gone
+away and left me like that.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nay, I should have thought nothing about it, but that it was just
+Phoebe's way. Do you mean that you fretted about that, lass? Oh,' turning
+to me, for Phoebe was crying bitterly over the recollection, 'I would not
+believe you, Miss Garston, when you said Phoebe was changed, for I said
+to myself, "Surely she will be up to her old tricks again soon"; but now
+I see you are right. Nay, never fret, my bonnie woman, for I loved you
+when you were as tiresome and cross-grained as possible. I think I cannot
+help loving yon,' finished Susan simply, as she took her sister's hand.</p>
+
+<p>That was a happy evening that we spent in Phoebe's room. When tea was
+over we read a few chapters, Kitty and I, and then I sang some of
+Phoebe's favourite songs. When I had finished, I looked at them: Phoebe
+had fallen asleep with Susan's hand still in hers: there was a look of
+peaceful rest on the worn gray face that made me whisper to Miss Locke,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'The evil spirit is cast out at last, Susan.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay,' returned Susan quietly. 'She is clothed and in her right mind, and
+I doubt not sitting at the feet of Him who has called her. I have got my
+Phoebe back again, thank God, as I have not seen her for many a long
+year.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>I HEAR ABOUT CAPTAIN HAMILTON</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was now more than five weeks since Gladys had left us, but during that
+time I had heard from her frequently.</p>
+
+<p>Her letters were deeply interesting. She wrote freely, pouring out her
+thoughts on every subject without reserve. Somehow I felt, as I read
+them, that those letters gave as much pleasure to the writer as to the
+recipient; and I found afterwards that this was the case. Her
+consciousness of my sympathy with her made her open her heart more freely
+to me than to any other person. She delighted in telling me of the books
+she read, in describing the various effects of nature. Her descriptions
+were so powerful and graphic that they quite surprised me. She made me
+feel as though I were walking through the fir woods beside her, or
+standing on the sea-shore watching the white-crested waves rolling in and
+breaking into foam at our feet. A sort of dewy freshness seemed to stamp
+the pages. Gladys loved nature with all her heart; she revelled in the
+solemn grandeur of those woods, in the breadth and freedom of the ocean;
+it seemed to harmonise with her varying moods.</p>
+
+<p>'I feel a different creature already,' she wrote when she had been away
+a fortnight. 'Without owning myself happy (but happiness, active or
+negative, will never come to me again), still I am calmer and more at
+peace,&mdash;away from the oppressive influences that surrounded me at home.</p>
+
+<p>'I have made up my mind that the atmosphere of Gladwyn is fatal to my
+soul's health. I seem to wither up like some sensitive plant in that
+blighting air; half-truths, misunderstandings, and jealousies have
+corroded our home peace. I am better away from it all, for here I can own
+myself ill and miserable, and no one blames or misapprehends my meaning:
+there are no harsh judgments under the guise of pity.</p>
+
+<p>'These dear people are so truly charitable, they think no evil of a poor
+girl who is faithful to a brother's memory: they are patient with my sad
+moods, they leave me free to follow out my wishes. I wander about as I
+will, I sketch or read, I sit idle; no one blames me; they are as good to
+me as you would be in their place.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall stay away as long as possible, until I feel strong enough to
+take up my life again. You will not be vexed with me, my dear Ursula: you
+know how I have suffered; you of all others will sympathise with me.
+Think of the relief it is to wake up in the morning and feel that no
+jarring influences will be at work that day; that no eyes will pry into
+my secret sorrow, or seek to penetrate my very thoughts; that I may look
+and speak as I like; that my words will not be twisted to serve other
+people's purposes. Forgive me if I speak harshly, but indeed you do not
+know all yet. Your last letter made me a little sad, you speak so much of
+Giles. Do you really think I am hard upon him? The idea is painful to me.</p>
+
+<p>'I like you to think well of him. He is a good man. I have always
+thoroughly respected him, but there is no sympathy between us. Of course
+it is more Etta's fault than his: she has usurped my place, and Giles no
+longer needs me. Perhaps I am not kind to him, not sisterly or soft in my
+manners; but he treats me too much as a child. He never asks my opinion
+on any subject. We live under his protection, and he never grudges us
+money; he is generous in that way; but he never enters into our thoughts.
+Lady Betty and I lead our own lives.</p>
+
+<p>'You ask me why I do not write to him, my dear Ursula. Such a thought
+would never enter my head. Write to Giles! What should I say to him? How
+would such a letter ever get itself written? Do you suppose he would care
+for me as a correspondent? I should like you to ask him that question, if
+you dared. Giles's face would be a study. I fancy I write that letter,&mdash;a
+marvellous composition of commonplace nothings. "My dear brother, I think
+you will like to hear our Bournemouth news," etc. I can imagine him
+tossing it aside as he opens his other letters: "Gladys has actually
+written to me. I suppose she wants another cheque. See what she says,
+Etta. You may read it aloud, if you like, while I finish my breakfast."
+Now do not look incredulous. I once saw Lady Betty's letter treated in
+this way, and all her poor little sentences pulled to pieces in Etta's
+usual fashion. No, thank you, I will not write to Giles. I write to Lady
+Betty sometimes, but not often: that is why she comes to you for news. We
+are a queer household, Ursula. I am very fond of my dear little Lady
+Betty, but somehow I have never enjoyed writing to her since Etta one day
+handed to her one of my letters opened by mistake. Lady Betty has fancied
+the mistake has occurred more than once.'</p>
+
+<p>I put down this letter with a sigh; it was the only painful one I had
+received from Gladys. My remark about her writing to her brother had
+evidently upset her, but after this she did not speak much about Gladwyn,
+and by tacit consent we spoke little about any of her people except Lady
+Betty. When I mentioned Mr. Hamilton I did so casually, and only with
+reference to my own work. He was so mixed up with my daily life, I came
+so continually into contact with him, that it was impossible to avoid his
+name.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys understood this, for she once replied,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I am really and honestly glad that you and Giles work so well together.
+He will be a good friend to you, I know, for when he forms a favourable
+opinion of a person he is slow to change it, and Giles is one who, with
+all his faults, will go through fire and water for his friends. I like to
+hear of him in this way, for you always put him in the best light, and
+though you may not believe it after all my hard speeches, I am
+sufficiently proud of my brother to wish him to be properly appreciated.'
+And after this I mentioned him less reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>Max came back about ten days after Jill had left us. I found him waiting
+for me one evening when I got back to the cottage. As usual, he greeted
+me most affectionately, only he laughed when I made him turn to the light
+that I might see how he looked.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, what is your opinion, Ursula, my dear? I hope you have noticed the
+gray hairs in my beard. I saw them there this morning.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are rather tanned by the cold winds. I suppose Torquay has done you
+good; but your eyes have not lost their tired look, Max: you are not a
+bit rested.'</p>
+
+<p>'I believe I want more work: too much rest would kill me with ennui,'
+stretching out his arms with a sort of weary gesture. 'I walked a great
+deal at Torquay; I was out in the air all day; but it did not seem to be
+what I wanted: I was terribly bored. Tudor is glad to get me back. The
+fellow actually seems dull. Have you any idea what has gone wrong with
+him, Ursula?' But I prudently turned a deaf ear to this question, and he
+did not follow it up; and a moment afterwards he mentioned that he had
+been at Gladwyn, and that Miss Darrell had given him a good account of
+Miss Hamilton.</p>
+
+<p>'I had no idea that she was away until this afternoon. Her departure was
+rather sudden, was it not?'</p>
+
+<p>I think he was glad when I gave him Gladys's message; but he looked
+rather grave when I told him how much she was enjoying her freedom.</p>
+
+<p>'She seems a different creature; those Maberleys are so good to her; they
+pet her, and yet leave her uncontrolled to follow her own wishes. I am
+more at rest about her there.'</p>
+
+<p>'A girl ought to be happy in her own home,' he returned, somewhat
+moodily. 'I think Miss Hamilton has indulged her sadness long enough.
+Perhaps there are other reasons for her being better. I suppose she has
+not heard&mdash;?' And here he stopped rather awkwardly.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean whether she has heard anything of Eric? Oh no, Max.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I was not meaning that,' looking at me rather astonished. 'Of course
+we know the poor boy is dead. I was only wondering if she had had an
+Indian letter lately. Well, it is none of my affair, and I cannot wait to
+hear more now. Good-night, little she-bear; I am off.' And he actually
+was off, in spite of my calling him quite loudly in the porch, for I
+wanted him to tell me what he meant. Had Gladys any special correspondent
+in India? I wondered if I might venture to question Lady Betty.</p>
+
+<p>As it very often happens, she played quite innocently into my hands, for
+the very next day she came to tell me that she had had a letter from
+Gladys.</p>
+
+<p>'It was a very short one,' she grumbled. 'Only she had an Indian letter
+to answer, and that took up her time, so that was a pretty good excuse
+for once.'</p>
+
+<p>'Has Gladys any special friend in India?'</p>
+
+<p>'Only Claude!&mdash;I mean our cousin, Claude Hamilton. Have you not often
+heard us talk of him? How strange! Why, he used to stay with us for
+months at a time, and he and Gladys were great friends: they correspond.
+He is Captain Hamilton now; his regiment was ordered to India just at the
+time poor dear Eric disappeared; he was awfully shocked about that, I
+remember. Etta wrote and told him all about it; he was a great favourite
+of hers. We none of us thought him handsome except Etta; he was a
+nice-looking fellow, but nothing else.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you and Gladys are fond of him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes.' But here Lady Betty looked a little queer.</p>
+
+<p>'Gladys writes to him most: she has always been his correspondent.
+Now and then I get a letter written to me. You see, he has no one else
+belonging to him, now his mother is dead. Aunt Agnes died about two years
+ago, and he never had brothers or sisters, so he adopted us.'</p>
+
+<p>'Uncle Max knew him, of course?'</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure. Mr. Cunliffe knew all our people. Claude was a favourite of
+his, too. I think every one liked him; he was so straightforward, and
+never did anything mean. I think he will make a splendid officer; he has
+had fever lately, and we rather expect he is coming home on sick-leave.
+Etta hopes so.'</p>
+
+<p>'Gladys has never spoken of her cousin to me.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is because you two are always talking about other things,&mdash;poor
+Eric, for example. Gladys likes to talk about Claude, of course: he is
+her own cousin.' And Lady Betty's manner was just a little defiant, as
+though I had accused Gladys of some indiscretion. I heard her mutter,
+'They find plenty of fault with her about that,' but I took no notice.
+I had satisfied my curiosity, and I knew now why Max fancied an Indian
+letter would raise Gladys's spirits; but all the same he might have
+spoken out. Max had no business to be so mysterious with me.</p>
+
+<p>I heard Captain Hamilton's name again shortly afterwards. I was calling
+at Gladwyn one afternoon. I was loath to do so in Gladys's absence, but
+I dared not discontinue my visits entirely, for fear of Miss Darrell's
+remarks. To my surprise, I found her <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> with Uncle Max. She
+welcomed me with a great show of cordiality; but before I had been five
+minutes in the room I found out that my visit was inopportune, though
+Max seemed unfeignedly pleased to see me, and she had repeated his words
+in almost parrot-like fashion. 'Oh yes, I am so glad to see you, Miss
+Garston! it is so good of you to call when dear Gladys is away! Of course
+I know she is the attraction: we all know that, do we not?' smiling
+sweetly upon me. 'She has been away more than five weeks now,&mdash;dear,
+dear! how time flies!&mdash;really five weeks, and this is your first call.'</p>
+
+<p>'You know how Miss Locke's illness has engrossed me,' I remonstrated.
+'I never pretend to mere conventional calls.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, indeed. You have a code of your own, have you not? Your niece is
+fortunate, Mr. Cunliffe. She makes her own laws, while we poor inferior
+mortals are obliged to conform to the world's dictates. I wish I were
+strong-minded like you. It must be such a pleasure to be free and despise
+<i>les convenances</i>. People are so artificial, are they not?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula is not artificial, at any rate,' returned Max, with a benevolent
+glance. It had struck me as I entered the room that he looked rather
+bored and ill at ease, but Miss Darrell was in high spirits, and looked
+almost handsome. I never saw her better dressed.</p>
+
+<p>'No, indeed. Miss Garston is almost too frank; not that that is a fault.
+Oh yes, Miss Locke's illness has been a tedious affair: even Giles got
+weary of it, and used to grumble at having to go every day. Of course,
+seeing Giles once or twice a day, you heard all our news, so we did not
+expect you to toil up here: that would have been unnecessary trouble
+after your hard work.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Darrell spoke quite civilly, and I do not know why her speech
+rankled and made me reply, rather quickly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Nurses do not gossip with the doctor, Miss Darrell. Mr. Hamilton has
+told me no news, I assure you. Gladys's letters tell me far more.'</p>
+
+<p>I was angry with myself when I said this, for why need I have answered
+her at all or taken notice of her remark? and, above all, why need I have
+mentioned Gladys's name? Miss Darrell's colour rose in a moment.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear me! I am glad to hear dear Gladys writes to you. She does not
+honour us. Lady Betty gets a note sometimes, but Giles and I are never
+favoured with a word. Giles feels terribly hurt about it sometimes, but
+I tell him it is only Gladys's way. Girls are careless sometimes. Of
+course she does not mean to slight him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course not,' rather gravely from Max.</p>
+
+<p>'All the same it is very neglectful on Gladys's part. If you are a real
+friend, Miss Garston, you will tell her what a mistake it is,&mdash;really a
+fatal mistake, though I do not dare to tell her so. I see Giles's look of
+disappointment when the post brings him nothing but dry business letters.
+He is so anxious about her health. He let her go so willingly, and yet
+not one word of recognition for her own, I may say her only, brother.'</p>
+
+<p>Max was looking so exceedingly grave by this time that I longed to change
+the subject. I would say a word in defence of Gladys when we were alone,
+he and I. It would be worse than useless to speak before Miss Darrell.
+She would twist my words before my face. I never said a word in Gladys's
+behalf that she did not make me repent it.</p>
+
+<p>The next moment, however, she had started on a different tack.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, do you know, Mr. Cunliffe,' she said carelessly, as she crossed the
+hearth-rug to ring the bell, 'we have heard again from Captain Hamilton?'</p>
+
+<p>Max raised his head quickly. 'Indeed! I hope he is quite well. By the
+bye, I remember you told me he had a touch of fever; but I trust he has
+got the better of that.'</p>
+
+<p>'We hope so,' in a very impressive tone; 'but it was a sharp attack, and
+no doubt home-sickness and worry of mind accelerated the mischief. Poor
+Claude! I fear he has suffered much; not that he says so himself: he is
+far too proud to complain. But he is likely to come home on sick-leave;
+next mail will settle the question, but I believe we may expect him about
+the end of July.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed! That is good news for all of you'; but the poker that Max had
+taken up fell with a little crash among the fire-irons. Miss Darrell gave
+a faint scream, and then laughed at her foolish nervousness.</p>
+
+<p>'It was very clumsy on my part,' stammered Max. Could it be my fancy, or
+had he turned suddenly pale, as though something had startled him too?</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, it was only my poor nerves,' replied Miss Darrell, with her
+brightest smile. 'What was I saying? Oh yes, I remember now,&mdash;about
+Claude: he wrote to Gladys to ask if he might come, and she said yes.
+Ah, here comes tea, and I believe I heard Giles's ring at the bell.'</p>
+
+<p>I cannot tell which of the two revealed it to me,&mdash;whether it was the
+sudden pallor on Max's face, or the curious watchful look that I detected
+in Miss Darrell's eyes: it was only there for a moment, but it reminded
+me of the look with which a cat eyes the mouse she has just drawn within
+her claws. I saw it all then with a quick flash of intuition. I had
+partly guessed it before, but now I was sure of it.</p>
+
+<p>My poor Max, so brave and cheery and patient! But she should not torment
+him any longer in my presence. If he had to suffer,&mdash;and the cause of
+that suffering was still a mystery to me,&mdash;she should not spy out his
+weakness. He had turned his face aside with a quick look of pain as he
+spoke, and the next moment I had mounted the breach and was begging Miss
+Darrell to assist me in the case of a poor family,&mdash;old hospital
+acquaintances of mine, who were emigrating to New Zealand.</p>
+
+<p>My importunity seemed to surprise her. My sudden loquacity was an
+interruption; but I would not be repressed or silenced. I took the chair
+beside her, and made her look at me. I fixed her wandering attention and
+pressed her until she grew irritable with impatience. I saw Max was
+recovering himself: by and by he gave a forced laugh.</p>
+
+<p>'You will have to give in, Miss Darrell. Ursula always gets her own way.
+How much do you want, child? You must be merciful to a poor vicar. Will
+that satisfy you?' offering me a sovereign, and Miss Darrell, after a
+moment's hesitation, produced the same sum from her purse.</p>
+
+<p>I took her money coolly, but I would not resign the reins of the
+conversation any more into her hands. When Mr. Hamilton entered the room
+he stopped and looked at me with visible astonishment: he had never heard
+me so fluent before; but somehow my eloquence died a natural death after
+his entrance. I was still a little shy with Mr. Hamilton.</p>
+
+<p>His manner was unusually genial this afternoon. I was sure he was
+delighted to see us both there again. He spoke to Max in a jesting tone,
+and then looked benignly at his cousin, who was superintending the
+tea-table. She certainly looked uncommonly well that day; her dress of
+dark maroon cashmere and velvet fitted her fine figure exquisitely; her
+white, well-shaped hands were, as usual, loaded with brilliant rings. She
+was a woman who needed ornaments: they would have looked lavish on any
+one else, they suited her admirably. Once I caught her looking with
+marked disfavour on my black serge dress: the pearl hoop that had been my
+mother's keeper was my sole adornment. I daresay she thought me extremely
+dowdy. I once heard her say, in a pointed manner, that 'her cousin Giles
+liked to see his women-folk well dressed; he was very fastidious on that
+point, and exceedingly hard to please.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton seemed in the best of humours. I do not think that he
+remarked how very quiet Max was all tea-time. He pressed us to remain to
+dinner, and wanted to send off a message to the vicarage; but we were
+neither of us to be persuaded, though Miss Darrell joined her entreaties
+to her cousin's.</p>
+
+<p>I was anxious to leave the house as quickly as possible, and I knew by
+instinct what Max's feelings must be. I could not enjoy Mr. Hamilton's
+conversation, amusing as it was. I wanted to be alone with Max; I felt
+I could keep silence with him no longer. But we could not get rid of Mr.
+Hamilton; as we rose to take our departure he coolly announced his
+intention of walking with us.</p>
+
+<p>'The Tylcotes have sent for me again,' he said casually. 'I may as well
+walk down with you now.' He looked at me as he spoke, but I am afraid my
+manner disappointed him. For once Mr. Hamilton was decidedly <i>de trop</i>.
+I am sure he must have noticed my hesitation, but it made no difference
+to his purpose. I had found out by this time that when Mr. Hamilton had
+made up his mind to do a certain thing, other people's moods did not
+influence him in the least. He half smiled as he went out to put on his
+greatcoat, and, as though he intended to punish me for my want of
+courtesy, he talked to Max the whole time; not that I minded it in the
+least, only it was just his lordly way.</p>
+
+<p>To my great relief, however, he left us as soon as we reached the
+vicarage, so I wished him good-night quite amiably, and of course Max
+walked on with me to the cottage.</p>
+
+<p>He was actually leaving me at the gate without a word except 'Good-night,
+Ursula,' but I laid my hand on his arm.</p>
+
+<p>'You must come in, Max. I want to speak to you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not to-night, my dear,' he returned hurriedly. 'I have business letters
+to write before dinner.'</p>
+
+<p>'They must wait, then,' I replied decidedly, 'for I certainly do not
+intend to let you leave me just yet. Don't be stubborn, Max, for you know
+I always get my own way. Come in. I want to tell you why Gladys never
+writes to her brother.' And he followed me into the house without a word.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+
+<h3>MAX OPENS HIS HEART</h3>
+
+
+<p>But I did not at once join Max in the parlour, though he was evidently
+expecting me to do so: instead of that, I ran upstairs to take off my
+walking-things. It would be better to leave him alone a few minutes. When
+I returned he was leaning back in the easy-chair, with his hands clasped
+behind his head, evidently absorbed in thought. I was struck by his
+expression: it was that of a man who was nerving himself to bear some
+great trouble; there was a quiet, hopeless look on his face that touched
+me exceedingly. I took the chair opposite him, and waited for him to
+speak. He did not change his attitude when he saw me, but he looked at me
+gravely, and said, 'Well, Ursula?' but there was no interest in his tone.</p>
+
+<p>Of course I knew what he meant, but I let that pass, and something seemed
+to choke my voice as I tried to answer him:</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind that now: we will come to that presently. I want to tell you
+that I know it now, Max. I guessed a little of it before, but now I am
+sure of it.'</p>
+
+<p>I had roused him effectually. A sort of dusky red came to his face
+as he sat up and looked at me. He did not ask me what I meant: we
+understood each other in a moment. He only sighed heavily, and said, 'I
+have never told you anything, Ursula, have I?' but his manner testified
+no displeasure. He would never have spoken a word to me of his own
+accord, and yet my sympathy would be a relief to him. I knew Max's nature
+so well: he was a shy, reticent man; he could not speak easily of his own
+feelings unless the ice were broken for him.</p>
+
+<p>'Max,' I pleaded, and the tears came into my eyes, 'if my dear mother
+were living you would have told her all without reserve.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should not have needed to tell her: she would have guessed it, Ursula.
+Poor Emmie! I never could keep anything from her. I have often told you
+you are like her: you reminded me of her this afternoon.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then you must make me your <i>confidante</i> in her stead. Do not refuse
+me again, Max: I have asked this before. In spite of our strange
+relationship, we are still like brother and sister. You know how quickly
+I guessed Charlie's secret: surely you can speak to me, who am her
+friend, of your affection for Gladys.'</p>
+
+<p>I saw him shrink a little at that, and his honest brown eyes were full of
+pain.</p>
+
+<p>'My affection for Gladys,' he repeated, in a low voice. 'You are very
+frank, Ursula; but somehow I do not seem to mind it. I never care for
+Miss Darrell to speak to me on the subject, although she has been so
+kind; in fact, no one could have been kinder. We can only act up to our
+own natures: it is certainly not her fault, but only my misfortune, that
+her sympathy jars on me.'</p>
+
+<p>Max's words gave me acute pain.</p>
+
+<p>'Surely you have not chosen Miss Darrell for your <i>confidante</i>, Max?'</p>
+
+<p>'I have chosen no one,' he returned, with gentle rebuke at my vehemence.
+'Circumstances made Miss Darrell acquainted with my unlucky attachment.
+She did all she could to help me, and out of common gratitude I could not
+refuse to listen to her well-meant efforts to comfort me.'</p>
+
+<p>I remained silent from sheer dismay. Things were far worse than I had
+imagined. I began to lose hope from the moment I heard Miss Darrell had
+been mixed up in the affair; the thought sickened me. I could hardly bear
+to hear Max speak; and yet how was I to help him unless he made me
+acquainted with the real state of the case?</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose I had better tell you all from the beginning,' he said, rather
+dejectedly; 'that is, as far as I know myself, for I can hardly tell you
+when I began to love Gladys. I call her Gladys to myself,' with a faint
+smile, 'and it comes naturally to me. I ought to have said Miss
+Hamilton.'</p>
+
+<p>'But not to me, Max,' I returned eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>'What does it matter what I call her? She will never take the only name
+I want to give her!' was the melancholy reply to this. 'I only know one
+thing, Ursula, that for three years&mdash;ay, and longer than that&mdash;she has
+been the one woman in the world to me, and that as long as she and I live
+no other woman shall ever cross the threshold of the vicarage as its
+mistress.'</p>
+
+<p>'Has it gone so deep as that, my poor Max?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' he returned briefly. 'But we need not enter into that part of the
+subject; a man had best keep his own counsel in such matters. I want to
+tell you bare facts, Ursula; we may as well leave feelings alone. If you
+can help me to understand one or two points that are still misty to my
+comprehension, you will do me good service.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will try my very best for you both.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, but we cannot both be helped in the same way; our paths do
+not lie together. Miss Hamilton has refused to become my wife.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Max! not refused, surely.' This was another blow,&mdash;that he
+should have tried and failed,&mdash;that Gladys with her own lips should
+have refused him; but perhaps he had written to her, and there was some
+misunderstanding; but when I hinted this to Max he shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>'We cannot misunderstand a person's words. Oh yes, I spoke to her,
+and she answered me; but I must not tell you things in this desultory
+fashion, or you will never understand. I have told you that I do not
+know when my attachment to Miss Hamilton commenced. It was gradual and
+imperceptible at first,&mdash;very real, no doubt, but it had not mastered my
+reason. I always admired her: how could I help it?' with some emotion.
+'Even you, who are not her lover, have owned to me that she is a
+beautiful creature. I suppose her beauty attracted me first, until I saw
+the sweetness and unselfishness of her nature, and from that moment I
+lost my heart.</p>
+
+<p>'The full consciousness came to me at the time of their trouble about
+Eric. I had been fond of the poor fellow, for his own sake as well as
+hers, but I never disguised his faults from her. I often told her that I
+feared for Eric's future; he had no ballast, it wanted a moral earthquake
+to steady him, and it was no wonder that his caprices and extravagant
+moods angered his brother. She used to be half offended with me for my
+plain speaking, but she was too gentle to resent it, and she would beg
+me to use my influence with Hamilton to entreat him not to be so hard
+on Eric.</p>
+
+<p>'When the blow came, I was always up at Gladwyn once, sometimes twice, a
+day. They all wanted me; it was my duty to be their consoler. I am glad
+to remember now that I was some comfort to her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wait a moment, Max; I must ask you something. Do you believe that Eric
+was guilty?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am almost sorry that you have put that question,' he returned
+reluctantly. 'I never would tell her what I thought. It was all a
+mystery. Eric might have been tempted; it was not for me to say. She
+could see I was doubtful. I told her that, whether he were sinned against
+or sinning, our only thought should be to bring him back and reconcile
+him to his brother. "God will prove his innocence if he be blackened
+falsely," I said to her; and, strange to say, she forgave me my doubts.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Max, I see what you think.'</p>
+
+<p>'How can I help it,' he replied, 'knowing Eric's character so well? he
+was so weak and impulsive, so easily led astray, and then he was under
+bad influences. You will have heard Edgar Brown's name. He was a wild,
+dissipated fellow, and Hamilton had a right to forbid the acquaintance;
+both he and I knew that Edgar had low propensities, and was always
+lounging about public-houses with a set of loafers like himself. He has
+got worse since then, and has nearly broken his mother's heart. Do you
+think any man with a sense of responsibility would permit a youth of
+Eric's age to have such a friend? Yet this was a standing grievance with
+Eric, and I am sorry to say his sister took Edgar's part. Of course she
+knew no better: innocence is credulous, and Edgar was a sprightly,
+good-looking fellow, the sort that women never fail to pet.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I see. Eric was certainly to blame in this.'</p>
+
+<p>'He was faulty on many more points. I am afraid, Ursula you have been
+somewhat biassed by Miss Hamilton. You must remember that she idolised
+Eric,&mdash;that she was blind to many of his faults; she made excuses for him
+whenever it was possible to do so, but with all her weak partiality she
+could not deny that he was thriftless, idle, and extravagant, that he
+defied his brother's authority, that he even forgot himself so far as to
+use bad language in his presence. I believe, once, he even struck him;
+only Hamilton declared he had been drinking, so he merely turned him out
+of the room.'</p>
+
+<p>I looked at Max sadly. 'This may be all true; but I cannot believe that
+he took that cheque.'</p>
+
+<p>'The circumstantial evidence against him is very strong,' he replied
+quietly. 'You do not know what power a sudden temptation has over these
+weak natures: he was hard pressed, remember that; he had gambling debts,
+thanks to Edgar. Fancy gambling debts at twenty! I have tried to take
+Miss Hamilton's view of the case, but I cannot bring myself to believe
+in his innocence. Most likely he repented the moment he had done it,
+poor boy. Eric was no hardened sinner. I sometimes fear&mdash;at least, the
+terrible thought has crossed my mind, and I know Hamilton has had it
+too&mdash;that in his despair he might have made away with himself.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Max, this is too horrible!' And I shuddered as I thought of the
+beautiful young face so like Gladys's, with its bright frank look that
+seemed to appeal to one's heart.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, well, we need not speak of it; but it was a sad time for all of
+us; and yet in some ways it was a happy time to me. It was such a comfort
+to feel that I was necessary to them all; that they looked for me daily;
+that they could not do without me. I used to be with Hamilton every
+evening; and when Gladys was very ill they sent for me, because they
+said no one knew how to soothe her so well.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you wonder, Ursula, that, seeing her in her weakness and sorrow, she
+grew daily into my life, that my one thought was how I could help and
+comfort her?</p>
+
+<p>'She was very gentle and submissive, and followed my advice in
+everything. When I told her that only work could cure her sore heart,
+she did not contradict me: in a little while I had to check her feverish
+activity. She had overwhelmed herself with duties; she managed our
+mothers' meetings with Miss Darrell's help, taught in our schools, and
+helped train the choir. I had allotted her a district, and she worked it
+admirably. She was my right hand in everything; all the poor people
+worshipped her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Max,' for he paused, as though overwhelmed with some bitter-sweet
+recollection.</p>
+
+<p>'I loved her more each day, but I respected her sorrow, and tried to hide
+my feelings from her. It was more than a year after Eric's disappearance
+before I ventured to speak, and then it was by Hamilton's advice that I
+did so. He had set his heart on the match. He told me more than once that
+he would rather have me as a brother-in-law than any other man.</p>
+
+<p>'I thought I had prepared her sufficiently, but it seems that she was
+very much, startled by my proposal. Her trouble had so engrossed her that
+she had been perfectly blind to my meaning. It was all in vain, Ursula,
+for she did not love me,&mdash;at least not in the right way. She told me so
+with tears, accusing herself of unkindness. She liked, most certainly she
+liked me, but perhaps she knew me too well.</p>
+
+<p>'She was so unhappy at the thought of giving me pain, so sweet and gentle
+in her efforts to console me and heal the wound she had inflicted, that I
+could not lose hope. She told me that, though she had trusted me entirely
+as her friend, she had never thought of me as her lover, and the idea was
+strange to her. This thought gave me courage, and I begged that I might
+be allowed to speak to her again at some future time.</p>
+
+<p>'She wanted to refuse, and said hurriedly that she never intended to
+marry. But I took these words as meaning nothing. A girl will tell you
+this and believe it as she says it. I suppose I pressed her hard to leave
+me this margin of hope, for after reflecting a few minutes she looked at
+me gravely and said it should be as I wished. In a year's time I might
+speak to her again, and she would know her own mind.</p>
+
+<p>'I pleaded for a shorter ordeal, though secretly I was overjoyed at this
+crumb of consolation vouchsafed to me. But she was inexorable, though
+perfectly gentle in her manner.</p>
+
+<p>'"I wish you had set your heart on some one else, Mr. Cunliffe,"
+she said, with a melancholy smile, "for I can give you so little
+satisfaction. I feel so confused and weary, as though life afforded me
+no pleasure. But, indeed, I do all you tell me, and I mean to go on with
+my work."</p>
+
+<p>'I was glad to hear her say this, for at least I should have the
+happiness of seeing her every day.</p>
+
+<p>'"In a year's time," she went on, "my heart may feel a little less heavy,
+and I shall have had opportunity to reflect over your words. I cannot
+tell you what my answer may be, but if you are wise you will not hope. If
+you do not come to me then, I shall know that you have changed, and shall
+not blame you in the least. You are free to choose any one else. I have
+so little encouragement to give you that I shall not expect you to submit
+to this ordeal." But I think her firmness was a little shaken, and she
+looked at me rather timidly when I thanked her very quietly and said that
+at the time appointed I would speak to her again. I supposed she had not
+realised the strength of my feelings.</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula, I was by no means hopeless. And as the months passed on my hopes
+grew.</p>
+
+<p>'I saw her daily, and after the first awkwardness had passed we were good
+friends. But her manner changed insensibly. She was less frank with me;
+at times she was almost shy. I saw her change colour when I looked at
+her. She was quiet in my presence, and yet my coming pleased her. I
+thought it would be well with me when the time came for renewing my
+suit; but it seems that I was a blind fool.</p>
+
+<p>'I had put down the exact date, May 7. It was last year, Ursula. I meant
+to adhere to the very day and hour; but before February closed my hopes
+had suffered eclipse.</p>
+
+<p>'All at once Miss Hamilton's manner became cold and constrained, as
+you see it now. Her soft shyness, that had been so favourable a sign,
+disappeared entirely. She avoided me on every occasion. She seemed to
+fear to be alone with me a moment. Her nervousness was so visible and so
+distressing that I often left her in anger. A barrier&mdash;vague, and yet
+substantial&mdash;seemed built up between us.</p>
+
+<p>'She began to neglect her work, and then to make excuses. She was
+overdone, and suffered from headache. The school-work tired her. You
+have heard it all, Ursula: I need not repeat it.</p>
+
+<p>'One by one she dropped her duties. The parish knew her no more. She
+certainly looked ill. Her melancholy increased. Something was evidently
+preying on her mind.</p>
+
+<p>'One day Miss Darrell spoke to me. She had been very kind, and had fed my
+hopes all this time. But now she was the bearer of bad news.</p>
+
+<p>'She came to me in the study, while I was waiting for Hamilton. She
+looked very pale and discomposed, and asked if she might speak to me. She
+was very unhappy about me, but she did not think it right to let it go
+on. Gladys wanted me to know. And then it all came out.</p>
+
+<p>'It could never be as I wished. Miss Hamilton had been trying all this
+time to like me, and once or twice she thought she had succeeded, but the
+feeling had never lasted for many days. I was not the right person. This
+was the substance of Miss Darrell's explanation.</p>
+
+<p>'"You know Gladys," she went on, "how sensitive and affectionate her
+nature is; how she hates to inflict pain. She is working herself up into
+a fever at the thought that you will speak to her again.</p>
+
+<p>'"It was too terrible last time, Etta," she said to me, bursting into
+tears. "I cannot endure it again. How am I to tell him about Claude?"</p>
+
+<p>'"About Claude!" I almost shouted. Miss Darrell looked frightened at my
+violence. She shrank back, and turned still paler. I noticed her hands
+trembled.</p>
+
+<p>'"Oh, have you not noticed?" she returned feebly. "Oh, what a cruel task
+this is! and you are so good,&mdash;so good."</p>
+
+<p>'"Tell me what you mean!" I replied angrily, for I felt so savage at that
+moment that a word of sympathy was more than I could bear. You would not
+have known me at that moment, Ursula. I am not easily roused, as you
+know, but the blow was too sudden. I must have forgotten myself to have
+spoken to Miss Darrell in that tone. When I looked at her, her mouth was
+quivering like a frightened child's, and there were tears in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'"I scarcely know that it is you," she faltered. "Are men all like that
+when their wills are crossed? It is not my fault that you are hurt in
+this way. And it is not Gladys's either. She has tried&mdash;I am sure she has
+tried her hardest&mdash;to bring herself to accede to your wishes. But a woman
+cannot always regulate her own heart."</p>
+
+<p>'"You have mentioned Captain Hamilton's name," I returned coldly, for her
+words seemed only to aggravate and widen the sore. "Perhaps you will
+kindly explain what he has to do with the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>'She hesitated, and looked at me in a pleading manner. I saw that she did
+not wish to speak; but for once I was inexorable.</p>
+
+<p>'"I must rely upon your honour, then, not to repeat my words either to
+Giles or Gladys. Your doing so would bring Gladys into trouble; and,
+after all, there is nothing definitely settled." I nodded assent to this,
+and she went on rather reluctantly:</p>
+
+<p>"Claude was always fond of Gladys, but we never knew how much he admired
+her until he went away. They are only half-cousins. Gladys's father was
+step-brother to Claude's. Giles has always been averse to cousins
+marrying, but we thought this would make a difference."</p>
+
+<p>'"They are engaged, then?" I asked, in a loud voice, that seemed to
+startle Miss Darrell.</p>
+
+<p>'"Oh no, no," she returned eagerly; "there is no engagement at all.
+Claude writes to her, and she answers him, and I think he is making way
+with her: she has owned as much to me. Gladys is not one to talk of her
+feelings, especially on this subject; but it is easy to see how absorbed
+she is in those Indian letters; she is always brighter and more like
+herself when she has heard from Claude."</p>
+
+<p>'"I am to deduce from all this that you believe Captain Hamilton has a
+better chance of winning her affections than I?"</p>
+
+<p>'Again she hesitated, then drew a foreign letter slowly from her pocket.
+"I think I must read you a sentence from his last letter: he often writes
+to me as well as to Gladys. Yes, here it is: 'Your last letter has been a
+great comfort to me, my dear Etta: it was more than a poor fellow had a
+right to expect. I do believe that this long absence has served my
+purpose, and the scratch I got at Singapore. Girls are curious creatures;
+one never can tell how to tackle them, and my special cousin knows how to
+keep one at a distance, but I begin to feel I am making way at last. She
+wrote to me very sweetly last mail. I carry that letter everywhere; there
+was a sweetness about it that gave me hope. If I can get leave,&mdash;though
+heaven knows when that will be,&mdash;I mean to come home and carry the breach
+boldly. I shall first show her my wound and my medal, and then throw
+myself at her pretty little feet. Gladys&mdash;' No, I must not read any more;
+you see how it is, Mr. Cunliffe?"</p>
+
+<p>'"Yes, I see how it is," I returned slowly. "Forgive me if I have been
+impatient or unmindful of your kindness." And then I took up my hat and
+left the room, and it was weeks before I set foot in Gladwyn again.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Max! my poor Max!' I returned, stroking his hand softly. He did not
+take it away: he only looked at me with his kind smile.</p>
+
+<p>'That was Emmie's way,&mdash;her favourite little caress. Wait a moment,
+Ursula, my dear; I am going out for a breath of air,' And he stood in the
+porch for a few minutes, looking up at the winter sky seamed with stars,
+and then came back to me quietly, and waited for me to speak.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>CROSSING THE RIVER</h3>
+
+
+<p>Max waited for me to speak, but I had no words ready for the occasion. My
+silence seemed to perplex him.</p>
+
+<p>'You have heard everything now, Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I suppose so. I am very sorry for you, Max; you have suffered
+cruelly. And this only happened last year?'</p>
+
+<p>'Last February.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is very strange,&mdash;very mysterious. I do not seem to understand it.
+I cannot find the clue to all this.'</p>
+
+<p>'There is no clue needed,' he returned impatiently. 'Miss Hamilton is in
+love with her cousin, and is sorry for my disappointment.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not believe it,' I replied bluntly. And yet, as I said this,
+Gladys's conduct seemed to me perfectly inexplicable. It was just
+possible that Max's statement, after all, might be correct,&mdash;that she did
+not love him well enough to marry him: and this would account for her
+nervousness and constraint in his presence: a sensitive girl like Gladys
+would never be at her ease under such circumstances. But she had promised
+not to withdraw her friendship: why had she then given up her work and
+made herself a stranger to his dearest interest? I had seen her struggle
+with herself when he had begged her to resume her class. A brightness had
+come to her eyes, her manner had become warm and animated, as though the
+stirring of new life were in her veins, and then she had refused him very
+gently, and a certain dimness and blight had crept over her. I had
+wondered then at her.</p>
+
+<p>No, I could not bring myself to believe that she was indifferent to Max.
+He was so good, so worthy of her. And yet&mdash;and yet, do we women always
+choose the best? Perhaps, as Max said, she knew him too well for him to
+influence her fancy. Captain Hamilton's scars and medals might cast a
+glamour over her. Gladys was very impulsive and enthusiastic; perhaps Max
+was too quiet and gentle to take her heart by storm.</p>
+
+<p>I had plenty of time for these reflections, for Max sat moodily silent
+after my blunt remark, but at last he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid I believe it, Ursula, and that is more to the purpose. Miss
+Darrell has dispelled my last hope.'</p>
+
+<p>'You mean that Captain Hamilton's return speaks badly for your chances?'</p>
+
+<p>'I have no chances,' very gloomily. 'I am out of the running. Miss
+Hamilton's message&mdash;for I suppose it was a message&mdash;was my final answer.
+She did not wish me to speak to her again.'</p>
+
+<p>'Are you sure that she sent that message?'</p>
+
+<p>'Am I sure that I am sitting here?' he answered, rather irritably. 'What
+have you got in your head, Ursula, my dear? You must not let personal
+dislike influence your better judgment. Perhaps Miss Darrell is not to my
+taste; I think her sometimes officious and wanting in delicacy; but I do
+not doubt her for a moment.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is a pity,' I returned drily, 'for she is certainly not true; but
+all you men swear by her.' For I felt&mdash;heaven forgive me!&mdash;almost a
+hatred of this woman, unreasonable as it seemed; but women have these
+instincts sometimes, and Max had warned me against Miss Darrell from the
+first.</p>
+
+<p>'I will be frank with you,' I continued, more quietly. 'I do not read
+between the lines: in other words, I do not understand Gladys's
+behaviour. It may be as you say; I do not wish to delude you with false
+hopes, my poor Max; Gladys may care more for Captain Hamilton than she
+does for you; but it seems to me that you acted wrongly on one point; you
+meant it for the best; but you ought to have spoken to Gladys yourself.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder that you should say that, Ursula,' he returned, in rather a
+hurt voice. 'I may be weak about Miss Hamilton, but I am hardly as weak
+as that. Do you think me capable of persecuting the woman I love?'</p>
+
+<p>'It would not be persecution,' I replied firmly, for I was determined
+to speak my mind on this point. 'Miss Darrell may have misconstrued
+her meaning: the truth loses by repetition: she may have added to or
+diminished her words. A third person should never be mixed up in a love
+affair: trouble always comes of it. I think you were wrong, Max: you let
+yourself be managed by Miss Darrell. She has nothing to do with you or
+Gladys.'</p>
+
+<p>'I could not help it if she came to me.'</p>
+
+<p>'True, she thrust herself in between you. Well, it is too late to speak
+of that now. If you will take my advice, Max,' for the thought had come
+upon me like a flash of inspiration, 'you will go down to Bournemouth and
+speak to Gladys, keeping your own counsel and telling no one of your
+intention.'</p>
+
+<p>I saw Max stare at me as though he thought I had lost my senses, and then
+a sudden light came into his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'You will go down to Bournemouth,' I went on, 'and the Maberleys will be
+glad to see you; you are an old friend, and they will ask no questions
+and think no ill. You will have no difficulty in seeing Gladys alone.
+Speak to her promptly and frankly; ask her what her behaviour has meant,
+and if she really prefers her cousin. If you must know the worst, it will
+be better to know it now, and from her own lips. Do go, Max, like a brave
+man.' But even before I finished speaking, the light had died out of his
+eyes, and his manner had resumed its old sadness.</p>
+
+<p>'No, Ursula; you mean well, but it will not do. I cannot persecute her
+in this way. Captain Hamilton is coming home in July: she has given him
+permission to come. I will wait for that. I shall very soon see how
+matters stand between them. I shall only need to see her with him;
+probably I shall not speak to her at all.'</p>
+
+<p>I could have wrung my hands over Max's obstinacy and quixotism: he
+carried his generosity to a fault. Few men would be so patient and
+forbearing.</p>
+
+<p>How could he stand aside hopelessly and let another man win his prize?
+But perhaps he considered it was already won. I pleaded with him again.
+I even went so far as to contradict my theory about a third person, and
+offered to sound Gladys about her cousin; but he silenced me
+peremptorily.</p>
+
+<p>'Promise me that you will do nothing of the kind; give me your word of
+honour, Ursula, that you will respect my confidence. Good heavens! if I
+thought that you would betray me, and to her of all people, I should
+indeed bitterly repent my trust in you.'</p>
+
+<p>Max was so agitated, he spoke so angrily, that I hastened to soothe him.
+Of course his confidence was sacred; how could he think such things of
+me? I was not like Miss&mdash;. But here I pulled myself up. He might be as
+blind and foolish as he liked, he might commit suicide and I would not
+hinder him; he should enjoy his misery in his own way. And more to that
+effect.</p>
+
+<p>'Now I have made you cross, little she-bear,' he said, laying his hand
+on mine, 'and you have been so patient and have given my woes such a
+comfortable hearing. You frightened me for a moment, for I know how quick
+and impulsive you can be. No, no, my dear. I hold you to your own words:
+a third person must not be mixed up in a love affair; it only brings
+trouble.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have proved the truth of my words,' I remarked coolly. 'Very well,
+I suppose I must forgive you; only never do it again, on your peril: you
+know I am to be trusted.'</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure; you are as true as steel, Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, then: in that case you have nothing to fear. I will be wise
+and wary for your sake, and guard your honour sacredly as my own; if I
+can give you a gleam of hope, I will. Anyhow, I shall watch.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, dear. And now we will not talk any more about it; now you
+know why I wanted you to be her friend. I am glad to think she is so fond
+of you.' But I would not let him change the subject just yet.</p>
+
+<p>'Max,' I said, detaining him, for he rose to go, 'all this is dreadfully
+hard for you. Shall you go away&mdash;if&mdash;if&mdash;this happens?'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' he returned quietly; 'it is they who will go away. Captain Hamilton
+cannot leave his regiment: he is far too fond of an active life. It will
+be dreary enough, God knows, but it will not be harder than the life I
+have led these twelve months, trying to win her back to her work and to
+put myself in the background. It has worn me out, Ursula. I could not
+stand that sort of thing much longer. It is a relief to me that she is
+away.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I can understand this.'</p>
+
+<p>'It makes one think, after all, that the extreme party have something in
+their argument in favour of the celibacy of the clergy. Not that I hold
+with them, for all that; but all this sort of thing takes the heart out
+of a man, and comes between him and his work. I should be a better priest
+if I were a happier man, Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>'I doubt that, Max.' And the tears rose to my eyes, for I knew how good
+he was, and what a friend to his people.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, I differ from you. I believe there is no work like happy
+work,&mdash;work done by a heart at leisure from itself; but of course we
+clergy and laity must take what heaven sends us.' And then he held out
+his hands to me, and I suppose he saw how unhappy I was for his sake.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't fret about me, my dear little Ursula,' he said kindly. 'The back
+gets fitted for the burden, and by this time I have grown accustomed to
+my pain; it will all be right some day: I shall not be blamed up there
+for loving her.' And he left me with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>I passed a miserable evening thinking of Max. Next to Charlie, he had
+been my closest friend from girlhood; I had been accustomed to look to
+him for advice in all my difficulties, to rely upon his counsel. I knew
+that people who were comparatively strangers to him thought he was almost
+too easy-going, and a little weak from excess of good-nature. He was too
+tolerant of other folk's failings; they said he preached mercy where
+severity would be more bracing and wholesome; and no doubt they thought
+that he judged himself as leniently; but they did not know Max.</p>
+
+<p>I never knew a man harder to himself. Charitable to others, he had no
+self-pity; selfish aims were impossible to him. He who could not endure
+to witness even a child or an animal suffer, would have plucked out his
+right eye or parted with his right hand, in gospel phrase, if by doing so
+he could witness to the truth or spare pain to a weaker human being. It
+was this knowledge of his inner life that made Max so priestly in my
+eyes. I knew he was pure enough and strong enough to meet even Gladys's
+demands. Nothing but a modern Bayard would ever satisfy her fastidious
+taste; she would not look on a man's stature, or on his outward beauty;
+such things would seem paltry to her; but he who aspired to be her lord
+and master must be worthy of all reverence and must have won his spurs:
+so much had I learnt from my friendship with Gladys.</p>
+
+<p>I pondered over Max's words, and tried to piece the fragments of our
+conversation with recollections of my talks with Gladys. I recalled much
+that had passed. I endeavoured to find the clue to her downcast, troubled
+looks, her quenched and listless manner. I felt dimly that some strange
+misunderstanding wrapped these two in a close fog. What had brought about
+this chill, murky atmosphere, in which they failed to recognise each
+other's meaning? This was the mystery: lives had often been shipwrecked
+from these miserable misunderstandings, for want of a word. I felt
+completely baffled, and before the evening was over I could have cried
+with the sense of utter failure and bewilderment. If Max's chivalrous
+scruples had not tied my hands, I would have gone to Gladys boldly and
+asked her what it all meant; I would have challenged her truth; I would
+have compelled her to answer me; but I dared not break my promise. By
+letter and in the spirit I would respect Max's wishes.</p>
+
+<p>But I resolved to watch: no eyes should be so vigilant as mine. I was
+determined, that nothing should escape my scrutiny; at least I was in
+possession of certain facts that would help me in finding the clue I
+wanted. I knew now that Max loved Gladys and had tried to win her: that
+he had nearly done so was also evident. What had wrought that sudden
+change? Had Captain Hamilton's brilliant successes really dazzled her
+fancy and blinded her to Max's quiet unobtrusive virtues? Did she really
+and truly prefer her cousin? This was what I had to find out, and here
+Max could not help me.</p>
+
+<p>There was one thing I was glad to know,&mdash;that Mr. Hamilton favoured Max's
+suit. At least I should not be working against him. I do not know why,
+but the thought of doing so would have pained me: I no longer wished to
+array myself for war against Mr. Hamilton; my enmity had died a natural
+death for want of fuel.</p>
+
+<p>I felt grateful to him for his kindness to Max; no doubt he had a
+fellow-feeling with him. That dear old gossip, Mrs. Maberley, had told
+me something about Mr. Hamilton on my second visit that had made me feel
+very sorry for him. Max knew about it, of course; he had said a word to
+me once on the subject, but it was not Max's way to gossip about his
+neighbours; he once said, laughing, that he left all the choice bits
+of scandal to his good old friend at Maplehurst.</p>
+
+<p>It was from Mrs. Maberley that I heard all about Mr. Hamilton's
+disappointment, and why he had not married. When he was about
+eight-and-twenty he had been engaged to a young widow.</p>
+
+<p>'She was a beautiful creature, my dear,' observed the old lady; 'the
+colonel said he had never seen a handsomer woman. She was an Irish
+beauty, and had those wonderful gray eyes and dark eyelashes that make
+you wonder what colour they are, and she had the sweetest smile possible;
+any man would have been bewitched by it. I never saw a young man more in
+love than Giles: when he came here he could talk of nothing but Mrs.
+Carrick: her name was Ella, I remember. Well, it went on for some months,
+and he was preparing for the wedding,&mdash;there was to be a nursery got
+ready, for she had one little boy, and Giles already doted on the
+child,&mdash;when all at once there came a letter from his lady-love; and a
+very pretty letter it was. Giles must forgive her, it said, she was
+utterly wretched at the thought of the pain she was giving him, but she
+was mistaken in the strength of her attachment. She had come to the
+conclusion that they would not be happy together, that in fact she
+preferred some one else.</p>
+
+<p>'She did not mention that this other lover was richer than Giles and had
+a title, but of course he found out that this was the case. The fickle
+Irish beauty had caught the fancy of an elderly English nobleman with a
+large family of grown-up sons and daughters. My dear, it was a very
+heartless piece of work: it changed Giles completely. He never spoke
+about it to any one, but if ever a man was heart-broken, Giles was: he
+was never the same after that; it made him hard and bitter; he is always
+railing against women, or saying disagreeable home-truths about them. And
+of course Mrs. Carrick, or rather Lady Howe, is to blame for that. Oh, my
+dear, she may deck herself with diamonds, as they say she does, and call
+herself happy,&mdash;which she is not, with a gouty, ill-tempered old husband
+who is jealous of her,&mdash;but I'll be bound she thinks of Giles sometimes
+with regret, and scorns herself for her folly.'</p>
+
+<p>Poor Mr. Hamilton! And this had all happened about six or seven years
+ago. No wonder he looked stern and said bitter things. He was not
+naturally sweet-tempered, like Max; such a misfortune would sour him.</p>
+
+<p>'All well,' I said to myself, as I went up to bed, 'it is perfectly true
+what Longfellow says, "Into each life some rain must fall, some days must
+be dark and dreary"; but it is strange that they both have suffered. It
+is a good thing, perhaps, that such an experience is never likely to
+happen to me. There is some consolation to be deduced even from my want
+of beauty: no man will fall in love with me and then play me false.' And
+with that a curious feeling came over me, a sudden inexplicable sense of
+want and loneliness, something I could not define, that took no definite
+shape and had no similitude, and yet haunted me with a sense of ill; but
+the next moment I was struggling fiercely with the unknown and unwelcome
+guest.</p>
+
+<p>'For shame!' I said to myself; 'this is weakness and pure selfishness,
+mere sentimental feverishness; this is not like the strong-minded young
+person Miss Darrell calls me. What if loneliness be appointed me?&mdash;we
+must each have our cross. Perhaps, as life goes on and I grow older, it
+may be a little hard to bear at times, but my loneliness would be better
+than the sort of pain Mr. Hamilton and Max have endured.' And as I
+thought this, a sudden conviction came to me that I could not have borne
+a like fate, a dim instinct that told me that I should suffer keenly and
+long,&mdash;that it would be better, far better, that the deepest instincts of
+my woman's nature should never be roused than be kindled only to die away
+into ashes, as many women's affections have been suffered to die.
+'Anything but that,' I said to myself, with a sudden thrill of pain
+that surprised me with its intensity.</p>
+
+<p>All this time through the long cold weeks Elspeth had been slowly dying.
+Quietly and gradually the blind woman's strength had ebbed and lessened,
+until early in March we knew she could not last much longer.</p>
+
+<p>She suffered no pain, and uttered no complaint. She lay peacefully
+propped up with pillows on the bed where Mary Marshall had breathed her
+last, and her pale wrinkled face grew almost as white as the cap-border
+that encircled it.</p>
+
+<p>At the commencement of her illness I was unable to be much with her.
+Susan and Phoebe Locke had thoroughly engrossed me, and a hurried visit
+morning and evening to give Peggy orders was all that was possible under
+the circumstances; but I saw that she was well cared for and comfortable,
+and Peggy was very good to her and kept the children out of the room.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, my bairn, I am dying like a lady,' she said to me one day, 'and it
+is good to be here on poor Mary's bed. See the fine clean sheets that
+Peggy has put me on, and the grand quilt that keeps my feet warm!
+Sometimes I could cry with the comfort of it all; and there is the broth
+and the jelly always ready; and what can a poor old body want more?'</p>
+
+<p>When Susan was convalescent I spent more time with Elspeth. I knew she
+loved to have me beside her, and to listen to the chapters and Psalms I
+read to her. She would ask me to sing sometimes, and often we would sit
+and talk of the days that seemed so 'few and evil' in the light of
+advancing immortality.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, dearie,' she would say, 'it is not much to look back upon except in
+an angel's sight,&mdash;a poor old woman's life, who worked and struggled to
+keep her master and children from clemming. I used to think it hard
+sometimes that I could not get to church on Sunday morning,&mdash;for I was
+aye a woman for church,&mdash;but I had to stand at my wash-tub often until
+late on Saturday night. "After a day's charing, rinsing out the
+children's bits of things, and ironing them too, how is a poor tired
+body like me to get religion?" I would say sometimes when I was fairly
+moithered with it all. But, Miss Garston, my dear, I'm glad, as I lie
+here, to know that I never neglected the children God had given me; and
+so He took care of all that; He knew when I was too tired to put up a
+prayer that it was not for the want of loving Him.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, indeed, Elspeth. I often think we ought not to be too hard on poor
+people.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's true,' brightening up visibly. 'He is no severe taskmaster
+demanding bricks out of stubble; He knows poor labouring people are often
+tired, and out of heart. I used to say to my master sometimes, "Ah well,
+we must leave all that for heaven; we shall have a fine rest there, and
+plenty of time to sing our hymns and talk to the Lord Jesus. He was a
+labouring man too, and He will know all about it." I often comforted my
+master like that.'</p>
+
+<p>Elspeth's quaint talk interested me greatly. I grew to love her dearly,
+and I liked to feel that she was fond of me in return. I could have sat
+by her contentedly for hours, holding her hard work-worn hand and
+listening to her gentle flow of talk with its Scriptural phrases and
+simple realistic thoughts. It was like washing some pilgrim's feet at
+a feast to listen to Elspeth.</p>
+
+<p>One evening she told me that she had been thinking of me.</p>
+
+<p>'I wanted to know what you were like, my bairn,' she said, with her
+pretty Scotch accent; 'and the doctor came in as I was turning it over
+in my mind, so I made bold to ask him to describe you. I thought he was
+a long time answering, and at last he said, "What put that into your
+head, granny?" as if he were a little bit taken aback by the question.</p>
+
+<p>'"Well, doctor," I returned, "we all of us like to see the faces of those
+we love; and I am all in the dark. That dear young lady is doing the
+Lord's work with all her might, and she has a voice that makes me think
+of heaven, and the choirs of angels, and the golden harps, and maybe her
+face is as beautiful as her voice."</p>
+
+<p>'"Oh no," he says quite sharply to that, "she is not beautiful at all:
+indeed, I am not sure that most people would not think her plain."</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose I was an old ninny, but I did not like to hear him say this,
+my bairn, for I knew it could not be the truth; but he went on after a
+minute,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'"It is not easy to describe the face of a person one knows so well. I
+find it difficult to answer your question. Miss Garston has such a true
+face, one seems to trust it in a minute: it is the face of an honest
+kindly woman who will never do you any harm;" and then I saw what he
+meant. Why, bairn, the angels have this sort of beauty, and it lasts the
+longest; that is the sort of face they have there.'</p>
+
+<p>I heard all this silently, and was thankful that Elspeth's blind eyes
+could not see the burning flush of mortification that rose to my face.
+The dear garrulous old body, how could she have put such a question to
+Mr. Hamilton? and yet how kindly he had answered! A sudden recollection
+of Irish dark-gray eyes with black lashes came to my mind; I knew Mr.
+Hamilton was a connoisseur of beauty. I had often heard him describe
+people, and point out their physical defects with the keenest criticism;
+he was singularly fastidious on this point; but, in spite of my
+humiliation, I was glad to know that he had spoken so gently. He had told
+the truth simply, that was all: at least he had owned I was true; I must
+content myself with this tribute to my honesty.</p>
+
+<p>But it was some days before I could recall Elspeth's words without a
+sensation of prickly heat: it is strange how painfully these little
+pin-pricks to our vanity affect us. I was angry with myself for
+remembering them, and yet they rankled, in spite of Elspeth's quaint
+and homely consolation. Alas! I was not better than my fellows: Ursula
+Garston was not the strong-minded woman that Miss Darrell called her.</p>
+
+<p>But when I next met Mr. Hamilton I had other thoughts to engross me, for
+Elspeth was dying, and we were standing together by her bedside. I had
+not sent for Mr. Hamilton, for I knew that he could do nothing more for
+her; but he had met one of the children in the village, and on hearing
+the end was approaching had come at once to render me any help in his
+power. Perhaps he thought I should like to have him there.</p>
+
+<p>Elspeth's pinched wrinkled face brightened as she heard his voice. 'Ay,
+doctor, I am glad to know you are there; you have been naught but kind
+to me all these years, and now, thanks to this bairn, I am dying like
+a lady. The Lord bless you both! and He will,&mdash;He will!' with feeble
+earnestness.</p>
+
+<p>I bent down and kissed her cold cheek. 'Never mind us, Elspeth: only tell
+us that all is well with you. You are not afraid, dear granny?'</p>
+
+<p>'What's to fear, my bairn, with the Lord holding my hand?&mdash;and He will
+not let go; ah no, He will never let go! Ay, I have come to the dark
+river, but it will not do more than wet my feet. I'll be carried over,
+for I am old and weak,&mdash;old and weak, my dearie.' These were her last
+words, and half an hour afterwards the change came, and Elspeth's
+sightless eyes were opened to the light of immortality.</p>
+
+<p>That night I took up a little worn copy of the <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i> that
+I had had from childhood, and opened it at a favourite passage, where
+Christian and his companion are talking with the shining ones as they
+went up towards the Celestial city, and I thought of Elspeth as I read
+it. 'You are going now,' said they, 'to the paradise of God, wherein you
+shall see the Tree of Life, and eat of the never-failing fruit thereof;
+and when you come there you shall have white robes given you, and your
+walk and talk shall be every day with the King, even all the days of
+eternity. There you shall not see again such things as you saw when you
+were in the lower regions, upon the earth, to wit, sorrow, sickness, and
+death, for the former things are passed away....</p>
+
+<p>'And the men asked, "What must we do in that holy place?" To whom it was
+answered, "You must then receive the comfort of your toil, and have joy
+for all your sorrow."' I thought of Elspeth's last words, 'Old and
+weak,&mdash;old and weak, my dearie.' Surely they had come true: those aged
+feet had barely touched the cold water. Gently and tenderly she had been
+carried across to the green pastures and still waters in the paradise of
+God.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+
+<h3>MISS DARRELL HAS A HEADACHE</h3>
+
+
+<p>I began to feel that Gladys had been away a long time, and to wish for
+her return. I was much disappointed, then, on receiving a letter from her
+about a fortnight after Elspeth's death, telling me that Colonel Maberley
+had made up his mind to spend Easter in Paris, and that she had promised
+to accompany them.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall be sorry to be so long without your companionship,' she wrote.
+'I miss you more than I can say; but I am sure that it is far better for
+me to remain away as long as possible: the change is certainly doing me
+good. I am quite strong and well: they spoil me dreadfully, but I think
+this sort of treatment suits me best.'</p>
+
+<p>It was a long letter, and seemed to be written in a more cheerful mood
+than usual. There was a charming description of a trip they had taken,
+with little graceful touches of humour here and there.</p>
+
+<p>I handed the letter silently to Max when he called the next day. I
+thought that it would be no harm to show it to him. He took it to the
+window, and was so busy reading it that I had half finished a letter
+I was writing to Jill before he at last laid it down on my desk.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you for letting me see it,' he said quietly: 'it has been a great
+pleasure. Somehow, as I read it, it seemed as though the old Gladys
+Hamilton had written it,&mdash;not the one we know now. Indeed, she seems much
+better.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, and we must make up our minds to do without her,' I answered, with
+a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>'And we shall do so most willingly,' he returned, with a sort of tacit
+rebuke to my selfishness, 'if we know the change is benefiting her.' And
+then, with a change of tone, 'What a beautiful handwriting hers is,
+Ursula!&mdash;so firm and clear, so characteristic of the writer. Does she
+often write you such long, interesting letters? You are much to be
+envied, my dear. Well, well, the day's work is waiting for me.' And with
+that he went off, without saying another word.</p>
+
+<p>My next visitor was Mr. Hamilton. He came to tell me of an accident case.
+A young labourer had fallen off a scaffolding, and a compound fracture of
+the right arm had been the result. He was also badly shaken and bruised,
+and was altogether in a miserable plight.</p>
+
+<p>I promised, of course, to go to him at once; but he told me that there
+was no immediate hurry; he had attended to the arm and left him very
+comfortable, and he would do well for the next hour or two; and, as Mr.
+Hamilton seemed inclined to linger for a little chat, I could not refuse
+to oblige him.</p>
+
+<p>'It is just as well that this piece of work has come to me,' I said
+presently, 'for I was feeling terribly idle. Since Elspeth's death I have
+not had a single case, and have employed my leisure in writing long
+letters to my relations and taking country rambles with Tinker.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is right,' he returned heartily. 'I am sure we worked you far too
+hard at one time.'</p>
+
+<p>'It did not hurt me, and I should not care to be idle for long.&mdash;Yes, I
+have heard from Gladys,' for his eyes fell on the open letter that lay
+beside us. 'I am rather disappointed that I shall not see her before I go
+away.'</p>
+
+<p>'Are you going away, then?' he asked, very quickly, and I thought the
+news did not seem to please him.</p>
+
+<p>'Not for three weeks. I hope my patient will be getting on by that time,
+and will be able to spare me: at any rate, I can give his mother a lesson
+or two. You know my cousin is to be married, and I have promised to help
+Aunt Philippa.'</p>
+
+<p>'How long do you think you will be away?' he demanded, with a touch of
+his old abruptness.</p>
+
+<p>'For a fortnight. I could not arrange for less. Sara is making such a
+point of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'A whole fortnight! I am afraid you are terribly idle, after all, Miss
+Garston. You are growing tired of this humdrum place. You are yearning
+for "the leeks and cucumbers of Egypt,"' with a grim smile.</p>
+
+<p>'You are wrong,' I returned, with more earnestness than the occasion
+warranted. 'I feel a strange reluctance to re-enter Vanity Fair. The
+splendours of a gay wedding are not to my taste. Sara tells me that her
+reception after the ceremony will be attended by about two hundred
+guests. To me the idea is simply barbarous. I expect I shall be heartily
+glad to get back to Heathfield.'</p>
+
+<p>I was surprised to see how pleased Mr. Hamilton looked at this speech. I
+had been thinking of my work and my quiet little parlour, not of Gladwyn,
+when I spoke; but he seemed to accept it as a personal compliment.</p>
+
+<p>'I assure you that we shall welcome you back most gladly,' he returned.
+'The place will not seem like itself without our busy village nurse.
+Well, you have worked hard enough for six months: you deserve a holiday.
+I should like to see you in your butterfly garb, Miss Garston. I fancy,
+however, that I should not recognise you.'</p>
+
+<p>With a sudden pang I remembered Elspeth's words. He does not think that
+such home attire will become me. I thought he preferred me in my usual
+nun's garb of black serge.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh,' I said, petulantly and foolishly, 'I must own that I shall look
+rather like a crow dressed up in peacock's feathers in the grand gown
+Sara has chosen for me'; but I was a little taken aback, and felt
+inclined to laugh, when he asked me, with an air of interest, what it
+was like in colour and material.</p>
+
+<p>'Sara wished it to be red plush,' I replied demurely; 'but I refused to
+wear it; so she has waived that in favour of a dark green velvet. I think
+it is absolutely wicked to make Uncle Brian pay for such a dress; but it
+seems that Sara will get her own way, so I must put up with all they
+choose to give me.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is hardly spoken graciously. If your uncle be rich, why should
+he not please himself in buying you a velvet gown? I think the fair
+bride-elect has good taste. You will look very well in dark-green velvet:
+light tints would not suit you at all; red would be too gay.'</p>
+
+<p>He spoke with such gravity and decision that I thought it best not to
+contradict him. I even repressed my inclination to laugh: if he liked to
+be dogmatic on the subject of my dress, I would not hinder him. The next
+moment, however, he dismissed the matter.</p>
+
+<p>'I agree with you in disliking gay weddings. The idea is singularly
+repugnant to me. Because two people elect to join hands for the journey
+of life, is there any adequate reason why all their idle acquaintances
+should accompany them with cymbals and prancings and all sorts of
+fooleries just at the most solemn moment of their life?'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose they wish to express their sympathy,' I returned.</p>
+
+<p>'Sympathy should wear a quieter garb. These folks come to church to show
+their fine feathers and make a fuss; they do not care a jot for the
+solemnity of the service; and yet to me it is as awful in its way as the
+burial service. "Till death us do part,"&mdash;can any one, man or woman, say
+these words lightly and not bring down a doom upon himself?' He spoke
+with suppressed excitement, walking up and down the room: one could see
+how strongly he felt his words. Was he thinking of Mrs. Carrick? I
+wondered. He gave a slight shudder, as though some unwelcome thought
+obtruded itself, and then he turned to me with a forced smile.</p>
+
+<p>'I am boring you, I am afraid. I get horribly excited over the shams of
+conventionality. What were we talking about? Oh, I remember: Gladys's
+letter. Yes, she has written to Lady Betty, but not such a volume as
+that,' glancing at the closely written sheets. 'You are her chief
+correspondent, I believe; but she told us her plans. For my part, I am
+glad that she should enjoy this trip to Paris. Really, the Maberleys are
+most kind. I sent her a cheque to add to her amusements, for of course
+all girls like shopping.'</p>
+
+<p>How generous he was to his sisters! with all his faults of manner, he
+seemed to grudge them nothing. But all the same I knew Gladys would have
+valued a few kind words from him far more than the cheque; but perhaps he
+had written to her as well. But he seemed rather surprised when I asked
+him the question.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no; I never write to my sisters: they would not care for a letter
+from me. Etta offered to enclose it in a letter she had just finished to
+Gladys, so that saved all trouble. By the bye, Miss Garston, I hope you
+will come up to Gladwyn one evening before you leave Heathfield. I do not
+see why we are to be deserted in this fashion.'</p>
+
+<p>Neither did I, if he put it in this way: reluctant as I was to spend an
+evening there in Gladys's absence, it certainly was not quite kind either
+to him or to Lady Betty to refuse. He seemed to anticipate a refusal,
+however, for he said hastily,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind answering me now. Etta shall write to you in proper form,
+and you shall fix your own evening. Now I have hindered you sufficiently,
+so I will take my leave,'&mdash;which he did, but I heard him some time
+afterwards talking to Nathaniel in the porch.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after this I received a civil little note from Miss Darrell,
+pressing me to spend a long evening with them, and begging me to bring my
+prettiest songs.</p>
+
+<p>I made the rather lame excuse that I was much engaged with my new
+patient, and fixed the latest day that I could,&mdash;the very last evening
+before I was to leave for London. Mr. Hamilton met me a few hours
+afterwards, and asked me rather drily what my numerous engagements
+could be.</p>
+
+<p>'You are the most unsociable of your sex,' he added, when I had no answer
+to make to this. 'I shall take care that you are properly punished, for
+neither Cunliffe nor Tudor shall be asked to meet you. Etta was sure you
+would like one or both to come, but I put my veto on it at once.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then you were very disagreeable,' I returned laughingly. 'I wanted Uncle
+Max very much.' But he only shook his head at me good-humouredly, and
+scolded me for my want of amiability.</p>
+
+<p>I determined, when the evening came, that he should not find fault with
+me in any way. I was rather in holiday mood; my patient was going on
+well, and his mother was a neat, capable body, and might be trusted to
+look after him. No other cases had come to me, and I might leave
+Heathfield with a clear conscience. Uncle Max would miss me, but an old
+college friend was coming to stay at the vicarage, so I could be better
+spared. I had seen a great deal of Mr. Tudor lately. I often met him in
+the village, and he always turned back and walked with me: he met me on
+this occasion, and walked to the gates of Gladwyn. Indeed, he detained me
+for some minutes in the road, trying to extract particulars about the
+wedding.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Jocelyn is to be bridesmaid, then?' describing a circle with his
+stick in the dust.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. Poor Sara is afraid that she will be quite overshadowed by Jill's
+bigness; she has made her promise not to stand quite close. They have got
+a match for her. Grace Underley is as tall as Jill, and very fair. Sara
+calls them her night and morning bridesmaids.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think I shall be in London on the fourteenth. I thought, Miss Garston,
+that there was a prejudice to weddings in May.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but Sara laughs at the idea, and Colonel Ferguson says it is all
+nonsense. I did not know you were coming to town so soon.'</p>
+
+<p>'Some of my people will be up then,' he said absently. 'Perhaps I shall
+have a peep at you all; but of course'&mdash;rather hastily&mdash;'I shall not call
+at Hyde Park Gate until the wedding is over.'</p>
+
+<p>I wished he would not call then. What was the good of feeding his boyish
+fancy? it would soon die a natural death, if he would only be wise. Poor
+Mr. Tudor! I began to be afraid that he was very much in earnest after
+all: there was a grave expression on his face as he turned away. Perhaps
+he knew, as I did, that our big awkward Jill would develop into a
+splendid woman; that one of these days Jocelyn Garston would be far more
+admired than her sister; that the ugly duckling would soon change into a
+swan. There were times even now when Jill looked positively handsome,
+if only her short black locks would grow, and if she would leave off
+hunching her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>'I should like Lawrence Tudor to have my Jill, if he were only rich; but
+there is no hope for him now, poor fellow!' I said to myself, as I walked
+up the gravel walk towards the house.</p>
+
+<p>Gladwyn looked its best this evening. The shady little lawns that
+surrounded the house looked cool and inviting; the birds were singing
+merrily from the avenue of young oaks; the air was sweet with the scent
+of May-blossoms and wall-flowers: great bunches of them were placed in
+the hall.</p>
+
+<p>Thornton, who admitted me, said that Leah would be waiting for me in the
+blue room, as Miss Darrell's room was called; so I went up at once.</p>
+
+<p>I was passing through the dressing-room, when I saw the bedroom door was
+half opened, and a voice&mdash;I scarcely recognised it as Miss Darrell's, it
+was so different from her usual low, toneless voice&mdash;exclaimed angrily,
+'You forget yourself strangely, Leah! one would think you were the
+mistress and I the maid, to hear you speaking to me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't help that, Miss Etta,' returned the woman insolently. 'If you
+are not more punctual in your payments I will go to the master myself and
+tell him.' But here I knocked sharply at the door to warn them of my
+presence, and Leah ceased abruptly, while Miss Darrell bade me enter.</p>
+
+<p>She tried to meet me as usual, but her face was flushed, and she looked
+at me uneasily, as though she feared that I had overheard Leah's speech.
+I thought Leah looked sullen and stolid as she waited upon me. It was a
+most forbidding face. I was glad when Miss Darrell dismissed her on some
+slight pretext.</p>
+
+<p>'Leah is in a bad temper this evening,' she observed, examining the
+clasp of a handsome bracelet as she spoke. I noticed then that she had
+beautiful arms, as well as finely-shaped hands, and the emerald-eyed
+snake showed to advantage. 'She is a most invaluable person, but she can
+take liberties sometimes. Perhaps you heard me scolding her; but I
+consider she was decidedly in the wrong.'</p>
+
+<p>'She does not look very good-tempered,' was my reply.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Darrell still looked flushed and perturbed; but she took up her
+fan and vinaigrette, and proposed that we should join Lady Betty in the
+drawing-room. Leah was in the hall. As we passed her she addressed Miss
+Darrell.</p>
+
+<p>'If you can spare me a moment, ma'am, I should like to speak to you,' she
+said, quite civilly; but I thought her manner a little menacing.</p>
+
+<p>'Will not another time do, Leah?' returned her mistress in a worried
+tone; but the next moment she begged me to go in without her.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Betty was sitting by the open window with Nap beside her. I thought
+the poor little girl looked dull and lonely. She gave an exclamation of
+pleasure at seeing me, and ran towards me with outstretched hands. She
+looked like a child in her little white gown and blue ribbons, with her
+short curly hair.</p>
+
+<p>'I am so glad to see you, Miss Garston! I thought Etta would keep you,
+I have been alone all the afternoon: Etta never sits with me now. How
+I wish Gladys would come back! I have no one to speak to, and I miss her
+horribly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Lady Betty!'</p>
+
+<p>'You would say so, if you knew how horrid it all was. Just now, as I was
+sitting alone, I felt like a poor little princess shut up in an enchanted
+tower. Giles is the magician, and Etta is the wicked witch. I was making
+up quite a story about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why have you not been to see me lately, Lady Betty?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, how silly you are to ask me such a question!' she returned
+pettishly. 'You had better ask Witch Etta. Now you pretend to look
+surprised. She won't let me come&mdash;there!'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear child, surely you need not consult your cousin.'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course not,' wrinkling her forehead; 'but then, you see, Witch Etta
+consults me: she makes a point of finding out all my little plans and
+nipping them in the bud. She says she really cannot allow me to go so
+often to the White Cottage; Mr. Cunliffe and Mr. Tudor are always there,
+and it is not proper. She is always hinting that I want to meet Mr.
+Tudor, and it is no good telling her that I never think of such a thing.'
+Lady Betty was half crying. A more innocent, harmless little soul never
+breathed; she had not a spice of coquetry in her nature. I felt indignant
+at such an accusation.</p>
+
+<p>'It is all nonsense, Lady Betty,' I returned sharply. 'Mr. Tudor has not
+called at the cottage more than once since Jill left me, and then Uncle
+Max sent him. When I first came to Heathfield he was very kind in doing
+me little services, and he dropped in two or three times when Jill was
+with me; but indeed he has never been a constant visitor. When we meet
+it is at the vicarage or in the street.'</p>
+
+<p>'You would never convince Etta of that,' replied Lady Betty
+disconsolately. 'She has even told Giles how often Mr. Tudor goes to the
+cottage, and she has got it into her head that I am always trying to meet
+him there. It is such an odious idea, only worthy of Etta herself!' went
+on the little girl indignantly. 'If I could only make her hold her tongue
+to Giles!'</p>
+
+<p>'I would not trouble about it if I were you, dear. No one who knows you
+would believe it. Such an idea would never occur to Mr. Tudor; he is an
+honest, simple young fellow, who is not ashamed to respect women in the
+good old-fashioned way.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, I like him, and so does Jill; but I wish he were a thousand
+miles off, and then Etta would give me a little peace. How angry Gladys
+would be if she knew it! But I don't mean to trouble her about my small
+worries, poor darling.'</p>
+
+<p>I had never heard Lady Betty speak with such womanly dignity. She was so
+often childish and whimsical that one never expected her to be grave and
+responsible like other people. She kissed me presently, and said I had
+done her good, and would I always believe in her in spite of Etta, for
+she was not the giddy little creature that Etta made her out to be; she
+was sure Giles would think more of her but for Etta's mischief-making.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton came in after this, and sat down by us, but Miss Darrell did
+not make her appearance until the gong sounded, and then she hurried in
+with a breathless apology. I do not know what made me watch her so
+closely all dinner-time. She took very little part in the conversation,
+seemed absent and thoughtful, and started nervously when Mr. Hamilton
+spoke to her. He told her once that she looked pale and tired, and she
+said then that the evening was close, and that her head ached. I wondered
+then if the headache had made her eyes so heavy, or if she had been
+crying.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton was a little quiet, too, through dinner, but listened with
+great interest when Lady Betty and I talked about the approaching
+wedding. I had to satisfy her curiosity on many points,&mdash;the bride's and
+bridesmaids' dresses, and the programme for the day.</p>
+
+<p>The details did not seem to bore Mr. Hamilton. His face never once wore
+its cynical expression; but when we returned to the drawing-room, and
+Lady Betty wanted to continue the subject, he took her quietly by the
+shoulders and marched her off to Miss Darrell.</p>
+
+<p>'Make the child hold her tongue, Etta,' he said good-humouredly. 'I want
+to coax Miss Garston to sing to us.' And then he came to me with the
+smile I liked best to see on his face, and held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>I was quite willing to oblige him, and he kept me hard at work for nearly
+an hour, first asking me if I were tired, and then begging for one more
+song; and sometimes I thought of Gladys as I sang, and sometimes of Max,
+and once of Mrs. Carrick, with her wonderful gray eyes, and her false
+fair face.</p>
+
+<p>When I had finished I saw Mr. Hamilton looking at me rather strangely.</p>
+
+<p>'Why do you sing such sad songs?' he asked, in a low voice, as though he
+did not wish to be overheard; but he need not have been afraid: Miss
+Darrell was evidently taking no notice of any one just then. She was
+lying back in her chair with her eyes closed, and I noticed afterwards
+that her forehead was lined like an old woman's.</p>
+
+<p>'I like melancholy songs,' was my reply, and I fingered the notes a
+little nervously, for his look was rather too keen just then, and I had
+been thinking of Mrs. Carrick.</p>
+
+<p>'But you are not melancholy,' he persisted. 'There is no weak
+sentimentality in your nature. Just now there was a passion in your voice
+that startled me, as though you were drawing from some secret well.' He
+paused, and then went on, half playfully,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'If I were like the Hebrew steward, and asked you to let down your
+pitcher and give me a draught, I wonder what you would answer?'</p>
+
+<p>'That would depend on circumstances. You would find it difficult to
+persuade me that you were thirsty, or needed anything that I could give.'</p>
+
+<p>'Would it be so difficult as all that?' he returned thoughtfully. 'I
+thought we were better friends; that you had penetrated beneath the upper
+crust; that in spite of my faults you trusted me a little.'</p>
+
+<p>His earnestness troubled me. I hardly knew what he meant.</p>
+
+<p>'Of course we are friends,' I answered hastily. 'I can trust you more
+than a little.' And I would have risen from my seat, but he put his hand
+gently on my sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>'Wait a moment. You are going away, and I may not have another
+opportunity. I want to tell you something. You have done me good; you
+have taught me that women can be trusted, after all. I thank you most
+heartily for that lesson.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not know what you mean,' I faltered; but I felt a singular pleasure
+at these words. 'I have done nothing. It is you that have been good to
+me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pshaw!' impatiently. 'I thought you more sensible than to say that. Now,
+I want you,' his voice softening again, 'to try and think better of me;
+not to judge by appearances, or to take other people's judgments, but to
+be as true and charitable to me as you are to others. Promise me this
+before you go, Miss Garston.'</p>
+
+<p>I do not know why the tears started to my eyes. I could hardly answer
+him.</p>
+
+<p>'Will you try to do this?' he persisted, stooping over me.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' was my scarcely audible answer, but he was satisfied with that
+monosyllable. He walked away after that, and joined Lady Betty. Miss
+Darrell had not moved; she still lay back on the cushions, and I thought
+her face looked drawn and old. When I spoke to her, for it was getting
+late, she roused herself with difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>'My head is very bad, and I shall have to go to bed, after all,' she
+said, giving me her hand. 'I am afraid your beautiful singing has been
+thrown away on me, for I was half asleep. I thought I heard you and Giles
+talking by the piano, but I was not sure.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton walked home with me. He had resumed his usual manner; he
+told me he had had a letter that day that would oblige him to go to
+Edinburgh for a week or so.</p>
+
+<p>'I think I shall take the night mail to-morrow evening, though it will
+give me a busy day: so, after all, I shall not miss you, Miss Garston.'
+And after a little more talk about the business that had summoned him,
+we reached the White Cottage and he bade me good-bye.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope you will have a pleasant holiday. Take care of yourself, for all
+our sakes.' And with that he left me.</p>
+
+<p>It was long before I slept that night. I felt confused and feverish, as
+though I were on the brink of some discovery that would overwhelm and
+alarm me. I could not understand myself or Mr. Hamilton. His words
+presented an enigma. I felt troubled by them, and yet not unhappy.</p>
+
+<p>Had Miss Darrell overheard him? I wondered. I felt, if she had done so,
+her manner would have been different. She seemed jealous of her cousin,
+and always monopolised his words and looks. He had never spoken to me a
+dozen words in her presence that she had not tried to interrupt us. Had
+she really been asleep? These doubts kept recurring to me. Just before
+I fell asleep a remembrance of Leah's sullen face came between me and my
+dreams. Her insolent voice rang in my ears. What had she meant by her
+words? Why had Miss Darrell submitted to her impertinence? Was she afraid
+of Leah, as Gladys said? I began to feel weary of all these mysteries.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+
+<h3>WITH TIMBRELS AND DANCES</h3>
+
+
+<p>Aunt Philippa and Sara came to meet me at Victoria. They both seemed
+unfeignedly glad to see me.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Philippa was certainly a kind-hearted woman. Her faults were those
+that were engendered by too much prosperity. Overmuch ease and luxury had
+made her lymphatic and indolent. Except for Ralph's death, she had never
+known sorrow. Care had not yet traced a single line on her smooth
+forehead; it looked as open and unfurrowed as a child's. Contentment and
+a comfortable self-complacency were written on her comely face. Just now
+it beamed with motherly welcome. Somehow, I never felt so fond of Aunt
+Philippa as I did at that moment when she leaned over the carriage with
+outstretched hands.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, how well you are looking! Five years younger.&mdash;Does she not
+look well, Sara?'</p>
+
+<p>Sara nodded and smiled, and made room for me to pass her, and then gave
+orders that my luggage should be intrusted to the maid, who would convey
+it in a cab to Hyde Park Gate.</p>
+
+<p>'If you do not mind, Ursula, we are going round the Park for a little,'
+observed Sara, with a pretty blush.</p>
+
+<p>Her mother laughed: 'Colonel Ferguson is riding in the Row, and will be
+looking out for us. He is coming this evening, as usual, but Sara thinks
+four-and-twenty hours too long to wait.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, mother, how can you talk so?' returned Sara bashfully. 'You know
+Donald asked us to meet him, and he would be so disappointed. And it is
+such a lovely afternoon,&mdash;if Ursula does not mind.'</p>
+
+<p>'On the contrary, I shall like it very much,' I returned, moved by
+curiosity to see Colonel Ferguson again. I had never seen him by
+daylight, and, though we had often met at the evening receptions, we
+had not exchanged a dozen words.</p>
+
+<p>I thought Sara was looking prettier than ever. A sort of radiance seemed
+to surround her. Youth and beauty, perfect health, a light heart, and
+satisfied affections,&mdash;these were the gifts of the gods that had been
+showered upon her. Would those bright, smiling eyes ever shed tears? I
+wondered. Would any sorrow drive away that light, careless gaiety? I
+hoped not. It was pleasant to see any one so happy. And then I thought
+of Lesbia and Gladys, and sighed.</p>
+
+<p>'You do not look at all tired, Ursie,' observed Sara affectionately,
+laying her little gloved hand on mine. 'She looks quite nice and fresh:
+does she not, mother?&mdash;I was so afraid that you would have come up in
+your nurse's livery, as Jocelyn calls it,&mdash;black serge, and a horrid
+dowdy bonnet.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no; I knew better than that,' I returned, with a complacent glance
+at my handsome black silk, one of Uncle Brian's presents. I had the
+comfortable conviction that even Sara could not find fault with my bonnet
+and mantle. I had made a careful toilet purposely, for I knew what
+importance they attached to such things. Sara's little speech rewarded
+me, as well as Aunt Philippa's approving look.</p>
+
+<p>'It has not done her any harm,' I heard her observe, <i>sotto voce</i>. 'She
+certainly looks younger.'</p>
+
+<p>I took advantage of a pause in Sara's chatter to ask after Jill. Aunt
+Philippa answered me, for Sara was bowing towards a passing carriage.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, poor child, she wanted to come with us to meet you, but it was
+Professor Hugel's afternoon. He teaches her German literature, you know.
+I was anxious for her not to miss his lesson, and she was very good about
+it. She is coming down to afternoon tea, and of course we shall see her
+in the evening.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor dear Jocelyn! she was longing to come, I know. You and Miss
+Gillespie are terribly severe,' observed Sara, with a light laugh. She
+was so free and gay herself that she rather pitied her young sister,
+condemned to the daily grind of lessons and hard work.</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense, Sara!' returned her mother sharply. 'We are not severe at all.
+Jocelyn knows that it is all for her good if Miss Gillespie keeps her to
+her task. My dear Ursula, we are all charmed with Miss Gillespie,&mdash;even
+Sara, though she pretends to call her strict and old-fashioned. She is a
+most amiable, ladylike woman, and Jocelyn is perfectly happy with her.</p>
+
+<p>'I am very pleased with Jocelyn,' she went on. 'You have done her good,
+Ursula, and both her father and I are very grateful to you. She is not
+nearly so wayward and self-willed. She takes great pains with her
+lessons, and is most industrious. She is not so awkward, either, and Miss
+Gillespie thinks it will be a good plan if I take her out with me driving
+sometimes when Sara is married. I shall only have Jocelyn then,' finished
+Aunt Philippa, with a regretful look at her daughter. I was much
+interested in all they had to tell me, but I was not sorry when we
+entered the Park and the stream of talk died away.</p>
+
+<p>I almost felt as though I were in a dream, as the moving kaleidoscope
+of horses and carriages and foot-passengers passed before my eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday at this time I was sitting in poor Robert Lambert's whitewashed
+attic, listening to the sparrows that were twittering under the eaves.
+When I had left the cottage I had walked down country roads, meeting
+nothing but a donkey-cart and two tramps.</p>
+
+<p>Now the sunshine was playing on the rhododendrons and on the green leaves
+of the trees in Hyde Park. A brass band had struck up in the distance.
+The riders were cantering up and down the Row, to the admiration of the
+well-dressed crowds that sauntered under the trees or lingered by the
+railings. Carriages were passing and repassing. A four-in-hand drove past
+us, followed by a tandem. Beautiful young faces smiled out of the
+carriages. A few of them looked weary and careworn. Now and then under
+the smart bonnet one saw the pinched weazened face of old age,&mdash;dowagers
+in big fur capes looking out with their dim hungry eyes on the follies of
+Vanity Fair. One wondered at the set senile smile on these old faces;
+they had fed on husks all their lives, and the food had failed to nourish
+them; their strength had failed over the battle of life, but they still
+refused to leave the field of their former triumphs. Everywhere in these
+fashionable crowds one sees these pale meagre faces that belong to a past
+age. They wear gorgeous velvets, jewels, feathers, paint: like Jezebel,
+they would look out of the window curiously to the last. How one longs to
+take them gently out of the crowd, to wash their poor cheeks, and lead
+them to some quiet home, where they may shut their tired eyes in peace!
+'What is the world to you?' one would say to them. 'You have done all
+your tasks,&mdash;well or badly; leave the arena to the young and the strong;
+it is no place for you; come home and rest, before the dark angel finds
+you in your tinsel and gewgaws.' Would they listen to me, I wonder?</p>
+
+<p>Sara's soft dimples came into play presently. A pretty blush rose to her
+face. A tall man with a bronzed handsome face and iron-gray moustache had
+detached himself from the other riders, and was cantering towards the
+carriage that was now drawn up near the entrance: in another moment he
+had checked his horse with some difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>'I have been looking out for you the last three-quarters of an hour,' he
+said, addressing Sara. 'I could not see the carriage anywhere.&mdash;Miss
+Garston, we have met before, but I think we hardly know each other,'
+looking at me with some degree of interest. Sara's cousin was no longer
+indifferent to him.</p>
+
+<p>I answered him as civilly as I could, but I could see his attention
+wandered to his young <i>fianc&eacute;e</i>, and he soon rode round to her side of
+the carriage. It was evident, as Lesbia said, that the colonel was
+honestly in love with Sara. She looked very young beside him, but there
+must have been something very winning in her sweet looks and words to the
+man who had known trouble and had laid a young wife and child to rest in
+an Indian grave.</p>
+
+<p>Before the evening was over I felt I liked Colonel Ferguson immensely,
+and thought far more of Sara for being his choice; there was an air of
+frankness and <i>bonhomie</i> about him that won one's heart; he was sensible
+and practical. In spite of his fondness for Sara, he would keep her in
+order: one could see that. I heard him rebuke her very gently that first
+evening for some extravagance she was planning. They were standing apart
+from the others on the balcony, but I was near the open window, and I
+heard him say distinctly, in a grave voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I am very sorry to disappoint you, but I must ask you to give up this
+idea, my darling; it would not be right in our position: surely you must
+see that.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, Donald, I do not see it a bit,' she answered quickly.</p>
+
+<p>'Then will you be satisfied with my seeing it, and give it up for my
+sake, dear?'</p>
+
+<p>I knew when they came back into the room that he had got his way. Sara
+was smiling as happily as usual: her disappointment had not gone very
+deep. Her future husband would have very little trouble with her. She was
+neither self-willed nor selfish. She wanted to be happy herself and make
+other people happy; she would be easily guided.</p>
+
+<p>When we left the Park Colonel Ferguson rode off to his club, and we drove
+home rather quickly. There were some visitors waiting for Sara in the
+drawing-room, so I went up to my old room to take off my bonnet. Martha
+would unpack my boxes, Aunt Philippa told me, as she gave me another kiss
+in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>I had not been there for five minutes when I heard flying footsteps down
+the passage, and the next moment Jill's strong arms had taken me by the
+shoulders and turned me round.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Jill, I don't mean to be strangled as usual'; but she left me no
+breath for more.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, my dear, precious old bear, this is too good to be true! I nearly
+cried with joy this morning at the idea of seeing you in your old room
+and knowing you will be here a whole fortnight. I declare, after all,
+Sara is very nice to get married.'</p>
+
+<p>No, Jill was not changed; she was as real and big and demonstrative as
+usual, but somehow she looked nicer.</p>
+
+<p>'You must be quick,' she continued, 'for father has come in, and Clayton
+has taken in the tea. We must go down directly; but I want you to see
+Miss Gillespie first.' And Jill looked proud and eager as she led me down
+the passage.</p>
+
+<p>The schoolroom was still the same dull back room that Aunt Philippa
+thought so conducive to her young daughter's studies, but it certainly
+looked more cheerful this evening.</p>
+
+<p>The window was opened. There was a window-box full of gay flowers. A
+great bowl of my favourite wall-flowers was on the table, and another
+vase, with trails of laburnum and lilac, was on Jill's little table. The
+fresh air and sunshine and the sweet scent of the flowers had quite
+transformed the dingy room. There was new cretonne on the old sofa, a
+handsome cloth on the centre-table, and a new easy-chair.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Gillespie was sitting by the window, reading. She had an interesting
+face and rather sad gray eyes, but her manner was decidedly
+prepossessing.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at her pupil with affection. Evidently Jill's abruptness and
+awkwardness were not misunderstood by her.</p>
+
+<p>'I want you two to like each other,' Jill had said, without a pretence of
+introduction; and we had both laughed and extended our hands.</p>
+
+<p>'I seem to know you already, Miss Garston,' she said, in a pleasant
+voice. 'Jocelyn talks about you so much that you cannot be a stranger
+to me.&mdash;Do you know your father has come in, dear?' turning to Jill.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, and I must take my cousin downstairs. Good-bye for the present,
+Gypsy.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Gillespie smiled again when she saw my astonishment at Jill's
+familiarity.</p>
+
+<p>'Jocelyn thinks my name too long, and has abbreviated it to Gypsy. Mrs.
+Garston was terribly shocked at first, but I told her that it did not
+matter in the least: in fact, I like it.'</p>
+
+<p>'She is such a dear old thing!' burst out Jill, as we left the schoolroom
+and proceeded downstairs arm in arm. 'I never think of her as my
+governess; she is just a kind friend who helps me with my lessons and
+walks with me. We do have such cosy times together. Does not the
+schoolroom look nice, Ursie?'</p>
+
+<p>'Very nice indeed, my dear.'</p>
+
+<p>'So I think; but Sara says it is horrid: she has made mother promise to
+give me her room directly she is married. Sara has a beautiful piano
+there, and a book-case, and all sorts of pretty things. It is a lovely
+room, you know, and looks out over the Park. Mother thinks it too nice
+and pretty for a schoolroom; but I am to call it my study and keep it
+tidy. And Gypsy is to have the old schoolroom for herself: so we are both
+pleased. It is nice for her to have a room of her own, where she can be
+alone.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your mother is very kind to you, Jill.'</p>
+
+<p>'Awfully kind&mdash;I mean very kind: Gypsy does so dislike that expression.
+Do you know, I think you two are rather alike in that? Gypsy is very
+unhappy sometimes, though. I have found her crying more than once when I
+have left her long alone; only mother does not know, and I don't mean to
+tell her, because she thinks people ought always to be cheerful. It was
+so sad that clergyman dying,&mdash;the one she was to marry; his name was
+Maurice Compton. I saw the name in one of her books: "Lilian Gillespie,
+from her devoted friend, Maurice Compton."'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Jill, how long are you going to keep me standing in the hall?
+Clayton will find us here directly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know'; but Jill showed no intention of moving; the prospect of
+cold tea did not trouble her; 'but I want to tell you something before
+you go in. Mother is certainly kinder to me than she ever has been; she
+says I am to drive with her very often, and that she shall take me to see
+picture-galleries. And father is going to buy a horse for me, because he
+says I ride so well that I may go out with him, as a rule, instead of
+with a master; and&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'You shall tell me all that presently,' I returned, 'for I am too tired
+to stand on this mat any longer. Are you coming, Jill? or shall I go in
+without you?' but of course I knew she would follow me.</p>
+
+<p>The room seemed full when we entered. Aunt Philippa was at the tea-table;
+Sara was flitting about the room from one guest to another. Uncle Brian,
+who was standing on the hearth-rug, put out his hand to me.</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad to see you back again, Ursula,' looking at me with his cool,
+penetrating glance. Uncle Brian was never demonstrative. 'I think the
+work suits you, to judge by your looks. Take that chair by your aunt,
+child, and she will give you some tea.' And accordingly I placed myself
+under Aunt Philippa's wing, while Jill and a boy-officer with a budding
+moustache waited on me.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the evening passed very pleasantly. I had a long conversation
+with Miss Gillespie in the inner drawing-room while Sara and Jill played
+duets: of course our subject was Jill. Miss Gillespie spoke most warmly
+of her excellent abilities and fine development of character. 'She will
+be a very striking woman,' she finished, when the last chords were played
+and a soft clapping of hands succeeded. 'Whether she will be a happy one
+is more doubtful: she must not be thwarted too much, and she must have
+room to expand. Jocelyn wants space and sunshine.'</p>
+
+<p>I thought these remarks very sensible; they taught me that Miss Gillespie
+had grasped the true idea of Jill's character. There was nothing little
+about Jill: she never did things by halves: she either loved or hated.
+She was truthful to a fault. There was a massive freedom and simplicity
+about her that would guide her safely through the world's pitfalls.
+'Space and sunshine,' that was all Jill needed to bring her to maturity
+and fruition. Some girls may be trusted to educate themselves. Jill was
+one of these.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning Sara took possession of me. A great honour was to be
+vouchsafed me: I was to be treated to a private view of the trousseau
+and wedding-presents.</p>
+
+<p>I had exhausted my vocabulary of admiring epithets, and sat in eloquent
+silence, long before Sara had finished her display. It was like the
+picture of Pandora opening her box, to see the pretty creature opening
+the big, carved wardrobe to show me the layers of delicate embroidered
+raiment, muslin and laces and jewels, curious trinkets and wonderful
+gifts worthy of the Arabian Nights. There were two rooms full of
+treasures that had been laid at her feet, and no doubt, like Pandora,
+Sara had the rainbow-tinted hope lying amid the bridal gifts.</p>
+
+<p>'This is Donald's present,' she said, smiling, showing me a diamond
+spray. 'I am to wear it on Thursday: it is the loveliest present of
+all,&mdash;though mother has given me that beautiful pearl necklace.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wait a moment, Sara,' I said, detaining her as she closed the morocco
+case: 'tell me, do you not feel like a princess in fairy-land, with all
+this glitter round you? Does it all seem real, somehow?'</p>
+
+<p>'Donald is real, anyhow,' she returned, with a charming blush. 'Nothing
+would be real without him. Oh, Ursula, it is nice to be so happy! I
+always have been happier than other girls.' And something like a tear
+stole to her pretty eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'Now you must see your own dress,' she continued, brushing off the tiny
+tear-drop, with a laugh at her own sentimentality. 'What do you think of
+that? Is that not charming taste?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is far too good for me,' I returned seriously. 'How could Uncle Brain
+buy that for me? It is beautiful; it is perfect, and just my taste.' And
+then I could say no more, for Sara had placed her hands across my lips to
+silence me.</p>
+
+<p>'Then you must wear it, dear. Father and mother wanted to give you
+something nice, because you were so good to Jocelyn, and I knew you had a
+fancy for a velvet gown. Is not that yellowish lace charming, Ursula? and
+the bonnet harmonises so well! Your bouquet is to be cream-coloured, too,
+with just a tea-rose or so. You will look quite pretty in it, Ursula
+dear. Do you know Donald liked the look of you so yesterday? he said you
+looked so strong and sensible; he called you an interesting woman.'</p>
+
+<p>I hastened to change the subject, for it recalled certain words that I
+vainly tried to forget. It was a relief when visitors were announced and
+Sara left me to go down to the drawing-room. I was glad to be alone for
+a few minutes. Aunt Philippa came up soon afterwards with a bevy of
+friends, and I escaped to my own room until luncheon-time.</p>
+
+<p>I grew a little weary of the bustle by and by, and yet I was pleased and
+interested too; the excitement was infectious; one smiled to see so many
+happy faces; and then there was so much to do, every one was pressed into
+the service. Jill shut up her books with a bang; her piano remained
+closed. She and Miss Gillespie were answering notes, unpacking presents,
+running to and fro with messages; people came all day long; they talked
+in corners on the balcony, in Uncle Brian's study; no room was held
+sacred.</p>
+
+<p>A cargo of flowers arrived presently; the hall and drawing-room were to
+be transformed into bowers. It must rain roses as well as sunshine on the
+young princess. Sara's bright face appeared every now and then among the
+workers; a little court surrounded her; sometimes Colonel Ferguson's
+bronzed face looked over her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>'That is very pretty, Ursula. I see you have caught the right idea.
+Jocelyn dear, you are overfilling that basket, and some of the stalks are
+showing. Miss Gillespie will put it right for you. Come, Grace, shall we
+go upstairs?'</p>
+
+<p>Sara nodded and smiled at us as she led the way to the upper regions.
+Pandora was for ever opening her box in those days: she was never weary
+of fingering her silks and satins.</p>
+
+<p>'Now she has gone, let us rest a little,' Jill exclaimed, letting her
+arms fall to her side. 'Are you not tired of it all, Ursie dear? I get so
+giddy that I keep rubbing my eyes. I never knew weddings meant all this
+fuss. Why cannot people do things more quietly? If I ever get married I
+shall just put on my bonnet and walk to the nearest church with father.
+What is the use of all this nonsense? It is like decking the victim for
+the sacrifice, to see all these roses and green leaves. Supposing we have
+a band of music to drown her groans while she is dressing,' finished Jill
+rebelliously, as she contemplated her flower-basket with dissatisfied
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Jill's speech recalled Mr. Hamilton's words most vividly: 'Because two
+people elect to join hands for the journey of life, is there any adequate
+reason why all their idle acquaintances should accompany them with
+cymbals and prancings, and all sorts of fooleries, just at the most
+solemn moment of life?' and again, '"Till death us do part,"&mdash;can any
+one, man or woman, say those words lightly and not bring down a doom upon
+himself?'</p>
+
+<p>Could I ever forget how solemnly he had said this? After all, Mr.
+Hamilton was right, and I think Jill was right too.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+
+<h3>WEDDING-CHIMES</h3>
+
+
+<p>When we had finished the flowers and brought in Aunt Philippa to see the
+effect, I left the others and went up to my room. I had been busy since
+the early morning, and felt I had fairly earned a little rest.</p>
+
+<p>The room that was still called mine had a side-window looking over the
+Park. Down below carriages were passing and repassing; a detachment of
+hussars trotted past; people were pouring out from the Albert Hall,&mdash;some
+afternoon concert was just over; the children were playing as usual on
+the grass; the soft evening shadows were creeping up between the trees;
+the sky was blue and cloudless. May was wearing her choicest smiles on
+the eve of Sara's wedding-day.</p>
+
+<p>Martha, the schoolroom maid, had brought me a cup of tea; the rest of the
+family were crowded in Uncle Brian's study; the dining-room was already
+in the hands of Gunter's assistants; the long drawing-room and inner
+drawing-room were sweet with roses and baskets of costly hot-house
+flowers; a bank of rhododendrons was under the hall window; the house was
+full of sunshine, flowers, and the ripple of laughter. I could hear the
+laughter through the closed door. Sara's musical tinkle rang out whenever
+the door opened. I had fallen into a sort of waking dream, when something
+white and golden passed between me and the sunlight; a light kiss was
+dropped on my drowsy eyelids, and there was Lesbia smiling at me.</p>
+
+<p>She looked so cool and fair in her white gown, with a tiny bouquet of
+delicious tea-roses in her hand, her golden hair shining under her little
+lace bonnet. I thought she looked more than ever like Charlie's white
+lily, only now there was a touch of colour on her face.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Ursie dear, I am so pleased to see you!' she said gently, laying
+the flowers on my lap. 'Clayton told me that every one else was in Mr.
+Garston's study, so I begged to run up here. We only came up from
+Rutherford this morning, and we have been so busy ever since. I was
+afraid you were asleep, for I knocked at the door without getting any
+answer; but no, your eyes were wide open; so you were only dreaming.'</p>
+
+<p>'I believe I was very tired, they have kept me running about all day.
+Take this low chair by the window, dear, and tell me all about yourself.
+Do you know it is six months since we met? There must be so much to say
+on both sides. But, first, how is Mrs. Fullerton? and is it Rutherford
+that has given you those pretty roses, Lesbia?' But the roses I meant
+were certainly not on my lap.</p>
+
+<p>She answered literally and seriously, in her usual way: 'Yes, they are
+from Rutherford: I cut them myself, in spite of Patrick's grumbling.
+Mother is very well, Ursula; I am sure the country agrees with her. We
+have been there since March, and these two months have been the happiest
+to me since dear Charlie died.'</p>
+
+<p>'You need not tell me that,' I returned, with a satisfied look at the
+sweet face. 'Health has returned to you; you are no longer languid and
+weary; your eyes are bright, your voice has a stronger tone in it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is it wrong?' she answered quickly. 'I do not forget, I shall never
+forget, but the pain seems soothed somehow. When I wake up in the bed
+where I slept as a child, I hear the birds singing, and I do not say to
+myself, "Here is another long weary day to get through." On the contrary,
+I jump up and dress myself as quickly as I can, for I love to be out
+among the dews; everything is so sweet and still in the early morning;
+there is such freshness in the air.'</p>
+
+<p>'And these early walks are good for you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I never leave the grounds. I just saunter about with Flo and Rover.
+When breakfast is ready I have a bouquet to lay beside mother's plate.
+Dear, good mother! do you know she cannot say enough in praise of
+Rutherford, now she sees the breakfasts I eat? I think she would be
+reconciled to any place if she saw me enjoy my food: at the Albert Hall
+Mansions I never felt hungry; I was always too tired to eat.'</p>
+
+<p>'I knew Mrs. Fullerton would never repent her sacrifice.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, indeed; mother and I have never been so cosy in our lives. She sits
+in the verandah and laughs over my quarrels with Patrick: he is quite as
+cross-grained as ever, dear old fellow, but there is nothing that he will
+not do for me. We are making a rose-garden now. Do you remember that
+sunny corner by the terrace and sundial?&mdash;dear Charlie always wanted me
+to have a rose-garden there. We have trellis-work arches and a little
+arbour. Patrick and Hawkins are doing the work, but I fancy they cannot
+get on without me.'</p>
+
+<p>She stopped with a little laugh at her own conceit, and then went on:</p>
+
+<p>'And I am so busy in other ways, Ursula. Every Monday I go to the
+mothers' meeting with Mrs. Trevor, and I have some of the old women at
+the almshouses besides,&mdash;I am so fond of those old women,&mdash;and I have
+just begun afternoons for tennis; people like these, and they come from
+such a distance. Mr. Manners declares the Rutherford Thursdays will
+soon be known all over the country.'</p>
+
+<p>'Bravo, Lesbia! you are taking your position nobly, my dear; this is just
+what Charlie wanted to see you,&mdash;a brave sweet woman who would not let
+sorrow and disappointment spoil her own and other people's lives.' Then,
+as she blushed with pleasure at my words, I said carelessly, 'Do you
+often see Mr. Manners?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes,' she returned without hesitation,&mdash;'on my Thursdays, and at
+church, and at the vicarage: we are always meeting somewhere. He was
+Charlie's friend, you know, and he is so nice and sympathising, and tells
+me so much about their school life and college life together. He was so
+fond of Charlie, and the undergraduates used to call them Damon and
+Pythias.'</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure: Charlie was always talking about Harcourt. He has grown very
+handsome, I have heard.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mother says so: he is certainly good-looking,' she answered simply; 'and
+then he is so kind. I feel almost ashamed at troubling him so much with
+our business and commissions, but he never seems to mind any amount of
+trouble. I have never met any one so unselfish.'</p>
+
+<p>I turned away my head to hide a smile. Lesbia was quite serious. She was
+too much absorbed in the memory of Charlie to read the secret of Harcourt
+Manners's unselfishness: the kindly attentions of the young man, his
+solicitude and sympathy, had not yet awakened a suspicion of the truth.</p>
+
+<p>One day Lesbia's eyes would be opened, and she would be shocked and
+surprised to find the hold that Charlie's friend had got over her heart.
+Very likely she would dismiss him and lock herself up in her room and cry
+for hours; probably she would persist for some weeks in making herself
+and him exceedingly unhappy. But it would be all no use; the tie of
+sympathy would be too strong; he would have made himself too necessary to
+her. One day she would have to yield, and find her life's happiness in
+thus yielding. Charlie's white lily was too fair to be left to wither
+alone, and I knew Harcourt Manners would be worthy to win the prize.</p>
+
+<p>I could see it all before it happened, while Lesbia talked in her serious
+way of Mr. Manners's unselfishness. Presently, however, she changed the
+subject, and began questioning me eagerly about my work; and just then
+Jill joined us, and placed herself on the floor at my feet, with the firm
+intention, evidently, of listening to our remarks.</p>
+
+<p>The conversation drifted round to Gladwyn presently. I could see Lesbia
+was a little curious about these friends of mine that I had mentioned
+casually in my letters.</p>
+
+<p>'I can't quite make out the relationship,' she said, in a puzzled tone.
+'You are always talking about this Gladys. Is she really so beautiful and
+fascinating? And who is Miss Darrell?'</p>
+
+<p>'You had better ask me,' interrupted Jill, quite rudely, 'for Ursula is
+so absurdly infatuated about the whole family; she thinks them all quite
+perfect, with the exception of the double-faced lady, Miss Darrell; but
+they are very ordinary,&mdash;quite ordinary people, I assure you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Jill, we do not want any of your impertinence. Lesbia would rather
+hear my description of my friends.'</p>
+
+<p>'On the contrary, she would prefer the opinion of an unprejudiced
+person,' persisted Jill, with a voluble eloquence that took away my
+breath. 'Listen to me, Lesbia. This Mr. Hamilton that Ursula is always
+talking about'&mdash;how I longed to box Jill's pretty little ears! she had
+lovely ears, pink and shell-like, hidden under her black locks&mdash;'is an
+ugly, disagreeable-looking man.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' from Lesbia, in rather a disappointed tone.</p>
+
+<p>'He is quite old,&mdash;about five-and-thirty, they say,&mdash;and he has a long
+smooth-shaven face like a Jesuit. I don't recollect seeing a Jesuit,
+though; but he is very like one all the same. He has dark eyes that stare
+somehow and seem to put you down, and he has a way of laughing at you
+civilly that makes you wild; and Ursula believes in him, and is quite
+meek in his presence, just because he is a doctor and orders her about.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Lesbia, I hope you are taking Jill's measure with a grain of
+salt. Mr. Hamilton is not disagreeable, and he never orders me about.'</p>
+
+<p>Jill shook her head at me, and went on:</p>
+
+<p>'Then there is the double-faced lady&mdash;but never mind her; we both hate
+her.'</p>
+
+<p>'You mean Miss Darrell, Mr. Hamilton's cousin?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Witch Etta, as Lady Betty calls her. She is a dark-eyed, slim piece
+of elegance, utterly dependent on her clothes for beauty; she dresses
+perfectly, and makes herself out a good-looking woman, but she is not
+really good-looking; and she is always talking, and her talk is exciting,
+because there is always something behind her words, something mildly
+suggestive of volcanoes, or something equally pleasant and enlivening.
+If she smiles, for instance, one seems to think one must find out the
+meaning of that.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who has taught you all this, Jill?' asked Lesbia, bewildered by this
+sarcasm.</p>
+
+<p>'My mother-wit,' returned Jill, utterly unabashed. 'Well, then there is
+Gladys. Ah, now we are coming to the saddest part. Once upon a time there
+was a beautiful maiden, really a lovely creature,&mdash;oh, I grant you that,
+Ursula,&mdash;but she fell under the power of some wicked magician, male or
+female,&mdash;some folks say Witch Etta,&mdash;who changed her into a snow-maiden
+or an ice-maiden. If she were only alive, this Gladys would be most
+lovely and bewitching; but, you see, she is only a poor snow-maiden, very
+white and cold. If she gives you her hand, it quite freezes you; her kiss
+turns you to ice too; her smile is congealing. Ursula tries to thaw her
+sometimes, but it does no good. She is only Gladys, the snow-maiden.'</p>
+
+<p>I was too angry with Jill to say a word. Lesbia looked more mystified
+than ever.</p>
+
+<p>'If she be so cold and sad, how can Ursula be so fond of her?' she
+demanded, in her practical way. But Jill took no notice, but rattled on:</p>
+
+<p>'Little brown Betsy&mdash;I beg her pardon&mdash;Lady Betty, is the best of all:
+she is really human. Gladys is only half alive. Lady Betty laughs and
+talks and pouts; she wrinkles up like an old woman when she is cross, and
+has lovely dimples when she smiles. She is not pretty, but she is quaint,
+and interesting, and childlike. I am very fond of Lady Betty,' finished
+Jill, with a benevolent nod.</p>
+
+<p>I proceeded to annotate Jill's mischievous remarks with much severity.
+I left Mr. Hamilton alone, with the exception of a brief sentence; I
+assured Lesbia that he was not ugly, but only peculiar-looking, and that
+he was an intellectual, earnest-minded man who had known much trouble.
+Jill made a wry face, but did not dare to contradict me.</p>
+
+<p>'As for his sister Gladys,' I went on, 'she is simply a most beautiful
+girl, whose health has failed a little from a great shock'; here Jill and
+Lesbia both looked curious, but I showed no intention of enlightening
+them. 'She is a little too sad and quiet for Jill's taste,' I continued,
+'and she is also somewhat reserved in manner, but when she likes a person
+thoroughly she is charming.'</p>
+
+<p>I went on a little longer in this strain, until I had thoroughly
+vindicated my favourite from Jill's aspersion.</p>
+
+<p>'You are very fond of her, Ursula: your eyes soften as you talk of her.
+I should like to see this wonderful Gladys.'</p>
+
+<p>'You must see her one day,' I rejoined; and then the gong sounded, and
+Lesbia jumped up in a fright, because she said she would keep her mother
+waiting, and Jill hurried off to her room to dress.</p>
+
+<p>We had what Jill called a picnic dinner in Uncle Brian's study. Every one
+enjoyed it but Clayton, who seemed rather put out by the disorganised
+state of the house, and who was always getting helplessly wedged in
+between the escritoire and the table. We would have much rather waited on
+ourselves, and we wished Mrs. Martin had forgone the usual number of
+courses. When it was over we all went into the long drawing-room, and
+Jill played soft snatches of Chopin, while Sara and Colonel Ferguson
+whispered together on the dark balcony.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Fullerton and Lesbia joined us later on, and then Colonel Ferguson
+took his leave. I thought Sara looked a little quiet and subdued when she
+joined us; her gay chatter had died away, her eyes were a little
+plaintive. When we had said good-night, and Jill and I were passing down
+the corridor hand in hand, we could hear voices from Aunt Philippa's
+room. Through the half-opened door I caught a glimpse of Sara: she was
+kneeling by her mother's chair, with her head on Aunt Philippa's
+shoulder. Was she bidding a tearful regret to her old happy life? I
+wondered; was she looking forward with natural shrinking and a little
+fear to the new responsibility that awaited her on the morrow? It was the
+mother who was talking; one could imagine how her heart would yearn over
+her child to-night,&mdash;what fond prayers would be uttered for the girl.
+Aunt Philippa was a loving mother: worldliness had not touched the
+ingrained warmth of her nature.</p>
+
+<p>I am glad to remember how brightly the sun shone on Sara's wedding-day.
+There was not a cloud in the sky. When I woke, the birds were singing in
+Hyde Park, and Jill in her white wrapper was looking at me with bright,
+excited eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'It is such a lovely morning!' she exclaimed rapturously. 'Actually Sara
+is asleep! Fancy sleeping under such circumstances! She and mother are
+going to have breakfast together in the schoolroom. Do be quick and
+dress, Ursula; father is always so early, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Brian was reading his paper as usual when I entered the study. Miss
+Gillespie was pouring out coffee. Jill was fidgeting about the room,
+until her father called her to order, and then she sat down to the table.
+I do not think any of us enjoyed our breakfast. Uncle Brian certainly
+looked dull; Jill was too excited to eat; poor Miss Gillespie had tears
+in her eyes; she poured out tea and coffee with cold shaking hands.
+'Lilian Gillespie, from her devoted friend Maurice Compton,' came into my
+head: no wonder the thought of marriage-bells and bridal finery made her
+sad. I am afraid I should have shut myself up in my own room, and refused
+to mingle with the crowd, under these circumstances. I quite understood
+the feeling of sympathy that made Jill stoop down and kiss the smooth
+brown hair as she passed the governess's chair: it was a sort of
+affectionate homage to misfortune patiently borne.</p>
+
+<p>I went up to the schoolroom when breakfast was over. Aunt Philippa looked
+as though she had not slept: there was a jaded look about her eyes. Sara,
+on the contrary, looked fresh and smiling; she was just going to put
+herself in her maid's hands; but she tripped back in her pretty muslin
+dressing-gown and rose-coloured ribbons to kiss me and ask me to look
+after Jill's toilet.</p>
+
+<p>'Every one is so busy, and mother and Draper will be attending to me.
+Do, please, Ursie dear, see that she puts on her bonnet straight.' And
+of course I promised to do my best.</p>
+
+<p>As it happened, Jill was very tractable and obedient. I think her
+beautiful bridesmaid's dress rather impressed her. I saw a look of awe in
+her eyes as she regarded herself, and then she dropped a mocking courtesy
+to her own image.</p>
+
+<p>'I am Jocelyn to-day, remember that, Ursula. I don't look a bit like
+Jill. Jocelyn Adelaide Garston, bridesmaid.'</p>
+
+<p>'You look charming, Jill&mdash;I mean Jocelyn.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, how horrid it sounds from your lips, Ursie! I like my own funny
+little name best from you. Now come and let me finish you.' And Jill, in
+spite of her fine dress, would persist in waiting on me. She was very
+voluble in her expression of admiration when I had finished, but I did
+not seem to recognise 'Nurse Ursula' in the elegantly-dressed woman that
+I saw reflected in the pier-glass. 'Fine feathers make fine birds,' I
+said to myself.</p>
+
+<p>I think we all agreed that Sara looked lovely. Lesbia, who joined us in
+the drawing-room, contemplated her with tears in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'You look like a picture, Sara,' she whispered,&mdash;'like a fairy queen,&mdash;in
+all that whiteness.' Sara dimpled and blushed. Of course she knew how
+pretty she was, and how people liked to look at her; but I am sure she
+was thinking of Donald, as her eyes rested on her bridal bouquet. Dearly
+as she loved all this finery and consequence, there was a soft,
+thoughtful expression in her eyes that was quite new to them, and
+that I loved to see.</p>
+
+<p>We went to church presently, and Lesbia and I, standing side by side,
+heard the beautiful, awful service. 'Till death us do part.' Oh, what
+words to say to any man! Surely false lips would grow paralysed over
+them!</p>
+
+<p>A most curious thing happened just then. I had raised my eyes, when they
+suddenly encountered Mr. Hamilton's. A sort of shock crossed me. Why was
+he here? How had he come? How strange! how very strange! The next moment
+he had disappeared from my view: probably he had withdrawn behind a
+pillar that he might not attract my notice. I could almost have believed
+that it was an illusion and fancied resemblance, only I had never seen a
+face like Mr. Hamilton's.</p>
+
+<p>The momentary glimpse had distracted me, and I heard the remainder of the
+service rather absently; then the pealing notes of the wedding-march
+resounded through the church; we all stood waiting until Sara had signed
+her name, and had come out of the vestry leaning on her husband's arm.</p>
+
+<p>I was under Major Egerton's care. The crowd round the door was so great
+that it was with the greatest difficulty that he could pilot me to the
+carriage. Lesbia was following us with another officer, whose name I did
+not know. As we took our seats I distinctly saw Mr. Hamilton cross the
+road. He was walking quietly down Hyde Park. As we passed he turned and
+took off his hat. I thought it was a strange thing that he should be in
+the neighbourhood on Sara's wedding-day, and that he should have deigned
+to play the part of a spectator after his severe strictures on gay
+weddings. I supposed his business in Edinburgh was finished, and he had
+an idle day or two on his hands. I half expected him to call the next
+day, for I had given him my address; but he did not come, and I heard
+from Mr. Tudor afterwards that he had gone on to Folkestone.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII</h2>
+
+<h3>A FIERY ORDEAL</h3>
+
+
+<p>It is a hackneyed truism, and, like other axioms, profoundly true, that
+wedding-festivities are invariably followed by a sense of blank dulness.</p>
+
+<p>It is like the early morning after a ball, when the last guests have left
+the house: the lights flicker in the dawn, the empty rooms want sweeping
+and furnishing to be fit for habitation. Yawns, weariness, satiety, drive
+the jaded entertainers to their resting-places. Every one knows how
+tawdry the ball-dress looks in the clear morning light. The diamonds
+cease to flash, the flowers are withered, the game is played out.</p>
+
+<p>Something of this languor and vacuum is felt when the bride and
+bridegroom have driven away amid the typical shower of rice. The smiles
+seem quenched, somehow; mother and sisters shed tears; a sense of loss
+pervades the house; the bridal finery is heaped up in the empty room; one
+little glove is on the table, another has fallen to the floor. All sorts
+of girlish trinkets that have been forgotten lie unheeded in corners.</p>
+
+<p>I know we all thought that evening would never end, and I quite
+understood why Jill hovered near her mother's chair, listening to her
+conversation with Mrs. Fullerton. Every now and then Aunt Philippa broke
+down and shed a few quiet tears. I heard her mention Ralph's name once.
+'Poor boy! how proud he would have been of his sister!' Uncle Brian heard
+it too, for I saw him wince at the sound of his son's name; but Jill
+stroked her mother's hand, and said, quite naturally, 'Most likely Ralph
+knows all about it, mamma, and of course he is glad that Sara is so
+happy.'</p>
+
+<p>Our pretty light-hearted Sara. I had no idea that I should miss her
+so much! Indeed, we all missed her: it seemed to me now that I had
+undervalued her. True, she had not been a congenial companion to me in my
+dark days; but even then I had wronged her. Why should I have expected
+her to grope among the shadows with me, instead of following her into the
+sunshine? Sara could not act contrary to her nature. Sad things depressed
+her. She wanted to cause every one to be happy.</p>
+
+<p>Her feelings were far deeper than I had imagined them to be. I liked the
+way she spoke to Jill when she was bidding good-bye to us all.</p>
+
+<p>'Jocelyn dear, promise me that you will be good to mother. She has no one
+but you now to study her little ways and make her comfortable, and she is
+not as young as she was, and things tire her.' Of course Jill promised
+with tears in her eyes, and Sara went away smiling and radiant. Jill was
+already trying to redeem her promise, as she hovered like a tall slim
+shadow behind her mother's chair in the twilight.</p>
+
+<p>'Come and sit down, Jocelyn, my dear,' observed Aunt Philippa at last, in
+her motherly voice. When I looked again, Jill's black locks were bobbing
+on her mother's lap, and the three seemed all talking together.</p>
+
+<p>There was very little rest for any one during the next few days. Sara's
+marriage had brought sundry relations from their country homes up to
+town, and there was open house kept for all. Jill went sight-seeing with
+the young people. Aunt Philippa drove some of the elder ladies to the
+Academy, to the Grosvenor Gallery, to the Park, and other places.</p>
+
+<p>Every day there were luncheon-parties, tea-parties, dinner-parties; the
+long drawing-room seemed full every evening. Jill put on one or other of
+her pretty new gowns, and played her pieces industriously; there was no
+stealing away in corners now. There were round games for the young
+people; now and then they went to the theatre or opera: no wonder Jill
+was too tired and excited to open her lesson-books. My fortnight's visit
+extended itself to three weeks. Aunt Philippa could not spare me; she
+said I was much too useful to her and Uncle Brian. I wrote to Mrs. Barton
+and also to Lady Betty, and I begged the latter to inform her brother
+that I could not leave my relations just yet.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Betty wrote back at once. She had given my message, she said, but
+Giles had not seemed half pleased with it. She thought he was going away
+somewhere, she did not know where; but he had told her to say that there
+were no fresh cases, and that Robert Lambert was going on all right, and
+that as I seemed enjoying myself so much it was a pity not to take a
+longer holiday while I was about it, and he sent his kind regards; and
+that was all. I suppose I ought to have been satisfied, but it struck me
+that there was a flavour of sarcasm about Mr. Hamilton's message.</p>
+
+<p>But he was right; I was enjoying myself. Lesbia was still in town, and I
+saw her every day. My acquaintance with Miss Gillespie grew to intimacy,
+and I think we mutually enjoyed each other's society. Aunt Philippa
+seemed to turn to me naturally for help and comfort, and her constant
+'Ursula, my dear, will you do this for me?' gave me a real feeling of
+pleasure; and then there was Jill to pet and praise at every odd moment.</p>
+
+<p>One day we were all called upon to admire Sara's new signature, 'Sara
+Ferguson,' written in bold, girlish characters. 'Donald is looking over
+my shoulder as I write it, dear mamma,' Sara wrote, in a long postscript.
+'Are husbands always so impertinent? Donald pretends that it is part of
+his duty to see that I dot my <i>i</i>'s and cross my <i>t</i>'s: he will talk such
+nonsense. There, he has gone off laughing, and I may end comfortably by
+telling you that he spoils me dreadfully and is so good to me, and that
+I am happier than I deserve to be, and your very loving child, Sara.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor darling! she always did make her own sunshine,' murmured Aunt
+Philippa fondly.</p>
+
+<p>Now, that afternoon who should call upon us but Mr. Tudor? Jill was out,
+as usual, riding with two of her cousins and Uncle Brian; they had gone
+off to Kew or Richmond for the afternoon; but Aunt Philippa, who had been
+dozing in her easy-chair by the window, welcomed the young man very
+kindly, and made him promise to stay to dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tudor tried not to look too much pleased as he accepted the
+invitation. A sort of blush crossed his honest face as he turned to me:
+he had two or three messages to deliver, he said. Mr. Cunliffe had given
+him one, and Mrs. Barton, and Lady Betty. She, Lady Betty, wanted me to
+know that Miss Darrell was going to Brighton for a week or ten days, and
+that she hoped I should come home before then.</p>
+
+<p>I heard, too, that Mr. Hamilton had gone to Folkestone, and that he had
+tried to induce Uncle Max to go with him. 'But it is no use telling him
+he wants a change,' finished Mr. Tudor, with a sigh; 'he is bent on
+wearing himself out for other people.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tudor and I chatted on for the remainder of the afternoon. I had
+taken him out on the balcony: there were an awning and some chairs, and
+we could sit there in comparative privacy looking down on the passers-by.
+Aunt Philippa was nodding again: we could hear her regular breathing
+behind us: poor woman! she was worn out with bustle and gaiety. I was
+thankful that a grand horticultural <i>f&ecirc;te</i> kept all the aunts and cousins
+away, with the exception of the two who were riding with Jill.</p>
+
+<p>Clayton brought us out some tea presently, and we found plenty of topics
+for conversation.</p>
+
+<p>All at once I stopped in the middle of a conversation.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Tudor, have my eyes deceived me, or was that Leah?'</p>
+
+<p>'Who?&mdash;what Leah? I do not know whom you mean!' he returned, rather
+stupidly, staring in another direction. There was a cavalcade coming up
+the road,&mdash;a tall slim girl, on a chestnut mare, riding on in front with
+a young man, another girl and an elderly man with a gray moustache
+following them, a groom bringing up the rear.</p>
+
+<p>Of course it was Jill, smiling and waving towards the balcony; she could
+not see Mr. Tudor under the awning, but she had caught sight of my silk
+dress. Jill looked very well on horseback: people always turned round to
+watch her. She had a good seat, and rode gracefully; the dark habit
+suited her; she braided her unmanageable locks into an invisible net that
+kept them tidy.</p>
+
+<p>'Is that Miss Jocelyn?' asked Lawrence, almost in a voice of awe. The
+young curate grew very red as Jill rode under the balcony and nodded to
+him in a friendly manner.</p>
+
+<p>'There is Mr. Tudor,' we heard her say. 'Be quick and lift me off my
+horse, Clarence.' But she had slipped to the ground before her cousin
+could touch her, and had run indoors.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tudor went into the room at once, but I sat still for a moment.
+Why had I asked him? Of course it was Leah. I could see her strange
+light-coloured eyes glancing up in my direction. What was she doing in
+London? I wondered. She was dressed well, evidently in her mistress's
+cast-off clothes, for she wore a handsome silk dress and mantle. Had they
+quarrelled and parted? I felt instinctively that it would be a good day
+for Gladwyn if Leah ever shook off its dust from her feet. Gladys
+regarded her as a spy and informer, and she had evidently an unwholesome
+influence over her mistress.</p>
+
+<p>We separated soon after this to dress for dinner, and Mr. Tudor went to
+his hotel. I was rather sorry when I came downstairs to find that Jill
+had made rather a careless toilet. She wore the flimsy Indian muslin gown
+that I thought so unbecoming to her style, with a string of gold beads of
+curious Florentine work round her neck. She looked so different from the
+graceful young Amazon who had ridden up an hour ago that I felt provoked,
+and was not surprised to hear the old sharp tone in Aunt Philippa's
+voice:</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Jocelyn, why have you put on that old gown? Surely your new
+cream-coloured dress with coffee lace would have been more suitable. What
+was Draper thinking about?'</p>
+
+<p>'I was in too great a hurry; I did not wait for Draper,' returned Jill
+candidly. 'Draper was dreadfully cross about it, but I ran away from her.
+What does it matter, mamma? They have all seen my cream-coloured dress,
+except&mdash;' But here Jill laughed: the naughty child meant Mr. Tudor.</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid there is not time to change it now; but I am very much vexed
+about it,' returned Aunt Philippa, in a loud whisper. 'You are really
+looking your worst to-night.' But Jill only laughed again, and asked her
+cousin Clarence when he took her down to dinner if it were not a very
+pretty gown.</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know much about gowns,' drawled the young man,&mdash;Mr. Tudor and
+I were following them: 'it looks rather flimsy and washed out. If I were
+you I would wear something more substantial. You see, you are so big,
+Jocelyn; your habit suits you better.'</p>
+
+<p>We heard Jill laughing in a shrill fashion at this dubious compliment,
+and presently she and Mr. Tudor, who sat next to her, were talking as
+happily as possible. I do not believe he noticed her unbecoming gown: his
+face had lighted up, and he was full of animation. Poor Lawrence! he was
+five-and-twenty, and yet the presence of this girl of sixteen was more to
+him than all the young-ladyhood of Heathfield. Even charming little Lady
+Betty was beaten out of the field by Jill's dark eyes and sprightly
+tongue.</p>
+
+<p>It was a very pleasant evening, and we were all enjoying ourselves: no
+one imagined anything could or would happen; life is just like that: we
+should just take up our candlesticks, we thought, and march off to bed
+when Aunt Philippa gave the signal. No one could have imagined that there
+would be a moment's deadly peril for one of the party,&mdash;an additional
+thanksgiving for a life preserved that night.</p>
+
+<p>And then no one seemed to know how it happened; people never do see,
+somehow.</p>
+
+<p>There was music going on. Agatha Chudleigh&mdash;the Chudleighs were Aunt
+Philippa's belongings&mdash;was playing the piano, and her brother Clarence
+was accompanying her on the violoncello. There was a little group round
+the piano. Jill was beating time, standing with her back to a small
+inlaid table with a lamp on it. Mr. Tudor was beside her. Jill made a
+backward movement in her forgetfulness and enthusiasm. The next moment
+the music stopped with a crash. There was a cry of horror, the lamp
+seemed falling, glass smashed, liquid fire was pouring down Jill's
+unfortunate dress. If Mr. Tudor had not caught it, they said afterwards,
+with all that lace drapery, the room must have been in flames; but he had
+jerked it back in its place, and, snatching up a bear-skin rug that lay
+under the piano, had wrapped it round Jill. He was so strong and prompt,
+there was not a moment lost.</p>
+
+<p>We had all crowded round in a moment, but no one dared to interfere with
+Mr. Tudor. We could hear Aunt Philippa sobbing with terror. Clarence
+Chudleigh extinguished the lamp, some one else flung an Indian blanket
+and a striped rug at Jill's feet. For one instant I could see the girl's
+face, white and rigid as a statue, as the young man's powerful arms
+enveloped her. Then the danger was over, and Jill was standing among us
+unhurt, with her muslin gown hanging in blackened shreds, and with
+bruises on her round white arms from the rough grip that had saved her
+life.</p>
+
+<p>One instant's delay, and the fiery fluid must have covered her from head
+to foot; if Lawrence had not caught the falling lamp, if he had lost one
+moment in smothering the lighted gown, she must have perished in agony
+before our eyes; but he was strong as a young Hercules, and, half
+suffocated and bruised as she was, Jill knew from what he had saved her.</p>
+
+<p>As the scorched bear-skin dropped to the floor, Lawrence picked up the
+Indian blanket and flung it over Jill's tattered gown. 'Go up to your
+room, Miss Jocelyn,' he whispered: 'you are all right now.' And she
+obeyed without a word. Miss Gillespie and I followed. I think Aunt
+Philippa was faint or had palpitations, for I heard Uncle Brian calling
+loudly to some one to open the windows. Jill was hysterical as soon as
+she reached her room. She was quite unnerved, and clung to me, shaking
+with sobs, while Miss Gillespie mixed some sal-volatile. I could not help
+crying a little with her from joy and thankfulness; but we got her quiet
+after a time, and took off the poor gown, and Jill showed us her bruises,
+and cheered up when we told her how brave and quiet she had been; and
+then she sat for some minutes with her face hidden in my lap, while I
+stroked her hair silently and thanked God in my heart for sparing our
+Jill.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Gillespie had gone downstairs to carry a good report to Aunt
+Philippa. Directly she had gone, Jill jumped up, still shaking a little,
+and went to her wardrobe.</p>
+
+<p>'I must go downstairs,' she said, a little feverishly. 'I have never
+thanked Mr. Tudor for saving my life. Help me to be quick, Ursie dear,
+for I feel so queer and tottery.' And nothing I could say would prevail
+on her to remain quietly in her room. While I was arguing with her, she
+had dragged out her ruby velveteen and was trying to fasten it with her
+trembling fingers.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you are obstinate, Jill: you ought to be good on this night of all
+nights.' But she made no answer to this, and, seeing her bent on her own
+way, I brought her a brooch, and would have smoothed her hair, but she
+pushed me away.</p>
+
+<p>'It does not matter how I look. I am only going down for a few minutes.
+He is going away, and I want to say good-night to him, and thank him.'
+And Jill walked downstairs rather unsteadily.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tudor was just crossing the hall. When he saw Jill, he hurried up to
+her at once.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Jocelyn, this is very imprudent. You ought to have gone to bed: you
+are not fit to be up after such a shock,' looking at her pale face and
+swollen eyes with evident emotion.</p>
+
+<p>Jill looked at him gently and seriously, and held out her hands to him
+quite simply.</p>
+
+<p>'I could not go to bed without thanking you, I am not quite so selfish
+and thoughtless. You have saved my life: do you think I shall ever forget
+that?'</p>
+
+<p>Poor Lawrence! the excitement, the terror, and the relief were too much
+for him; and there was Jill holding his hands and looking up in his face,
+with her great eyes full of tears. It was not very wonderful that for a
+moment he forgot himself.</p>
+
+<p>'I could not help doing it,' he returned. 'What would have become of me
+if you had died? I could not have borne it.'</p>
+
+<p>Jill drew her hands away, and her face looked a little paler in the
+moonlight. The young man's excited voice, his strange words, must have
+told her the truth. No, she was not too young to understand; her head
+drooped, and she turned away as she answered him,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I shall always be grateful. Good-night, Mr. Tudor: I must go to my
+mother. Come, Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>She did not look back as we walked across the hall, though poor Lawrence
+stood quite still watching us. Why had the foolish boy said that? Why had
+he forgotten his position and her youth? Why had he hinted that her life
+was necessary to his happiness? Would Jill ever forget those words, or
+the look that accompanied them? I felt almost angry with Lawrence as
+I followed Jill into the room.</p>
+
+<p>Jill need never have doubted her mother's love. Aunt Philippa had been
+too faint and ill to follow her daughter to her room, but her face was
+quite beautiful with maternal tenderness as she folded the girl in her
+arms. Not even her father, who especially petted Jill, showed more
+affection for her that night.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Jocelyn, my darling, are you quite sure that you are unhurt? Miss
+Gillespie says you were only frightened and a little bruised; but I
+wanted to see for myself. Mr. Tudor will not let us thank him, but we
+shall be grateful to him all our lives, my pet. What would your poor
+father and I have done without you?'</p>
+
+<p>Jill hid her face like a baby on her mother's bosom: she was crying
+quietly. Her interview with Mr. Tudor had certainly upset her. Uncle
+Brian put his hand in her rough locks. 'Never mind, my little girl: it is
+now over; you must go to bed and forget it,'&mdash;which was certainly very
+good advice. I coaxed Aunt Philippa to let her go, and promised to remain
+with her until she was asleep. She was very quiet, and hardly said a word
+as I helped her to undress, but as I sat down by the bedside she drew my
+head down beside hers on the pillow.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't think I am not grateful because I do not talk about it, Ursie
+dear,' she whispered. 'I hope to be better all my life for what has
+happened to-night.' But as Jill lay, with wide, solemn eyes, in the
+moonlight, I wondered what thoughts were coursing through her mind. Was
+she looking upon her life preserved as a life dedicated, regarding
+herself as set apart for higher work and nobler uses? or was her
+gratitude to her young preserver mixed with deeper and more mysterious
+feelings? I could not tell, but from that night I noticed a regular
+change in Jill: she became less girlish and fanciful, a new sort of
+womanliness developed itself, her high spirits were tempered with
+softness. Uncle Brian was right when he said a few days afterwards
+'that his little girl was growing a woman.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>JACK POYNTER</h3>
+
+
+<p>My conscience felt decidedly uneasy that night: in spite of all argument
+to the contrary, I could not shake off the conviction that it was my duty
+to speak to Aunt Philippa. I ought to warn her of the growing intimacy
+between the young people. She and Uncle Brian ought to know that Mr.
+Tudor was not quite so harmless as he looked.</p>
+
+<p>It made me very unhappy to act the traitor to this honest, simple young
+fellow. I would rather have taken his hand and bidden him God-speed with
+his wooing. If I had been Uncle Brian I would have welcomed him heartily
+as a suitor for Jill. True, she was absurdly young,&mdash;only sixteen,&mdash;but I
+would have said to him, 'If you are in earnest, if you really love this
+girl, and are willing to wait for her, go about your business for three
+years, and then come and try your chance with her. If she likes you she
+shall have you. I am quite aware you are poor,&mdash;that you are a curate on
+a hundred and fifty a year; but you are well connected and a gentleman,
+and as guileless as a young Nathaniel. I could not desire a better
+husband for my daughter.'</p>
+
+<p>But it was not likely that Uncle Brian would be so quixotic. And I
+knew that Aunt Philippa was rather ambitious for her children, and it
+had been a great disappointment to her that Sara had refused a young
+baronet. So it was with the guilty feelings of a culprit that I entered
+the morning-room the next morning and asked Aunt Philippa if I might
+have a few minutes' conversation with her.</p>
+
+<p>To my relief, she treated the whole matter very coolly, and with a
+mixture of shrewdness and common sense that quite surprised me.</p>
+
+<p>She assured me that it was not of the least consequence. Young creatures
+like Jocelyn must pass through this sort of experiences. She was
+certainly rather young for such an experiment, but it would do her no
+harm. On the contrary, a little stimulus of gratified vanity might be
+extremely beneficial in its after-effects. She was somewhat backward and
+childish for her age. She would have more self-respect at finding herself
+the object of masculine admiration.</p>
+
+<p>'Depend upon it, it will do her a great deal of good,' went on Aunt
+Philippa placidly. 'She will try now in earnest to break herself off her
+little <i>gaucheries</i>. As for Mr. Tudor, do not distress yourself about
+him. He is young enough to have half-a-dozen butterfly fancies before he
+settles down seriously.'</p>
+
+<p>'I remember,' she continued, 'that during Sara's first season we had
+rather a trouble about a young barrister. He was a handsome fellow, but
+terribly poor, and your uncle told me privately that he must not be
+encouraged. Well, Sara got it into her head that she was in love with
+him, and, in spite of all I could say to her by way of warning, she
+would promise him dances, and, in fact, they did a good bit of flirting
+together. So I told your uncle that we had better leave town earlier that
+year. We went into Yorkshire, paying visits, and then to Scotland. Sara
+had never been there before, and we took care that she should have a
+thoroughly enjoyable trip. My dear, before three months were over
+she had forgotten Henry Brabazon's existence. It was just a girlish
+sentimentality; nothing more. When we got back to town we made Mr.
+Brabazon understand that his attentions were displeasing to your uncle,
+and before the next season he was engaged to a rich young widow. I do
+not believe Sara ever missed him.'</p>
+
+<p>I listened to all this in silence. I was much relieved to find that Aunt
+Philippa was not disposed to blame me for Lawrence Tudor's infatuation.
+She told me that she was not the least afraid of his influence, and
+should not discourage his visits. Jocelyn would never see him alone, and
+it was not likely that she would be staying at Heathfield again. I
+thought it useless to say any more. I had satisfied my conscience, and
+might now safely wash my hands of all responsibility. If the thought
+crossed my mind that Jill was very different from Sara,&mdash;that her will
+was stronger and her affections more tenacious,&mdash;there was no need to
+give it utterance. Sixteen was hardly the age for a serious love-affair,
+and I might well be content to leave Jill in her mother's care.</p>
+
+<p>Now and then a doubt of Aunt Philippa's wisdom came to me,&mdash;on the last
+evening, for instance, when I was speaking to Jill about Heathfield, and
+when I rather incautiously mentioned Lawrence Tudor's name.</p>
+
+<p>I recollected then that Jill had never once spoken of him since the night
+of the accident. It had dropped completely out of our conversation. I
+forget what I said then, but it was something about my seeing him at
+Heathfield.</p>
+
+<p>We were standing together on the balcony, and as I spoke Jill stooped
+suddenly to look at a little flower-girl who was offering her wares on
+the pavement below. For a moment she did not answer. But I could see her
+cheek and even her little ear was flushed.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, you will see him,' she returned presently. 'What a little mite
+of a child! Look, Ursula. Please remember us to him, and&mdash;and we hope he
+is quite well.' And Jill walked away from me rather abruptly, saying she
+must ask her mother for some pence. It was then that a doubt of Aunt
+Philippa's policy crossed my mind; Jill was so different from other
+girls; and Lawrence Tudor had saved her life.</p>
+
+<p>I had other things to occupy my mind just then,&mdash;a fresh anxiety that I
+could share with no one, and which effectually spoiled the last few days
+of my London visit.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of Leah had somewhat disturbed me. It had brought back memories
+of the perplexities and mysteries of Gladwyn. Strange to say, I saw her
+again the very next day.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tudor was calling at the door to inquire after Jill: he had his bag
+in his hand, and was on his way to the station. I was just going out to
+call on Lesbia, and we walked a few yards together. Just as I was bidding
+him good-bye, two women passed us: as I looked at them casually, I saw
+Leah's flickering light-coloured eyes; she was looking in my direction,
+but, though I nodded to her, she did not appear to recognise me. The
+other woman was a stranger.</p>
+
+<p>I was sitting alone on the balcony that afternoon. Aunt Philippa and Jill
+and Miss Gillespie were driving. I took advantage of their absence and
+the unusual quiet of the house to finish a book in which I was much
+interested.</p>
+
+<p>I was very fond of this balcony seat: the awning protected me from the
+hot June sun, and the flower-boxes at my feet were sweet with mignonette.
+I could see without being seen, and the cool glimpses of the green Park
+were pleasant on this hot afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>The adjoining house was unoccupied: it was therefore with feelings of
+discomfort that I heard the sound of workmen moving about the premises,
+and by and by the smell of fresh paint made me put down my book with
+suppressed annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>A house-painter was standing very near me, painting the outside sashes of
+the window: he had his back turned to me, and was whistling to himself in
+the careless way peculiar to his class. It was a clear, sweet whistling,
+and I listened to it with pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>A sudden noise in the street caused him to look round, and then he saw
+me, and stopped whistling.</p>
+
+<p>Where had I seen that face? It seemed familiar to me. Of whom did that
+young house-painter remind me? Could I have seen him at St. Thomas's
+Hospital? Was it some patient whose name I had forgotten during my year's
+nursing? I had had more than one house-painter on my list.</p>
+
+<p>I was tormented by the idea that I ought to recognise the face before
+me, and yet recognition eluded me. I felt baffled and perplexed by some
+subtile fancied resemblance. As for the young painter himself, he looked
+at me quietly for a moment, as though I were a stranger, touched his cap,
+and went on painting. When he had finished his job, he went inside, and
+I heard him whistling again as he moved about the empty room.</p>
+
+<p>It was a beautiful face: the features were very clearly cut and defined,
+like&mdash;Good heavens! I had it now: it reminded me of Gladys Hamilton's.
+The next moment I was holding the balcony railing as though I were giddy;
+it was like Gladys, but it was still more like the closed picture in
+Gladys's room. I pressed my hands on my eyelids as with a strong effort
+I recalled her brother Eric's face, and the next moment the young painter
+had come to the window again, and I was looking at him between my
+fingers.</p>
+
+<p>The resemblance could not be my fancy; those were Eric's eyes looking at
+me. It was the same face, only older and less boyish-looking. The fair
+moustache was fully grown; the face was altogether more manly and full of
+character. It must be he; I must go and speak to him; but as I rose, my
+limbs trembling with excitement, he moved away, and his whistle seemed to
+die in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly six o'clock, and there was no time to be lost. I ran
+upstairs and put on my bonnet and mantle. I thought that Clayton looked
+at me in some surprise,&mdash;I was leaving the house without gloves; but I
+did not wait for any explanation: the men would be leaving off work. The
+door was open, and I quickly found my way to the drawing-room, but, to my
+chagrin, it was empty, and an elderly man with gray hair came out of a
+back room with a basket of carpenter's tools and looked at me
+inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>'There is a workman here that I want to find,' I said breathlessly,&mdash;'the
+one that was painting the window-frames just now,&mdash;a tall, fair young
+man.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you'll be meaning Jack Poynter,' he returned civilly; 'he and his
+mate have just gone.'</p>
+
+<p>'It cannot be the one I mean,' I answered, somewhat perplexed at this.
+'He was very young, not more than three-or four-and-twenty, good-looking,
+with a fair moustache, and he was whistling while he worked.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, that's Jack Poynter,' returned the man, taking off his paper cap and
+rubbing up his bristly gray hair. 'We call Jack "The Blackbird" among us;
+he is a famous whistler, is Jack.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but that is not his name,' I persisted, in a distressed voice. 'Why
+do you call him Jack Poynter?'</p>
+
+<p>'That is what he calls himself,' returned the man drily. Evidently he
+thought my remarks a little odd. 'Folks mostly calls themselves by their
+own names; among his mates he is known as "The Whistler," or "The
+Blackbird," or "Gentleman Jack."'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, never mind about his name,' I replied impatiently. 'I want to
+speak to him. Where does he live? Will you kindly give me his address?'</p>
+
+<p>'You would be welcome to it if I knew it, but "Gentleman Jack" keeps
+himself dark. None of us know where he lives. I believe it used to be
+down Holloway; but he has moved lately.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish you would tell me what you know about him,' I pleaded. 'It is
+not idle curiosity, believe me, but I think I shall be able to do him
+a service.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose you know something of his belongings,' returned the man with a
+shrewd glance. 'Now that is what me and my mates say. We would none of us
+be surprised if "Gentleman Jack" has respectable folk belonging to him.
+He has not quite our ways. He is a cut above us, and clips his words like
+the gentlefolk do. But he is an industrious young fellow, and does not
+give himself airs.'</p>
+
+<p>'Could you not find out for me where he lives?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, for the matter of that, you might ask him yourself, miss; he will
+be here again to-morrow morning, and I am off to Watford on a job. Jack
+is not at work regularly in these parts. He is doing a turn for a mate of
+his who is down with a touch of colic. He is working at Bayswater mostly,
+and he will be here to-morrow morning.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are sure of that?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes. Tom Handley won't be fit for work for a spell yet. He will be
+here sharp enough, and then you can question him yourself.' And, bidding
+me a civil good-evening, the man took up his tools and went heavily
+downstairs, evidently expecting me to follow him. I went back and stole
+up quietly to my room. Aunt Philippa and Jill had returned from their
+drive. I could hear their voices as I passed the drawing-room; but I
+wanted to be alone to think over this strange occurrence.</p>
+
+<p>My pulses were beating high with excitement. Not for one moment did I
+doubt that I had really seen Eric in the flesh. Gladys's intuition was
+right: her brother was not dead. I felt that this assurance alone would
+make her happy.</p>
+
+<p>If she were only at Heathfield, or even at Bournemouth, I would telegraph
+for her to come; I could word the message so that she would have hastened
+to me at once; but Paris was too far; too much time would be lost.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Max, too, had been called to Norwich to attend a cousin's
+death-bed: I had had a note from him that very morning, so I could not
+have the benefit of his advice and assistance. I knew that I dared not
+summon Mr. Hamilton: the brothers had parted in ill blood, with bitter
+words and looks. Eric looked on his step-brother as his worst enemy. All
+these years he had been hiding himself from him. I dared not run the risk
+of bringing them together. I could not make a <i>confidante</i> of Aunt
+Philippa or Uncle Brian. They had old-fashioned views, and would have at
+once stigmatised Eric as a worthless fellow. Circumstantial evidence was
+so strong against him that few would have believed in his innocence. Even
+Uncle Max condemned him, and in my own heart there lurked a secret doubt
+whether Gladys had not deceived herself.</p>
+
+<p>No, my only course would be to speak to him myself, to implore him for
+Gladys's sake to listen to me. My best plan would be to rise as early as
+possible the next morning, and to be on the balcony by six o'clock. I
+should see the men come in to their work, and should have no difficulty
+in making my way to them. The household was not an early one, especially
+in the season. I should have the house to myself for an hour or so.</p>
+
+<p>Of course my future movements were uncertain. I must speak to Eric first,
+and induce him to reopen communications with his family. I would tell him
+how his brother grieved over his supposed death, how changed he was; and
+he should hear, too, of Gladys's failing health and spirits. I should not
+be wanting in eloquence on that subject. If he loved Gladys he would not
+refuse to listen to me.</p>
+
+<p>After a time I tried to set aside these thoughts, and to occupy myself
+with dressing for the evening. We had a dinner-party that night. Mrs.
+Fullerton and Lesbia were to be of the party. They were going down to
+Rutherford the next day, so I should have to bid them good-bye.</p>
+
+<p>The evening was very tedious and wearisome to me: my head ached, and the
+glitter of lights and the sound of many voices seemed to bewilder me.
+Lesbia came up after dinner to ask if I were not well, I was so pale and
+quiet. We sat out on the balcony together in the starlight for a little
+while, until Mrs. Fullerton called Lesbia in. I would gladly have
+remained there alone, drinking in the freshness of the night dews, but
+Jill came out and began chattering to me, until I went back with her into
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>There was very little sleep for me that night. When at last I fell into
+a dose, I was tormented by a succession of miserable dreams. I was
+following a supposed Eric down long country roads in the darkness.
+Something seemed always to retard me: my feet were weighted with lead,
+invisible hands were pulling me back. I heard him whistling in the
+distance, then I stumbled, and a black bog engulfed me, and I woke with
+a stifled cry.</p>
+
+<p>I woke to the knowledge that the sun was streaming in at my windows,
+and that some sound like a falling plank had roused me from my uneasy
+slumbers. It must be past six o'clock, I thought; surely the men must be
+at work. Yes, I could hear their voices; and the next moment I had jumped
+out of bed, and was dressing myself with all possible haste.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly seven when I crept down into the drawing-room to
+reconnoitre the adjoining house. As I unfastened the window I heard the
+same sweet whistling that had arrested my attention yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>Without a moment's hesitation I walked out on the balcony. The young
+painter looked round in some surprise at the sound of my footsteps, and
+touched his cap with a half-smile.</p>
+
+<p>'It is a beautiful morning,' I began nervously, for I wanted to make him
+speak. 'Have you been at work long?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ever since six o'clock,' he returned, and I think he was a little
+surprised at hearing himself addressed. 'We work early these light
+mornings.' And then he took up his brush and went on painting.</p>
+
+<p>I watched him for a minute or two without a word. How was I to proceed?
+My presence seemed to puzzle him. Perhaps he wondered why a lady should
+take such interest in his work. I saw him glance at me uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>'Will you let me speak to you?' I said, in a very low voice, and as he
+came towards me, rather unwillingly, I continued: 'I know the men call
+you Jack Poynter, but that is not your name. You are Eric Hamilton; no,
+do not be frightened: I am Gladys's friend, and I will not injure you.'</p>
+
+<p>I had broken off abruptly, for I was alarmed at the effect of my words.
+The young painter's face had become ashen pale, and the brush had fallen
+out of his shaking hand. The next moment a fierce, angry light had come
+to his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'What do you mean? who are you?' he demanded, in a trembling voice, but
+even at the moment's agitation I noticed he spoke with the refined
+intonation of a gentleman. 'I know nothing of what you say: you must
+take me for another man. I am Jack Poynter.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Mr. Hamilton,' I implored, stretching out my hands across the
+balcony, 'do not treat me as an enemy. I am a friend, who only means
+well. For Gladys's sake listen to me a moment.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will hear nothing!' he stammered angrily. 'I will not be hindered in
+my work any longer. Excuse me if I am rude to a lady, but you take me for
+another man.' And before I could say another word he had stepped through
+the open window.</p>
+
+<p>I could have wrung my hands in despair. He had denied his own identity at
+the very moment when his paleness and terror had proved it to me without
+doubt. 'You take me for another man,' he had said; and yet I could have
+sworn in a court of justice that he was Eric Hamilton; not only his face,
+but his voice; his manner, told me he was Gladys's brother.</p>
+
+<p>But he should not elude me like this, and I hurried downstairs,
+determined to find my way into the empty house and confront him again.
+The fastenings of the hall door gave me a little difficulty. I was afraid
+Clayton would hear me, but I found myself outside at last, and in another
+minute I was in the deserted drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>Alas! Eric was not there: only his paint-pot and brush lay on the balcony
+outside. Surely he could not have escaped me in these few minutes; he
+must be in one of the other rooms. At the top of the stairs I encountered
+a young workman, and began questioning him at once.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, this is a queer start,' he observed, in some perplexity. 'I saw
+Jack only this moment: he wanted his jacket, for he said he had a summons
+somewhere. I noticed he was palish, and seemed all of a shake, but he did
+not answer when I called out to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean he has gone?' I asked, feeling ready to cry with
+disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, he has gone right enough; but he'll be back presently, by the time
+the governor comes round. I wonder what's up with Jack; he looked mighty
+queer, as though the peelers were after him; in an awful funk, I should
+say.'</p>
+
+<p>'Will you do me a favour, my man?' and as I spoke a shining half-crown
+changed hands rather quietly. 'I want to speak to your friend Jack
+Poynter very particularly, but I am quite sure that he wishes to avoid
+me. If he comes back, will you write a word on a slip of paper and throw
+it on to the balcony of 64?&mdash;Just the words "At work now" will do, or any
+direction that will find him. I am very much in earnest over this.'</p>
+
+<p>The man looked at me and then at the half-crown. He had a good-humoured,
+stupid-looking face, but was young enough to like an unusual job.</p>
+
+<p>'It will be worth more than that to you to bring me face to face with
+Jack Poynter, or to give me any news of him,' I continued. 'You do not
+know where he lives, for example?'</p>
+
+<p>'No: we are none of us his mates, except Fowler and Dunn, and they don't
+know where he lodges: "Gentleman Jack" keeps himself close. But he'll be
+here sure enough by and by, and then I will let you know,' and with this
+I was obliged to be content. I was terribly vexed with myself. I felt I
+had managed badly. I ought to have confronted him in the empty house,
+where he could not have escaped me so easily. Would he come back again?
+As I recalled his terrified expression, his agitated words, I doubted
+whether he would put himself within my reach. I was so worried and
+miserable that I was obliged to own myself ill and to beg that I might be
+left in quiet. I had to endure a good deal of petting from Jill, who
+would keep coming into my room to see how my poor head was. Happily,
+one of my windows commanded an uncovered corner of the balcony. I could
+see without going down if any scrap of paper lay there. It was not until
+evening that I caught sight of an envelope lying on one of the seats.</p>
+
+<p>I rang my bell and begged Draper to bring it to me at once. She thought
+it had fluttered out of my window, and went down smilingly to fulfil my
+behest.</p>
+
+<p>It was a blank envelope, closely fastened, and I waited until Draper was
+out of the room to open it: the slip of paper was inside.</p>
+
+<p>'Jack has not been here all day,' was scrawled on it, 'and the governor
+is precious angry. I doubt Jack has got into some trouble or other.&mdash;Your
+obedient servant, Joe Muggins.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>I COMMUNICATE WITH JOE MUGGINS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Of course I knew it would be so; Eric had escaped me; but I could not
+help feeling very down-hearted over the disappointment of all my hopes.</p>
+
+<p>I longed so much to comfort Gladys, to bring back peace and unity to that
+troubled household. I had nourished the secret hope, too, that I might
+benefit Mr. Hamilton without his knowledge, and so return some of his
+many kindnesses to me. I knew&mdash;none better&mdash;how sincerely he had mourned
+over the supposed fate of his young brother, how truly he lamented his
+past harshness. If I could have brought back their young wanderer, if I
+could have said to them, 'If he has done wrong he is sorry for his fault;
+take him back to your hearts,' would not Mr. Hamilton have been the first
+to hold out his hand to the prodigal? Here there was no father; it must
+be the elder brother who would order the fatted calf to be killed.</p>
+
+<p>I had forgotten Miss Darrell. The sudden thought of her was like a dash
+of cold water to me. Would she have welcomed Eric? There again was the
+miserable complication!</p>
+
+<p>All the next day I watched and fretted. The following evening Clayton
+told me, with rather a supercilious air, that a workman calling himself
+Joe Muggins wanted to speak to me. 'He did not know your name, ma'am, but
+he described the lady he wanted, so I knew it was you. He said you had
+asked him a question about a man named Jack Poynter.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it is all right, thank you, Clayton,' I returned quickly, and I went
+out into the hall.</p>
+
+<p>Joe Muggins looked decidedly nervous. He was in his working dress,
+having, as he said, 'come straight to me, without waiting to clean
+himself.'</p>
+
+<p>'I made so bold, miss,' went on Joe, 'because you seemed anxious about
+Jack, and I would not lose time. Well, Jack has been and given the
+governor the sack,&mdash;says he has colic too; but we know that is a sham. My
+mate saw him in Lisson Grove last night. He was walking along, his hands
+in his pockets, when Ned pounces on him. "What are you up to, Jack?" he
+says. "Why haven't you turned up at our place? The governor's in a
+precious wax, I can tell you. They want him to put on more men, as
+there's a press for time."&mdash;"Well, I am not coming there any more," says
+Jack, looking as black as possible. "The work doesn't suit my complaint,
+and I have written to tell Page so." And he stuck to that, and Ned could
+not get another word out of him: but he says he is shamming, and is not
+ill a bit. It is my belief, and Ned's too, that he has got into some
+trouble with the governor.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I am sure you are wrong,' I returned, with a sigh; 'but I am very
+much obliged to you for the trouble you have taken. If you hear anything
+more about Jack Poynter, or can find out where he lives, will you
+communicate with me at this address?' And I handed Joe my card and a
+half-sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I'll do it, sure and certain,' he replied, with alacrity. 'Some of
+us will come across him again, one of these days, and we will follow him
+for a bit. You may trust me for that, miss. We will find him, sure
+enough.' And then I thanked him, and bade him good-night.</p>
+
+<p>There was only one thing now that I could do before taking counsel with
+Gladys, and that was to advertise in some of the London papers. I wrote
+out some of these advertisements that evening:</p>
+
+<p>'Jack Poynter is earnestly requested to communicate with Ursula G. He may
+possibly hear of something to his advantage.' And I gave the address of
+an old lawyer who managed my business, writing a note to Mr. Berkeley at
+the same time, begging him to forward any answer to Ursula G.</p>
+
+<p>Another advertisement was of a different character:</p>
+
+<p>'For Gladys's sake, please write to me, or give me a chance of speaking
+to you. An unknown but most sincere friend, U. G.'</p>
+
+<p>The third advertisement was still more pressing:</p>
+
+<p>'Jack Poynter's friends believe him dead, and are in great trouble: he
+is entreated to undeceive them. One word to the old address will be a
+comfort to his poor sister.'</p>
+
+<p>As soon as I had despatched these advertisements to the paper offices, I
+sat down and wrote to Gladys. It was not my intention to tell her about
+Eric, but I must say some word to her that would induce her to come home.
+I told her that I was going back to Heathfield the following afternoon,
+and that I was beginning to feel impatient for her return.</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot do without you any longer, my dear Gladys,' I wrote. 'There is
+so much that I want to talk to you about, and that I cannot write. I have
+heard something that has greatly excited me, and that makes me think that
+your view of the case is right, and that your brother Eric is alive. Of
+course we must not be too sanguine, but I begin to have hopes that you
+may see him again.'</p>
+
+<p>More than this I did not venture to say, but I knew that these few words
+would make Gladys set her face homeward: she would not rest until she
+asked me my meaning. As I gave Clayton the letter I felt convinced that
+before a week was over Gladys would find her way to Heathfield.</p>
+
+<p>I had to give all my attention to Jill after this; but, though she hung
+about me in her old affectionate way, I felt that I should leave her far
+happier than she had ever been before, and she did not deny this, only
+begged me to come and see them sometimes.</p>
+
+<p>'You know I can't do without you, you darling bear,' she finished, with
+one of her old hugs.</p>
+
+<p>I was still more touched by Aunt Philippa's regret at parting with me;
+she said so many kind things; and, to my surprise, Uncle Brian relaxed
+from his usual coldness, and quite warmed into demonstration.</p>
+
+<p>'Come to us as often as you can, Ursula,' he said. 'Your aunt and I
+will be only too pleased to see you.' And then he asked me, a little
+anxiously, if I found my small income sufficient for my needs.</p>
+
+<p>I assured him that my wants were so few, and Mrs. Barton was so
+economical, that but for my poorer neighbours I could hardly use it all.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, well,' he returned, putting a handsome cheque in my hands, 'you
+can always draw on me when you feel disposed. I suppose you like pretty
+things as much as other girls.' And he would not let me even thank him
+for his generosity.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Philippa only smiled when I showed her the cheque.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, your uncle likes to do it, and you must not be too proud to
+accept his gifts: you may need it some day. We have only two daughters:
+as it is, Jocelyn will be far too rich. I do not like the idea that
+Harley's child should want anything.' And she kissed me with tears in her
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Dear Aunt Philippa! she had grown quite motherly during those three
+weeks.</p>
+
+<p>It was a lovely June afternoon: when I started from Victoria there was a
+scent of hay in the air. Jill had brought with her to the station a great
+basketful of roses and narcissus and heliotrope, and had put it on the
+seat beside me that its fragrance might refresh me.</p>
+
+<p>I felt a strange sort of excitement and pleasure at the thought of
+returning home. Mrs. Barton would be glad to get me back, I knew. Uncle
+Max would not be at the station to meet me, for he had written to say
+that he was still detained at Norwich. His cousin was dead, and had left
+him her little property,&mdash;some six or seven hundred a year. There were
+some valuable books and antiquities, and some old silver besides. He was
+the only near relation, and business connected with the property would
+oblige him to remain for another week or ten days. I was rather sorry to
+hear this, for Heathfield was not the same without Uncle Max.</p>
+
+<p>But not even Uncle Max's absence could damp me, I felt so light-hearted.
+'I hope I am not fey,' I said to myself, with a little thrill of
+excitement and expectation as the familiar station came in view. Never
+since Charlie's death had I felt so cheerful and full of life.</p>
+
+<p>Nathaniel was on the platform to look after my luggage, so I walked up
+the hill quietly, with my basket of flowers. As I passed the vicarage,
+Mr. Tudor came out and walked with me to the gate of the White Cottage.
+I had a dim suspicion that he had been watching for me.</p>
+
+<p>Of course he asked after the family at Hyde Park Gate, and was most
+particular in his inquiries after Aunt Philippa. Just at the last he
+mentioned Jill.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope your cousin Jocelyn is well,&mdash;I mean none the worse for her
+accident,' he said, turning very red.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no,' I returned carelessly; 'nothing hurts Jill. She was riding in
+the Park the next morning as though nothing had happened.'</p>
+
+<p>'I remember you told me so, when I called to inquire,' was his answer.
+'It was a nasty accident, and might have upset her nerves; but she is
+very strong and courageous.'</p>
+
+<p>'She has great reason to be grateful to you,' I returned, for I felt very
+sorry for him. He was hoping that she had sent him some message; she
+would surely desire to be remembered to him. When I repeated Jill's
+abrupt little speech his face cleared, and he looked quite bright.</p>
+
+<p>'There is Mrs. Barton looking out for you: I must not keep you at the
+gate talking,' he said cheerfully. 'Besides, I see Leah Bates coming down
+from Gladwyn, and I want to speak to her.' And he ran off in his boyish
+fashion.</p>
+
+<p>I was glad to escape Leah, so I went quickly up the garden-path. The
+little widow was waiting for me in the porch, her face beaming with
+welcome. Tinker rushed out of the kitchen as soon as he heard my voice,
+and gambolled round us with awkward demonstrations of joy that nearly
+upset us, and Joe the black cat came and rubbed himself against my gown,
+with tail erect and loud purring.</p>
+
+<p>The little parlour looked snug and inviting. The fireplace was decorated
+with fir cones and tiny boughs covered with silvery lichen. A great pot
+of mignonette perfumed the room with its sweetness. Charlie's face seemed
+to greet me with grave sweet smiles. I seemed to hear his voice, 'Welcome
+home, Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I am so glad to be home!' I said, as I went upstairs to my pretty
+bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>When I had finished my unpacking, and had had tea, I sat down in my
+easy-chair, with a book that Miss Gillespie had lent me. Tinker laid his
+head in my lap, and we both disposed ourselves for an idle, luxurious
+evening. The bees were still humming about the honeysuckles; one great
+brown fellow had buried himself in one of my crimson roses; the birds
+were twittering in the acacia-tree, chirping their good-night to each
+other; the sun was setting behind the limes in a glory of pink and golden
+clouds, and a mingled scent of roses, mignonette, and hay seemed to
+pervade the atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>I laid down my book and fell into a waking dream; my thoughts seemed to
+take bird-flights into all sorts of strange places; the summer sounds and
+scents seemed to lull me into infinite content. Now I heard a drowsy
+cluck-cluck from the poultry-yard,&mdash;Dame Partlet remonstrating with her
+lord; then a faint moo from the field where pretty brown-eyed Daisy was
+chewing the cud; down below they were singing in the little dissenting
+chapel; sweet shrill voices reached me every now and then. I could hear
+Nathaniel chanting in a deep bass, as he worked in the back-yard, 'All
+people that on earth do dwell,'&mdash;the dear homely Old Hundredth. It was no
+wonder that a light, very light, footstep on the gravel outside did not
+rouse me. The door behind me opened, and Tinker turned his head lazily,
+and his tail began to flop heavier against the floor. The next moment two
+soft arms were round my neck.</p>
+
+<p>'Gladys,&mdash;oh, Gladys!' and for the moment I could say no more, in my
+delight and surprise at seeing the dear beautiful face again.</p>
+
+<p>'I wanted to surprise you, Ursula dear,' she said, laughing and kissing
+me. 'How still and quiet you and Tinker were! I believe you were both
+asleep. When I heard you were coming home I planned with Lady Betty that
+I would creep down to the cottage and take you unawares. I made Mrs.
+Barton promise not to betray me.'</p>
+
+<p>'When did you come back?' I asked, bewildered. 'Why did you not write and
+tell me you were coming?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it was decided all in a hurry. The Maberleys heard that their
+daughter, Mrs. Egerton, would arrive in England this week, a whole month
+before they expected her, so they have gone down to Southampton, and left
+me to find my way home alone. I arrived last night, much to Giles's
+astonishment. You know Dora is their only surviving child, and she has
+been in India the last five years. She is bringing her two boys home.'</p>
+
+<p>'Last night. Then you did not get my letter?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; but it will follow me. How good you have been to write so often,
+Ursula! I have quite lived on your letters.'</p>
+
+<p>'Let me see how you look,' was my answer to this; and indeed I thought
+she had never looked more beautiful. There was a lovely colour in her
+face, and she seemed bright and animated, though I could not deny that
+she was still very thin.</p>
+
+<p>'You have not grown fatter,' I went on, pretending to grumble; 'you are
+still too transparent, in my opinion; but Jill's snow-maiden has a little
+life in her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Does Jill call me that?' she returned, in some surprise. 'Oh, I am quite
+well: even Giles says so. He declares he is glad to have me back, and
+poor little Lady Betty quite cried with joy. It was nice, after all,
+coming home.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am so glad to hear you say that.'</p>
+
+<p>'Etta is away, you know: that makes the difference. Gladwyn never seemed
+so homelike before. By the bye, Ursula, Giles has sent you a message;
+he&mdash;no, we all three, want you to spend a long evening with us to-morrow.
+He has been called away to Brighton, and will not be back until mid-day;
+but we all three agreed that it would be so nice if you came early in the
+afternoon, and we would have tea in the little oak avenue. Etta never
+cares about these <i>al fresco</i> meals, she is so afraid of spiders and
+caterpillars; but Lady Betty and I delight in it.'</p>
+
+<p>I wish Jill could have heard Gladys talk in this bright, natural way. I
+am sure she would not have recognised her snow-maiden. There was no weary
+constraint in her manner to-night, no heavy pressure of unnatural care on
+her young brow: she seemed too happy to see me again to think of herself
+at all.</p>
+
+<p>When we had talked a little more I began to approach the subject of Eric
+very gradually. At my first word her cheek paled, and the old wistfulness
+came to her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'What of Eric?' she asked quickly. 'You look a little strange, Ursula.
+Do not be afraid of speaking his name: he is never out of my thoughts,
+waking or sleeping.'</p>
+
+<p>I told her that I knew this, but that I had something very singular to
+narrate, which I feared might excite and disappoint her, but that I could
+assure her of the certainty that he was alive and well.</p>
+
+<p>She clasped her hands almost convulsively together, and looked at me
+imploringly. 'Only tell me that, and I can bear everything else,' she
+exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>But as she listened her face grew paler and paler, and presently she
+burst into tears, and sobbed so violently that I was alarmed.</p>
+
+<p>'It is nothing,&mdash;nothing but joy,' she gasped out at length. 'I could
+not hear you say that you had seen him, my own Eric, and not be overcome.
+Oh, Ursula, if I had only been with you!' And she hid her face on my
+shoulder, and for a little while I could say no more.</p>
+
+<p>When she was calmed I finished all that I had to tell, and read her the
+advertisements, but they seemed to frighten her.</p>
+
+<p>'How dreadful if Etta or Giles should see them!' she said nervously.
+'Etta is so clever, she finds out everything. I would not have her read
+one of them for worlds. Why did you put your name, Ursula?&mdash;it is so
+uncommon.'</p>
+
+<p>'No one will connect me with Jack Poynter. I did not think there would be
+any risk,' I replied soothingly. 'I put "for Gladys's sake" in the <i>Daily
+Telegraph</i>. You see, we must try to attract his notice.'</p>
+
+<p>'Giles never takes in the <i>Daily Telegraph</i>. We have the <i>Times</i> and the
+<i>Standard</i>, and the <i>Morning Post</i> for Etta. Which did you put in the
+<i>Standard</i>?'</p>
+
+<p>I repeated the advertisement: 'Jack Poynter's friends believe him dead,
+and are in great trouble: he is entreated to undeceive them. One word to
+the old address will be a comfort to his poor sister.'</p>
+
+<p>'That will do,' she answered, in a relieved tone. 'Etta cannot read
+between the lines there. Oh, Ursula, do you think that Eric will see
+them?'</p>
+
+<p>I assured her that there was no doubt on the subject. All the better
+class of workmen had access to some club or society, where they saw the
+leading papers. I thought the <i>Daily Telegraph</i> the most likely to meet
+his eyes, and should continue to insert an advertisement from time to
+time. 'We must be patient and wait a little,' I continued. 'Even if our
+appeals do not reach him, there is every probability that Joe Muggins
+or one of the other workmen will come across him. We want to find out
+where Jack Poynter lives. I mean to write to Joe in a few days, and offer
+him a handsome sum if he can tell me his address.'</p>
+
+<p>'That will be the best plan; but, oh, Ursula, how am I to be patient?
+To think of my dear boy becoming a common workman! he is poor, then; he
+wants money. I feel as though I cannot rest, as though I must go to
+London and look for him myself.'</p>
+
+<p>Gladys looked so excited and feverish that I almost repented my
+confidence. I did all I could to soothe her.</p>
+
+<p>'Surely, dear, it is not so difficult to wait a little, knowing him to be
+alive and well, as it was to bear that long suspense.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but I never believed him to be dead,' she answered quickly. 'I was
+very anxious, very unhappy, about him, often miserable, but in my dreams
+he was always full of life. When I woke up I said to myself, "They are
+wrong; Eric is in the world somewhere; I shall see him again."'</p>
+
+<p>'Just so; and now with my own eyes I have seen him, evidently in perfect
+health and in good spirits.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, but that troubles me a little,' she returned, and her beautiful
+mouth began to quiver like an unhappy child's. 'How can Eric, my Eric who
+loved me so, be so light-hearted, knowing that all these years I have
+been mourning for him? I remember how he used,' she went on plaintively,
+'to whistle over his work, and how Giles used to listen to him. Sometimes
+they kept up a duet together, but Eric's note was the sweeter.'</p>
+
+<p>'We must be careful not to misjudge him even in this,' was my answer:
+'how do you know, Gladys, that he has not assured himself that you are
+all well, and, as far as he knows, happy? Or perhaps his heart was very
+heavy in spite of his whistling. A young man does not show his feelings
+like a girl.'</p>
+
+<p>'No doubt you are right,' she replied, sighing, and then she turned her
+head away, and I could see the old tremulous movement of her hands.
+'Ursula,' she said, in a very low voice, 'have you told Mr. Cunliffe
+about this?'</p>
+
+<p>'Uncle Max!' I exclaimed, concealing my astonishment at hearing her
+mention his name of her own accord. 'No; indeed, he is away from home:
+we have not met for the last three weeks. Would you wish me to tell him,
+Gladys?'</p>
+
+<p>She pondered over my question, and I could see the curves of her throat
+trembling. Her voice was not so clear when she answered me:</p>
+
+<p>'He might have helped us. He is kind and wise, and I trusted him once.
+But perhaps it will be hardly safe to tell him: he might insist on Giles
+knowing, and then everything would be lost.'</p>
+
+<p>'What do you mean?' I asked hastily. 'Surely Mr. Hamilton ought to know
+that his brother is alive.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but not now&mdash;not until I have seen him. Ursula, you are very good;
+you are my greatest comfort; but indeed you must be guided in this by me.
+You do not know Giles as I do. He is beginning to influence you in spite
+of yourself. If Giles knows, Etta will know, and then we are lost.'</p>
+
+<p>Her tone troubled me: it was the old keynote of suppressed hopeless
+pain: it somehow recalled to me the image of some helpless innocent bird
+struggling in a fowler's net. Her eyes looked at me with almost agonised
+entreaty.</p>
+
+<p>'If Etta knows, we should be lost,' she repeated drearily.</p>
+
+<p>'She shall not know, then,' I returned, pretending cheerfulness, though
+I was inwardly dismayed. 'You and I will watch and wait, Gladys. Do not
+be so cast down, dear. Remember it is never so dark as just before the
+dawn.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' she replied, with a faint smile, 'you are right there; but it is
+growing dark in earnest, Ursula, and I must go home, or Leah will be
+coming in search of me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well; I will walk with you,' I replied; and in five minutes more we
+had left the cottage.</p>
+
+<p>We walked almost in silence, for who could tell if eaves-droppers might
+not lurk in the dark hedgerows? I know this feeling was strong in both
+our minds.</p>
+
+<p>At the gate of Gladwyn we kissed each other and parted.</p>
+
+<p>'I am happier, Ursula,' she whispered. 'You must not think I am
+ungrateful for the news you have given me, only it has made me restless.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hush! there is some one coming down the shrubbery,' I returned, dropping
+her hand, and going quickly into the road. As I did so, I heard Leah's
+smooth voice address Gladys:</p>
+
+<p>'You were so, late, ma'am, that I thought I had better step down to the
+cottage, for fear you might be waiting for me.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is all right, Leah,' was Gladys's answer. 'Miss Garston walked back
+with me. Thank you for your thoughtfulness.' And then I heard their
+footsteps dying away in the distance.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV</h2>
+
+<h3>NIGHTINGALES AND ROSES</h3>
+
+
+<p>I was very busy the next morning. I went round to the Marshalls' cottage
+to see Peggy, and then I paid Phoebe a long visit, and afterwards I went
+to Robert Stokes.</p>
+
+<p>They seemed all glad to welcome me back, especially Phoebe, who lay and
+looked at me as though she never wished to lose sight of me again.</p>
+
+<p>When I had left her room I sat a little while with Susan. She still
+looked delicate, but at my first pitying word she stopped me.</p>
+
+<p>'Please don't say that, Miss Garston. If you knew how I thank God for
+that illness! it has opened poor Phoebe's heart to me as nothing else
+could have opened it.'</p>
+
+<p>'She does indeed seem a different creature,' I returned, full of
+thankfulness to hear this.</p>
+
+<p>'Different,&mdash;nay, that is not the word: the heart of a little child has
+come back to her. It rests me now, if I am ever so tired, to go into her
+room. It is always "Sit down, Susan, my woman, and talk to me a bit," or
+she will beg me to do something for her, just as though she were asking a
+favour. I read the Bible to her now morning and evening, and Kitty sings
+her sweet hymns to us. It is more like home now, with Phoebe to smile
+a welcome whenever she sees me. I do not miss father and mother half so
+much now.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you only knew how happy it makes me to hear you say all this, Miss
+Locke!'</p>
+
+<p>'Nay, but I am thinking we owe much of our comfort to you,' she answered
+simply. 'You worked upon her feelings first, and then Providence sent
+that sharp message to her. And we have to be grateful to the doctor, too.
+What do you think, Miss Garston? He is our landlord now, and he won't
+take a farthing of rent from us. He says we are doing him a kindness by
+living in the house, and that he only wished his other tenants took as
+much care of his property; but of course I know what that means.' And
+here Susan's thin hands shook a little. 'The doctor is just a man whose
+right hand does not know what his left hand does; he is just heaping us
+with benefits, and making us ashamed with his kindness.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are a great favourite of his,' I answered, smiling, as I took my
+leave; but Susan answered solemnly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'It won't be forgotten in his account, Miss Garston. The measure running
+over will surely be returned to him, and not only to him.' And here she
+looked at me meaningly, and pressed my hand. Poor Susan! she had grown
+very fond of her nurse.</p>
+
+<p>As I walked up to Gladwyn that afternoon I felt a pleasant sense of
+excitement, a sort of holiday feeling, that was novel to me. Miss Darrell
+was away, and Gladys and Lady Betty would be at their ease. We might look
+and talk as we liked, no one would find fault with us.</p>
+
+<p>I was pleased, too, at the thought of seeing Mr. Hamilton again. I was in
+the mood to be gay: perhaps the summer sunshine infected me, for who
+could be dull on such a day? There was not a cloud in the sky, the birds
+were singing, the rooks were cawing among the elms, the very sparrows had
+a jaunty look and cheeped busily in the ivy. As I approached Gladwyn, I
+saw Mr. Hamilton leaning on the gate: he looked as though he had been
+standing there some time.</p>
+
+<p>'Were you watching for me?' I asked, rather thoughtlessly, as he threw
+the gate open with a smile and shook hands with me. I had asked the
+question quite innocently and casually; but the next moment I felt hot
+and ashamed. Why had I supposed such a thing? Why should Mr. Hamilton be
+watching for me?</p>
+
+<p>He did not seem to notice my confusion: he looked very glad to see me.
+I think he was in a gay mood too.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I was looking for you. You are a little late, do you know that? I
+was just meditating whether I should walk down the road to meet you. Come
+and take a turn with me on this shady little lawn. Gladys and Lady Betty
+are arranging the tea-table, and are not quite ready for us.'</p>
+
+<p>He led the way to the little lawn in front of the house. Gladwyn was
+surrounded with charming lawns: the avenue of young oaks was at the back.
+We could catch glimpses of Lady Betty's white gown as she flitted
+backward and forward. The front window of Mr. Hamilton's study was before
+us.</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' he said, looking at me brightly, 'we are all glad to welcome
+Nurse Ursula back: the three weeks have seemed very long somehow.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you any more cases ready for me?' I returned, trying to appear at
+my usual ease with him. It seemed ridiculous, but I was certainly rather
+shy with Mr. Hamilton this afternoon. He looked different somehow.</p>
+
+<p>'If I have, you will not know them to-day. I am not going to talk
+business to you this afternoon. Tell me about your visit: have you
+enjoyed yourself? But I need not ask: your looks answer for you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have most certainly enjoyed myself. Aunt Philippa was so kind: indeed,
+they were all good to me. Did you hear of Jill's accident, Mr. Hamilton?
+No. I must tell you about it, and of Mr. Tudor's presence of mind.' And I
+narrated the whole circumstance.</p>
+
+<p>'It was a marvellous escape,' he returned thoughtfully. 'Poor child! she
+might have fared badly. Well, Miss Garston, the green velvet gown was
+very becoming.'</p>
+
+<p>I looked up quickly, but there was no mockery in Mr. Hamilton's smile. He
+was regarding me kindly, though his tone was a little teasing.</p>
+
+<p>'I saw you in the church,' I returned quietly.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I suppose there is a kind of magnetism in a fixed glance.
+I was looking at you, trying to identify Nurse Ursula with the
+elegantly-dressed woman before me, and somehow failing, when your
+eyes encountered mine. Their serious disapproval most certainly
+recalled Nurse Ursula with a vengeance.'</p>
+
+<p>He was laughing at me now, but I determined to satisfy my curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>'I was so surprised to see you there,' I replied seriously: 'you were so
+strong in your denunciations of gay weddings that your presence as a
+spectator at one quite startled me. Why were you there, Mr. Hamilton?'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you want to know, really?' still in a teasing tone.</p>
+
+<p>'Of course one always likes an answer to a question.'</p>
+
+<p>'You shall have it, Miss Garston. I came to see that velvet gown.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense!'</p>
+
+<p>'May I ask why?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, it is nonsense; as though you came for such an absurd purpose!'
+But, though I answered Mr. Hamilton in this brusque fashion, I was aware
+that my heart was beating rather more quickly than usual. Did he really
+mean that he had come to see me? Could such a thing be possible? I began
+to wish I had never put that question.</p>
+
+<p>'I either came to see the gown or the wearer: upon my honour I hardly
+know which. Perhaps you can tell me?' But if he expected an answer to
+that he did not get it: I was only meditating how I could break off this
+<i>t&eacute;te-&agrave;-t&eacute;te</i> without too much awkwardness. No, I did not recognise Mr.
+Hamilton a bit this afternoon: he had never talked to me after this
+fashion before. I was not sure that I liked it.</p>
+
+<p>'After all, I am not certain that I do not like you best in that gray
+one, especially after I have picked you some roses to wear with it:
+something sober and quiet seems to suit Nurse Ursula better.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Hamilton, if you please, I do not want to talk any more about my
+gown.'</p>
+
+<p>'What shall we talk about, then? Shall I&mdash;' And then he looked at my face
+and checked himself. His teasing mood, or whatever it was, changed.
+Perhaps he saw my embarrassment, for his manner became all at once very
+gentle. He said we must go in search of the roses; and then he began to
+talk to me about Gladys,&mdash;how much brighter she looked, but still thin,
+oh, far too thin,&mdash;and was I not glad to have her back again? and all the
+time he talked he was looking at me, as though he wanted to find out the
+reason of something that perplexed him.</p>
+
+<p>'He will think that I am not glad to be home again, that all this gaiety
+has spoiled me for my work,' I thought, with some vexation; but no effort
+of my part would overcome this sudden shyness, and I was much relieved
+when we turned the corner of the house and encountered Lady Betty coming
+in search of us.</p>
+
+<p>'Of course we saw you on the little lawn,' she said eagerly, 'but we were
+too busy arranging the table. Tea is ready now. Where are you going,
+Giles? Oh, don't pick any more roses: we have plenty for Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>'But if I wish Miss Garston to wear some of my picking, what then,
+Elizabeth?' he asked, in a laughing tone, and Lady Betty tossed her head
+in reply and led me away; but a moment afterwards he followed us with the
+roses, and mollified the wilful little soul by asking Ladybird&mdash;his pet
+name for her&mdash;to fasten them in my dress. Both the sisters wore white
+gowns. I thought Gladys looked like a queen in hers, as she moved slowly
+under the oak-trees to meet us, the sun shining on her fair hair. As I
+looked at her lovely face and figure, I thought it was no wonder that she
+was poor Max's Lady of Delight. Who could help admiring her?</p>
+
+<p>She met me quite naturally, although her brother was beside us.</p>
+
+<p>'Have we kept you waiting too long? I thought you would not mind putting
+up with Giles's society for a little while. Oh, Thornton was so stupid; I
+suppose he did not approve of the trouble, for he would forget everything
+we asked him to bring.'</p>
+
+<p>'This is quite a feast, Gladys,' observed Mr. Hamilton gaily. And indeed
+it was a pretty picture when we were all seated: a pleasant breeze
+stirred the leaves over our head, the rooks cawed and circled round us,
+Nap laid himself at his master's feet, and a little gray kitten came
+gingerly over the grass, followed by some tame pigeons.</p>
+
+<p>There was a basket of roses on the table, and great piles of strawberries
+and cherries. Gladys poured out the tea in purple cups bordered with
+gold. Mr. Hamilton held out a beautiful china plate for my inspection.
+'This belonged to Gladys's mother,' he said: 'we are only allowed to use
+it on high days and holidays. Etta was unfortunate enough to break a
+saucer once: we have never seen the tea-set since.'</p>
+
+<p>I saw Gladys colour, but she said nothing: only naughty Lady Betty
+whispered in my ear, 'She did it on purpose. I saw her throw it down
+because she was angry with Gladys.' But, happily, Mr. Hamilton was deaf
+to this.</p>
+
+<p>I hardly know what we talked about, but we were all very happy. Gladys,
+as usual, was rather quiet, but I noticed that she spoke freely to her
+brother, without any constraint of manner, and that he seemed pleased
+and interested in all she said; and Lady Betty chatted as merrily as
+possible.</p>
+
+<p>When tea was over we all strolled about the garden, down the long
+asphalt walk that skirted the meadow, where a little brown cow was
+feeding, down to the gardener's cottage and the kitchen-garden, and to
+the poultry-yard, where Lady Betty reigned supreme. Then we sat down on
+the terrace by the conservatory, and Mr. Hamilton threw himself down on
+the grass and played with Nap, as he talked to us.</p>
+
+<p>I could see Leah sewing at her mistress's window, but the sight did not
+disturb me in the least. Yes, I must be fey, I thought. I could find no
+reason for the sudden feeling of contentment and well-being that
+possessed me; in all my life I had never felt happier than I did that
+evening; and yet I was more silent than usual. Mr. Hamilton talked more
+to his sisters than to me, but his manner was strangely gentle when he
+addressed me. I was conscious all that evening that he was watching me,
+and that my reserve did not displease him. Once, when he had been called
+away on business, and Lady Betty had tripped after him, Gladys said, with
+a half-sigh,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'How young and well Giles looks to-day! He seems so much happier. I wish
+we could always be like this. I am sure if it were not for Etta we should
+understand each other better.'</p>
+
+<p>I assented to this, and Gladys went on:</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder if you have ever heard Mrs. Carrick's name, Ursula?'</p>
+
+<p>What a strange question! I flushed a little as I told her that her old
+friend Mrs. Maberley had put me in possession of all the family secrets.
+'Quite against my will, I assure you,' I added; for I always had a
+lurking consciousness that I had no right to know Mr. Hamilton's affairs.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, it does not matter. I daresay Giles will tell you all about
+it himself some day. You and he seem great friends, Ursula; and
+indeed&mdash;indeed I am glad to know it. Poor Giles! Why should you not be
+kind to him?'</p>
+
+<p>What in the world could Gladys mean?</p>
+
+<p>'I was only a child,' she went on; 'but of course I remember Ella. She
+was very beautiful and fascinating, and she bewitched us all. She had
+such lovely eyes, and such a sweet laugh; and she was so full of fun, and
+so high-spirited and charming altogether. Giles was very different in
+those days; but he reminds me of his old self this evening.'</p>
+
+<p>I made no answer. I seemed to have no words ready, and I was glad when
+Gladys rather abruptly changed the subject. Leah was crossing the field
+towards the cottage with a basket of eggs on her arm. As we looked after
+her, Gladys said quickly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Your talk last night seems like a dream. This morning I asked myself,
+could it be true&mdash;really true&mdash;that you saw Eric? I have hardly slept,
+Ursula. Indeed, I do not mean to be impatient; but how am I to bear this
+restlessness?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is certainly very hard.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, so hard! But for Eric's sake I must be patient. I saw the
+advertisement this morning in the <i>Standard</i>. Lady Betty read it aloud to
+us at breakfast-time; but Giles took no notice. I wished that we dared to
+tell Mr. Cunliffe about it; he might employ a detective: but I am so
+afraid of Etta.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think we may safely wait a little,' I returned. 'I have faith in Joe
+Muggins: a five-pound note may do our work without fear of publicity.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you hear any news, if you can find out where he lives, remember that
+I must be the first to see him: Giles shall be told, but not until I have
+spoken to Eric.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think that you will be able to persuade him to come home?'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall not try to persuade him,' she returned proudly. 'I know Eric too
+well for that. Nothing will induce him to cross the threshold of Gladwyn
+until his innocence is established, until Giles has apologised for the
+slur he has thrown upon his character.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid Mr. Hamilton will never do that.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then there will be no possibility of reconciliation with Eric, Ursula.
+If Eric does not come home, if things remain as they are, I have made up
+my mind to leave Giles's roof. I cannot any longer be separated from
+Eric: if he be poor I will be poor too: it will not hurt me to work;
+nothing will hurt me after the life I have been leading these three
+years.' And the old troubled look came back to Gladys's face. Lady Betty
+joined us, and our talk ceased, and soon afterwards we went up into the
+turret-room to prepare for dinner.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner Lady Betty proposed that we should go down the road a little
+to hear the nightingales; but Mr. Hamilton informed her with a smile that
+he had a nightingale on the premises, and, turning to me, he asked me if
+I were in the mood to give them all pleasure, and if I would sing to them
+until they told me to stop.</p>
+
+<p>I was rather dubious on this latter point, for how could I know, I asked
+him, laughing, that they might not keep me singing until midnight?</p>
+
+<p>'You ought to have more faith in our humanity,' he returned, with much
+solemnity, as he opened the piano. Gladys crept into her old seat by me,
+but Mr. Hamilton placed himself in an easy-chair at some little distance.
+As the room grew dusk, and the moonlight threw strange silvery gleams
+here and there, I could see him leaning back with his arms crossed under
+his head, and wondered if he were asleep, he was so still and motionless.</p>
+
+<p>How I thanked God in my heart for that gift of song, a more precious gift
+to me than even beauty would have been! As usual, I forgot everything,
+myself, Gladys, Mr. Hamilton; I seemed to sing with the joyousness of a
+bird that is only conscious of life and freedom and sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>I would sing no melancholy songs that night,&mdash;no love-sick adieux, no
+effusions of lachrymose sentimentality,&mdash;only sweet old Scotch and
+English ballads, favourites of Charlie's; then grander melodies, 'Let the
+bright seraphim,' and 'Waft her, angels, through the air.' As I finished
+the last I was conscious that Mr. Hamilton was standing beside me; the
+next moment he laid his hand on mine.</p>
+
+<p>'That will do. You must not tire yourself: even the nightingales must
+leave off singing sometimes; thank you so much. No! that sounds cold and
+conventional. I will not thank you. You were very happy singing, were you
+not?'</p>
+
+<p>I could not see his face, but he was so close,&mdash;so close to me in the
+moonlight, and there was something in his voice that brought the old
+shyness back.</p>
+
+<p>I was trying to answer, when we heard the front door open and some one
+speaking to Parker. Was that Miss Darrell's voice? Mr. Hamilton heard it,
+for he moved away, and Gladys gave a half-stifled exclamation as he
+opened the door and confronted his cousin.</p>
+
+<p>'Where are you all?' she asked, in a laughing voice. 'You look like bats
+or ghosts in the moonlight. No lights, and past ten o'clock! that is
+Gladys's romantic idea, I suppose. What a dear fanciful child it is! Lady
+Betty, come and kiss me! Oh, I am so glad to be home again!'</p>
+
+<p>'Good-evening, Miss Darrell.'</p>
+
+<p>'Good gracious! is that you, Miss Garston? I never dreamt of seeing you
+here to-night; and you were hiding behind that great piano. Giles, do,
+for pity's sake, light those candles, and let me see some of your faces.'</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Hamilton seemed to take no notice of her request.</p>
+
+<p>'What brought you back so soon, Etta?' he asked; and it struck me that he
+was not so pleased to see his cousin as usual. 'I thought you intended to
+remain another week.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but I wanted to see Gladys, after these months of absence. I thought
+it would be unkind to remain away any longer. Besides, I was not enjoying
+myself,&mdash;not a bit. Mrs. Cameron grows deafer every day, and it was very
+<i>triste</i> and miserable.'</p>
+
+<p>'How did you know I was at home, Etta?' asked Gladys, in her clear voice.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Darrell hesitated a moment: 'A little bird informed me of the fact.
+You did not wish me to remain in ignorance of your return, did you? It
+sounds rather like it, does it not, Giles? Well, if you must be
+inquisitive, Leah was writing to me about my dresses for the cleaner,
+and she mentioned casually that "master had gone to the station to meet
+Miss Gladys."'</p>
+
+<p>'I see; but you need not have hurried home on my account.'</p>
+
+<p>'Dear me! what a cousinly speech! That is the return one gets for
+being a little more affectionate than usual. Giles,'&mdash;with decided
+impatience,&mdash;'why don't you light those candles? You know how I hate
+darkness; and there is Miss Garston standing like a gray nun in the
+moonlight.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is so late that I must put on my bonnet,' I replied quickly; for I
+was bent on making my escape before the candles were lighted. Never had
+I dreaded Miss Darrell's cold scrutiny as I did that night.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys followed me rather wearily.</p>
+
+<p>'Well it has been very pleasant, but our holiday has been brief,' she
+said, with a sigh; and then she laid her cheek against mine, and it felt
+very soft and cold. With a sudden rush of tenderness I drew it down and
+kissed it again and again.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't let the hope go out of your voice, Gladys: it will all come right
+by and by. Only be strong and patient, my darling.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am strong when I am near you, but not when I am alone,' she answered,
+with a slight shiver; and then we heard Lady Betty's voice calling her,
+and she left me reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>I thought she would come back, so I did not hurry myself; but presently
+I got tired of waiting, and walked to the head of the staircase.</p>
+
+<p>As I looked down on the lighted hall I saw Mr. Hamilton standing with
+folded arms, as though he had been waiting there some time; at the sound
+of my footstep he looked up quickly and eagerly, and our eyes met, and
+then I knew,&mdash;I knew!</p>
+
+<p>'Come, Ursula,' he said, with a sort of impatience, holding out his hand;
+and somehow, without delay or hesitation, just as though his strong will
+was drawing me, I went down slowly and put my hand in his, and it seemed
+as though there was nothing more to be said.</p>
+
+<p>I saw his face light up; he was about to speak, when Miss Darrell swept
+up to us noiselessly with a hard metallic smile on her face.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know, Miss Garston, Lady Betty tells me that the nightingales are
+singing so charmingly; she and I are just going down the road to listen
+to them, if you can put up with our company for part of the way.'</p>
+
+<p>Giles&mdash;I called him Giles in my heart that night, for something told me
+we belonged to each other&mdash;said nothing, but his face clouded, and we
+went out together.</p>
+
+<p>No one heard the nightingales, but only Lady Betty commented on that
+fact. Miss Darrell was talking too volubly to hear her. She clung to my
+side pertinaciously, almost affectionately; she wanted to hear all about
+the wedding; she plied me with questions about Sara, and Jill, and Mr.
+Tudor. All the way up the hill she talked until we passed the church and
+the vicarage, until we were at the gate of the White Cottage, and then
+she stopped with an affected laugh.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear me, I have actually walked the whole way; how tired I am!&mdash;and no
+wonder, for there is eleven chiming from the church tower. For shame, to
+keep us all up so late, Miss Garston!'</p>
+
+<p>'I will not detain you,' I returned, with secret exasperation.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton had not spoken once the whole way, only walked silently
+beside me; but as he set open the gate and wished me good-night, his
+clasp of my hand gave me the assurance that I needed.</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind: he will come to-morrow and tell me all about it,' I said to
+myself as I walked up the narrow garden-path between the rows of sleeping
+flowers. If I lingered in the porch to watch a certain tall figure
+disappear into the darkness, no one knew it, for the stars tell no tales.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>BREAKERS AHEAD</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was well that the stars, those bright-eyed spectators of a sleeping
+world, tell no tales of us poor humans, or they might have whispered the
+fact that the reasonable sober-minded Ursula Garston was holding foolish
+vigil that night until the gray dawn drove her away to seek a brief rest.</p>
+
+<p>But how could I sleep?&mdash;how could any woman sleep when such a revelation
+had been vouchsafed her?&mdash;when a certain look, and those two words,
+'Come, Ursula,' still haunted me,&mdash;that strange brief wooing, that was
+hardly wooing, and yet meant unutterable things, that silent acceptance,
+that simple yielding, when I put my hand in his, Giles's, and saw the
+quick look of joy in his eyes?</p>
+
+<p>Ah, the veil had fallen from my eyes at last: for the first time I
+realised how all these weeks he had been drawing me closer to himself,
+how his strong will had subjugated mine. My dislike of him had been
+brief; he had awakened my interest first, then attracted my sympathy, and
+finally won my respect and friendship, until I had grown to love him in
+spite of myself. Strange to say, I had lost all fear of him; as I sat
+holding communion with myself that night, I felt that I should never be
+afraid of him again. 'Perfect love casteth out fear': is not that what
+the apostle tells us? It was true, I thought, for now I did not seem to
+be afraid either of Mr. Hamilton's strange stern nature, of the sadness
+of his past life, or of the mysteries and misunderstandings of that
+troubled household. It seemed to me I feared nothing,&mdash;not even my own
+want of beauty, that had once been a trial to me; for if Giles loved me
+how could such minor evils affect me?</p>
+
+<p>Yes, as I sat there under the solemn starlight, with the jasmine sprays
+cooling my hot cheek and the soft night breeze fanning me, I owned, and
+was not ashamed to own, in my woman's heart, and with all the truth of
+which I was capable, that this was the man whom my soul delighted to
+honour; not faultless, not free from blame, full of flaws and
+imperfections, but still a strong grand man, intensely human in his
+sympathies, one who loved his fellows, and who did his life's work in
+true knightly fashion, running full tilt against prejudices and the
+shams of conventionality.</p>
+
+<p>Often during the night I thought of my mother, and how she had told me,
+laughing, that my father had never really asked her to marry him.</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know how we were engaged, Ursula,' she once said, when we
+were talking about Charlie and Lesbia in the twilight; 'we were at a
+ball,&mdash;Lady Fitzherbert's,&mdash;and of course being a clergyman he did not
+dance, but he took me into the conservatory and gave me a flower: I think
+it was a rose. There were people all round us, and neither he nor I could
+tell how it was done, but when he put me into the carriage I knew we were
+somehow promised to each other, and when he came the next day he called
+me Amy, and kissed me in the most quite matter-of-fact way. I often laugh
+and tell him that he took it all, for granted.'</p>
+
+<p>'Giles will come to-morrow,' I said to myself, as the first pale gleam
+came over the eastern sky, 'and then I shall know all about it.' And I
+fell asleep happily, and dreamt of Charlie, and I thought he was pelting
+me with roses in the old vicarage garden.</p>
+
+<p>'"And the evening and the morning were the first day,"' were my waking
+words when I opened my eyes; for in the inward as well as the outward
+creation, in hearts as well as worlds, all things become new under the
+grace of such miracle. I was not the same woman that I had been
+yesterday, neither should I ever be the same again. I seemed as though I
+were in accord with all the harmonies of nature. 'And surely God saw that
+it was good,' ought to be written upon all true and faithful earthly
+attachments. I was expecting Mr. Hamilton, and yet it gave me a sort of
+shock when I saw him coming up the road: he was walking very fast, with
+his head bent, but his face was set in the direction of the cottage.</p>
+
+<p>I sat down by the window and took out some work, but my hands trembled so
+that I was compelled to lay it aside. It was not that I was afraid of
+what he might say to me, for my heart had its welcome ready, but natural
+womanly timidity caused the slight fluttering of my pulses.</p>
+
+<p>The moments seemed long before I heard the click of the gate, before the
+firm regular footsteps crunched the gravel walk; then came his knock at
+my door, and I rose to greet him. But the moment I saw his face a sudden
+anxiety seized me. What had happened? What made him look so pale and
+embarrassed, so strangely unlike himself? This was not the greeting I
+expected. This was not how we ought to meet on this morning of all
+mornings.</p>
+
+<p>As he shook hands with me quickly and rather nervously, he seemed to
+avoid my eyes. He walked to the window, picked a spray of jasmine, and
+began pulling it to pieces, all the time he talked. As for me, I sat down
+again and took up my work: he should not see that I felt his coldness,
+that he had disappointed me.</p>
+
+<p>'I have come very early, I am afraid,' he began, 'but I thought I ought
+to let you know. Mrs. Hanbury's little girl, the lame one, Jessie, has
+got badly burnt,&mdash;some carelessness or other; but they are an ignorant
+set, and the child will need your care.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will go at once. Where do they live?' But somehow as I asked the
+question I felt as though my voice had lost all tone and sounded like
+Miss Darrell's.</p>
+
+<p>He told me, and then gave me the necessary instructions. 'Janet Coombe,
+a servant at the Man and Plough, is ill too, and they sent up for me this
+morning; it seems a touch of low fever,&mdash;nothing really infectious,
+though; but the men from the soap-works are having their bean-feast, and
+all the folks are too busy to pay Janet much attention.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will see about her,' I returned. 'Are those the only cases, Mr.
+Hamilton?' He looked round at me then, as though my quiet matter-of-fact
+answer had surprised him, and for a moment he surveyed me gravely and
+wistfully; then he seemed to rouse himself with an effort.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, those are the only cases at present. Thank you, I shall be much
+obliged if you will attend to them. Little Jessie is a very delicate
+child: things may go hardly with her.' Then he stopped, picked another
+spray of jasmine, and pulled off the little starry flowers remorselessly.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Garston, I want to say something: I feel I owe you some sort of
+explanation. I wish to tell you that I have only myself to blame. I have
+thought it all over, and I have come to the conclusion that it is no
+fault of yours that I misunderstood you. It is your nature to be kind.
+You did not wish to mislead me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am not aware that I ever mislead people,' I returned, rather proudly,
+for I could not help feeling a little indignant: Mr. Hamilton was
+certainly not treating me well.</p>
+
+<p>'No, of course not,' looking excessively pained. 'I know you too well to
+accuse you of that. If I misunderstood you, if I imagined things, it was
+my own fault,&mdash;mine solely. I would not blame you for worlds.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad of that, Mr. Hamilton,' in rather an icy tone.</p>
+
+<p>'No, you could not have told me: I ought to have found it out for myself.
+Do you mind if I go away now? I do not feel quite myself, and I would
+rather talk of this again another time. Perhaps you will tell me all
+about it then.' And he actually took up his hat and shook hands with me
+again. Somehow his touch made me shiver when I remembered the long
+hand-clasp of the previous night,&mdash;only ten or eleven hours ago; and yet
+this strange change had been worked in him.</p>
+
+<p>I let him go, though it nearly broke my heart to see him look so careworn
+and miserable. My woman's pride was up in arms, though for very pity and
+love I could have called him back and begged him to tell me in plain
+English and without reservation what he meant by his vague words. Once I
+rose and went to the door, the latch was in my hand, but I sat down again
+and watched him quietly until he was out of sight. I would wait, I said
+to myself; I would rather wait until he came to his senses; and then I
+laughed a little angrily, though the tears were in my eyes. It was
+vexatious, it was bitterly disappointing, it was laying on my shoulders a
+fresh burden of responsibility and anxiety. The happiness that a quarter
+of an hour ago seemed within my reach had vanished and left me worried
+and perplexed. And yet, in spite of the pain Mr. Hamilton had inflicted,
+I did not for one moment lose hope or courage.</p>
+
+<p>Something had gone wrong, that was evident. The perfect understanding
+that had been between us last night seemed ruthlessly disturbed and
+perhaps broken. Could this be Miss Darrell's work? Had she made mischief
+between us? I wondered what part of my conduct or actions she had
+misrepresented to her cousin. It was this uncertainty that tormented
+me: how could I refute mere intangible shadows?</p>
+
+<p>Strange to say, I never doubted his love for a moment. If such a doubt
+had entered my mind I should have been miserable indeed; but no such
+thought fretted me. I was only hurt that he could have brought himself
+to believe anything against me, that he should have listened to her false
+sophistry and not have asked for my explanation; but, as I remembered
+that love was prone to jealousy and not above suspicion, I soon forgave
+him in my heart.</p>
+
+<p>Ah well, we must both suffer, I thought; for he certainly looked very
+unhappy, fagged, and weary, as though he had not slept. If he had told me
+what was wrong I would have found some comfort for him; but under such
+circumstances any woman must be dumb.</p>
+
+<p>He had made me understand that he did not intend to ask me to marry him,
+at least just yet; that for some reason best known to himself he wished
+for no further explanation with me. Well, I could wait until he was ready
+to speak; he need not fear that I should embarrass him. 'Men are strange
+creatures,' I thought, as I rose, feeling tired in every limb, to put on
+my bonnet; but, cast down and perplexed as I was, I would not own for a
+minute that I was really miserable. My faith in Mr. Hamilton was too
+strong for that; one day things would be right between us; one day he
+would see the truth and know it, and there would be no cloud before his
+eyes. I went rather sadly about my duties that day, but I was determined
+that no one else should suffer for my unhappiness, so I exerted myself to
+be cheerful with my patients, and the hard work did me good.</p>
+
+<p>I was tired when I reached home, and I spent rather a dreary evening: it
+was impossible to settle to my book. I could not help remembering how I
+had called this a new day. As I prayed for Mr. Hamilton that night, I
+could not help shedding a few tears; he was so strong, all the power was
+in his hands; he might have saved me from this trouble. Then I remembered
+that we were both unhappy together, and this thought calmed me; for the
+same cloud was covering us both, and I wondered which of us would see the
+sunshine first.</p>
+
+<p>I do not wish to speak much of my feelings at this time: the old adage,
+that 'the course of true love never runs smooth,' was true, alas, in my
+case; but I was too proud to complain, and I tried not to fret overmuch.
+Most women have known troubled days, when the current seems against them
+and the waves run high; their strength fails and they seem to sink in
+deep waters. Many a poor soul has suffered shipwreck in the very sight
+of the haven where it would fain be, for man and woman too are 'born to
+trouble as the sparks fly upward.'</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes my pain was very great; but I would not succumb to it. I worked
+harder than ever to combat my restlessness. My worst time was in the
+evening, when I came home weary and dispirited. We seemed so near, and
+yet so strangely apart, and it was hard at such times to keep to my old
+faith in Mr. Hamilton and acquit him of unkindness.</p>
+
+<p>'Why does he not tell me what he means? Do I deserve this silence?' I
+would say to myself. Then I remembered his promise that he would speak
+to me again about these things, and I resolved to be brave and patient.</p>
+
+<p>I was longing to see Gladys, but she did not come for more than ten days.
+And, alas! I could not go up to Gladwyn to seek her. This was the first
+bitter fruit of our estrangement,&mdash;that it separated me from Gladys.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Betty had gone away the very next day to pay a two months' visit to
+an old school-fellow in Cornwall: so Gladys would be utterly alone. Uncle
+Max was still in Norwich, detained by most vexatious lawyer's business:
+so that I had not even the solace of his companionship. If it had not
+been for Mr. Tudor, I should have been quite desolate. But I was always
+meeting him in the village, and his cheery greeting was a cordial to me.
+He always walked back with me, talking in his eager, boyish way. And I
+had sometimes quite a trouble to get rid of him. He would stand for a
+quarter of an hour at a time leaning over the gate and chatting with me.
+By a sort of tacit consent, he never offered to come in, neither did I
+invite him. We were both too much afraid of Miss Darrell's comments.</p>
+
+<p>In all those ten days I only saw Mr. Hamilton once, for on Sunday his
+seat in church had been vacant.</p>
+
+<p>I was dressing little Jessie's burns one morning, and talking to her
+cheerfully all the time, for she was a nervous little creature, when I
+heard his footstep outside. And the next instant he was standing beside
+us.</p>
+
+<p>His curt 'Good-morning; how is the patient, nurse?' braced my faltering
+nerves in a moment, and enabled me to answer him without embarrassment.
+He had his grave professional air, and looked hard and impenetrable. I
+had reason afterwards to think that this sternness of manner was assumed
+for my benefit, for once, when I was preparing some lint for him, I
+looked up inadvertently and saw that he was watching me with an
+expression that was at once sad and wistful.</p>
+
+<p>He turned away at once, when he saw I noticed him, and I left the room as
+quickly as I could, for I felt the tears rising to my eyes. I had to sit
+down a moment in the porch to recover myself. That look, so sad and
+yearning, had quite upset me. If I had not known before, past all doubt,
+that Mr. Hamilton loved me, I must have known it then.</p>
+
+<p>We met more frequently after this. Janet Coombe was dangerously ill, and
+Mr. Hamilton saw her two or three times a day. And, of course, I was
+often there when he came.</p>
+
+<p>He dropped his sternness of manner after a time, but he was never
+otherwise than grave with me. The long, unrestrained talks, the friendly
+looks, the keen interest shown in my daily pursuits, were now things of
+the past. A few professional inquiries, directions about the treatment,
+now and then a brief order to me, too peremptory to be a compliment,
+not to over-tire myself, or to go home to rest,&mdash;this was all our
+intercourse. And yet, in spite of his guarded looks and words, I was
+often triumphant, even happy.</p>
+
+<p>Outwardly, and to all appearance, I was left alone, but I knew that it
+was far otherwise in reality. I was most strictly watched. Nothing
+escaped his scrutiny. At the first sign of fatigue he was ready to take
+my place, or find help for me. Mrs. Saunders, the mistress of the Man and
+Plough, told me more than once that the doctor had been most particular
+in telling her to look after me. Nor was this all.</p>
+
+<p>Once or twice, when I had been singing in the summer twilight, I had
+risen suddenly to lower a blind or admit Tinker, and had seen a tall,
+dark figure moving away behind the laurel bushes, and knew that it was
+Mr. Hamilton returning from some late visit and lingering in the dusky
+road to listen to me.</p>
+
+<p>After I had discovered this for the third time, I began to think he came
+on purpose to hear me. My heart beat happily at the thought. In spite of
+his displeasure with me, he could not keep away from the cottage.</p>
+
+<p>After this I sang every evening regularly for an hour, and always in
+the gloaming: it became my one pleasure, for I knew I was singing to him.
+Now and then I was rewarded by a sight of his shadow. More than once I
+saw him clearly in the moonlight. When I closed my piano, I used to
+whisper 'Good-night, Giles,' and go to bed almost happy. It was a little
+hard to meet him the next morning in Janet's room and answer his dry
+matter-of-fact questions. Sometimes I had to turn away to hide a smile.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys's first visit was very disappointing. But everything was
+disappointing in those days. She had her old harassed look, and seemed
+worried and miserable, and for once I had no heart to cheer her, only I
+held her close, very close, feeling that she was dearer to me than ever.</p>
+
+<p>She looked in my face rather inquiringly as she disengaged herself, and
+then smiled faintly.</p>
+
+<p>'I could not come before, Ursula; and you have never been to see me,' a
+little reproachfully, 'though I looked for you every afternoon. I have no
+Lady Betty, you know, and things have been worse than ever. I cannot
+think what has come to Etta. She is always spiteful and sneering when
+Giles is not by. And as for Giles, I do not know what is the matter with
+him.'</p>
+
+<p>'How do you mean?' I faltered, hunting in my work basket for some silk
+that was lying close to my hand.</p>
+
+<p>'That is more than I can say,' she returned pointedly. 'Have you and
+Giles had a quarrel, Ursula? I thought that evening that you were the
+best of friends, and that&mdash;' But here she hesitated, and her lovely eyes
+seemed to ask for my confidence; but I could not speak even to Gladys of
+such things, so I only answered, in a business-like tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'It is true that your brother does not seem as friendly with me just now;
+but I do not know how I have offended him. He has rather a peculiar
+temper, as you have often told me: most likely I have gone against some
+of his prejudices.' I felt I was answering Gladys in rather a reckless
+fashion, but I could not bear even the touch of her sympathy on such a
+wound. She looked much distressed at my reply.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, you never offend Giles. He thinks far too much of you to let
+any difference of opinion come between you. I see you do not wish me
+to ask you, Ursula; but I must say one thing. If you want Giles to tell
+you why he is hurt or distant with you,&mdash;why his manner is different, I
+mean,&mdash;ask him plainly what Etta has been saying to him about you.'</p>
+
+<p>I felt myself turning rather pale. 'Are you sure that Miss Darrell has
+been talking about me, Gladys?'</p>
+
+<p>'I have not heard her do so,' was the somewhat disappointing reply, for
+I had hoped then that she had heard something. 'But I was quite as sure
+of the fact as though my ears convicted her. I have only circumstantial
+evidence again to offer you, but to my mind it is conclusive. You parted
+friends that evening with Giles. Correct me if I am wrong.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no; you are quite right. Your brother and I had no word of
+disagreement.'</p>
+
+<p>'No; he left the house radiant. When he returned, which was not for an
+hour,&mdash;for he and Etta were out all that time in the garden, and they
+sent Lady Betty in to finish her packing,&mdash;he was looking worried and
+miserable, and shut himself up in his study. Since then he has been in
+one of his taciturn, unsociable moods: nothing pleases him. He takes no
+notice of us. Even Etta is scolded, but she bears it good-humouredly
+and takes her revenge on me afterwards. A pleasant state of things,
+Ursula!'</p>
+
+<p>'Very,' I returned, sighing, for I thought this piece of evidence
+conclusive enough.</p>
+
+<p>'Now you will be good,' she went on, in a coaxing voice, 'and you will
+ask Giles, like a reasonable woman, what Etta has been saying to him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, I shall do no such thing,' I answered. And my cheek began to
+flush. 'If your brother is ungenerous enough to condemn me unheard, I
+shall certainly not interfere with his notions of justice. Do not trouble
+yourself about it, Gladys. It will come right some day. And indeed it
+does not matter so much to me, except it keeps us apart.'</p>
+
+<p>Now why, when I spoke so haughtily and disagreeably, and told this little
+fib, did Gladys suddenly take me in her arms and kiss me most sorrowfully
+and tenderly?</p>
+
+<p>'One after another!' she sighed. 'Oh, it is hard, Ursula!' But I would
+not let her talk any more about it, for I was afraid I was breaking down
+and might make a goose of myself: so I spoke of Eric, and told her that
+I had written to Joe Muggins without success, and soon turned her
+thoughts into another channel.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII</h2>
+
+<h3>'I CLAIM THAT PROMISE, URSULA'</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was soon after this that Uncle Max came home.</p>
+
+<p>I met Mr. Tudor in the village one morning, and he told me with great
+glee that they had just received a telegram telling them that he was on
+his way, and an hour after his arrival he came down to the cottage.</p>
+
+<p>Directly I heard his 'Well, little woman, how has the world treated you
+in my absence?' I felt quite cheered, and told my little fib without
+effort:</p>
+
+<p>'Very well indeed, thank you, Max.'</p>
+
+<p>It is really a psychological puzzle to me why women who are otherwise
+strictly true and honourable in their dealings and abhor the very name
+of falsehood are much addicted to this sort of fibbing under certain
+circumstances; for instance, the number of white lies that I actually
+told at that time was something fabulous, yet the sin of hypocrisy did
+not lie very heavily on my soul.</p>
+
+<p>When I assured Uncle Max with a smiling face that things were well with
+me, his only answer was to take my chin in his hand and turn my face
+quietly to the light.</p>
+
+<p>'Are you quite sure you are speaking the truth? You look rather thin; and
+why are your eyes so serious, little she bear?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is such hot weather,' I returned, wincing under his kindly scrutiny.
+'And we&mdash;that is, I have had anxious work lately. I wrote to you about
+poor Janet Coombe. It is a miracle that she has pulled through this
+illness.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, indeed: I met Hamilton just now on his way to her, and he declared
+her recovery was owing to your nursing; but we will take that with a
+grain of salt, Ursula: we both know how devoted Hamilton is to his
+patients.'</p>
+
+<p>'He has saved her life,' was my reply, and for a moment my eyes grew dim
+at the remembrance of the untiring patience with which he had watched
+beside the poor girl. It was in the sick-room that I first learned to
+know him,&mdash;when metaphorically I sat at his feet, and he taught me
+lessons of patience and tenderness that I should never forget until
+my life's end.</p>
+
+<p>When we had talked about this a little while, Max asked me rather
+abruptly when Captain Hamilton was expected. The question startled me,
+for I had almost forgotten his existence.</p>
+
+<p>'I do not know,' I returned uneasily, for I was afraid Max would think
+I had been remiss. 'Lady Betty is away, and I have only seen Gladys twice
+since my return, and each time I forgot to ask her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Only twice, and you have been at home more than three weeks,' observed
+Max, in a dissatisfied voice.</p>
+
+<p>'I have been so engaged,' I replied quickly, 'and you know how seldom
+Gladys comes to the cottage. Max, do you know you have been here a
+quarter of an hour, and I have never congratulated you on your good
+fortune! I was so glad to hear Mrs. Trevor left you that money.'</p>
+
+<p>'I did not need it,' he returned, rather gloomily. 'I had quite
+sufficient for my own wants. I do not think that I am particularly
+mercenary, Ursula: the books and antiquities were more to my taste.'</p>
+
+<p>Max was certainly not in the best of spirits, but I did all I could to
+cheer him. I told him of Gladys's improved looks, and how much her change
+had benefited her, but he listened rather silently. I saw he was bent on
+learning Captain Hamilton's movements, and reproached myself that I had
+not questioned Gladys. I was determined that I would speak to her about
+her cousin the next time we met.</p>
+
+<p>Max went away soon after this; he was rather tired with his journey, he
+said; but the next morning I received a note from him asking me to dine
+with him the following evening, as he had seen so little of me lately,
+and he wanted to hear all about the wedding.</p>
+
+<p>Of course I was too glad to accept this invitation,&mdash;I always liked to go
+to the vicarage,&mdash;and this evening proved especially pleasant.</p>
+
+<p>Max roused himself for my benefit, and Mr. Tudor seemed in excellent
+spirits, and we joked Uncle Max a great deal about his fortune, and after
+dinner we made a pilgrimage through the house, to see what new furniture
+was needed.</p>
+
+<p>Max accompanied us, looking very bored, and entered a mild protest to
+most of our remarks. He certainly agreed to a new carpet for the study
+and a more comfortable chair, but he turned a perfectly deaf ear when Mr.
+Tudor proposed that the drawing-room should be refurnished.</p>
+
+<p>'It is such a pretty room, Mr. Cunliffe,' he remonstrated; 'and it
+will be ready by the time you want to get married. Mother Drabble's
+arrangement of chairs and tables is simply hideous. I was quite ashamed
+when Mrs. Maberley and her daughter called the other day.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense, Lawrence!' returned Max, rather sharply. 'What do two
+bachelors want with a drawing-room at all? You and Ursula may talk as
+much as you like, but I do not mean to throw away good money on such
+nonsense. We will have a new book-case and writing-table, and fit up the
+little gray room as your study&mdash;and, well, perhaps I may buy a new
+carpet, but nothing more.' And we were obliged to be content with this.</p>
+
+<p>Max brought out a couple of wicker chairs on the terrace presently, and
+proposed that we should have our coffee out of doors. Mr. Tudor grumbled
+a little, because he had a letter to write; but I was not sorry when he
+left me alone with Max. I really liked Mr. Tudor, but we were neither of
+us in the mood for his good-natured chatter.</p>
+
+<p>'I think old Lawrence is very much improved,' observed Max, as we watched
+his retreating figure. 'His sermons have more ballast, and he is
+altogether grown. I begin to have hopes of him now.'</p>
+
+<p>'He is older, of course,' I remarked oracularly, wondering what Max would
+say if he knew the truth. 'Well, Max, did you go up to Gladwyn last
+night?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' he returned, with a quick sigh, 'and Hamilton made me stay to
+dinner. I have found out about Captain Hamilton. He cannot get leave just
+yet, and they do not expect him until the end of November.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sorry to hear that. Do you not wish that you had taken my advice
+now, and gone down to Bournemouth?' But a most emphatic 'No' on Max's
+part was my answer to this.</p>
+
+<p>'I am very thankful I did nothing of the kind,' he returned, a little
+irritably. 'You meant well, Ursula, but it would have been a mistake.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hamilton told me about his cousin,' he went on; 'but his sister was in
+the room. She coloured very much and looked embarrassed directly Claude's
+name was mentioned.'</p>
+
+<p>'That was because Miss Darrell was there.' But I should have been wiser
+and, held my tongue.</p>
+
+<p>'You are wrong again,' he returned calmly. 'Miss Darrell was dining at
+the Maberleys', and never came in until I was going.'</p>
+
+<p>'How very strange!' was my comment to this.</p>
+
+<p>'Not stranger than Miss Hamilton's manner the whole evening, I never felt
+more puzzled. When I came in she was alone. Hamilton did not follow me
+for five minutes. She came across the room to meet me, with one of her
+old smiles, and I thought she really seemed glad to see me; but
+afterwards she was quite different. Her manner changed and grew listless.
+She did not try to entertain me; she left me to talk to her brother. I
+don't think she looks well, Ursula. Hamilton asked her once if her head
+ached, and if she felt tired, and she answered that her head was rather
+bad. I thought she looked extremely delicate.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Gladys is never a robust woman. She is almost always pale.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not that,' he returned decidedly. 'I consider she looked very
+ill. I don't believe the change has done her the least good. There is
+something on her mind: no doubt she is longing for her cousin.'</p>
+
+<p>I thought it well to remain silent, though Max's account made me anxious.
+If only I could have spoken to him about Eric! Most likely Gladys was
+fretting because there was no news from Joe Muggins. She was certainly
+not fit for any fresh anxiety. I felt my banishment from Gladwyn acutely.
+If Gladys were ill or dispirited, she would need me more than any one.</p>
+
+<p>I think both Max and I were sorry when Mr. Tudor came back and
+interrupted our conversation. He carried me off presently to show me
+some improvements in the kitchen-garden; but Max was too lazy to join us,
+and we had quite a confidential talk, walking up and down between the
+apple-trees. Mr. Tudor told me that, after all, he was becoming fond of
+his profession, and that the old women did not bore him quite so much.
+When we returned, Max was not on the lawn, but a few minutes afterwards
+he appeared at the study window.</p>
+
+<p>'I was just speaking to Hamilton,' he said. 'He came while you were in
+the kitchen-garden, but he was in a hurry and could not wait. By the bye,
+he told me that I was not to let you sit out there any longer, as the
+dews are so heavy. So come in, my dear.'</p>
+
+<p>I obeyed Max without a word. He had been here, and I had missed him!
+Everything was flat after that.</p>
+
+<p>I took my leave early, feeling as though all my merriment had suddenly
+dried up. How would he have met me? I wondered. Would Max have noticed
+anything different? 'How long will this state of things go on?' I
+thought, as I bade Max good-bye in the porch.</p>
+
+<p>I waited for some days for Gladys to come to me, and then I wrote to
+her just a few lines, begging her to have tea with me the following
+afternoon; but two or three hours afterwards Chatty brought me a note.</p>
+
+<p>'Do not think me unkind, Ursula,' she wrote, 'if I say that it is better
+for us not to meet just now. I have twice been on my way to you, and Etta
+has prevented my coming each time. My life just now is unendurable. Giles
+notices nothing. I sometimes think Etta must be possessed, to treat me as
+she does: I can see no reason for it. I hope I am not getting ill, but I
+do not seem as though I could rouse myself to contend with her. I do not
+sleep well, and my head pains me. If I get worse, I must speak to Giles:
+I cannot be ill in this place.'</p>
+
+<p>Gladys's letter made me very anxious. There was a tone about it that
+seemed as though her nerves were giving way. The heat was intense, and
+most likely anxiety about Eric was disturbing her night's rest. Want of
+sleep would be serious to Gladys's highly-strung organisation. I was
+determined to speak to Mr. Hamilton, or go myself to Gladwyn.</p>
+
+<p>My fears were still further aroused when Sunday came and Gladys was not
+in her usual place. After service Miss Darrell was speaking to some
+friends in the porch. As I passed Mr. Hamilton I paused for a moment, to
+question him: 'Why was Gladys not at church? Why did she never come to
+see me now?'</p>
+
+<p>'We might ask you that same question, I think,' he returned, rather
+pointedly. 'Gladys is not well: she spoke to me yesterday about herself,
+and I was obliged to give her a sleeping-draught. She was not awake when
+we left the house.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will come and see her,' I replied quickly, for Miss Darrell was
+bearing down upon us, and I am sure she heard my last words; and as I
+walked home I determined to go up to Gladwyn that very evening while the
+family were at church.</p>
+
+<p>I thought I had timed my visit well, and was much exasperated when Miss
+Darrell opened the door to me.</p>
+
+<p>'I saw you coming,' she said, in her smooth voice, 'and so I thought I
+would save Leah the trouble. She is the only servant at home, and I sent
+her upstairs to see if Gladys wanted anything. I hope you do not expect
+to see Gladys to-night, Miss Garston?'</p>
+
+<p>'I most certainly expect it,' was my reply. 'I have given up the evening
+service, hearing that she was ill.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is too kind of you; but I am sorry that I could not allow it for a
+moment. Giles was telling me an hour ago that he could not think what
+ailed Gladys: he was afraid of some nervous illness for her unless she
+were kept quiet. I could not take the responsibility of disobeying
+Giles.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will take the responsibility on myself,' I returned coolly. 'You
+forget that I am a nurse, Miss Darrell. I shall do Gladys no harm.'</p>
+
+<p>'Excuse me if I must be the judge of that,' she returned, and her thin
+lips closed in an inflexible curve: 'in my cousin's absence I could not
+allow any one to go near Gladys. Leah is with her now trying to induce
+her to take her sleeping-draught.'</p>
+
+<p>I looked at Miss Darrell, and wondered if I could defy her to her face,
+or whether I had better wait until I could speak to Mr. Hamilton. If
+Gladys were really taking her sleeping-draught, my presence in her room
+might excite her. If I could only know if she were telling me the truth!</p>
+
+<p>My doubts were answered by Leah's entrance. Miss Darrell addressed her
+eagerly:</p>
+
+<p>'Have you given Miss Gladys the draught, Leah?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, ma'am, and she seems nicely inclined to sleep. She heard Miss
+Garston's voice, and sent me down with her love, and she is sorry not
+to be able to see her to-night.'</p>
+
+<p>I thought it better to take my leave after this, hoping for better
+success next time. I watched anxiously for Mr. Hamilton the next day, but
+unfortunately I missed him. When I arrived at Janet's he had just left
+the house, and I did not meet him in the village. I was growing desperate
+at hearing no news of Gladys, and had determined to go up boldly to
+Gladwyn that very evening, when I saw Chatty coming in the direction of
+the cottage. She looked very nicely dressed, and her round face broke
+into dimples as she told me that Miss Darrell had sent her to the
+station, and that she meant to call in and have a chat with Mrs. Hathaway
+on her way, as she need not hurry back.</p>
+
+<p>Jem Hathaway was pretty Chatty's sweetheart. I knew him well. He was
+a blacksmith, and lived with his mother in the little stone-coloured
+cottage that faced the green. He was an honest, steady young fellow,
+a great friend of Nathaniel, and Mrs. Barton often told me that she
+considered Chatty a lucky girl to have Jem for a sweetheart.</p>
+
+<p>'And if you please, ma'am,' went on Chatty, looking round-eyed and
+serious, 'my mistress said that I was to give you this.' And she produced
+a slip of paper with a pencilled message. I knew Chatty always called
+Gladys her mistress: so I opened the paper eagerly:</p>
+
+<p>'Why did you go away on Sunday evening without seeing me? I implored Leah
+to bring you up when I heard your voice talking to Etta, and when the
+door closed I turned quite sick with disappointment. Ursula, I must see
+you; they shall not keep you from me. Come up this evening at half-past
+seven, while they are at dinner. Chatty will let you in.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well: tell your mistress I will come,' I observed; and Chatty
+dropped a rustic courtesy, and said, 'Thank you, ma'am; that will do my
+mistress good,' and tripped on her way.</p>
+
+<p>I went back into my parlour, feeling worried and excited. Gladys had sent
+for me, and I must go; but the idea of slipping into the house in this
+surreptitious way was singularly repugnant to me. I would rather have
+chosen a time when I knew Mr. Hamilton would be absent; but in that case
+I might find it impossible to obtain admittance to Gladys's room. No,
+I must put my own feelings aside, and follow her directions. But, in
+spite of this resolve, I found it impossible to settle to anything until
+the time came for keeping my appointment.</p>
+
+<p>I arrived at Gladwyn just as the half-hour was chiming from the church
+clock. As I walked quickly through the shrubbery I glanced nervously up
+at the windows. Happily, the dining-room was at the back of the house,
+but Leah might be sewing in her mistress's room and see me. As this
+alarming thought occurred to my mind, I walked still more rapidly, but
+before I could raise my hand to the bell the door opened noiselessly, and
+Chatty's smiling face welcomed me.</p>
+
+<p>'I was watching for you,' she whispered. 'Leah is in the housekeeper's
+room, and master and Miss Darrell are at dinner. You can go up to my
+mistress at once.'</p>
+
+<p>I needed no further invitation. As I passed the dining-room door I could
+hear Miss Darrell's little tinkling laugh and Mr. Hamilton's deep voice
+answering her. The next moment Thornton came out of the room, and I had
+only time to whisk round the corner. I confess this narrow escape very
+much alarmed me, and my heart beat a little quickly as I tapped at
+Gladys's door; then, as I heard her weak 'Come in,' I entered.</p>
+
+<p>The room was full of some pungent scent, hot and unrefreshing. Some one
+had moved the dressing-table, and Gladys lay on a couch in the circular
+window, within the curtained enclosure. I always thought it the prettiest
+window in the house. It looked full on the oak avenue, and on the elms,
+where the rooks had built their nests. There was a glimpse of the white
+road, too, and the blue smoke from the chimneys of Maplehurst was plainly
+visible.</p>
+
+<p>The evening sunshine was streaming full on Gladys's pale face, and my
+first action after kissing her was to lower the blind. I was glad of the
+excuse for turning away a moment, for her appearance gave me quite a
+shock.</p>
+
+<p>She looked as though she had been ill for weeks. Her face looked dark and
+sunken, and the blue lines were painfully visible round her temples. Her
+forehead was contracted, as though with severe pain, and her eyes were
+heavy and feverish. When she raised her languid eyelids and looked at me,
+a sudden fear contracted my heart.</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula, thank God you have come!'</p>
+
+<p>'We must always thank Him, dearest, whatever happens,' I returned, as
+I knelt down by her and took her burning hand in mine. 'And now you must
+tell me what is wrong with you, and why I find you like this.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not know,' she whispered, almost clinging to me. And it struck me
+then that she was frightened about herself. 'As I told Giles, I feel very
+ill. The heat tries me, and my head always aches,&mdash;such a dull, miserable
+pain; and, most of all, I cannot sleep, and all sorts of horrid thoughts
+come to me. Sometimes in the night, when I am quite alone, I feel as
+though I were light-headed and should lose my senses. Oh, Ursula, if
+this goes on, what will become of me?'</p>
+
+<p>'We will talk about that presently. Tell me, have you ever been ill in
+this way before?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, last summer, only not so bad. But I had the pain and the
+sleeplessness then. Giles was so good to me. He said I wanted change, and
+he took a little cottage at Westgate-on-Sea and sent me down with Lady
+Betty and Chatty, and I soon got all right.'</p>
+
+<p>'So I thought. And now&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it is different this time,' she replied nervously. 'I did not have
+dreadful thoughts then, or feel frightened, as I do now. Ursula, I know
+I am very ill. If you leave me to Etta and Leah, I shall get worse. I
+have sent for you to-night to remind you of your promise.'</p>
+
+<p>'What promise?' I faltered. But of course I knew what she meant. A sense
+of wretchedness had been slowly growing on me as she talked. If it should
+come to that,&mdash;that I must remain under his roof! I felt a tingling sense
+of shame and humiliation at the bare idea.</p>
+
+<p>'Of your solemn promise, most solemnly uttered,' she repeated, 'that if I
+were ill you would come and nurse me. I claim that promise, Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is it absolutely necessary that I should come?' I asked, in a distressed
+voice, for all at once life seemed too difficult to me. How had I
+deserved this fresh pain!</p>
+
+<p>In a moment her manner grew more excited.</p>
+
+<p>'Necessary! If you leave me to Etta's tender mercies I shall die. But
+no&mdash;no! you could not be so cruel. They are making me take those horrid
+draughts now, and I know she gives me too much. I get so confused, but it
+is not sleep. My one terror is that I shall say things I do not mean,
+about&mdash;well, never mind that. And then she will say that my brain is
+queer. She has hinted it already, when I was excited at your going away.
+There is nothing too cruel for her to say to me. She hates me, and I do
+not know why.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hush! I cannot have you talk so much,' for her excitement alarmed me.
+'Remember, I am your nurse now,&mdash;a very strict one, too, as you will
+find. Yes, I will keep my promise. I will not leave you, darling.'</p>
+
+<p>'You promise that? You will not go away to-night?'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall not leave you until you are well again,' I returned, with forced
+cheerfulness. But if she knew how keenly I felt my cruel position, how
+sick and trembling I was at heart! What would he think of me? No, I must
+not go into that. Gladys had asked this sacrifice of me. She had thrown
+herself on my compassion. I would not forsake her. 'God knows my
+integrity and innocence of intention. I will not be afraid to do my duty
+to this suffering human creature,' I said to myself. And with this my
+courage revived, and I felt that strength would be given me for all that
+I had to do.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>IN THE TURRET-ROOM</h3>
+
+
+<p>My promise to stay with Gladys soothed her at once, and she lay back on
+her pillows and closed her aching eyes contentedly, while I sat down and
+wrote a hasty note to Mrs. Barton.</p>
+
+<p>When I had finished it, I said quietly that I was going downstairs in
+search of her brother; and when she looked a little frightened at this, I
+made her understand, in as few words as possible, that it was necessary
+for me to obtain his sanction, both as doctor and master of the house,
+and then we should have nothing to fear from Miss Darrell. And when I had
+said this she let me go more willingly.</p>
+
+<p>My errand was not a pleasant one, and I felt very sorry for myself as I
+walked slowly downstairs hoping that I should find Mr. Hamilton alone in
+his study; but they must have lingered longer than usual over dessert,
+for before I reached the hall the dining-room door opened, and they came
+out together; and Miss Darrell paused for a moment under the hall lamp.</p>
+
+<p>She was very much overdressed, as usual, in an <i>eau de Nile</i> gown,
+trimmed with costly lace: her gold bangles jangled as she fanned herself.</p>
+
+<p>'Come out into the garden, Giles,' she said, with a ladylike yawn; 'it is
+so hot indoors. I thought you said that you expected Mr. Cunliffe.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps he will be here by and by,' returned Mr. Hamilton; and then he
+looked up and saw me.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Garston!' he ejaculated, as though he could scarcely believe his
+eyes, and Miss Darrell broke into an angry little laugh; but I took no
+notice of her. I determined to speak out boldly what I had to say.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Hamilton,' I said quickly, 'I have seen Gladys. I am quite shocked
+at her appearance: she certainly looks very ill. If you will allow me,
+I should like to remain and nurse her.'</p>
+
+<p>'But you must allow no such thing, Giles,' interfered his cousin sharply.
+'I have always nursed poor dear Gladys myself, and no one understands her
+as I do.'</p>
+
+<p>'Gladys sent for me just now,' I went on firmly, without taking any
+notice of this speech, 'to beg me to remain with her. She has set her
+heart on my nursing her, and she reminded me of my promise.'</p>
+
+<p>'What promise?' he asked, rather harshly; but I noticed that he looked
+disturbed and ill at ease.</p>
+
+<p>'Some months ago, just before Gladys went to Bournemouth, she asked me to
+make her a promise, that if she were ever ill in this house I would give
+up my work and come and nurse her. She was perfectly well then,&mdash;at
+least, in her ordinary health,&mdash;and I saw no harm in giving her the
+promise. She claims from me now the fulfilment.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very extraordinary,' observed Miss Darrell, in a sneering voice. 'But
+then dear Gladys was always a little odd and romantic. You remember I
+warned you some time ago, Giles, that if we were not careful and firm&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Pshaw!' was the impatient answer, and I continued pleadingly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Gladys seems to me in a weak, nervous state, and I do not think it would
+be wise to thwart her in this. Sick people must be humoured sometimes. I
+think you could trust me to watch over her most carefully.'</p>
+
+<p>'Giles, I will not answer for the consequences if Miss Garston nurses
+Gladys,' interposed Miss Darrell eagerly. 'You have no idea how she
+excites her. They talk, and have mysteries together, and Gladys is always
+more low-spirited when she has seen Miss Garston. You know I have only
+dear Gladys's interest at heart, and in a serious nervous illness like
+this&mdash;' But he interrupted her.</p>
+
+<p>'Etta, this is no affair of yours: you can leave me, if you please, to
+make arrangements for my sister. I am very much obliged to you, Miss
+Garston, for offering to nurse Gladys, but there was no need of all this
+explanation; you might have known, I think, that I was not likely to
+refuse.'</p>
+
+<p>He spoke coldly, and his face looked dark and inflexible, but I could see
+he was watching me. I am sure I perplexed and baffled him that night: as
+I thanked him warmly for his consent, he checked me almost irritably:</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense! the thanks are on our side, as we shall reap the benefit of
+your services. What shall you do about your other patients, may I ask?'</p>
+
+<p>'I will tell you,' I returned, not a bit daunted either by his
+irritability or sternness. In my heart I knew that he was glad that
+I had asked this favour of him. Oh, I understood him too well to be
+afraid of his moods now!</p>
+
+<p>'I must ask you to help me,' I went on. 'Will you kindly send that note
+to Mrs. Barton. It is to beg her to furnish me with all I need.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thornton shall take it at once,' he returned promptly.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you. Now about my poor people. Little Jessie still needs care, and
+Janet will be an invalid for some time. I do not wish them to miss me.'</p>
+
+<p>His face softened; a half-smile came to his lips. 'There is only one
+village nurse,' he said dubiously.</p>
+
+<p>'True, but I think I can find an excellent substitute. Do you remember my
+speaking to you of a young nurse at St. Thomas's who was obliged to leave
+from ill health? She is better now, only not fit for hospital work. I am
+thinking of writing to her, and asking her to occupy my rooms at the
+cottage for a week or two until Gladys is better. Change of air will do
+Miss Watson good, and it will not hurt her to look after Janet and little
+Jessie.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton looked pleased at this suggestion,&mdash;'an excellent idea,'
+and, as though by an afterthought, 'a very kind one. I did not wish to
+add to your burdens, but Janet Coombe is hardly out of the wood yet.'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Darrell tittered scornfully. As I glanced at her, I saw she was
+dragging her gold bangles over her arm until there was a red line on the
+flesh. Her eyes looked dark and glittering, but she was obliged to
+suppress her anger.</p>
+
+<p>'Janet Coombe is only a poor servant. The work is not so attractive to
+Miss Garston, I should think,' she said, in a tone so suggestive that the
+blood rushed to my face. Women know how to stab sometimes. Happily, Mr.
+Hamilton's common sense came to my aid. I quieted down directly at the
+first sound of his voice.</p>
+
+<p>'What makes you so uncharitable, Etta? We all know our village nurse too
+well to believe that insinuation. If Gladys be only nursed with half the
+tenderness that was shown to Janet, I shall be quite content to leave her
+under Miss Garston's care.' Then, turning to me, with something of his
+old cordial manner, 'Well, it is all settled, is it not, that you remain
+here to-night? Is there anything else you wish to say to me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Only one thing,' I replied quietly. 'Will you kindly give orders that
+Gladys's little maid, Chatty, waits upon the sick-room? Leah seems to
+have taken that office upon herself lately, and Gladys has a great
+dislike to her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Really, this passes everything!' exclaimed Miss Darrell angrily. 'What
+has my poor Leah done, to be set aside in this way?'</p>
+
+<p>'She is your maid, is she not, Etta?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but, Giles&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'And Chatty always waits on my sisters. It is certainly not Leah's
+business to wait on the turret-room.'</p>
+
+<p>'Leah,' raising his voice a little, as Leah came downstairs with a tray
+of linen, 'I want to speak to you a moment. Miss Garston has undertaken
+to nurse my sister, and all her orders are to be carried out. Chatty is
+to attend to the sick-room for the future; there is no need for you to
+neglect your mistress.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, sir,' replied the woman civilly; but he did not see the look
+she gave me. I had made an enemy of Leah from that moment: neither she
+nor her mistress would ever forgive me that slight.</p>
+
+<p>'If Miss Garston has no more orders to give me,' observed Miss Darrell,
+with ill-concealed temper, 'I may as well go, for I am rather tired of
+this, Giles.' And she followed Leah, and we could hear them whispering
+in the little passage leading to the housekeeper's room.</p>
+
+<p>'You must not mind Etta's little show of temper,' remarked Mr. Hamilton
+apologetically. 'She is rather put out because Gladys prefers your
+nursing. Between ourselves, she is a little too fussy to suit a nervous
+invalid; but she is kind-hearted and means well. I was rather sorry for
+her just now, but I know how to bring her round.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am no favourite with Miss Darrell,' I returned, wondering secretly at
+his blind infatuation for his cousin.</p>
+
+<p>'No; it is easy to see that you do not understand each other. Etta was
+not quite fair to you just now. That is why I spoke so decidedly. I will
+have no interference with the sick-room: you will have to account to me,
+but to no one else.'</p>
+
+<p>I did not venture to raise my eyes. I was so afraid they might betray me.
+How could I repent my trust in such a man? I felt I could wait cheerfully
+for years, until he chose to break down the barrier between us.</p>
+
+<p>I bade him good-night, after this, and hurried back to Gladys. I had no
+idea that he was following me. As I closed the door, I said, in quite a
+gay tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Well, darling, I always told you your brother was your best friend, and
+he has proved the truth of my words. I knew we could trust him&mdash;' But a
+knock at the door interrupted me. I felt rather confused when he entered,
+for I knew I must have been overheard; but he took no notice, and went
+straight up to Gladys.</p>
+
+<p>'You see, it is to be as you wished,' he said pleasantly, 'and Miss
+Garston has installed herself here as your nurse. Is your mind easier
+now, you foolish child?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, Giles, and I am so much obliged to you; it is so good of you to
+allow it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Humph! I don't see the goodness much; but never mind that now: you must
+promise me to do all Miss Garston tells you, and get well as soon as you
+can. Make up your mind, my dear, that you will try and overcome all these
+nervous fancies.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Giles,' very faintly.</p>
+
+<p>'You have let yourself get rather too low, and so it will be hard work to
+pull you up again; but we mean to do it between us, eh, Miss Garston?'</p>
+
+<p>I told him that I hoped Gladys would soon be better.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; but Rome was not built in a day,' patting her hand: 'we want a
+little time and patience, that is all.' And he was leaving the room, when
+her languid voice recalled him:</p>
+
+<p>'I mean to be good, and give as little trouble as possible,&mdash;and&mdash;and&mdash;I
+should like you to kiss me, Giles.'</p>
+
+<p>I saw a dusky flush come to his face as he stooped and kissed her. I knew
+it was the first time that she had ever voluntarily kissed him since
+Eric's loss.</p>
+
+<p>'Good-night, my dear,' he said, very gently; but he did not look at me as
+he left the room.</p>
+
+<p>I put Gladys to bed after this, with Chatty's help. She was very faint
+and exhausted, and I sat down in the moonlight to watch her. My thoughts
+were busy enough. There would be little sleep for me that night, I knew.
+It was so strange for me to be under that roof,&mdash;so strange and so sweet
+that I should be serving him and his; and then I thought of Uncle Max,
+and how troubled he would be to hear of Gladys's illness, and I
+determined to write to him the next day.</p>
+
+<p>I was rather startled later on, when most of the household had retired to
+rest, to hear a gentle tap at the door.</p>
+
+<p>Of course it was Mr. Hamilton, and I went into the passage, half closing
+the door behind me.</p>
+
+<p>'Is she asleep?' he asked anxiously, as he noticed this action.</p>
+
+<p>'No, not asleep, but quite drowsy. I have given her the draught as you
+wished, but it is singular how she objects to it. She says it only
+confuses her head, and gives her nightmare.'</p>
+
+<p>'We must quiet her by some means,' he returned; and I saw by the light of
+the lamp he carried that his face looked rather grave. 'Perhaps you did
+not know that Etta and I were up with her last night. She was in a
+condition that bordered on delirium.'</p>
+
+<p>'No; I certainly did not know that.'</p>
+
+<p>'She may be better to-night,' he returned quickly: 'her mind is more at
+rest. Poor child! I cannot understand what has brought on this state of
+disordered nerves.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nor I.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is very sad altogether. It is a great relief to me to know you are
+with her. I must have had a professional nurse, for Etta's fussiness was
+driving her crazy. Now, Miss Garston,' in a business-like tone, 'I want
+to know how they have provided for your comfort. Where do you sleep
+to-night?'</p>
+
+<p>I could not suppress a smile, for I knew that there had been no provision
+made for my accommodation: the whole household had metaphorically washed
+their hands of me.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall rest very well on the couch,' I returned, unwilling to disturb
+him.</p>
+
+<p>'Good heavens!' he exclaimed, looking excessively displeased. 'Do you
+mean that Lady Betty's room has not been got ready for you? I told Leah
+myself, as Chatty was in the sick-room; and she certainly understood me.
+This shall be looked into to-morrow. Leah will find I am not to be
+disobeyed with impunity. I thought Lady Betty's room would do so well for
+you, as there is a door of communication, and if you left it open you
+could hear Gladys in a moment.'</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind to-night,' I returned cheerfully. 'I am quite fresh, and
+shall not need much sleep. No doubt the room will be ready for me
+to-morrow.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I suppose it is too late to disturb them now; but I feel very much
+ashamed of our inhospitality.' Then, in rather an embarrassed voice, 'I
+am afraid I must have seemed rather ungracious in my manner downstairs,
+but I am really very grateful to you.'</p>
+
+<p>This was too much for me. 'Please don't talk of being grateful to me, Mr.
+Hamilton,' I returned, rather too impulsively. 'You do not know how glad
+I am to do anything for you&mdash;all.' The word 'all' was added as though by
+an afterthought, and came in a little awkwardly.</p>
+
+<p>There was a sudden gleam in Mr. Hamilton's eyes; he seemed about to
+speak; impetuous words were on his tongue, then he checked himself.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you. Good-night, Nurse Ursula,' he said, very kindly, and I went
+back to Gladys, feeling happier than I had felt since that afternoon when
+he had given me the roses.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys was quieter that night; she slept fitfully and uneasily, and
+moaned a little as though she were conscious of pain, but there was no
+alarming excitement.</p>
+
+<p>Early the next morning I heard them preparing Lady Betty's room, and once
+when I went into the passage in search of Chatty I met Leah coming out
+with a dusting-brush: she looked very sullen, and took no notice of my
+greeting. Chatty helped me arrange my goods and chattels: as we worked
+together she told me confidentially that master had been scolding Leah,
+and had told her she ought to be ashamed of herself, and when Miss
+Darrell had taken her part he had been angry with her too. 'Thornton says
+Miss Darrell has been crying, and has not eaten a mouthful of breakfast,'
+went on Chatty; but I silenced these imprudent communications. It was
+quite evident that I was a bone of contention in the household, and that
+Mr. Hamilton would have some difficulty in subduing Leah's contumacy.</p>
+
+<p>I wrote to Ellen Watson that morning, and soon received a rapturous
+acceptance of my invitation. She would be delighted to come to the
+cottage and to look after my poor people.</p>
+
+<p>'I am very much stronger,' she wrote, 'but I must not go back to the
+hospital for two months: a breath of country air will be delicious, and
+it is so good of you, my dear Miss Garston, to think of me. I am sure
+Mrs. Barton will make me comfortable, and I will do all I can for poor
+Janet Coombe and that dear little burnt child.'</p>
+
+<p>I showed Mr. Hamilton the letter, and while he was reading it Chatty
+brought me word that Uncle Max was waiting to speak to me.</p>
+
+<p>'If you like to go down to him I will wait here until you come back,' he
+said; and I was too glad to avail myself of this offer, for Gladys seemed
+more suffering and restless than usual. I found Max walking up and down
+the drawing-room. As he came forward to meet me his face looked quite old
+and haggard.</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad you have not kept me waiting, Ursula. I sent up that message
+in spite of Leah's telling me that you never left the sick-room.'</p>
+
+<p>'Leah is wrong,' I replied coolly. 'Mr. Hamilton insists on my going in
+the garden for at least half an hour daily, while Chatty takes my place.
+I cannot stay long, Max, but all the same I am glad you sent for me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I felt I must see you,' he returned, rather huskily. 'Letters are so
+unsatisfactory; but it was good of you to write, always so kind and
+thoughtful, my dear.' He paused for a moment as though to recover
+himself. 'She is very ill, Ursula?'</p>
+
+<p>'Very ill.'</p>
+
+<p>'How gravely you speak! Are things worse than you told me? You do not
+mean to tell me there is absolute danger?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no; certainly not; but it is very sad to see her in such a state. Her
+nerves have quite broken down; all these three years have told on her,
+and there seems some fresh trouble on her mind!'</p>
+
+<p>'God forbid!' he returned quickly.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, God forbid, for He alone knows what is burdening the mind of this
+young creature: she is too weak to throw off her nervous fancies. She
+blames herself for harbouring such gloomy thoughts, and it distresses her
+not to be able to control them. The night is her worst time. If we could
+only conquer this sleeplessness! I have sad work with her sometimes.'</p>
+
+<p>I spared Max further particulars: he was harassed and anxious enough.
+I would not harrow up his feelings by telling him how often that feeble,
+piteous voice roused me from my light slumbers; how, hurrying to her
+bedside, I would find Gladys bathed in tears, and cold and trembling in
+every limb, and how she would cling to me, pouring out an incoherent
+account of some vague shadowy terror that was on her.</p>
+
+<p>There were other things I could have told him: how in that semi-delirium
+his name, as well as Etta's, was perpetually on her lips, uttered in a
+tone sometimes tender, but more often reproachful, sometimes in a very
+anguish of regret. Now I understood why she dreaded Etta's presence in
+her room: she feared betraying herself to those keen ears. Often after
+one of these outbursts she would strive to collect her scattered
+faculties.</p>
+
+<p>'Have I been talking nonsense, Ursula?' she would ask, in a tremulous
+voice. 'I have been dreaming, I think, and the pain in my head confuses
+me so: do not let me talk so much.' But I always succeeded in soothing
+her.</p>
+
+<p>If I read her secret, it was safe with me. I must know more before I
+could help either her or him. If she would only get well enough for me to
+talk to her, I knew what to say; and I did all I could to console Max.
+But I could not easily allay his anxiety or my own; it was impossible to
+conceal from him that she was in a precarious state, and that unless the
+power of sleep returned to her there was danger of actual brain-fever; in
+her morbid condition one knew not what to fear. Perfect quiet, patience,
+and tenderness were the only means to be employed. As I moved about the
+cool, dark room, where no uneasy lights and shadows fretted her weakened
+eyes, I could not help remembering the comfortless glare and the hot,
+pungent scents that Miss Darrell had left behind her. Most likely she had
+rustled over the matting in her silk gown, and her hard, metallic voice
+had rasped the invalid's nerves. Doubtless there was hope for her now in
+her brother's skilful treatment, and when I told Max so he went away a
+little comforted.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX</h2>
+
+<h3>WHITEFOOT IS SADDLED</h3>
+
+
+<p>After the first day or so the strangeness and novelty of my
+position wore off, and I settled down to my work in the sick-room.</p>
+
+<p>Chatty waited upon us very nicely; but Miss Darrell never came near us.
+Once a day a formal message was brought by Chatty asking after the
+invalid. I used to think this somewhat unnecessary, as Mr. Hamilton could
+report his sister's progress at breakfast-time.</p>
+
+<p>When I encountered Miss Darrell on my way to the garden I always accosted
+her with marked civility; her manner would be a little repelling in
+return, and she would answer me very coldly. In spite of her outward
+politeness, I think she was a little afraid of me at that time. I always
+felt that a concealed sneer lay under her words. She made it clearly
+understood that she considered that I had forced myself into the house
+for my own purposes. Under these conditions I thought it better to avoid
+these encounters as much as possible.</p>
+
+<p>I saw Uncle Max two or three times. He had timed his visits purposely
+that he might join me in my stroll in the garden. We had made the
+arrangement to meet in this way daily. Max's society and sympathy would
+have been a refreshment to me, but we were obliged to discontinue the
+practice. Max never appeared without Miss Darrell following a few minutes
+afterwards. She would come out of the house, brisk and smiling, in
+<i>grande toilette</i>,&mdash;to take a turn in the shrubberies, as she said.
+Max would look at me and very soon take his leave. At last he told
+me dejectedly that we might as well give it up, as Miss Darrell was
+determined that he should not speak to me alone: so after that I
+contrived to send him daily notes by Chatty, who was always delighted
+to do an errand in the village.</p>
+
+<p>'I can't think what makes Miss Darrell so curious, ma'am,' the girl once
+said to me. 'She asks me every day if I have been down to the vicarage.
+She did it while master was by the other afternoon, and he told her quite
+sharply that it was no affair of hers.'</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind that, Chatty.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but I am afraid she means mischief, ma'am,' persisted Chatty, who
+had a great dislike to Miss Darrell, which she showed by being somewhat
+pert to her, 'for she said in such a queer tone to master, "There, I told
+you so: now you will believe me," and master looked as though he were not
+pleased.'</p>
+
+<p>As I strolled round the garden in Nap's company I often saw Leah
+sitting sewing at her mistress's window: she would put down her work and
+watch me until I was out of sight. I felt the woman hated me, and this
+surveillance was very unpleasant to me. I never felt quite free until
+I reached the kitchen-garden.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton visited his sister's room regularly three times a day. He
+never stayed long: he would satisfy himself about her condition, say a
+few cheerful words to her, and that was all.</p>
+
+<p>His manner to me was grave and professional. Now and then, when he had
+given his directions, he would ask me if there were anything he could do
+for me, and if I were comfortable: and yet, in spite of his reserve and
+guarded looks and words, I felt an atmosphere of protection and comfort
+surrounding me that I had not known since Charlie's death.</p>
+
+<p>Every day I had proofs of his thought for me. The flowers and fruits that
+were sent into the sick-room were for me as well as Gladys. I was often
+touched to see how some taste of mine had been remembered and gratified:
+sometimes Chatty would tell me that master had given orders that such a
+thing should be provided for Miss Garston; and in many other ways he made
+me feel that I was not forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>For some days Gladys continued very ill; she slept fitfully and uneasily,
+waking in terror from some dream that escaped her memory. I used to hear
+her moaning, and be beside her before she opened her eyes. 'It is only a
+nightmare,' I would say to her as she clung to me like a frightened
+child; but it was not always easy to banish the grisly phantoms of a
+diseased and overwrought imagination. The morbid condition of her mind
+was aggravated and increased by physical weakness; at the least exertion
+she had fainting-fits that alarmed us.</p>
+
+<p>She told me more than once that a sense of sin oppressed her; she must be
+more wicked than other people, or she thought Providence would not permit
+her to be so unhappy. Sometimes she blamed herself with influencing Eric
+wrongly: she ought not to have taken his part against his brother. '"He
+that hateth his brother is a murderer." Ursula, there were times, I am
+sure, when I hated Giles.' And with this thought upon her she would beg
+him to forgive her when he next came into the room.</p>
+
+<p>He never seemed surprised at these exaggerated expressions of penitence:
+he treated it all as part of her malady.</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, I will forgive you, my dear,' he would say, feeling her
+pulse. 'Have you taken your medicine, Gladys?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but, Giles, I do feel so wretched about it all! Are you sure that
+you really and truly forgive me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Quite sure,' he returned, smiling at her. 'Now you must shut your eyes,
+like a good child, and go to sleep.' But, though she tried to obey him, I
+could see she was not satisfied: tears rolled down her cheeks from under
+her closed eyelids.</p>
+
+<p>'What is it, my darling?' I asked, kissing her. 'Do you feel more ill
+than usual?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no; it is only this sense of sin. Oh, Ursula, how nice it would be
+to die, and never do anything wrong again!' And so she went on bemoaning
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>I had thought it better to move her into Lady Betty's room. It was a
+large square room opening out of the turret-room, and very light and
+airy. I had a little bed put up for my use, so that I could hear her
+every movement. I told Mr. Hamilton that I could not feel easy to have
+her out of my sight; and he quite agreed with me.</p>
+
+<p>In the daytime we carried her into the turret-room. The little recess
+formed by the circular window made a charming sitting-room, and just held
+Gladys's couch and an easy-chair and a little round table with a basket
+of hot-house flowers on it. Mr. Hamilton declared that we looked very
+cosy when he first found us there.</p>
+
+<p>In the cool of the evening, when Gladys could bear the blind raised, it
+was very pleasant to sit there looking down on the little oak avenue,
+where the girls had set their tea-table that afternoon: we could watch
+the rooks cawing and circling about the elms. Sometimes Mr. Hamilton
+would pass with Nap at his heels and look up at us with a smile. Once a
+great bunch of roses all wet with dew came flying through the open window
+and fell on Gladys's muslin gown. 'Did Giles throw them? Will you thank
+him, Ursula?' she said, raising them in her thin fingers. 'How cool and
+delicious they are?' But when I looked out Mr. Hamilton was not to be
+seen.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Betty wrote very piteous letters begging to be recalled, which Mr.
+Hamilton answered very kindly but firmly. He told her that Gladys
+required perfect quiet, that if she came home she would not be allowed to
+be with her; and when Lady Betty heard that I was nursing her she grew a
+little more content.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys was always more restless and suffering towards evening; 'her bad
+thoughts,' as she called them, came out like bats in the darkness. I
+tried the experiment of singing to her one evening, and I found, to my
+delight, that my voice had a soothing influence: after this I always sang
+to her after she was in bed: I used to take up my station by the window
+and sing softly one song after another, until she was quiet and drowsy.</p>
+
+<p>As I sang I always saw a dark shadow, moving slowly under the oak-trees,
+pacing slowly up and down; sometimes it approached the house and stood
+motionless under the window, but I never took any notice.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, dear Ursula,' Gladys would say when I at last ceased; 'I
+feel more comfortable now.' And after a time I would hear her regular
+breathing and know she was asleep. I shall never forget the relief with
+which I watched her first natural sleep: she had had a restless night, as
+usual, but towards morning she had fallen into a quiet, refreshing sleep,
+which had lasted for three hours.</p>
+
+<p>I had finished my breakfast when I heard her stirring, and hurried in to
+her; to my delight, she spoke to me quite naturally, without a trace of
+nervousness:</p>
+
+<p>'I have had such a lovely sleep, Ursula, and without any bad dreams.
+I feel so refreshed.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am so glad to hear it, dear,' I replied; and, overjoyed at this good
+news, I went out into the passage to find Chatty, for I wanted Mr.
+Hamilton to know at once of this improvement. He had been very anxious
+the previous night, and had talked of consulting with an old friend of
+his who knew Gladys's constitution.</p>
+
+<p>On the threshold I encountered Miss Darrell.</p>
+
+<p>'Were you looking for any one?' she asked coldly.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, for Chatty. I want Mr. Hamilton to know that Gladys has had three
+hours' sleep, and has awakened refreshed and without any nervous
+feelings. Will you be kind enough to tell him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, certainly: not that I attach much importance to such a transient
+improvement. Gladys's case is far too serious for me to be so sanguine.
+I believe you have not nursed these nervous patients before. If Giles had
+taken my advice he would have had a person trained to this special work.'</p>
+
+<p>'Gladys's case does not require that sort of nurse,' I replied quickly.
+'Excuse me, Miss Darrell, but I am anxious that Mr. Hamilton should know
+of his sister's improvement before he goes out. Chatty told me that they
+had sent for him from Abbey Farm.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I believe so,' she replied carelessly. 'Don't trouble yourself Miss
+Garston: I am quite as anxious as yourself that Giles's mind should be
+put at rest. He has had worry enough, poor fellow.'</p>
+
+<p>I was rather surprised and disappointed when, ten minutes afterwards, I
+heard the hall door close, and, hurrying to a window, I saw Mr. Hamilton
+walking very quickly in the direction of Maplehurst. A moment afterwards
+Chatty brought me a message from him. He had been called off suddenly,
+and might not be back for hours. If I wanted him, Atkinson was to take
+one of the horses. He would probably be at Abbey Farm or at Gunter's
+Cottages in the Croft.</p>
+
+<p>This message rather puzzled me. After turning it over in my mind, I went
+in search of Miss Darrell. I found her in the conservatory gathering some
+flowers.</p>
+
+<p>'Did you give my message to Mr. Hamilton?' I asked, rather abruptly. I
+thought she hesitated and seemed a little confused.</p>
+
+<p>'What message? Oh, I remember,&mdash;about Gladys. No, I just missed him: he
+had gone out. But it is of no consequence, is it? I will tell him when he
+comes home.'</p>
+
+<p>I would not trust myself to reply. She must have purposely loitered on
+her way downstairs, hoping to annoy me. He would spend an anxious day,
+for I knew he was very uncomfortable about Gladys: perhaps he would write
+to Dr. Townsend. It was no use speaking to Miss Darrell: she was only too
+ready to thwart me on all occasions. I would take the matter into my own
+hands. I went down to the stables and found Atkinson, and asked him to
+ride over to Abbey Farm and take a note to his master.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope Miss Gladys is not worse, ma'am,' he said civilly, looking rather
+alarmed at his errand; but when I had satisfied him on this point he
+promised to find him as quickly as possible.</p>
+
+<p>'There is only Whitefoot in the stable,' he said. 'Master has both the
+browns out: Norris was to pick him up in the village. But he is quite
+fresh, and will do the job easily.' I wrote my note while Whitefoot was
+being saddled, and then went back to the house. Miss Darrell looked at me
+suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>'I thought I heard voices in the stable-yard,' she said; and I at once
+told her what I had done.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time she seemed utterly confounded.</p>
+
+<p>'You told Atkinson to saddle Whitefoot and go all these miles just to
+carry that ridiculous message! I wonder what Giles will say,' she
+observed indignantly. 'All these years that I have managed his house
+I should never have thought of taking such a liberty.'</p>
+
+<p>This was hard to bear, but I answered her with seeming coolness:</p>
+
+<p>'If Mr. Hamilton thinks I am wrong, he will tell me so. In this house
+I am only accountable to him.' And I walked away with much dignity.</p>
+
+<p>But I knew I had been right when I saw Mr. Hamilton's face that evening,
+for he did not return until seven o'clock. He came up at once, and
+beckoned me into Lady Betty's room.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Miss Garston,' he said gratefully.
+'You have spared me a wretchedly anxious day. A bad accident case at
+Abbey Farm called me off, and I had only time to get my things ready, and
+I was obliged to see the colonel first. If you had not sent me that note
+I should have written to Dr. Townsend. But why did not Chatty bring me a
+message before I went?'</p>
+
+<p>I explained that I had given the message to Miss Darrell.</p>
+
+<p>'That is very strange,' he observed thoughtfully. 'Thornton was helping
+me in the hall when I saw Etta watering her flower-stand. Well, never
+mind; she shall have her lecture presently. Now let us go to Gladys.'</p>
+
+<p>Of course his first look at her told him she was better, and he went
+downstairs contentedly to eat his dinner. After this Gladys made slow but
+steady progress: she gained a little more strength; the habit of sleep
+returned to her; her nights were no longer seasons of terror, leaving her
+dejected and exhausted. Insensibly her thoughts became more hopeful; she
+spoke of other things besides her own feelings, and no longer refused to
+yield to my efforts to cheer her.</p>
+
+<p>I watched my opportunity, and one evening, as we were sitting by the
+window looking out at a crescent moon that hung like a silver bow behind
+the oak-trees, I remarked, with assumed carelessness, that Uncle Max had
+called earlier that day. There was a perceptible start on Gladys's part,
+and she caught her breath for an instant.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean that Mr. Cunliffe often comes?' she asked, in a low voice,
+and turning her long neck aside with a quick movement that concealed her
+face.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, every day. I do not believe that he has missed more than once,
+and then he sent Mr. Tudor. You see your friends have been anxious about
+you, Gladys. I wrote to Max often to tell him exactly what progress you
+were making.'</p>
+
+<p>'It was very kind of him to be so anxious,' she answered slowly, and
+with manifest effort. I thought it best to say no more just then, but to
+leave her to digest these few words. That night was the best she had yet
+passed, and in the morning I was struck by the improvement in her
+appearance; she looked calmer and more cheerful.</p>
+
+<p>Towards mid-day I noticed that she grew a little abstracted, and when
+Uncle Max's bell rang, she looked at me, and a tinge of colour came to
+her face.</p>
+
+<p>'Should you not like to go down and speak to Mr. Cunliffe?' she said
+timidly. 'I must not keep you such a prisoner, Ursula.' But when I
+returned indifferently that another day would do as well, and that I had
+nothing special to say to him, I noticed that she looked disappointed. As
+I never mentioned Miss Darrell's name to her, I could not explain my real
+reason for declining to go down. I was rather surprised when she
+continued in an embarrassed tone, as though speech had grown difficult to
+her,&mdash;she often hesitated in this fashion when anything disturbed her,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I am rather sorry that Etta always sees him alone: one never knows what
+she may say to him. I have begun to distrust her in most things.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not think that it matters much what she says to him,' I returned
+briskly; for it would never do to leave her anxious on this point. 'You
+know I have provided an antidote in the shape of daily notes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Surely you do not write every day,' taking her fan from the table with
+a trembling hand. 'What can you have to say to Mr. Cunliffe about me?'
+And I could see she waited for my answer with suppressed eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, he likes to know how you slept,' I returned carelessly, 'and if you
+are quieter and more cheerful. Uncle Max has such sympathy with people
+who are ill; he is very kind-hearted.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; I never knew any one more so,' she replied gently; but I
+detected a yearning tone in her voice, as though she was longing for his
+sympathy then. We did not say any more, but I thought she was a trifle
+restless that afternoon, and yet she looked happier; she spoke once or
+twice, as though she were tired of remaining upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>'I think I am stronger. Does Giles consider it necessary for me to stop
+up here?' she asked, once. 'If it were not for Etta I should like to be
+in the drawing-room. But no, that would be an end to our peace.' And here
+she looked a little excited. 'But if Giles would let me have a drive.'</p>
+
+<p>I promised to speak to him on the subject of the drive, for I was sure
+that he would hail the proposition most gladly as a sign of returning
+health; but I told her that in my opinion it would be better for her to
+remain quietly in these two pleasant rooms until she was stronger and
+more fit to endure the little daily annoyances that are so trying to a
+nervous invalid.</p>
+
+<p>'When that time comes you will have to part with your nurse,' I went on,
+in a joking tone. But I was grieved to see that at the first hint of my
+leaving her she clung to me with the old alarm visible in her manner.</p>
+
+<p>'You must not say that! I cannot part with you, Ursula!' she exclaimed
+vehemently. 'If you go, you must take me with you.' And it was some time
+before she would let herself be laughed out of her anxious thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>When I revolved all these things in my mind,&mdash;her prolonged delicacy and
+painful sensitiveness, her aversion to her cousin, and her evident dread
+of the future,&mdash;I felt that the time had come to seek a more complete
+understanding on a point that still perplexed me: I must come to the
+bottom of this singular change in her manner to Max. I must know without
+doubt and reserve the real state of her feeling with regard to him and
+her cousin Claude. If, as I had grown to think during these weeks of
+illness, one of these two men, and not Eric, was the chief cause of her
+melancholy, I must know which of these two had so agitated her young
+life. But in my own mind I never doubted which it was.</p>
+
+<p>This was the difficult task I had set myself, and I felt that it would
+not be easy to approach the subject. Gladys was exceedingly reserved,
+even with me; it had cost her an effort to speak to me of Eric, and she
+had never once mentioned her cousin Captain Hamilton's name.</p>
+
+<p>A woman like Gladys would be extremely reticent on the subject of lovers:
+the deeper her feelings, the more she would conceal them. Unlike other
+girls, I never heard her speak in the light jesting way with which others
+mention a love-affair. She once told me that she considered it far too
+sacred and serious to be used as a topic of general conversation. 'People
+do not know what they are talking about when they say such things,' she
+said, in a moved voice: 'there is no reverence, and little reticence,
+nowadays. Girls talk of falling in love, or men felling in love with
+them, as lightly as they would speak of going to a ball. They do not
+consider the responsibility, the awfulness, of such an election, being
+chosen out of a whole worldful of women to be the light and life of a
+man's home. Oh, it hurts me to hear some girls talk!' she finished, with
+a slight shudder.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing the purity and uprightness of this girl's nature, I confess I
+hesitated long in intruding myself into that inner sanctuary that she
+guarded so carefully; but for Max's sake&mdash;poor Max, who grew more
+tired-looking and haggard every day&mdash;I felt it would be cruel to hesitate
+longer.</p>
+
+<p>So one evening, when we were sitting quietly together enjoying the cool
+evening air, I took Gladys's thin hand in mine and asked her if she felt
+well enough for me to talk to her about something that had long troubled
+me, and that I feared speaking to her about, dreading lest I should
+displease her. I thought she looked a little apprehensive at my
+seriousness, but she replied very sweetly, and the tears came into her
+beautiful eyes as she spoke, that nothing I could say or do could
+displease her; that I was so true a friend to her that it would be
+impossible for her to take offence.</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad of that, Gladys dear,' I returned quietly; 'for I have long
+wanted courage to ask you a question. What is the real reason of your
+estrangement from Max?' and then, growing bolder, I whispered in her ear,
+as she shrank from me, 'I do not ask what are your feelings to him, for I
+think I have guessed them,&mdash;unless, indeed, I am wrong, and you prefer
+your cousin Captain Hamilton.' I almost feared that I had been too abrupt
+and awkward when I saw her sudden paleness: she began to tremble like a
+leaf until I mentioned Captain Hamilton's name, and then she turned to me
+with a look of mingled astonishment and indignation.</p>
+
+<p>'Claude? Are you out of your senses, Ursula? Who has put such an idea
+into your head?'</p>
+
+<p>I remembered Uncle Max's injunctions to secrecy, and felt I must be
+careful.</p>
+
+<p>'I thought that it could not be Captain Hamilton,' I returned, rather
+lamely: 'you have never mentioned his name to me.' But she interrupted me
+in a tone of poignant distress, and there was a sudden trouble in her
+eyes, brought there by my mention of Claude.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, this is dreadful!' she exclaimed: 'you come to me and talk about
+Claude, knowing all the time that I have never breathed his name to you.
+Who has spoken it, then? How could such a thought arise in your mind? It
+must be Etta, and we are undone,&mdash;undone!'</p>
+
+<p>'My darling, you must not excite yourself about a mere mistake,' I
+returned, anxious to soothe her. 'I cannot tell you how it came into my
+head; that is my little secret, Gladys, my dear: if you agitate yourself
+at a word we shall never understand each other. I want you to trust me as
+you would trust a dear sister,&mdash;we are sisters in heart, Gladys,'&mdash;but
+here I blushed over my words and wished them unuttered,&mdash;'and to tell me
+exactly what has passed between you and Max.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XL" id="CHAPTER_XL"></a>CHAPTER XL</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TALK IN THE GLOAMING</h3>
+
+
+<p>I heard Gladys repeat my words softly under her breath,&mdash;she seemed to
+say them in a sort of dream,&mdash;'what has passed between you and Max.' And
+then she looked at me a little pitifully, and her lip quivered. 'Oh, if I
+dared to speak! but to you of all persons,&mdash;what would you think of me?
+Could it be right?&mdash;and I have never opened my lips to any one on that
+subject of my own accord; if Lady Betty knows, it is because Etta told
+her. Oh, it was wrong&mdash;cruel of Giles to let her worm the truth out of
+him!'</p>
+
+<p>'If Lady Betty and Miss Darrell know, you might surely trust me,&mdash;your
+friend,' I returned. 'Gladys, you know how I honour reticence in such
+matters; I am the last person to force an unwilling confidence; but there
+are reasons&mdash;no, I cannot explain myself; you must trust me implicitly or
+not at all. I do not think you will ever repent that trust; and for your
+own sake as well as mine I implore you to confide in me.' For a moment
+she looked at me with wide, troubled eyes, then she ceased to hesitate.</p>
+
+<p>'What is it you want to know?' she asked, in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Everything, all that has passed between you and my poor Max, who always
+seems so terribly unhappy. Is it not you who have to answer for that
+unhappiness?'</p>
+
+<p>A pained expression crossed her face.</p>
+
+<p>'It is true that I made him unhappy once, but that is long ago; and men
+are not like us: they get over things. Oh, I must explain it to you, or
+you will not understand. Do not be hard upon me: I have been sorely
+punished,' she sighed; and for a few moments there was silence between
+us. I had no wish to hurry her. I knew her well: she was long in giving
+her confidence, but when once she gave it, it would be lavishly,
+generously, and without stint, just as she would give her love, for
+Gladys was one of those rare creatures who could do nothing meanly or
+by halves.</p>
+
+<p>Presently she began to speak of her own accord:</p>
+
+<p>'You know how good Mr. Cunliffe was to me in my trouble; at least you can
+guess, though you can never really know it. When I was most forlorn and
+miserable I used to feel less wretched and hopeless when he was beside
+me; in every possible way he strengthened and braced me for my daily
+life; he roused me from my state of selfish despondency, put work into my
+hands, and encouraged me to persevere. If it had not been for his help
+and sympathy, I never could have lived through those bitter days when all
+around me believed that my darling Eric had died a coward's death.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do not speak of Eric to-night, dearest,' I observed, alarmed at her
+excessive paleness as she uttered his name.</p>
+
+<p>'No,' with a faint smile at my anxious tone; 'we are talking about some
+one else this evening. Ursula, you may imagine how grateful I was,&mdash;how I
+grew to look upon him as my best friend, how I learned to confide in him
+as though he were a wise elder brother.'</p>
+
+<p>'A brother!&mdash;oh, Gladys!'</p>
+
+<p>'It was the truth,' she went on mournfully: 'no other thought entered my
+mind, and you may conceive the shock when one morning he came to me, pale
+and agitated, and asked me if I could love him well enough to marry him.</p>
+
+<p>'How I recall that morning! It was May, and I had just come in from
+the garden, laden with pink and white May blossoms, and long trails of
+laburnum, and there he was waiting for me in the drawing-room. Every one
+was out, and he was alone.</p>
+
+<p>'I fancied he looked different,&mdash;rather nervous and excited,&mdash;but I never
+guessed the reason until he began to speak, and then I thought I should
+have broken my heart to hear him,&mdash;that I must give him pain who had been
+so good to me. Oh, Ursula! I had never had such cruel work to do as that.</p>
+
+<p>'But I must be true to him as well as myself: this was my one thought. I
+did not love him well enough to be his wife; he had not touched my heart
+in that way; and, as I believed at that time that I could never care
+sufficiently for any man to wish to marry him, I felt that I dared not
+let him deceive himself with any future hopes.'</p>
+
+<p>'You were quite right, my darling. Do not look so miserable. Max would
+only honour you the more for your truthfulness.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but he knew me better than I knew myself,' she whispered. 'When he
+begged to speak to me again I wanted to refuse, but he would not let me.
+He asked me&mdash;and there were tears in his eyes&mdash;not to be so hard on him,
+to let him judge for us both in this one thing. He pressed me so, and he
+looked so unhappy, that I gave way at last, and said that in a year's
+time he might speak again. I remember telling him, as he thanked me very
+gratefully, that I should not consider him bound in any way; that I had
+so little hope to give him that I had no right to hold him to anything;
+if he did not come to me when a year had expired, I should know that he
+had changed. There was a gleam in his eyes as I said this that made me
+feel for the first time the strength and purpose of a man's will. I grew
+timid and embarrassed all at once, and a strange feeling came over me.
+Was I, after all, so certain that I should never love him? I could only
+breathe freely when he left me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, dear, I understand,' I returned soothingly, for she had covered her
+face with her hands, as though overpowered with some recollection.</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula,' she whispered, 'he was right. I had never thought of such
+things. I did not know my own feelings. Before three months were over, I
+knew I could give him the answer he wanted. I regretted the year's delay;
+but for shame, I would have made him understand how it was with me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Could you not have given a sign that your feelings were altered, Gladys?
+it would have been generous and kind of you to have ended his suspense.'</p>
+
+<p>'I tried, but it was not easy; but he must have noticed the change in me.
+If I were shy and embarrassed with him it was because I cared for him so
+much. It used to make me happy only to see him; if he did not speak to
+me, I was quite content to know he was in the room. I used to treasure up
+his looks and words and hoard them in my memory; it did not seem to me
+that any other man could compare with him. You have often laughed at my
+hero-worship, but I made a hero of him.'</p>
+
+<p>I was so glad to hear her say this of my dear Max that tears of joy came
+to my eyes, but I would not interrupt her by a word: she should tell her
+story in her own way.</p>
+
+<p>'Etta had spoken to me long before this. One day when we were sitting
+over our work together, and I was thinking happily about Max&mdash;Mr.
+Cunliffe, I mean.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, call him Max to me,' I burst out, but she drew herself up with
+gentle dignity.</p>
+
+<p>'It was a mistake: you should not have noticed it. I could never call him
+that now.' Poor dear! she had no idea how often she had called him Max in
+her feverish wanderings. 'Well, we were sitting together,&mdash;for Etta was
+nice to me just then, and I did not avoid her company as I do now,&mdash;when
+she startled me by bursting into tears and reproaching me for not having
+told her about Mr. Cunliffe's offer, and leaving her to hear it from
+Giles; and then she said how disappointed they all were at my refusal,
+and was I really sure that I could not marry him?</p>
+
+<p>'I was not so much on my guard then as I am now, and, though I blamed
+Etta for much of the home unhappiness, I did not know all that I have
+learned since. You have no idea, either, how fascinating and persuasive
+she can be: her influence over Giles proves that. Well, little by little
+she drew from me that I was not so indifferent to Mr. Cunliffe as she
+supposed, and that in a few months' time he would speak to me again.</p>
+
+<p>'She seemed very kind about it, and said over and over again how glad she
+was to hear this; and when I begged her not to hint at my changed
+feelings to Giles, she agreed at once, and I will do her the justice to
+own that she has kept her word in this. Giles has not an idea of the
+truth.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nevertheless, I wish you had kept your own counsel, Gladys.'</p>
+
+<p>'You could not wish it more than I do; but indeed I said very little. I
+think my manner told her more than my words, for I cannot remember really
+saying anything tangible. I knew she plied me with questions, and when I
+did not answer them she laughed and said that she knew.</p>
+
+<p>'I have paid dearly for my want of caution, for I have been in bondage
+ever since. My tacit admission that I cared for Mr. Cunliffe has given
+Etta a cruel hold over me; my thoughts do not seem my own. She knows how
+to wound me: one word from her makes me shrink into myself. Sometimes I
+think she takes a pleasure in my secret misery,&mdash;that she was only acting
+a part when she pretended to sympathise with me. Oh, what a weak fool I
+have been, Ursula, to put myself in the power of such a woman!'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Gladys!' I said, kissing her; and she dashed away her indignant
+tear, and hurried on.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, let me finish all the miserable story. There is not much to say, but
+that little is humiliating. It was soon after this that I noticed a
+change in Mr. Cunliffe's manner. Scarcely perceptible at first, it became
+daily more marked. He came less often, and when he came he scarcely spoke
+to me. It was then that Etta began to torment me, and, under the garb of
+kindness, to say things that I could not bear. She asked me if Mr.
+Cunliffe were not a little distant in his manners to me. She did not wish
+to distress me, but there certainly was a change in him. No, I must not
+trouble myself, but people were talking. When a vicar was young and
+unmarried, and as fascinating as Mr. Cunliffe, people would talk.</p>
+
+<p>'What did they say? Ah, that was no matter, surely. Well, if I would
+press her, two or three busybodies had hinted that a certain young lady,
+who should be nameless, was rather too eager in her pursuit of the vicar.</p>
+
+<p>'"Such nonsense, Gladys, my dear," she went on, as I remained dumb and
+sick at heart at such an imputation. "Of course I told them it was only
+your enthusiasm for good works. 'She meets him in her district and at the
+mothers' meeting; and what can be the harm of that?' I said to them. 'And
+of course she cannot refuse to sing at the penny readings and people's
+entertainments when she knows that she gives such pleasure to the poor
+people, and it is rather hard that she should be accused of wanting to
+display her fine voice.' Oh, you may be sure that I took your part. Of
+course it is a pity folks should believe such things, but I hope I made
+them properly ashamed of themselves."</p>
+
+<p>'You may imagine how uneasy these innuendoes made me. You know my
+sensitiveness, and how prone I am to exaggerate things. It seemed to
+me that more lay behind the margin of her words; and I was not wrong.</p>
+
+<p>'In a little while there were other things hinted to me, but very gently.
+Ah, she was kind enough to me in those days. Did I not think that I was a
+little too imprudent and unreserved in my manner to Mr. Cunliffe? She
+hated to make me uncomfortable, and of course I was so innocent that I
+meant no harm; but men were peculiar, especially a man like Mr. Cunliffe:
+she was afraid he might notice my want of self-control.</p>
+
+<p>'"You do not see yourself, Gladys," she said, once; "a child would find
+out that you are over head and ears in love with him. Perhaps it would
+not matter so much under other circumstances, but I confess I am a little
+uneasy. His manner was very cold and strange last night: he seemed afraid
+to trust himself alone with you. Do be careful, my dear. Suppose, after
+all, his feelings are changed, and that he fears to tell you so?"</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula, can you not understand the slow torture of these days and weeks,
+the first insidious doubts, the increasing fears, that seemed to be
+corroborated day by day? Yes, it was not my fancy; Etta was right; he
+was certainly changed; he no longer loved me.</p>
+
+<p>'In desperation I acted upon her advice, and resigned my parish work. It
+seemed to me that I was parting with the last shred of my happiness when
+I did so. I made weak health my excuse, and indeed I was far from well;
+but I had the anguish of seeing the unspoken reproach in Mr. Cunliffe's
+eyes: he thought me cowardly, vacillating; he was disappointed in me.</p>
+
+<p>'It was the end of April by this time, and in a week or two the day would
+come when he would have to speak to me again. Would you believe it?&mdash;but
+no, you could not dream that I was so utterly mad and foolish,&mdash;but in
+spite of all this wretchedness I still hoped. The day came and passed,
+and he never came near me, and the next day, and the next; and then I
+knew that Etta was right,&mdash;his love for me was gone.'</p>
+
+<p>'You believed this, Gladys?' but I dared not say more: my promise to Max
+fettered me.</p>
+
+<p>'How could I doubt it?' she returned, looking at me with dry, miserable
+eyes; and I seemed to realise then all her pain and humiliation. 'His not
+coming to me at the appointed time was to be a sign between us that he
+had changed his mind. Did I not tell him so with my own lips? did I not
+say to him that he was free as air, and that no possible blame could
+attach itself to him if he failed to come? Do you suppose that I did
+not mean those words?'</p>
+
+<p>'Could you not have given him the benefit of a doubt?' I returned.
+'Perhaps your manner too was changed and made him lose hope: the
+resignation of all your work in the parish must have discouraged him,
+surely.'</p>
+
+<p>'Still, he would have come to me and told me so,' she replied quickly.
+'He is not weak or wanting in moral courage: if he had not changed to me
+he would have come.</p>
+
+<p>'I have never had hope since that day,' she went on mournfully. 'He is
+very kind to me,&mdash;very; but it is only the kindness of a friend. He tries
+to hide from me how much he is disappointed in me, how I have failed to
+come up to his standard; but of course I see it. But for Etta I should
+have resumed my work. You were present when he nearly persuaded me to do
+so; I was longing then to please him; I think it would be a consolation
+to me if I could do something, however humble, to help him; but Etta
+always prevents me from doing so. She has taken all my work, and I do not
+think she wants to give it up, and she makes me ready to sink through the
+floor with the things she says. I dare not open my lips to Mr. Cunliffe
+in her presence; she always says afterwards how anxious I looked, or how
+he must have noticed my agitation: if I ever came down to see you,
+Ursula, she used to declare angrily that I only went in the hope of
+meeting him. She thinks nothing of telling me that I am so weak that she
+must protect me in spite of myself, and sometimes she implies that he
+sees it all and pities me, and that he has hinted as much to her. Oh,
+Ursula, what is the matter?' for I had pushed away my chair and was
+walking up and down the room, unable to endure my irritated feelings.
+She had suffered all this ignominy and prolonged torture under which her
+nerves had given way, and now Max's ridiculous scruples hindered me from
+giving her a word of comfort. Why could I not say to her, 'You are wrong:
+you have been deceived; Max has never swerved for one instant from his
+love to you?' And yet I must not say it.</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot sit down! I cannot bear it!' I exclaimed recklessly, quite
+forgetting how necessary it was to keep her quiet; but she put out her
+hand to me with such a beautiful sad smile.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, you must sit down and listen to what I have to say: I will not have
+you so disturbed about this miserable affair, dear. The pain is better
+now; one cannot suffer in that way forever. I do not regret that I have
+learned to love Max, even though that love is to bring me unhappiness in
+this world. He is worthy of all I can give him, and one day in the better
+life what is wrong will be put right; I always tell myself this when I
+hear people's lives are disappointed: my illness has taught me this.'</p>
+
+<p>I did not trust myself to reply, and then all at once a thought came to
+me: 'Gladys, when I mentioned Captain Hamilton's name just now&mdash;I mean at
+the commencement of our conversation&mdash;why did you seem so troubled? He is
+nothing to you, and yet the very mention of his name excited you. This
+perplexes me.'</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated for a moment, as though she feared to answer: 'I know I can
+trust you, Ursula; but will it be right to do so? I mean, for other
+people's sake. But, still, if Etta be talking about him&mdash;' She paused,
+and seemed absorbed in some puzzling problem.</p>
+
+<p>'You write to him very often,' I hazarded at last, for she did not seem
+willing to speak.</p>
+
+<p>'Who told you that?' she returned quickly. 'Claude is my cousin,&mdash;at
+least step-cousin,&mdash;but we are very intimate; there can be no harm in
+writing to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, of course not: but if people misconstrue your correspondence?'</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot help that,' rather despondently; 'and I do not see that it
+matters now; but still I will tell you, Ursula. Claude is in love with
+Lady Betty.'</p>
+
+<p>'With Lady Betty?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, and Giles does not know. Etta did not for a long time, but she
+found out about it, and since then poor Lady Betty has had no peace. You
+see the poor children consider themselves engaged, but Lady Betty will
+not let Claude speak to Giles until he has promotion. She has got an idea
+that he would not allow of the engagement; it sounds wrong, I feel that;
+but in our unhappy household things are wrong.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Miss Darrell knows?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but we never could tell how she found it out: Claude corresponds
+with me, and Lady Betty only puts in an occasional letter; she is so
+dreadfully frightened, poor little thing! For fear her secret should be
+discovered. We think that Etta must have opened one of my letters;
+anyhow, she knows all there is to know, and she holds her knowledge as a
+rod over the poor child. She has promised to keep her counsel and not
+tell Giles; but when she is in one of her tempers she threatens to speak
+to him. Then she is always hinting things before him just to tease or
+punish Lady Betty, but happily he takes no notice. When you said what you
+did I was afraid she had made up her mind to keep silence no longer.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why do you think your brother would object to Captain Hamilton?' I
+asked, trying to conceal my relief at her words.</p>
+
+<p>'He would object to the long concealment,' she returned gravely. 'But
+from the first I wanted Lady Betty to be open about it; but nothing would
+induce her to let Claude write to him. Our only plan now is to wait for
+Claude to speak to him when he arrives in November. Nothing need be said
+about the past: Claude has been wounded, and will get promotion, and
+Giles thinks well of him.'</p>
+
+<p>She seemed a little weary by this time, and our talk had lasted long
+enough; but there was still one thing I must ask her.</p>
+
+<p>'Gladys, you said you trusted me just now. I am going to put that trust
+to the proof. All that has passed between us is sacred, and shall never
+cross my lips. On my womanly honour I can promise you that; but I make
+one reservation,&mdash;what you have just told me about Captain Hamilton.'</p>
+
+<p>She looked at me with an expression of incredulous alarm.</p>
+
+<p>'What can you mean, Ursula? Surely not to repeat a single word about
+Claude?'</p>
+
+<p>'I only mean to mention to one person, with whom the knowledge will be as
+safe as it will be with me, that Lady Betty is engaged to your cousin
+Claude.'</p>
+
+<p>'You will tell Mr. Cunliffe,' she replied, becoming very pale again. 'I
+forbid it, Ursula!' But I hindered all further remonstrance on her part,
+by throwing my arms round her and begging her with tears in my eyes, and
+with all the earnestness of which I was capable, to trust me as I would
+trust her in such a case.</p>
+
+<p>'Listen to me,' I continued imploringly. 'Have I ever failed or
+disappointed you? have I ever been untrue to you in word or deed? Do
+you think I am a woman who would betray the sacred confidence of another
+woman?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, of course not; but&mdash;' Here my hand resolutely closed her lips.</p>
+
+<p>'Then say to me, "I trust you, Ursula, as I would trust my own soul. I
+know no word would pass your lips that if I were standing by you I should
+wish unuttered." Say this to me, Gladys, and I shall know you love me.'</p>
+
+<p>She trembled, and turned still paler.</p>
+
+<p>'Why need he know it? What can he have to do with Lady Betty?' she said
+irresolutely.</p>
+
+<p>'Leave that to me,' was my firm answer: 'I am waiting for you to say
+those words, Gladys.' Then she put down her head on my shoulder, weeping
+bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, yes, I will trust you. In the whole world I have only you, Ursula,
+and you have been good to me.' And, as I soothed and comforted her, she
+clung to me like a tired child.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLI" id="CHAPTER_XLI"></a>CHAPTER XLI</h2>
+
+<h3>'AT FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING'</h3>
+
+
+<p>I passed a wakeful and anxious night, pondering over this strange recital
+that seemed to me to corroborate Max's account. I had no doubt in my own
+mind as to the treachery that had alienated these two hearts. I knew too
+well the subtle power of the smooth false tongue that had done this
+mischief; but the motive for all this evil-doing baffled me. 'What is her
+reason for trying to separate them?' I asked myself, but always
+fruitlessly. 'Why does she dislike this poor girl, who has never harmed
+her? Why does she render her life miserable? It is she who has sown
+discord between Mr. Hamilton and myself. Ah, I know that well, but I am
+powerless to free either him or myself at present. Still, one can detect
+a motive for that. She has always disliked me, and she is jealous of her
+position. If Mr. Hamilton married she could not remain in his house; no
+wife could brook such interference. She knows this, and it is her
+interest to prevent him from marrying. All this is clear enough; but
+in the case of poor Gladys?' But here again was the old tangle and
+perplexity.</p>
+
+<p>I was not surprised that Gladys slept little that night: no doubt
+agitating thoughts kept her restless. Towards morning she grew quieter,
+and sank into a heavy sleep that I knew would last for two or three
+hours. I had counted on this, and had laid my plan accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>I must see Uncle Max at once, and she must not know that I had seen him.
+In her weak state any suspense must be avoided. The few words that I
+might permit myself to say to him must be spoken without her knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>I knew that in the summer Max was a very early riser. He would often be
+at work in his garden by six, and now and then he would start for a long
+country walk,&mdash;'just to see Dame Earth put the finishing-touches to her
+toilet,' he would say. But five had not struck when I slipped into
+Chatty's room half dressed. The girl looked at me with round sleepy eyes
+as I called her in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Chatty, it is very early, not quite five, but I want you to get up and
+dress yourself as quietly as you can and come into the turret-room. I am
+going out, and I do not want to wake anybody, and you understand the
+fastenings of the front door. I am afraid I should only bungle at them.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are going out, ma'am!' in an astonished voice. Chatty was thoroughly
+awake now.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I am sorry to disturb you, but I do not want Miss Gladys to miss
+me. I shall not be long, but it is some business that I must do.' And
+then I crept back to the turret-room.</p>
+
+<p>Leah slept in a little room at the end of the passage, and I was very
+unwilling that any unusual sound should reach her ears. Chatty seemed
+to share this feeling, for when she joined me presently she was carrying
+her shoes in her hands. 'I can't help making a noise,' she said
+apologetically; 'and so I crept down the passage in my stockings. If
+you are ready, ma'am, I will come and let you out.'</p>
+
+<p>I stood by, rather nervously, as Chatty manipulated the intricate
+fastenings. I asked her to replace them as soon as I had gone, and to
+come down in about half an hour and open the door leading to the garden.
+'I will return that way, and they will only think I have taken an early
+stroll,' I observed. I was rather sorry to resort to this small
+subterfuge before Chatty, but the girl had implicit trust in me, and
+evidently thought no harm; she only smiled and nodded; and as I lingered
+for a moment on the gravel path I heard the bolt shoot into its place.</p>
+
+<p>It was only half-past five, and I walked on leisurely. I had not been
+farther than the garden for three weeks, and the sudden sense of freedom
+and space was exhilarating.</p>
+
+<p>It was a lovely morning. A dewy freshness seemed on everything; the birds
+were singing deliciously; the red curtains were drawn across the windows
+of the Man and Plough; a few white geese waddled slowly across the green;
+some brown speckled hens were feeding under the horse-trough; a goat
+browsing by the roadside looked up, quite startled, as I passed him,
+and butted slowly at me in a reflective manner. There was a scent of
+sweet-brier, of tall perfumy lilies and spicy carnations from the
+gardens. I looked at the windows of the houses I passed, but the blinds
+were drawn, and the bees and the flowers were the only waking things
+there. The village seemed asleep, until I turned the corner, and there,
+coming out of the vicarage gate, was Uncle Max himself. He was walking
+along slowly, with his old felt hat in his hand, reading his little
+Greek Testament as he walked, and the morning sun shining on his
+uncovered head and his brown beard.</p>
+
+<p>He did not see me until I was close to him, and then he started, and an
+expression of fear crossed his face.</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula, my dear, were you coming to the vicarage? Nothing is wrong,
+I hope?' looking at me anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>'Wrong! what should be wrong on such a morning?' I returned playfully.
+'Is it not delicious? The air is like champagne; only champagne never had
+the scent of those flowers in it. The world is just a big dewy bouquet.
+It is good only to be alive on such a morning.'</p>
+
+<p>Max put his Greek Testament in his pocket and regarded me dubiously.</p>
+
+<p>'Were you not coming to meet me, then? It is not a quarter to six yet.
+Rather early for an aimless stroll, is it not, my dear?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, I was coming to meet you,' I returned carelessly. 'I thought you
+would be at work in the garden. Max, you are eying me suspiciously: you
+think I have something important to tell you. Now you must not be
+disappointed; I have very little to say, and I cannot answer questions;
+but there is one thing, I have found out all you wish to know about
+Captain Hamilton.'</p>
+
+<p>It was sad to see the quick change in his face,&mdash;the sudden cloud that
+crossed it at the mention of the man whom he regarded as his rival. He
+did not speak; not a question came from his lips; but he listened as
+though my next word might be the death-warrant to his hopes.</p>
+
+<p>'Max, do not look like that: there is no cause for fear. It is a great
+secret, and you must never speak of it, even to me,&mdash;but Lady Betty is
+engaged to her cousin Claude.'</p>
+
+<p>For a moment he stared at me incredulously. 'Impossible! you must have
+been deceived,' I heard him mutter.</p>
+
+<p>'On the contrary, I leave other people to be duped,' was my somewhat cool
+answer. 'You need not doubt my news: Gladys is my informant: only, as I
+have just told you, it is a great secret. Mr. Hamilton is not to know
+yet, and Gladys writes most of the letters. Poor little Lady Betty is in
+constant terror that she will be found out, and they are waiting until
+Captain Hamilton has promotion and comes home in November.'</p>
+
+<p>He had not lost one word that I said: as he stood there, bareheaded, in
+the morning sunshine that was tingeing his beard with gold, I heard his
+low, fervent 'Thank God! then it was not that;' but when he turned to me
+his face was radiant, his eyes bright and vivid; there was renewed hope
+and energy in his aspect.</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula, you have come like the dove with the olive-branch. Is this
+really true? It was good of you to come and tell me this.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not see the goodness, Max.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, perhaps not; but you have made me your debtor. I like to owe this
+to you,&mdash;my first gleam of hope. Now, you must tell me one thing. Does
+Miss Darrell know of this engagement?'</p>
+
+<p>'She does.'</p>
+
+<p>'Stop a moment: I feel myself getting confused here. I am to ask no
+questions: you can tell me nothing more. But I must make this clear to
+myself: How long has she known, Ursula? a day? a week?'</p>
+
+<p>'Suppose you substitute the word months,' I observed scornfully. 'I know
+no dates, but Miss Darrell has most certainly been acquainted with her
+cousin's engagement for months.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, this is worse than I thought,' he returned, in a troubled tone.
+'This is almost too terrible to believe. She has known all I suffered on
+that man's account, and yet she never undeceived me. Can women be so
+cruel? Why did she not come to me and say frankly, "I have made a
+mistake; I have unintentionally misled you: it is Lady Betty, not Gladys,
+who is in love with her cousin"? Good heavens! to leave me in this
+ignorance, and never to say the word that would put me out of my misery!'</p>
+
+<p>I was silent, though silence was a torture to me. Even, now the extent of
+Miss Darrell's duplicity had not clearly dawned on him. He complained
+that she had left him to suffer through ignorance of the truth; but the
+idea had not yet entered his mind that possibly she had deceived him from
+the first. 'Oh, the stupidity and slowness of these honourable men where
+a woman is concerned!' I groaned to myself; but my promise to Gladys kept
+me silent.</p>
+
+<p>'It was too bad of her, was it not?' he said, appealing to me for
+sympathy; but I turned a deaf ear to this.</p>
+
+<p>'Max, confess that you were wrong not to have taken my advice and gone
+down to Bournemouth: you might have spared yourself months of suspense.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean&mdash;' And then he reddened and stroked his beard nervously; but
+I finished his sentence for him: he should not escape what I had to say
+to him.</p>
+
+<p>'It is so much easier to come to an understanding face to face; but you
+would not take my advice, and the opportunity is gone. Gladys is in the
+turret-room: you could not gain admittance to her without difficulty:
+what you have to say must be said by letter; but you might trust that
+letter to me, Max.'</p>
+
+<p>He understood me in a moment. I could see the quick look of joy in his
+eyes. I had not betrayed Gladys, I had adhered strictly to my word that I
+would only speak of Lady Betty's engagement; and with his usual delicacy
+Max had put no awkward questions to me: he had respected my scruples, and
+kept his burning curiosity to himself. But he would not have been a man
+if he had not read some deeper meaning under my silence: he told me
+afterwards that the happy look in my eyes told him the truth.</p>
+
+<p>So he merely said very quietly, 'You were right, and I was wrong, Ursula:
+I own my fault. But I will write now: I owe Miss Hamilton some
+explanation. When the letter is ready, how am I to put it into your
+hands?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh,' I answered in a matter-of-fact way, as though we were speaking of
+some ordinary note, and it was not an offer of marriage from a penitent
+lover, 'when you have finished talking to Miss Darrell,&mdash;you will enjoy
+her conversation, I am sure, Max; it will be both pleasant and
+profitable,&mdash;you might mention casually that there was something you
+wanted to say to your niece Ursula, and would she kindly ask that young
+person to step down to you for a minute? and then, you see, that little
+bit of business will be done.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I see; but&mdash;' but here Max hesitated&mdash;'but the answer, Ursula?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, the answer!' in an off-hand manner; 'you must not be looking for
+that yet. My patient must not be hurried or flurried: you must give
+her plenty of time. In a day or two&mdash;well, perhaps, I might find an
+early stroll conducive to my health; these mornings are so beautiful;
+and&mdash;Nonsense, Max! I would do more than this for you'; for quiet,
+undemonstrative Max had actually taken my hand and lifted it to his lips
+in token of his gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>After this we walked back in the direction of Gladwyn, and nothing more
+was said about the letter. We listened to the rooks cawing from the elms,
+and we stood and watched a lark rising from the long meadow before
+Maplehurst and singing as though its little throat would burst with its
+concentrated ecstasy of song; and when I asked Max if he did not think
+the world more beautiful than usual that morning, he smiled, and suddenly
+quoted Tennyson's lines, in a voice musical with happiness:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'All the land in flowery squares,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beneath a broad and equal-flowing wind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Smelt of the coming summer, as one large cloud<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Drew downward; but all else of heaven was pure<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Up to the sun, and May from verge to verge,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And May with me from heel to heel.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>'Yes, but, Max, it is July now. The air is too mellow for spring. Your
+quotation is not quite apt.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you are realistic; but it fits well enough. Do you not remember how
+the poem goes on?</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'The garden stretches southward. In the midst<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A cedar spread its dark-green layers of shrub.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The garden-glasses shone, and momently<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The twinkling laurel scattered silver lights.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I always think of Gladwyn when I read that description.'</p>
+
+<p>I laughed mischievously: 'I am sorry to leave you just as you are in a
+poetical vein; but I must positively go in. Good-bye, Max,' I felt I had
+lingered a little too long when I saw the blinds raised in Mr. Hamilton's
+study. But apparently the room was empty. I sauntered past it leisurely,
+and walked down the asphalt path. On my return I picked one or two roses,
+wet with dew. As I raised my head from gathering them I saw Leah standing
+at the side door watching me.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it was you,' she grumbled. 'I thought one of those girls had left
+the door unlocked. A pretty piece of carelessness that would have been
+to reach the master's ears! You are out early, ma'am.'</p>
+
+<p>I was somewhat surprised at these remarks, for Leah had made a point of
+always passing me in sullen silence since I had refused her admittance
+into the sick-room. Her manner was hardly civil now, but I thought it
+best to answer her pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Leah, I have taken my stroll early. It was very warm last night,
+and I did not sleep well. There is nothing so refreshing as a morning
+walk after a bad night. I am going to take these roses to Miss Gladys.'
+But she tossed her head and muttered something about people being mighty
+pleasant all of a sudden. And, seeing her in this mood, I walked away.
+She was a bad-tempered, coarse-natured woman, and I could not understand
+why Mr. Hamilton seemed so blind to her defects. 'I suppose he never sees
+her; that is one reason,' I thought, as I carried up my roses.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys was still asleep. I had finished my breakfast, and had helped
+Chatty arrange the turret-room for the day, when I heard the long-drawn
+sigh that often preluded Gladys's waking. I hastened to her side, and
+found her leaning on her elbow looking at my roses.</p>
+
+<p>'They used to grow in the vicarage garden,' she said wistfully. 'Dark
+crimson ones like these. I have been dreaming.' And then she stopped and
+flung herself back wearily on her pillow. 'Why must one ever wake from
+such dreams?' she finished, with the old hopeless ring in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>'What was the dream, dear?' I asked, smoothing her hair caressingly. It
+was fine, soft hair, like an infant's, and its pale gold tint, without
+much colour or gloss, always reminded me of baby hair. I have heard
+people find fault with it. But when it was unbound and streaming in wavy
+masses over her shoulders it was singularly beautiful. She used to laugh
+sometimes at my admiration of her straw-coloured tresses, or lint-white
+locks, as she called them. But indeed there was no tint that quite
+described the colour of Gladys's hair.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I was walking in some fool's paradise or other. There were roses in
+it like these. Well, another blue day is dawning, Ursula, and has to be
+lived through somehow. Will you help me to get up now?' But, though she
+tried after this to talk as usual, I could see the old restlessness was
+on her. A sort of feverish reaction had set in. She could settle to
+nothing, take pleasure in nothing; and I was not surprised that Mr.
+Hamilton grumbled a little when he paid his morning visit.</p>
+
+<p>'How is this? You are not quite so comfortable to-day, Gladys,' he asked,
+in a dissatisfied tone. 'Is your head aching again?'</p>
+
+<p>She reluctantly pleaded guilty to the headache. Not that it was much, she
+assured him; but I interrupted her.</p>
+
+<p>'The fact is, she sat up too late last night, and I let her talk too
+much and over-exert herself.' For I saw he was determined to come to the
+bottom of this.</p>
+
+<p>'I think the nurse was to blame there,' he returned, darting a quick,
+uneasy look at me. I knew what he was thinking: Miss Darrell's speech,
+that Miss Garston always excited Gladys, must have come into his mind.</p>
+
+<p>'If the nurse deserves blame she will take it meekly,' I replied. 'I know
+I was wrong to let her talk so much. I must enforce extra quiet to-day.'
+And then he said no more. I do not think he found it easy to give me the
+scolding that I deserved. And, after all, I had owned my fault.</p>
+
+<p>I had just gone out in the passage an hour later, to carry away a bowl of
+carnations that Gladys found too strong in the room, when I heard Uncle
+Max's voice in the hall. The front door was open, and he had entered
+without ringing. I was glad of this. The door of the turret-room was
+closed, and Gladys would not hear his voice. I should manage to slip
+down without her noticing the fact.</p>
+
+<p>So I busied myself in Lady Betty's room until I heard the drawing-room
+door open and close again, and I knew Miss Darrell was coming in search
+of me. I went out to meet her, with Gladys's empty luncheon-tray in my
+hands. I thought she looked rather cross and put out, as though her
+interview with Uncle Max had disappointed her.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Cunliffe is in the drawing-room, and he would like to speak to you
+for a moment.' she said, in a voice that showed me how unwilling she was
+to bring me the message. 'I told him that you never cared to be disturbed
+in the morning, as you were so busy; but he was peremptory.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am never too busy to see Uncle Max: he knows that,' I returned
+quickly. 'Will you kindly allow me a few moments alone with him?' for she
+was actually preparing to follow me, but after this request she retired
+sulkily into her own room.</p>
+
+<p>I found Max standing in the middle of the room, looking anxiously towards
+the door: the moment it closed behind me he put a thick white envelope in
+my hand.</p>
+
+<p>'There it is, Ursula,' he said nervously: 'will you give it to her as
+soon as possible? I have been literally on thorns the last quarter of an
+hour. Miss Darrell would not take any of my hints that I wished to see
+you: so I was obliged at last to say that I could not wait another
+moment, and that I must ask her to fetch you at once.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Max! I can imagine your feelings; but I have it safe here,' tapping
+my apron pocket. 'But you must not go just yet.' And I beckoned him
+across the room to the window that overlooked a stiff prickly shrub.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at me in some surprise. 'We are alone, Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know: but the walls have ears in this house: one is never safe
+near the conservatory: there are too many doors. Tell me, Max, how have
+you got on with Miss Darrell this morning?'</p>
+
+<p>'I was praying hard for patience all the time,' he replied, half
+laughing. 'It was maddening to see her sitting there so cool and crisp
+in her yellow tea-gown&mdash;well, what garment was it?' as I uttered a
+dissenting ejaculation: 'something flimsy and aesthetic. I thought her
+smooth sentences would never stop.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did she notice any change in your manner to her?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid so, for I saw her look at me quite uneasily more than once.
+I could not conceal that I was terribly bored. I have no wish to be
+discourteous to a lady, especially to one of my own church workers; but
+after what has passed I find it very difficult to forgive her.'</p>
+
+<p>This was strong language on Max's part. I could see that as a woman he
+could hardly tolerate her, but he could not bring himself to condemn her
+even to me. He hardly knew yet what he had to forgive: neither he nor
+Gladys had any real idea of the treachery that had separated them.</p>
+
+<p>Max would not stay many minutes, he was so afraid of Miss Darrell coming
+into the room again. I did rather an imprudent thing after that. Max was
+going to the Maberleys', for the colonel was seriously ill, so I begged
+him to go the garden way, and I kept him for a moment under the window of
+the turret-room.</p>
+
+<p>I saw him glance up eagerly, almost hungrily, but the blinds were
+partially down, and there was only a white curtain flapping in the summer
+breeze.</p>
+
+<p>But an unerring instinct told me that the sound of Max's voice would be a
+strong cordial to the invalid, it was so long since she had heard or seen
+him. As we sauntered under the oak-trees I knew Gladys would be watching
+us.</p>
+
+<p>On my return to the room I found her sitting bolt upright in her
+arm-chair, grasping the arms; there were two spots of colour on her
+cheeks; she looked nervous and excited.</p>
+
+<p>'I saw you walking with him, Ursula; he looked up, but I am glad he could
+not see me. Did&mdash;did he send me any message?' in a faltering voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, he sent you this.' And I placed the thick packet on her lap. 'Miss
+Hamilton,'&mdash;yes, it was her own name: he had written it. I saw her look
+at it, first incredulously, then with dawning hope in her eyes; but
+before her trembling hands could break the old-fashioned seal with which
+he had sealed it I had noiselessly left the room.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLII" id="CHAPTER_XLII"></a>CHAPTER XLII</h2>
+
+<h3>DOWN THE PEMBERLEY ROAD</h3>
+
+
+<p>Three-quarters of an hour had elapsed before I ventured into the room
+again; but at the first sound of my footsteps Gladys looked up, and
+called to me in a voice changed and broken with happiness.</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula, dear Ursula, come here.' And as I knelt down beside her and put
+my arms round her she laid her cheek against my shoulder: it was wet with
+tears.</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula, I am so happy. Do you know that he loves me, that he has loved
+me all through these years? You must not see what he says; it is only for
+my eyes; it is too sweet and sacred to be repeated; but I never dreamt
+that any one could care for me like that.'</p>
+
+<p>I kissed her without speaking; there seemed a lump in my throat just
+then. I did not often repine, but the yearning sense of pain was strong
+on me. When would this cruel silence between me and Giles be broken? But
+Gladys, wrapt in her own blissful thoughts, did not notice my emotion.</p>
+
+<p>'He says that there is much that he can only tell me by word of mouth,
+and that he dare not trust to a letter explanations for his silence, and
+much that I shall have to tell him in return; for we shall need each
+other's help in making everything clear.</p>
+
+<p>'He seems to reproach himself bitterly, and asks my pardon over and over
+again for misunderstanding me so. He says my giving up my work was the
+first blow to his hopes, and then he had been told that I cared for my
+cousin Claude. He believed until this morning that I was in love with
+him; and it was your going to him&mdash;oh, my darling! how good you have been
+to me and him!&mdash;that gave him courage to write this letter, Ursula.'
+And here she cried a little. 'Was it Etta who told him this falsehood
+about, Claude? How could she he so wicked and cruel?'</p>
+
+<p>'Do not think about her to-day, my dearest,' I returned soothingly. 'Her
+punishment will be great some day. We will not sit in judgment on her
+just now. She cannot touch your happiness again, thank heaven!'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' with a sigh; 'but, as Max says, it is difficult to forgive the
+person who is the chief source of all our trouble. He did say that, and
+then he reproached himself again for uncharitableness, and added that he
+ought to have known me better.</p>
+
+<p>'He does not seem quite certain yet that I can care for him, and he begs
+for just one word to put him out of his suspense, to tell him if I can
+ever love him well enough to be his wife. I don't want him to wait long
+for my answer, Ursula: he has suffered too much already. I think I could
+write a few words that would satisfy him, if I could only trust Chatty to
+take them.'</p>
+
+<p>'You had better wait until to-morrow morning and intrust your letter to
+the "five-o'clock carrier."' And as my meaning dawned on her her doubtful
+expression changed into a smile. 'Do wait, Gladys,' I continued
+coaxingly. 'It is very selfish of me, perhaps, but I should like to give
+that letter to Max.'</p>
+
+<p>'You may have your wish, then, for I was half afraid of sending it by
+Chatty. I have grown so nervous, Ursula, that I start at a shadow. I can
+trust you better than myself. Well, I will write it, and then it will be
+safe in your hands.'</p>
+
+<p>I went away again after this, and left her alone in the quiet shady room.
+I fought rather a battle with myself as I paced up and down Lady Betty's
+spacious chamber. Why need I think of my own troubles? why could I not
+keep down this pain? I would think only of Gladys's and of my dear Max's
+happiness, and I dashed away hot tears that would keep blinding me as I
+remembered the chilly greeting of the morning. And yet once&mdash;but no; I
+would not recall that bitter-sweet memory. I left Gladys alone for an
+hour: when I went back she was leaning wearily against the cushions of
+her chair, the closely-written sheets still open on her lap, as though
+she needed the evidence of sight and touch to remind her that it was not
+part of her dream.</p>
+
+<p>'Have you written your letter, Gladys?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' with a blush; 'but it is very short, only a few words. He will
+understand that I am weak and cannot exert myself much. Will you read it,
+Ursula, and tell me if it will do?'</p>
+
+<p>I thought it better to set her mind at rest, so I took it without demur.
+The pretty, clear handwriting was rather tremulous: he would be sorry to
+see that.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'My dear Mr. Cunliffe,'&mdash;it said,&mdash;'Your letter has made me very happy.
+I wish I could answer it as it ought to be answered; but I know you will
+not misunderstand the reason why I say so little.</p>
+
+<p>'I have been very ill, and am still very weak, and my hand trembles too
+much when I try to write; but I am not ungrateful for all the kind things
+you say; it makes me very happy to know you feel like that, even though I
+do not deserve it.</p>
+
+<p>'You must not blame yourself so much for misunderstanding me: we have
+both been deceived; I know that now. It was wrong of me to give up my
+work; but Etta told me that people were saying unkind things of me, and
+I was a coward and listened to her: so you see I was to blame too.</p>
+
+<p>'I have not answered your question yet, but I think I will do so by
+signing myself,</p>
+
+<p>'Yours, always and for ever,</p>
+
+<p>'Gladys.'</p></div>
+
+<p>'Will he understand that, Ursula?'</p>
+
+<p>'Surely, dear; the end is plain enough: you belong to Max now.'</p>
+
+<p>'I like to know that,' she returned simply. 'Oh, the rest of feeling that
+he will take care of me now! it is too good to talk about. But I hope I
+am sufficiently thankful.' And Gladys's lovely eyes were full of solemn
+feeling as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>I thought she wanted to be quiet,&mdash;it was difficult for her to realise
+her happiness at once,&mdash;so I told her that I had some letters to write,
+and carried my desk into the next room, but she followed me after a time,
+and we had a long talk about Max.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Hamilton came up in the evening he noticed the improvement in
+Gladys's appearance.</p>
+
+<p>'You are better to-night, my dear.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, so much better,' looking up in his face with a smile. 'Giles, do
+you think it would hurt me to have a drive to-morrow? I am so tired of
+these two rooms. A drive alone with Ursula would be delicious. We could
+go down the Redstone lanes towards Pemberley: one always has a whiff of
+sea-air there over the downs.'</p>
+
+<p>Gladys's request surprised me quite as much as it did Mr. Hamilton. She
+had proposed it in all innocence; no idea of encountering Max entered her
+head for a moment; Gladys's simplicity would be incapable of laying plans
+of this sort. Her new-born happiness made her anxious to lay aside her
+invalid habits; she wanted to be strong, to resume daily life, to breathe
+the fresh outer air.</p>
+
+<p>As for Mr. Hamilton, he did not try to conceal his pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>'I see we shall soon lose our patient, nurse,' he said, with one of his
+old droll looks. 'She is anxious to make herself independent of us.&mdash;Oh,
+you shall go, by all means. I will go round to the stable and tell
+Atkinson myself. It is an excellent idea, Gladys.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am so glad you do not object. I am so much stronger this evening,
+and I have wanted to go out for days; but, Giles,'&mdash;touching his arm
+gently,&mdash;'you will make Etta understand that I want to go alone with
+Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly, my dear.' He would not cross her whim; she might have her way
+if she liked; but the slight frown on his face showed that he was not
+pleased at this allusion to Miss Darrell. He thought Gladys was almost
+morbidly prejudiced against her cousin; but he prudently refrained from
+telling her so, and Gladys went to bed happy.</p>
+
+<p>I had taken the precaution of asking Chatty to wake me the next morning.
+I had slept little the previous night, and was afraid that I might
+oversleep myself in consequence. It was rather a trial when her touch
+roused me out of a delicious dream; but one glance at Gladys's pale face
+made me ashamed of my indolence. I dressed myself as quickly as I could,
+and then looked at my little clock. Chatty had been better than her word:
+it had not struck five yet.</p>
+
+<p>Max would not be out for another hour, I thought, but all the same I
+might as well take advantage of the morning freshness: so I summoned
+Chatty to let me out as noiselessly as possible, and then I stole through
+the shrubberies, breaking a silver-spangled cobweb or two and feeling the
+wet beads of dew on my face.</p>
+
+<p>I walked slowly down the road, drinking deep draughts of the pure morning
+air. I had some thoughts of sitting down in the churchyard until I saw
+some sign of life in the vicarage; but as I turned the corner I heard a
+gate swing back on its hinges, and there was Max standing bareheaded in
+the road, as though he had come out to reconnoitre; but directly he
+caught sight of me two or three strides seemed to bring him to my side.</p>
+
+<p>'Have you brought it?' he asked breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Max.' And I put the letter in his outstretched hand; and then,
+without looking at him, I turned quietly and retraced my steps. I would
+not wait with him while he read it; he should be alone, with only the
+sunshine round him and the birds singing their joyous melodies in his
+ear. No doubt he would join his <i>Te Deum</i> with theirs. Happy Max, who had
+won his Lady of Delight!</p>
+
+<p>But I had not quite crossed the green when I heard his footsteps behind
+me, and turned to meet him.</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula, you naughty child! why have you run away without waiting to
+congratulate me? And yet I'll be bound you knew the contents of this
+letter.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Max, and from my heart I wish you and Gladys every happiness.'</p>
+
+<p>'Good little Ursula! Oh yes, we shall be happy.' And the satisfaction in
+Max's brown eyes was pleasant to see. 'She will need all the care and
+tenderness that I can give her. We must make her forget all these sad
+years. Do you think that she will be content at the old vicarage,
+Ursula?' But as he asked the question there was no doubt&mdash;no doubt at
+all&mdash;on his face.</p>
+
+<p>'I think she will be content anywhere with you, Max. Gladys loves you
+dearly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah,' he said humbly, 'I know it now, I am sure of it; but I wish I
+deserved my blessing. All these years I have known her goodness. She used
+to show me all that was in her heart with the simplicity of a child. Such
+sweet frankness! such noble unselfishness! was it a wonder that I loved
+her? If I were only more worthy to be her husband!'</p>
+
+<p>I liked Max to say this: there was nothing unmanly or strained in this
+humility. The man who loves can never think himself worthy of the woman
+he worships: his very affection casts a glamour over her. When I told Max
+that I thought his wife would be a happy woman, he only smiled and said
+that he hoped so too. He had not the faintest idea what a hero he was
+in our eyes; he would not have believed me if I had told him.</p>
+
+<p>Max said very little to me after that: happiness made him reticent. Only,
+just as he was leaving me, I said carelessly, 'Max, do you ever go to
+Pemberley?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, sometimes, when the Calverleys are at the Hall,' he returned,
+rather absently.</p>
+
+<p>'Pemberley is a very pretty place,' I went on, stopping to pick a little
+piece of sweet-brier that attracted me by its sweetness: 'it is very
+pleasant to walk there through the Redstone lanes. There is a fine view
+over the down, and at four o'clock, for example&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'What about four o'clock?' he demanded: and now there was a little
+excitement in his manner.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, if you should by chance be in one of the Redstone lanes about
+then, you might possibly see an open barouche with two ladies in it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula, you are a darling!' And Max seized my wrists so vigorously that
+he hurt me. 'Four&mdash;did you say four o'clock?'</p>
+
+<p>'It was very wrong of me to say anything about it. Gladys would be
+shocked at my making an appointment. I believe you are demoralising me,
+Max; but I do not mean to tell her.' And then, after a few more eager
+questions on Max's part, he reluctantly let me go.</p>
+
+<p>I had plenty to tell Gladys when she woke that morning, but I prudently
+kept part of our conversation to myself. She wanted to know how Max
+looked when he got her letter. Did he seem happy? had he sent her any
+message? And when I had satisfied her on these points she had a hundred
+other questions to ask. 'I am engaged to him, and yet we cannot speak
+to each other,' she finished, a little mournfully.</p>
+
+<p>I turned her thoughts at last by speaking about the promised drive. We
+decided she should put on her pretty gray dress and bonnet to do honour
+to the day. 'It is a f&ecirc;te-day, Gladys,' I said cheerfully, 'and we must
+be as gay as possible.' And she agreed to this.</p>
+
+<p>At the appointed time we heard the horses coming round from the stables,
+and Mr. Hamilton came upstairs himself to fetch his sister. Chatty had
+told me privately that Miss Darrell had been very cross all day. She had
+wanted the carriage for herself that afternoon, and had spoken quite
+angrily to Mr. Hamilton about it; but he had told her rather coldly that
+she must give up her wishes for once. Thornton heard master say that he
+was surprised at her selfishness: he had thought she would be glad that
+Miss Gladys should have a drive. 'Miss Darrell looked as black as
+possible, Thornton said, ma'am,' continued Chatty; 'but she did not dare
+argue with master; he always has the best of it with her.'</p>
+
+<p>As we drove off, I saw Miss Darrell watching us from the study window:
+evidently her bad temper had not evaporated, for she had not taken the
+trouble to come out in the hall to speak to Gladys, and yet they had not
+met for a month. Gladys did not see her: she was smiling at her brother,
+who was waving a good-bye from the open door. My heart smote me a little
+as I looked at him. Would he think me very deceitful, I wondered, for
+giving Max that clue? but after a moment I abandoned these thoughts and
+gave myself up to the afternoon's enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>The air was delicious, the summer heat tempered by cool breezes that
+seemed to come straight from the sea. Gladys lay back luxuriously among
+the cushions, watching the flicker of green leaves over our heads, or the
+soft shadows that lurked in the distant meadows, or admiring the
+picturesque groups of cattle under some wide-spreading tree.</p>
+
+<p>We had nearly reached Pemberley, the white roofs of the cottages were
+gleaming through a belt of firs, when I at last caught sight of Max. He
+was half hidden by some blackberry-bushes. I think he was sitting on a
+stile resting himself; but when he heard the carriage-wheels he came
+slowly towards us and put up his hand as a sign that Atkinson should pull
+up.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget the sudden illumination that lit up Gladys's face
+when she saw him: a lovely colour tinged her cheeks as their eyes met,
+and she put out her little gray-gloved hand to touch his. I opened the
+carriage door and slipped down into the road.</p>
+
+<p>'The horses can stand in the shade a little while, Atkinson,' I said
+carelessly: 'I want to get some of those poppies, if the stile be not
+very high.' I knew he would be watching me and looking after Whitefoot,
+who was often a little fidgety, and would take the vicar's appearance on
+the Pemberley road as a matter of course.</p>
+
+<p>I was a long time gathering those poppies. Once I peeped through the
+hedge. I could see two heads very close together. Max's arms were on the
+carriage; the little gray-gloved hands were not to be seen; the sunshine
+was shining on Gladys's fair hair and Max's beard. Were they speaking at
+all? Could Atkinson have heard one of those low tones? And then I went
+on with my poppies.</p>
+
+<p>It was more than a quarter of an hour when I climbed over the stile
+again, laden with scarlet poppies and pale-coloured convolvuli. Gladys
+saw me first. 'Here is Ursula,' I heard her say; and Max moved away
+reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>'I do not see why we should not drive you back to Heathfield, Max,' I
+remarked coolly; and, as neither of them had any objection to raise, we
+soon made room for Max.</p>
+
+<p>There was very little said by any of us during the drive home; only
+Gladys pressed my hand in token of gratitude; her eyes were shining with
+happiness. As Max looked at the pale, sweet face opposite to him his
+heart must have swelled with pride and joy: nothing could come between
+those two now; henceforth they would belong to each other for time and
+eternity.</p>
+
+<p>Max asked us to put him down at the Three Firs; he had to call at 'The
+Gowans,' he said. 'In two or three days&mdash;I cannot wait longer,' he said,
+in a meaning tone, as he bade good-bye to Gladys. She blushed and smiled
+in answer.</p>
+
+<p>'What does Max mean?' I asked, as we left him behind us in the road.</p>
+
+<p>'It is only that he wishes to speak to Giles,' she returned shyly. 'I
+asked him to wait a day or two until I felt better; but he does not wish
+to delay it; he says Giles has always wanted it so, but that he has long
+lost hope about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't see why Max need have waited an hour,' was my reply; but there
+was no time for Gladys to answer me, for we were turning in at the gate,
+and there were Mr. Hamilton and Miss Darrell walking up and down the lawn
+watching for us.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton came towards us at once, and gave his hand to Gladys.</p>
+
+<p>'I need not ask how you have enjoyed your drive,' he said, looking at her
+bright face with evident satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it has been lovely!' she returned, with such unwonted animation that
+Miss Darrell stared at her. 'How do you do, Etta? It is long since we
+have met.&mdash;Giles, if you will give me your arm, I think I will go
+upstairs at once, for I am certainly a little tired.&mdash;Come, Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>'We met Mr. Cunliffe in the Pemberley Road, and drove him back,' I
+observed carelessly, when Miss Darrell was out of hearing. I thought it
+better to allude to Max in case Atkinson mentioned it to one of the
+servants.</p>
+
+<p>'You should have brought him in to dinner,' was Mr. Hamilton's only
+comment. 'By the bye, Miss Garston, when do you intend to honour us with
+your company downstairs? Your patient is convalescent now.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have just awoke to that fact,' was my reply, 'and I have told Mrs.
+Barton that she will soon see me back at the White Cottage. Miss Watson
+leaves next Tuesday: I think Gladys could spare me by then.'</p>
+
+<p>Gladys shook her head. 'I shall never willingly spare you, Ursula; but of
+course I shall have no right to trespass on your time.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, of course not,' returned her brother sharply; 'Miss Garston has been
+too good to us already: we cannot expect her to sacrifice herself any
+longer. We will say Tuesday, then. You will come downstairs on Sunday,
+Gladys?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' with a faint sigh.</p>
+
+<p>'We need not talk about my going yet, when Gladys is tired,' I returned,
+feeling inclined to scold Mr. Hamilton for his want of tact. Tuesday, and
+it was Wednesday now,&mdash;not quite a week more; but, looking up, I saw Mr.
+Hamilton regarding me so strangely, and yet so sorrowfully, that my
+brief irritability vanished. He was sorry that I was going; he seemed
+about to speak; his lips unclosed, then a sudden frown of recollection
+crossed his brow, and with a curt good-night he left us.</p>
+
+<p>'What is the matter with Giles?' asked Gladys, rather wearily: I could
+see she was very tired by this time. 'Have you and he quarrelled,
+Ursula?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not to my knowledge,' I replied quietly, turning away, that she should
+not see my burning cheeks. 'There is Chatty bringing the tea: are you not
+glad, dear?' And I busied myself in clearing the table.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIII" id="CHAPTER_XLIII"></a>CHAPTER XLIII</h2>
+
+<h3>'CONSPIRACY CORNER'</h3>
+
+
+<p>Gladys went to bed very early that night: her long drive had disposed her
+for sleep. The summer twilight was only creeping over the western sky
+when I closed her door and went out into the passage: the evening was
+only half over, and a fit of restlessness induced me to seek the garden.</p>
+
+<p>The moon was just rising behind the little avenue, and the soft rush of
+summer air that met me as I stepped through the open door had the breath
+of a thousand flowers on it. Mr. Hamilton was shut safely in his study;
+I was aware of that fact, as I had heard him tell Gladys that night
+that he had a medical article to write that he was anxious to finish.
+Miss Darrell would be reading novels in the drawing-room; there was no
+fear of meeting any one; but some instinct&mdash;for we have no word in our
+human language to express the divine impetus that sways our inward
+promptings&mdash;induced me to take refuge in the dark asphalt path that
+skirted the meadow and led to Atkinson's cottage and the kitchen-garden.</p>
+
+<p>I was unhappy,&mdash;in a mood that savoured of misanthropy; my fate was
+growing cross-grained, enigmatical. Mr. Hamilton's frown had struck
+cold to my heart; I was beginning to lose patience (to lose hope was
+impossible),&mdash;to ask myself why he remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>'If he has anything against me,&mdash;and his manner tells me that he
+has,&mdash;why does he not treat me with frankness?' I thought. 'He calls
+himself my friend, and yet he reposes no trust in me. He breaks my heart
+with his changed looks and coldness, and yet he gives me no reason for
+his injustice. I would not treat my enemy so, and yet all the time I feel
+he loves me.' And as I paced under the dark hanging shrubs I felt there
+was nothing morbid or untrue in those lines, that 'to be wroth with one
+that we love does work like madness on the brain,' and that I was growing
+angry with Mr. Hamilton.</p>
+
+<p>I had just reached a dark angle where the path dips a little, when I was
+startled by hearing voices close to me. There was a seat screened by some
+laurel-bushes that went by the name of 'Conspiracy Corner,' dating back
+from the time when Gladys and Eric were children and had once hidden some
+fireworks among the bushes. It was there that Claude Hamilton had
+proposed to Lady Betty, when Gladys had found them, and the two young
+creatures had appealed to her to help them. The seat was so hidden and
+secluded by shrubs that you could pass without seeing its occupants,
+unless a little bit of fluttering drapery or the gleam of some gold chain
+or locket caught one's eye. I remembered once being very much startled
+when Lady Betty popped out suddenly on me as I passed.</p>
+
+<p>I was just retracing my steps, with a sense of annoyance at finding my
+privacy invaded, when a sentence in Leah's voice attracted my attention:</p>
+
+<p>'I tell you he was driving with them this afternoon: I heard Miss Garston
+tell the master so. It is no good you fretting and worrying yourself,
+Miss Etta, to prevent those two coming together. I've always warned you
+that the vicar cares more for her little finger than he does for all your
+fine airs and graces.'</p>
+
+<p>I stood as though rooted to the spot, incapable of moving a step.</p>
+
+<p>'You are a cruel, false woman!' returned another voice, which I
+recognised as Miss Darrell's, though it was broken with angry sobs. 'You
+say that to vex me and make me wretched because you are in a bad temper.
+You are an ungrateful creature, Leah, after all my kindness; and it was
+you yourself who told me that he was getting tired of Gladys's whims and
+vagaries.'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't remember what I told you,' replied the woman sullenly. 'There
+are no fools like old ones, they say, and you need not believe everything
+as though it is gospel truth. There is not a man in the world worth all
+this worry. Why don't you give it up, Miss Etta? Do you think Mr.
+Cunliffe will ever give you a thought? I would be too proud, if I were
+a lady, to fling myself under a man's feet. Do you think he would like
+your crooked ways about Mr. Eric?'</p>
+
+<p>'Hush, Leah! for pity's sake, hush! What makes you so cruel to me
+to-night?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well now, look here, Miss Etta; I am not going to be hushed up when I
+choose to speak; and who is to hear us, I should like to know? only it is
+your guilty conscience that is always starting at shadows. I mean to
+speak to you pretty plainly, for I am getting sick of the whole business.
+You are playing fast and loose with me about that money. Are you going to
+give it me or not?'</p>
+
+<p>I drew a step nearer. Leah had mentioned Eric's name. Was it not my
+duty,&mdash;my bounden duty,&mdash;for Gladys's sake, for all their sakes, to hear
+what this woman had to say? Would it be dishonourable to listen when so
+much was at stake? Already I had been startled by a revelation that
+turned me cold with horror. Miss Darrell was Gladys's rival,&mdash;her deadly,
+secret rival,&mdash;and not one of us, not even Max, guessed at this unhealthy
+and morbid passion. That such a woman should love my pure-minded,
+honourable Max! I recoiled at the mere idea.</p>
+
+<p>'You are so impatient, Leah,' returned the other reproachfully. 'You know
+it is not easy for me to get the money. Giles was complaining the other
+day that so much was spent in the housekeeping; he never thought me
+extravagant before, but he seemed to say that my personal expenses were
+rather lavish. "You have twice as many gowns as Gladys," he said: "and,
+though I do not grudge you things, I think you ought to keep within your
+allowance."'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't help all that, Miss Etta,' and I could tell by the voice that
+the woman meant to be insolent. 'A promise is a promise, and must be
+kept, and poor Bob must not suffer from your procrastinating ways. You
+are far too slippery and shifty, Miss Etta; but I tell you that money I
+must and will have before this week is over, if I have to go to master
+myself about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'You had better go to him, then,' with rising temper. 'I don't quite know
+what Giles will say about retaining you in his service when he knows you
+have a brother at Millbank. A servant with a convict-brother is not
+considered generally desirable in a house.' But Leah broke in upon this
+sneering speech in sudden fury: even in my disgust at this scene I could
+not but marvel at Miss Darrell's recklessness in rousing the evil spirit
+in this woman.</p>
+
+<p>'You to talk of my poor Bob being in Millbank, who ought to be there
+yourself!' she cried, in a voice hoarse and low with passion. 'Are you
+out of your senses, Miss Etta, to taunt me with poor Bob's troubles? What
+is to prevent me from going to master now and saying to him&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, hush, Leah! please forgive me; but you made me so angry.'</p>
+
+<p>'From saying to him,' persisted Leah remorselessly, "'You are all of you
+wrong about Mr. Eric. You have hunted the poor boy out of the house, and
+driven him crazy among you; and if he has drowned himself, as folk
+believe, his death lies at Miss Etta's door. It was she who stole the
+cheque. I saw her take it with my own eyes, only she begged me on her
+knees not to betray her; and just then Mr. Eric came in with his letter,
+and the devil entered into me to cast the suspicion on him."'</p>
+
+<p>'Leah,' in a voice of deadly terror, 'for God's sake be silent! if any
+one should hear us! There was a crackling just now in the bushes. Leah,
+you were good to my mother: how can you be so cruel to me?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is no use your whining to me, Miss Etta,' returned the same hard,
+dogged voice; 'Bob must have that money. When I promised to keep your
+disgraceful secret,&mdash;when I stood by and helped you ruin that poor boy,
+and Bob cashed your cheque,&mdash;I named my price. I wanted to keep Bob out
+of mischief, but his bad companions were too much for him. Now are you
+going to get that money for me or not?'</p>
+
+<p>'I dare not ask Giles for more,' replied Miss Darrell, and I could hear
+she was crying. 'I gave you half the housekeeping money last week and the
+week before. If Giles looks at my accounts I am undone.'</p>
+
+<p>'And there was that cheque that you were to send Miss Gladys when she was
+at Bournemouth, and for which she sent that pretty message of thanks,'
+interposed Leah, with a sneer. 'Shall I tell master where that has gone,
+Miss Etta? And you to speak of my poor Bob because he is at Millbank!'</p>
+
+<p>'Leah, you are killing me,' renewed Miss Darrell. 'I might as well die as
+go on living like this. You are always threatening to turn against me,
+and I give you money whenever you ask me. You shall have my gold bracelet
+with the emerald star. It was my mother's and it will fetch a good deal.
+I cannot get more from Giles now. He is not like himself just now, and I
+dare not make him angry.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you have tried your hand there, Miss Etta. No, I am not asking you,
+so you need not tell me any lies. I knew all about it when you sent me up
+to Hyde Park Gate to spy on my young lady. I have worked willingly for
+you there. I've hated Miss Garston ever since I set eyes on her. She is a
+sharp one, I tell you that, Miss Etta. She means to bring these two
+together, and she will do it in spite of you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish I were dead!' moaned Miss Darrell.</p>
+
+<p>But I did not dare to linger another moment. My heart was beating so
+loudly that I feared it would betray me. The faint stir of the bushes
+turned me sick, for I thought they might be moving from their seat. Not
+for worlds would I have confronted them alone in that dark asphalt walk.
+My fears were absurd, but I felt as though Leah were capable of
+strangling me. Granted that this terror was unreasonable and childish,
+I knew I could not breathe freely until I was within reach of Mr.
+Hamilton. As I crept down the path the sensation of a nightmare haunted
+me. I felt as though my feet were weighted with lead. My face was cold
+and damp, and I drew my breath painfully. I almost felt as though I must
+hide myself in the shrubbery until the faintness passed off; but I shook
+off my weakness as I remembered that I might be shut out of the house if
+I allowed them to go in first. As I emerged from the dark overhanging
+trees I grew calmer and walked on more quickly. I dared not cross the
+open lawn, for fear I might be seen, but took the most secluded route
+through the oak avenue. If they should perceive me walking down the
+terrace towards the conservatory they would only think that I had just
+left the house. I could see no signs of them, however, and gained the
+open door safely.</p>
+
+<p>Even in my state of terror I had made my plan, and without giving myself
+a moment to recover my self-possession I knocked at the study door, and,
+at Mr. Hamilton's rather impatient 'Come in,' entered it with the same
+sort of feeling that one would enter an ark of refuge.</p>
+
+<p>He laid down his pen in some surprise when he saw me, and then rose
+quickly from his seat.</p>
+
+<p>'You are ill; you have come to tell me so,' in an anxious voice. 'Don't
+try to speak this moment: sit down&mdash;my&mdash;Miss Garston'; but I caught his
+arm nervously as he seemed about to leave me.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't go away: I must speak to you. I am not ill: only I have had a
+turn. You may give me some water'; for there was a bottle and glass on
+the table. He obeyed me at once, and watched me as I tried to take it;
+but my hand trembled too much: the next moment he had put it to my lips,
+and had wiped the moisture gently from my forehead.</p>
+
+<p>'It is only faintness; it will pass off directly,' he said quietly. 'I
+will not leave you; but I have some sal volatile in that cupboard, and I
+think you will be the better for it.' And he mixed me some, and stood by
+me without speaking until the colour came back to my face. 'You are
+better now, Ursula&mdash;I mean,' biting his lips&mdash;'well, never mind. Do you
+feel a little less shaky?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, thank you. I did not mean to be so foolish, but it was dark, and
+I got frightened and nervous; and oh, Mr. Hamilton, I must not lose time,
+or they will be coming in.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who will be coming in?' he asked, rather bewildered at this. 'There is
+no one out, is there?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Miss Darrell and Leah. I heard them talking in "Conspiracy Corner";
+you know that seat in the asphalt walk?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well?' regarding me with an astonished air.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Hamilton, I am better now. I am not frightened any longer now I am
+with you. Will you please call Leah when she comes in from the garden? I
+want to speak to her in your presence. I have a most serious charge to
+make against her and against your cousin Miss Darrell. It relates,' and
+here I felt my lips getting white again,&mdash;'it relates to your brother
+Eric.'</p>
+
+<p>He started, and an expression of pain crossed his face,&mdash;a sudden look
+of fear, as though he dreaded what I might have to tell him; but the next
+moment he was thinking only of me.</p>
+
+<p>'You shall speak to Leah to-morrow,' he said gently; 'it is late
+now,&mdash;nearly ten o'clock,&mdash;and you are ill, and had better go to bed
+and rest yourself. I can wait until to-morrow,' taking my cold hand.</p>
+
+<p>But I would not be silenced. I implored him earnestly to do this for
+me,&mdash;to summon Leah into the study, but not to let Miss Darrell know.</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose you think you could not sleep until you had relieved your
+mind,' he said, looking at me attentively. 'Well, they are coming in now.
+Leah is fastening the door. Finish that sal volatile while I fetch her.'</p>
+
+<p>I took it at a draught. But Mr. Hamilton's kindness had been my best
+restorative: I was no longer faint or miserable: he had cheered and
+comforted me.</p>
+
+<p>I heard Leah's voice approaching the study door with perfect calmness.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Etta has gone up to bed, sir,' I heard her say; 'she has a
+headache: that is what makes her eyes so weak.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should have said myself that she was crying,' returned Mr. Hamilton
+drily. 'Come in here a moment, Leah; I want to speak to you.'</p>
+
+<p>She did not see me until the door was closed behind her, and then I saw
+her glance at me uneasily. Mr. Hamilton had evidently not prepared her
+for my presence in the study.</p>
+
+<p>'Did you or Miss Garston wish to speak to me, sir?' she asked, with a
+veiled insolence of manner that she had shown to me lately; but I could
+see that no suspicion of the truth had dawned on her.</p>
+
+<p>'It is I who wish to speak to you, Leah,' I returned severely; 'and
+I have asked your master to send for you that I might speak in his
+presence. Mr. Hamilton, I am going to repeat the conversation that I have
+just overheard between Leah and her mistress when they were in the seat
+in the asphalt walk: you shall hear it from my lips word for word.'</p>
+
+<p>I never saw a countenance change as Leah's did that moment: her ordinary
+sallow complexion became a sort of dead-white; from insolence, her manner
+grew cringing, almost abject; the shock deprived her of all power of
+speech; only directly I began she caught hold of my gown with both hands,
+as though to implore me to stop; but Mr. Hamilton shook off her touch
+angrily, and asked her if it looked as though she were an honest woman to
+be so afraid of her own words. And then the sullen look came back to her
+face and never left it again.</p>
+
+<p>I repeated every word. I do not believe I omitted a sentence, except
+that part that referred to Uncle Max. I could see Leah shrink and
+collapse as I mentioned her convict-brother, and such a gleam of fierce
+concentrated hatred shot from beneath her drooping lids that Mr. Hamilton
+instinctively moved to my side; but a low groan escaped him when I
+repeated Leah's words about the cheque. 'Good heavens! do you mean that
+Eric never took it?' he exclaimed, in a horror-stricken tone; but the
+woman merely raised her eyes and looked at him, and he was silent again
+until I had finished.</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's ominous silence after that: perhaps Mr. Hamilton was
+praying for self-control; he had grown frightfully pale, and yet he was a
+man who rarely changed colour: the veins on his forehead were swollen,
+and when he spoke his voice was hoarse with repressed passion.</p>
+
+<p>'What have you to say for yourself, Leah? Do you know I could indict you
+for conspiracy and conniving at theft?'</p>
+
+<p>'I know that very well,' returned the woman, trying to brave it out; but
+she could not meet his indignant look. 'But it is your own flesh and
+blood that is in fault here. Miss Etta is more to blame than I.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton crossed the room and locked the door, putting the key coolly
+in his pocket; then he made me sit down,&mdash;for I had been standing all
+this time,&mdash;and, as though to enforce obedience, he kept his hand on my
+arm. I could see Leah looking about her as though she were caught in a
+trap: her light-coloured eyes had a scintillating look of fear in them.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Leah,' observed her master, in a terrible voice, 'if you are to
+expect any mercy at my hand you will make a clean breast; but first you
+will answer my question: Has Miss Garston repeated the conversation
+between you and Miss Etta correctly?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I believe so,' very sullenly.</p>
+
+<p>'You saw Miss Etta take the cheque with your own eyes the night before
+Mr. Eric left home?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.' Then, as though these questions tortured her, she said doggedly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Look here, sir; I am caught in a trap, and there is no getting
+out of it. I have lost my place and my character, thanks to Miss
+Garston,'&mdash;another vindictive look at me. 'If you will promise like
+a gentleman not to take advantage of my evidence, I will tell you all
+about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will make no promises,' he returned, in the same stern voice; 'but
+if you do not speak I will send for the police at once, and have you up
+before a magistrate. You have connived at theft; that will be sufficient
+to criminate you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know all about that,' was the unflinching answer; 'and I know for the
+old mistress's sake you will be glad to hush it all up: it would not be
+pleasant to bring your own cousin before a magistrate, especially after
+promising the old mistress on her death-bed to be as good to Miss Etta as
+though she were your own sister.'</p>
+
+<p>I saw the shadow of some sorrowful recollection cross his face as she
+said this. I had heard from Max how dearly he had loved his aunt
+Margaret: though her daughter had wrought such evil in his life, he would
+still seek to shield her. Leah knew this too, and took advantage of her
+knowledge in her crafty manner.</p>
+
+<p>'It would be best to tell you all, for Mr. Eric's sake. I know Miss Etta
+will be safe with you. She has done a deal of mischief since she has been
+under your roof. Somehow crooked ways come natural to her: the old
+mistress knew that, for she once said to me towards the last, "Leah, I am
+afraid my poor child has got some twist or warp in her nature; but I hope
+my nephew will never find out her want of straightforwardness." And she
+begged me, with tears in her eyes, to watch over her and try to influence
+her, although I was only a servant; and for a little while I tried, only
+the devil tempted me, for the sake of poor Bob.'</p>
+
+<p>'Bob is the name of your brother who is at Millbank?' asked Mr. Hamilton,
+in the same hard voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir; he got into a bit of trouble through mixing with bad
+companions. But there,'&mdash;with a sudden fierce light in her eyes that
+reminded me of a tigress protecting her young,&mdash;'I am not going to
+talk of Bob: lads will get into trouble sometimes. If Mr. Eric had
+not been so interfering at that time, ordering Bob off the premises
+whenever he caught sight of him, and calling him a good-for-nothing
+loafer and all sorts of hard names,&mdash;why, he gave Bob a black eye one
+day when he was doing nothing but shying stones at the birds in the
+kitchen-garden,&mdash;if it had not been for Mr. Eric's treatment of Bob
+I might have acted better by him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Will you keep to the subject, Leah?' observed her master, in a warning
+voice. 'I wish to hear how that cheque was taken from my study that
+night.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, sir, if you must know,' returned Leah reluctantly, 'Miss Etta was
+in a bit of a worry about money just then: she had got the accounts wrong
+somehow, and there was a heavy butcher's bill to be paid. She had let it
+run on too long, and all the time you believed it was settled every week:
+it was partly your fault, because you so seldom looked at the accounts,
+and was always trusting her with large sums of money. Miss Etta did not
+mean to be dishonest, but she was extravagant, and sometimes her
+dressmaker refused to wait for the money, and sometimes her milliner
+threatened to dun her; but she would quiet them a bit with a five- or
+ten-pound note filched from the housekeeping, always meaning, as she
+said, to pay it back when she drew her quarterly allowance.</p>
+
+<p>'I used to know of these doings of hers, for often and often she has sent
+me to pacify them with promises. I told her sometimes that she would do
+it once too often, but she always said it was for the last time.</p>
+
+<p>'She got afraid to tell me at last, but I knew all about the butcher's
+bill, for Mr. Dryden had been up to the house asking to see you, as he
+wanted his account settled. You were out when he called, but I never saw
+Miss Etta in such a fright: she had a fit of hysterics in her own room
+after he had left the house, and I had trouble enough to pacify her. She
+said if you found out that Dryden's account had not been settled for
+three months that you would never trust her again; that she was afraid
+Mr. Eric suspected her, and that she did not feel safe with him, and a
+great deal more that I cannot remember.</p>
+
+<p>'It ended with her making up her mind to pawn most of her jewellery, and
+we arranged that Bob should manage the business. He was up at the cottage
+for a night or two, though no one was aware of that fact, for he kept
+close, for fear Mr. Eric should spy upon him.</p>
+
+<p>'He slept at the cottage the very night the cheque was stolen from the
+study'; but as Leah paused here Mr. Hamilton lifted his head from his
+hands and bade her impatiently go on with the history of that night.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIV" id="CHAPTER_XLIV"></a>CHAPTER XLIV</h2>
+
+<h3>LEAH'S CONFESSION</h3>
+
+
+<p>'You know what happened that day, sir,' observed Leah, hesitating a
+moment, for even her hard nature felt some compunction at the look of
+suffering on her master's face. She had eaten his bread for years, and
+had deceived and duped him; but she must have felt remorse stirring in
+her as she saw him drop his head on his clasped hands again, as though
+he were compelling himself to listen without interruption.</p>
+
+<p>'You had been talking to Mr. Eric a long time in the study, Miss Etta
+told me; he had been going on like mad about Mr. Edgar Brown, and having
+to go to Mr. Armstrong's office; but you had been very firm, and had
+refused to hear any more, and he had flung off to his own room in one of
+his passions. Miss Gladys had followed him, and I heard him telling her
+that he had forgotten himself and struck you, and that you had turned
+him out of the study, and that he was in difficulties and must have
+money, for Mr. Edgar had got him into some trouble.'</p>
+
+<p>'You heard this by listening at Mr. Eric's door, for Miss Gladys saw
+you,' I observed, not willing to let this pass.</p>
+
+<p>'What has that got to do with it?' she returned rudely. 'I am speaking
+to the master, not you': but she grew a shade paler as I spoke. 'You
+were up late that night, sir; I was waiting to speak to Miss Etta, and
+encountered you in the passage. I went back to my own room for a little
+while, and then I knocked at her door; but there was no answer. I could
+see the room was dark, but I could hardly believe she was asleep: so I
+went to the bed and called Miss Etta, but I very soon found she was not
+there: her gown was on the couch and her dressing-gown missing from its
+place.</p>
+
+<p>'I had a notion that I might as well follow her, for somehow I guessed
+that she had gone to the study; but I was certainly not prepared to see
+Mr. Eric stooping over your desk. He had a letter in his hand, and had
+just put down his chamber candlestick. All at once it flashed upon my
+mind that Miss Etta had told me that you had received a large cheque that
+night, and that you were going up to London the next day to cash it, and
+she hoped Dryden would not call again before you went. She said it quite
+casually, and I am sure then she had not thought of helping herself. Then
+the thought must have come to her all of a sudden.</p>
+
+<p>'I remembered the cheque, and for an instant I suspected Mr. Eric. But as
+I was watching him I saw the curtain of one of the windows move, and I
+had a glimpse of yellow embroidery that certainly belonged to Miss Etta's
+dressing-gown. In a moment I grasped the truth: she had taken the cheque
+to settle Dryden's bill. But I must make myself certain of the fact: so
+I asked Mr. Eric, rather roughly, what he was doing, and he retorted by
+bidding me mind my own business.</p>
+
+<p>'He had laid his letter on the desk, but when he had gone I walked up
+straight to the window, and nearly frightened Miss Etta into a fit by
+asking her what she had done with the cheque. She was grovelling on her
+knees before me in a moment, calling me her dear Leah and imploring me to
+shield her. I was very fierce with her at first, and was for putting it
+back again, until she told me, trembling all over, that she had endorsed
+it. She had copied your writing, and only an expert could have told the
+difference.</p>
+
+<p>'"It is too late, Leah," she kept saying; "we cannot hide it from Giles
+now, and I must have the money, and you must help me to get it." And then
+she whispered that I should have some of it for Bob.</p>
+
+<p>'"It is a nasty bit of business, Miss Etta," I replied, for I did not
+want to spare her; "it is forgery, that is what they would call it in a
+court of law"; but she would not let me finish, but flung herself upon me
+with a suppressed scream, and I could not shake her off. She kept saying
+that she would destroy herself if I would not help her: so I turned it
+over in my mind. I wanted money for Bob, and&mdash;well, sir, the devil had a
+deal to do with that night's business. I had settled it all before an
+hour was over. Bob would go up to London with the cheque, and cash it at
+the bank: he was tall and fair, and a suit of Mr. Eric's old clothes
+would make him quite the gentleman, and no one would notice the scar;
+when he was safely off and you missed the cheque there would be little
+trouble in casting the blame on Mr. Eric. I had taken care to place the
+letter in the desk, and I had plenty of circumstantial evidence to offer.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, you know the rest, sir,&mdash;how you called Miss Etta into your study,
+and how she begged you to send for me. I had my story all ready,&mdash;my fear
+of thieves, and how I saw Mr. Eric standing with his hand in your desk.
+Of course the cheque could not be found: no one believed the poor young
+gentleman's ravings, especially after his talk with Miss Gladys. We took
+care that the telegram should not be sent too soon. Bob was on his way
+back by then, and before evening Dryden had his money, and Bob was safe
+in Clerkenwell. What is the good of my repeating it all? I shielded Miss
+Etta at Mr. Eric's expense; and, though I was sorry enough to drive him
+away from his home, we had to look to our own safety, and Miss Etta was
+nearly out of her mind with remorse and terror.' But here Mr. Hamilton's
+voice interrupted her harshly.</p>
+
+<p>'Wait a moment, woman: have you ever since that day heard anything of
+that unfortunate boy?'</p>
+
+<p>To my surprise Leah hesitated. 'Miss Etta believes that he is dead, sir;
+but I can't help differing from her, though I never told her the reason;
+but I have fancied more than once,&mdash;indeed I am speaking the truth now,
+sir,' as he darted a meaning look at her, 'I have no motive to do
+otherwise.&mdash;I have fancied that I have seen some one very like Mr. Eric
+lurking about the road on a dark night. Once I was nearly sure it was Mr.
+Eric, though he wore a workman's dress as a disguise. He was looking at
+the windows; the blind was up in the study, and Miss Gladys was there
+with Mr. Cunliffe; he had made her laugh about something. It was a warm
+night, and rather wet, and the window was open; I was just shutting it
+when I caught sight of him, and nearly called out; but he turned away
+quickly, and hid himself in the shrubbery, and though I went out to look
+for him I was too late, for I could see him walking down the road.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are sure it was Mr. Eric.' Oh, the look of intense relief on Mr.
+Hamilton's face! He must have believed him dead all this time.</p>
+
+<p>'I am nearly sure, sir. I saw him again in town. I was passing the Albert
+Memorial when I looked up at one of the fine houses opposite, and saw a
+young workman on the balcony with a painter's brush in his hand: the sun
+was shining full on his face. I saw him plainly then.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton started from his seat. 'If this be true!&mdash;my father's son
+gaining his bread as a house-painter!'</p>
+
+<p>'It is true,' I whispered; 'for I saw him myself, and told Gladys.'</p>
+
+<p>'You saw him!&mdash;you!' with an air of utter incredulity.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; and I tried to speak to him. He was so like the picture in Gladys's
+room, I thought it must be Eric. But he would not hear me, and in a
+moment he was gone. The men called him Jack Poynter, and said he was a
+gentleman, but no one knew where he lived. Oh, I have tried so hard to
+find him for you, but he will not be found.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you did not tell me of this,' very reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>'Gladys would not let me tell you,' I returned: 'we could not be sure,
+and&mdash;' But he put up his hand to stop me.</p>
+
+<p>'That will do,' in a tone of suppressed grief that went to my heart. 'I
+will not wrong you if I can help it; no doubt you did it for the best;
+you did not willingly deceive me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Never! I have never deceived you, Mr. Hamilton.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not intentionally. I will do you justice even now; but, oh,'&mdash;and here
+he clinched his right hand, and I saw the veins on it stand out like
+whip-cord,&mdash;'how I have been betrayed! Those I have trusted have brought
+trouble and confusion in my household; and, good God! they are women, and
+I cannot curse them.'</p>
+
+<p>I saw Leah quail beneath this burst of most righteous indignation.
+The blinding tears rushed to my eyes as I heard him: in spite of his
+sternness, he had been so simple and so unsuspicious. He trusted people
+so fully, he was so generous in his confidence, and yet the woman he
+loved had played him false, and the pitiful creatures he had sheltered
+under his roof had hatched this conspiracy against his peace.</p>
+
+<p>'You can leave me now,' he continued harshly, turning to Leah. 'I will
+not trust myself to say more to you. If you receive mercy and not justice
+at my hands, it is because your confederate is even more guilty than you.
+I cannot spare the one without letting the other go unpunished. To-morrow
+morning, before the household is up, you and everything belonging to you
+shall leave this house. If you ever set foot in Heathfield again it will
+be at your own peril. Go up to your own room now and pack your boxes; I
+shall take the precaution of turning the key in your door to prevent your
+holding communication with any member of my household.'</p>
+
+<p>'I give you my word, sir&mdash;' began Leah, turning visibly pale at the idea
+of finding herself a prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>'Your word!' was the disdainful reply; and then he pointed to the door.
+'Go at once!' But she still lingered. There was a spark of good even in
+this woman. She was unwilling to quit our presence without knowing what
+was to become of her mistress.</p>
+
+<p>'You will not be hard on Miss Etta, sir? She has done wrong, but she is
+a poor creature, and&mdash;' But Mr. Hamilton walked to the door and threw it
+open with a gesture that compelled obedience.</p>
+
+<p>The next moment, however, he recoiled with a low exclamation of horror;
+for there, drawn up against the wall, in a strange half-crouching
+attitude, as though petrified with terror, was his miserable cousin.</p>
+
+<p>I heard Leah's shocked 'Miss Etta! How could you be so mad?' And then Mr.
+Hamilton put out his hand, as though to forbid approach; but with a cry
+of despair Miss Darrell seemed to sink to the ground, and held him
+convulsively round the knees, so that he could not free himself.</p>
+
+<p>'Get up, Etta!' he said indignantly. 'It is not to me you have to kneel';
+for he thought her attitude one of supplication. But I knew better. She
+had not strength to stand or support herself, and I passed behind him
+quickly and went to her help.</p>
+
+<p>'You cannot speak to him like that, Miss Darrell. He will not hear you.'
+But, though Leah assisted me, we had some difficulty in inducing her to
+relax her frantic grip. And even when we placed her in a chair she seemed
+as though she would sink again on the ground. She was trembling all over,
+her teeth chattering; the muscles of her face worked convulsively.</p>
+
+<p>'Giles, Giles,' she screamed, as he seemed about to leave her, 'you may
+kill me if you like, but you shall not look at me like this.' But,
+without vouchsafing her any answer, he turned to me.</p>
+
+<p>'Will you wait with my cousin a moment? I will be back directly.' I
+nodded assent. I knew he wished to see Leah safely in her room, but as
+he closed the door Miss Darrell clutched my arm. She seemed really beside
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>'Where has he gone? Will he fetch the police, Miss Garston? Will they put
+me in prison for it?'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' I returned sternly. 'You know you are safe with him. He will not
+hurt a hair of your head, because you are a woman, and his own flesh and
+blood.'</p>
+
+<p>'But he will banish me from his house!' she moaned. 'He will never
+forgive me or let me see his face again. He will tell&mdash;oh, I cannot bear
+it!'&mdash;her words strangled by a hoarse scream. 'I cannot and will not bear
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>I put my hand on her shoulder. 'You must control yourself,' I said
+coldly. 'Would you wish Mr. Hamilton to treat you as a mad woman? Listen
+to me, Miss Darrell. One part of your secret is safe with me. Try and
+restrain yourself, and I will promise you that it shall never pass my
+lips.'</p>
+
+<p>Even in her hysterical excitement she understood me, and a more human
+expression came into her hard, glaring eyes. 'Say it again; promise me,'
+she moaned. 'I hate you, but I know you are to be trusted.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you behave yourself and try to control your feelings a little,' I
+returned slowly, 'I will say nothing about Uncle Max.' But at the name
+she covered her face with her hands and rocked herself in agony. In spite
+of all her sins I pitied her then.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Mr. Hamilton returned; but before he could speak I said
+quickly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Your cousin is not in a condition to listen to you to-night, and it is
+very late: I am going to take her up to her room and do what I can to
+help her. Will you allow us to go?'</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her and then at me. His face was hard and sombre; there was
+no relenting there. 'Perhaps it will be better,' he returned slowly.
+'Yes, you may go, but do not stay long with her. I may want to speak
+to you again.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not to-night,' I remonstrated; for I could see he was oblivious of the
+time, and it was near midnight. 'To-morrow morning, as early as you like;
+but I cannot come down again.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I see,' the meaning of my words dawning upon him. 'To-morrow
+morning, then. Take her away now.' And, without another glance, he walked
+away to his study table.</p>
+
+<p>'Come, Miss Darrell,' I whispered, touching her; and she rose
+reluctantly. 'Giles,&mdash;let me say one word to him,' said she, trying to
+follow him feebly, but I recalled her sternly and made her follow me. I
+had no fear of her now. Leah, whom I dreaded, was locked safely in her
+room, and this poor miserable woman was harmless enough.</p>
+
+<p>She broke into hysterical sobs and moans when I got her into her own
+room. I was afraid Gladys might hear her, and I insisted on her showing
+more self-control. My sharp words had their effect after a time, but it
+was impossible to induce her to undress or go to bed. She had flung
+herself across the foot and lay crouched up in a heap, with all the
+delicate embroidery of her French dressing-gown crushed under her. When
+she was quieter I put pillows under her head and covered her up warmly,
+and then sat down to watch her.</p>
+
+<p>I was about to leave the room once to fetch something I wanted, when she
+suddenly struggled into a sitting posture, and begged me, in a voice of
+horror, not to leave her.</p>
+
+<p>'Leah will murder me if you do!' she cried. 'She has frightened me
+often,&mdash;she says such things,&mdash;oh, you do not know! I should never have
+been so bad but for Leah!'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall not be long; and Leah is locked in her room; Mr. Hamilton has
+the key,' I returned quietly. But it was with difficulty that she would
+let me go. I suppose even criminals feel the need of sympathy. Miss
+Darrell hated me in her heart, had always hated me, but the sight of even
+an unloved human face was better than solitude. No wonder with such
+thoughts people go mad sometimes.</p>
+
+<p>I was surprised to see Mr. Hamilton walking up and down the long passage,
+as though he were keeping guard. He was going to let me pass him without
+a word, but I stopped and asked what he was doing.</p>
+
+<p>'I was waiting until you were safe in your own room,' was the reply.
+'What has kept you so long?'</p>
+
+<p>'I must go back again,' I returned quickly; 'she is not fit to be left
+alone. I am not afraid of her now, Mr. Hamilton: she can do me no harm.
+Please do not watch any longer.'</p>
+
+<p>'You were ill: have you forgotten that? I ought not to allow you to make
+yourself worse. Why,' with a sort of impatience visible in his manner,
+'need you be troubled about our miserable affairs?'</p>
+
+<p>'Let me go back for a little while,' I pleaded; for I knew if he ordered
+me into my own room I should be obliged to obey him. 'It keeps her in
+check, seeing me there: she is so exhausted that she must sleep soon; and
+then I will lie down.' I suppose he thought there was no help for it, for
+he drew back for me to pass; but I was grieved to hear his footsteps for
+a long time after that pacing slowly up and down, and it was more for his
+sake than my own that I was glad when Miss Darrell's moans ceased, and
+the more quiet regular breathing proved to me that she was asleep.</p>
+
+<p>The passage was empty when I came out, and the first faint streak of dawn
+was visible. It was too late then to think of going to bed. I lay down,
+dressed as I was, and slept for a couple of hours; then the sunshine woke
+me, and I got up and took my bath and felt refreshed.</p>
+
+<p>Chatty brought me my tea early, and told me that Mr. Hamilton was walking
+in the garden. 'And do you know, ma'am,' observed the girl breathlessly,
+'something strange must have happened since last evening; for when I
+looked out of my window before six this morning I saw master standing
+before the door, and there was Leah, in her bonnet, speaking to him, and
+she went off with Pierson, wheeling off her boxes on his truck. I do
+believe she has really gone, ma'am, and not a creature in the house knows
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind: it is not our business, Chatty; but I think I will go and
+speak to your master when I have finished my tea.'</p>
+
+<p>'I was to give you a message, ma'am,&mdash;that he would be glad if you could
+join him in the garden as soon as you were up, as he had to go some
+distance, and he wanted to tell you about it.' I put down my cup at once
+when I heard this, and hurried out into the garden.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton was pacing up and down the asphalt walk as he had paced the
+passage last night. He did not quicken his steps when he saw me, but
+walked towards me slowly, with the gait of a man who has a load on his
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>'I hardly expected you so early. Have you had any rest at all?' looking
+at me rather anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, thank you; I have slept for two hours. But you have not, Mr.
+Hamilton'; for he was looking wretchedly worn and ill.</p>
+
+<p>'Was it likely that I could sleep?' he returned impatiently. 'But I have
+no time to waste. Atkinson will be round here directly with the dog-cart.
+I am going off to Liverpool by the 12.10 train.'</p>
+
+<p>'To Liverpool?' in unfeigned surprise.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; I have been thinking all night what is to be done about my
+unfortunate cousin. She is dependent on me, and I cannot send her away
+without finding her a home. That home,' pausing as though to give
+emphasis to his words, 'can never be under my roof again.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose not.'</p>
+
+<p>'The sin is of too black a dye for me to bring myself to forgive her. If
+I were to say that I forgive her I should lie.' And here his face became
+dark again. 'She has disgraced that poor boy Eric, and driven him away
+from his home; she has made Gladys's life wretched: her whole existence
+must have been a tissue of deceit and treachery. How could I sleep when
+I was trying to disentangle this mesh of deception and lies? how do I
+know when she has been true or when wholly false?'</p>
+
+<p>'I fear there has been little truth spoken to you, Mr. Hamilton.' I was
+thinking of Gladys when I said that, but something in my words seemed to
+strike him.</p>
+
+<p>'Is there anything else I ought to know? But no, I have no time for that:
+I must try and make some arrangements at once: she cannot break bread
+with us again. The people I want to find are old patients of mine. I was
+able to serve them once: I feel as though I have a claim on them.'</p>
+
+<p>'But you will be back soon?' for I could not bear him to leave us alone.</p>
+
+<p>'To-morrow morning. I will take the night train up, but I shall be
+detained in London. Take care of Gladys for me, Miss Garston. Do not tell
+her more than you think necessary. Do not let Etta see her, if you can
+help it; but I know you will act for the best.' Then, as he looked at me,
+his face softened for a moment. 'I wish I had not to leave you; but you
+could send for Mr. Cunliffe.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, there will be no need for that,' I returned hastily, for the thought
+of the wretched woman upstairs would prevent me from sending for Uncle
+Max. 'Come back as quickly as you can, and I will do my best for Gladys.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know it. I can trust you,' he replied, very gently. 'Take care of
+yourself also.' Then, as the wheels of the dog-cart sounded on the
+gravel, he held out his hand to me gravely, and then turned away. A
+moment afterwards I heard his voice speaking to Atkinson, and as I
+entered the shrubbery Pierson was fastening the gate after them.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLV" id="CHAPTER_XLV"></a>CHAPTER XLV</h2>
+
+<h3>'THIS HOME IS YOURS NO LONGER'</h3>
+
+
+<p>There are long gray days in every one's life.</p>
+
+<p>I think that day was the longest that I ever spent: it seemed as though
+the morning would never merge into afternoon, or the afternoon into
+evening. Of the night I could not judge, for I slept as only weary youth
+can sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Sheer humanity, the mere instinct of womankind, had obliged me to watch
+by Miss Darrell through the previous night: for some hours her hysterical
+state had bordered on frenzy. I knew sleep was the best restorative in
+such cases: she would wake quieter. There would be no actual need for my
+services, and unless she sent for me I thought it better to leave her
+alone: she was only suffering the penalty of her own sin, the shame of
+detected guilt. There was no sign of real penitence to give me hope for
+the future.</p>
+
+<p>I found Gladys awake when I returned from the garden: in spite of my
+anxiety, it gave me intense pleasure to hear her greeting words.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Ursula, come and kiss me; it is good morning indeed. I woke so
+happy; everything is so lovely,&mdash;the sunshine, and the birds, and the
+flowers!' And, with a smile, 'I wished somebody could have seen&mdash;"my
+thoughts of Max."' And then, still holding me fast, 'I do not forget my
+poor boy, in spite of my happiness, but something tells me that Eric will
+soon come back.'</p>
+
+<p>'He might have been here now,' I grumbled, 'if you had allowed me to tell
+your brother'; for those few reproachful words haunted me.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, dear; I know I was wrong,' she answered, with sweet candour. 'Giles
+is so kind now that I cannot think why I was so reserved with him; but of
+course,' flushing a little, 'I was afraid of Etta.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose that was the reason,' I returned, busying myself about the
+room; for I did not care to pursue the subject. Mr. Hamilton's few words
+had convinced me that he thought it would be wiser to leave Gladys in
+ignorance of what was going on until Miss Darrell was out of the house.
+She had borne so much, and was still weak and unfit for any great
+excitement. My great fear was lest Miss Darrell should force her way
+into Gladys's presence and disturb her by a scene; and this fear kept
+me anxious and uneasy all day.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys was a trifle restless; she wanted a drive again, and when I made
+her brother's absence a pretext for refusing this, she pleaded for a
+stroll in the garden. It was with great difficulty that I at last induced
+her to remain quietly in her room. But when she saw that I was really
+serious she gave up her wishes very sweetly, and consoled herself by
+writing to Max, in answer to a letter that he had sent under cover to me.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly noon before Chatty brought me a message that Miss Darrell
+was just up and dressed, and wished to speak to me; and I went at once to
+her.</p>
+
+<p>The usually luxurious room had an untidy and forlorn aspect. The crumpled
+Indian dressing-gown and the breakfast-tray littered the couch;
+ornaments, jewellery, and brushes strewed the dressing-table. Miss
+Darrell was sitting in an easy-chair by the open window. She did not
+move or glance as I entered in the full light. She looked pinched and
+old and plain. Her eyelids were swollen; her complexion had a yellowish
+whiteness; as I stood opposite to her, I could see gray hairs in the
+smooth dark head; before many years were over Miss Darrell would look an
+old woman. I could not help wondering, as I looked at her, how any one
+could have called her handsome.</p>
+
+<p>'Chatty says Leah has gone,' she said, in a voice fretful with misery.
+'I told her that that was too good news to be true. Is it true, Miss
+Garston?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; she has gone.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad of it,' with a vixenish sharpness that surprised me. 'I hated
+that woman, and yet I was afraid of her too: she got me in her toils, and
+then I was helpless. Where has Giles gone, Miss Garston? Chatty said he
+went off in a dog-cart with his portmanteau.'</p>
+
+<p>How I wished Chatty would hold her tongue sometimes! but most likely Miss
+Darrell had questioned her.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Hamilton's business is not our affair,' I returned coldly.</p>
+
+<p>'That means I am not to ask; but all the same you are in his secret,'
+with one of her old sneers. 'Will he be back to-night?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, not to-night; to-morrow morning early.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is all I want to know, Miss Garston,' hesitating a little
+nervously. 'I have never liked you, but all the same I have not injured
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you not, Miss Darrell?'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' very uneasily; but she did not meet my eyes. 'I defy you to prove
+that I have. Still, if I were your enemy, ought you not to heap coals of
+fire on my head?'</p>
+
+<p>'Possibly.'</p>
+
+<p>My coolness seemed to frighten her; she lost her sullen self-possession.</p>
+
+<p>'Have you no heart?' she said passionately. 'Will you not hold up a
+finger to help me? You have influence with Giles; do not deny it. If you
+ask him to keep me here he will not refuse you, and you will make me your
+slave for life.'</p>
+
+<p>I heard this proposition with disgust. She could cringe to me whom she
+hated. I shook my head, feeling unable to answer her.</p>
+
+<p>'I could help you,' she persisted, fixing her miserable eyes on me. 'Oh,
+I know what you want: you cannot hide from me that you are unhappy. I
+know where the hindrance lies; one word from me would bring Giles to your
+feet. Am I to say that word?'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' I returned indignantly. 'Do you think that I would owe anything
+to you? I would rather be unhappy all my life than be under such an
+obligation. You are powerless to harm me, Miss Darrell; your plots are
+nothing to me.'</p>
+
+<p>'And yet a word from me would bring him to your feet.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not want him there,' I replied, irritated at this persistence.
+'I do not wish you to mention his name to me; if you do so again I will
+leave you.'</p>
+
+<p>'On your head be your own obstinacy,' she returned angrily; but I could
+see the despair in her eyes, and I answered that.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Darrell,' I went on, more gently, 'I cannot help you in this. How
+could I ask Mr. Hamilton to keep you under his roof, knowing that you
+have poisoned his domestic happiness? Even if I could be so mad or
+foolish, would he be likely to listen to me?'</p>
+
+<p>'He would listen to you,' half crying: 'you know he worships the ground
+you walk on.'</p>
+
+<p>I tried to keep back the rebellious colour that rose to my face at her
+words.</p>
+
+<p>'Do not cheat yourself with this insane belief,' I returned quietly. 'Mr.
+Hamilton is inexorable when he has decided on anything.'</p>
+
+<p>'Inexorable! you may well say so!' rocking herself in an uncontrollable
+excitement. 'Giles is hard,&mdash;cruel in his wrath: he will send me away and
+never see me again.' And now the tears began to flow.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Darrell,' I continued pityingly, 'for your own sake listen to me a
+moment. You have failed most miserably in the past: let the future years
+be years of repentance and atonement. Mr. Hamilton will not forgive until
+you have proved yourself worthy of forgiveness: remember you owe the
+future to him.'</p>
+
+<p>She stared at me for a moment as though my words held some hope for her;
+then she turned her back on me and went on rocking herself. 'Too late!'
+I heard her mutter: 'I cannot be good without him.' And, with a strange
+sinking of heart, I left the room.</p>
+
+<p>She could bring him to my feet with a word. Was this the truth, or only
+an idle boast? No matter; I would not owe even his love to this woman.
+'I can live without you, Giles,&mdash;my Giles,' I whispered; but hot tears
+burnt my cheeks as I spoke.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon I saw Miss Darrell pacing up and down the asphalt walk.
+Gladys saw her too, and turned away from the window rather nervously.
+'How restless Etta seems!' she said once; but I made no answer. Towards
+evening I heard her footsteps perambulating the long passage, and softly
+turned the key in the lock without Gladys noticing the movement. Gladys
+noticed very little in that sweet dreamy mood that had come to her; her
+own thoughts occupied her; her lover's letter had more than contented
+her.</p>
+
+<p>About ten o'clock I went in search of Chatty, and came face to face with
+Miss Darrell. She was in her crumpled yellow dressing-gown, and her dark
+hair hung over her shoulders; her eyes looked bright and strange. I moved
+back a step and laid my hand on the handle.</p>
+
+<p>She greeted this action with a disagreeable laugh.</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose you heard me trying the door just now. Yes, I wanted to see
+Gladys; I wished to make some one feel as wretched as I do myself; but
+you were too quick for me. Do you always keep your patients under lock
+and key?'</p>
+
+<p>'Sometimes,' laconically, for I disliked her manner more than ever
+to-night: it was not the first time that I had fancied that she had had
+recourse to some form of narcotic. 'Why do you not go to bed, Miss
+Darrell?'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps I shall when I have thoroughly tired myself. These passages have
+rather a ghastly look: they remind me of Leah, too,' with a shudder.
+'Good-night, Miss Garston; pleasant dreams to you. I suppose you have
+not thought better of what I said about Giles?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, certainly not,' retreating into my room and locking the door in a
+panic. I heard a husky laugh answer me. Perhaps last night's watching had
+tired my nerves, for it was long before I could compose myself to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>The night passed quietly, and I woke, refreshed, to the sound of summer
+rain pattering on the shrubs. The little oak avenue looked wet and
+dreary; but no amount of rain or outward dreariness could damp me, with
+the expectation of Mr. Hamilton's return; and I helped Chatty arrange our
+rooms with great cheerfulness.</p>
+
+<p>He came back earlier than I expected. I had hardly finished settling
+Gladys for the day,&mdash;she took great pains with her toilet now, and was
+hard to please in the matter of ruffles and ornaments,&mdash;when Chatty told
+me that he wished to speak to me a moment.</p>
+
+<p>I made some excuse and joined him without delay. He looked much as he
+had the previous morning,&mdash;very worn and tired, and his eyes a little
+sunken; but he greeted me quietly, and even kindly; he asked me if I felt
+better, and how Gladys was. I was rather ashamed of my nervous manner of
+answering, but that odious speech of Miss Darrell would come into my
+mind when he looked at me.</p>
+
+<p>'Chatty says my cousin is in the dining-room: do you mind coming down
+with me for a few minutes? I do not wish to see her alone.'</p>
+
+<p>Of course I signified my willingness to accompany him, and he walked
+beside me silently to the dining-room door.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Darrell was sitting on the circular seat looking out on the oak
+avenue; she did not turn her head, and there was something hopeless in
+the line of her stooping shoulders. I saw her hands clutch the cushions
+nervously as her cousin walked straight to the window.</p>
+
+<p>'Etta,' he began abruptly, 'I wish you to listen to me a moment. I will
+spare you all I can, for Aunt Margaret's sake: I do not intend to be more
+hard with you than my duty demands.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Giles!' raising her eyes at this mild commencement; but they dropped
+again at the sight of the dark impenetrable face, which certainly had no
+look of pity on it. She must have felt then, what I should certainly have
+felt in her place, that any prayers or tears would be wasted on him.</p>
+
+<p>'It would be useless, and worse than useless,' he went on, 'to point out
+to you the heinousness of your sin,&mdash;perhaps I should say crime. All
+these years you have not faltered in your relentless course; no pity for
+me and mine has touched your heart; you have allowed our poor lad to
+wander about the world as an outcast; you have suffered Gladys to carry a
+heavy and bitter weight in her bosom. Pshaw! why do I reiterate these
+things? you know them all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Giles, I have loved you in spite of it all! Be merciful to me!' But he
+went on as though he heard her no more than the rain dripping on the
+leaves.</p>
+
+<p>'This home is yours no longer; you are no fit companion for my sisters,
+even if I could bear to shelter a traitor under my roof. If I know my
+present feelings, I will never willingly see your face again: whether I
+ever do see it depends on your future conduct.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, for pity's sake, Giles!' She was writhing now. In spite of all her
+sins against him, she had loved him in her perverse way.</p>
+
+<p>'I have found you a home far from here,' he continued in the same
+chilling manner, 'and to-morrow morning you will be taken to it. The
+Alnwicks are kind, worthy people&mdash;not rich in this world's goods, or what
+the world would call refined. I was able to help them once when they were
+in bitter straits: in return they have acceded to my request and have
+offered you a home.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will not go!' she sobbed passionately. 'I would rather you should kill
+me, Giles, than treat me with such cruelty!'</p>
+
+<p>'They are old,' he went on calmly, 'but more with trouble than years, and
+they have no one belonging to them, and they promise to treat you like a
+daughter. You will be in comfort, but not luxury: luxury has been your
+curse, Etta. A moderate sum will be paid to you yearly for your dress and
+personal expenses, but if overdrawn or misapplied it will be curtailed
+or stopped altogether. Your maintenance will be arranged between the
+Alnwicks and myself, and, unless I give you permission to write,&mdash;which
+is distinctly not my purpose now,&mdash;no letter from you will be read or
+answered, and I forbid all such communication.'</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot&mdash;I cannot bear it!' she screamed, springing to her feet; but he
+waved her back with such a look that her arms dropped to her side.</p>
+
+<p>'No scene, I beg,' in a tone of disgust. 'Let me finish quietly what I
+have to say.&mdash;Miss Garston,' turning to me, 'could you spare Chatty to
+help my cousin pack her clothes and books? for we shall start early in
+the morning. Mr. Alnwick has promised to meet us half-way.'</p>
+
+<p>'I can set Chatty at liberty for the day,' was my answer.</p>
+
+<p>'Very well. Etta, you may as well go at once. Your meals will be served
+in your room. I do not wish you to resume your usual habits: this is my
+house, not yours. Your only course now must be obedience and submission.
+Let your future conduct atone to me for the past, that I may remember
+without shame that I have a cousin Etta.'</p>
+
+<p>He turned away then, but I could see his face working. He had dearly
+loved this miserable creature, and had cared for her as though she had
+been his sister, and he could not leave her without this vague word of
+hope. Did she understand him, I wonder,&mdash;that in the future he might
+bring himself to forgive her? I heard her weeping bitterly in her room
+afterwards, and Chatty, in her fussy, good-natured way, trying to comfort
+her: the girl had a kind heart.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the afternoon Mr. Hamilton joined us in the turret-room.
+Directly he came in and sat down by his sister's couch I knew that he
+meant to tell her everything,&mdash;that he thought it best that she should
+hear it from him.</p>
+
+<p>He told it very quietly, without any explanation or expression of
+feeling; but it was not possible for Gladys to hear that Eric's name was
+cleared without keen emotion. 'Oh, thank God for this other mercy!' she
+sobbed, bursting into tears; and presently, as he went on, she crept
+closer to him, and before he had finished she had clasped his arm with
+her two hands and her face was hidden in them.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Giles! if you only knew what she has made me suffer!' she whispered.
+'We should have understood each other better if Etta had not always come
+between us.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are right; I feel you are right, Gladys,' stroking her fair hair as
+he spoke; then she looked up and smiled affectionately in his face.</p>
+
+<p>'Ursula, will you leave me alone with my brother for a little? There is
+something I want to tell him!' And I went away at once.</p>
+
+<p>As I opened the door, Chatty came down the passage with a pile of
+freshly-ironed linen. Her round face looked unusually disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>'She is going on so, ma'am,' she whispered, 'it is dreadful to hear her.
+She is making us turn out all her drawers, and there are three big trunks
+to fill. She says she is going away for ever.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hush!' I returned, with a warning look, for Miss Darrell was at the door
+watching us. She was in her yellow dressing-gown, and the old pinched
+look was still in her face.</p>
+
+<p>'Why are you stopping to gossip, Chatty?' she said querulously. 'I shall
+not have finished until midnight at this rate. Leah would have packed by
+this time.' And Chatty, with rather a frightened look, carried in her
+pile of clean linen.</p>
+
+<p>I strolled about the garden for an hour, and then went back to the house.
+Mr. Hamilton was just closing the door of his sister's room. He looked
+happier, I thought: the dark, irritable expression had left his face. He
+came forward with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>'Gladys has been telling me, Miss Garston. I am more glad than I can say.
+Cunliffe is a fine fellow; there is no one that I should like so well for
+a brother.'</p>
+
+<p>'I knew you would say so. Uncle Max is so good.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, he has secured a prize,' with a slight sigh. 'Gladys is a noble
+woman; she will make her husband a happy man. There is little doubt that
+Etta did mischief there; but Gladys was not willing to enter on that part
+of the subject. I begin to think,' with a quick, searching look that
+somewhat disturbed me, 'that we have not yet reached the limits of her
+mischief-making.'</p>
+
+<p>I could have told him that I knew that. I think he meant to have said
+something more; but a slight movement in the direction of Miss Darrell's
+room made us separate somewhat quickly. I saw Mr. Hamilton glance
+uneasily at the half-closed door as he went past it.</p>
+
+<p>I found Gladys in tears, but she made me understand with some difficulty
+that they were only tears of relief and joy.</p>
+
+<p>'But I am sorry too, because I have so often grieved him so,' she said,
+drying her eyes. 'Oh, how good Giles is!&mdash;how noble!&mdash;and I have
+misunderstood him so! he was so glad about Max, and so very very kind.
+And then we talked about Eric. He says we were wrong to keep it from him,
+that even you were to blame in that. He thinks so highly of you, Ursula;
+but he said even good people make mistakes sometimes, and that this was
+a great mistake. I was so sorry when he said that, that I asked his
+pardon over and over again.'</p>
+
+<p>I felt that I longed to ask his pardon too; and yet the fault had been
+Gladys's more than mine; but I knew she had talked enough, so I kissed
+her, and begged her to lie down and compose herself while I got the tea
+ready.</p>
+
+<p>We did not see Mr. Hamilton again that night. Gladys and I sat by the
+open window, talking by snatches or relapsing into silence. When she had
+retired to rest I stole out into the passage to see what had become of
+tired Chatty, but I repented this charitable impulse when I saw Miss
+Darrell standing in the open doorway opposite, as though she were
+watching for some one.</p>
+
+<p>On seeing me she beckoned imperiously, and I crossed the passage with
+some reluctance.</p>
+
+<p>'Come in a moment: I want to speak to you,' she said hoarsely; and I
+saw she was much excited. 'I sent Chatty to bed. We have finished
+packing,&mdash;oh, quite finished. Giles will be satisfied with my obedience;
+and now I want you to tell me what you and he were saying about Mr.
+Cunliffe.' But her white lips looked whiter as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>'Excuse me, Miss Darrell,' I returned; but she stopped me.</p>
+
+<p>'You are going to say that it is no business of mine. You are always
+cautious, Miss Garston; but I am resolved to know this, or I will refuse
+to leave the house to-morrow morning. Are they engaged? is that what
+Giles meant when he said he was a fine fellow?'</p>
+
+<p>I thought it wiser to tell her the truth. 'They are engaged.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Giles knows it, and gives his consent?'</p>
+
+<p>'Most gladly and willingly.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish I could kill them both!' was the sullen reply; and then, without
+taking any further notice of me, she sat down on one of the boxes and hid
+her face in her hands, and when I tried to speak to her she shook her
+head with a gesture of impatience and despair.</p>
+
+<p>'The game is played out; I may as well go,' she muttered; and seeing her
+in this mood I thought it better to leave her; but I slept uneasily, and
+often started up in bed fancying I heard something. I remembered her
+words with horror: the whole scene was like a nightmare to me,&mdash;the
+disordered and desolate room, with the great heavily-corded trunks, the
+dim light, the wretched woman in her yellow dressing-gown sitting
+crouched on a box. 'Can this be love?' I thought, with a shudder,&mdash;'this
+compound of vanity and selfishness?' and I felt how different was my
+feeling for Giles. The barrier might never be broken down between us, I
+might never be to him more than I was now, but all my life I should love
+and honour him as the noblest man I knew on God's earth.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVI" id="CHAPTER_XLVI"></a>CHAPTER XLVI</h2>
+
+<h3>NAP BARKS IN THE STABLE-YARD</h3>
+
+
+<p>I was arranging some flowers that Max had sent us the next morning, and
+waiting for Gladys to join me, when Mr. Hamilton came in.</p>
+
+<p>'Where is Gladys?' he asked, looking round the room; but when he heard
+that she had not finished dressing, he would not hear of my disturbing
+her.</p>
+
+<p>'It is no matter,' he went on. 'I shall be back before she is in bed. I
+only wanted to tell her that I have seen Cunliffe. I breakfasted with him
+this morning. He will be up here presently to see her. He looks ten years
+younger, Miss Garston.' And, as I smiled at that, he continued, in rather
+a constrained voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Tudor breakfasted with us.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I suppose so,' I returned carelessly. 'What splendid carnations
+these are, Mr. Hamilton! You have not any so good at Gladwyn.'</p>
+
+<p>'Cunliffe must spare me some cuttings,' he replied, rather absently;
+then, without looking at me, and in a peculiar voice, 'Is it still a
+secret, Miss Garston, or may I be allowed to congratulate you?'</p>
+
+<p>I dropped the carnations as though they suddenly scorched me.</p>
+
+<p>'Why should you congratulate me, Mr. Hamilton?'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought you considered me a friend,' he replied, rather nervously.
+'But, of course, if it be still a secret, I must beg your pardon for my
+abruptness.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know what you mean,' I said, very crossly, but my cheeks were
+burning. 'If this be a joke, I must tell you once for all that I dislike
+this sort of jokes: they are not in good taste': for I was as angry with
+him as possible, for who knew what nonsense he had got into his head? He
+looked at me in quite a bewildered fashion; my anger was evidently
+incomprehensible to him. We were playing at cross-purposes.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think I am in the mood for joking?' he said, at last. 'Have you
+ever heard me jest on such subjects, Miss Garston? I thought we agreed on
+that point.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean you are serious?'</p>
+
+<p>'Perfectly serious.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then in that case will you kindly explain to me why you think I am to be
+congratulated?'</p>
+
+<p>He looked uncomfortable. 'I have understood that you and Mr. Tudor
+were engaged, or, at least, likely to become so. Do you mean,' as
+my astonished face seemed to open room for doubt, 'that it is not
+true?&mdash;that Etta deceived me there?'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Darrell!' scornfully; then, controlling my strong indignation
+with an effort, I said, more quietly, 'I think that we ought to beg Mr.
+Tudor's pardon for dragging in his name in this way: he would hardly
+thank us. If I am not mistaken, he is in love with my cousin Jocelyn.'</p>
+
+<p>'Impossible! What a credulous fool I have been to believe her! Your
+cousin Jocelyn,&mdash;do you mean Miss Jill?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' I returned, smiling, for a sense of renewed happiness was stealing
+over me. 'The foolish fellow is always following me about to talk of her.
+I do believe he is honestly in love with her. He saved her life, and that
+makes it all the worse.'</p>
+
+<p>'All the better, you mean,' regarding me gravely. That fixed, serious
+look made me rather confused.</p>
+
+<p>'Would you mind telling me, Mr. Hamilton,' I interposed hurriedly, 'what
+put this absurd idea into your head?'</p>
+
+<p>'It was Etta,' he returned, in a low voice. 'It was that night when you
+had been singing to us, and she came home unexpectedly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, yes, I remember'; but I could not meet his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'She told me when we got home that Mr. Tudor was in love with you, and
+that she believed you were engaged, or that, at least, there was an
+understanding between you; and she added that if I did not believe her I
+might watch for myself, and I should see that you were always together.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well?' rather impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>'I will beg your pardon afterwards for following Etta's advice, but I did
+watch, and it was not long before I came round to her opinion.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Hamilton!'</p>
+
+<p>'Wait a moment before you get angry with me again. I never saw you in a
+passion before'; but I knew he was laughing at me. 'Etta was certainly
+right in one thing: I seemed always finding you together.'</p>
+
+<p>'That was because I often met Mr. Tudor in the village, and he turned
+back and walked with me a little; but we always talked of Jill.'</p>
+
+<p>'How could I know that?' in rather an injured voice. 'Were you talking of
+Miss Jocelyn in the vicarage kitchen-garden that evening?'</p>
+
+<p>'Probably,' was my cool reply; for how could I remember all the subjects
+of our conversation?</p>
+
+<p>'And when you went to Hyde Park Gate, you were together then,&mdash;Leah saw
+you,&mdash;and&mdash;' But I could bear no more.</p>
+
+<p>'How could I know that I should be watched and spied upon, and all my
+innocent actions misrepresented?' I exclaimed indignantly. 'It was not
+fair, Mr. Hamilton. I could not have believed it of you, that you should
+listen to such things against me. That boy, too!'</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense!' speaking in his old good-humoured voice, and looking
+exceedingly pleased. 'He is five-and-twenty, and a very good-looking
+fellow: a girl might do worse for herself than marry Lawrence Tudor.'</p>
+
+<p>'But I intend to have him as my cousin some day,' was my reply; but at
+this moment Chatty came in to tell Mr. Hamilton that the boxes were in
+the cart, and Miss Darrell waiting in the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>'Confound it! I had forgotten all about Etta,' he returned impatiently.
+'Well, it cannot be helped: we must finish our conversation this
+evening.' And with a smile that told of restored confidence he went off.</p>
+
+<p>I sat down and cried a little for sheer happiness, for I knew the barrier
+was broken at last, and that we should soon arrive at a complete
+understanding. It was hard that he should have to leave me just then; and
+the thought of resuming the conversation in the evening made me naturally
+a little nervous. 'Supposing I go back to the White Cottage,' I thought
+once; but I knew he would follow me there, and that it would seem idle
+coquetting on my part. It would be more dignified to wait and hear what
+he had to say. I should go back to the White Cottage in a day or two.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys came out of her room when she heard the wheels, and proposed that
+we should go down into the drawing-room. 'Poor poor Etta!' she sighed. 'I
+try to pity and be sorry for her, but it is impossible not to be glad
+that she has gone. I want to look at every room, Ursula, and to realise
+that I am to have my own lovely home in peace. We must send for Lady
+Betty; and Giles must know about Claude. I do not believe that he will
+be angry: oh no, nothing will make Giles angry now.'</p>
+
+<p>Max found us very busy in the drawing-room. I was just carrying out a
+work-box and a novel that belonged to Miss Darrell, and Gladys had picked
+up a peacock-feather screen, and a carved ivory fan, and two or three
+little knick-knacks. 'Take them all away, Ursula dear,' she pleaded, with
+a faint shudder; but as she put them in my arms there were Max's eyes
+watching us from the threshold.</p>
+
+<p>I saw her go up to him as simply as a child, and put her hands in his,
+and as I closed the door Max took her in his arms. The peacock screen
+fell at my feet, the ivory fan and a hideous little Chinese god rolled
+noisily on the oilcloth. I smiled as I picked them up. My dear Max and
+his Lady of Delight were together at last. I felt as though my cup of joy
+were full.</p>
+
+<p>Max remained to luncheon, but he went away soon afterwards. Gladys must
+rest, and he would come again later in the evening. I was rather glad
+when he said this, for I wanted to go down to the White Cottage and see
+Mrs. Barton, and I could not have left the house while he was there. Yes,
+Max was certainly right: it would be better for him to come again when
+Mr. Hamilton was at home.</p>
+
+<p>I made Gladys take possession of her favourite little couch in the
+drawing-room, but she detained me for some time talking about Max, until
+I refused to hear another word, and then I went up to my own room, and
+put on my hat.</p>
+
+<p>I thought Nap would like a run down the road,&mdash;and I could always make
+Tinker keep the peace,&mdash;so I went into the stable-yard in search of him.
+He was evidently there, for I could hear him barking excitedly. The next
+moment a young workman came out of the empty coach-house, and walked
+quickly to the gate, followed closely by Nap, jumping and fawning on him.</p>
+
+<p>'Down, down, good dog!' I heard him say, and then I whistled back Nap,
+who came reluctantly, and with some difficulty I contrived to shut him up
+in the stable-yard. There seemed no man about the premises. Then I
+hurried down the road in the direction of the village: my heart was
+beating fast, my limbs trembled under me. I had caught sight of a perfect
+profile and a golden-brown moustache as the young workman went out of the
+gate, and I knew it was the face of Eric Hamilton.</p>
+
+<p>My one thought was that I must follow him, that on no account must I lose
+sight of him. As I closed the gate I could see him in the distance, just
+turning the corner by the Man and Plough; he was walking very quickly in
+the direction of the station. I quickened my steps, breaking into a run
+now and then, and soon had the satisfaction of lessening the distance
+between us; my last run had brought me within a hundred yards of him,
+and slackened my pace, and began to look the matter in the face.</p>
+
+<p>I remembered that the London train would be due in another quarter of an
+hour; no doubt that was why he was walking so fast. I must keep near him
+when he took his ticket. I had no fear of his recognising me; he had only
+seen me twice, without my bonnet, and now I wore a hat that shaded my
+face, and my plain gray gown was sufficiently unlike the dress I had
+worn at Hyde Park Gate. I had a sudden qualm as the thought darted into
+my mind that he might possibly have a return-ticket; but I should know if
+he got into the Victoria train, and I determined on taking a ticket for
+myself.</p>
+
+<p>I had a couple of sovereigns and a little loose silver in my purse. I had
+assured myself of this fact as I walked down the hill. As soon as the
+young workman had entered the booking-office, I followed him closely, and
+to my great relief heard him ask for a third-class ticket for Victoria.
+When he had made way for me I took the same for myself, and then, as I
+had seven minutes to spare, I went into the telegraph-office and dashed
+off a message to Gladys.</p>
+
+<p>'Called to town on important business; may be detained to-night. Will
+write if necessary.'</p>
+
+<p>As I gave in the form I could hear the signal for the up train, and had
+only time to reach the platform when the Victoria train came in.</p>
+
+<p>The young workman got into an empty compartment, and I followed and
+placed myself at the other end. I had no wish to attract his notice; the
+ill success of my former attempt had frightened me, and I felt I dared
+not address him, for fear he should leave the train at the next station.
+Some workmen had got in and were talking noisily among themselves. I did
+not feel that the opportunity would he propitious.</p>
+
+<p>When we had actually left Heathfield I stole a glance at the young man:
+he had drawn his cap over his eyes, and seemed to feign sleep, no doubt
+to avoid conversation with the noisy crew opposite us; but that he was
+not really asleep was evident from the slight twitching of the mouth and
+a long-drawn sigh that every now and then escaped him.</p>
+
+<p>I could watch him safely now, and for a few minutes I studied almost
+painfully one of the most perfect faces I had ever seen. It was thin and
+colourless, and there were lines sad to see on so young a face; but it
+might have been a youthful Apollo leaning his head against the wooden
+wainscotting.</p>
+
+<p>Once he opened his eyes and pushed back his cap with a gesture of
+weariness and impatience. He did not see me: those sad, blue-gray eyes
+were fixed on the moving landscape; but how like Gladys's they looked!
+I turned aside quickly to hide my emotion. I thought of Gladys and Mr.
+Hamilton, and a prayer rose to my lips that for their sake I might
+succeed in bringing the lost one back.</p>
+
+<p>The journey seemed a long one. All sorts of fears tormented me. I
+remembered Mr. Hamilton was in London: there was danger of encountering
+him at Victoria. It was five now: he might possibly return to dinner. I
+could scarcely breathe as this new terror presented itself to me, for if
+Eric caught sight of his brother all would be lost.</p>
+
+<p>When the train stopped, I followed the young workman as closely as
+possible. As we were turning in the subterranean passage for the District
+Railway, my heart seemed to stop. There was Mr. Hamilton reading his
+paper under the clock: we actually passed within twenty yards of him, and
+he did not raise his eyes. I am sure Eric saw him, for he suddenly dived
+into the passage, and I had much trouble to keep him in sight: as it was,
+I was only just in time to hear him ask for a third-class single to
+Bishop's Road.</p>
+
+<p>I did not dare enter the same compartment, but I got into the next,
+and now and then, when our train stopped at the different stations,
+I could hear him distinctly talking to a fellow-workman, in a refined,
+gentlemanly voice, that would have attracted attention to him anywhere.
+Once the other man called him Jack, and asked where he hung out, and I
+noticed this question was cleverly eluded, but I heard him say afterwards
+that he was in regular work, and liked his present governor, and that the
+old woman who looked after him was a tidy, decent lady, and kept things
+comfortable. My thoughts strayed a little after this. The sight of Mr.
+Hamilton had disturbed me. What would he think when Gladys showed him
+my telegram? He had promised to finish our conversation this evening.
+I felt with a strange soreness of longing that I should not see Gladwyn
+that night. My absence of mind nearly cost me dear, for I had no idea
+that we had reached Bishop's Road until Eric passed my window, and with a
+smothered exclamation I opened the door: happily, the passengers were
+numerous and blocked up the stairs, so I reached the street to find him
+only a few yards before me.</p>
+
+<p>My patience was being severely exercised after this, for Eric did not go
+straight to his lodgings. He went into a butcher's first, and after a few
+minutes' delay&mdash;for there were customers in the shop&mdash;came out with a
+newspaper parcel in his hand. Then he went into a grocer's, and through
+the window I could see him putting little packets of tea and sugar in his
+pocket.</p>
+
+<p>His next business was to the baker's, and here a three-cornered crusty
+loaf was the result. The poor young fellow was evidently providing his
+evening meal, and the sight of these homely delicacies reminded me that
+I was tired and hungry and that a cup of tea would be refreshing. Eric
+carried his steak and three-cornered loaf jauntily, and every now and
+then broke into a sweet low whistle that reminded me of his nickname
+among his mates of 'Jack the Whistler.'</p>
+
+<p>We were threading the labyrinth of streets that lie behind Bishop's Road
+Station; I was beginning to feel weary and discouraged, when Eric stopped
+suddenly before a neat-looking house of two stories, with very bright
+geraniums in the parlour window, and taking out his latch-key let himself
+in, and closed the door with a bang.</p>
+
+<p>I stalked carelessly to the end of the street, and read the name. 'No. 25
+Madison Street,' I said to myself, and then I went up to the door and
+knocked boldly. My time had come now, I thought, trying to pull myself
+together, for I felt decidedly nervous.</p>
+
+<p>A stout, oldish woman with rather a pleasant face opened the door; her
+arms were bare, and she dried her hands on her apron as she asked me my
+business.</p>
+
+<p>'Your lodger Jack Poynter has just come in,' I said quietly. 'I have a
+message for him. Can I see him, please?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh ay,&mdash;you can see him surely.' And she stepped back into the passage
+and called out, 'Jack, Jack! here is a young woman wants to speak to
+you.' But I shut the door hurriedly and interrupted her:</p>
+
+<p>'Let me go up to his room: you can tell me where it is'; for it never
+would do to speak to him in the passage.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, perhaps he may be washing and brushing himself a bit after his
+journey,' she returned good-humouredly: 'he is a tidy chap, is Jack. If
+you go up to the top landing and knock at the second door, that is his
+sitting-room; he sleeps at the back, and Sawyer has the other room.'</p>
+
+<p>I followed these instructions, and knocked at the front-room door; but no
+voice bade me come in; only a short bark and a scuffle of feet gave me
+notice of the occupant: so I ventured to go in.</p>
+
+<p>It was a tidy little room, and had a snug aspect. A white fox-terrier
+with a pretty face retreated growling under a chair, but I coaxed her to
+come out. The steak and the loaf were on the table. But I had no time for
+any further observation, for a voice said, 'What are you barking at,
+Jenny?' and the next moment Eric entered the room.</p>
+
+<p>He started when he saw me caressing the dog.</p>
+
+<p>'I beg your pardon for this intrusion,' I began nervously, for I saw I
+was not recognised; 'but I have followed you from Heathfield to tell you
+the good news. Mr. Hamilton, it is all found out; Miss Darrell stole that
+cheque.'</p>
+
+<p>I had blurted it out, fearing that he might start away from me even then:
+he must know that his name was cleared, and then I could persuade him to
+listen to me. I was right in my surmise, for as I said his name he put
+his hand on the door, but my next words made him drop the handle.</p>
+
+<p>'What?' he exclaimed, turning deadly pale, and I could see how his lips
+quivered under his moustache. 'Say that again: I do not understand.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Hamilton,' I repeated slowly, 'you need not have rushed past your
+poor brother in that way at Victoria, for he is breaking his heart, and
+so is Gladys, with the longing to find you. Your name is cleared: they
+only want to ask your forgiveness for all you have suffered. It was a
+foul conspiracy of two women to save themselves by ruining you. Leah has
+made full confession. Your cousin Etta took the cheque out of your
+brother's desk.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, my God!' he gasped, and, sitting down, he hid his face in his hands.
+The little fox-terrier jumped on his knee and began licking his hands.
+'Don't, Jenny: let me be,' he said, in a fretful, boyish voice that made
+me smile. 'I must think, for my brain seems dizzy.'</p>
+
+<p>I left him quiet for a few minutes, and Jenny, after this rebuke, curled
+herself up at his feet and went to sleep. Then I took the chair beside
+him, and asked him, very quietly, if he could listen to me. He was
+frightfully pale, and his features were working, but he nodded assent and
+held his head between his hands again, but I know he heard every word.</p>
+
+<p>I told him as briefly as I could how Gladys had languished and pined all
+these years, how she had clung to the notion of his innocence and would
+not believe that he was dead. He started at that, and asked what I meant.
+Had Giles really believed he was dead?</p>
+
+<p>'He had reason to fear so,' I returned gravely; and I told him how his
+watch and scarf had been found on the beach at Brighton, and how the
+hotel-keeper had brought them to Mr. Hamilton.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed shocked at this. 'I had been bathing,' he said, in rather an
+ashamed voice: 'some boy must have stolen them, and then dropped his
+booty for fear of the police. I missed them when I came out of the water,
+and I hunted about for them a long time. As I was leaving the beach I saw
+one of Giles's friends coming down towards me, and I got it into my head
+that I was recognised. I dared not go back to the hotel. Besides, my
+money was running short. I took a third-class ticket up to London, and
+on my way fell in with a house-painter, who gave me lodging for a few
+nights.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, and then&mdash;' for he hesitated here.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, you see, I was just mad with them at home. I thought I could never
+forgive Giles that last insult. My character and honour were gone. Etta
+had been my secret enemy all along, because she knew I read her truly.
+Leah had given in her false evidence. My word was nothing. I was looked
+upon as a common thief. I swore that I would never cross the threshold of
+Gladwyn again until my name was cleared. They should not hear of me; if
+they thought me dead, so much the better!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Mr. Eric, and you never considered how Gladys would suffer!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, that was my only trouble; but I thought they would turn her against
+me in time. I was nearly mad, I tell you: but for Phil Power I believe I
+should have been desperate; but he stuck to me, and was always telling me
+that a man can live down anything. Indeed, but for Phil and his pretty
+little wife I should have starved, for I had no notion of helping myself,
+and would not have begged for a job to save my life, for I could not
+forget I was a gentleman. But Phil got me work at his governor's. So
+I turned house-painter, and rather liked my employment. I used to tell
+myself that it was better than old Armstrong's office. Why, I make two
+pounds a week now when we are in full work,' finished the poor lad
+proudly.</p>
+
+<p>My heart was yearning over him, he was so boyish and weak and impulsive;
+but I would not spare him. I told him that it was cowardly of him to hide
+himself,&mdash;that it would have been braver and nobler to have lived his
+life openly. 'Why not have let your brother know what you were doing?' I
+continued. 'For years this shadow has been over his home. He has believed
+you dead. He has even feared self-destruction. This fear has embittered
+his life and made him a hard, unhappy man.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean Giles has suffered like that?' he exclaimed; and his gray
+eyes grew misty.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, in spite of all your sins against him, he has loved you dearly; and
+Gladys&mdash;' But he put up his hand, as though he could hear no more.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know, poor darling; but I have often seen her, often been near
+her; but I heard her laugh, and thought she was happy and had forgotten
+me. How long is it since Leah confessed, Miss&mdash;Miss&mdash;' And here he
+laughed a little nervously. 'I do not know who you are, and yet you
+must be a friend.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am Ursula Garston, a very close friend of your sister Gladys, and
+I have been nursing her in this last illness.'</p>
+
+<p>'What! has she been ill?' he asked anxiously. And when I had given him
+full particulars he questioned me again about Leah's confession, and I
+had to repeat all I could remember of her words.</p>
+
+<p>'Then I was not cleared when you spoke to me at Hyde Park Gate?' he
+returned, with a relieved air. 'So it did not matter my giving you the
+slip. You frightened me horribly, Miss Garston, I can tell you that. I
+saw those advertisements, too, to Jack Poynter, and I was very near
+leaving the country; but I am glad I held on, as Phil advised,' drawing
+a long breath as he spoke.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVII" id="CHAPTER_XLVII"></a>CHAPTER XLVII</h2>
+
+<h3>'AT LAST, URSULA, AT LAST!'</h3>
+
+
+<p>We were interrupted at this moment by the landlady's voice calling to
+Eric from the bottom of the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>'Jack,&mdash;I say, Jack, what has become of the steak I promised to cook for
+you? I'll be bound Jenny has eaten it.'</p>
+
+<p>Eric gave a short laugh and went out into the passage, and I heard him
+say, in rather a low voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'A lady, a friend of my sister's, has just brought me some news. I expect
+she is as tired and hungry as I am. Do you think,' coaxingly, 'that you
+could get tea for us in the parlour, Mrs. Hunter? and perhaps you will
+join us there'; for class-instinct had awoke in Eric at the sight of a
+lady's face, and I suppose, in spite of my Quakerish gray gown, I was
+still young enough to make him hesitate about entertaining me in his
+bachelor's room.</p>
+
+<p>There was a short parley after this. Then Mrs. Hunter came up panting,
+and, still wiping her hands from imaginary soap-suds, carried off the
+steak and the three-cornered loaf. 'It will be ready in about twenty
+minutes, Jack,' she observed, with a good-natured nod.</p>
+
+<p>Eric employed the interval of waiting by questioning me eagerly about his
+sisters. Then he tried to find out, in a gentlemanly way, how I contrived
+to be so mixed up with his family. This led to a brief <i>r&eacute;sum&eacute;</i> of my own
+history and work, and by the time Mrs. Hunter called us I felt as though
+I had known Eric for years.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hunter beamed on us as we entered. There was really quite a tempting
+little meal spread on the round table, though the butter was not fresh
+nor the forks silver, but the tea was hot and strong, and the bread was
+new. And Eric produced from his stores some lump sugar and a pot of
+strawberry jam, and I did full justice to the homely fare.</p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Hunter went into the kitchen to replenish the teapot I took the
+opportunity of consulting Eric about a lodging for the night. It was too
+late to return to Heathfield. Besides, I had made up my mind that Eric
+should accompany me. Aunt Philippa and Jill were in Switzerland, and the
+house at Hyde Park Gate would be empty. I could not well go to an hotel
+without any luggage. Eric seemed rather perplexed, and said we must take
+Mrs. Hunter into our confidence, which we did, and the good woman soon
+relieved our minds.</p>
+
+<p>She said at once that she knew an excellent person who let lodgings round
+the corner,&mdash;a Miss Moseley. Miss Gunter, who had been a music-mistress
+until she married the young chemist, had lived with her for six years;
+and Miss Crabbe, who was in the millinery department at Howell's, the big
+shop in Kimber Street, was still there. Miss Gunter's room was vacant,
+and she was sure Miss Moseley would take me in for the night and make me
+comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>I begged Mrs. Hunter to open negotiations with this obliging person, and
+she pulled down her sleeves at once, and tied her double chin in a very
+big black bonnet. While she was gone on this charitable errand, Eric and
+I sat by the parlour window in the gathering dusk, and I told him about
+Gladys's engagement to Uncle Max.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed much excited by the news. 'I always thought that would be a
+case,' he exclaimed: 'I could see Mr. Cunliffe cared for her even then.
+Well, he is a first-rate fellow, and I am awfully glad.' And then he fell
+into a reverie, and I could see there were tears in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hunter returned presently with the welcome news that Miss Moseley
+was airing my sheets at the kitchen fire, and, after a little more talk,
+Eric walked with me to Prescott Street and gave me in charge to Miss
+Moseley, after promising to be with me soon after nine the next morning.</p>
+
+<p>I found Miss Moseley a cheerful talkative person, with very few teeth and
+a great deal of good-nature. She gave me Miss Gunter's history as she
+made the bed. I could see that her marriage with the young chemist was
+a great source of glorification to all connected with her. She was still
+holding forth on the newly-furnished drawing-room, with its blue sofa
+and inlaid chiffonier, as she lighted a pair of candles in the brass
+candlesticks, and brought me a can of hot water. I am afraid I was rather
+thankful when she closed the door and left me alone, for I was tired, and
+longed to think over the wonderful events of the day. I slept very
+sweetly in the old-fashioned brown bed that was sacred to the memory of
+Miss Gunter, and woke happily to the fact that another blue day was
+shining, and that in a few hours Eric and I would be at Heathfield. I
+ate my frugal breakfast in a small back parlour overlooking the blank
+wall of a brewery, and before I had finished there was a quick tap at the
+door, and Eric entered. A boyish blush crossed his handsome face as I
+looked at him in some surprise. He had laid aside his workman's dress,
+and wore the ordinary garb of a gentleman. Perhaps his coat was a little
+shabby and the hat he held in his hand had lost its gloss, but no one
+would have noticed such trifles with that bright speaking face and air
+of refinement; and, though he looked down at his uncovered hands and
+muttered something about stopping to buy a pair of gloves, I hastened to
+assure him that it was so early that it did not matter. 'I should hardly
+have recognised you, Mr. Eric,' I ventured to observe, for I saw he was
+a little sensitive about his appearance; and then he told me in his frank
+way that the clothes he wore were the same in which he left Gladwyn
+nearly four years ago.</p>
+
+<p>'They have been lying by all this time,' he went on, 'and they are sadly
+creased, I am afraid. I have grown a little broader, and they don't seem
+to fit me, somehow, but I did not want Gladys to see me in anything
+else.'</p>
+
+<p>We had decided to take the ten o'clock train to Heathfield, so I did
+not keep him long waiting for me. On our way to the station we met a
+house-painter: he looked rather dubiously at Eric.</p>
+
+<p>'All right, Phil,' he laughed, 'I am going home; but I shall turn up
+again all right: this lady has brought me good news.' And he wrung Phil's
+hand with a heartiness that spoke volumes.</p>
+
+<p>He was very excited and talkative at first, but as soon as we left
+Victoria behind us he became quieter, and soon afterwards perfectly
+silent; and I did not disturb him. He grew more nervous as we approached
+Heathfield, and when the train stopped he had not an atom of colour in
+his face.</p>
+
+<p>'I do not know what I shall say to Giles,' he said, as we walked up the
+hill. 'It will be very awkward for both of us, Miss Garston. Of course
+I know that&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>But I begged him not to anticipate the awkwardness. 'You will be welcomed
+as we only welcome our dearest and best,' I assured him. 'Your brother's
+heart has been sore for you all these years: you need not fear one word
+of reproach from him.' But he only sighed, and asked me not to walk so
+quickly; his courage was failing; I could see the look of nervous fear
+on his face.</p>
+
+<p>We had arranged that he should accompany me to Gladwyn. Gladys never left
+her room before twelve, and I thought that I could shut him safely in the
+dining-room while I prepared her for his arrival. I knew Mr. Hamilton was
+never at home at this hour, but I had not reckoned on the disorganised
+state of the house, or the difference my brief absence would make in the
+usual routine.</p>
+
+<p>I blamed myself for rashness and want of consideration when, on opening
+the gate, I saw Gladys crossing one of the little lawns around the house,
+with Max and Mr. Hamilton. At my faint exclamation Eric let go the gate
+rather too suddenly, and it swung back on its hinges so noisily that they
+all looked round, and the poor boy stood as though rooted to the spot.
+But the next moment there was the gleam of a white gown, and Gladys came
+running over the grass towards us with outstretched hands, and in another
+second the brother and sister were locked in each other's arms.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, my darling,' we heard her say, as she put up her face and kissed
+him, and then her fair head seemed to droop lower and lower until it
+touched Eric's shoulder. I glanced anxiously at Mr. Hamilton.</p>
+
+<p>'Take her into the house, Eric,' he said, in his ordinary voice; but how
+white his face looked! 'It has been too sudden, and she has fainted.'
+And, without a word, Eric lifted her in his strong arms and carried her
+of his own accord to the little blue couch in the drawing-room, and then
+stood aside while his brother administered the usual remedy. Not a look
+had passed between them yet: they were both too much absorbed in Gladys.</p>
+
+<p>She soon opened her eyes, and pushed away the vinaigrette I was holding
+to her.</p>
+
+<p>'It is nothing, Ursula. I am well, quite well. Where is my dear boy? Do
+not keep him from me.' And then Eric knelt down beside her, and put his
+arm round her with a sort of sob.</p>
+
+<p>'I ought not to have startled you so, Gladys. I have made you look so
+pale.' But she laughed again, and pushed back his hair from his forehead,
+and feasted her eyes on his face as though they could never be satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>'Eric, darling, it seems like a dream; and it was Ursula, dear good
+Ursula, who has given you back to us. We must thank her presently; but
+not now. Oh, I must look at you first. He looks older, does he not,
+Giles?&mdash;older and more manly. And what broad shoulders, and such a
+moustache!' but Eric silenced her with a kiss.</p>
+
+<p>'That will do, Gladys dear,' he whispered, springing to his feet; and
+then, with downcast eyes and a flush on his face, he held out his hand
+to his brother. It was taken and held silently, and then Mr. Hamilton's
+disengaged hand was laid on his shoulder caressingly.</p>
+
+<p>'Welcome home, my dear boy,' he said; but his voice was not quite so
+clear as usual.</p>
+
+<p>'I am very sorry, Giles,' he faltered; but Mr. Hamilton would not let him
+speak.</p>
+
+<p>'There is nothing to be sorry for, now,' he said significantly. 'Have you
+shaken hands with Mr. Cunliffe, Eric? Gladys, can you spare your boy for
+a few moments while I carry him off?' And, as Gladys smiled assent, Mr.
+Hamilton signed to Eric to follow him.</p>
+
+<p>Max sat down beside Gladys when they had left the room, and Gladys made
+a space for me on the couch.</p>
+
+<p>'You must tell us how it happened,' she said, fixing her lovely eyes on
+me. 'Dear Ursula, we owe this fresh happiness to you: how can I thank you
+for all your goodness to us?' But I would not allow her to talk in this
+fashion, and I left Max to soothe her when she cried a little, and then
+I told them both how I had found Eric in the stable-yard with Nap, and
+how I had tracked him successfully to his lodgings.</p>
+
+<p>'She is a brave, dear child, is she not, Gladys?' observed Max. Then,
+with a mischievous look in his brown eyes, 'You are proud of your
+presumptive niece, are you not, dear?' And then, in spite of Gladys's
+confusion, for she was still a little shy with him, I burst out laughing,
+and she was obliged to join me, for it had never entered into our heads
+that Gladys would be my aunt. The laugh brought back her colour and did
+her good; but she would not look at Max for a long time after that,
+though he was on his best behaviour and said all sorts of nice things
+to us both.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long time before Mr. Hamilton brought Eric back to us. They
+both looked very happy, but Eric's eyes had a strangely softened look
+in them. The gong sounded for luncheon just then, and Mr. Hamilton asked
+me, in rather a surprised tone, why I had not taken off my hat and
+jacket, so I ran off to my room in a great hurry. As he opened the door
+for me, he said, in rather an odd tone, 'Do you know you have not wished
+me good-morning, Miss Garston?' I muttered some sort of an answer, but he
+merely smiled, and told me not to keep them waiting. Gladys came in to
+luncheon, and took her usual place; but neither she nor Eric made much
+pretence of eating, though Mr. Hamilton scolded them both for their want
+of appetite. Nobody talked much, and there was no connected conversation:
+I think we were all too much engrossed in watching Gladys. Max was in the
+background for once, but he did not seem to think of himself at all: the
+sight of Gladys's sweet face, radiant with joy, was sufficient pleasure
+for him; but now and then she turned to him in a touching manner, as
+though to show she had not forgotten him, and then he was never slow
+to respond.</p>
+
+<p>When luncheon was over, Mr. Hamilton begged me to take Gladys to the
+turret-room and persuade her to lie down.</p>
+
+<p>'I am going to send Cunliffe away until dinner-time,' he said, with
+a sort of good-natured peremptoriness: 'under the circumstances he is
+decidedly <i>de trop</i>. Yes, my dear, yes,' as Gladys looked pleadingly at
+him, 'Eric shall come and talk to you. I am not so unreasonable as that.'
+And I think we all understood the feeling that made Gladys put her arms
+round her brother's neck, though we none of us heard her whisper a word.
+Max consented very cheerfully to efface himself for the remainder of the
+afternoon, and Gladys accompanied me upstairs. I waited until Eric joined
+us, and then I left them together.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Gladys, he was so good, and I did not deserve it!' he burst out
+before I had closed the door. 'I never knew Giles could be like that.'
+But I took care not to hear any more. I hardly knew what to do with
+myself that afternoon, but I made up my mind at last that I would finish
+a letter I had begun to Jill. The inkstand was in the turret-room, but I
+thought I would fetch one out of the drawing-room; but when I reached
+the head of the staircase I drew back involuntarily, for Mr. Hamilton was
+standing at the bottom of the stairs, leaning against the wall with
+folded arms, as though he were waiting for somebody or something. An
+unaccountable timidity made me hesitate; in another second I should have
+gone back into my room, but he looked up, and, as before, our eyes met.</p>
+
+<p>'Come,' he said, holding out his hand, and there was a sort of impatience
+in his manner. 'How long are you going to keep me waiting, Ursula?' And I
+went down demurely and silently, but I took no notice of his outstretched
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>I was trying to pass him in a quiet, ordinary fashion, as though there
+were no unusual meaning in his deep-set eyes; but he stopped me somewhat
+coolly by taking me in his arms.</p>
+
+<p>'At last, Ursula, at last!' was all he said, and then he kissed me....</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I remember I told Giles, when I had recovered myself a little, that he
+had taken things too much for granted.</p>
+
+<p>He had brought me into the drawing-room, and was sitting beside me on the
+little couch. To my dazzled eyes the room seemed full of sunshine and the
+sweet perfume of flowers: to this day the scent of heliotrope brings back
+the memory of that afternoon when Giles first told me that he loved me.
+He seemed rather perplexed at first by my stammering little speech, and
+then I suppose my meaning dawned on him, for his arm pressed me more
+closely.</p>
+
+<p>'I think I understand: you mean, do you not, Ursula, that I have not
+asked you in plain English to be my wife? I thought we understood each
+other too well for any such word to be necessary. Ever since you told me
+that fellow Tudor was nothing to you, I felt you belonged to me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not see that,' I returned shyly, for Giles in his new character was
+rather formidable. He had taken such complete possession of me, and, as I
+had hinted, had taken everything for granted. 'Because Mr. Tudor was
+simply a friend, it did not follow that I cared for any one else.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but you do care for me a good deal, darling, do you not?' in a
+most persuasive voice. 'But, for my own comfort, I want you to tell me
+if you are quite content to accept such a crabbed old bachelor for your
+husband.'</p>
+
+<p>It was a little difficult to answer, but I made him understand that
+I looked upon him in a very different light, and I think I managed to
+content him.</p>
+
+<p>'And you are really happy, dear?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, very happy'; but the tears were in my eyes as I answered. He seemed
+distressed to see them, and wanted me to tell him the reason; but I think
+he understood me thoroughly when I whispered how glad Charlie would have
+been. I asked him presently how long he had cared for me, but, to my
+surprise, he declared that he hardly knew himself: he had been interested
+in me from the first hour of our meeting, but it was when he heard me
+sing in Phoebe Locke's room that the thought came to him that he must try
+and win me for his wife.</p>
+
+<p>I think it was in answer to this that I said some foolish word about my
+want of beauty. I was a little sensitive on the subject, but, to my
+dismay, Giles's face darkened, and he dropped my hand.</p>
+
+<p>'Never say that to me again, if you love me, Ursula,' he said, in such
+a grieved voice that I could hardly bear to hear it. 'Do you think I
+would have married you if you had been handsome? Do you know what you
+are talking about, child? Has no one told you about Ella?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes,' I returned, terrified at his sternness, for he had never spoken
+to me in such a tone before. 'Yes, indeed, and I know she was very
+beautiful.'</p>
+
+<p>'She was perfectly lovely,'&mdash;in the same hard voice. Oh, how he must have
+suffered, my poor Giles! 'And the memory of that false loveliness has
+made me loathe the idea of beauty ever since. No, I would never have let
+myself love you if you had been handsome, Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad I am not,' I returned, in a choked voice, for all this was
+very painful to me. Something in my tone attracted his notice, for he
+stooped and looked in my face, and his manner instantly changed.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you foolish child,' very caressingly, 'there are actually tears in
+your eyes! You are not afraid of me, Ursula? I am always excited when I
+speak of Ella: she very nearly destroyed my faith in women.'</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot bear to think how you suffered,' I faltered, but he would not
+let me finish.</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind; you have been my healer; you have always rested me so. Never
+call yourself plain again in my hearing. No other face could be half so
+dear to me.' And then, with his old smile, 'Do you know, dear, when I saw
+you in that velvet gown at your cousin's wedding you looked so handsome
+that I went home in a bad humour, and then Etta told me about Tudor.
+Well, I have you safe now.' But I will not transcribe all Giles's speech;
+it was so lover-like, it made me understand, once for all, what I was to
+him, and how little he cared for life unless I shared it with him.</p>
+
+<p>By and by he went on to speak of our mutual work, and here again he more
+than contented me.</p>
+
+<p>'I do not mean to rob the poor people of their nurse, Ursula,' he said
+presently. 'When you come to Gladwyn as its mistress, I hope we shall
+work together as we do now.'</p>
+
+<p>I told him I hoped so too; that I never wished to lay down my work.</p>
+
+<p>'You are quite right, dear,' he answered cheerfully. 'We will not be
+selfish in our happiness. True, your work must be in limits. When I come
+home I shall want to see my wife's face. No,' rather jealously, 'I could
+not spare you of an evening, and in the morning there will be household
+duties. You must not undertake too much, Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>I told Giles, rather demurely, that there was plenty of time for the
+consideration of this point. He was inclined to bridge over the present
+in a man's usual fashion, but my new position was too overwhelming for me
+to look beyond the deep abiding consciousness that Giles loved me and
+looked to me for happiness.</p>
+
+<p>So I turned a deaf ear when he asked me presently if I should mind Lady
+Betty sharing our home; 'for,' he went on, 'the poor child has no other
+home, and she is so feather-headed that no sensible man will think of
+marrying her.' It was not my place to enlighten Giles about Claude, but
+I thought it very improbable that Lady Betty would be long at Gladwyn;
+but I was a little oppressed by this sort of talk, and yet unwilling that
+he should notice my shyness, so I took the opportunity of saying it was
+tea-time, and did he not think that Gladys and Eric had been talking long
+enough?</p>
+
+<p>He seemed unwilling to let me go, but I pleaded my nurse's duties, and
+then he told me, laughing, that I was a wilful woman, and that I might
+send Eric to him. As it happened, Eric was coming in search of Giles, and
+I found him in the passage.</p>
+
+<p>Gladys was lying on her couch, looking worn out with happiness. She
+was beginning to speak about Eric, when something in my face seemed to
+distract her. She watched me closely for a moment, then threw her arms
+round me and drew my head on her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>'Is it so, Ursula? Oh, my dear dear sister! I am so glad!' And she seemed
+to understand without a word when my over-excited feelings found vent in
+a flood of nervous tears, for she only kissed me quietly, and stroked my
+hair, until I was relieved and happy again.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear Ursula,' she whispered, 'how can I help being glad, for Giles's
+sake?'</p>
+
+<p>'And not for mine?' drying my eyes, and feeling very much ashamed of
+myself.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, you will see how good Giles will be,' was her reply to this. 'You
+will be a happy woman, Ursula. You are exactly suited to each other.' And
+I knew she was right.</p>
+
+<p>Max's turn came presently.</p>
+
+<p>I was sitting alone in the drawing-room before dinner. Giles had brought
+me some flowers, and had rushed off to dress himself; and I was looking
+out on the garden and the strip of blue sky, and buried in a happy
+reverie, when two hands suddenly lifted me up, and a brown beard brushed
+my face.</p>
+
+<p>'Little she-bear, do you know how glad I am!' Max joyously exclaimed. And
+indeed he looked very glad.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVIII" id="CHAPTER_XLVIII"></a>CHAPTER XLVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>'WHAT 0' THE WAY TO THE END?'</h3>
+
+
+<p>Two days afterwards I went back to the White Cottage and took up my old
+life again,&mdash;my old life, but how different now!</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget how Phoebe welcomed me back, and how she and Susan
+rejoiced when I told them the news. Strange to say, neither of them
+seemed much surprised. They had expected it, Susan said, in rather an
+amused tone, for it was easy to see the doctor had thought there was no
+one like me, and was always hinting as much to them. 'Why, I have seen
+him watch you as though there were nothing else worth looking at,'
+finished Susan, with simple shrewdness.</p>
+
+<p>I kept my own counsel with regard to Aunt Philippa and Jill, for I had
+made up my mind to go up to Hyde Park Gate as soon as they had returned,
+and tell them myself. But I wrote to Lesbia, with strong injunctions of
+secrecy.</p>
+
+<p>The answer came by return of post.</p>
+
+<p>It was a most loving, unselfish little letter, and touched me greatly.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall be your bridesmaid, Ursula,' it said, 'whether you ask me or
+not. Nothing will keep me away that day. I shall love to be there for
+dear Charlie's sake.</p>
+
+<p>'The news has made me so happy. Mother scolded me when she found me
+crying over your letter, but she cried herself too. We both agreed that
+no one deserved happiness more. I am longing to see your Mr. Hamilton,
+Ursie dear. He has one great virtue in my eyes already, that he
+appreciates you,' and so on, in Lesbia's gentle, sisterly way.</p>
+
+<p>The fact of our engagement made a great sensation in the place. People
+who had hitherto ignored the village nurse came to call on me. I suppose
+curiosity to see Mr. Hamilton's <i>fianc&eacute;e</i> brought a good many of them.</p>
+
+<p>My new position was not without its difficulties. Giles, who was
+impatient and domineering by nature, chafed much against the restraints
+imposed upon him by my loneliness.</p>
+
+<p>His brief calls did not suffice him. I would not let him come often or
+stay long. Max asked us to the vicarage sometimes, and now and then
+Gladys or Lady Betty would call for me and carry me off to Gladwyn for
+the evening; and of course I saw Giles frequently when he visited his
+patients, but with his dislike to conventionality it was rather difficult
+to keep him in good-humour. He could not be made to see why I should not
+marry him at once and put an end to this awkward state of things.</p>
+
+<p>We had our first lovers' quarrel on this point,&mdash;our first and our
+last,&mdash;for I never had to complain of my dear Giles again.</p>
+
+<p>I think hearing about Lady Betty's long engagement with Claude Hamilton
+had made him very sore. He had been bitterly angry both with poor little
+Lady Betty and also with Gladys. He declared the secrecy had hurt him
+more than anything; but Eric acted as peacemaker, and he was soon induced
+to condone his sisters' trangression.</p>
+
+<p>He came down to talk over the matter with me, and to tell me of the
+arrangements he had made for them.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed that a letter from Claude had arrived that very mail; telling
+Giles of his promotion, and asking leave to come and fetch his dear
+little Lady Betty. It was an honest, manly letter, Giles said; and as
+Claude was in a better position, and Lady Betty had five thousand pounds
+of her own, there seemed no reason against their marrying.</p>
+
+<p>He had talked to both Max and Gladys, and they were willing that Claude
+and Lady Betty should be married at the same time. The New Year had been
+already fixed for Gladys's, and Max meant to get leave of absence for two
+or three months and take her to Algiers; and as Claude would have to
+start for India early in March, Giles thought the double wedding would be
+best. They could get their <i>trousseaux</i> together, and the fuss would be
+got over more easily.</p>
+
+<p>I expressed myself as charmed with all these arrangements, for I thought
+it would be very dull for Lady Betty to be left behind at Gladwyn; and
+then I asked Giles what he had settled about Eric.</p>
+
+<p>He told me that Eric was still undecided, but he rather thought of going
+to Cirencester to enter the agricultural college there.</p>
+
+<p>'You see, Ursula,' he went on, 'the lad is a bit restless. He has given
+up his absurd idea of becoming an artist,&mdash;I never did believe in those
+daubs of his,&mdash;but he feels he can never settle down to city life. He is
+very much improved, far more manly and sensible than I ever hoped to see
+him; but he is of different calibre from myself,'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think farming will suit him?' I asked anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>'Better than anything else, I should say,' was the reply. 'Eric is an
+active, capable fellow, and he was always fond of out-door pursuits. He
+is young enough to learn. I have promised to keep Dorlicote Farm in my
+own hands until he is ready to take it. It is only ten miles from here,
+and has a very good house attached to it, and Eric will find himself in
+clover.' Then, as though some other thought were uppermost in his mind,
+he continued, 'I am so glad that you and he are such friends, Ursula, for
+he will often take up his quarters at Gladwyn.'</p>
+
+<p>It was after this that Giles asked me to marry him at once. He was
+strangely unreasonable that morning, and very much bent on having his own
+way. My objections were overruled one by one; he absolutely refused to
+listen to my arguments when I tried to show him how much wiser it would
+be to have his sisters and Eric settled before he brought me home as
+mistress to Gladwyn.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first time our wills had clashed; and, though I knew that I
+was right and that he was wholly in the wrong, it was very painful for me
+to refuse his loving importunities and to turn a deaf ear when he told me
+how he was longing for his wife; but I held firmly to my two points, that
+I would settle nothing without Aunt Philippa's advice, and that I would
+not marry him until Easter.</p>
+
+<p>I told him so very gently, but Giles was not quite like himself that day.
+Lady Betty's secrecy was still rankling in his mind, and he certainly
+used his power over me to make me very unhappy, for he accused me of
+coldness and over-prudence, and reproached me with my want of confidence
+in his judgment. My pride took fire at last, and rose in arms against his
+tyranny. 'You must listen to me, Giles,' I returned, trying to keep down
+a choking feeling. 'You are not quite just to me to-day, but you do not
+mean what you say. You will be sorry afterwards for your words. If I do
+not accede to your wishes, it is not because I do not love you well
+enough to marry you to-morrow, if it were expedient to do so; but under
+the circumstances it will be wiser to wait. I will marry you at Easter,
+If Uncle Max comes back by that time, for neither you nor I would like
+any one else to perform the ceremony. Will you not be content with this?'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' he returned gloomily. 'You are keeping me waiting for a mere
+scruple: neither Gladys nor Lady Betty would say a dissenting word if
+I brought you to Gladwyn at once. You are disappointing me very much,
+Ursula. I could not have believed that my wishes were so little to you.'
+But he was not able to finish this cutting speech, for I could bear no
+more, and suddenly burst into such an agony of tears that Giles was quite
+frightened.</p>
+
+<p>I found out then the goodness of his heart and his deep unselfish
+affection for me. He reproached himself bitterly for causing me such
+pain, begged my pardon a dozen times for his ill temper, and so coaxed
+and petted me that I could not refuse to be comforted.</p>
+
+<p>He laughed and kissed me when I implored him to take back his words about
+my coldness.</p>
+
+<p>'My darling!&mdash;as though I meant it!' he said; but he had the grace to
+look very much ashamed of himself. 'Of course you were right,&mdash;you always
+are, Ursula: we will wait until Easter if you think it best. Miss
+Prudence shall have her own way in the matter; but I will not wait a day
+longer for all the Uncle Maxes in the world.' And so we settled it.</p>
+
+<p>I remember how I tried to make up to Giles for his disappointment, and to
+show him how much I cared for him. We were dining at the vicarage that
+evening with Gladys and Eric, and as he walked home with me in the
+moonlight he took me to task very gently for being too good to him.</p>
+
+<p>'You have been like a little angel this evening, Ursula, and I have not
+deserved it. I believe I love you far more for not giving me my own way.
+It was pure selfishness: I see it now.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope it is the last time that your will will not be mine,' I answered,
+rather sadly. 'If you knew what it cost me to refuse you, Giles!' But one
+of his rare smiles answered me.</p>
+
+<p>It was the end of September when I went up to Hyde Park Gate to tell my
+wonderful piece of news to Aunt Philippa and Jill. Jill was very naughty
+at first, and declared that she should forbid the banns; her dear Ursula
+should not marry that ugly man. But she changed her opinion after a long
+conversation with Giles, and then her enthusiasm knew no bounds. It was
+amusing to see the admiring awe with which Aunt Philippa looked at me. My
+engagement had raised her opinion of me a hundredfold. I was no longer
+the plain eccentric Ursula in her eyes; the future Mrs. Hamilton was a
+person of far greater consequence.</p>
+
+<p>I could see that her surprise could scarcely be concealed. I used to
+notice her eyes fixed on me sometimes in a wondering way. She told Lesbia
+that she could hardly understand such brilliant prospects for dear
+Ursula. I had not Sara's good looks; and yet I was marrying a far richer
+man than Colonel Ferguson.</p>
+
+<p>'I think Mr. Hamilton a very distinguished man, my dear,' she continued,
+much to Lesbia's amusement. 'He is peculiar-looking, certainly, and a
+little too dark for my taste; but his manners are charming, and he is
+certainly very much in love with Ursula. She looks very nice, and is very
+much improved; but still, one hardly expected such a match for her.'</p>
+
+<p>Lesbia retailed this little speech with much gusto. Dear Aunt Philippa!
+she certainly did her duty by me then: nothing could exceed her kindness
+and motherliness. And Sara came very often, looking the prettiest and
+happiest young matron in the world, and almost overwhelmed me with advice
+and petting.</p>
+
+<p>They had come to the conclusion that my position was a somewhat awkward
+one, and that it would not do for me to go on living at the White
+Cottage. They wanted me to give up my work at Heathfield until after my
+marriage; and at last Aunt Philippa conceived the brilliant idea of
+taking a house at Brighton for the winter.</p>
+
+<p>'You have never liked Hyde Park Gate, Ursula,' she said, very kindly;
+'and we shall all be glad to escape London fogs this year: your uncle
+will not mind the expense, and I think the plan will suit admirably.
+Heathfield is only twenty minutes from Brighton, and Mr. Hamilton will be
+able to visit you far more comfortably, and you can sleep a night or two
+at Sara's when you want to go up to London to get your <i>trousseau</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>I thanked Aunt Philippa warmly for her kind thought, and then I wrote to
+Giles, and asked his opinion. I found that he entirely agreed with Aunt
+Philippa.</p>
+
+<p>'I think it an excellent plan, dear,' he wrote; 'and you must thank your
+good aunt for her consideration for us both. I shall see you far oftener
+at Brighton than at the White Cottage. Miss Prudence will be less active
+there: I shall be allowed to enjoy a reasonable conversation without the
+speech&mdash;"Oh, do please go away now, Giles; you have been here nearly an
+hour"&mdash;that invariably closed our cottage interviews.' I could see Giles
+was really pleased with Aunt Philippa's proposition, so I promised to go
+back to Heathfield and settle my affairs, and join them directly the
+house in Brunswick Place was ready; and by the middle of October we were
+all settled comfortably for the winter.</p>
+
+<p>I found Giles was right. I saw him oftener, and there was less restraint
+on our intercourse. He would come over to luncheon whenever he had a
+leisure day, and take me for a walk, or drop in to dinner and take the
+last train back. Gladys and Lady Betty came over perpetually. I used to
+help them with their shopping, and often go back with them for a few
+hours. Max was also a frequent visitor, and Mr. Tudor. Aunt Philippa kept
+open house, and made all my visitors welcome. I think she was a little
+sorry that Mr. Tudor came so perseveringly: but she was true to her
+principles to let things take their course and not to fan the flame by
+opposition. She was always kind to the young man, and though she
+generally contrived to keep Jill beside her when he dropped in for
+afternoon tea or encountered them on the parade, she did it so quietly
+that no one noticed any significance in the action.</p>
+
+<p>But I think Aunt Philippa's maternal fears would have been up in arms if
+she had overheard a conversation between Jill and myself one wintry
+afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Philippa had gone up to town to see Sara, who was a little ailing,
+and she and Uncle Brian were to return later. Gladys and Giles were to
+dine with us, and Max would probably join them. Aunt Philippa was very
+fond of these impromptu entertainments, but she had not extended the
+invitation to Mr. Tudor, who had called the previous day, and I had got
+it into my head that Jill was a little disappointed.</p>
+
+<p>She sat rather soberly by the fire that afternoon; but when Miss
+Gillespie left us she took her usual seat on the rug, and her black locks
+bobbed into my lap as usual, but I thought the firelight played on a very
+serious face.</p>
+
+<p>'What makes you so silent this afternoon, Jill?' I asked, rather
+curiously; but she did not answer for a moment, only drew down my
+hand, and looked at the diamonds that were flashing in the ruddy
+blaze,&mdash;Giles's pledge that he had placed there; then she laid her cheek
+against them, and said suddenly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I was only thinking, Ursie dear: I often think about things. Do you
+remember that evening at Hyde Park Gate when the lamp fell on me, and
+I might have been burnt to death?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, Jill,' with a shudder, for I never cared to recall that scene.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I was thinking,' still dreamily. Then, with a change of manner
+that startled me, 'Ursie, if a person saves another person's life, don't
+you think that life ought to belong to them?&mdash;that is, if they wish it?'
+with a sudden blush that rather alarmed me.</p>
+
+<p>'Stop, my dear,' I returned coolly. 'This is very vague. I do not think
+I quite understand. A person and another person, and them, too: it is
+terribly involved. Which is which? As the children say.'</p>
+
+<p>Jill gave a nervous little laugh, but her eyes gave me no doubt of her
+meaning: they looked strangely dark and soft.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Tudor saved my life,' she whispered. 'Ursie, if he wants it, that
+life ought to belong to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Jill, my dear,' for I was thoroughly startled now. Things were growing
+serious; but Jill gave me a little push in her childish way.</p>
+
+<p>'Ursie, don't pretend to look so surprised: you knew all about it: I saw
+it in your face. Don't you remember what he said that night, that he did
+not know what would become of him if I died, that he could not bear it?
+Did you see how he looked when he said it?'</p>
+
+<p>I remained silent, for I could not deny that Mr. Tudor had betrayed
+himself at that moment; but she went on very quietly, 'Ursie dear, I know
+Mr. Tudor cares for me; he does not always hide it, though he tries to do
+so. You see he is so real and honest that he cannot help showing things.'</p>
+
+<p>'Jill,' I exclaimed anxiously, 'what would your mother say if she knew
+this?'</p>
+
+<p>'I think she does know it,' replied Jill calmly. 'She does not care for
+Mr. Tudor to come so often, but she is good to him all the same. Neither
+father nor mother will be pleased about it, because he is not rich, poor
+fellow; not that I think that matters,' finished Jill, in a grave,
+old-fashioned manner.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear child,' in a horrified tone, 'you talk as though you were sure
+of your own mind, and you are hardly seventeen.'</p>
+
+<p>'So I am sure,' was the confused answer. 'If Mr. Tudor cares enough for
+me to wait for a good many years,&mdash;until I am one-and-twenty,&mdash;he will
+find me all ready: of course I belong to him, Ursula: has he not saved my
+life? There is no hurry,' went on Jill, in her matter-of-fact way; 'he is
+very nice, and I shall always like him better than any one else; but
+I should not care to be engaged until I am one-and-twenty. One wants
+a little fun and a good deal of work before settling down into an engaged
+person,' finished the girl, with a droll little laugh.</p>
+
+<p>I was spared the necessity of any reply to this surprising confession by
+the entrance of our three visitors, for Max had encountered them at the
+station, of course by accident, and had walked up with them. That fact
+was sufficient to account for Gladys's soft bloom and the satisfied look
+in her eyes: she looked so lovely in the new furs Giles had bought her,
+that I did not wonder that Max was a little absent in his replies to me.
+Jill had made some excuse and left us, and it was really a very good
+idea of Giles's to ask me to come out on the balcony and look at the sea.
+He wrapped me in his plaid and placed me in a sheltered corner, and we
+stood watching the twinkling lights, and the dark water under the glimmer
+of starlight. He had a great deal to tell me, first how happy Eric was in
+his new work, and what cheerful letters he wrote to Gladys, and next
+about Captain Hamilton, with whom he professed himself much pleased.</p>
+
+<p>'Lady Betty is just as much a child as ever. It is ridiculous to think of
+her as a married woman,' he went on; 'but Claude declares himself to be
+perfectly satisfied. Well, there is no accounting for tastes,' with a
+change of intonation that was very intelligible.</p>
+
+<p>'And how is Phoebe, Giles?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, first-rate,' he answered cheerfully; 'she likes her new couch much
+better than the bed. I tell her if she goes on improving like this we
+shall have her in the next room before Easter. By the bye, Ursula, have
+you digested the contents of my last letter? Shall we go to the Pyrenees
+to spend our honeymoon? It will be too early for Switzerland; we might
+go later on, or to the Italian lakes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Anywhere with you, Giles,' I whispered; and he gave me silent thanks for
+that pretty speech.</p>
+
+<p>He did not say any more for a little time, and I stood by him watching
+the dark, wintry sea. Once my life had been dark and wintry too, but how
+mercifully I had been drawn out of the deep waters and brought to this
+dear haven of rest! As I crept nearer to Giles he seemed to utter my
+unspoken thought.</p>
+
+<p>'I am very happy to-night, Ursula, I have been thinking as I travelled
+down what it will be to me to have you always near me, to share my work
+and life. I am so glad you love Gladwyn so dearly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Love Gladwyn,&mdash;your home, Giles: is there anything strange in that?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, dear, perhaps not; but I like to hear you say so. There will not
+be a wish of yours ungratified if I can help it. I mean to spoil you
+dreadfully, Ursula.'</p>
+
+<p>I told him, smiling, that I was not afraid of this threat, and just then
+Max's voice interrupted us:</p>
+
+<p>'Little she-bear, do you know this is dreadfully imprudent? Is this the
+way Hamilton means to take care of you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Wait a moment, Ursula,' whispered Giles. 'Do you hear that ballad-singer
+in the square?' A voice clear and shrill seemed to float to us in the
+darkness: 'Sweet and low, sweet and low, wind of the western sea,' she
+sang. The waves seemed to splash in harmonious accompaniment; the lights
+were flickering, the carriages rolling under the faint starlight. I saw
+Giles's face&mdash;as I loved to see it&mdash;grave, thoughtful, and satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>'After all,' he said, as though answering some inward questioning, 'a man
+cannot know what his life will bring him. Do you remember what Robert
+Browning says:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"What o' the way to the end?&mdash;The end crowns all."</p></div>
+
+<p>The end crowns all to me, Ursula.' And Giles's deep-set eyes gave me no
+doubt of his meaning.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNCLE MAX***</p>
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+++ b/16080.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Uncle Max, by Rosa Nouchette Carey
+
+
+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: Uncle Max
+
+
+Author: Rosa Nouchette Carey
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 17, 2005  [eBook #16080]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNCLE MAX***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+UNCLE MAX
+
+by
+
+ROSA NOUCHETTE CAREY
+
+Author of 'Nellie's Memories,' 'Wee Wifie,' 'Robert Ord's Atonement,'
+etc.
+
+1894
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+       I. Out of the Mist
+
+      II. Behind the Bars
+
+     III. Cinderella
+
+      IV. Uncle Max Breaks The Ice
+
+       V. 'When The Cat Is Away'
+
+      VI. The White Cottage
+
+     VII. Giles Hamilton, Esq
+
+    VIII. New Brooms Sweep Clean
+
+      IX. The Flag of Truce
+
+       X. A Difficult Patient
+
+      XI. One of God's Heroines
+
+     XII. A Missed Vocation
+
+    XIII. Lady Betty
+
+     XIV. Lady Betty Leaves Her Muff
+
+      XV. Up At Gladwyn
+
+     XVI. Gladys
+
+    XVII. 'Why Not Trust Me, Max?'
+
+   XVIII. Miss Hamilton's Little Scholar
+
+     XIX. The Picture In Gladys's Room
+
+      XX. Eric
+
+     XXI. 'I Ran Away, Then!'
+
+    XXII. 'They Have Blackened His Memory Falsely'
+
+   XXIII. The Mystery at Gladwyn
+
+    XXIV. 'Weeping may endure for a Night'
+
+     XXV. 'There is no one like Donald'
+
+    XXVI. I hear about Captain Hamilton
+
+   XXVII. Max opens his Heart
+
+  XXVIII. Crossing the River
+
+    XXIX. Miss Darrell has a Headache
+
+     XXX. With Timbrels and Dances
+
+    XXXI. Wedding-Chimes
+
+   XXXII. A Fiery Ordeal
+
+  XXXIII. Jack Poynter
+
+   XXXIV. I communicate with Joe Muggins
+
+    XXXV. Nightingales and Roses
+
+   XXXVI. Breakers Ahead
+
+  XXXVII. 'I claim that Promise, Ursula'
+
+ XXXVIII. In the Turret-Room
+
+   XXXIX. Whitefoot is saddled
+
+      XL. The Talk in the Gloaming
+
+     XLI. 'At five o'clock in the Morning'
+
+    XLII. Down the Pemberley Road
+
+   XLIII. 'Conspiracy Corner'
+
+    XLIV. Leah's Confession
+
+     XLV. 'This Home is yours no longer'
+
+    XLVI. Nap barks in the Stable-yard
+
+   XLVII. At last, Ursula, at last!'
+
+  XLVIII. 'What o' the Way to the End?'
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+OUT OF THE MIST
+
+
+It appears to me, looking back over a past experience, that certain days
+in one's life stand out prominently as landmarks, when we arrive at some
+finger-post pointing out the road that we should follow.
+
+We come out of some deep, rutty lane, where the hedgerows obscure the
+prospect, and where the footsteps of some unknown passenger have left
+tracks in the moist red clay. The confused tracery of green leaves
+overhead seems to weave fanciful patterns against the dim blue of the
+sky; the very air is low-pitched and oppressive. All at once we find
+ourselves in an open space; the free winds of heaven are blowing over us;
+there are four roads meeting; the finger-post points silently, 'This way
+to such a place'; we can take our choice, counting the mile-stones rather
+wearily as we pass them. The road may be a little tedious, the stones may
+hurt our feet; but if it be the right road it will bring us to our
+destination.
+
+In looking back it always seems to me as though I came to a fresh
+landmark in my experience that November afternoon when I saw Uncle Max
+standing in the twilight, waiting for me.
+
+There had been the waste of a great trouble in my young life,--sorrow,
+confusion, then utter chaos. I had struggled on somehow after my twin
+brother's death, trying to fight against despair with all my youthful
+vitality; creating new duties for myself, throwing out fresh feelers
+everywhere; now and then crying out in my undisciplined way that the
+task was too hard for me; that I loathed my life; that it was impossible
+to live any longer without love and appreciation and sympathy; that so
+uncongenial an atmosphere could be no home to me; that the world was an
+utter negation and a mockery.
+
+That was before I went to the hospital, at the time when my trouble was
+fresh and I was breaking my heart with the longing to see Charlie's face
+again. Most people who have lived long in the world, and have parted with
+their beloved, know what that sort of hopeless ache means.
+
+My work was over at the hospital, and I had come home again,--to rest, so
+they said, but in reality to work out plans for my future life, in a sort
+of sullen silence, that seemed to shut me out from all sympathy.
+
+It had wrapped me in a sort of mantle of reserve all the afternoon,
+during which I had been driving with Aunt Philippa and Sara. The air
+would do me good. I was moped, hipped, with all that dreary hospital
+work, so they said. It would distract and amuse me to watch Sara making
+her purchases. Reluctance, silent opposition, only whetted their
+charitable mood.
+
+'Don't be disagreeable, Ursula. You might as well help me choose my new
+mantle,' Sara had said, quite pleasantly, and I had given in with a bad
+grace.
+
+Another time I might have been amused by Aunt Philippa's majestic
+deportment and Sara's brisk importance, her girlish airs and graces; but
+I was too sad at heart to indulge in my usual satire. Everything seemed
+stupid and tiresome; the hum of voices wearied me; the showroom at
+Marshall and Snelgrove's seemed a confused Babel,--everywhere strange
+voices, a hubbub of sound, tall figures in black passing and repassing,
+strange faces reflected in endless pier-glasses,--faces of puckered
+anxiety repeating themselves in ludicrous _vrai-semblance_.
+
+I saw our own little group reproduced in one. There was Aunt Philippa,
+tall and portly, with her well-preserved beauty, a little full-blown
+perhaps, but still 'marvellously' good-looking for her age, if she could
+only have not been so conscious of the fact.
+
+Then, Sara, standing there slim and straight, with the furred mantle just
+slipping over her smooth shoulders, radiant with good health, good looks,
+perfectly contented with herself and the whole world, as it behooves a
+handsome, high-spirited young woman to be with her surroundings, looking
+bright, unconcerned, good-humoured, in spite of her mother's fussy
+criticisms: Aunt Philippa was always a little fussy about dress.
+
+Between the two I could just catch a glimpse of myself,--a tall
+girl, dressed very plainly in black, with a dark complexion, large,
+anxious-looking eyes, that seemed appealing for relief from all this
+dulness,--a shadowy sort of image of discontent and protest in the
+background, hovering behind Aunt Philippa's velvet mantle and Sara's
+slim supple figure.
+
+'Well, Ursula,' said Sara, still good-humouredly, 'will you not give us
+your opinion? Does this dolman suit me, or would you prefer a long jacket
+trimmed with skunk?'
+
+I remember I decided in favour of the jacket, only Aunt Philippa
+interposed, a little contemptuously,--
+
+'What does Ursula know about the present fashion? She has spent the last
+year in the wards of St. Thomas's, my dear,' dropping her voice, and
+taking up her gold-rimmed eye-glasses to inspect me more critically,--a
+mere habit, for I had reason to know Aunt Philippa was not the least
+near-sighted. 'I cannot see any occasion for you to dress so dowdily,
+with three hundred a year to spend absolutely on yourself; for of course
+poor Charlie's little share has come to you. You could surely make
+yourself presentable, especially as you know we are going to Hyde Park
+Mansions to see Lesbia.'
+
+This was too much for my equanimity. 'What does it matter? I am not
+coming with you, Aunt Philippa,' I retorted, somewhat vexed at this
+personality; but Sara overheard us, and strove to pour oil on the
+troubled waters.
+
+'Leave Ursula alone, mother: she looks tolerably well this afternoon;
+only mourning never suits a dark complexion--' But I did not wait to
+hear any more. I wandered about the place disconsolately, pretending to
+examine things with passing curiosity, but my eyes were throbbing and my
+heart beating angrily at Sara's thoughtless speech. A sudden remembrance
+seemed to steal before me vividly: Charlie's pale face, with its sad,
+sweet smile, haunted me. 'Courage, Ursula; it will be over soon.' Those
+were his last words, poor boy, and he was looking at me and not at Lesbia
+as he spoke. I always wondered what he meant by them. Was it his long
+pain, which he had borne so patiently, that would soon be over? or was
+it that cruel parting to which he alluded? or did he strive to comfort
+me at the last with the assurance--alas! for our mortal nature, so sadly
+true--that pain cannot last for ever, that even faithful sorrow is
+short-lived and comforts itself in time, that I was young enough to
+outlive more than one trouble, and that I might take courage from this
+thought?
+
+I looked down at the black dress, such as I had worn nearly two years
+for him, and raged as I remembered Sara's flippant words. 'My darling,
+I would wear mourning for you all my life gladly,' I said, with an inward
+sob that was more anger than sorrow, 'if I thought you would care for me
+to do it. Oh, what a world this is, Charlie! surely vanity and vexation
+of spirit!'
+
+I did not mean to be cross with Sara, but my thoughts had taken a gloomy
+turn, and I could not recover my spirits: indeed, as we drove down Bond
+Street, where Sara had some glittering little toy to purchase, I
+reiterated my intention of not calling at Hyde Park Mansions.
+
+'I do not want any tea,' I said wearily, 'and I would rather go home.
+Give my love to Lesbia; I will see her another day.'
+
+'Lesbia will be hurt,' remonstrated Sara. 'What a little misanthrope you
+are, Ursula! St. Thomas's has injured you socially; you have become a
+hermit-crab all at once, and it is such nonsense at your age.'
+
+'Oh, let me be, Sara!' I pleaded; 'I am tired, and Lesbia always chatters
+so; and Mrs. Fullerton is worse. Besides, did you not tell me she was
+coming to dine with us this evening?'
+
+'Yes, to be sure; but she wanted us to meet the Percy Glyns. Mirrel and
+Winifred Glyn are to be there this afternoon. Never mind, Lesbia will
+understand when I say you are in one of your ridiculous moods.' And Sara
+hummed a little tune gaily, as though she meant no offence by her words
+and was disposed to let me go my own way.
+
+'The carriage can take you home, Ursula; we can walk those few yards,'
+observed Aunt Philippa, as she descended leisurely, and Sara tripped
+after her, still humming. But I took no notice of her words: I had had
+enough dulness and decorum to last me for some time, and the Black Prince
+and his consort Bay might find their way to their own stables without
+depositing me at the front door of the house at Hyde Park Gate. I told
+Clarence so, to his great astonishment, and walked across the road in an
+opposite direction to home, as though my feet were winged with
+quicksilver.
+
+For the Park in that dim November light seemed to allure me; there was
+a red glow of sunset in the distance; a faint, climbing mist between the
+trees; the gas-lamps were twinkling everywhere. I could hear the ringing
+of some church bell; there was space, freedom for thought, a vague,
+uncertain prospect, out of which figures were looming curiously,--a
+delightful sense that I was sinning against conventionality and Aunt
+Philippa.
+
+'Halloo, Ursula!' exclaimed a voice in great astonishment; and there, out
+of the mist, was a kind face looking at me,--a face with a brown beard,
+and dark eyes with a touch of amusement in them; and the eyes and the
+beard and the bright, welcoming smile belonged to Uncle Max.
+
+As I caught at his outstretched hand with a half-stifled exclamation
+of delight, a policeman turned round and looked at us with an air of
+interest. No doubt he thought the tall brown-bearded clergyman in the
+shabby coat--it was one of Uncle Max's peculiarities to wear a shabby
+coat occasionally--was the sweetheart of the young lady in black. Uncle
+Max--I am afraid I oftener called him Max--was only a few years older
+than myself, and had occupied the position of an elder brother to me.
+
+He was my poor mother's only brother, and had been dearly loved by
+her,--not as I had loved Charlie, perhaps; but they had been much to each
+other, and he had always seemed nearer to me than Aunt Philippa, who was
+my father's sister; perhaps because there was nothing in common between
+us, and I had always been devoted to Uncle Max.
+
+'Well, Ursula,' he said, pretending to look grave, but evidently far too
+pleased to see me to give me a very severe lecture, 'what is the meaning
+of this? Does Mrs. Garston allow young ladies under her charge to stroll
+about Hyde Park in the twilight? or have you stolen a march on her,
+naughty little she-bear?'
+
+I drew my hand away with an offended air: when Uncle Max wished to tease
+or punish me he always reminded me that the name of Ursula signified
+she-bear, and would sometimes call me 'the little black growler'; and at
+such times it was provoking to think that Sara signified princess. I have
+always wondered how far and how strongly our baptismal names influence
+us. Of course he would not let me walk beside him in that dignified
+manner: the next instant I heard his clear hearty laugh, and then I
+laughed too.
+
+'What an absurd child you are! I was thinking over your letter as I
+walked along. It did not bring me to London, certainly; I had business of
+my own; but, all the same, I have walked across the Park this evening to
+talk to you about this extraordinary scheme.'
+
+But I would not let him go on. He was about to cross the road, so I took
+his arm and turned him back. And there was the gray mist creeping up
+between the trees, and the lamps glimmering in the distance, and the
+faint pink glow had not yet died away.
+
+'It is so quiet here,' I pleaded, 'and I could not get you alone for a
+moment if we went in. Uncle Brian will be there, and Jill, and we could
+not say a word. Aunt Philippa and Sara have gone to see Lesbia. I have
+been driving with them all the afternoon. Sara has been shopping, and how
+bored I was!'
+
+'You uncivilised little heathen!' Then, very gravely, 'Well, how is poor
+Lesbia?'
+
+'Do not waste your pity on her,' I returned impatiently. 'She is as well
+and cheerful as possible. Even Sara says so. She is not breaking her
+heart about Charlie. She has left off mourning, and is as gay as ever.'
+
+'You are always hard on Lesbia,' he returned gently. 'She is young,
+my dear, you forget that, and a pretty girl, and very much admired.
+It always seems to me she was very fond of the poor fellow.'
+
+'She was good to him in his illness, but she never cared for Charlie as
+he did for her. He worshipped the very ground she walked on. He thought
+her perfection. Uncle Max, it was pitiful to hear him sometimes. He would
+tell me how sweet and unselfish she was, and all the time I knew she was
+but an ordinary, commonplace girl. If he had lived to marry her he would
+have been disappointed in her. He was so large-hearted, and Lesbia has
+such little aims.'
+
+'So you always say, Ursula. But you women are so severe in your judgment
+of each other. I doubt myself if the girl lives whom you would have
+considered good enough for Charlie. Yes, yes, my dear,'--as I uttered a
+dissenting protest to this,--'he was a fine fellow, and his was a most
+lovable character; but it was his last illness that ripened him.'
+
+'He was always perfect in my eyes,' I returned, in a choked voice.
+
+'That was because you loved him; and no doubt Lesbia possessed the same
+ideal goodness for him. Love throws its own glamour,' he went on, and
+his voice was unusually grave; 'it does not believe in commonplace
+mediocrity; it lifts up its idol to some fanciful pedestal, where the
+poor thing feels very uncomfortable and out of its element, and then
+persists in falling down and worshipping it. We humans are very droll,
+Ursula: we will create our own divinities.'
+
+'Lesbia would have disappointed him,' I persisted obstinately; but I
+might as well have talked to the wind. Uncle Max could not find it in
+his heart to be hard to a pretty girl.
+
+'That is open to doubt, my dear. Lesbia is amiable and charming, and I
+daresay she would have made a nice little wife. Poor Charlie hated clever
+women, and in that respect she would have suited him.'
+
+After this I knew it was no good in trying to change his opinion. Uncle
+Max held his own views with remarkable tenacity; he had old-fashioned
+notions with respect to women, rather singular in so young a man,--for he
+was only thirty; he preferred to believe in their goodness, in spite of
+any amount of demonstration to the contrary; it vexed him to be reminded
+of the shortcomings of his friends; by nature he was an optimist, and had
+a large amount of faith in people's good intentions. 'He meant well, poor
+fellow, in spite of his failures,' was a speech I have heard more than
+once from his lips. He was always ready to condone a fault or heal a
+breach; indeed, his sweet nature found it difficult to bear a grudge
+against any one; he was only hard to himself, and on no one else did he
+strive to impose so heavy a yoke. I was only silent for a minute, and
+then I turned the conversation into another channel.
+
+'But my letter, Uncle Max!'
+
+'Ah, true, your letter; but I have not forgotten it. How old are you,
+Ursula? I always forget.'
+
+'Five-and-twenty this month.'
+
+'To be sure; I ought to have remembered. And you have three hundred a
+year of your own.'
+
+I nodded.
+
+'And your present home is distasteful to you?' in an inquiring tone.
+
+'It is no home to me,' I returned passionately. 'Oh, Uncle Max, how can
+one call it home after the dear old rectory, where we were so happy,
+father, and mother, and Charlie--and--'
+
+'Yes, I know, poor child; and you have had heavy troubles. It cannot be
+like the old home, I am well aware of that, Ursula; but your aunt is a
+good woman. I have always found her strictly just. She was your father's
+only sister: when she offered you a home she promised to treat you with
+every indulgence, as though you were her own daughter.'
+
+'Aunt Philippa means to be kind,' I said, struggling to repress my
+tears,--tears always troubled Uncle Max: 'she is kind in her way, and so
+is Sara. I have every comfort, every luxury; they want me to be gay and
+enjoy myself, to lead their life; but it only makes me miserable; they do
+not understand me; they see I do not think with them, and then they laugh
+at me and call me morbid. No one really wants me but poor Jill: I am so
+fond of Jill.'
+
+'Why cannot you lead their life, Ursula?'
+
+'Because it is not life at all,' was my resolute answer: 'to me it is the
+most wearisome existence possible. Listen to me, Uncle Max. Do you think
+I could possibly spend my days as Sara does,--writing a few notes, doing
+a little fancy-work, shopping and paying visits, and dancing half the
+night? Do you think you could transform such a poor little Cinderella
+into a fairy princess, like Sara or Lesbia? No; the drudgery of such a
+life would kill me with _ennui_ and discontent.'
+
+'It is not the life I would choose for you, certainly,' he said, pulling
+his beard in some perplexity: 'it is far too worldly to suit my taste; if
+Charlie had lived you would have made your home with him. He often talked
+to me about that, poor fellow. I thought a year or two at Hyde Park Gate
+would do you no harm, and might be wholesome training; but it has proved
+a failure, I see that.'
+
+'They would be happier without me,' I went on, more quietly, for he was
+evidently coming round to my view of the case. 'Aunt Philippa does not
+mean to be unkind, but she often lets me see that I am in the way, that
+she is not proud of me. She would have taken more interest in me if I had
+been handsome, like Sara; but a plain, dowdy niece is not to her taste.
+No, let me finish, Uncle Max,'--for he wanted to interrupt me here.
+'They made a great fuss about my training at the hospital last year,
+but I am sure they did not miss me; Sara spoke yesterday as though she
+thought I was going back to St. Thomas's, and Aunt Philippa made no
+objection. I heard her tell Mrs. Fullerton once "that really Ursula was
+so strong-minded and different from other girls that she was prepared for
+anything, even for her being a female doctor."'
+
+'Well, my dear, you are certainly rather peculiar, you know.'
+
+'Oh, Uncle Max,' I said mournfully, 'are you going to misunderstand me
+too? Providence has deprived me of my parents and my only brother: is it
+strong-minded or peculiar to be so lonely and sad at heart that gaiety
+only jars on me? Can I forget my mother's teaching when she said,
+"Ursula, if you live for the world you will be miserable. Try to do your
+duty and benefit your fellow-creatures, and happiness must follow"?'
+
+'Yes, poor Emmie, she was a good woman: you might do worse than take
+after her.'
+
+'She would not approve of the life I am leading at Hyde Park Gate,' I
+went on. 'She and Aunt Philippa never cared for each other. I often think
+that if she had known she would not have liked me to be there. Sundays
+are wretched. We go to church?--yes, because it is respectable to do so;
+but there is a sort of reunion every Sunday evening.'
+
+'I wish I could offer you a home, Ursula; but--' here Uncle Max
+hesitated.
+
+'That would not do at all,' I returned promptly. 'Your bachelor home
+would not do for me; besides, you might marry--of course you will,' but
+he flushed rather uncomfortably at that, and said, 'Pshaw! what
+nonsense!' We had paused under a lamp-post, and I could see him plainly:
+perhaps he knew this, for he hurried me on, this time in the direction of
+home.
+
+'I am five-and-twenty,' I continued, trying to collect the salient points
+of my argument. 'I am indebted to none for my maintenance; I am free, and
+my own mistress; I neglect no duty by refusing to live under Uncle
+Brian's roof; no one wants me; I contribute to no one's happiness.'
+
+'Except to Jill's,' observed Uncle Max.
+
+'Jill! but she is only a child, barely sixteen, and Sara is becoming
+jealous of my influence. I shall only breed dissension in the household
+if I remain. Uncle Max, you are a good man,--a clergyman; you cannot
+conscientiously tell me that I am not free to lead my own life, to choose
+my own work in the world.'
+
+'Perhaps not,' he replied, in a hesitating voice. 'But the scheme is a
+peculiar one. You wish me to find respectable lodgings in my parish,
+where you will be independent and free from supervision, and to place
+your superfluous health and strength--you are a muscular Christian,
+Ursula--at the service of my sick poor, and for this post you have
+previously trained yourself.'
+
+'I think it will be a good sort of life,' I returned carelessly, but how
+my heart was beating! 'I like it so much, and I should like to be near
+you, Uncle Max, and work under you as my vicar. I have thought about this
+for years. Charlie and I often talked of it. I was to live with him and
+Lesbia and devote my time to this work. He thought it such a nice idea
+to go and nurse poor people in their homes. And he promised that he
+would come and sing to them. But now I must carry out my plan alone, for
+Charlie cannot help me now.' And as I thought of the sympathy that had
+never failed me my voice quivered and I could say no more.
+
+'I wish we were all in heaven,' growled Uncle Max,--but his tone was a
+little husky,--'for this world is a most uncomfortable place for good
+people, or people with a craze. I think Charlie is well out of it.'
+
+'Under which category do you mean to place me?' I asked, trying to laugh.
+
+'My dear, there is a craze in most women. They have such an obstinate
+faith in their own good intentions. If they find half a dozen fools to
+believe in them, they will start a crusade to found a new Utopia. Women
+are the most meddlesome things in creation: they never let well alone.
+Their pretty little fingers are in every human pie. That is why we get so
+much unwholesome crust and so little meat, and, of course, our digestion
+is ruined.'
+
+'Uncle Max--' But he would not be serious any longer.
+
+'Ursula, I utterly refuse to inhale any more of this mist. I think a
+comfortable arm-chair by the fire would be far more conducive to comfort.
+You have given me plenty of food for thought, and I mean to sleep on it.
+Now, not another word. I am going to ring the bell.' And Uncle Max was as
+good as his word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+BEHIND THE BARS
+
+
+It was quite true, as I had told Uncle Max, that the scheme had been no
+new one; it was no sudden emanation from a girl's brain, morbid with
+discontent and fruitless longings; it had grown with my youth and had
+become part of my environment. As a child the thought had come to me as
+I followed my father into one cottage after another in his house-to-house
+visitation. He had been a conscientious, hard-working clergyman; in fact,
+his work killed him, for he overtasked a constitution that was not
+naturally strong. I accompanied my mother, too, in her errands of mercy,
+and saw a great deal of the misery engendered by drink, ignorance, and
+want of forethought. In the case of the sick poor, the gross
+mismanagement and want of cleanly and thrifty habits led to an amount
+of discomfort and suffering that even now makes me shudder. The parish
+was overgrown and insufficiently worked; the greater part of the
+population belonged to the working-classes; dissenting chapels and
+gin-palaces flourished. Often did my childish heart ache at the
+surroundings of some squalid home, where the parents toiled all day for
+worse than naught, just to satisfy their unhealthy cravings, while the
+children grew up riotous, half starved, and full of inherited vices.
+There was a little child I saw once, a cripple, dying slowly of some sad
+spinal disease, lying in a dark corner, on what seemed to me a heap of
+rags. Oh, God, I can see that child's face now! I remember when we heard
+of its death my mother burst into tears. They were tears of joy, she told
+me afterwards, that another suffering child's life was ended; 'and there
+are hundreds and hundreds of these little creatures, Ursula,' she said,
+'growing up in sin and misery; and the world goes on, and people eat and
+drink and are merry, for it is none of their business, and yet it is not
+the will of the Father that one of these little ones should perish.'
+
+I had learned much from my father, but still more from my mother.
+Uncle Max had called her a good woman, but she was more than that:
+she possessed one of those rare unselfish natures that cannot remain
+satisfied with their own personal happiness: they wish to include
+the whole world. She wanted to inculcate in me her own spirit of
+self-sacrifice. I can remember some of her short, trenchant sentences
+now.
+
+'Never mind happiness: that is God's gift to a few: do your duty.'
+
+'If you have loved your fellow-creatures sufficiently you will not be
+afraid to die. A good conscience will smooth your pillow.'
+
+And once, in her last illness, when Charlie asked if she were
+comfortable, 'Not very, but I shall soon be quite comfortable, for I
+shall hope to forget in heaven how little I have done, after all, here;
+and yet I always wanted to help others.'
+
+Oh, how good she was! And Charlie was good too, after the fashion of
+young men: not altogether thoughtless, full of the promptings of his kind
+heart; but Uncle Max was right when he said his last illness had ripened
+him: it was not the old careless Charlie who had wooed Lesbia who lay
+there: it was another and a better Charlie.
+
+In the old days he had rallied me in a brotherly manner on my
+old-fashioned, grave ways. 'You are not a modern young lady, Ursie,' he
+would say; and he would often call me 'grandmother Ursula'; but all the
+same he would listen to my plans with the utmost tolerance and good
+nature.
+
+Ah, those talks in the twilight, before the fatal disease developed
+itself, and he lay in idle fashion on the couch with his arms under his
+head, while I sat on the footstool or on the rug in the firelight! We
+were to live together,--yes, that was always the dream; even when
+Lesbia's fair face came between us, he would not hear of any difference.
+I was to live with him and Lesbia, Lesbia was rich, and, though Charlie
+had little, they were to marry soon.
+
+I was to form a part of that luxurious household, but my time was to be
+my own, and I was to devote it to the sick poor of Rutherford. 'Mind,
+Ursula, you may work, but I will not have you overwork,' Charlie had once
+said, more decidedly than usual; 'you must come home for hours of rest
+and refreshment. You have a beautiful voice, and it shall be properly
+trained; you may sing to your invalids as much as you like, and sometimes
+I will come and sing too; but you must remember you have social duties,
+and I shall expect you to entertain our friends.' And it was the idea of
+this dual life of home sympathy and outside work that had so strongly
+seized upon my imagination.
+
+When Charlie died I was too sick at heart to carry out my plan. 'How can
+one work alone?' I would say sorrowfully to myself; but after a time the
+emptiness of my life and dissatisfaction with my surroundings brought
+back the old thoughts.
+
+I remembered the dear old rectory life, where every one was in earnest,
+and contrasted it with the trifling pursuits that my aunt and cousin
+called duties. My present existence seemed to shut me in like prison
+bars. Only to be free, to choose my own life! And then came emancipation
+in the shape of hard hospital work, when health and spirits returned to
+me; when, under the stimulus of useful employment and constant exercise
+of body and mind, I slept better, fretted less, and looked less
+mournfully out on the world. Uncle Max was right when he said a year
+at St. Thomas's would save me.
+
+By and by the idea dawned upon me that I might still carry out my plan;
+there were poor people at Heathfield, where Uncle Max's parish was. What
+should hinder me from living there under Uncle Max's wing and trying to
+combine the two lives, as Charlie wished?
+
+I was young, full of activity. I did not wish to shut myself out from my
+kind. I could discharge my duties to my own class and enjoy a moderate
+amount of pleasure. I was young enough to desire that; but the greater
+part of my time would be placed at the disposal of my poorer neighbours.
+People might think it singular at first, but they would not talk for
+ever, and the life would be a happy one to me.
+
+All this had been said in that voluminous letter of mine to Uncle Max;
+he might argue and shake his head over it, thereby proving himself a
+wise man, but he could not but know that I was absolutely under my own
+control, as far as a woman could be. I need ask no one's advice in the
+disposal of my own life; his own and Uncle Brian's guardianship was
+merely nominal now. After five-and-twenty I was declared my own
+mistress in every sense of the word.
+
+Uncle Brian came out to meet us as soon as he heard Uncle Max's voice
+in the hall; the two were very great friends, and they shook hands
+cordially.
+
+'Glad to see you, Cunliffe; why did you not let us know that you were
+coming up to town? We could have put you up easily--eh, Ursula?'
+
+'Yes, indeed, Uncle Brian'; and then I added coaxingly, 'Do please send
+for your portmanteau, Uncle Max; you know Lesbia is coming this evening,
+and you are such a favourite with her.' I knew this would be a strong
+inducement, for Uncle Max's soft heart would insist on treating Lesbia
+as though she were a widowed princess.
+
+'All right,' he returned in his lazy way, and then I took the matter into
+my own hands by leaving the room at once to consult with Mrs. Martin,
+Aunt Philippa's housekeeper. As I closed the door I glanced back for
+another look at Uncle Max. He had thrown himself into an easy-chair, as
+though he were tired, and was leaning back with his hands under his head
+in Charlie's fashion, looking up at Uncle Brian, who was standing on the
+rug.
+
+I always thought Uncle Brian a very handsome man. He had clear, well-cut
+features and a gray moustache, and he was quiet and dignified. He always
+looked to me, with his brown complexion, more like an Indian officer than
+a wealthy banker. There was nothing commercial in his appearance; but I
+should have admired him more if he had been less cold and repressive in
+manner; but he was an undemonstrative man, even to his own children.
+
+I remember hinting this once to Uncle Max, and he had rebuked me more
+severely than he had ever done before.
+
+'I do not like young girls like you, Ursula, to be so critical about
+their elders. Garston is an excellent fellow; he has plenty of brains,
+and always does the right thing, however difficult it may be. Men are not
+like women, my dear: they often hide their deepest feelings. Your poor
+uncle has never been quite the same man since Ralph's death, and just as
+he was getting over his boy's loss a little he had a fresh disappointment
+with Charlie: he always meant to put him in Ralph's place.'
+
+I was a little ashamed of my criticism when Max said this. I felt I had
+not made sufficient allowance for Uncle Brian: the death of his only son
+must have been a dreadful blow. Ralph had died at Oxford; they said he
+had overworked himself in trying for honours and then had taken a chill.
+He was a fine, handsome young fellow, nearly two-and-twenty, and his
+father's idol: no wonder Uncle Brian had grown so much older and graver
+during the last few years.
+
+And he had been fond of Charlie, and had meant to have him in Ralph's
+place; my poor boy would have been a rich one if he had lived. Uncle
+Brian had taken him into the bank, and Lesbia and her fortune were
+promised to him, but the goodly heritage was snatched away before his
+eyes, and he was called away in the fresh bloom of his youth.
+
+I always thought Uncle Brian liked Max better than any other man: he
+was always less stiff and frigid in his presence. I could hear his low
+laugh--Uncle Brian never laughed loudly--as I closed the door; Max had
+said something that amused him. They would be quite happy without me,
+so I ran up to the schoolroom on the chance of getting a chat with Jill.
+
+The schoolroom was on the second floor, where Jill, I, and Fraeulein all
+slept. Sara had a handsome room next to her mother's, and a little
+boudoir furnished most daintily for her special use. I do not believe
+she ever sat in it, unless she had a cold or was otherwise ailing; the
+drawing-room was always full of company, and Sara was the life of the
+house. I used to peep in at the pretty room sometimes as I went up to
+bed; there were few notes written at the inlaid escritoire, and the
+handsomely-bound books were never taken down from the shelves. Draper,
+Aunt Philippa's maid, fed the canaries and dusted the cabinets of china.
+Sometimes Sara would trip into the room with one of her cronies for a
+special chat; the ripple of their girlish laughter would reach us as Jill
+and I sat together. 'Whom has Sara got with her this afternoon?' Jill
+would say peevishly. 'Do listen to them; they do nothing but laugh. If
+Fraeulein had set her all these exercises she would not feel quite so
+merry,' Jill would finish, throwing the obnoxious book from her with a
+little burst of impatience.
+
+I always pitied Jill for having to spend her days in such a dull room;
+the furniture was ugly, and the windows looked out on a dismal back-yard,
+with the high walls of the opposite building. Aunt Philippa, who was a
+rigid disciplinarian with her young daughter, always said that she had
+chosen the room 'because Jill would have nothing to distract her from her
+studies.' The poor child would put up her shoulders at this remark and
+draw down the corners of her lips in a way that would make Aunt Philippa
+scold her for her awkwardness. 'You need not make yourself plainer than
+you are, Jocelyn,' she would say severely; for Jill's awkward manners
+troubled her motherly vanity. 'What is the good of all the dancing and
+drilling and riding with Captain Cooper if you will persist in hunching
+your shoulders as though you were deformed? Fraeulein has been complaining
+of you this morning; she seems excessively displeased at your
+carelessness and want of application.' 'I know I shall get stupid, shut
+up in that dull hole with Fraeulein,' Jill would say passionately, after
+one of these maternal lectures. Aunt Philippa was really very fond of
+Jill; but she misunderstood the girl's nature. The system had answered
+ so well with Sara that she could not be brought to comprehend why it
+should fail with her other child. Sara had grown up blooming and radiant
+in spite of the depressing influences of Fraeulein and the dull, narrow
+schoolroom. Her music and singing masters had come to her there. Little
+Madame Blanchard had chirped to her in Parisian accent for the hour
+together over _les modes_ and _le beau Paris_. Sara had danced and
+drilled with the other young ladies at Miss Dugald's select
+establishment, and had joined them at the riding-school or in the
+cavalcade under Captain Cooper.
+
+Sara had worn her bondage lightly, and had fascinated even grim old Herr
+Schliefer. Her tact and easy adaptability had kept Fraeulein Sonnenschein
+in a state of tepid good-humour. Every one, even cross old Draper,
+idolised Sara for her beauty and sprightly ways. When Aunt Philippa
+declared her education finished, she tripped out of the schoolroom as
+happily as possible to take possession of her grand new bedroom and the
+little boudoir, where all her girlish treasures were arranged. She had
+not been the least impatient for her day of freedom: it would all come in
+good time. When the sceptre was put into her hands and her sovereignty
+acknowledged by the whole household, the young princess was not a bit
+excited. She put on her court dress and made her courtesy to her majesty
+with the same charming unconsciousness and ease of manner. No wonder
+people were charmed with such good-humour and freshness. If the glossy
+hair did not cover a large amount of brains, no one found fault with her
+for that.
+
+Jill raged and stormed fiercely under Sara's light-hearted philosophy;
+when her sister told her to be patient under Fraeulein's yoke, that a good
+time was coming for her also, when lesson-books would be shut up, and
+Herr Schliefer would cease to scatter snuff on the carpet as he sat
+drumming with his fingers on the keyboard and grunting out brief
+interjections of impatience.
+
+'What does it matter about Herr Schliefer?' Jill would say, in a sort of
+fury. 'I like him a hundred times better than I do that mincing little
+poll-parrot of a Madame Blanchard: she is odious, and I hate her, and I
+hate Fraeulein too. It is not the lessons I mind; one has to learn lessons
+all one's life; it is being shut up like a bird in a cage when one's
+wings are ready for flight. I should like to fly away from this room,
+from Fraeulein, from the whole of the horrid set; it makes me cross,
+wicked, to live like this, and all your sugar-plums will do me no good.
+Go away, Sara; you do not understand as Ursula does, it makes me feel bad
+to see you standing there, looking so pretty and happy, and just laughing
+at me.'
+
+'Of course I laugh at you, Jocelyn, when you behave like a baby,'
+returned Sara, trying to be severe, only her dimples betrayed her. 'Well,
+as you are so cross, I shall go away. There is the chocolate I promised
+you. Ta-ta.' And Sara put down the _bonbonniere_ on the table and walked
+out of the room.
+
+I was not surprised to see Jill push it away. No one understood the poor
+child but myself; she was precocious, womanly, for her age; she had
+twenty times the amount of brains that Sara possessed, and she was
+starving on the education provided for her.
+
+To dance and drill and write dreary German exercises, when one is
+thirsting to drink deeply at the well of knowledge; to go round and round
+the narrow monotonous course that had sufficed for Sara's moderate
+abilities, like the blind horse at the mill, and never to advance an inch
+out of the beaten track, this was simply maddening to Jill's sturdy
+intellect. She often told me how she longed to attend classes, to hear
+lectures, to rub against full-grown minds.
+
+'Now. Me-ess Jocelyn, we will do a little of ze Wallenstein, by the
+immortal Schiller. Hold up the head, and leave off striking the table
+with your elbows.' Jill would give a droll imitation of Fraeulein, and
+end with a groan.
+
+'What does she know-about Schiller? She cannot even comprehend him. She
+is dense,--utterly dense and stupid; but because she knows her own
+language and has a correct deportment she is fit to teach me.' And Jill
+ground her little white teeth in impotent wrath. Jill always appeared to
+me like an infant Pegasus in harness; she wanted to soar,--to make use of
+her wings,--and they kept her down. She was not naturally gay, like Sara,
+though her health was good, and she was as powerful as a young Amazon.
+Her nature was more sombre and took colour from her surroundings.
+
+She was like a child in the sunshine; plenty of life and movement
+distracted her from interior broodings and made her joyous; when she was
+riding with the young ladies from Miss Dugald's, she would be as merry as
+the others.
+
+But her dreary schoolroom and Fraeulein's society chafed her nervous
+sensibilities dangerously; there were only a few brown sparrows, or
+a stray cat intent on game, to be seen from her window. From the
+drawing-room, from Sara's boudoir, from her mother's bedroom, there was
+a charming view of the Park. In the spring the fresh foliage of the
+trees, and the velvety softness of the grass, would be delicious; down
+in the broad white road, carriages were passing, horses cantering,
+happy-looking people in smart bonnets, in gorgeous mantles, driving about
+everywhere; children would be running up and down the paths in the Park,
+flower-sellers would stand offering their innocent wares to the
+passengers. Jill would sit entranced by her mother's window watching
+them; the sunshine, the glitter, the hubbub, intoxicated her; she made up
+stories by the dozen, as her dark eyes followed the gay equipages. When
+Fraeulein summoned her she went away reluctantly; the stories got into
+her head, and stopped there all the time she laboured through that long
+sonata.
+
+'Why are your fingers all thumbs to-day, Fraeulein?' Herr Schliefer
+would demand gloomily. Jill, who was really fond of the stern old
+professor, hung her head and blushed guiltily. She had no excuse to
+offer: her girlish dreams were sacred to her; they came gliding to her
+through the most intricate passages of the sonata, now with a _staccato_
+movement,--brisk, lively,--with fitful energy, now _andante_, then
+_crescendo, con passione_. Jill's unformed girlish hands strike the
+chords wildly, angrily. '_Dolce, dolce_,' screams the professor in her
+ears. The music softens, wanes, and the dreams seem to die away too.
+'That will do, Fraeulein: you have not acquitted yourself so badly after
+all.' And Jill gets off her music-stool reluctant, absent, half awake,
+and her day-dream broken up into chaos.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+CINDERELLA
+
+
+As I opened the schoolroom door a half-forgotten picture of Cinderella
+came vividly before me.
+
+The fire had burnt low; a heap of black ashes lay under the grate; and by
+the dull red glow I could see Jill's forlorn figure, very indistinctly,
+as she sat in her favourite attitude on the rug, her arms clasping her
+knees and her short black locks hanging loosely over her shoulders. She
+gave a little shrill exclamation of pleasure when she saw me.
+
+'Ah, you dear darling bear, do come and hug me,' she cried, trying to get
+up in a hurry, but her dress entangled her.
+
+'Where is Fraeulein?' I asked, pushing her back into her place, while I
+knelt down to manipulate the miserable fire. 'Jill, you look just like
+Cinderella when the proud sisters drove away to the ball. My dear, were
+you asleep? Why are you sitting in the dark, with the fire going out, and
+the lamp unlighted? There, it only wanted to be stirred; we shall have
+light by which to see other's faces directly,'
+
+'Fraeulein has a headache and has gone to lie down,' returned Jill, and,
+though I could not see her clearly, I knew at once by her voice that she
+had been crying; only she would have been furious if I had noticed the
+fact. 'I hope I am not very wicked, but Fraeulein's headaches are the
+redeeming points in her character; she has them so often, and then she
+is obliged to lie down.'
+
+'Of course you have offered to bathe her head?' I asked, a little
+mischievously, but Jill, who was unusually subdued, took the question
+in good part.
+
+'Oh yes, and I spoke to her quite civilly; but I suppose she saw the
+savage gleam of delight in my eyes, for she was as cross as possible, and
+went away muttering that "Meess Jocelyn had the heart like the flint; if
+it had been Meess Sara, now--" and then she banged the door, so the pain
+could not have been so bad after all. It is my belief,' went on Jill,
+'that Fraeulein always has a headache when she has a novel to finish.
+Mamma does not like her to set me an example of novel-reading, so she
+is obliged to lock herself in her own room.'
+
+I took no notice of this statement, as I rather leaned to this view of
+the subject myself. Fraeulein's round placid face and excellent appetite
+showed no signs of suffering, and her constant plea of a bad headache was
+only received with any credulity by Aunt Philippa herself; neither Sara
+nor I had much respect for Fraeulein Sonnenschein, with her thick little
+figure, and big head covered with flimsy flaxen plaits. We were both
+aware of the smooth selfishness of her character, though Sara chose to
+ignore it for Jill's benefit. She was industrious, painstaking, and
+capable of a great deal of dull routine in the way of duties, but she
+was far too fond of her own comfort, and all the affection of which she
+was capable was lavished upon her own relatives; she had cared for Sara
+moderately, but her other pupil, Jill, was a thorn in her side. So I
+passed over Fraeulein's headache without comment, and took Jill to task
+somewhat sharply for the comfortless state of the room. A good scolding
+would rouse her from her dejection; the blinds were up and the curtains
+undrawn; the remains of a meal, the usual five-o'clock schoolroom tea,
+were still on the table. Jill's German books were heaped up beside her
+empty cup and the glass dish that contained marmalade; the kettle
+spluttered and hissed in the blaze; Jill's little black kitten, Sooty,
+was dragging a half-knitted stocking across the rug.
+
+'I forgot to ring for Martha,' faltered Jill; 'she will come presently.
+Don't be cross, Ursula. I like the room as it is; it is deliciously
+untidy, just like Cinderella's kitchen; but there is no hope of the fairy
+godmother; and you are going away, and I shall be ten times more
+miserable.'
+
+It was this that was troubling her, then; for I had told her my plans and
+all about my letter to Uncle Max. Perhaps she had heard his voice in the
+hall, for Jill's pretty little ears heard everything that went on in the
+house: she admitted her knowledge at once when I taxed her with it.
+
+'Oh yes, I know Mr. Cunliffe is here. I heard papa go out and speak to
+him; his voice sounded quite cheerful; and now he has come and it will
+all be settled; and you will go away and be happy with your poor people,
+and forget that I am fretting myself to death in this horrid room.'
+
+She had drawn me down on the rug forcibly,--for she had the strength of
+a young Titaness,--and was wrapping her arms around me with a sort of
+fierce impatience. Her big eyes looked troubled and affectionate. Few
+people admired Jill; she was undeveloped and awkward, full of angles, and
+a little brusque in manner; she had a way of thrusting out her big feet
+and squaring her shoulders that horrified Aunt Philippa. She was very
+big, certainly, and would never possess Sara's slim grace. Her hair had
+been cropped in some illness, and had not grown so fast as they expected,
+but hung in short thick lengths about her neck; it was always getting
+into her eyes, and was being pushed back impatiently, but she would much
+oftener throw her head back with a fling like an unbroken pony, for she
+was jerky as young things often are.
+
+But, though, people found fault with Jill, and often said that she would
+never be as handsome as Sara, I liked her face. Perhaps it was a little
+irregular and her complexion slightly sallow, but when she was flushed or
+excited and she opened her big bright eyes, and one could see her little
+white teeth gleaming as she laughed, I have thought Jill could look
+almost beautiful; but her good looks depended on her expression.
+
+'I suppose it will be settled,' I replied, with a quick catch at my
+breath, for the mere mention of the subject excited me; 'but you will be
+a good child and not fret if I do go away. No, I shall never forget you,'
+as a close hug answered me; 'I love you too dearly for that; but I want
+you to be brave about it, dear, for I cannot be happy wasting my time and
+doing nothing. You know how ill I was before I went to St. Thomas's, so
+that Uncle Max was obliged to tell Aunt Philippa that I must have change
+and hard work, or I should follow Charlie.'
+
+'Oh yes, and we were all so frightened about you, you poor thing; you
+looked so pinched and miserable. Well, I suppose I must let you go, as
+you are so wicked as to disobey the proverb that "Charity begins at
+home."'
+
+'Listen to me, dear,' I returned, quite pleased to find her so
+reasonable. 'I am very glad to know that I have been a comfort to you,
+but I shall hope to be so still. I will write long letters to you, Jill,
+and tell you all about my work, and you shall answer them, and talk to me
+on paper about the books you have read, and the queer thoughts you have,
+and how patient and strong you have grown, and how you have learned to
+put up with Fraeulein's little ways and not aggravate her with your
+untidiness.' And here Jill's hand--and it was by no means a small
+hand--closed my lips rather abruptly. But I was used to this sort of
+sledge-hammer form of argument.
+
+'Oh, it is all very fine for you to sit there and moralise, Ursula, like
+a sort of sucking Diogenes,' grumbled Jill, 'when you know you are going
+to have your own way and live a deliciously sort of three-volume-novel
+life, not like any one else's, unless it were Don Quixote, or one of the
+Knights of the Round Table, poking about among a lot of strange people,
+doing wonderful things for them, until they are all ready to worship you.
+It is all very well for you, I say; but what would you do if you were
+me?' cried Jill, in her shrill treble, and quite oblivious of grammatical
+niceties; 'how would you like to be poor me, shut up here with that old
+dragon?'
+
+This was a grand opportunity for airing my philosophy, and I rushed at
+it. To Jill's amazement, I shook my hair back in the way she usually
+shook her rough black mane, and, opening my eyes very widely, tried to
+copy Jill's falsetto.
+
+'How thankful I am Jocelyn Garston and not Ursula Garston,' I said,
+with rapid staccato. 'Poor Ursula! I am fond of her, but I would not
+change places with her for the world. She has known such a lot of trouble
+in her life, more than most girls, I believe; she has lost her lovely
+home,--such a sweet old place,--and her mother and father and Charlie,
+all her nearest and her most beloved, and she is so sad that she wants
+to work hard and forget her troubles.'
+
+'Oh dear!' sighed Jill at this.
+
+'How happy I am compared with her!' I went on, relapsing unconsciously
+into my own voice. 'I am young and strong; I have all my life before me.
+True, poor Ralph has gone, but I was only a child, and did not miss him.
+I have a good father and an indulgent mother' ('Humph!' observed Jill at
+this point, only she turned it into a cough); 'if my present schoolroom
+life is not to my taste, I am sensible enough to know that the drudgery
+and restraint will not last for long; in another year, or a year and a
+half, Fraeulein, whom I certainly do not love, will go back to her own
+country. I shall be free to read the books I like, to study what I
+choose, or to be idle. I shall have Sara's cheerful companionship instead
+of Fraeulein's heavy company; I shall ride; I shall walk in the sunshine;
+I shall be a butterfly instead of a chrysalis; and if I care to be
+useful, all sorts of paths will be open to me.'
+
+'There, hold your tongue,' interrupted Jill, with a rough kiss; 'of
+course I know I am a wicked, ungrateful wretch, and that I ought to be
+more patient. Yes, you shall go, Ursula; you are a darling, but I will
+not want to keep you; you are too good to be wasted on me; it would be
+like pouring gold into a sieve. Well, I did cry about it this afternoon,
+but I won't be such a goose any more. I will live my life the same way,
+in spite of all of them, you will see if I don't, Ursula. Who is it who
+says, "The thoughts of youth are long long thoughts"? I have such big
+thoughts sometimes, especially when I sit in the dark. I send them out
+like strange birds, all over the world,--up, up, everywhere,--but they
+never come back to me again,' finished Jill mournfully; 'if they build
+nests I never know it: I just sit and puzzle out things, like poor little
+grimy Cinderella.'
+
+Jill's eloquence did not surprise me. I knew she was very clever, and
+full of unfledged poetry, and I had often heard her talk in that way; but
+I had no time to answer her, for just then the first gong sounded, and I
+could hear Sara running up to her room to dress for dinner. Jill jumped
+up, and tugged at the bell-rope rather fiercely.
+
+'Martha must have forgotten all about the tea-things; very likely the
+lamp is smoky and will have to be trimmed. I must not come and help you,
+Ursie dear, for I have to learn my German poetry before I dress.' And
+Jill pulled down the blinds and drew the curtains with a vigorous hand.
+Martha looked quite frightened at the sight of Jill's energy and her own
+remissness.
+
+'Why did you not ring before, Miss Jocelyn?' she said, plaintively, and
+in rather an injured voice, as she carried away the tea-tray.
+
+Uncle Max passed me in the passage; Clarence was following with his
+portmanteau; he looked surprised to see me still in my bonnet with my fur
+cape trailing over one arm; but I nodded to him cheerfully and went
+quickly into my room.
+
+My life at St. Thomas's had inured me to hardness; it had contrasted
+strangely with my luxurious surroundings at Hyde Park Gate. Aunt Philippa
+certainly treated me well in her way. I had a full share of the loaves
+and the fishes of the household; my room was as prettily furnished as
+Jill's; a bright fire burnt in the grate; there were pink candles on the
+dressing-table. Martha, who waited upon us both, had put out my black
+evening dress on the bed, and had warmed my dressing-gown; she would come
+to me by and by with a civil offer of help.
+
+I was rather puzzled at the sight of a little breast-knot of white
+chrysanthemums that lay on the table, until I remembered Uncle Max; no
+one had ever brought me flowers since Charlie's death; he had gathered
+the last that I ever wore--some white violets that grew in a little
+hollow in the ground of Rutherford Lodge. I hesitated painfully before
+I pinned the modest little bouquet in my black dress, but I feared Uncle
+Max would be hurt if I failed to appear in it. I wore mother's pearl
+necklace as usual, and the little locket with her hair; somehow I took
+more pleasure in dressing myself this evening, when I knew Uncle Max's
+kind eyes would be on me.
+
+I had not hurried myself, and the second gong sounded before I reached
+the drawing-room, so I came face to face with Lesbia, who was coming out
+on Uncle Brian's arm. She kissed me in her quiet way, and said, 'How do
+you do, Ursula?' just as though we had met yesterday, and passed on.
+
+I thought she looked prettier than ever that evening--like a snow
+princess, in her white gown, with a little fleecy shawl drawn round her
+shoulders, for she took cold easily. She had a soft creamy complexion,
+and fair hair that she wore piled up in smooth plaits on her head; she
+had plaintive blue eyes that could be brilliant at times, and a lovely
+mouth, and she was tall and graceful like Sara.
+
+They made splendid foils to each other; but in my opinion Sara carried
+the palm: she was more piquant and animated; her colouring was brighter,
+and she had more expression; but Charlie's Lily, as he called her, was
+quite as much admired, and indeed they were both striking-looking girls.
+
+I saw that Uncle Max took a great deal of notice of Lesbia, who sat next
+to him. I could not hear their conversation, but a pretty pink colour
+tinged Lesbia's face, and her eyes grew dark and bright as she listened,
+and I saw her glance at her left hand where the half-hoop of diamonds
+glistened that Charlie had placed there; she had not quite forgotten the
+dear boy then, for I am sure she sighed, but the next moment she had
+turned from Uncle Max, and was engaged in an eager discussion with Sara
+about some private theatricals in which Sara was to take a part.
+
+When we went back to the drawing-room we found Fraeulein in her favourite
+red silk dress, trying to repair the damage that Sooty had wrought in her
+half-knitted stocking, and Jill, looking very bored and uncomfortable,
+turning over the photograph album in a corner. She looked awkward and
+sallow in her Indian muslin gown: the flimsy stuff did not suit her any
+more than the pink coral beads she wore round her neck. Her black locks
+bobbed uneasily over the book. She looked bigger than ever when she stood
+up to speak to Lesbia.
+
+'How that child is growing!' observed Aunt Philippa behind her fan to
+Fraeulein, whose round face was beaming with smiles at the entrance of the
+ladies. 'That gown was made only a few weeks ago, and she is growing out
+of it already. Jocelyn, my love, why do you hunch your shoulders so when,
+you talk to Lesbia? I am always telling you of this awkward habit.'
+
+Poor Jill frowned and reddened a little under this maternal admonition;
+her eyes looked black and fierce as she sat down again with her
+photographs. This hour was always a penance to her; she could not speak
+or move easily, for fear of some remark from Aunt Philippa. When her
+mother and Fraeulein interchanged confidences behind the big spangled fan,
+the poor child always thought they were talking about her.
+
+Her bigness, her awkwardness, troubled Jill excessively. Her clumsy hands
+and feet seemed always in her way.
+
+'I know I am the ugly duckling,' she would say, with tears in her eyes;
+'but I shall never turn into a swan like Sara and Lesbia,--not that I
+want to be like them!'--with a little scorn in her voice. 'Lesbia is too
+tame, too namby-pamby, for my taste; and Sara is stupid. She laughs and
+talks, but she never says anything that people have not said a hundred
+times before. Oh, I am so tired of it all! I grow more cross and
+disagreeable every day,' finished Jill, who was very frank on the
+subject of her shortcoming.
+
+I would have stopped and talked to Jill, only Lesbia tapped me on the arm
+rather peremptorily.
+
+'Come into the back drawing-room,' she said, in a low voice. 'I want to
+speak to you.--Jill, why do you not practise your new duet with Sara? She
+will play nothing but valses all the evening, unless you prevent it'
+
+But Jill shook her head sulkily; she felt safer in her corner. Sara was
+strumming on the grand pianoforte as we passed her; her slim fingers were
+running lazily over the keys in the 'Verliebt und Verloren' valse.
+Clarence was lighting the candles; William was bringing in the coffee;
+and Colonel Ferguson was following rather unceremoniously. People were
+always dropping in at Hyde Park Gate: perhaps Sara's bright eyes
+magnetised them. We had colonels and majors and captains at our will,
+for there was a martial craze in the house: to-night it was grave,
+handsome Colonel Ferguson.
+
+He was rather a favourite with Uncle Brian and Aunt Philippa, perhaps
+because his troubles interested them; he had buried his young wife and
+child in an Indian grave, and some people said that he had come to
+England to look out for a second wife.
+
+He was a very handsome man, and still young enough to find favour in a
+girl's sight, and his wealth made him a _grand parti_ in the parents'
+eyes. At present he had bestowed equal attention on Sara and Lesbia,
+though close observers might have noticed that he lingered longest by
+Sara's side.
+
+'How do you do, Colonel Ferguson?' said Sara, nodding to him in her
+bright, unconcerned way, as she finished her valse. 'Mother is over
+there talking to Fraeulein: you will find your coffee ready for you.' And
+her glossy little head bent over the keys again, while the lazy music
+trickled through her fingers. Though Colonel Ferguson did as he was told,
+I fancied he would keep a close watch over the young performer.
+
+The inner drawing-room had heavy velvet hangings that closed over the
+archway; on cold evenings the curtains would be drawn rather closely;
+there would be a bright fire, and a single lamp lighted. Very often Uncle
+Brian would retire with his book or paper when Sara's valses wearied him
+or the room filled with young officers. Since Ralph's death he had
+certainly become rather taciturn and unsociable. Aunt Philippa, who loved
+gaiety, never accompanied him, but now and then Jill would creep from her
+corner, when her mother was not looking, and slip behind the ruby
+curtains. I have caught her there sometimes sitting on the rug, with her
+rough head against her father's knee; they would both of them look a
+little shamefaced, as if they were guilty of some fault.
+
+'Go to bed, Jill; it is time for little girls to be asleep,' he would
+say, patting her cheek. Jill would nestle it on his coat-sleeve for a
+moment, as she obeyed him. Her father had the softest place in her heart.
+She always would have it that her mother was hard on her, but she never
+complained of want of kindness from her father.
+
+'Colonel Ferguson comes very often,' remarked Lesbia, a little peevishly,
+as she walked to the fireplace to warm herself: she was a chilly being,
+and loved warmth. 'His name is Donald, is it not? some one told me so:
+Donald Ferguson. Well, he is not bad; he may do for Sara. She has plenty
+of quicksilver to balance his gravity.'
+
+I was rather surprised at this beginning; but without waiting for any
+answer, she went on.
+
+'What is this Mr. Cunliffe tells me?' she asked, fixing her blue eyes
+on my face with marked interest. 'You are going to carry out your old
+scheme, Ursula, about nursing poor people and singing to them. He tells
+me you have chosen Heathfield for your future home, and that he is to
+find you lodgings. Sit down, dear, and tell me all about it,' she went on
+eagerly. 'I thought you had given up all that when--when--' but here she
+stopped and her lips trembled; of course she meant when Charlie died, but
+she rarely spoke his name. I would not let her see my astonishment,--she
+had never seemed so sisterly before,--but I took the seat close to her
+and talked to her as openly as though she were Jill or Uncle Max; now and
+then I paused, and we could hear Colonel Ferguson's deep voice: he was
+evidently turning over the pages of Sara's music.
+
+'Go on, Ursula; I like to hear it,' Lesbia would say when I hesitated;
+she was not looking at me, but at the fire, with her cheek supported
+against her hand.
+
+'What do you think of it?' I asked, presently, when I had finished and
+we had both been silent a few minutes listening to one of Mendelssohn's
+Songs without Words that Sara was playing very nicely.
+
+'What do I think of it?' she replied, and her voice startled me, it was
+so full of pain. 'Oh, Ursula, I think you are to be envied! If I could
+only come with you and work too!--but there is mother, she could not do
+without me, and so we must just go on in the same old way.'
+
+I was so shocked at the hopelessness of her tone, so taken aback at her
+words, that I could not answer her for a moment: it seemed inconceivable
+to me that she could be saying such things. Poor pretty Lesbia, whom
+Charlie had loved and whom I considered a mere fragile butterfly. She
+was quite pale now, and her eyes filled suddenly with tears.
+
+'You do not believe me, Ursula; no, I was right--you never understood me.
+I often told dear Charlie so. You think, because I laugh and dance and do
+as other girls do, that I have forgotten--that I do not suffer. Do you
+think I shall ever find any one so good and kind in this world again? Oh,
+you are hard on me, and I am so miserable, so unhappy, without Charlie.
+And I am not like you: I cannot work myself into forgetfulness; I must
+stop with mother and do as she bids me, and she says it is my duty to be
+gay.'
+
+I was so ashamed of myself, of my mean injustice, that I was very nearly
+crying myself as I asked her pardon.
+
+'Why do you say that?' she returned, almost pettishly, only she looked so
+miserable. 'I have nothing to forgive. I only want you to be good to me
+and not think the worst, for I'm really fond of you, Ursula, only you are
+so reserved and cold with me,'
+
+'My poor dear,' I returned, taking the pretty face between my hands and
+kissing it. 'I will never be unkind to you again. Forgive me if I have
+misunderstood you: for Charlie's sake I want to love you.' And then she
+put her head down on my shoulder and cried a little, and bemoaned herself
+for being so unhappy; and all the time I comforted her my guilty
+conscience owned that Uncle Max was right.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+UNCLE MAX BREAKS THE ICE
+
+
+Uncle Max was one of those men who like to take their own way about
+things; he never hurried himself, or allowed other people's impatience
+to get the better of him. 'There is a time for everything, as Solomon
+says,' was his favourite speech when any one reproached him with
+procrastination; 'depend upon it, the best work is done slowly. What is
+the use of so much hurry? When death comes we shall be sure to leave
+something unfinished.'
+
+So for two whole days he just chatted commonplaces with Aunt Philippa,
+rallied Sara, who loved a joke, and talked politics with Uncle Brian, and
+never mentioned one word about my scheme; if I looked anxiously at him he
+pretended to misunderstand my meaning, and, in fact, behaved from
+morning to night in a most provoking way.
+
+At last I could bear it no longer, and one wet afternoon, when I knew he
+was in the drawing-room, making believe to write his letters, but in
+reality getting a deal of amusement out of Sara's sprightly conversation,
+for she was never silent for two minutes if she could help it, I shut
+myself up in my own room, and would not go near him. I knew he would ask
+where Ursula was every half-hour, and would soon guess that I was out of
+humour about something; and possibly in an hour or two his conscience
+would prick him, and he would feel that I deserved reparation.
+
+This little piece of ill-tempered artifice bore excellent fruit, for
+before I had nearly finished the piece of plain sewing I had set myself
+as a sort of penance, there was a tap at the door, and Sara came in,
+looking very excited, with her bright eyes full of wonder.
+
+'Oh, Ursula, there is such a fuss downstairs! Uncle Max has been telling
+us all about your absurd scheme. Mother is as cross as possible; she is
+so angry, and yet half crying at the same time.'
+
+'And Uncle Brian,' I exclaimed eagerly,--'what does he say?'
+
+'Oh, you know father's way. He just smiled as though the whole thing
+were beneath his notice, and went on reading his paper, and when mother
+appealed to him he said, coolly, that it was none of his business or hers
+either if Ursula chose to make a fool of herself; she had the right to do
+so,--something like that, you know.'
+
+'How very pleasant!' I remarked satirically, for I hated the way Uncle
+Brian put down his foot on things that displeased him. I preferred Aunt
+Philippa's voluble arguments to that.
+
+'To make things worse,' went on Sara cheerfully, 'Mrs. Fullerton and
+Lesbia have come in, and mother and Mrs. Fullerton are trying which can
+talk the faster. Lesbia asked for you, and then did not speak another
+word. What shall you do, Ursula, dear?'
+
+'I shall just go down and ask Aunt Philippa for a cup of tea,' I returned
+coolly, folding up my work. Sara looked half frightened at my boldness,
+and then she began to laugh.
+
+'It is so absurd, you know,' she returned, linking her arm in mine
+affectionately. 'What ever put such nonsense in your head? you are so
+comfortable here with us, and you have your own way, and I never tease
+you now about going to balls. It is so silly of you trying to make
+yourself miserable, and living in poky lodgings. You might as well be
+a fakir, or a dervish, or a Protestant nun, or anything else that is
+unpleasant.'
+
+'My dear, you do not know anything about it,' I answered rather angrily.
+'You and I are different people, Sara; we shall never think the same
+about anything.'
+
+'Well, I don't know,' she returned, half affronted: 'when people try to
+be extra good I always find they succeed in making themselves extra
+disagreeable. It is far more religious, in my opinion, to be pleasant
+to every one, and make them believe that there is something cheerful
+in life, instead of pulling a long face and doing such dreadfully bad
+things.' And after this little fling, in which she tried to be very
+severe, only as usual her dimples betrayed her, she begged me quite
+earnestly to smooth my hair, as though I were breaking one of the
+commandments by keeping it rough; and, having obliged her in this
+particular, and allowed her to peep at her own pretty face over my
+shoulder, we went down to the drawing-room as though we were the best
+of friends.
+
+It was impossible to quarrel with Sara; she was as gay and irresponsible
+as a child; one might as well have been angry with a butterfly for
+brushing his gold-powdered wings across your face; the gentle flappings
+of Sara's speeches never raised a momentary vexation in my mind. I was
+often weary of her, but then we do weary of children's company sometimes;
+in certain moods her bright sparkling effervescence seemed to jar upon
+me: but I never liked to see her sad. Sadness did not become Sara; when
+she cried, which was as seldom as possible, and only when some one died,
+or she lost a pet canary, all her beauty dimmed, and she looked limp and
+forlorn, like a crushed butterfly or a draggled flower.
+
+I do not think I was quite as cool and unconcerned as I wished to appear
+when I marched into the drawing-room, and, after greeting Mrs. Fullerton
+and Lesbia, asked Aunt Philippa for a cup of tea.
+
+Quite a hubbub of voices had struck on my ear as I opened the door, and
+yet complete silence met me. Lesbia, indeed, whispered 'Poor Ursula' as I
+kissed her, but Mrs. Fullerton looked at me with grave disapproval. Aunt
+Philippa was sitting bolt upright behind the tea-tray, and handed me my
+cup, rather as Lady Macbeth did the dagger. I received it, however, as
+though it were my due, and glanced at Uncle Max; but he was too wise to
+look at me, so I said, as coolly as possible, 'Why are you so silent, and
+yet you were talking loudly enough before Sara and I came into the room?'
+For there is nothing like taking the bull of a dilemma by the horns; and
+I had plenty of, let us say, native impudence, only, personally, I should
+have given it another name; and then, of course, I brought the storm upon
+me.
+
+Sara was right. Aunt Philippa certainly talked the faster; Mrs. Fullerton
+tried her best to edge in a word now and then,--a very scathing word,
+too,--but there was no silencing that flow of rapid talk. I quite envied
+her pure diction and the ingenious turn of her sentences; she made so
+much of her own admirable foresight and care of me, and so little of my
+merits.
+
+'I always said something like this would happen, Ursula. I have told your
+uncle often,--Brian, why don't you speak?--yes, indeed, I have told him
+often that I never met any one so strong-minded and self-willed. You need
+not laugh, Sara,--unless you do it to provoke me,--but I have been like a
+mother to Ursula. Thank heaven, my daughters are not of this pattern!
+they do not mistake eccentricity for goodness, or flaunt ridiculous
+notions in the faces of their elders.'
+
+This was too bad of Aunt Philippa; only she had lost her temper, and was
+feeling utterly aggrieved, and Mrs. Fullerton, who was a meddlesome,
+good-humoured woman, and who had nothing of which to complain in life
+except a little over-plumpness and too much money, was agreeing with her
+like a good neighbour and friend.
+
+Uncle Max was smiling, and pulling his beard behind his paper; but he
+made no attempt to check the flow of feminine eloquence. He had said his
+say like a man, and had taken my part behind my back, and he knew women
+were like new wine,--very sound and sweet, but they must find their vent.
+Aunt Philippa would be kinder ever after if we let her scold us properly,
+and took our scolding with a good grace.
+
+Once or twice Uncle Brian let his eye-glasses dangle, and spoke a peevish
+word or two.
+
+'Nonsense, my dear! have I not said over and over again that this is
+none of our business? Ursula is old enough to know her own mind; if she
+chooses to be eccentric we cannot hinder her. All this talk goes for
+nothing.'
+
+'Ah, but, Mr. Garston, young people want guidance,' observed Mrs.
+Fullerton impressively, for Aunt Philippa was beginning to sob, partly
+from the effects of wasted eloquence, and perhaps with a little shortness
+of breathing: anyway, her anger was working itself out. 'If you were to
+advise Ursula as you would Sara, your influence might induce her to
+change her mind.'
+
+'I cannot endorse your opinion, Mrs. Fullerton,' returned Uncle Brian
+drily. 'I am far too keen an observer of human nature to think we can
+talk sense to deaf ears with any benefit.--Ursula, my child,' turning to
+me with a smile that might have been kinder, but perhaps he meant it to
+be so, 'there is not a grain of sense in your scheme: in spite of
+Cunliffe's eloquence, it will not hold water; in fact, in a little while
+you will be glad to come back to us again. When you do, I think I can
+promise that we will not laugh at you more than once a day, and then
+moderately.'
+
+Now, this speech of Uncle Brian's made me very angry. No doubt he meant
+to be kind, and to show me that if my scheme failed I might come home to
+them again; but I was so much in earnest that his satire and his laughing
+at me hurt me more than all Aunt Philippa's hard speeches. So I flushed
+up, and for the first time tears came into my eyes; for he had prophesied
+failure, and I could not bear that, and I might have said words in my
+sudden irritation for which I should have been sorry afterwards, only
+Lesbia, who had sat behind me all this time, as silent and soft-breathed
+as a mouse, got up quickly and took my hand and stood by me.
+
+'I think you have all said plenty of hard things to Ursula, and no one
+has been kind to her. I think she deserves praise and not all this blame;
+if she cannot lead the comfortable life we do, thinking how we are to get
+the most pleasure and enjoy ourselves, it is because she is better than
+we are, and thinks more about her duty. Mrs. Garston,--I do not mean to
+be rude, I am far too fond of you all, because you have all been so good
+to me,'--and here Lesbia's while throat swelled,--'but I cannot bear to
+hear Ursula so blamed. Mr. Cunliffe, I know you agree with me, you said
+so many nice things when Ursula was out of the room.'
+
+This little burst of eloquence surprised us all. Uncle Max said
+afterwards that he was quite touched by it. Lesbia was generally so quiet
+and undemonstrative that her words took Aunt Philippa by storm. She might
+have been offended by Lesbia saying that I was better than the rest of
+them,--a fact that my conscience most emphatically contradicted; but when
+Lesbia kissed her, and begged her to think better of things, she cried a
+little because Charlie was not there to see how pretty she could look,
+and then cheered up, and made overtures that I might come and kiss her
+too, which I did most willingly, and with a full heart, remembering she
+was my father's sister and had been good to me according to her lights.
+
+When Uncle Max saw that reconciliation was imminent, and that by Lesbia's
+help I was likely to have the best of it, my own way, and a good deal of
+petting to follow,--for they would all make more of me during the short
+time I would be with them,--he threw down his paper in high good-humour
+and joined us.
+
+'That is what I call sensible, Mrs. Garston,' he said, paying her a
+compliment at once, as she sat flushed and fanning herself, 'and Ursula
+ought to feel herself very grateful to you for your forbearance and
+acquiescence in her plan.'
+
+I do not believe he knew any more than myself where the forbearance had
+been, but he took it all for granted.
+
+'Nothing puts heart into a person more than feeling sure of one's
+friends' sympathy. Now, we all of us, even Garston, in spite of his
+disapproval, wish Ursula good success in her scheme; some of us think
+better of it than others; for my own part, I am so convinced that she
+will have so many difficulties and disappointments to hamper her that
+I cannot bear to say a discouraging word.' And yet he had said dozens,
+only I was magnanimous and forgave him.
+
+This settled the matter, for Aunt Philippa grew so sorry for me that she
+was almost out of breath again pitying me. 'I do not believe she can help
+it,' she said, in rather an audible aside to Mrs. Fullerton; 'her mother
+had a sort of craze about these things, and seemed to think it part of
+her religion to make herself uncomfortable; and poor Herbert was quite as
+bad, only he was a clergyman, and it did not matter so much with him; so
+I suppose the poor child inherits it. This sort of thing runs in
+families,' went on Aunt Philippa, in an awe-struck voice, as though it
+were a species of insanity. 'I am only thankful that my own girls have
+not got these notions.'
+
+Mrs. Fullerton found out now that it was time to go home and dress for
+dinner, so Lesbia came round to me and whispered that I must come and see
+her soon, for she wanted to talk to me, and not to Sara, who was always
+running in and out.
+
+'I am very fond of Sara, and like to see her, she amuses me so; but when
+I want advice or sympathy I feel I must come to you now, Ursula.' And
+though she had never said so much to me before, I knew she meant it; that
+there was some change in her, some want of nature or heaven knows what
+feminine need, when she missed me, and wanted me, and found some comfort
+in the thought of me.
+
+There was no time for more discussion, and indeed we were all a little
+weary of it; but after dinner Uncle Max, who seemed in excellent spirits,
+as though he had done something wonderful and was proud of his own
+achievements, beckoned me into the inner drawing-room under pretence of
+showing me some engravings, and when we found ourselves alone, he said
+pleasantly, though abruptly--
+
+'Well, Ursula, I thought you would be glad to have an opportunity of
+thanking me, for of course you feel very grateful to me for all the
+trouble I have taken.'
+
+'Oh, indeed!' I returned scornfully, for it would never do to encourage
+this vainglorious spirit. 'I should have felt more disposed to thank you
+if you had not kept me for two days in suspense!'
+
+'That is the result of doing a woman a good turn,' shaking his head
+mournfully. 'The moment she gets her own way, she turns upon you and
+rends you. Fie, fie on you, little she-bear!'
+
+'Oh, Max, do be quiet a moment.'
+
+'Max, indeed! Where are your manners, child? What would Garston say if he
+heard your flippancy?' But by the way he stroked his beard and looked at
+me, I saw he was not displeased. No one would have taken him for my uncle
+who had seen us together, for he was a young-looking man, and I was old
+for my age.
+
+'I do want you to be serious a moment,' I went on plaintively. 'I am
+really very obliged to you for having broken the ice: after all, I have
+not been badly submerged. I soon rose to the surface when Lesbia held out
+a helping hand.'
+
+'Well, now, Ursula, do you not agree with me?--was not Lesbia a darling?'
+
+'She was very nice and sisterly,' I confessed. 'She has more in her than
+I ever thought. Poor little thing! I am afraid she is very unhappy, only
+she hides it so.'
+
+'Just so. That shows her good sense: the world is very intolerant of a
+protracted grief; its victims must learn to dry their eyes quickly.'
+
+Uncle Max was becoming philosophical: this would never do.
+
+'Never mind about Lesbia,' I observed impatiently, 'we can talk about
+her in the next room; what I want to know is, how soon I may come to
+Heathfield.' For I knew how dilatory men can be about other people's
+business, and I fully expected that Uncle Max would put me off to the
+summer.
+
+'You may come as soon as you like,' he returned, rather too carelessly.
+'Shall we say next week, or will that be too early?'
+
+I suppressed my astonishment cleverly, but was down on him in a moment.
+
+'I should like to have some place found for me first,' I remarked
+sententiously; 'you must take lodgings for me first, and then I can
+settle my plans.'
+
+'Oh, that is done already,' he observed cheerfully. 'I have spoken to
+Mrs. Barton about you, and she has very nice rooms vacant. I wanted them
+for Tudor, until I mooted the vicarage plan. It is a tidy little place,
+Ursula, and I think you will be very comfortable there.'
+
+I felt that Uncle Max deserved praise, and I gave it to him without
+stint or limit; he took it nobly, like a man who feels he has earned
+his reward.
+
+'I fancy I have done a neat thing,' he said modestly.
+
+'Directly I read your letter and saw that you were in earnest, I went
+down to Mrs. Barton and had a long talk with her. Do you remember the
+White Cottage, Ursula, that stands just where the road dips a little,
+after you have passed the vicarage? It is on the main road that leads to
+the common: there is a field, and one or two houses, and on the right the
+road branches off to Main Street, where my poorer parishioners live. Oh,
+I see that you have forgotten. Well, there is a low white cottage,
+standing far back from the road, with rather a pretty garden, and a field
+at the back: people call it the White Cottage; though it is smothered in
+jasmine in the summer; and there is a nice little parlour with a bedroom
+over it. That will do capitally, I fancy. Old Mrs. Meredith lived there
+until her death, and she left her furniture to Mrs. Barton.'
+
+I expressed myself as being well pleased at this description, and then
+inquired a little anxiously if there were room for my piano and my books.
+
+'Oh yes, it is quite a good-sized room; that is why I wanted it for
+Tudor. You will not mind it being a little low: it is only a cottage,
+remember. There is a nice easy couch, I spotted that at once, and a
+capital easy-chair, and some corner cupboards that will, hold a store of
+good things; you can make it as pretty as possible.'
+
+'And Mrs. Barton, Max,--is she a pleasant person?'
+
+'There could not be a pleasanter. You will find yourself in clover,
+Ursula, you will indeed; she is a nice little woman, and has all the
+cardinal virtues, I believe; she is a widow and has a big son who works
+at Roberts's, the builder's. Nathaniel is very big, very big indeed, so
+much so that I feel it my duty to warn you of his size, for fear you
+should receive a shock. The cottage just holds him when he sits down,
+and his mother's one anxiety is that he should not bring down the kitchen
+ceiling more than once a year, as it hurts his head and comes expensive;
+he has a black collie they call Tinker, the cleverest dog in the place,
+so Nathaniel says; and these three constitute the household of the White
+Cottage.'
+
+I was charmed with Uncle Max's account; the cottage seemed cosy and
+homelike. I knew I could trust his opinion; he was a good judge of
+character, and was seldom wrong in his estimate of a man, woman, or
+child, and he would be especially careful to intrust me to a thoroughly
+reliable person. I begged him therefore to close with Mrs. Barton at
+once; she asked a very moderate price for her rooms, and I could have
+afforded higher terms. It would not take me long to pack my books and
+other treasures: some of them I should be obliged to leave behind, but
+I must take all Charlie's books and my own, and my favourite pictures and
+bits of china, and a store of fine linen for my own use. I was somewhat
+demoralised by the luxury at Hyde Park Gate, and liked to make myself
+comfortable after my own way. Poor Charlie used to laugh at me and say
+I should be an old maid, and, as I considered this fact inevitable, I
+took his teasing in good part.
+
+I told Uncle Max that I thought I could be ready in another week, and
+that I saw no good in delay. He assented to this, and was kind enough
+to add that the sooner I came the better. I was a little dismayed to
+find that he had not considered himself bound to keep my counsel; he had
+talked about my plan to his curate, Mr. Tudor, and I gathered from his
+manner, for he refused to tell me any more, that he had discussed it
+with another person.
+
+This was too bad, but I would not let him see that this vexed me. I
+wanted to settle in and begin my work quietly before the neighbourhood
+knew of my existence; but if Uncle Max published my intended arrival in
+every house he visited, I felt I could not even worship in comfort, for
+fear the congregation should be eying me suspiciously.
+
+I thought it better to change the subject: so I began to question him
+about Mr. Tudor and Mrs. Drabble, the latter being the ruling power at
+the vicarage; and he fell upon the bait and swallowed it eagerly, so my
+vexation passed unnoticed.
+
+Uncle Max did not live quite alone. His house was large, far too large
+for an unmarried man, and he was very sociable by nature, so he induced
+his curate to take up his abode with him; but the two men and Mrs.
+Drabble, the housekeeper, and the maid under her, could not fill it, and
+several rooms were shut up. Lawrence Tudor had been a pupil of Uncle Max,
+and the two were very much attached to each other. Uncle Max had brought
+him up once or twice to Hyde Park Gate, and we had all been much pleased
+with him. He was not in the least good-looking, but I remember Sara said
+he was gentlemanly and pleasant and had a nice voice. I knew his frank
+manner and evident affection for Uncle Max prepossessed me in his favour;
+he had been very athletic in his college days, and was passionately fond
+of boating and cricket, and he was very musical and sang splendidly.
+
+The little Uncle Max had told me about him had strongly interested me.
+The Tudors had been wealthy people, and Uncle Max had spent more than one
+long vacation at their house, coaching Walter Tudor, who was going in for
+an army examination, and reading Greek with Lawrence (or Laurie, as they
+generally called him) and another brother, Ben.
+
+Lawrence had meant to enter the army too. Nelson, the eldest of all, was
+already in India, and had a captaincy. They were all fine, stalwart young
+men, fond of riding and hunting and any out-of-door pursuit. But there
+never would have been a parson among them but for the failure of the
+company in which Mr. Tudor's money was invested. He had been one of the
+directors, and from wealth he was reduced to poverty.
+
+There was no money to buy Walter a commission, so he enlisted, bringing
+fresh trouble to his parents by doing so. Ben entered an office, but
+Lawrence was kept at Oxford by an uncle's generosity, and under strong
+pressure consented to take orders.
+
+The poor young fellow had no special vocation, and he owned to Max
+afterwards that he feared that he had done the wrong thing. I am afraid
+Max thought so too, but he would not discourage him by saying so; on the
+contrary, he treated him in a bracing manner, telling him that he had
+put his hand to the plough, and that there must be no looking backward,
+and bidding him pluck up heart and do his duty as well as he could; and
+then he smoothed his way by asking him to be his curate and live with
+him, so saving him from the loneliness and discomfort of some curates'
+existence, who are at the mercy of their landladies and laundresses.
+
+So the two lived merrily together, and Lawrence Tudor was all the better
+man and parson for Uncle Max's genial help and sympathy; and though Mrs.
+Drabble grumbled and did not take kindly to him at first, she made him
+thoroughly comfortable, and mended his socks and sewed on his buttons in
+motherly fashion. Mrs. Drabble was quite a character in her way; she was
+a fair, fussy little woman, who looked meek enough to warrant the best of
+tempers; she had a soft voice and manner that deceived you, and a vague
+rambling sort of talk that landed you nowhere; but if ever woman could be
+a mild virago Mrs. Drabble was that woman. She worshipped her master, and
+never allowed any one to find fault with him; but with Mr. Tudor, or the
+maid, or any one who interfered with her, she could be a flaxen-haired
+termagant; she could scold in a low voice for half an hour together
+without minding a single stop or pausing to take breath. Mr. Tudor used
+to laugh at her, or get out of her way, when he had had enough of it; she
+only tried it on her master once, but Max stood and stared at her with
+such surprise and such puzzled good-humour that she grew ashamed and
+stopped in the very middle of a sentence.
+
+But, with all her temper, neither of them could have spared Mrs. Drabble,
+she made them so comfortable.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+'WHEN THE CAT IS AWAY'
+
+
+Aunt Philippa had one very good point in her character: she was not of
+a nagging disposition. When she scolded she did it thoroughly, and was
+perhaps a long time doing it, but she never carried it into the next day.
+
+Jill always said her mother was too indolent for a prolonged effort; but
+then poor Jill often said naughty things. But we all of us knew that Aunt
+Philippa's wrath soon evaporated; it made her hot and uncomfortable while
+it lasted, and she was glad to be quit of it: so she refrained herself
+prudently when I spoke of my approaching departure; and, being of a
+bustling temperament, and not averse to changes unless they gave her much
+trouble, she took a great deal of interest in my arrangements, and bought
+a nice little travelling-clock that she said would be useful to me.
+
+Seeing her so pleasant and reasonable, I made a humble petition that Jill
+might be set free from some of her lessons to help me pack my books and
+ornaments. She made a little demur at this, and offered Draper's services
+instead; but it was Jill I wanted, for the poor child was fretting sadly
+about my going away, and I thought it would comfort her to help me. So
+after a time Aunt Philippa relented, after extorting a promise from Jill
+that she would work all the harder after I had gone; and, as young people
+seldom think about the future except in the way of foolish dreams, Jill
+cheerfully gave her word. So for the last few days we were constantly
+together, and Fraeulein had an unexpected holiday. Jill worked like a
+horse in my service, and only broke one Dresden group; she came to me
+half crying with the fragment in her hand,--the poor little shepherdess
+had lost her head as well as her crook, and the pink coat of the shepherd
+had an unseemly rent in it,--but I only laughed at the disaster, and
+would not scold her for her awkwardness. China had a knack of slipping
+through Jill's fingers; she had a loose uncertain grasp of things that
+were brittle and delicate; she had not learned to control her muscles or
+restrain her strength. She had a way of lifting me up when I teased her
+that turns me giddy to remember: I was quite a child in her hands. She
+was always ashamed of herself when she had done it, and begged my pardon,
+and as long as she put me on my feet again I was ready to forgive
+anything. Jill felt a sort of forlorn consolation in using up her
+strength in my service: she would hardly let me do anything myself;
+I might sit down and order her about from morning to night if I chose.
+
+I made her very happy by leaving some of my possessions under her
+care--some books that I knew she would like to read, and other treasures
+that I had locked up in my wardrobe. Jill had the key and could rummage
+if she liked, but she told me quite seriously that it would comfort her
+to come and look at them sometimes. 'It will feel as though you were
+coming back some day, Ursie,' she said affectionately.
+
+Late one afternoon I left her busy in my room, and went to the Albert
+Hall Mansions to bid good-bye to Lesbia. I had called once or twice, but
+had always missed her. So I slipped across in the twilight, as I thought
+at that hour they would have returned from their drive.
+
+The Albert Hall Mansions were only a stone's throw from Uncle Brian's
+house, so I considered myself safe from any remonstrance on Aunt
+Philippa's part. I liked to go there in the soft, early dusk; the smooth
+noiseless ascent of the lift, and the lighted floors that we passed, gave
+one an odd, dreamy feeling. Mrs. Fullerton had a handsome suite of
+apartments on the third floor, and there was a beautiful view from her
+drawing-room window of the Park and the Albert Memorial. It was a nice,
+cheerful situation, and Mrs. Fullerton, who liked gaiety, preferred it
+to Rutherford Lodge, though Lesbia had been born there and she had passed
+her happiest days in it.
+
+I found Mrs. Fullerton alone, but she seemed very friendly, and was
+evidently glad to see me. I suppose I was better company than her own
+thoughts.
+
+I liked Mrs. Fullerton, after a temperate fashion. She was a nice little
+woman, and would have been nicer still if she had talked less and thought
+more. But when one's words lie at the tip of one's tongue there is little
+time for reflection, and there are sure to be tares among the wheat.
+
+She was looking serious this evening, but that did not interfere with her
+comeliness or her pleasant manners. I found her warmth gratifying, and
+prepared to unbend more than usual.
+
+'Sit down, my dear. No, not on that chair: take the easy one by the fire.
+You are looking rather fagged, Ursula. It seems to be the fashion with
+young people now: they get middle-aged before their time. Oh yes, Lesbia
+is out. It is the Engleharts' "At Home," and she promised to go with Mrs.
+Pierrepoint. But she will be back soon. Now we are alone, I want to ask
+you a question. I am rather anxious about Lesbia. Dr. Pratt says there
+is a want of tone about her. She is too thin, and her appetite is not
+good. The child gets prettier every day, but she looks far too delicate.'
+
+I could not deny this. Lesbia certainly looked far from strong, and then
+she took cold so easily. I hinted that perhaps late hours and so much
+visiting (for the Fullertons had an immense circle of acquaintances,
+with possibly half a dozen friends among them) might be bad for her.
+
+Mrs. Fullerton looked rather mournful at this.
+
+'I hope you have not put that in her head,' she returned uneasily.
+'All yesterday she was begging me to give up the place and go back to
+Rutherford Lodge. Major Parkhurst is going to India in February, and so
+the house will be on our hands.'
+
+'I think the change will be good for Lesbia. It is such a pretty place,
+and she was always so fond of it.'
+
+'Oh, it is pretty enough,' with a discontented air; 'but life in a
+village is a very tame affair. There are not more than four families in
+the whole place whom we can visit, and when we want a little gaiety we
+have to drive into Pinkerton.'
+
+'I think it would be good for Lesbia's health, Mrs. Fullerton.'
+
+'Well, well,' a little peevishly, 'we must talk to Dr. Pratt about it.
+But how is Lesbia to settle well if I bury her in that poky little
+village? Perhaps I ought not to say so to you, Ursula; but poor dear
+Charlie has been dead these two years, so there can be no harm in
+speaking of such things now. But Sir Henry Sinclair is here a great deal,
+and there is no mistaking his intentions, only Lesbia keeps him at such
+a distance.'
+
+I thought it very bad taste of Mrs. Fullerton always to talk to me about
+Lesbia's suitors. Lesbia never mentioned such things herself. As far as I
+could judge, she was very shy with them all. I could not believe that the
+placid young baronet had any chance with her. She might possibly marry,
+but poor Charlie's successor would hardly be a thick-set, clumsy young
+man, with few original ideas of his own. Colonel Ferguson would have been
+far better; but he evidently preferred Sara.
+
+I was spared any reply, for Lesbia entered the room at that moment. She
+looked more delicately fair than usual, perhaps because of the contrast
+with her heavy furs. Her hair shone like gold under her little velvet
+bonnet, but, though she was so warmly dressed, she shivered and crept as
+close as possible to the fire.
+
+Mrs. Fullerton had some notes to write, so she went into the dining-room
+to write them and very good-naturedly left us by ourselves.
+
+Lesbia looked at me rather wistfully.
+
+'I have missed you twice, Ursula. I am so sorry; and now you go the day
+after to-morrow. I wish I could do something for you. Is there nothing
+you could leave in my charge?'
+
+'Only Jill,' I said, half laughing. 'If you would take a little more
+notice of her after I have gone, I should be so thankful to you.'
+
+I thought Lesbia seemed somewhat amused at the request.
+
+'Poor old Jill! I will do my best; but she never will talk to me. I think
+I should like her better than Sara if she would only open her lips to me.
+Well, Ursula, what have you and mother been talking about?'
+
+'About Rutherford Lodge,' I returned quickly. 'Do you really want to go
+back there?'
+
+'Did mother talk about that?' looking excessively pleased. 'Oh yes, I
+am longing to go back. I don't want to frighten you, Ursie, dear,--and,
+indeed, there is no need,--but this life is half killing me. I am too
+close to Hyde Park Gate; one never gets a chance of forgetting old
+troubles; and then mother is always saying gaiety is good for me, and she
+will accept every invitation that comes; and I get so horribly tired; and
+then one cannot fight so well against depression.'
+
+I took her hand silently, but made no answer; but I suppose she felt my
+sympathy.
+
+'You must not think I am wicked and rebellious,' she went on, with a
+sigh. 'I promised dear Charlie to be brave, and not let the trouble spoil
+my life; he would have it that I was so young that happiness must return
+after a time, and so I mean to do my best to be happy, for mother's sake,
+as well as my own; and I know Charlie would not like me to go on
+grieving,' with a sad little smile.
+
+'No, darling, and I quite understand you.' And she cheered up at that.
+
+'I knew you would, and that is why I want to tell you things. I have
+tried to do as mother wished, but I do not think her plan answers;
+excitement carries one away, and one can be as merry as other girls
+for a time, but it all comes back worse than ever.'
+
+'Mere gaiety never satisfied an aching heart yet.'
+
+'No; I told mother so, and I begged her to go back to Rutherford because
+it is so quiet and peaceful there and I think I shall be happier. I shall
+have my garden and conservatory, and there will be plenty of riding and
+tennis. I am very fond of our vicar's wife, Mrs. Trevor, and I rather
+enjoy helping her in the Sunday-school and at the mothers' meeting; not
+that I do much, for I am not like you, Ursula, but I like to pretend to
+be useful sometimes.'
+
+'I see what you mean, Lesbia: your life will be more natural and less
+strained than it is here.'
+
+'Yes, and time will hang less heavy on my hands. I do love gardening,
+Ursula. I know I shall forget my troubles when I find myself with dear
+old Patrick again, grumbling because I will pick the roses. I shall sleep
+better in my little room, and wake less unhappy. Oh, mother!' as Mrs.
+Fullerton entered at that moment with a half-finished note in her hand,
+'I am telling Ursula how home-sick I am, and how I long for the dear old
+Lodge. Do let us go back, mother darling: I want to hunt for violets
+again in the little shady hollow beyond the lime-tree walk.'
+
+'Yes, dearest, we will go if you really wish it so much,' returned Mrs.
+Fullerton, with a sigh. 'Why, my pet, did you think I should refuse?' as
+Lesbia put her arms round her neck and thanked her. 'When a mother has
+only got one child she is not likely to deny her much: is she, Ursula?'
+
+'Oh, mother, how good you are to me!' returned Lesbia, and her blue eyes
+were shining with joy. When Mrs. Fullerton had left the room again she
+told me that she had often cried herself to sleep with the longing to be
+in her old home again; she loved every flower in the garden, every animal
+about the place, and she grew quite bright and cheerful as she planned
+out her days. No, there was nothing morbid about Lesbia's nature; she was
+an honest, well-meaning girl, who had had a great disappointment in her
+life; she meant to outlive it if she could, to be as happy as possible.
+A wise instinct told her that her best chance of healing lay in country
+sights and sounds: the fresh gallop over the downs, the pleasant saunter
+through the sweet Sussex lanes, the sweet breath of her roses and
+carnations, would all woo her back to health and cheerfulness. When the
+pretty colour came back into Lesbia's face her mother would not regret
+her sacrifice; and then I remembered that Charlie's friend Harcourt
+Manners lived about half a dozen miles from Rutherford, and always
+attended the Pinkerton dances, and he was a nice intelligent fellow.
+But I scolded back the foolish thoughts, and felt ashamed of myself for
+entertaining them.
+
+I parted from Lesbia very affectionately, for she seemed loath to say
+good-bye, but I knew poor Jill would be grumbling at my absence; the
+others were dining out, and I had promised to join the schoolroom tea,
+which was to be half an hour later on my account, but it was nearly six
+before I made my appearance, very penitent at my delay, and fully
+expecting a scolding.
+
+I found Jill, however, kneeling on the rug, making toast, with Sooty in
+her arms; she had blacked her face in her efforts, but looked in high
+good-humour.
+
+'Fraeulein has gone out for the whole evening: that freckled Fraeulein
+Misschenstock has been here, and has invited her to tea and supper. Mamma
+said she could go, as you would remain with me, so we shall be alone and
+cosy for the whole evening. Now, you may pour out tea, if you like, for I
+have all this buttered toast on my mind. I am as hungry as a hunter; but
+there is a whole seed-cake, I am glad to see. Now, darling, be quick, for
+you have kept me so long waiting.' And Jill brushed vigorously at her
+blackened cheek, and beamed at me.
+
+But, alas! we had reckoned without our host, and a grand disappointment
+was in store for us, though, as it turned out, things were not as bad as
+they appeared to be at first.
+
+I was praising Jill's buttered toast, for I knew she prided herself
+on this delicacy, and she had just cut herself a thick wedge of the
+seed-cake, which she was discussing with a school-girl's appetite, when
+I heard Uncle Brian's voice calling for Ursula rather loudly: so I ran to
+the head of the staircase, and, to my surprise, saw him coming up in his
+slow, dignified manner.
+
+'Look here, Ursula, I shall be late at the Pollocks', and your aunt and
+Sara have gone on, and there is Tudor in the drawing-room, just arrived
+with a message from Cunliffe. Of course we must put him up; but the
+trouble is there is no dinner, and of course he is famished: young men
+always are.'
+
+My heart sank as I thought of Jill, but there was no help for it. Max's
+friends were sacred. Mr. Tudor must be made as comfortable as possible.
+
+'It cannot be helped, Uncle Brian,' I returned, trying to keep the
+vexation I felt out of my voice. 'Supposing you send Mr. Tudor up to the
+schoolroom, and we will give him some tea. Jill has made some excellent
+buttered toast, and Clayton can get some supper for him by and by in the
+dining-room: there is sure to be a cold joint,--or perhaps Mrs. Martin
+will have something cooked for him.'
+
+'That must do,' he replied, somewhat relieved at this advice. 'We shall
+be back soon after tea, so you will not have him long on your hands.
+Entertain him as well as you can, there's a good girl.' He had quite
+forgotten, and so had I for the moment, that Fraeulein was out for the
+evening, and that possibly Aunt Philippa might object to a young man
+joining the schoolroom tea; but, as it proved afterwards, she was more
+shocked at Uncle Brian than at any one else: she said he ought to have
+given up his dinner and stayed with his guest.
+
+'I confess I do not see what Ursula could have done better,' she
+remarked severely; 'she could not spend the evening alone with him in the
+drawing-room; and of course he wanted his tea. That comes of allowing
+Fraeulein to neglect her duties: she is too fond of spending her time with
+Fraeulein Misschenstock.'
+
+I did not dare break the news to Jill, for fear she should lock herself
+in her own room, for she never liked the society of young men; they
+laughed at her too much, in a civil sort of way: so I hurried down into
+the drawing-room and explained matters to Mr. Tudor, whom I found walking
+about the room and looking somewhat ill at ease.
+
+He seemed rather amused at the idea of the schoolroom tea, but owned that
+he was hungry and tired, as he had had a fourteen-mile walk that day.
+
+'It is all Mr. Cunliffe's fault that I am quartered on you in this way,'
+he said, laughing a little nervously--and very likely Uncle Brian's
+dignified reception had made him uncomfortable; 'but he would insist on
+my bringing my bag, and Mr. Garston has a dinner-engagement, and cannot
+attend to business until to-morrow morning.'
+
+'I am afraid you would like a dinner-engagement too, after your fourteen
+miles,' I returned, in a sympathetic voice, for he did look very tired.
+'We will give you some tea now, and then you can get rid of the dust of
+the journey, and by that time Mrs. Martin will have done her best to
+provide you with some supper.'
+
+'I see I have fallen in good hands,' he replied, brightening at this in
+a boyish sort of way. 'Where is the schoolroom? I did not know there was
+such an apartment, but of course Mrs. Garston told me that her youngest
+daughter had not finished her studies. I think I saw her once: she was
+very tall, and had dark hair.'
+
+'Oh yes; that was Jill--I mean Jocelyn, but we always call her Jill. Will
+you come this way, please? Fraeulein is out, and we were having a good
+time by ourselves.'
+
+'And I have come to spoil it,' he answered regretfully, as I opened the
+door.
+
+I shall never forget Jill's face when she saw us on the threshold. She
+quite forgot to shake hands with Mr. Tudor in her dismay, but stood
+hunching her shoulders, with Sooty still clasped in her arms and her
+great eyes staring at him, till he said a pleasant word to her, and then
+she flushed up, and subsided into her chair. I stole an anxious glance at
+the cake; to my great relief, Jill had been quietly proceeding with her
+meal in my absence, for I knew that in her chagrin she would refuse to
+touch another morsel. I wondered a little what Mr. Tudor would think of
+her ungracious reception of him; but he showed his good-breeding by
+taking no notice of it and confining his remarks to me.
+
+Jill's ill-humour thawed by and by when she saw how he entered into the
+spirit of the fun. He vaunted his own skill with the toasting-fork, and,
+in spite of fatigue, insisted on superintending another batch of the
+buttered toast; he was very particular about the clearness of the fire,
+and delivered quite an harangue on the subject. Jill's sulky countenance
+relaxed by and by; she opened her lips to contradict him, and was met so
+skilfully that she appealed to me for assistance.
+
+By the time tea was over, we were as friendly with Mr. Tudor as though we
+had known him all our lives, and Jill was laughing heartily over his racy
+descriptions of schoolroom feasts and other escapades of his youth. He
+looked absurdly young, in spite of his clerical dress; he had a bright
+face and a peculiarly frank manner that made me trust him at once; he did
+not look particularly clever, and Jill had the best of him in argument,
+but one felt instinctively that he was a man who would never do a mean or
+an unkind action, that he would tell the truth to his own detriment with
+a simple honesty that made up for lack of talent.
+
+I could see that Jill's bigness and cleverness surprised him. He
+evidently found her amusing, for he tried to draw her out; perhaps he
+liked to see how her great eyes opened and then grew bright, as she
+tossed back her black locks or shook them impatiently. When Jill was
+happy and at ease her face would grow illuminated; her varying
+expression, her animation, her quaint picturesque talk, made her
+thoroughly interesting. I was never dull in Jill's company; she had
+always something fresh to say; she had a fund of originality, and drew
+her words newly coined from her own mint.
+
+I do not believe that Mr. Tudor quite understood her, for he was a simple
+young fellow. But she piqued his curiosity. I must have appeared quite a
+tame, commonplace person beside her. When Jill went out of the room to
+fetch something, he asked me, rather curiously, how old she was, and when
+I told him that she was a mere child, not quite sixteen, he said, half
+musing, that she seemed older than that. She knew so much about things,
+but he supposed she was very clever.
+
+We went down into the drawing-room after this, and Jill kept me company
+while Mr. Tudor supped in state, with Clayton and Clarence to wait on
+him. He came up after a very short interval, and said, half laughing,
+that his supper had been a most formal affair.
+
+'By the bye, Miss Garston,' he observed, as though by an afterthought,
+'I hear you are coming down to Heathfield.' He stole a glance at Jill as
+he spoke. She had discarded her Indian muslin and coral necklace as being
+too grand for the occasion, and wore her ruby velveteen, that always
+suited her admirably. She looked very nice, and quite at her ease,
+sitting half-buried in Uncle Brian's arm-chair, instead of being bolt
+upright in her corner. She had drawn her big feet carefully under her
+gown, and was quite a presentable young lady.
+
+I thought Mr. Tudor was rather impressed with the transformation
+Cinderella in her brown schoolroom frock, with a smutty cheek and rumpled
+collar, was quite a different person:--presto--change--the young princess
+in the ruby dress has smooth locks and a thick gold necklace. She has big
+shining eyes and a happy child's laugh. Her little white teeth gleam in
+the lamplight. I do not wonder in the least that Mr. Tudor looks at Jill
+as he talks to me. It is a habit people have with me.
+
+But I answered him quite graciously.
+
+'Yes, I am coming down to Heathfield the day after to-morrow. I suppose
+I ought to say _Deo volente_. I hope you all mean to be good to me, Mr.
+Tudor, and not laugh at my poor little pretensions.'
+
+'I shall not laugh, for one,' he replied, looking me full in the face
+now with his honest eyes. 'I think it is a good work, Miss Garston. The
+vicar'--he always called Uncle Max the vicar--'was talking about it up
+at Gladwyn the other day, and Mr. Hamilton said--'
+
+'Gladwyn? Is that the name of a house?' I asked, interrupting Mr. Tudor
+a little abruptly.
+
+'To be sure. Have you not heard of Gladwyn?' And at that he looked a
+little amused. But I was not fated to hear more of Gladwyn that night,
+for the next moment Aunt Philippa came bustling into the room, and Sara
+and Uncle Brian followed her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE WHITE COTTAGE
+
+
+Good-bye is an unpleasant word to say, and I said mine as quickly as
+possible, but I did not like the remembrance of Jill's wet cheek that
+I had kissed: I was haunted by it during the greater part of my brief
+journey. For some inexplicable reason I had chosen to arrive at
+Heathfield late in the afternoon; I wanted to slip into my new home in
+the dusk. I knew that Uncle Max would meet me at the station and look
+after my luggage, so I should have no trouble, and I hoped that I should
+wake up among my neighbours the next morning before they knew of my
+arrival.
+
+When we stopped at some station a little while before we reached
+Heathfield, the guard put a gentleman in my compartment: I fancied they
+had not noticed me, for a large black retriever followed him.
+
+The gentleman lifted his hat directly he saw me, and apologised for
+his dog's presence, until I assured him it made no difference to me; and
+then he drew a newspaper from his bag and tried to read by the somewhat
+flickering light. As I had nothing else to do, and his attention was
+evidently very much absorbed, I looked at him from time to time in an
+idle, furtive sort of way.
+
+He had taken off his hat and put it on the seat; his dark smooth-shaven
+face reminded me of a Romish priest, but he had no tonsure; instead of
+that he had thick closely-cropped hair without a hint or suspicion of
+baldness, was strongly built and very broad, and looked like a man who
+had undergone training.
+
+I was rather given to study the countenances of my fellow-passengers,--it
+was a way I had,--but I was not particularly prepossessed with this man's
+face; it looked hard and stern, and his manner, though perfectly
+gentlemanly, was a little brusque. I abandoned the Romish priest theory
+after a second glance, and told myself he was more like a Roman
+gladiator.
+
+As we approached Heathfield, he folded up his paper and patted his dog,
+who had sat all this time at his feet, with his head on his knees. It was
+a beautiful, intelligent animal, and had soft eyes like a woman, and by
+the way he wagged his tail and licked the hand that fondled his glossy
+head I saw he was devoted to his master.
+
+Just then I encountered a swift, searching glance from the stranger,
+which rather surprised me. He had looked at me, as he spoke, in an
+indifferent way; but this second look was a little perplexing; it was
+as though he had suddenly recognised me, and that the fact amused him;
+and yet we had never met before,--it was such an uncommon face, so
+singular altogether, that I could never have forgotten it.
+
+I grew irritated without reason, for how could a stranger recognise me?
+Happily the lights from the station flashed before my eyes at that
+moment, and I began nodding and smiling towards a corner by the
+bookstall, where a felt hat and brown head were all that I could see
+of Uncle Max.
+
+'Well, here you are, Ursula, punctual to a minute,' exclaimed Max, as he
+shook hands. 'Halloo, Hamilton, where did you spring from?' going to the
+carriage door to speak to my fellow-passenger. I was so provoked at this,
+fearing an introduction, for Max was such a friendly soul, that I went to
+the luggage-van and began counting my boxes, and Max did not hurry
+himself to look after me.
+
+'Now, then,' he observed cheerily, when he condescended to join me, 'is
+your luggage all right? Do you mean all those traps are yours? Bless me,
+Ursula, what will Mrs. Barton say? Put them on the fly, you fellows, and
+be sharp about it. Come along, child; it is pelting cats and dogs, if you
+know what that means: you have a wet welcome to Heathfield.'
+
+I took the news philosophically, and assured him it did not matter in the
+least. We could hear the rain beating against the windows as we reached
+the booking-office. A closed waggonette with a pair of horses was waiting
+at the door; my fellow-passenger, whom Max had addressed as Hamilton, was
+standing on the pavement, speaking somewhat angrily to the coachman. I
+heard the man's answer as he touched his hat.
+
+'Miss Darrell said I was to bring the waggonette, sir: it did not rain so
+badly when the order was brought round to the stables.'
+
+'I could have taken a fly easily: it is worse than folly bringing out
+the horses this wet night. Jump in, Nap. What, must I go first? Manners
+before a wet coat.'
+
+I heard no more, for Max hurried me into a fly, and the waggonette passed
+us on the road.
+
+'Who was that?' I asked curiously.
+
+'Oh, that is Mr. Hamilton. Why did you not wait for me to introduce
+him to you, Ursula? He is a rich doctor who lives in these parts; he
+practises for his own pleasure among the poor people; he will not attend
+gentle-folks. He told me that he had studied medicine meaning to make it
+his profession, but a distant relative died and left him a fortune, and
+by so doing spoiled his career.'
+
+'That was rather ungracious of him; but he looks the sort of man who
+could do plenty of grumbling. Where does he live, Max?'
+
+'Oh, at Gladwyn: I cannot show you the house now, because we do not pass
+it. There is the church, Ursula, and there is Tudor in his mackintosh
+coming out of the vicarage: that is the best of Lawrence, he never shirks
+his duty; he hates the job, but he does it. He is going down to see old
+Smithers and get sworn at for his pains.'
+
+'Have you got any cases ready for me, Max?' I asked, with a little
+tingling of excitement.
+
+'Hamilton has. I was at Gladwyn the other evening, and had a talk with
+him. He was a little off-hand about your mission; he thinks you must be
+romantic, and all that sort of thing. You would have laughed to have
+heard him talk, and I let him go on just for the joke of it. It was rich
+to hear him say that he did not believe in hysterical goodness; a girl
+would do anything now to get herself talked about--no, I did not mean to
+repeat that,' interrupting himself, with an annoyed air. 'Hamilton always
+says more than he means. Look, Ursula, there is the White Cottage; that
+bow-window to the right belongs to your parlour. Now, my dear, I will
+open the gate, and you must just run up the path as quickly as you can,
+for you can hardly hold up an umbrella in this wind. You see the cottage
+does not boast of a carriage-drive.'
+
+That odious Mr. Hamilton--or Dr. Hamilton, which was it? No wonder he
+looked like a Romish priest if he could make those Jesuitical remarks!
+I felt I almost hated him, but I resolved to banish him from my mind,
+as I ran past the dripping laurels that bordered the narrow path. The
+cottage door was open as soon as our fly had stopped at the gate; and
+by the light I could see the neat flower-borders and clipped yews, and
+a leafless wide-spreading tree with a seat under it. As I made my way
+into the porch, a very big man without his coat passed me with a civil
+'good-evening.' I thought it must be Nathaniel, from his great height,
+and of course the prim-looking little widow in black, standing on the
+threshold, was Mrs. Barton. She had a nice, plaintive face, and spoke
+in a mild, deprecating voice.
+
+'Good-evening, Mrs. Barton. What dreadful weather! I hope my wet boxes
+will not spoil the oilcloth.'
+
+'That is easily wiped off, Miss Garston; but I am thinking the damp must
+have made you chilly. Come into the parlour: there is a fine rousing fire
+that will soon warm you. A fire is a deal of comfort on a wet, cool
+night. I have lighted one in your bedroom too.'
+
+Evidently Mrs. Barton spared herself no trouble. I was a fire-worshipper,
+and loved to see the ruddy flame lighting up all the odd corners, and I
+was glad to think both my rooms would be cheerful. The parlour looked the
+picture of comfort; my piano was nicely placed, and the davenport, and
+the chair that I had sent with it. A large old-fashioned couch was drawn
+across the window, the round table had a white cloth on it, and the
+tea-tray and a cottage loaf were suggestive of a meal. The room was long
+and rather low, but the bow-window gave it a cosy aspect; one glance
+satisfied me that I had space for the principal part of my books, the
+rest could be put in my bedroom. When Mrs. Barton stirred the fire and
+lighted the candles the room looked extremely cheerful, especially as
+Tinker, the collie, had taken a fancy to the rug, and had stretched
+himself upon it after giving me a wag of his tail as a welcome. Mrs.
+Barton would hardly give me time to warm my hands before she begged me
+to follow her upstairs and take off my things while they brought in the
+luggage.
+
+I found my bedroom had one peculiarity: you had to descend two broad
+steps before you entered it.
+
+It was the same size as the parlour, and had a bow-window. The furniture
+was unusually good; it had belonged to the previous lodger, Mrs.
+Meredith, who had bequeathed it to Mrs. Barton at her death.
+
+I was thankful to see a pretty iron bedstead with a brass ring and blue
+chintz hangings, instead of the four-poster I had dreaded. There was a
+commodious cupboard and a handsome Spanish mahogany chest of drawers that
+Mrs. Barton pointed out with great pride. A bright fire burned in the
+blue-tiled fireplace; there was an easy-chair and a round table in the
+bow-window; a pleasant perfume of lavender-scented sheets pervaded the
+room, and a winter nosegay of red and white chrysanthemums was prettily
+arranged in a curious china bowl. I praised everything to Mrs. Barton's
+satisfaction, and then she went downstairs to see to the tea, first
+giving me the information that Nathaniel was coming upstairs with the
+big trunk, and would I tell him where to place it?
+
+He entered the next moment, carrying the heavy trunk on his shoulder as
+easily as though it were a toy. He was a good-looking man, with a fair
+beard and a pair of honest blue eyes, and in spite of his size and
+strength--for he was a perfect son of Anak--seemed rather shy and
+retiring.
+
+I left him loosening the straps of my box, and went downstairs to find
+Uncle Max.
+
+He had made himself quite at home, and was sitting in the big easy-chair
+contemplating the fire.
+
+'Well, Ursula, how do you like your rooms? Oh yes, there are two cups and
+saucers,' as I looked inquiringly at the table, 'because Mrs. Barton
+expects me to remain to tea. She is frying ham and eggs at the present
+moment; I hope you do not mind such homely country fare; but to-morrow
+you will be your own housekeeper.'
+
+I assured Uncle Max that I had fallen in love with the White Cottage, and
+that I liked Mrs. Barton excessively, that my bedroom was especially cosy
+and was most comfortably furnished. 'You will see how pretty this room
+will look when I put up my new curtains and pictures,' I went on; 'it is
+a little bare at present, but it will soon have a more furnished
+appearance. I mean to be so busy to-morrow settling all my treasures.'
+And I spoke with so much animation that Uncle Max smiled at what he
+called my youthful enthusiasm.
+
+'You may be as busy as you like all day,' he returned, in his pleasant
+way, 'so that you come up to the vicarage in the afternoon to see Mrs.
+Drabble. Lawrence will be out: that fellow always is out,'--in a humorous
+tone of vexation. 'He makes himself so confoundedly agreeable that people
+are always asking him to dinner: he is terribly secular, is Lawrence, but
+he is young and will mend. Come up to the vicarage and dine with me,
+Ursula; I want you to taste Mrs. Drabble's pancakes: they are food for
+angels, as Lawrence always says.'
+
+I accepted the invitation a little regretfully, for it seemed hard to
+leave my hermitage the first evening; but then Uncle Max had been so good
+to me that it would never do to disappoint him, and, as Mr. Tudor would
+be out, we should be very cosy together.
+
+Mrs. Barton brought in the ham and eggs at this moment, and I sat down
+before my gay little tea-tray, marvelling secretly at the scarlet
+flamingo. There were plenty of homely delicacies on the table,--hot cakes
+and honey, and a basket of brown-and-yellow pippins. Uncle Max shook his
+head and pretended the hot cakes would ruin his digestion, but he enjoyed
+them all the same, and made an excellent meal.
+
+We sat for a long time talking over the fire, chiefly of Lesbia and Jill,
+for he took a warm interest in them both; but about eight o'clock he
+remembered he had an engagement, and went off rather hurriedly, and I
+went upstairs and unpacked one of my boxes, and arranged my clothes in
+the chest of drawers and in the big, roomy cupboard.
+
+When the church clock struck ten, I went down again in search of hot
+water. At the sound of my footstep, Mrs. Barton came out in the passage
+and invited me into the kitchen.
+
+'There is only Nat there at his books,' she said, in her plaintive voice;
+'he works late sometimes, though I tell him he uses up candle and
+firelight. Please make yourself at home, Miss Garston; we shall always
+be pleased to see you in our kitchen, when you like to pop in.'
+
+'I hope I shall not come too often,' I returned, looking round at its
+bright snug appearance. A square of dark carpet covered part of the
+red-tiled floor; the round deal table in the centre was hidden under a
+crimson cloth, and two big elbow-chairs stood on each side of the wide
+fireplace. Nathaniel sat in one, with a little round table in front of
+him, covered with books and papers, with a small lamp for his own use.
+Mrs. Barton's work-box and mending-basket were on the centre table, the
+hearth had just been swept up, there was a smell of hot bread, and a row
+of freshly-baked loaves were cooling on the dresser; the firelight shone
+on the gleaming pewter and brass utensils, and a great tabby cat sat
+purring on the elbow of Nathaniel's chair. I thought he seemed a little
+confused at my entrance, for he got up rather awkwardly and shuffled his
+papers together, so I took pity on his embarrassment, and only spoke to
+Mrs. Barton.
+
+She took me into the little outer kitchen to show me where she did her
+cooking, and I asked her in a low voice what he was studying.
+
+'He does a little of everything,' she said, with a sort of suppressed
+pride in her voice. 'Sometimes it is history, and oftener summing; he
+will have it that a man cannot have too much learning, and that he wants
+to improve himself; he is always fretting because he never had a chance
+when he was young, all along of his having to work when his poor father
+died, and so he is all for making up for lost time; sometimes Dr.
+Hamilton comes in and helps him with the Latin and--what do you call
+those figures?'
+
+I suggested mathematics, and she nodded assent.
+
+'Oh, Nat is a sight cleverer already than his master,' she went on. 'I am
+thinking that if he goes on learning more and more, that Mr. Roberts will
+be taking him into the business some day. Nat is a sort of foreman now,
+for his master thinks a deal of Nathaniel, and no wonder, for it is not
+only his learning, and his sitting up late, and getting up early in the
+winter's morning, and creeping downstairs without his boots so as not
+to wake me; for all he is such a good son; but I will say it, that there
+is not a young man in these parts that can beat Nat,' finished the little
+widow, in a broken voice.
+
+I said I was glad to hear it, for she evidently expected me to say
+something; and then I asked how long Dr. Hamilton had given him lessons
+in Latin and mathematics. She was only too ready to tell me, and seemed
+pleased at my interest.
+
+'Ever since Nat hurt his arm in the railway accident; and I will say that
+Dr. Hamilton brought him round in a wonderful way; he found him at his
+books one evening, and ordered him off to bed in a hurry; but when he
+came next time he had a long talk with Nat, and promised to give him an
+hour when he could spare it. Sometimes Nat goes up to Gladwyn, but
+oftener Dr. Hamilton drops in here; he has taken a fancy to our kitchen,
+he says; but that is his way of putting it. There are plenty of folks who
+find fault with the doctor, and say he is not what he ought to be to his
+own flesh and blood; but I always will have it, and Nathaniel says the
+same, that the doctor has a fine character. Why, Nat swears by him,'
+
+I was beginning to be afraid that Mrs. Barton would never arrive at a
+full stop,--she was a little like Mrs. Drabble in that; they were both
+discursive and parenthetical speakers, only Mrs. Drabble's meaning was
+more involved,--but before I had time to answer, a deep voice from the
+kitchen startled us.
+
+'Mother, how long do you mean to keep Miss Garston in that cold, dark
+place? It is enough to starve her,' And at this rebuke Mrs. Barton
+hurried me into the front kitchen. I was tired by this time, and glad to
+bid them both good-night. And yet the widow's talk interested me. It was
+not Mr. Hamilton's fault that he had a face like a Romish priest;
+evidently he had his good points, like other people, in spite of his
+rudeness in laughing at me. But I could not--no, I could not tolerate
+that remark of his, 'that a girl would do anything to make herself talked
+about.' It was odious, cynical, utterly malevolent. I hoped Uncle Max
+would defer the introduction as long as possible. I never wished to know
+anything of Gladwyn or its master. These thoughts occupied me until I
+fell asleep; and then I dreamt of Jill.
+
+Once or twice I woke in the night, disturbed by a low growl from Tinker,
+who slept in the passage. I heard afterwards that his dreams were always
+haunted by cats. He was an inveterate enemy to all the feline species,
+with the exception of Peter, the great tabby cat. They had long ago sworn
+an armistice, and, in his way, Tinker took a great deal of notice of
+Peter.
+
+It was strange to look round the low cottage room by the flickering,
+fast-dying firelight. The rain still pattered on the garden paths. I was
+rather dismayed to find that it had not ceased the next morning; it is so
+pleasant to wake up in a fresh place and see the bright sunshine. This
+piece of good luck was denied me, however. When I looked out of my window
+I could only see dripping laurels and great pools in the gravel walks.
+The gray sky had not a break in it. I was glad when I was ready to go
+down to my parlour, for the fire and breakfast-table would look cheerful
+by comparison; and afterwards I would set to work so busily that I should
+not have time to notice the rain.
+
+And so it proved; for until my early dinner--or rather luncheon--was
+served, I was employed in unpacking and arranging my books and ornaments.
+
+On my journeys to and fro I often paused at the low staircase window
+to reconnoitre the weather. There was no garden behind the cottage; a
+small gravelled yard, where Mrs. Barton kept her poultry and some rabbits
+belonging to Nathaniel, opened by a gate into a field. There was a
+cow-house there, and a white cow was standing rather disconsolately
+under some trees. I found out afterwards that both the field and the cow
+belonged to Mrs. Barton, so I could always rely on a good supply of sweet
+new milk.
+
+Nathaniel had put up my book-shelves when I had sent them with the other
+furniture, so I had only to arrange the books. I made use, too, of some
+nails he had driven in for my pictures.
+
+The parlour really looked very nice when I had finished; the new
+cream-coloured curtains were up, and I had tied them back with amber
+silk; two or three sunny little landscapes, and Charlie's portrait, a
+beautifully-painted photograph, hung on the walls; my favourite books
+were in their places, and the mantelpiece and the corner cupboards held
+some of the lovely old china that had belonged to mother. Aunt Philippa
+had wished me to leave it behind, as she feared it might be broken; but
+I liked to feast my eyes on the soft rich colours, and every piece was
+precious to me.
+
+When I had disposed the furniture to the best advantage,--had placed my
+davenport and work-table and special chair in the bow-window, and had
+replaced the shabby red cloth by a handsome tapestry one,--I called Mrs.
+Barton to see the room.
+
+She held up her hands in astonishment.
+
+'Dear me, Miss Garston, it looks quite a different place. What will
+Nathaniel say when he sees it?--he is so fond of books and pretty things.
+It only wants sunshine and a bird-cage, and perhaps a geranium or two,
+to make it quite a bower. May I make so bold, ma'am, as to ask who that
+pleasant-faced young gentleman is in the oak frame?'--but I think she
+was sorry that she had asked the question when I told her it was my
+twin-brother, now in heaven.
+
+'That is where my husband and my dear little daughter both are,' she
+said, with moist eyes, as she turned away from the picture. 'Oh, there is
+a deal of trouble in the world, but you are young to know it, ma'am.' And
+then she looked kindly at me, and went away, to give Nathaniel his
+dinner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+GILES HAMILTON, ESQ.
+
+
+It was quite late in the afternoon when I put the last finishing-touches
+to my sitting-room, and it was already dusk when I left the cottage and
+walked quickly up the road that led to the vicarage.
+
+My busy day had not tired me, and I should have enjoyed a solitary ramble
+in spite of the wet roads and dark November sky, only I knew Uncle Max
+would be waiting for me. A keen sense of independence, of liberty, of
+congenial work in prospective, seemed to tingle in my veins, as though
+new life were coursing through them. I was no longer trammelled by the
+constant efforts to move in other people's grooves. I was free to think
+my own thought and lead my own life without reproof or hindrance.
+
+The vicarage was a red, irregular house, shut off from the road by
+a low wall, with a court-yard planted somewhat thickly with shrubs: the
+living-rooms were chiefly at the back of the house, and their windows
+looked out on a pleasant garden: a glass door in the hall opened on a
+broad gravel terrace bordered by standard rose-trees, and beyond lay a
+smooth green lawn almost as level as a bowling-green; a laurel hedge
+divided it from an extensive kitchen-garden, to which Uncle Max and Mr.
+Tudor devoted a great deal of their spare time and superfluous energies.
+
+It was far too large a house for an unmarried man: the broad staircase
+and spacious rooms seemed to require the echo of children's voices. Uncle
+Max used to call it the barracks, but I think in his heart he liked the
+roomy emptiness; when he was restless he would prowl up and down the wide
+landing from one unused room to another. It was an old-fashioned house,
+and more than one generation had grown up in it. Uncle Max was fond of
+telling me about his predecessors' histories. Two little children had
+died in the big nursery overlooking the garden. There was a little brown
+room where a _ci-devant_ vicar had written his sermons, with a big
+cupboard in the wall where he hung his cassock. He had a grown-up family,
+but his wife was dead. One day he married again and brought home a slim,
+pale-faced girl--a certain Priscilla Howe--to be the mistress of his
+house. There were stories rife in the village that her step-children were
+too much for poor, pretty Priscilla; that while her husband wrote his
+sermons in the little brown room the young wife pined and moped in her
+green sitting-room.
+
+Uncle Max found a picture of her one day in a garret where they stored
+apples; a faint musty smell clung to the canvas. 'Priscilla Howe' was
+written in one corner; there was a childish look on the small oval face;
+large melancholy eyes seemed appealing to one out of the canvas. She was
+dressed in a heavy white material like dimity, and held a few primroses
+between her fingers. What an innocent, pathetic little bride the
+stern-faced vicar must have brought home!
+
+I read her epitaph afterwards when Uncle Max showed me her
+grave,--'Priscilla, wife of Ralph Combermere, aged twenty, and her infant
+son.' What a sad little inscription! But Uncle Max read something sadder
+still one day. A letter in faded ink was found in a corner of the same
+old garret, and the signature was 'Priscilla'; there was only one
+sentence legible in the whole, and to whom it was written remained a
+mystery: 'Trust me, dear love, that I shall ever do my duty, in spite of
+flaunts and jeers and most unkindly looks; and if God spares me health,
+which I cannot believe, He may yet right me in the eyes that no longer
+look at me with fondness.'
+
+Poor Priscilla! so her husband had ceased to love her. No wonder the poor
+child dwindled and pined among 'the flaunts and jeers and most unkindly
+looks' of her step-children. One could imagine her clasping her baby to
+her sad heart as she closed her eyes to the bitter misunderstanding of
+this life. 'Where the weary are at rest,'--they might have written those
+words upon her tomb.
+
+The thought of Priscilla used to haunt me when I roamed about the
+passages on windy days; the old garret especially seemed haunted by her
+memory. Uncle Max once said to me that he could have constructed a
+romance out of her poor little history. 'She came from a place called
+Ecclesbourne Hall,' he said, one day. 'She was an heiress; old Ralph
+Combermere knew what he was about when he transplanted the pale primrose.
+Do you know, Ursula, this room is supposed to be haunted? And one of the
+maids told me seriously that Mistress Combermere walks here on windy
+nights with her babe in her arms. Fancy such a report in an English
+vicarage!'
+
+When I reached the house the little maid who opened the door informed me
+that Uncle Max was in his study: it was a large room with a bow-window
+overlooking the garden, and I knew Uncle Max never used any other room
+except for his meals. I had volunteered to announce myself. I was never
+formal with Max, so I knocked at the door, and, without waiting to hear
+his voice in reply, marched in without ceremony.
+
+But the next moment I stood discomfited on the threshold, for instead of
+Uncle Max's familiar face I saw a dark, closely-cropped head bending over
+the table as though searching for something, and the ruddy firelight
+reflected the broad shoulders and hairless profile of the obnoxious Mr.
+Hamilton.
+
+My first idea was to escape, and my fingers were already on the
+door-handle, when he turned abruptly and saw me. 'I beg your pardon,'
+coming towards me and speaking in the deep peculiar voice I had already
+heard. 'I was hunting for the matches that Cunliffe always mislays. You
+are Miss Garston, are you not? I was told to expect you.' And then he
+actually shook hands with me in an off-hand way.
+
+I am not generally devoid of presence of mind, but at that moment I
+behaved as awkwardly as a school-girl. If I could only have thought of
+some excuse for leaving him,--an errand or a message to Mrs. Drabble; but
+no form of words would occur to me. I could only mutter an apology for my
+abrupt entrance, and ask after Uncle Max, stammering with confusion all
+the time, and then take the chair he was placing for me, while he renewed
+his search for the match-box.
+
+'Oh, Cunliffe has only gone down to the village to post his letters: he
+will be back in a few minutes. Ah! here are the matches. Now we shall be
+able to see each other.' And he coolly lighted Uncle Max's reading-lamp
+and two candles, and stirred the fire with such a vigorous hand that the
+huge lump of coal splintered into fragments.
+
+'There; I do like a mighty blaze. Take that newspaper, Miss Garston, if
+the flame scorches your face. I know young ladies are afraid of their
+complexions.' Why need he have said that, as though my brown skin were
+Sara's pretty pink cheeks? 'Why do you not throw off your wraps if the
+room be too hot?' And he spoke so imperatively that I actually obeyed
+him, and got rid of my hat and ulster, which he deposited on the couch.
+
+I did not like the look of Mr. Hamilton any better than I had liked it
+yesterday. His dark, smoothly-shaven face was not to my taste; it looked
+stern and forbidding. He had a low forehead, and there was a hard set
+look about the mouth, and the eyes were almost disagreeable in their
+keenness.
+
+Perhaps I was prejudiced, but he looked to me like a man who rarely
+laughed, and who would take a pleasure in saying bitter things; his voice
+was not unpleasant, but it had a peculiar depth in it, and now and then
+there was an odd break in it that was almost a hesitation.
+
+'Well,' he said, looking full at me, but, I was sure, not in the least
+wishful to set me at my ease, 'I suppose I ought to introduce myself. My
+name is Hamilton.'
+
+I bowed. I certainly did not think it necessary that I should tell him
+that I was aware of that fact.
+
+'We met yesterday, when you were good enough to put up with Nap's
+company. I was half disposed to introduce myself then: only I feared you
+would be shocked at such a piece of unconventionality; young ladies have
+such strict ideas of decorum.'
+
+'And very properly so, too,' I put in severely, for my irritation was
+getting the better of my nervousness. I could not bear the tone in which
+he said 'young ladies.' I felt convinced he had an antipathy to the whole
+sex.
+
+'Our skies were very uncivil in their welcome,' he went on, quite
+disregarding my remark: 'it was the wettest night we have had for an age.
+I was quite savage when I found the horses had been taken out of their
+warm stables: the coachman was an ass, as I told him.'
+
+'You scolded him somewhat severely.'
+
+'Ah! did you hear me?' smiling a little at that, as though he were
+amused. 'I am afraid I speak my mind pretty freely, in spite of
+bystanders. Well, Miss Garston, so I hear you have come down as a sort of
+female Quixote among us. Heathfield is to be the scene of your mission.'
+
+I was so angry at the tone in which he said this that I made no reply.
+What right had a perfect stranger to meddle in my business? It was all
+Uncle Max's fault; if he had only held his tongue.
+
+'Cunliffe was up at Gladwyn the other night,' he continued in the same
+off-hand way, 'and he told us all about it.'
+
+'I am sorry to hear it,' very stiffly.
+
+'Sorry! Why? Good deeds ought to be talked about, ought they not, _pro
+bono publico_, eh? Why not, Miss Garston?'
+
+'Good intentions are not deeds.'
+
+'True; you have me there. I suppose you think you must not reckon on your
+chickens before they are hatched; the _pro bono publico_ scheme is not
+properly hatched yet, except in theory. I am afraid I shall make you
+angry if I tell you I was rather amused at the whole thing.'
+
+'I am glad to afford you amusement, Mr. Hamilton.'
+
+'Ah, I see you are deeply offended; what a pity, and in five minutes too!
+That comes of my unfortunate habit of speaking my mind. Let me follow
+this out. I am afraid Cunliffe has been a traitor; that fellow is not
+reliable: no parsons are. Let me hear what you have against me, Miss
+Garston. I have spoken against your pet theory, and you are aggrieved in
+consequence,'
+
+He spoke in a half-jesting manner, but his ironical voice challenged me.
+
+I felt I detested him, and he should know why.
+
+'I expected to be misunderstood,' I returned coldly, 'but hardly to be
+accused of hysterical goodness. To be sure, a girl will do anything
+nowadays to get herself talked about!'
+
+'Oh,' in a low voice, 'that rascal! But I will be even with him. How many
+more of my speeches did Cunliffe repeat?'
+
+'Oh, I had heard enough,' I replied hastily. 'Does it not strike you as
+a little hard, Mr. Hamilton, that one should be judged beforehand in this
+harsh manner?--that because some girls are full of vagaries, the whole
+sex must be condemned?'
+
+'Oh, if you put it in that cut-and-dried way, I must plead guilty: in
+fact, I should owe you some sort of apology, only'--with a stress on the
+word--'my speech was not intended for the house-top. I am rather a
+sceptic about female missions, Miss Garston, and do not always measure my
+words when I am discussing abstract theories with a friend. In my opinion
+Cunliffe is the one you ought to blame, though if the speech rankles I
+will take my share.'
+
+'I certainly wish you had not said it, Mr. Hamilton.'
+
+'There, now,'--in an injured voice,--'that is the way you treat my
+handsome apology, and I am not a man ever to own myself in the wrong,
+mind you. What does it matter, may I ask, what I think of girls in the
+abstract? I had not met you, Miss Garston, or discussed the subject in
+its bearings: so where may the offence lie? Of course you have no answer
+ready; of course you have taken offence where none is meant. This is so
+like a woman--to undertake to renovate society, and lose her temper at
+the first adverse word.'
+
+He was looking at me with a peculiar but not unkindly smile as he spoke;
+in fact, his expression was almost pleasant; but I was too much
+prejudiced to be softened. I did not care in the least what he thought
+of my temper; I was quite sure he had one of his own.
+
+'No one likes to meet discouragement on the threshold,' I answered
+curtly.
+
+'Not if it comes out with timbrels and dances, like Jephtha's
+daughter, to be sacrificed: that was discouragement on the threshold
+with a vengeance. I was always sorry for that old fellow. Well, _apropos_
+of that touching remark,--which, by the way, is exquisitely
+feminine,--supposing we strike a truce. I daresay you look upon me as an
+interfering stranger; but the fact is, I am the poor folk's doctor down
+here; so you cannot work without me. That alters the case, eh?'--with a
+smile meant to be propitiatory, but really too triumphant for my taste.
+
+'Under those circumstances I could wish that you had less narrow views of
+women's work,' I returned, with some warmth.
+
+He opened his eyes so widely at this that at any other moment I should
+have been amused.
+
+'By all that is wonderful, it is the first time I have been accused of
+narrowness.' And here he gave a gruff little laugh. 'I think I had better
+leave yon alone, Miss Garston, and label you "dangerous." There is a hot
+sparkle in your eyes that warns me to keep off the premises. "Trespassers
+will be taken up." I begin to feel uncomfortable. Cunliffe has put me _en
+parole_, and I dare not break bounds. Can you manage to sit in
+the same room a little longer with such a heretic?'
+
+'Heretics can be converted.'
+
+He shrugged his shoulders at this.
+
+'Not such a hardened sceptic as myself. Now, look here, Miss Garston.
+I will say something civil. I believe you are in earnest; so it shall be
+_pax_ between us; and I will promise not to thwart you. As for women's
+mission in general, I believe their principal mission is not to stop at
+home and mind their own business; in fact, home and homely duties are the
+last straws that break the back of the emancipated woman.' And with these
+audacious words Mr. Hamilton stirred the fire again with prodigious
+energy. Happily, Uncle Max came into the room at that moment; so I was
+spared any reply.
+
+Max must have thought that I was suspiciously glad to see him, for he
+looked from one to the other rather anxiously.
+
+'Sorry to be so late, Ursula; but I met Pardoe, and he entrapped me into
+an argument. Well, how have you and my friend Hamilton got on together?'
+
+I turned away without answering, but Mr. Hamilton responded, in a
+melancholy voice--
+
+'I have been suppressed, like the dormouse in Alice's teapot. There is
+very little left of me. I had no idea your niece had such a taste for
+argument, Cunliffe. I take it rather unkindly that I was not warned off
+the track.'
+
+'So you two have been quarrelling.' And Uncle Max looked a little vexed.
+'What a fellow you are, Hamilton, for stroking a person the wrong way! Of
+course Ursula has believed all your cross-grained remarks?'
+
+'Swallowed them whole and entire; and a fit of moral indigestion is the
+result. Well, I must be going; but first let me administer a palliative,
+Miss Garston. What time do you have breakfast? If it be before ten, I
+shall be happy to introduce you to a very eligible case.'
+
+I would have given much to dispense with Mr. Hamilton's patronage; but
+under the circumstances it would have been absurd to refuse his offer.
+I could not sacrifice my work to my temper; but I recognised with a
+sinking heart that Mr. Hamilton would cross my daily path. The idea
+was as delightful to me as the anticipation of a daily east wind. I
+restrained myself, however, and briefly mentioned that I would be ready
+by nine.
+
+'Oh, that is an hour too early: I will call for you at ten. Let me see,
+you are at the White Cottage. You are not curious about your first
+patient; in that you are not a true daughter of Eve. Well, good-bye, Miss
+Garston; good-bye, Cunliffe.' And he left the room without shaking hands
+with me again.
+
+Uncle Max followed him out into the hall, and they stood so long talking
+that I lost patience, and went into the kitchen to see Mrs. Drabble.
+
+She received me in a resigned way, as usual, and talked without taking
+breath once while she buttered the hot cakes and prepared the tea-tray.
+I understood her to say that Mr. Tudor's collars were her chief cares in
+life; that no young gentleman she had ever known was so hard to please in
+the matter of starch; that her master was a lamb in comparison; and did
+I not think he was looking ill and overworking himself?
+
+I had some difficulty in finding out to whom she was alluding, but I
+imagined she meant her master, who was certainly looking a little thin,
+and then she went off on another tack.
+
+'Folks seem mighty curious about you, Miss Ursula; people do say
+that only a young lady crossed in love would think of doing such an
+out-of-the-way thing as putting up at the White Cottage and nursing
+poor people. There was Rebecca Saunders,--you know Rebecca at the
+post-office,--she said to me last night, "So your young lady has come,
+Mrs. Drabble; the vicar was at the station, I hear, and Dr. Hamilton came
+down by the same train: wasn't that curious, now? I am thinking she must
+be a mighty independent sort of person to take this work on her; there
+has been trouble somewhere, take my word for it, for it is not in young
+folks' nature to go in for work and no play."'
+
+'Oh, I mean to play as well as work,' I returned, laughing. 'Don't tell
+me any more, Mrs. Drabble; people will talk in a village, but I would
+rather not hear what they say.' And then I went back to the study and
+made tea for Uncle Max, and tried to pretend that I felt quite myself,
+and was not the least uneasy in my mind,--as though I could deceive Max.
+
+'Well, Ursula,' he said, shaking his head at me, 'did Hamilton or Mrs.
+Drabble give you those hot cheeks?'
+
+'Oh, Uncle Max,' I returned hastily, 'I am so sorry Mr. Hamilton is your
+friend.'
+
+'Why so, little she-bear?'
+
+'Because--because--I detest him: he is the most disagreeable,
+insufferable, domineering person I have ever met.'
+
+'Candid; but then you were always outspoken, my dear. Now, shall I tell
+you what this disagreeable, insufferable, domineering person said to me
+in the hall?'
+
+'Oh, nothing he said will make any difference in my opinion, I assure
+you.'
+
+'Possibly not, but it is too good to be lost. He said, "That little girl
+actually believes in herself and her work; it is quite refreshing to meet
+with such _naivete_ nowadays. Ursula did you call her? Well, the name
+just suits her." How do you like that, poor little bear?'
+
+'I like it as well as I liked all Mr. Hamilton's speeches. Max, do you
+really care for that odious man? Must I be civil to him?'
+
+'Indeed, I hope you will be civil, Ursula,' replied Uncle Max, in an
+alarmed voice. 'My dear, Giles Hamilton, Esq., is my most influential
+parishioner; he is rich; he doctors all my poor people _gratis_, bullies
+them one moment, and does them a good turn in the next; he is clever,
+kind-hearted, and has no end of good points, and, though he is eccentric
+and has plenty of faults, we chum together excellently, and I am very
+intimate with his people.'
+
+'His people--who are they?' I asked irritably.
+
+'Oh, it is a queer household up at Gladwyn,' returned Max, rather
+uneasily. 'Hamilton has a cousin living with him, as well as his two
+sisters; her name is Darrell,--Etta Darrell; she is a stylish-looking
+woman, about five-and-thirty; one never knows a lady's age exactly.'
+
+'Are his sisters very young, then? Does Miss Darrell manage the house?'
+
+'Yes. How could you guess that?' looking at me in surprise. 'Gladys,
+Miss Hamilton, is about three-and-twenty, but she is very delicate;
+the younger one, Elizabeth, is two years younger; they are Hamilton's
+half-sisters,--his father married twice: that accounts for a good deal.'
+
+'How do you mean,--accounts for a good deal, Max?'
+
+'Why people say that Hamilton doesn't always get on with his sisters,'
+he returned reluctantly: 'there are often misunderstandings in
+families,--want of harmony, and that sort of thing. Mind, I do not
+say it is true.'
+
+'But you are so often at Gladwyn, you ought to know, Max.'
+
+'Yes, of course; and now and then I have seen Hamilton a little stern
+with his sisters; he is rather irritable by nature. I don't quite
+understand things myself, but I have got it into my head that they would
+be happier without Miss Darrell; she is a splendid manager, but it puts
+Miss Hamilton out of her right place.'
+
+'But she is an invalid, you say?'
+
+'No, not an invalid, only very delicate, and a little morbid; not
+quite what a girl ought to be. You could do some good there, Ursula,'
+rather eagerly. 'Miss Hamilton has no friends of her own age; she is
+reserved,--peculiar. You might be a comfort to her; you are sympathetic,
+sensible, and have known trouble yourself. I should like to see you use
+your influence there.'
+
+'I will try, if you wish it, Max. And her name is Gladys?'
+
+'Yes, Gladys, of Gladwyn,' he returned, with a smile, but I thought he
+said it with rather a singular intonation, but it had a musical sound,
+and I repeated it again to myself,--'Gladys, of Gladwyn.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+NEW BROOMS SWEEP CLEAN
+
+
+We were interrupted just then by Mrs. Drabble, who came in for the
+tea-things, and, as usual, held a long colloquy with her master on sundry
+domestic affairs. When she had at last withdrawn, Uncle Max did not
+resume the subject. I was somewhat disappointed at this, and in spite
+of my strong antipathy to Mr. Hamilton I wanted to hear more about his
+sisters.
+
+He disregarded my hints, however, and began talking to me about my work.
+
+'Do you know anything about the family Mr. Hamilton mentioned?' I asked,
+rather eagerly.
+
+'Oh yes; Mary Marshall's is a very sad case; she has seven children,
+not one of them old enough to work for himself; and she is dying, poor
+creature, of consumption. Her husband is a navvy, and he is at work at
+Lewes; I believe he is pretty steady, and sends the greater part of his
+wages to his wife, but there are too many mouths to feed to allow of
+comforts; his old blind mother lives with them. I believe the neighbours
+are kind and helpful, and Peggy, the eldest child, is a sharp little
+creature, but you can imagine the miserable condition of such a home.'
+
+'Yes, indeed.' And I shuddered as I recalled many a sad scene in my
+father's home.
+
+'I have sent in a woman once or twice to clean up the place; and Mrs.
+Drabble has made excellent beef-tea, but the last lot turned sour from
+being left in the hot kitchen one night, and the cat upset the basin of
+calf's-foot jelly,--at least the children said so. I go there myself,
+because Tudor says the air of the place turns him sick: he looked as
+white as a ghost after his last visit, and declared he was poisoned with
+foul air.'
+
+'I daresay he was right, Max; poor people have such an objection to open
+their windows.'
+
+'I believe you there. I have talked myself nearly hoarse on that subject.
+Hamilton and I propose giving lectures in the schoolroom on domestic
+hygiene. There is a fearful want of sanitary knowledge in women belonging
+to the lower class; want of cleanliness, want of ventilation, want of
+whitewashing, are triple evils that lead to the most lamentable results.
+We cannot get people to understand the common laws of life; the air of
+their rooms may be musty, stagnant, and corrupt, and yet they are
+astonished if their children have an attack of scarlet fever or
+diphtheria.'
+
+I commended the notion of the lectures warmly, and asked with whom the
+idea had originated.
+
+'Oh, Hamilton, of course: he is the moving spirit of everything. We have
+planned the whole thing out. There is to be a lecture every Friday
+evening; the first is to be on household hygiene, the sanitary condition
+of houses, ventilation, cleanliness, etc. In the second lecture Hamilton
+will speak of the laws of health, self-management, personal cleanliness,
+to be followed by a few simple lectures on nursing, sick-cookery, and
+the treatment of infantile diseases. We want all the mothers to attend.
+Do you think it a good idea, Ursula?'
+
+'It is an excellent one,' I returned reluctantly, for I grudged the
+praise to Mr. Hamilton. He could benefit his fellow-creatures, and give
+time and strength and energy to the poor sick people, and yet sneer at me
+civilly when I wanted to do the same, just because I was a woman. Perhaps
+Max was disappointed with my want of enthusiasm, for he ceased talking
+of the lectures, and said he had some more letters to write before
+dinner, and during the rest of the evening, though we discussed a hundred
+different topics, Mr. Hamilton's name was not again mentioned.
+
+Uncle Max walked with me to the gate of the White Cottage, and bade me a
+cheerful good-night.
+
+'I like to feel you are near me, Ursula,' he said, quite affectionately;
+'an old bachelor like myself gets into a groove, and the society of a
+vigorous young woman, brimful of philanthropy and crotchets, will rub me
+up and do me good; one goes to sleep sometimes,' he finished, rather
+mournfully, and then he walked away in the darkness, and I stood for a
+minute to watch him.
+
+It seemed to me that Max was a little different this evening. He was
+always kind, always cheerful; he never wrapped himself up in gloomy
+reserve like other people, however depressed or ill at ease he might be;
+but Mrs. Drabble was right, he was certainly thinner, and there was an
+anxious careworn look about his face when he was not speaking. I was
+certain, too, that his cheerfulness and ready flow of conversation were
+not without effort. I had asked him once if he were quite well, and he
+had looked at me in evident astonishment.
+
+'Perfectly well, thank you,--in a state of rude health. Nothing ever ails
+me. Why do you ask?' But I evaded this question, for I knew Max hated to
+be watched; and, after all, what right had I to intrude into his private
+anxieties? doubtless he had plenty of these, like other men. The
+management of a large parish was on his shoulders, and he was too
+conscientious and hard-working to spare himself; but somehow the shadow
+lying deep down in Max's honest brown eyes haunted me as I unlatched the
+cottage door.
+
+I heard Nathaniel's voice in the kitchen, and went in to bid him and his
+mother good-night. Mrs. Barton was not there, however, but, to my
+chagrin, Mr. Hamilton occupied her seat. He looked up with a rather
+quizzical glance as I entered: he and Nathaniel had the round table
+between them, strewn with books and papers; Nathaniel was writing, and
+Mr. Hamilton was sitting opposite to him.
+
+'I beg your pardon,' I said hurriedly. 'I thought Mrs. Barton was here.'
+
+'She has gone to bed,' returned Mr. Hamilton coolly: 'my friend Nathaniel
+and I are hard at work, as you see. Do you know anything of mathematics,
+Miss Garston?--no, you shake your head--' I do not know what more he
+would have said, but I escaped with a quick good-night.
+
+As I went upstairs I made a resolution to avoid the kitchen in future:
+I might at any moment stumble upon Mr. Hamilton. I had forgotten that he
+gave Nathaniel lessons sometimes in the evening. What a ubiquitous mortal
+this man appeared, here, there, and everywhere! It had given me rather a
+shock to see him so comfortably domiciled in Mrs. Barton's cosy kitchen;
+he looked as much at home there as in Uncle Max's study. How bright
+Nathaniel had looked as he raised his head to bid me good-night! I was
+obliged to confess that they had seemed as happy as possible.
+
+It was very late when he left the cottage; I was just sinking off to
+sleep when I heard his voice under my window. Tinker heard it too, and
+barked, and then the gate shut with a sudden sharp click and all was
+still. Nathaniel must have crept up to bed in his stocking-feet, as they
+say in some parts, for I never heard him pass my door.
+
+I was glad to be greeted by sunshine the next morning; the day seemed to
+smile on my new work like an unuttered benison, as I went down to my
+solitary breakfast. I resolved that nothing Mr. Hamilton could say should
+damp or put me out of temper, and then I sat down and read a sad rambling
+letter from Jill, which was so quaint and original, in spite of its
+lugubriousness, that it made me smile.
+
+I was standing by the door, caressing Tinker, who was in a frolicking
+mood this morning, when I saw Mr. Hamilton cross the road; he wore a dark
+tweed suit and a soft felt hat,--a costume that did not suit him in the
+least; he held open the gate for me, and made a sign that I should join
+him. As I approached without hurrying myself in the least, he looked
+inquiringly at the basket I carried.
+
+'I hope you do not intend to pauperise your patients,' was his first
+greeting.
+
+'Oh no,' was my reply, but I did not volunteer any information as to the
+contents of the basket. There was certainly a jar of beef-tea that Mrs.
+Drabble had given me, and a few grapes; but the little store of soap,
+soda, fine rags, and the two or three clean towels and cloths would have
+surprised him a little, though he might have understood the meaning of
+the neat housewife.
+
+'I am glad you wear print dresses,' was his next remark; 'they are proper
+for a nurse. Stuff gowns that do not wash are abominations. I am taking
+you to a very dirty place, Miss Garston, but what can you expect when
+there are seven children under thirteen years of age and the mother is
+dying? She was a clean capable body when she was up; it is hard for her
+to see the place like a pig-sty now. Old Mrs. Marshall is blind, and as
+helpless as the children,' He spoke abruptly, but not without feeling.
+
+'The neighbours are good to them, Uncle Max tells me.'
+
+'Oh yes; they come in and tidy up a bit, that is their expression; now
+and then they wash the baby or take off a batch of dirty clothes, but
+they have their own homes and children. I tell my patient that she would
+be far more comfortable in a hospital; but she says she cannot leave the
+children, she would rather die at home. That is what they all say.'
+
+'But the poor creatures mean what they say, Mr. Hamilton.'
+
+'Oh, but it is all nonsense!' he returned irritably. 'She can do nothing
+for the children; she cannot have a moment's quiet or a moment's comfort,
+with all those grimy noisy creatures rushing in and out. I found her
+sitting up in bed yesterday, in danger of breaking a blood-vessel through
+coughing, because one of the imps had fallen down and cut his head and
+she was trying to plaster it.'
+
+'Her husband ought to be with her,' I said, somewhat indignantly.
+
+'He is on a job somewhere, and cannot come home; they must have bread
+to eat, and he must work. This is the house,' pointing to a low white
+cottage at the end of a long straggling street of similar houses; two or
+three untidy-looking children were playing in the front garden with some
+oyster-shells and a wooden horse without a head. One little white-headed
+urchin clapped his hands when he saw Mr. Hamilton, and a pretty little
+girl with a very dirty face ran up to him and clasped him round the knee.
+
+''As 'oo any pennies to-day?' she lisped.
+
+'No nonsense; run away, children,' he said, in a rough voice that did not
+in the least alarm them, for they scampered after us into the porch until
+an elder girl, with a year-old baby in her arms, met us on the threshold
+and scolded them away.
+
+Mr. Hamilton shook a big stick at them.
+
+'I shall give no pennies to children with dirty faces. Well, Peggy, how
+is mother? Have the boys gone to school, both of them? That is right.
+This is the lady who is coming to look after mother.'
+
+Here Peggy dropped a courtesy, and said, 'Yes, sir,' and 'yes please,
+mum.'
+
+'Mind you do all she tells you. Now out of my way. I want to speak to
+your grandmother a moment, and then I will come into the other room.'
+
+I followed him into the untidy, miserable looking kitchen. An old woman
+was sitting by the fire with an infant in her arms; we found out that it
+belonged to the neighbour who was washing out some things in the yard.
+She came in by and by, clattering over the stones in her thick clogs,--a
+brisk, untidy-looking young woman,--and looked at me curiously as she
+took her baby.
+
+'I must be going home now, granny,' she said, in a loud, good-humoured
+voice. 'Peggy can rinse out the few things I've left.'
+
+Granny had a pleasant, weather-beaten face, only it looked sunken and
+pale, and the poor blind eyes had a pathetic, unseeing look in them. To
+my surprise, she looked neat and clean. I had yet to learn the slow
+martyrdom the poor soul had endured during the last few months in that
+squalid, miserable household. To her, cleanliness was next to godliness.
+She had brought up a large family well and thriftily, and now in her old
+age and helplessness her life had no comfort in it. I was rather
+surprised to see Mr. Hamilton shake the wrinkled hand heartily.
+
+'Well, Elspeth, what news of your son? Is he likely to come home soon?'
+
+'Nay, doctor,' in a faint old treble: 'Andrew cannot leave his job for
+two or three months to come. He is terrible down-hearted about poor Mary.
+Ay, she has been a good wife to him and the bairns; but look at her now!
+Poor thing! Poor thing!'
+
+'We must all dree our weird. You are a canny Scotch-woman, and know what
+that means. Come, you must cheer up, for I have brought a young lady with
+me who is going to put your daughter-in-law a little more comfortable and
+see after her from time to time.'
+
+'Ay, but that is cheering news,' returned Elspeth; and one of the rare
+tears of old age stole down her withered cheek. 'My poor Mary! she is
+patient, and never complains; but the good Lord is laying a heavy cross
+on her.'
+
+'That is true,' muttered Mr. Hamilton, and then he said, in a
+business-like tone, 'Now for the patient, Miss Garston'; and as he led
+the way across the narrow passage we could hear the hard, gasping cough
+of the sick woman.
+
+Peggy, with the baby still in her arms, was trying to stir a black,
+cindery fire, that was filling the room with smoke. The child was crying,
+and the poor invalid was sitting up in bed nearly suffocated by her
+cough. The great four-post bed blocked up the little window. The remains
+of a meal were still on the big round table. Some clothes were drying by
+the hearth; a thin tortoise-shell cat was licking up a stream of milk
+that was filtering slowly across the floor, in the midst of jugs, cans,
+a broken broom, some children's toys, and two or three boots. The bed
+looked as though it had not been made for days; the quilt and valance
+were deplorably dirty; but the poor creature herself looked neat and
+clean, and her hair was drawn off from her sunken cheeks and knotted
+carefully at the back of her head. Mr. Hamilton uttered an exclamation
+of impatience when he saw the smoke, and almost snatched the poker out
+of Peggy's hands.
+
+'Take the child away,' he said angrily. 'Miss Garston, if you can find
+some paper and wood in this infernal confusion, I shall be obliged to
+you: this smoke must be stopped.'
+
+I found the broken lid of a box that split up like tinder, and Peggy
+brought me an old newspaper, and then I stood by while Mr. Hamilton
+skilfully manipulated the miserable fire.
+
+'All these ashes must be removed,' he said curtly, as he rose with
+blackened hands: 'the whole fireplace is blocked up with them.' And then
+he went to the pump and washed his hands, while I sent Peggy after him
+with a nice clean towel from my basket. While he was gone I stepped up
+to the bed and said a word or two to poor Mrs. Marshall.
+
+She must have been a comely creature in her days of health, but she was
+fearfully wasted now. The disease was evidently running its course; as
+she lay there exhausted and panting, I knew her lease of life would not
+be long.
+
+'It was the smoke,' she panted. 'Peggy is young: she muddles over the
+fire. Last night it went out, and she was near an hour getting it to
+light.'
+
+'It is burning beautifully now,' I returned; and then Mr. Hamilton came
+back and began to examine his patient, professionally. I was surprised
+to find that his abrupt manner left him; he spoke to Mrs. Marshall so
+gently, and with such evident sympathy, that I could hardly believe it
+was the same person; her wan face seemed to light up with gratitude; but
+when he turned to me to give some directions for her treatment he spoke
+with his old dryness.
+
+'I shall be here about the same time to-morrow,' he finished; and then he
+nodded to us both, and went away.
+
+'Mrs. Marshall,' I said, as I warmed the beef-tea with some difficulty in
+a small broken pipkin, 'do you know of any strong capable girls who would
+clean up the place a little for me?'
+
+'There is Weatherley's eldest girl Hope still at home,' she replied,
+after a moment's hesitation, 'but her mother will not let her work
+without pay. She is a poor sort of neighbour, is Susan Weatherley, and
+is very niggardly in helping people.'
+
+'Of course I should pay Hope,' I answered decidedly; and when the
+beef-tea was ready I called Peggy and sent her on my errand. One glance
+at the place showed me that I could do nothing for my patient without
+help. Happily, I had seen some sheets drying by the kitchen fire, but
+they would hardly be ready for us before the evening; but when Mrs.
+Marshall had taken her beef-tea I covered her up and tried to smooth the
+untidy quilt. Then, telling her that we were going to make her room a
+little more comfortable, I pinned up my dress and enveloped myself in a
+holland apron ready for work.
+
+Peggy came back at this moment with a big, strapping girl of sixteen, who
+looked strong and willing. She was evidently not a woman of words, but
+she grinned cheerful acquiescence when I set her to work on the grate,
+while I cleared the table and carried out all the miscellaneous articles
+that littered the floor.
+
+Mrs. Marshall watched us with astonished eyes. 'Oh dear! oh dear!' I
+heard her say to herself, 'and a lady too!' but I took no notice.
+
+I sent Hope once or twice across to her mother for various articles we
+needed,--black lead, a scrubbing-brush, some house flannel and soft
+soap,--and when she had finished the grate I set her to scrub the floor,
+as it was black with dirt. I was afraid of the damp boards for my
+patient, but I covered her up as carefully as possible, and pinned some
+old window-curtains across the bed. Neglect and want of cleanliness had
+made the air of the sick-room so fetid and poisonous that one could
+hardly breath it with safety.
+
+Now and then I looked in the other room and spoke a cheerful word to
+granny. Peggy was doing her best for the children, but the poor baby
+seemed very fretful. Towards noon two rough-headed boys made their
+appearance and began clamouring for their dinner. The same untidy young
+woman whom I had seen before came clattering up the yard again in her
+clogs and helped Peggy spread great slices of bread and treacle for the
+hungry children, and warmed some food for the baby. I saw granny trying
+to eat a piece of bread and dripping that they gave her and then lay it
+down without a word: no wonder her poor cheeks were so white and sunken.
+
+Mrs. Drabble had promised me some more beef-tea, so I warmed a cupful for
+granny and broke up a slice of stale bread in it: it was touching to see
+her enjoyment of the warm food. The eldest boy, Tim, was nearly eleven
+years old, and looked a sharp little fellow, so I set him to clean up the
+kitchen with Peggy and make things a little tidier, and promised some
+buns to all the children who had clean faces and hands at tea-time.
+
+I left Hope still at work when I went up to the White Cottage to eat some
+dinner. Mrs. Barton had made a delicate custard-pudding, which I carried
+off for the invalid's and granny's supper. My young healthy appetite
+needed no tempting, and my morning's work had only whetted it. I did not
+linger long in my pretty parlour, for a heavy task was before me. I was
+determined the sick-room should have a different appearance the next
+morning.
+
+I sent Hope to her dinner while I washed and made my patient comfortable.
+The room felt fresher and sweeter already; a bright fire burned in the
+polished grate; Hope had scoured the table and wiped the chairs, and the
+dirty quilt and valance had been sent to Mrs. Weatherley's to be washed.
+When Hope returned, and the sheets were aired, we re-made the bed. I had
+sent a message early to Mrs. Drabble begging for some of the lending
+blankets and a clean coloured quilt, which she had sent down by a boy.
+The scarlet cover looked so warm and snug that I stood still to admire
+the effect; poor Mary fairly cried when I laid her back on her pillow.
+
+'It feels all so clean and heavenly,' she sobbed; 'it is just a comfort
+to lie and see the room.'
+
+'I mean granny to come and have her tea here,' I said, for I was longing
+for the dear old woman to have her share of some of the comfort; and I
+had just led her in and put her in the big shiny chair by the fire, when
+Uncle Max put his head in and looked at us.
+
+'Just so,' he said, nodding his head, and a pleased expression came into
+his eyes. 'Bravo, Ursula! Tudor won't know the place again. How you must
+have worked, child!' And then he came in and talked to the sick woman.
+
+I had taken a cup of tea standing, for I was determined not to go home
+and rest until I left for the night. I could not forget the poor fretful
+baby, and, indeed, all the children were miserably neglected. I made up
+my mind that Hope and I would wash the poor little creatures and put them
+comfortably to bed. My first day's work was certainly exceptionally hard,
+but it would make my future work easier.
+
+The baby was a pale, delicate little creature, very backward for its age;
+it left off fretting directly I took it in my lap, and began staring at
+me with its large blue eyes. Hope had just filled the large tub, and the
+children were crowding round it with evident amusement, when Uncle Max
+came in. He contemplated the scene with twinkling eyes.
+
+'"There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,"' he began humorously. 'My
+dear Ursula, do you mean to say you are going to wash all those children?
+The tub looks suggestive, certainly.'
+
+I nodded.
+
+'Who would have believed in such an overplus of energy? Hard work
+certainly agrees with you.' And then he went out laughing, and we set to
+work, and then Hope and I carried in the children by detachments, that
+the poor mother might see the clean rosy faces. I am afraid we had to
+bribe Jock, the youngest boy, for he evidently disliked soap and water.
+
+Peggy and the baby slept in the mother's room; there was a little bed in
+the corner for them. I did not leave until granny had been taken upstairs
+and poor tired Peggy was fast asleep with the baby beside her.
+
+The room looked so comfortable when I turned for a last peep. I had drawn
+the round table to the bed, and left the night-light and cooling drink
+beside the sick woman; she was propped up with pillows, and her breathing
+seemed easier. When I bade her good-night, and told her I should be round
+early in the morning, she said, 'Then it will be the first morning I
+shall not dread to wake. Thank you kindly, dear miss, for all you have
+done'; and her soft brown eyes looked at me gratefully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE FLAG OF TRUCE
+
+
+It could not be denied that I was extremely tired as I walked down the
+dark road; but in spite of fatigue my heart felt lighter than it had done
+since Charlie's death, and the warm glow from the window of my little
+parlour seemed to welcome me, it looked so snug and bright. My low chair
+was drawn to the fire, a sort of tea-supper was awaiting me, and Mrs.
+Barton came out of the kitchen as soon as I had lifted the latch, to ask
+what she could do for me.
+
+The first words surprised me greatly. Mr. Hamilton had called late in the
+afternoon, and had seemed somewhat surprised to hear I was still at the
+cottage, but he had left no message, and Mrs. Barton had no idea what he
+wanted with me.
+
+I was half inclined to think that he had another case ready for me, but
+I had done my day's work and refused to think of the morrow. The first
+volume of _Kingsley's Life_ was lying on the little table: I had brought
+it from the vicarage the preceding evening. I passed a delicious hour in
+my luxurious chair, and went to bed reluctantly that I might be fit for
+the next day's fatigue.
+
+As soon as I had breakfasted the next morning and read my letters, a
+chatty one from Sara and an affectionate note from Lesbia, I went down
+to the cottage.
+
+I found my patient a little easier; she had passed a better night, and
+seemed, on the whole, more cheerful. Hope had arrived, and was scrubbing
+the kitchen, as I had enjoined her. Baby seemed poorly and fretful. I
+gave her in charge of Peggy, and set myself to the work of putting my
+patient and the sick-room in order, after which I intended to wash the
+baby and see after granny's and the children's dinner.
+
+I had just brushed up the hearth and put the kettle to boil, when Mr.
+Hamilton's shadow crossed the window, and the next moment he was in the
+room.
+
+I was sure that a half-smile of approbation came to his lips as he
+looked round the room; he lifted his eyebrows as though in surprise as
+he noticed everything,--the neat hearth, white boards, and bright window,
+and lastly the comfortable appearance of the bed, with its scarlet quilt
+and clean sheets.
+
+'This is quite a transformation-scene, Miss Garston,' he said, in an
+approving tone. 'No wonder you were not at home in the afternoon. My
+patient looks cheery too: one would think I had set the fairy Order to
+work.' I felt that this was meant for high praise, and I received it
+graciously. I knew I had worked well and achieved wonders; but then I had
+Hope's strong arms to help me: it had been straightforward work, too,
+with no complication: any charwoman could have done it as well. I was
+sorry that his commendation set Mrs. Marshall's tongue going; she became
+so voluble, in spite of her cough, that I was obliged to enforce silence.
+
+Mr. Hamilton's visit was very brief. I asked him to prescribe for the
+baby, but he said nothing ailed it in particular; it had always been
+sickly, and had been so neglected of late, most likely sour food had been
+given it. Mrs. Tyler, the next-door neighbour, who had looked after it,
+was a thoughtless body. 'You must take it in hand yourself, Miss
+Garston,' he finished; 'keep it warm and clean, and see the food properly
+prepared: that will be better than any medicine.' And then he went off
+with his usual abruptness, only I saw him stop at the gate to give
+pennies to Janie and little Jock.
+
+There was still so much to do that I determined to spend the whole day at
+the cottage. I sent off all the dirty things for Mrs. Tyler to wash at
+home, for she was so noisy and untidy that I did not care to have her on
+the premises, and I thought granny could sit in Mrs. Marshall's room and
+hold baby while Peggy waited on me and ran errands.
+
+Hope worked splendidly: when she had scoured the kitchen and front
+passage, she went upstairs and scrubbed the two rooms where granny and
+the children slept. I had made a potato pie with some scraps of meat
+Peggy had brought from the butcher's, and had seen the dish emptied by
+the hungry children. When I had fed the sandy cat and had had my own
+dinner, which Mrs. Barton had packed in a nice clean basket, and had
+peeped at my patient, I went upstairs to help Hope, and Peggy went
+with me. The state of the sleeping-rooms had horrified me in the morning;
+the windows had evidently not been open for weeks, and the sheets on
+granny's bed were black with dirt. Hope had washed the bedstead, and
+Peggy had lighted a fire, that the room might be habitable by night. Tim
+came up while we were busy, and stared at us. I was helping Peggy drag
+the mattresses and bedclothes into the passage. The open windows and the
+wet boards reeking with soft soap evidently astonished him.
+
+'Where be us to sleep to-night?' quoth Tim; 'it is colder than in the
+yard.' But Peggy, who was excited by her work, bade him hold his tongue
+and not stand gaping there blocking up the passage.
+
+I had been singing over my work, just to put heart into all of us and
+make us forget what a very disagreeable business it was, when Tim again
+made his appearance and said there was a gentleman in the kitchen. 'He
+thought he knowed him, but wasn't sure, but he had asked for the lady.'
+I went down at once, and found it was Mr. Tudor; he was sitting very
+comfortably by the fire, with all the children round him; little Janie
+was on his knee; her face was clean, and her pretty curls had been nicely
+brushed, so I did not mind her cuddling up to him, and I knew he was fond
+of children and always ready to play with them.
+
+He put her down and shook hands with me, and said the vicar had sent him
+to look after me, as he could not come himself. I thought he looked a
+little amused at my appearance; and no wonder. I had quite forgotten that
+I had tied a handkerchief over my head to keep the dust from off my hair;
+with my holland bib-apron and sleeves, and pinned-up dress, I must have
+looked an odd figure; but when I said so he laughed, and observed that he
+rather admired my novel costume: it reminded him of a Highland peasant he
+had once seen.
+
+'Was that you who were singing just now, Miss Garston?' he asked
+presently, looking at me with some attention.
+
+'Yes,' I returned. 'You seem surprised. Surely you have heard me sing at
+Hyde Park Gate?' But he shook his head very decidedly.
+
+'I should not have forgotten your voice if I had once heard it,' he said,
+in such a pleasant manner that the straightforward compliment did not
+embarrass me. 'You ought not to let such a talent rust, Miss Garston: the
+vicar must utilise you for our Penny Readings.'
+
+I was horrified at this notion, and told him very seriously that nothing
+would induce me to sing on a platform, but that it was not my intention
+to let it rust, only I had my own ideas how best to utilise it.
+
+He looked curious at this, but I changed the subject by asking him if he
+would like to see Mrs. Marshall. He hesitated, coloured slightly as
+though the question were distasteful, then he put down Janie from his
+knee,--for the child had clambered up again,--and said the vicar had
+undertaken the case, as he was rather new to the work, but he would see
+her if I wished it.
+
+I was provoking enough to say that I did wish it, for I wanted him to
+see the comfortable appearance of the room that he so dreaded to enter.
+I felt sorry for Mr. Tudor in my heart that his work should be so
+distasteful to him: he was a fine, manly young fellow, who would have
+made a splendid sailor or soldier, but sick-rooms and old women were not
+to his taste, and yet he was very gentle and sympathising in his manners,
+and all the poor people liked him.
+
+Granny was dozing by the fire, and the baby was asleep on the mother's
+bed, and as I opened the door I quite enjoyed Mr. Tudor's start of
+astonishment at the changed scene. I did not let him stay long, but I
+thought his kind looks and pleasant voice would cheer poor Mary. He said
+very little to either her or Elspeth, but what he said was sensible and
+to the point.
+
+I sent him away after this, for my work was waiting for me. He went off
+laughing, and protesting that he had no idea that I had taken up the
+_role_ of a charitable charwoman, and that the vicar would remonstrate
+with me on the subject.
+
+I think we all felt the brighter for Mr. Tudor's little visit, though he
+had said nothing specially clever; but he was an honest, genial creature,
+and I liked him thoroughly. I stopped at the cottage late that evening,
+for Mrs. Marshall wanted a letter written to her husband, and I could not
+refuse to do it. I was almost too tired to enjoy Kingsley that night, and
+found myself dozing over it, so I shut it up and went to bed.
+
+Mr. Hamilton did not make his appearance until later the next day, when
+I was presiding over the children's dinner. I had just carried in a plate
+of lentil soup to granny, whom I now kept entirely in the sick-room, as
+she was too old to bear the children's noise, and the constant draughts
+from the opening door would soon have laid her on a sick-bed. I had baby
+in my lap, and was feeding her when he looked in on us.
+
+I rose at once to follow him into the sick-room, but he waved me back.
+
+'Do not disturb yourself, Miss Garston; you all look very comfortable.
+Jock, are you trying to swallow that spoon? You will find it a hard
+morsel.' And then he went into the other room, and, to my surprise, we
+did not see him again.
+
+I left a little earlier that evening, as I knew Uncle Max meant to pay me
+a visit; but it was already dark when I closed the little gate behind me.
+I had not gone many paces when I heard footsteps behind me, and, somewhat
+to my dismay, Mr. Hamilton joined me.
+
+'Have you only just finished your day's work?' he said, in evident
+surprise. 'This will never do, Miss Garston; we shall have you knocking
+yourself up if you use up your time and strength so recklessly, and I
+want you for another case.'
+
+'I am quite prepared for that,' I answered; but I am afraid my voice was
+a little weary. 'You called on me yesterday, Mr. Hamilton. I was sorry to
+be out, but there was so much to do that I stayed at the cottage until
+quite late in the evening.'
+
+'Just so,' in rather a vexed tone. 'The village nurse will be on a
+sick-bed herself if this goes on.'
+
+'Oh, what nonsense!' I returned, laughing, for I forgot for the moment in
+the darkness that I was speaking to the formidable Mr. Hamilton. 'I do
+not always mean to work quite so hard. Mr. Tudor called me a charitable
+charwoman last evening; but this is an exceptional case,--so many
+helpless beings, and such shocking mismanagement and neglect. When I put
+things on a proper footing I shall not spend so much time there.'
+
+'What do you mean by putting things on a proper footing?' he asked, with
+some show of interest.
+
+'When the place has been properly cleaned it will be kept tolerably tidy
+with less labour. Hope Weatherley has been hard at work for two days, and
+things are now pretty comfortable.'
+
+'I suppose--excuse me if the question seems impertinent, but I imagine
+that you paid Hope out of your own purse?'
+
+'For those two days, certainly. It was necessary for my own comfort,
+speaking selfishly, that the place should be made habitable. My nursing
+would have been a mere mockery unless we could have got rid of the dirt,'
+
+'You are perfectly right. I had no idea you were such a practical person.
+But, if you will allow me to give you a hint, Marshall earns good wages,
+and there ought to be sufficient money to pay for a moderate amount of
+help.'
+
+'I told Mrs. Marshall so this morning,' I returned, pleased to find
+myself talking with such ease to Mr. Hamilton; but he seemed quite
+different to-night; evidently his _brusquerie_ was a mere mannerism that
+he laid aside at times; he had lost that sneering manner that I so much
+disliked. I remembered Uncle Max said that he was kind-hearted and
+eccentric.
+
+'We had a long talk,' I went on. 'Marshall sends the money regularly, and
+I am to manage it. Mrs. Tyler is to wash for us, and I think we can
+afford to have Hope for at least an hour a day, to do the rough work;
+Peggy is so little to do everything.'
+
+'Heaven help poor Peg!' he ejaculated; 'for she will soon have all those
+children on her hands. Mrs. Marshall cannot last long. Well, Miss
+Garston, how many hours do you intend to spend at the cottage daily?'
+
+'I should think two hours in the morning and an hour and a half in the
+late afternoon or evening might do, unless there be a change for the
+worse, or Elspeth falls ill; she is very old and feeble.'
+
+'She was half starved, poor old creature,--fairly clemmed, as they say
+in the North. Here we are at your place, Miss Garston. How bright and
+inviting your parlour looks! I wonder if I may ask to come in for a few
+minutes, while I tell you about the other case?'
+
+Of course I could not do less than invite him to enter, after that; but
+I am afraid my manner lacked enthusiasm, and betrayed the fact that I was
+unwilling to entertain Mr. Hamilton as a guest, for when I saw his face
+in the lamplight he was regarding me with some amusement.
+
+'Cunliffe has done me no end of mischief,' he said, as he offered to
+relieve me of my wraps: 'that unfortunate speech has strongly prejudiced
+you against me. Confess, now, you think me a very disagreeable person,
+because I happened to disagree with you that evening.'
+
+'Certainly not on that account,' I returned, falling into the trap; and
+then we both laughed, for I had as good as owned that I thought him
+disagreeable. That laugh made us better friends. I felt I no longer
+disliked him: it was certainly not his fault that Providence had given
+him that type of face, and I supposed one could get used to it.
+
+'I was in an evil mood that afternoon,' he went on, and then I knew
+instinctively that he wanted to efface his satirical words from my
+memory. 'Things had gone wrong somehow,--for this world of ours is a
+mighty muddle sometimes.' And here he gave an impatient sigh. 'It is a
+relief to human nature to vent one's spleen on the first handy person
+that crosses one's path, and, pardon me for saying so, you were just a
+little aggressive yourself,' looking at me rather dubiously, as though
+he were not quite sure how I should take this hit. My conscience told me
+that I had been far from peaceable; on the contrary, I had been decidedly
+cross; not that I would confess that this was the case, so I only
+returned mildly that I considered that he had been hard on me that day,
+and had handled my pet theory very roughly.
+
+'Come, now you are talking like a reasonable woman, and I will plead
+guilty to some severity. Let me own that I distrusted you, Miss Garston.
+I have a horror of gush, and what I call the working mania of young
+ladies, and you had not proved to me then that you could work. At the
+present day, if a girl is restless and bad-tempered, and cannot get on
+with her own people, she takes up hospital-nursing, and a rare muddle she
+makes of it sometimes. I own hospital work is better than the convent of
+the Middle Ages, where the troublesome young ladies were safely immured;
+but, as I said before, I distrust the hysterical restlessness of the
+age.'
+
+'No doubt you have a fair amount of argument on your side,' I replied,
+so meekly that he looked at me, and then got up from his chair and said
+hastily that I was tired, and he was thoughtless to keep me waiting for
+my tea.
+
+'Let me give you some, while you tell me about the case,' was my
+hospitable reply; for, though I felt no special desire to prolong our
+_tete-a-tete_, mere civility prompted my offer.
+
+He hesitated, then, to my surprise, sat down again, and said he would be
+very much obliged if I would give him a cup of tea, as he was tired too,
+and had to go farther and keep his dinner waiting.
+
+I went out of the room to remove my hat and speak to Mrs. Barton. When
+I came back he was standing before Charlie's photograph, and evidently
+studying it with some attention, but he made no remark about it; and I
+told him of my own accord that it was the portrait of my twin-brother,
+who had died two years ago.
+
+'Indeed! There is no likeness; at least I should not have known it was
+your brother. This is often the case between relations,' he continued
+hastily, as though he feared he had hurt me. 'What a snug little berth
+you have, Miss Garston, and everything so ship-shape too! I suppose that
+is your piano; but I am afraid you will have little time to practise.'
+And then, as I handed him his tea, he threw himself down in the
+easy-chair and seemed prepared to enjoy himself.
+
+Looking at Mr. Hamilton this evening, I could have believed he had two
+sides to his character: he presented such a complete contrast to the Mr.
+Hamilton in Uncle Max's study that I was quite puzzled by it. He had
+certainly a clever face, and his smile was quick and bright; it was only
+in rest that his mouth looked so stern and hard. I found myself wondering
+once or twice if he had known any great trouble that had embittered him.
+
+'Well, I must tell you about poor Phoebe Locke,' he began suddenly. 'I
+want you to find out what you can do for her. The Lockes are respectable
+people: Phoebe and her sister were dressmakers. They live a little lower
+down,--at Woodbine Cottage.
+
+'Some years ago spinal disease came on, and now Phoebe is bedridden. She
+suffers a good deal at times, but her worst trouble is that her nerves
+are disordered, most likely from the dulness and monotony of her life.
+She suffers cruelly from low spirits; and no wonder, lying all day in
+that dull little back room. Her sister cannot sit with her, as Phoebe
+cannot bear the noise of the sewing-machine, and the sight of the outer
+world seems to irritate her. The neighbours would come in to cheer her
+up, but she does not seem able to bear their loud voices. It is
+wonderful,' he continued musingly, 'how education and refinement train
+the voice: strange to say, though my voice is not particularly low, and
+certainly not sweet, it never seems to jar upon her.'
+
+'Very likely not,' I returned quickly; 'no doubt she depends upon you for
+all her comforts: to most invalids the doctor's visit is the one bright
+spot in the day.'
+
+'It seems strange that we do not project our own shadows sometimes, and
+make our patient shiver,' he said, with a touch of gruffness. 'It is
+little that I can do for Phoebe, except order her a blister or ice when
+she needs it. One cannot touch the real nervous suffering: there is where
+I look to you for help; a little cheerful talk now and then may lighten
+her burden. Anyhow, it would be a help for poor Miss Locke, who has a sad
+time of it trying to earn food for them both. There is a little niece
+who lives with them, a subdued, uncanny little creature, who looks as
+though the childhood were crushed out of her; you might take her in hand
+too.'
+
+'I wonder if Phoebe would like me to sing to her,' I observed quietly.
+'I have found it answer sometimes in nervous illnesses.'
+
+I thought my remark surprised him.
+
+'It is a good idea,' he said slowly. 'You might try it. Of course it
+would depend a great deal on the quality of voice and style of singing.
+I wonder if you would allow me to judge of this,'--looking meaningly at
+the piano; but I shook my head at this, and he did not press the point.
+
+We had very little talk after this, for he went away almost directly,
+first arranging to meet me at Mrs. Marshall's about four the next day and
+go with me to Woodbine Cottage.
+
+'You will find plenty of work, Miss Garston,' were his final words, 'so
+do not waste your strength unnecessarily.' And then he left the room, but
+came back a moment afterwards to say that his sisters meant to call on
+me, only they thought I was hardly settled yet: 'we must get Mr. Cunliffe
+to bring you up to Gladwyn: we must not let you mope.'
+
+I thought there was little chance of this, with Uncle Max and Mr. Tudor
+always looking after me. Mr. Hamilton had hardly closed the door before
+Uncle Max opened it again.
+
+'So the enemy has tasted bread and salt, Ursula,' he said, looking
+excessively pleased: 'that is right, my dear: do not give way to absurd
+prejudices. You and Hamilton will get on splendidly by and by, when you
+get used to his brusque manner.' And, though I did not quite endorse this
+opinion, I was obliged to acknowledge to myself that the last half-hour
+had not been so unpleasant after all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A DIFFICULT PATIENT
+
+
+I had a little talk with granny the next day.
+
+Mrs. Marshall was dozing uneasily, and I was sitting by granny, nursing
+the baby, and waiting for Mr. Hamilton, when I felt her cold wrinkled
+hand laid on mine.
+
+'What is it, Elspeth?' I asked, thinking she wanted something.
+
+'What put it in your head, my bairn, to do the Lord's work? that is what
+I am wanting to know. I have been listening to you this morning singing
+like a bird about the house, with all the bit creatures chirping about
+you, and I said to myself, "What could have put it into her head to leave
+all her fine friends, and come and wait on the likes of us old and sick
+folk and young bairns?"'
+
+I do not know what there was in this speech that made me cry, but I
+know I had some difficulty in answering, but I told her a little about
+Charlie, and how sad I was, and how I loved the work, and she patted my
+hand softly all the time.
+
+'Never fret, my bairn. You will not be lonely long: the Lord will see to
+that. He would not let you work for Him and do nothing for you in return.
+Nay, that is not His way. Look at me: as doctor said the other day, I
+have dreed my weird; few and evil have been my days, like Jacob, but here
+I sit like a lady by the fire, warm and comfortable and hearty, thank
+God; and Andrew's wife lies on her death-bed, poor woman.'
+
+'Yes; but, Elspeth, you sit there in the dark.'
+
+'Eh, but it is peaceful and quiet-like, and the Lord bides with me, "and
+darkness and light are both alike to him,"' finished Elspeth reverently.
+And then I heard the click of the gate, and rose hastily, only the baby
+cried as I laid her on Elspeth's lap, and I had to stay a moment to
+pacify her.
+
+Mr. Hamilton came in and stood by us.
+
+'Do not hurry yourself; I can easily wait a few minutes if you are not
+ready. Are you sure you are not too tired to come?' he continued, looking
+at me a little inquisitively, and I was certain that he noticed the trace
+of tears on my face. Why was it I never could speak of my darling quite
+calmly?
+
+'I am perfectly ready, and baby has left off crying,' I returned, taking
+up my basket, and then we left the house together.
+
+'I hope you do not suffer from low spirits, like the rest of us,' he
+said, in rather a kind tone, as we walked on. 'It is to be expected that
+a cross-grained fellow like myself should have fits of the blues
+occasionally. That is one thing I particularly admire about Cunliffe!
+however worried he is, one never sees him out of humour; his ups and
+downs are never perceptible. I do believe he is less selfish than other
+people.'
+
+'There is no one like Uncle Max,' I rejoined fervently.
+
+'Is it not odd that we should suit each other so well?' he asked
+presently, 'for we are complete contrasts. I can bear him to say things
+to me that I would knock any other fellow down for saying. That is why I
+let him preach to me, because he honestly believes what he says and tries
+to act up to his profession.' He broke off here, for by this time we had
+reached Woodbine Cottage, and he unlatched the gate for me.
+
+A thin-faced child with a cropped head and clean white pinafore opened
+the door, and dropped an alarmed courtesy when she saw us.
+
+'Please sir, Aunt Susan is out, and Aunt Phoebe is very bad this
+afternoon, and cannot see any one. She is lying in the dark, and I was
+to let none of the neighbours in while Aunt Susan was away.'
+
+'All right, Kitty; but Aunt Phoebe will see me.' And he walked into the
+passage, and told the child to close the door gently. The room we passed
+was strewn with work-material, and looked cold and comfortless, but a
+small kitchen opposite had a warm cosy aspect. Mr. Hamilton passed both
+rooms and tapped at a door lower down the passage, and then without
+waiting for an answer entered, and beckoned me to follow him.
+
+A dark curtain had been drawn across the window, and the dim glow of a
+cindery fire scarcely gave sufficient light to discern the different
+pieces of furniture. Mr. Hamilton gave vent to a suppressed exclamation
+of impatience as he seized the poker, but I could not but notice the
+skilful and almost noiseless manner in which he manipulated the coals.
+Then he looked round for a match, and lighted a candle on the
+mantelpiece, in spite of a peevish remonstrance from the patient.
+
+'You will make my head worse, doctor: nothing but the dark eases it.'
+
+'Nonsense, Phoebe! I know better than that,' he returned cheerfully,
+and then he stepped up to the bed, and I followed him. The woman who
+lay there was still young in years, she could not have been more than
+three- or four-and-thirty, but every semblance of youth was crushed out
+of her by some subtile and mysterious suffering; it might have been the
+face of a dead woman, only for the living eyes that looked at us.
+
+The hopeless wistful look in those eyes gave me a singular shock. I had
+never seen human eyes with the same expression; they seemed as though
+they were appealing against some awful destiny. Once when Charlie and
+I were staying at Rutherford a beautiful spaniel belonging to Lesbia had
+been accidentally shot while straying in some wood. The poor animal had
+dragged himself with pain and difficulty to the garden-gate, and there we
+found him. I shall never forget the wistfulness of the poor creature's
+eyes when his mistress knelt down and caressed him. He died a few minutes
+afterwards, licking her hand. I could not help thinking of Tito when I
+first saw Phoebe Locke; for the same unreasoning anguish seemed in the
+sick woman's eyes. A tormented soul looked out of them.
+
+There was something rigid and uncompromising in the whole aspect of the
+sick-room; there was nothing to tone down and soften the harsh details of
+bodily suffering; everything was in spotless order; the sheets were white
+as the driven snow; a formidable phalanx of medicine-bottles stood on the
+small square table; there were no books, no pictures, no flowers; a
+sampler hung over the mantelpiece, that was all. I saw Mr. Hamilton
+glance disapprovingly at the row of bottles.
+
+'I told Kitty to clear all that rubbish away,' he said curtly. 'Why do
+you not have something pleasanter to look at, Phoebe?--some flowers, or
+a canary? you would find plenty of amusement in watching a canary.'
+
+'Birds are never still for a moment; they would drive me mad,' returned
+Phoebe, in the hollow tones that seemed natural to her. 'Flowers are
+better; but what have I to do with flowers? Doctor,' her voice rising
+into a shrill crescendo, 'you must give me something to send me to sleep,
+or I shall go mad. I think, think, think, until my head is in a craze
+with pain and misery.'
+
+'Well, well, we will see about it,' humouring her as though she were a
+child. 'Will you not speak to this lady, Phoebe? She has come down here
+to help us all,--sick people, and unhappy people, and every one that
+wants help.'
+
+'She can't do anything for me,' muttered Phoebe restlessly; 'no one--not
+even you, doctor, can do anything for me. I am doomed,--doomed before my
+time.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton looked at me meaningly, as though to say, 'Now you see what
+you have to do: this is more your work than mine.' I obeyed the hint, and
+accosted the sick woman as cheerfully as though her dismal speech had not
+curdled my blood.
+
+'I hope I shall be some comfort to you; it is hard indeed if no one can
+help you, when you have so much to bear!'
+
+'To bear!' repeating my words as though they stung her. 'I have lain here
+for three years--three years come Christmas Eve, doctor--between these
+four walls, summer and winter, winter and summer, and never knew except
+by heat or cold what season of the year it was. And I am young,--just
+turned four-and-thirty,--and I may lie here thirty years more, unless
+I die or go mad.'
+
+'Now, Phoebe,' remonstrated Mr. Hamilton,--and how gently he
+spoke!--'have I not told you over and over that things may mend yet if
+you will only be patient and good? You are just making things worse by
+bearing them so badly. Why, a friend of mine has been seven years on her
+back like you, and she is the happiest, cheeriest body: it is quite a
+pleasure to go into her room.'
+
+'Maybe she is good, and I am wicked,' returned Phoebe sullenly. 'I cannot
+help it, doctor: it is one of my bad days, and nothing but wicked words
+come uppermost. The devil has a deal of power when a woman is chained as
+I am.'
+
+'Don't you think you could exorcise the demon by a song, Miss Garston?'
+observed Mr. Hamilton, in an undertone. 'This is just the case where
+music may be a soothing influence; something must be tried for the poor
+creature.'
+
+The proposition almost took away my breath. Sing now! before Mr.
+Hamilton! And yet how in sheer humanity could I refuse? I had often sung
+before to my patients, and had never minded it in the least; but before
+Mr. Hamilton!
+
+'You need not think of me,' he continued provokingly,--for of course I
+was thinking of him: 'I am no critic in the musical line. Just try how it
+answers, will you?' And he walked away and turned his back to us, and
+seemed absorbed in the sampler.
+
+For one minute I hesitated, and then I cleared my throat. 'I am going to
+sing something, Phoebe. Mr. Hamilton thinks it will do you good.' And
+then, fearful lest her waywardness should stop me, I commenced at once
+with the first line of the beautiful hymn, 'Art thou weary? art thou
+languid?'
+
+My voice trembled sadly at first, and my burning face and cold hands
+testified to my nervousness; but after the first verse I forgot Mr.
+Hamilton's presence and only remembered it was Charlie's favourite hymn
+I was singing, and sang it with a full heart.
+
+When I had finished, I bent over Phoebe and asked if I should sing any
+more, and, to my great delight, she nodded assent. I sang 'Abide with
+me,' and several other suitable hymns, and I did not stop until the hard
+look of woe in Phoebe's eyes had softened into a more gentle expression.
+
+As I paused, I looked across the room. Mr. Hamilton was still standing by
+the mantelpiece, perfectly motionless. He had covered his eyes with his
+hand, and seemed lost in profound thought. He absolutely started when I
+addressed him.
+
+'Yes, we will go if you have finished,' but he did not look at me as he
+spoke. 'Phoebe, has the young lady done you any good? Did you close your
+eyes and think you heard an angel singing? Now you must let me take her
+away, for she is very tired, and has worked hard to-day. To-morrow, if
+you ask her, she will come again.'
+
+'I shall not wait to be asked,' I returned, answering the dumb, wistful
+look that greeted the doctor's words. 'Oh yes, I shall come again
+to-morrow, and we will have a little talk, and I will bring you some
+flowers, and if you care to hear me sing I have plenty of pretty songs.'
+And then I kissed her forehead, for I felt strongly drawn to the poor
+creature, as though she were a strange, suffering sister, and I thought
+that the kiss and the song and the flowers would be a threefold cord
+of sympathy for her to bind round her harassed soul through the long
+hours of the night.
+
+Mr. Hamilton followed me silently out, and on the threshold we
+encountered Susan Locke. She was a thin, subdued-looking woman, dressed
+in rusty black, with a careworn, depressed expression that changed into
+pleasure at the sight of Mr. Hamilton.
+
+'Oh, doctor, this is good of you, surely,--and you so busy! It is one of
+Phoebe's bad days, when nothing pleases her and she will have naught to
+say to us, but groan and groan until one's heart is pretty nigh broken.
+I was half hoping that you would look in on us and give her a bit of a
+word.'
+
+'Miss Garston has done more than that,' replied Mr. Hamilton. 'I
+think you will find your sister a little cheered. Give her something
+comfortable to eat and drink, and speak as cheerfully as you can.
+Good-night, Miss Locke.' And then he motioned to me to precede him down
+the little garden. Mr. Hamilton was so very silent all the way home that
+I was somewhat puzzled; he did not speak at all about Phoebe,--only said
+that he was afraid that I was very tired, and that he was the same; and
+when we came in sight of the cottage he left me rather abruptly; if it
+had not been for his few approving words to Susan Locke, I should have
+thought something had displeased him.
+
+Uncle Max made me feel a little uncomfortable the next morning. I met
+him as I was starting for my daily work, and he walked with me to Mrs.
+Marshall's.
+
+'I was up at Gladwyn last evening, Ursula,' he began. 'Miss Elizabeth
+is still away, but the other ladies asked very kindly after you. Miss
+Hamilton means to call on you one afternoon, only she seems puzzled to
+know how she is ever to find you at home. I cannot think what put
+Hamilton into such a bad temper; he scarcely spoke to any of us, and
+looked horribly cranky, only I laughed at him and he got better; he
+never mentioned your name. You have not fallen out again, eh, little
+she-bear?' looking at me rather anxiously.
+
+'Oh dear, no; we are perfectly civil to each other; I understand him
+better now.' But all the same I could not help wondering, as I parted
+from Max, what could have made Mr. Hamilton so strangely silent.
+
+It was still early in the afternoon when I found myself free to go and
+see Phoebe; she had been on my mind all day, and had kept me awake for
+a long time; those miserable eyes haunted me. I longed so to comfort her.
+Miss Locke opened the door; I thought she seemed pleased to see me, but
+she eyed my basket of flowers dubiously.
+
+'Phoebe is looking for you, Miss Garston, though she says nothing about
+it; it is not her way; but I see her eyes turning to the door every now
+and then, and she made Kitty open the curtains. If I may make so bold,
+those flowers are not for Phoebe, surely?'
+
+'Yes, indeed they are, Miss Locke. Dr. Hamilton wishes her to have
+something pleasant to look at.' But Miss Locke only shook her head.
+
+'The neighbours have sent in flowers often and often, and she has made me
+carry them out of the room; the vicar used to send them too, but he knows
+now that it is no manner of use: she always says they do not put flowers
+in tombs, only outside them: she will have it she is living in a tomb.'
+
+'We must get this idea out of her head,' I returned cheerfully, for I was
+obstinately bent on having my own way about the flowers.
+
+Kitty was sewing on a little stool by the window; the curtains were
+undrawn, so that the room was tolerably light, and might have been
+cheerful, only an ugly wire blind shut out all view of the little garden.
+
+I could not help marvelling at the strange perversity that could wilfully
+exclude every possible alleviation; there must be some sad warp or twist
+of the mental nature that could be so prolific of unwholesome fancies. As
+I turned to the bed I thought Phoebe looked even more ghastly in the
+daylight than she had done last evening; her skin was yellow and
+shrivelled, like the skin of an old woman; her eyes looked deep-set and
+gloomy, but their expression struck me as more human; her thin lips even
+wore the semblance of a smile.
+
+When I had greeted her, and had drawn from her rather reluctantly that
+she had had some hours' sleep the previous night, I spoke to Kitty. The
+little creature looked so subdued and moped in the miserable atmosphere
+that I was full of pity for her, so I showed her a new skipping rope that
+I had bought on my way, and bade her ask her aunt Susan's permission to
+go out and play.
+
+The child's dull eyes brightened in a moment. 'May I go out, Aunt
+Phoebe?' she asked breathlessly.
+
+'Yes, go if you like,' was the somewhat ungracious answer.
+
+'She is glad enough to get away from me,' she muttered, when Kitty had
+shut the door gently behind her. 'Children have no heart; she is an
+ungrateful, selfish little thing; but they are all that; we clothe her
+and feed her, and it is little we get out of her in return; and Susan
+is working her fingers to the bone for the two of us.'
+
+I took no notice of this outburst, and commenced clearing away the
+medicine-bottles to make room for my basket of chrysanthemums and
+ivy-leaves. Uncle Max had procured them for me, but I had no idea as
+I arranged them that they had come from Gladwyn.
+
+Phoebe watched my movements very gloomily; she evidently disapproved
+of the whole proceeding. I carried out the bottles to Miss Locke, and
+begged her to throw them away: 'they are of no use to her,' I observed.
+'Mr. Hamilton intends to send her a new mixture, and this array of
+half-emptied phials is simply absurd: it is just a whim. If your sister
+asks for them when I have gone, you can tell her that Miss Garston
+ordered them to be destroyed.'
+
+On my return to the room I found Phoebe lying with her eyes closed. I
+could have laughed outright at her perversity, for of course she had shut
+them to exclude the sight of the flower-basket, though it was the
+loveliest little bit of colour, the dark-red chrysanthemum nestled so
+prettily among trails of tiny variegated ivy. I resolved to punish her
+for this piece of morbid obstinacy, and took down the wire blind; she was
+speechless with anger when she found out what I had done, but I was
+resolved not to humour these ridiculous fancies; the dull wintry light
+was not too much for her.
+
+'You must not be allowed to have your own way so entirely,' I said,
+laughing: 'your sister is very wrong to give in to you. Mr. Hamilton
+wishes your room to be more cheerful: he says the dull surroundings
+depress and keep you low and desponding, and I must carry out his orders,
+and try how we are to make your room a little brighter. Now'--as she
+seemed about to speak--'I am going to sing to you, and then we will have
+a talk.'
+
+'I don't care to hear singing to-day, my head buzzes so with all this
+flack,' was the sullen answer; but I took no notice of this ill-tempered
+remark, and began a little Scotch ballad that I thought was bright and
+spirited.
+
+She closed her eyes again, with an expression of weariness and disgust
+that made me smile in spite of my efforts to keep serious; but I soon
+found out that she was listening, and so I sang one song after another,
+without pausing for any comment, and pretended not to notice when the
+haggard weary eyes unclosed, and fixed themselves first on the flowers,
+next on my face, and last and longest at the strip of lawn, with the bare
+gooseberry bushes and the narrow path edged with privet.
+
+When I had sung several ballads, I waited for a minute, and then
+commenced Bishop Ken's evening hymn, but my voice shook a little as I saw
+a sudden heaving under the bedclothes, and in another moment the large
+slow tears coursed down Phoebe's thin face. It was hard to finish the
+hymn, but I would not have dispensed with the Gloria.
+
+'What is it, Phoebe?' I asked gently, when I had finished. 'I am sorry
+that I have made you cry.'
+
+'You need not be sorry,' she sobbed at last, with difficulty: 'it eases
+my head, and I thought nothing would ever draw a tear from me again. I
+was too miserable to cry, and they say--I have read it somewhere, in the
+days when I used to read--that there is no such thing as a tear in hell.'
+
+I tried not to look astonished at this strange speech. I must let this
+poor creature talk, or how should I ever find out the root of her
+disease? so I answered quietly that no doubt she was right, that in that
+place of outer darkness there should be weeping, without tears, and a
+gnashing of teeth, beside which our bitterest human sorrow would seem
+like nothing.
+
+'That is true,' she returned, with a groan; 'but, Miss Garston, hell has
+begun for me here; for three years I have been in torment, and rightly
+too,--and rightly too,--for I never was a good woman, never like Susan,
+who read her Bible and went to church. Oh, she is a good creature, is
+Susan.'
+
+'I am glad to hear it, Phoebe: so, you see, your affliction, heavy as it
+is,--and I am not saying it is not heavy,--is not without alleviation.
+The Merciful Father, who has laid this cross upon you, has given you this
+kind companion as a consoler. What a comfort you must be to each other!
+what a divine work has been given to you both to do,--to bring up that
+motherless little creature, who must owe her very life and happiness to
+you!'
+
+She lay and looked at me with an expression of bewildered astonishment,
+and at this moment Miss Locke opened the door, carrying a little tea-tray
+for her sister. I had a glimpse of Kitty curled up on the mat outside the
+door, with the skipping-rope still in her hand. She had evidently been
+listening to the singing, for she crept away, but in the distance I could
+hear her humming 'Ye banks and braes' in a sweet childish treble that was
+very harmonious and true.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+ONE OF GOD'S HEROINES
+
+
+No. I was quite right when I told poor Phoebe that her sad case was not
+without alleviation. I was still more sure of the truth of my words when
+I saw with what care Miss Locke had prepared the invalid's meal, and how
+gently she helped to place her in a proper position. There was evidently
+no want of love between the sisters; only on one side the love was more
+self-sacrificing and unselfish than the other. It needed only a look at
+Susan Locke's spare form and thin, careworn face to tell me that she was
+wearing herself out in her sister's service. Phoebe looked in her face
+and broke into a harsh laugh, to poor Susan's great alarm.
+
+'What do you think Miss Garston has been saying, Susan? That we must be a
+comfort to each other. Fancy my being a comfort to you! You poor thing,
+when I am the plague and burden of your life,' And she laughed again, in
+a way that was scarcely mirthful.
+
+'Nay, Phoebe, you have no need to say such things,' returned her sister
+sadly; but she was probably used to this sort of speeches. 'I am bound to
+take care of you and Kitty, who are all I have left in the world. It is
+not that I find it hard, but that you might make it easier by looking a
+little cheered sometimes.'
+
+Phoebe took this gentle rebuke somewhat scornfully.
+
+'Cheered! The woman actually says cheered, when I am already on the
+border-land of the place of torment. Was I not as good as dead and buried
+three years ago? And did not father always tell us that hell begins in
+this world for the wicked?'
+
+'Ay, that was father's notion; and I was never clever enough to argue
+with him. But you are not wicked, my woman, only a bit tiresome and
+perverse and wanting in faith.' And Miss Locke, who was used to these
+wild moods, patted her sister's shoulder, and bade her drink her tea
+before it got cold, in a sensible matter-of-fact way, that was not
+without its influence on the wayward creature; for she did not refuse
+the comforting draught.
+
+I took my leave soon after this, after promising to repeat my visit on
+the next evening. Phoebe bade me good-bye rather coldly, but I took no
+notice of her contrary mood. Miss Locke followed me out of the room, and
+asked me anxiously what I thought of her sister.
+
+'It is difficult to judge,' I returned, hesitating a little. 'You must
+remember this is only my second visit, and I have not made much way with
+her. She is in a state of bodily and mental discomfort very painful to
+witness. If I am not mistaken, she is driving herself half-crazy with
+introspection and self-will. You must not give way to this morbid desire
+to increase her own wretchedness. She needs firmness as well as
+kindness.'
+
+Miss Locke looked at me wistfully a moment.
+
+'What am I to do? She would fret herself into a fever if I crossed her
+whims. Directly you have left the house she will be asking for that wire
+blind again, though it would do her poor eyes good to see the thrushes
+feeding on the lawn, and there is the little robin that comes to us every
+winter and taps at the window for crumbs; but she would shut them all
+out,--birds, and sunshine, and flowers.'
+
+'Just as she would shut out her Father's love, if she could; but it is
+all round her, and no inward or outward darkness can hinder that. Miss
+Locke, you must be very firm. You must not move the flowers or replace
+the blind on any pretext whatever. She must be comforted in spite of
+herself. She reminds me of some passionate child who breaks all its
+toys because some wish has been denied. We are sorry for the child's
+disappointment, but a wise parent would inflict punishment for the fit
+of passion.'
+
+Miss Locke sighed; her mouth twitched with repressed emotion. She was
+evidently an affectionate, reticent woman, who found it difficult to
+express her feelings.
+
+'I am keeping you standing all this time,' she said apologetically, 'and
+I might have asked you to sit down a minute in our little kitchen. Let me
+pour you out a cup of tea, Miss Garston. Kitty and I were just going to
+begin.'
+
+I accepted this offer, as I thought Miss Locke evidently wanted to speak
+to me. She seemed pleased at my acquiescence, and told Kitty to stay with
+her aunt Phoebe a few minutes.
+
+'I have baked a nice hot cake with currants in it, Kitty,' she said
+persuasively, 'and you shall have your share, hot and buttered, if you
+will be patient and wait a little.'
+
+'She is a good little thing,' I observed, as the child reluctantly
+withdrew to her dreary post, after a longing look at the table, while
+Miss Locke placed a rocking-chair with a faded green cushion by the fire,
+and opened the oven door to inspect the cake. 'It is dull work for the
+little creature to be so much in the sick-room. It is hardly a wholesome
+atmosphere for a child.'
+
+Miss Locke shook her head as though she endorsed this opinion.
+
+'What am I to do?' she returned sorrowfully. 'Kitty is young, but she
+has to bear our burdens. I spare her all I can; but when I am at my
+dressmaking Phoebe cannot be left alone, and she has learned to be quiet
+and handy, and can do all sorts of things for Phoebe. I know it is not
+good for her living alone with us, but the Lord has ordered the child's
+life as well as ours,' she finished reverently.
+
+'We must see what can be done for Kitty,' was my answer. 'She can be
+free to play while I am with your sister. I sent her out with her new
+skipping-rope this evening. What brought her back so soon?'
+
+'It was the singing,' returned Miss Locke, smiling. 'The street door
+was just ajar, and Kitty crept in and curled herself up on the mat. It
+sounded so beautiful, you see; for Kitty and I only hear singing at
+church, and it is not often I can get there, with Phoebe wanting me;
+so it did us both good, you may be sure of that.'
+
+I could not but be pleased at this simple tribute of praise, but
+something else struck me more, the unobtrusive goodness and self-denial
+of Susan Locke. What a life hers must be! I hinted at this as gently as
+I could.
+
+'Ay, Phoebe has always been a care to me,' she sighed. 'She was never as
+strong and hearty as other girls, and she wanted her own way, and fretted
+when she could not get it. Father spoiled her, and mother gave in to her
+more than she did to me; and when trouble came all along of Robert Owen,
+and he used her cruel, just flinging her aside when he saw some one he
+fancied more than Phoebe, and driving her mad with spite and jealousy,
+then she let herself go, as it were. She was never religious, not to
+speak of, all the time she kept company with Robert, so when her hopes
+of him came to an end she had nothing to support her. It needs plenty of
+faith to make us bear our troubles patiently.'
+
+'And then her health failed.'
+
+'Yes; and mother died, and father followed her within six months, and
+Phoebe could not be with them, and she took on about that; she has had a
+deal of trouble, and that is why I cannot find it in my heart to be hard
+on her; she was that fond of Robert, though he was a worthless sort of
+fellow, that, as the saying is, she worshipped the ground he walked on.
+Ah, Phoebe was bonnie-looking then, though she was never over-strong,
+and had not much colour; but he need not have called her a sickly
+ill-tempered wench when he threw her over and married Nancy. It was
+a cruel way to serve a woman that loved him as Phoebe did.'
+
+'She has certainly had her share of trouble. How long ago did this happen
+to your sister?'
+
+'It must be five years since Robert and Nancy were married. Phoebe was
+never the same woman since then, though her health did not fail for a
+year or more afterwards; Mr. Hamilton always says she has had a good
+riddance of Robert. He never thought much of him, and he has told me that
+it is far better that Phoebe never had a chance of marrying him, for she
+would have been a sad burden to any man; and she would not have had you
+to nurse her.' And Miss Locke's careworn face brightened. 'That is just
+what I tell myself, when I am out of heart about her; the Lord knew
+Robert would have been a cruel husband to her,--for he is not too kind
+to Nancy,--and so He kept Phoebe away from him. Phoebe is not one to bear
+unkindness,--it just maddens her,--and we have all spoilt her.'
+
+'Just so, and she knows her power over you. I am afraid she gives you a
+great deal to bear, Miss Locke.'
+
+'I never mind it from her,' she answered simply. 'She is all I have in
+the world except Kitty, and I am thinking what I can do for her from
+morning to night; that is the best and the worst of my work, one need
+never stop thinking for it. Sometimes, when I am tired, or things have
+gone wrong with my customers, or I am a bit behindhand with the rent,
+I wish I could talk it over with her; it would ease me somehow; but I
+never do give way to the feeling, for it would only fret and worry her.'
+
+'You are wrong,' I returned warmly. 'Mr. Hamilton would tell you so if
+you asked him. Any worry, any outside trouble, would be better for Phoebe
+than this unhealthy feeding on herself. Take my advice, Miss Locke, talk
+about yourself and your own troubles. Phoebe is fond of you, it will
+rouse her to enter more into your life.'
+
+Miss Locke shook her head, and the tears came into her mild hazel eyes.
+
+'There is One who knows it all. I'll not be troubling my poor Phoebe,'
+she said, and her hands trembled a little. Kitty came in at this moment
+and said her aunt Phoebe wanted her, so we were obliged to break off the
+conversation.
+
+I thought about it all rather sadly as I sat by my solitary fire that
+evening with Tinker's head on my lap. He had taken to me, and I always
+found him waiting for my return; but it was less of Phoebe than of Susan
+I was thinking. I was so absorbed in my reflections that Uncle Max's
+voice outside quite startled me.
+
+'May I come in, Ursula?' he said, thrusting in his head. 'I have been
+at the choir-practice, so I thought I would call as I passed.'
+
+Of course I gave him a warm welcome, and he drew his chair to the
+opposite side of the fire, and declared he felt very comfortable: then
+he asked me why I was looking grave, and if I were tired of my solitude.
+I disclaimed this indignantly, and gave him a sketch of my day's work,
+ending with my talk to Susan Locke.
+
+He seemed interested, and listened attentively.
+
+'It is such a sad case, Max,--poor Phoebe's, I mean,--but I am almost
+as sorry for her sister. Susan Locke is such a good woman.'
+
+'You would say so if you knew all, Ursula, but Miss Locke would never
+tell you herself. When Phoebe's illness came on, and Hamilton told them
+that she might not get well for a year or two, or perhaps longer, Susan
+broke off her own engagement to stay with her sister. Her father was just
+dead, and the child Kitty had to live with them.'
+
+'Miss Locke engaged!' I exclaimed, in some surprise, for it had never
+struck me that the homely middle-aged woman had this sort of experience
+in her life.
+
+Max looked amused.
+
+'In that class they do not always choose youth and beauty. Certainly
+Susan Locke was neither young nor handsome, but she was a neat-looking
+body, only she has aged of late. Do you want to know all about it? Well,
+she was engaged to a man named Duncan: he was a widower with three or
+four children; he had the all-sorts shop down the village, only he moved
+last year. He was a respectable man and had a comfortable little
+business, and I daresay he thought Miss Locke would make a good mother to
+his children. She told me all about it, poor thing! She would have liked
+to marry Duncan; she was fond of him, and thought he would have made her
+a steady husband; but with Phoebe on her hands she could not do her duty
+to him or the children.
+
+'"And there is Kitty; and he has enough of his own; and a sickly body
+like Phoebe would hinder the comfort of the house, and I have promised
+mother to take care of her." And then she asked my opinion. Well, I could
+not but own that with the shop and the house to mind, and five children,
+counting Kitty, and a bedridden invalid, her hands would be over-weighted
+with work and worry.
+
+'"I think so too," she answered, as quietly as possible, "and I have no
+right to burden Duncan. I am sure he will listen to reason when I tell
+him Phoebe is against our marrying." And she never said another word
+about it. But Duncan came to me about six months afterwards and asked me
+to put up his banns.
+
+'"I wanted Susan Locke," he said, in a shamefaced manner, "but that
+sister of hers hinders our marrying; so, as I must think of the children,
+I have got Janet Sharpe to promise me. She is a good, steady lass, and
+Susan speaks well of her."'
+
+Uncle Max had told his story without interruption. I listened to it with
+almost painful interest.
+
+With what quiet self-denial this homely woman had put aside her own hopes
+of happiness for the sake of the sickly creature dependent on her! She
+had owned her affection for Duncan with the utmost simplicity; but in her
+unselfishness she refused to burden him with her responsibilities. If she
+married him she must do her duty by him and his children, and she felt
+that Phoebe would be a drag on her strength and time.
+
+'She is a good woman, Uncle Max,' I observed, when he had finished.
+'She is working herself to death, and Phoebe never gives her a word
+of comfort.'
+
+'How can you expect it?' he replied quietly. 'You cannot draw comfort out
+of empty wells, and poor Phoebe's heart is like a broken cistern, holding
+nothing.'
+
+'But surely you talk to her, Uncle Max?'
+
+'I have tried to do so,' he answered sadly; 'but for the last year she
+has refused to see me, and Hamilton has advised me to keep away. If I
+cross the threshold it is to see Miss Locke. I thought it was a whim at
+first, and I sent Tudor in my stead; but she was so rude to him, and
+lashed herself into such a fury against us clerics, that he came back
+looking quite scared, and asked why I had sent him to a mad woman.'
+
+'She was angry with me to-day.' And I told him about the blind.
+
+'That is right, Ursula,' he said encouragingly. 'You have made a good
+beginning: the singing may do more to soften her strange nature than all
+our preaching. You will be a comfort to Miss Locke, at any rate.' And
+then he stopped, and looked at me rather wistfully, as though he longed
+to tell me something but could not make up his mind to do it 'You will be
+a comfort to us all if you go on in this way,' he continued; and then he
+surprised me by asking if I had not yet seen the ladies from Gladwyn.
+
+The question struck me as rather irrelevant, but I took care not to say
+so as I answered in the negative.
+
+'You have been here nearly a week; they might have risked a call by this
+time,' he returned, knitting his brows as though something perplexed him;
+but I broke in on his reflections rather impatiently.
+
+'I declare, Max, you have quite piqued my curiosity about these people;
+some mystery seems to attach to Gladwyn. I shall expect to see something
+very wonderful.'
+
+'Then you will be disappointed,' he returned quietly, not a bit offended
+by my petulance. 'I cannot help wishing you to make acquaintance with
+them, as they are such intimate friends of mine, and I think it will be a
+mutual benefit.'
+
+Then, as I made no reply to this, he went on, still more mildly:
+
+'I confess I should like your opinion of them. I have a great reliance in
+your intuition and common sense; and you are so deliciously frank and
+outspoken, Ursula, that I shall soon know what you think. Well, I must
+not stay gossiping here. Your company is very charming, my dear, but I
+have letters to write before bedtime. You will see our friends in church
+on Sunday. I hear Miss Elizabeth comes home to-morrow; she is the lively
+one,--not quite of the Merry Pecksniff order, but still a bright, chatty
+lady.
+
+"From morning till night
+It is Betty's delight
+To chatter and talk without stopping."
+
+'You know the rest, Ursula, my dear. By the bye,' opening the door, and
+looking cautiously into the passage, 'I wonder whom the Bartons are
+entertaining in the kitchen to-night? I hear a masculine voice.'
+
+'It is only Mr. Hamilton,' I returned indifferently. 'I heard him come
+in half an hour ago; he is giving Nathaniel a lesson in mathematics.'
+
+'To be sure. What a good fellow he is!' in an enthusiastic tone. 'Well,
+good-night, child: do not sit up late.' And he vanished.
+
+I am afraid I disregarded this injunction, for I wanted to write to my
+poor Jill--who was never absent from my mind--and Lesbia; and I was loath
+to leave the fireside, and too much excited for sleep.
+
+When I had finished my letters I still sat on gazing into the bright
+caverns of coal, and thinking over Susan Locke's history.
+
+'How many good people there are in the world!' I said, half aloud; but I
+almost jumped out of my chair at the sound of a deep, angry voice on the
+other side of the door.
+
+'It is a thriftless, wasteful sort of thing burning the candle at both
+ends. Women have very little common sense, after all.'
+
+I extinguished the lamp hastily, for of course Mr. Hamilton's growl was
+meant for me, though it was addressed to Nathaniel. I heard him close the
+door a moment afterwards, and Nathaniel crept back into the kitchen. I
+woke rather tired the next day, and owned he was right, for I found my
+duties somewhat irksome that morning. The feeling did not pass off, and
+I actually discovered that I was dreading my visit to Phoebe, only of
+course I scouted it as nonsense.
+
+Miss Locke was out, and Kitty opened the door. Her demure little face
+brightened when she saw me, and especially when I placed a large
+brown-paper parcel in her arms, of that oblong shape dear to all
+doll-loving children, and bade her take it into the kitchen.
+
+'It is too dark and cold for you to play outside, Kitty,' I observed,
+'so perhaps you will make the acquaintance of the blue-eyed baby I have
+brought you; when Aunt Susan comes in, you can ask her for some pieces to
+dress her in, for her paper robe is rather cold.'
+
+Kitty's eyes grew wide with surprise and delight as she ran off with her
+treasure; the baby-doll would be a playmate for the lonely child, and
+solace those weary hours in the sick-room. I would rather have brought
+her a kitten, but I felt instinctively that no animal would be tolerated
+by the invalid.
+
+It was somewhat dark when I entered the room, but one glance showed me
+that my directions had been obeyed; the window was unshaded, and the
+flowers were in their place.
+
+Phoebe was lying watching the fire. I saw at once that she was in a
+better mood. The few questions I put to her were answered quietly and
+to the point, and there was no excitement or exaggeration in her manner.
+
+I did not talk much. After a minute or two I sat down by the uncurtained
+window and began to sing as usual. I commenced with a simple ballad, but
+very soon my songs merged into hymns. It began to be a pleasure to me to
+sing in that room. I had a strange feeling as though my voice were
+keeping the evil spirits away. I thought of the shepherd-boy who played
+before Saul and refreshed the king's tormented mind; and now and then an
+unuttered prayer would rise to my lips that in this way I might be able
+to comfort the sad soul that truly Satan had bound.
+
+When my voice grew a little weary, I rose softly and took down the old
+brown sampler, as I wished to replace it by a little picture I had
+brought with me.
+
+It was a sacred photograph of the Crucifixion, in a simple Oxford frame,
+and had always been a great favourite with me; it was less painful in its
+details than other delineations of this subject: the face of the divine
+sufferer wore an expression of tender pity. Beneath the cross the Blessed
+Virgin and St. John stood with clasped hands,--adopted love and most
+sacred responsibility,--receiving sanction and benediction.
+
+I had scarcely hung it on the nail before Phoebe's querulous voice
+remonstrated with me.
+
+'Why can you not leave well alone, Miss Garston? I was thanking you in my
+heart for the music, but you have just driven it away. I cannot have that
+picture before my eyes; it is too painful.'
+
+'You will not find it so,' I replied quietly; 'it is a little present I
+have brought you. My dead brother bought it for me when he was a boy at
+school, and it is one of the things I most prize. He is dead, you know,
+and that makes it doubly dear to me. That is why I want you to have it,
+because I have so much and you so little.'
+
+My speech moved her a little, for her great eyes softened as she looked
+at me.
+
+'So you have been in trouble, too,' she said softly. 'And yet you can
+sing like a bird that has lost its way and finds itself nearly at the
+gate of Paradise.'
+
+'Shall I tell you about my trouble?' I returned, sitting down by the
+bed. It wrung my heart to talk of Charlie, but I knew the history of
+his suffering and patience would teach Phoebe a valuable lesson.
+
+An hour passed by unheeded, and when I had finished I exclaimed at the
+lateness of the hour.
+
+'Ay, you have tired yourself; you look quite pale,' was her answer; 'but
+you have made me forget myself for the first time in my life.' She
+stopped, and then with more effort continued, 'Come again to-morrow, and
+I will tell you my trouble; it is worse than yours, and has made me the
+crazy creature you see. Yes, I will tell you all about it'; but, half
+crying, as though she had little hope of contesting my will, 'You will
+not leave that picture to make my heart ache more than, it does now?'
+
+'My poor Phoebe,' I said, kissing her, 'when your heart once aches for
+the thought of another's sorrow your healing will have begun. Let that
+picture say to you what no one has said to you before, "that all your
+life you have been an idolater, that you have worshipped only yourself
+and one other--"'
+
+'Whom? What do you mean? Have you heard of Robert?' she asked excitedly.
+
+'To-morrow is Sunday,' I returned, touching her softly. 'I am going to
+church in the morning, and I shall not be here until evening; but we
+shall have time then for a long talk, and you shall tell me everything.'
+And then, without waiting for an answer, I left the room. It was late
+indeed. Miss Locke had long returned, and was busying herself over her
+sister's supper; she held up her finger to me smiling as I passed, and
+I peeped in.
+
+Kitty was lying on the rug, fast asleep, with the doll in her arms.
+
+'I found them like this when I came in,' whispered Miss Locke; 'she must
+have been listening to the music and fallen asleep. How late you have
+stopped with Phoebe! it is nearly eight o'clock!'
+
+'I do not think the time has been wasted,' I answered cheerfully, as
+I bade her good-night and stepped out into the darkness. Is time ever
+wasted, I wonder, when we stop in our daily work to give one of these
+weak ones a cup of cold water? It is not for me to answer; only our
+recording angel knows how some such little deed of kindness may brighten
+some dim struggling life that seems over-full of pain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A MISSED VOCATION
+
+
+It was pleasant to wake to bright sunshine the next morning, and to hear
+the sparrows twittering in the ivy.
+
+It had been my intention to set apart Sunday as much as possible as a day
+of rest and refreshment. Of course I could not expect always to control
+the various appeals for my help or to be free from my patients, but by
+management I hoped to secure the greater part of the day for myself.
+
+I had told Peggy not to expect me at the cottage until the afternoon;
+everything was in such order that there was no necessity for me to forgo
+the morning service. My promise to Phoebe Locke would keep me a prisoner
+for the evening, but I determined that her sister and Kitty should be set
+free to go to church, so my loss would be their gain.
+
+I thought of Jill as I dressed myself. She had often owned to me that the
+Sundays at Hyde Park Gate were not to her taste. Visitors thronged the
+house in the afternoon; Sara discussed her week's amusements with her
+friends or yawned over a novel; the morning's sermon was followed as a
+matter of course by a gay luncheon party. 'What does it mean, Ursula?'
+Jill would say, opening her big black eyes as widely as possible: 'I do
+not understand. Mr. Erskine has been telling us that we ought to renounce
+the world and our own wills, and not to follow the multitude to do
+foolishness, and all the afternoon mother and Sara having been talking
+about dresses for the fancy-ball. Is there one religion for church and
+another for home? Do we fold it up and put it away with our prayer-books
+in the little book-cupboard that father locks so carefully?' finished
+Jill, with girlish scorn.
+
+Poor Jill! she had a wide, generous nature, with great capabilities, but
+she was growing up in a chilling atmosphere. Young girls are terribly
+honest; they dig down to the very root of things; they drag off the
+swathing cloths from the mummy face of conventionality. What does it
+mean? they ask. Is there truth anywhere? Endless shams surround them;
+people listen to sermons, then they shake off the dust of the holy place
+carefully from the very hem of their garments; their religion, as Jill
+expressed it, is left beside their prayer-books. Ah! if one could but see
+clearly, with eyes purged from every remnant of earthliness,--see as the
+angels do,--the thick fog of unrisen and unprayed prayers clinging to the
+rafters of every empty church, we might well shudder in the clogging
+heavy atmosphere.
+
+Jill had not more religion than many other girls, but she wanted to be
+true; the inconsistency of human nature baffled and perplexed her; she
+was not more ready to renounce the world than Sara was, but she wished
+to know the inner meaning of things, and in this I longed to help her.
+I could not help thinking of her tenderly and pitifully as I walked
+down the road leading to the little Norman church. I was early, and the
+building was nearly empty when I entered the porch; but it was quiet and
+restful to sit there and review the past week, and watch the sunshine
+lighting up the red brick walls and touching the rood-screen, while a
+faint purple gleam fell on the chancel pavement.
+
+Two ladies entered the seat before me, and I looked at them a little
+curiously.
+
+They were both very handsomely dressed, but it was not their fashionable
+appearance that attracted me. I had caught sight of a most beautiful and
+striking face belonging to one of them that somehow riveted my attention.
+
+The lady was apparently very young, and had a tall graceful figure, and
+strange colourless hair that looked as though it ought to have been
+golden, only the gloss had faded out of it; but it was lovely hair, fine
+and soft as a baby's.
+
+As she rose she slightly turned round, and our eyes met for a moment;
+they were large, melancholy eyes, and the face, beautiful as it was, was
+very worn and thin, and absolutely without colour. I could see her
+profile plainly all through the service, but the dull impassive
+expression of the countenance that she had turned upon me gave me a
+sensation of pain; she looked like a person who had experienced some
+great trouble or undergone some terrible illness. I could not make up
+my mind which it could be.
+
+The other lady was much older, and had no claims to beauty. I could see
+her face plainly, for she looked round once or twice as though she were
+expecting some one.
+
+She must have been over thirty, and had rather a singular face; it was
+thin, dark-complexioned, and very sallow; she was a stylish-looking
+woman, but her appearance did not interest me. To my surprise, just as
+the service commenced, Mr. Hamilton came in and joined them. So these
+must be the ladies from Gladwyn, I thought. That beautiful pale girl must
+be his sister Gladys, and the other one Miss Darrell.
+
+I tried to keep my attention to my own devotions, but every now and
+then my eyes would stray to the lovely face before me. Mr. Hamilton's
+behaviour was irreproachable. I could hear his voice following all the
+responses, and he sang the hymns very heartily.
+
+I think he knew I was behind him, for he handed me a hymn-book, with a
+slight smile, when I was offering to share mine with a young woman. Miss
+Darrell gave me a curiously penetrating look when she came out that did
+not quite please me, but the girl who followed her did not seem to notice
+my presence. I sat still in my place for a minute, as I did not wish to
+encounter them in the porch. I had lingered so long that the congregation
+had quite dispersed when I got out, but, to my surprise, I could see the
+three walking very slowly down the road. Could they have been waiting for
+me? I wondered; but I dismissed this idea as absurd.
+
+But I could not forget the face that had so interested me; and when I
+encountered Uncle Max on his way to the children's service I questioned
+him at once about the two ladies.
+
+'Yes, you are right, Ursula,' he said, a little absently. 'The one with
+fair hair was Miss Gladys: her cousin, Miss Darrell, sat by Hamilton.'
+
+'But you never told me how beautiful she was,' I replied, in rather
+an injured voice. 'She has a perfect face, only it is so worn and
+unhappy-looking.'
+
+'You must not keep me,' observed Max hurriedly; 'Miss Darrell wants to
+speak to me before service.' And he rushed off, leaving me standing in
+the middle of the path rather wondering at his abruptness, for the bell
+had not commenced.
+
+A little farther on, I came face to face with Miss Darrell; she was
+walking with Mr. Tudor, and seemed talking to him with much animation.
+
+She bowed slightly, as he took off his hat to me, in a graceful well-bred
+manner, but her face prepossessed me even less than it had done in the
+morning. She had keen, dark eyes like Mr. Hamilton's, only they somehow
+repelled me. I was somewhat quick with my likes and dislikes, as I had
+proved by the dislike I had taken to Mr. Hamilton. This feeling was
+wearing off, and I was no longer so strongly prejudiced against him. I
+might even find Miss Darrell less repelling when I spoke to her. She was
+evidently a gentlewoman; her movements were quiet and graceful, and she
+had a good carriage.
+
+I was somewhat surprised on reaching the cottage to find Mr. Hamilton
+sitting by my patient. He had Janie on his knee, and seemed as though he
+had been there for some time, but he rose at once when he saw me.
+
+'I was waiting for you, Miss Garston,' he said quietly. 'I wanted to give
+you some directions about Mrs. Marshall'; and when he had finished, he
+said, a little abruptly--
+
+'What made you so long coming out of church this morning? I was waiting
+to introduce my sister and cousin to you, but you were determined to
+disappoint me.'
+
+I was a little confused by this.
+
+'Did you recognise me?' I asked, rather tamely.
+
+'No,--not in that smart bonnet,' was the unexpected reply. 'I did not
+identify the wearer with the village nurse until I heard your voice in
+the Te Deum: you can hardly disguise your voice, Miss Garston: my cousin
+Etta pricked up her ears when she heard it.' And then, as I made no
+answer, he picked up his hat with rather an amused air and wished me
+good-bye.
+
+I was rather offended at the mention of my bonnet; the little gray wing
+that relieved its sombre black trimmings could hardly be called smart,--a
+word I abhorred,--but he probably said it to tease me.
+
+'Ay, the doctor has been telling us you have a voice like a skylark,'
+observed Elspeth, 'but I have been thinking it must be more like an
+angel's voice, my bairn, since you mostly use it to sing the Lord's
+praises, and to cheer the sick folk round you: that is more than a
+skylark does.'
+
+So he had been praising my voice. What an odd man!
+
+I stayed at the cottage about two hours, and read a little to the
+children and Elspeth, and then I started for the Lockes'.
+
+Kitty clapped her hands when she heard she was to go to church with her
+aunt Susan. I found out afterwards the child had always gone alone.
+
+Phoebe was evidently expecting me, for her eyes were fixed on the door
+as I entered, and the same shadowy smile I had seen once before swept
+over her wan features when she saw me. She seemed ready and eager to
+talk, but I adhered to my usual programme. I was rather afraid that our
+conversation would excite her, so I wanted to quiet her first. I sang a
+few of my favourite hymns, and then read the evening psalms. She heard
+me somewhat reluctantly, but when I had finished her face cleared, and
+without any preamble she commenced her story.
+
+I never remember that recital without pain. It positively wrung my heart
+to listen to her. I had heard the outline of her sad story from her
+sister's lips, but it had lacked colour; it had been a simple statement
+of facts, and no more.
+
+But now Phoebe's passionate words seemed to clothe it with power; the
+very sight of the ghastly and almost distracted face on the pillow gave
+a miserable pathos to the story. It was in vain to check excitement while
+the unhappy creature poured out the history of her wrongs: the old old
+story, of a credulous woman's heart being trampled upon and tortured by
+an unworthy lover, was enacted again before me.
+
+'I just worshipped the ground he walked on, and he threw me aside like a
+broken toy,' she said over and over again. 'And the worst of it is that,
+villain as he is, I cannot unlove him, though I am that mad with him
+sometimes that I could almost murder him.'
+
+'Love is strong as death, and jealousy is cruel as the grave,' I
+muttered, half to myself, but she overheard me.
+
+'Ay, that is just true,' she returned eagerly: 'there are times when I
+hate Robert and Nancy and would like to haunt them. Did I not tell you,
+Miss Garston, that hell had begun with me already? I was never a good
+woman,--never, not even when I was happy and Robert loved me. I was
+just full of him, and wanted nothing else in heaven and earth; and when
+the trouble came, and father and mother died, and I lay here like a
+log,--only a log has not got a living heart in it,--I seemed to go mad
+with the anger and unhappiness, and I felt "the worm that dieth not, and
+the fire that is not quenched."'
+
+I stooped over and wiped her poor lips and poor head, for she was
+fearfully exhausted, and then in a perfect passion of pity closed her
+face between my hands and bade God bless her.
+
+'What do you mean?' she said, staring at me; but her voice trembled.
+'Haven't I been telling you how wicked I am? Do you think that is a
+reason for His blessing me?'
+
+'I think His blessing has always been with you, my poor Phoebe, like the
+sunlight that you try to shut out from your windows. You hide yourself
+in your own darkness, and pretend that the all-embracing love is not for
+you. Well may you call your present existence a tomb; but you must not
+wrong your Almighty Father. Not He, but you yourself have walled yourself
+up with your own sinful hands, and then you wonder at the weight that
+lies upon your heart.'
+
+'Can I forget my trouble when I am not able to move?' she said bitterly.
+And it was sad to see how her hands beat upon the bedclothes. But I held
+them in mine. They were icy cold. The action seemed to calm her frenzy.
+
+'You cannot forget,' I returned quietly; 'but all this time, all these
+weary years, you might have learned to forgive Robert.'
+
+'Nay, I will have nothing to do with forgiving,' was the hard answer.
+
+'And yet you say you love him, Phoebe. Why, the very devils would laugh
+at such a notion of love.'
+
+'Didn't I say I both loved and hated him?' very fiercely.
+
+'Speak the truth, and say you hate him, and God forgive you your sin. But
+it is a greater one than Robert has committed against you.'
+
+'How dare you say such things to me, Miss Garston?' trying to free her
+hands; but still I held them fast. 'You will make me hate you next. I am
+not a pleasant-tempered woman.'
+
+'If you do, I will promise you forgiveness beforehand. Why, you poor
+creature, do you think I could ever be hard on you?'
+
+The fierce light in her eyes softened. 'Nay, I did not mean what I said;
+but you excite me with your talk. How can you know what I feel about
+these things? You cannot put yourself in my place.'
+
+'The heart knoweth its own bitterness, Phoebe; and it may be that in your
+place I should fail utterly in patience; but if we will not lie still
+under His hand, and learn the lesson He would fain teach us, it may be
+that fresh trials may be sent to humble us.'
+
+'Do you think things could be much worse with me?' becoming excited
+again; but I stroked her hand, and begged her gently to let me finish
+my speech.
+
+'Phoebe, as you lie there on your cross, the whole Church throughout the
+world is praying for you Sunday after Sunday when the prayer goes up for
+those who are desolate and oppressed. And who so desolate and oppressed
+as you?'
+
+'True, most true,' she murmured.
+
+'You are cradled in the supplications of the faithful. A thousand hearts
+are hearing your sorrows, and yet you say impiously that you are on the
+border-land of hell; but no, you will never go there. There are too many
+marks of His love upon you. All this suffering has more meaning than
+that.'
+
+It is impossible to describe the look she gave me; astonishment,
+incredulity, and something like dawning hope were blended in it; but
+she remained silent.
+
+'You have missed your vocation, that is true. You were set apart here
+to do most divine work; but you have failed over it. Still, you may
+be forgiven. How many prayers you might have prayed for Robert! You
+might have been an invisible shield between him and temptation. There
+is so much power in the prayers of unselfish love. This room, which
+you describe as a tomb, or an antechamber of hell, might have been an
+inner sanctuary, from which blessings might flow out over the whole
+neighbourhood. Silent lessons of patience might have been preached here.
+Your sister's weary hands might have been strengthened. You could have
+mutually consoled each other; and now--' I paused, for here conscience
+completed the sentence. I saw a tear steal under her eyelid, and then
+course slowly down her face.
+
+'I have made Susan miserable, I know that; and she is never impatient
+with me if I am ever so cross with her. Ah, I deserve my punishment, for
+I have been a selfish, hateful creature all my life. I do think sometimes
+that an evil spirit lives in me.'
+
+'There is One who can cast it out; but you must ask Him, Phoebe. Such a
+few words will do: "Lord help me!" Now we have talked enough, and Susan
+will be coming back from church. I mean to sing you the evening hymn, and
+then I must go.' And, almost before I had finished the last line, Phoebe,
+exhausted with emotion, had sunk into a refreshing sleep, and I crept
+softly out of the room to watch for Susan's return.
+
+I felt strangely weary as I walked home. It was almost as though I had
+witnessed a human soul struggling in the grasp of some evil spirit. It
+was the first time I had ever ministered to mental disease. Never before
+had I realised what self-will, unchastened by sorrow and untaught by
+religion, can bring a woman to. Once or twice that evening I had doubted
+whether the brain were really unhinged; but I had come to the conclusion
+that it was only excess of morbid excitement.
+
+My way home led me past the vicarage. Just as I was in sight of it, two
+figures came out of the gate and waited to let me pass. One of them was
+the churchwarden, Mr. Townsend, and the other was Mr. Hamilton. It was
+impossible to avoid recognition in the bright moonlight; but I was rather
+amazed when I heard Mr. Hamilton bid Mr. Townsend good-night, and a
+moment after he overtook me.
+
+'You are out late to-night, Miss Garston. Do you always mean to play
+truant from evening service?'
+
+I told him how I had spent my time, but I suppose my voice betrayed
+inward fatigue, for he said, rather kindly,--
+
+'This sort of work does not suit you; you are looking quite pale this
+evening. You must not let your feelings exhaust you. I am sorry for
+Phoebe myself, but she is a very tiresome patient. Do you think you have
+made any impression on her?'
+
+He seemed rather astonished when I briefly mentioned the subject of our
+talk.
+
+'Did she tell you about herself? Come, you have made great progress. Let
+her get rid of some of the poison that seems to choke her, and then there
+will be some chance of doing her good. She has taken a great fancy to
+you, that is evident; and, if you will allow me to say so, I think you
+are just the person to influence her.'
+
+'It is a very difficult piece of work,' I returned; but he changed the
+subject so abruptly that I felt convinced that he knew how utterly jaded
+I was. He told me a humorous anecdote about a child that made me laugh,
+and when we reached the gate of the cottage he bade me, rather
+peremptorily, put away all worrying thoughts and to go to bed, which
+piece of advice I followed as meekly as possible, after first reading
+a passage out of my favourite _Thomas a Kempis_; but I thought of Phoebe
+all the time I was reading it:
+
+'The cross, therefore, is always ready, and everywhere waits for thee.
+Thou canst not escape it wheresoever thou runnest; for wheresoever thou
+goest, thou carriest thyself with thee and shalt ever find thyself.... If
+thou bear the cross cheerfully, it will bear thee, and lead thee to the
+desired end, namely, where there shall be an end of suffering, though
+here there shall not be. If thou bear it unwillingly, thou makest for
+thyself a (new) burden, and increasest thy load, and yet,
+notwithstanding, thou must bear it.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+LADY BETTY
+
+
+The next evening I was refused admittance to Phoebe's room. Miss Locke
+met me at the door, looking more depressed than usual, and asked me to
+follow her into the kitchen, where we found Kitty in the rocking-chair by
+the hearth, dressing her new doll.
+
+'It is just as she treated the vicar and Mr. Tudor,' she observed
+disconsolately. 'I don't quite know what ails her to-day; she had a
+beautiful night, and slept like a baby, and when I took her breakfast to
+her she put her arms round my neck and asked me to kiss her,--a thing she
+has not done for a year or more; and she went on for a long time about
+how bad she had been to me, and wanting me to forgive her and make it up
+with her.'
+
+'Well?' I demanded, rather impatiently, as Susan wiped her patient eyes
+and took up her sewing.
+
+'Well, poor lamb! I told her I would forgive her anything and everything
+if she would only let me go on with my work, for I had Mrs. Druce's
+mourning to finish; but she would not let me stir for a long time, and
+cried so bitterly--though she says she never can cry--that I thought of
+sending for you or Dr. Hamilton. But she cried more when I mentioned you,
+and said, No, she would not see you; you had left her more miserable than
+she was before: and she made me promise to send you away if you came this
+evening, which I am loath to do after all your kindness to her.'
+
+'I have brought her some fresh flowers this evening,' was my reply. 'Do
+not distress yourself, Miss Locke; we must expect Phoebe to be contrary
+sometimes.' And the words came to my mind, "And ofttimes it casteth him
+into the fire, and oft into the water." 'You have discharged your duty,
+but I am not going just yet. Let me help you with that work. I am very
+fond of sewing, and that is a nice easy piece. Shall you mind if I sing
+to you and Kitty a little?'
+
+I need not have asked the question when I saw the fretted look pass from
+Miss Locke's face.
+
+'It is the greatest pleasure Kitty and I have, next to going to church,'
+she said humbly. 'Your voice does sound so sweet; it soothes like a
+lullaby. It is my belief,' speaking under her breath so that the child
+should not hear her, 'that she is just trying to punish herself by
+sending you away.'
+
+I thought perhaps this might be the case, for who could understand all
+the perversities of a diseased mind? But if Phoebe's will was strong for
+evil, mine was stronger still to overcome her for her own good. I was
+determined on two things: first, that I would not leave the house without
+seeing her; and, secondly, that nothing should induce me to stay with her
+after this reception. She must be disciplined to civility at all costs.
+Max had been wrong to yield to her sick whims.
+
+I must have sung for a long time, to judge by the amount of work I
+contrived to do, and if I had sung like a whole nestful of skylarks I
+could not have pleased my audience more. I was sorry to set Miss Locke's
+tears flowing, because it hindered her work; tears are such a simple
+luxury, but poor folk cannot always afford to indulge in them.
+
+I had just commenced that beautiful song, 'Waft her, angels, through the
+air,' when the impatient thumping of a stick on the floor arrested me; it
+came from Phoebe's room.
+
+'I will go to her,' I said, waving Miss Locke back and picking up my
+flowers. 'Do not look so scared: she means those knocks for me.' And I
+was right in my surmise. I found her lying very quietly, with the traces
+of tears still on her face; she addressed me quite gently.
+
+'Do not sing any more, please; I cannot bear it; it makes my heart ache
+too much to-night.'
+
+'Very well,' I returned cheerfully. 'I will just mend your fire, for it
+is getting low, and put these flowers in water, and then I will bid you
+good-night.'
+
+'You are vexed with me for being rude,' she said, almost timidly. 'I told
+Susan to send you away, because I could not bear any more talk. You made
+me so unhappy yesterday, Miss Garston.'
+
+I was cruel enough to tell her that I was glad to hear it, and I must
+have looked as though I meant it.
+
+'Oh, don't,' she said, shrinking as though I had dealt her a blow. 'I
+want you to unsay those words: they pierce me like thorns. Please tell me
+you did not mean them.'
+
+'How can I know to what you are alluding?' I replied, in rather an
+unsympathetic tone; but I did not intend to be soft with her to-day: she
+had treated me badly and must repent her ingratitude. 'I certainly meant
+every word I said yesterday,'
+
+To my great surprise, she burst into tears, and repeated word for word
+a fragment of a sentence that I had said.
+
+'It haunts me, Miss Garston, and frightens me somehow. I have been saying
+it over and over in my dreams,--that is what upset me so to-day: "if we
+will not lie still under His hand,"--yes, you said that, knowing I have
+never lain still for a moment,--"and if we will not learn the lesson He
+would fain teach us, it may be that fresh trials may be sent to humble
+us."'
+
+Pity kept me silent for a moment, but I knew that I must not shirk my
+work.
+
+'I am sorry if the truth pains you, Phoebe, but it is no less the truth.
+How am I to look at you and think that God has finished His work?'
+
+She put up both her hands and motioned me away with almost a face of
+horror, but I took no notice. I arranged the flowers and tended the fire,
+and then offered her some cooling drink, which she did not refuse, and
+then I bade her good-night.
+
+'What!' she exclaimed, 'are you going to leave me like that, and not a
+word to soothe me, after making me so unhappy? Think of the long night I
+have to go through.'
+
+'Never mind the length of the night, if only you can hear His voice in
+the darkness. You wanted to send me away, Phoebe; well, and to-morrow I
+shall not come; I shall stay at home and rest myself. You can send me
+away, and little harm will happen; but take care you do not send Him
+away.' And I left the room.
+
+When I told Miss Locke that I was not coming the next evening she looked
+frightened. 'Has my poor Phoebe offended you so badly, then?' she asked
+tremulously.
+
+'I am not offended at all,' I replied; 'but Phoebe has need to learn
+all sorts of painful lessons. I shall have all the warmer welcome on
+Wednesday, after leaving her to herself a little.' But Miss Locke only
+shook her head at this.
+
+The next day was so lovely that I promised myself the indulgence of a
+long country walk; there was a pretty village about two miles from
+Heathfield that I longed to see again. But my little plan was frustrated,
+for just as I was starting I heard Tinker bark furiously; a moment
+afterwards there was a rush and scuffle, followed by a shriek in a
+girlish treble; in another moment I had seized my umbrella and flown to
+the door. There was a fight going on between Tinker and a large black
+retriever, and a little lady in brown was wandering round them,
+helplessly wringing her hands, and crying, 'Oh, Nap! poor Nap!'
+
+I took her for a child the first moment, she was so very small. 'Do not
+be frightened, my dear,' I said soothingly, 'I will make Tinker behave
+himself.' And a well-aimed blow from my umbrella made him draw off
+growling. In another moment I had him by the collar, and by dint of
+threats and coaxing contrived to shut him up in the kitchen. He was not
+a quarrelsome dog generally, but, as I heard afterwards, Nap was an old
+antagonist; they had once fallen out about Peter, and had never been
+friends since.
+
+I found the little brown girl sitting in the porch with her arms round
+the retriever's neck; she was kissing his black face, and begging him to
+forget the insult he had received from that horrid Barton dog.
+
+'Poor old Tinker is not horrid at all, I assure you,' I said, laughing;
+'he is a dear fellow, and I am already very fond of him.'
+
+'But he nearly killed Nap,' she returned, with a little frown; 'he is
+worse than a savage, for he has no notion of hospitality. Nap and I came
+to call,' rising with an air of great dignity. 'I suppose you are Miss
+Garston. I am Lady Betty.'
+
+I had never heard of such a person in Heathfield; but of course Uncle Max
+would enlighten me. As I looked at her more closely I saw my mistake in
+thinking she was a child; little brown thing as she was, she was fully
+grown up, and, though not in the least pretty, had a bright piquant face,
+a _nest retrousse_, and a pair of mischievous eyes.
+
+She was dressed rather extravagantly in a brown velvet walking-dress,
+with an absurd little hat, that would have fitted a child, on the top of
+her dark wavy hair; she only wanted a touch of red about her to look like
+a magnified robin-redbreast.
+
+'Well,' she said impatiently, as I hesitated a moment in my surprise,
+'I have told you we have come for a call, Nap and I; but if you are going
+out--'
+
+'Oh, that is not the least consequence,' I returned, waking up to a sense
+of my duty. 'I am very pleased to see you and Nap; but you must not stop
+any longer in this cold porch; the wind is rather cutting. There is a
+nice fire in my parlour.' And I led the way in.
+
+I was rather puzzled about Nap, for I seemed to recognise his sleek head
+and mild brown eyes; and yet where could I have seen him? He trotted in
+contentedly after his mistress, and stretched himself out on the rug
+Tinker's fashion; but Lady Betty, instead of seating herself, began to
+walk round the room and inspect my books and china, making remarks upon
+everything in a brisk voice, and questioning me in rather an inquisitive
+manner about sundry things that attracted her notice; but, to my great
+surprise and relief, she passed Charlie's picture without remark or
+comment--only I saw her glancing at it now and then from under her long
+lashes. This mystified me a little; but I thought her whole behaviour a
+little peculiar. I had never before seen callers on their first visit
+perambulating the room like polar bears, or throwing out curious feelers
+everywhere. As a rule, they sat up stiffly enough and discussed the
+weather.
+
+Lady Betty was evidently a character; most likely she prided herself on
+being unlike other people. I was just beginning to wish that she would
+sit down and let me question her in my turn, when she suddenly put up her
+eye-glasses and burst into a most musical little laugh.
+
+'Oh, do come here, Miss Garston; this is too amusing! There goes her
+majesty Gladys of Gladwyn, accompanied by her prime minister. Don't they
+look as though they were walking in the Row?--heads up--everything in
+perfect trim! They are coming to call--yes!--no!--They are going to the
+Cockaignes first. What an escape! my dear creature, if they come here I
+shall fly to Mrs. Barton. The prime minister's airs will be too much for
+my gravity.'
+
+I gave her a very divided attention, for I was watching Miss Hamilton and
+her companion with much interest. I could see that Miss Darrell was
+chatting volubly; but Miss Hamilton's face looked as grave and impassive
+as it had looked on Sunday. When they had passed out of sight I turned to
+Lady Betty rather eagerly; she had dropped her eye-glasses, but an amused
+smile still played round her lips.
+
+'_La belle cousine_ is improving the occasion as usual. Poor Gladys, how
+bored she looks! but there is no escape for her this afternoon, for the
+prime minister has her in tow. I wonder from what text she is preaching?
+Ezekiel's dry bones, I should think, from her majesty's face.'
+
+'Do you know the Hamiltons of Gladwyn very intimately?' I asked
+innocently; but I grew rather out of patience when Lady Betty
+first lifted her eye-glass and stared at me, with the air of a
+non-comprehending kitten, and then buried her face in a very fluffy
+little muff in a fit of uncontrolled merriment.
+
+I was provoked by this, and determined not to say a word. So presently
+she came out of her muff and asked me, with mirthful eyes, for whom I
+took her.
+
+'You are Lady Betty, I understood,' was my stiff response.
+
+'Yes, of course; every one calls me that, except the vicar, who will
+address me as Miss Elizabeth. I never will answer to that name; I hate it
+so. The servants up at Gladwyn never dare to use it. I would get Etta to
+dismiss them if they did. Is it not a shame that people should not have a
+voice in the matter of their name,--that helpless infants should be
+abandoned to the tender mercies of some old fogey of a sponsor? Miss
+Garston, if I were ever to hear you address me by that name it would be
+the death-warrant to our friendship.'
+
+'Let me know who you really are first, and then I will promise not to
+offend your peculiar prejudice.'
+
+'Dear me!' she answered pettishly, 'you talk just like Giles. He often
+laughs at me and makes himself very unpleasant. But then, as I often tell
+him, philanthropists are not pleasant people with whom to live; a man
+with a hobby is always odious. Well, Miss Garston, if you will be so
+prying, my name is Elizabeth Grant Hamilton; only from a baby I have been
+called Lady Betty.'
+
+'I shall remember,' I replied quietly, for really the little thing seemed
+quite ruffled. This was evidently more than a whim on her part. 'It would
+have seemed to me a liberty to use a family pet name. But of course if
+you wish me to do so--'
+
+'I do wish it,' rather peremptorily. 'That is partly why Mr. Cunliffe and
+I are not good friends,--that, and other reasons.'
+
+'Oh, I am sorry you do not like Uncle Max,' I said, rather impulsively;
+but she drew herself up after the manner of an aggrieved pigeon. She was
+rather like a bright-eyed bird, with her fluffy hair and quick movements.
+
+'Oh, I like him well enough, but I do not understand him. Men are not
+easy to understand. He is quiet, but he is disappointing. We must not
+expect perfection in this world,' finished the little lady sententiously.
+
+'I have never met any one half as good as Uncle Max,' was my warm retort.
+'He is the most unselfish of men.'
+
+'Unselfish men make mistakes sometimes,' she returned drily. 'Giles and
+he are great friends. He is up at Gladwyn a great deal; so is Mr. Tudor.
+Mr. Tudor is not a finished character, but he has good points, and one
+can tolerate him. There, how vexing, we were just beginning to talk
+comfortably, and I see the shadow of her majesty's gown at the gate.
+Come, Nap, we must fly to Mrs. Barton's for refuge. _Au revoir_, Miss
+Garston.' And, kissing her little gloved hand, this strangest of Lady
+Betties vanished, followed by the obedient Nap.
+
+My pulses quickened a little at the prospect of seeing the beautiful face
+of Gladys Hamilton in my little room; but it was not she who entered
+first, but Miss Darrell, whose sharp incisive glance had taken in every
+detail of my surroundings before her faultlessly-gloved hand had released
+mine; and even when I turned to greet Miss Hamilton, her peculiar and
+somewhat toneless voice claimed my attention.
+
+'How very fortunate,' she began, seating herself with elaborate caution
+with her back to the light. 'We hardly hoped to find you at home, Miss
+Garston. My cousin Giles informed us how much engaged you were. We have
+been so interested in what Mr. Cunliffe told us about it. It is such a
+romantic scheme, and, as I am a very romantic person, you may be sure of
+my sympathy. Gladys, dear, is this not a charming room? Positively you
+have so altered and beautified it that I can hardly believe it is the
+same room. I told a friend of ours, Mrs. Saunders, that it would never
+suit her, as it was such a shabby little place.'
+
+'It is very nice,' returned Miss Hamilton quietly. 'I hope,' fixing her
+large, beautiful eyes on me, 'that you are comfortable here? We thought
+perhaps you might be a little dull.'
+
+'I have no time to be dull,' I returned, smiling, but Miss Darrell
+interrupted me.
+
+'No, of course not; busy people are never dull. I told you so, Gladys, as
+we walked up the road. Depend upon it, I said, Miss Garston will hardly
+have a minute to give to our idle chatter. She will be wanting to get to
+her sick people, and wish us at Hanover. Still, as my cousin Giles said,
+we must do the right thing and call, though I am sure you are not a
+conventional person; neither am I. Oh, we are quite kindred souls here.'
+
+I tried to receive this speech in good part, but I certainly protested
+inwardly against the notion that Miss Darrell and I would ever be kindred
+souls. I felt an instinctive repugnance to her voice; its want of tone
+jarred on me; and all the time she talked, her hard, bright eyes seemed
+to dart restlessly from Miss Hamilton to me. I felt sure that nothing
+could escape their scrutiny; but now and then, when one looked at her in
+return, she seemed to veil them most curiously under the long curling
+lashes.
+
+She was rather an elegant-looking woman, but her face was decidedly
+plain. She had thin lips and rather a square jaw, and her sallow
+complexion lacked colour. One could not guess her age exactly, but she
+might have been three-or four-and-thirty. I heard her spoken of
+afterwards as a very interesting-looking person; certainly her figure
+was fine, and she knew how to dress herself,--a very useful art when
+women have no claim to beauty.
+
+Miss Darrell's voluble tongue seemed to touch on every subject. Miss
+Hamilton sat perfectly silent, and I had not a chance of addressing her.
+Once, when I looked at her, I could see her eyes were fixed on my
+darling's picture. She was gazing at it with an air of absorbed
+melancholy: her lips were firmly closed, and her hands lay folded in
+her lap.
+
+'That is the picture of my twin-brother,' I said softly, to arouse her.
+
+To my surprise, she turned paler than ever, and her lips quivered.
+
+'Your twin brother, yes; and you have lost him?' But here Miss Darrell
+chimed in again:
+
+'How very interesting! What a blessing photography is, to be sure? Do you
+take well, Miss Garston? They make me a perfect fright. I tell my cousins
+that nothing on earth will induce me to try another sitting. Why should I
+endure such a martyrdom, if it be not to give pleasure to my friends?'
+
+To my surprise, Miss Hamilton's voice interrupted her: it was a little
+like her step-brother's voice, and had a slight hesitation that was not
+in the least unpleasant. She spoke rather slowly: at least it seemed so
+by comparison with Miss Darrell's quick sentences.
+
+'Etta, we have not done what Giles told us. We hope you will come and
+dine with us to-morrow. Miss Garston, without any ceremony.'
+
+'Dear me, how careless of me!' broke in Miss Darrell, but her forehead
+contracted a little, as though her cousin's speech annoyed her. 'Giles
+gave the message to me, but we were talking so fast that I quite forgot
+it. My cousin will have it that you are dull, and our society may cheer
+you up. I do not hold with Giles. I think you are far too superior a
+person to be afraid of a little solitude; strong-minded people like you
+are generally fond of their own society; but all the same I hope you do
+not mean to be quite a recluse.'
+
+'We dine at seven, but I hope you will come as much earlier as you like,'
+interposed Miss Hamilton. 'No one will be with us but Mr. Tudor.'
+
+'You forget Mr. Cunliffe, Gladys,' observed Miss Darrell, in rather a
+sharp voice. 'I am sure I do not know what the poor man has done to
+offend you; but ever since last summer--' But here Miss Hamilton rose
+with a gesture that was almost queenly, and her impassive face looked
+graver than ever.
+
+'I did not know you had invited Mr. Cunliffe, Etta, or I should certainly
+have mentioned him. Good-bye, Miss Garston: we shall look for you soon
+after six.'
+
+There was something wistful in her expression; it seemed as though she
+wanted me to come, and yet I was a complete stranger to her. I felt very
+reluctant to dine at Gladwyn, but that look overruled me.
+
+'I will try to come early,' was my answer, and then I drew back to let
+them pass.
+
+Miss Darrell bade me good-bye a little stiffly; something had evidently
+put her out. As they went down the narrow garden path I could see she was
+speaking to Miss Hamilton rather angrily, but Miss Hamilton seemed to
+take no notice.
+
+What did it all mean? I wondered; and then I suddenly bethought myself of
+my other visitor. I had wholly forgotten her existence in my interest in
+her beautiful sister. What could have become of Lady Betty?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+LADY BETTY LEAVES HER MUFF
+
+
+This question was speedily answered.
+
+The gate had scarcely closed behind my visitors when I heard a gay little
+laugh behind me, and Lady Betty tripped across the passage and took
+possession of the easy-chair in the friendliest way.
+
+'Now we can have a chat and be cosy all by ourselves,' she said, with
+childish glee; and then she stopped and looked at me, and her rosy little
+mouth began to pout, and a sort of baby frown came to her forehead.
+
+'You don't seem pleased to see me again. Shall I go away? Are you busy,
+or tired, or is there anything the matter?' asked Lady Betty, in an
+extremely fractious voice.
+
+'There is nothing the matter, and I am delighted to see you, and'--with a
+sudden inspiration--'if you will be good enough to stay and have tea with
+me I will ask Mrs. Barton to send in one of her excellent tea-cakes.'
+
+This was evidently what Lady Betty wanted, for she nodded and took off
+her hat, and began to unbutton her long tan-coloured gloves in a cool,
+business-like way that amused me. I ran across to the kitchen, and gave
+Mrs. Barton a _carte blanche_ for a sumptuous tea, and when I returned I
+found Lady Betty quite divested of her walking-apparel, and patting her
+dark fluffy hair to reduce it to some degree of smoothness. She had a
+pretty little head, and it was covered by a mass of short curly hair that
+nothing would reduce to order.
+
+'This is just what I like,' she said promptly. 'When Giles told us about
+you, and I made up my mind to call, I hoped you would ask me to stay. I
+do dislike stiffness and conventionality excessively. I hope you mean to
+be friends with us, Miss Garston, for I have taken rather a fancy to you,
+in spite of your grave looks. Dear me! do you always look so grave?'
+
+'Oh no,' I returned, laughing.
+
+'That is right,' with an approving nod; 'you look ever so much nicer and
+younger when you smile. Well, what did the prime minister say? Was she
+very gushing and sympathetic? Did she patronise you in a ladylike way,
+and pat you on the head metaphorically, until you felt ready to box her
+ears? Ah! I know _la belle cousine's_ little ways.'
+
+This was so exact a description of my conversation with Miss Darrell that
+I laughed in a rather guilty fashion. Lady Betty clapped her hands
+delightfully.
+
+'Oh, I have found you out. You are not a bit solemn, really, only you put
+on the airs of a sister of mercy. So you don't like Etta; you need not be
+afraid of telling me so; she is the greatest humbug in the world, only
+Giles is so foolish as to believe in her. I call her a humbug because she
+pretends to be what she is not; she is really a most prosaic sort of
+person, and she wants to make people believe that she is a soft romantic
+body.'
+
+'You are not very charitable in your estimate of your cousin, Lady
+Betty,'
+
+'Then she should not lead Gladys such a life. Poor dear majesty, to be
+ruled by her prime minister! I should like to see Etta try to dictate to
+me. Why, I should laugh in her face. She would not attempt it again. I
+can't think how it is,' looking a little grave, 'that she has Gladys so
+completely under her thumb. Gladys is too proud to own that she is afraid
+of her, but all the same she never dares to act in opposition to Etta.'
+
+Lady Betty's confidence was rather embarrassing, but I hardly knew how to
+check it. I began to think the household at Gladwyn must be a very queer
+one. Uncle Max had already hinted at a want of harmony between Mr.
+Hamilton and his step-sisters, and Miss Darrell seemed hardly a favourite
+with him, although he was too kind-hearted to say so openly.
+
+'Has your cousin lived long with you?' I ventured to ask.
+
+'Oh yes; ever since Gladys and I were little things; before mamma died.
+Auntie lived with us too: poor auntie, we were very fond of her, but she
+was a sad invalid; she died about three years ago. Etta has managed
+everything ever since.'
+
+'Do you mean that Miss Darrell is housekeeper? I should have thought that
+would have been your sister's place.'
+
+'Oh, Gladys is called the mistress of her house, but none of the servants
+go to her for orders. If she gives any, Etta is sure to countermand
+them,'
+
+'It is partly Gladys's fault,' went on Lady Betty, in her frank outspoken
+way. 'She tried for a little while to manage things; but either she was a
+terribly bad housekeeper, or Etta undermined her influence in the house;
+everything went wrong, and Giles got so angry,--men do, you know, when
+the dear creatures' comforts are invaded: so there was a great fuss, and
+Gladys gave it up; and now the prime minister manages the finances, and
+gives out stores, and, though I hate to say it, things never went more
+smoothly than they do now. Giles is scarcely ever vexed.'
+
+I am ashamed to say how much I was interested in Lady Betty's childish
+talk, and yet I knew it was wrong not to check her. What would Miss
+Hamilton say if she were to hear of our conversation? Jill was rather
+a reckless talker, but she was nothing compared with this daring little
+creature. Lady Betty told me afterwards, when we were better acquainted,
+that it had amused her so to see how widely I could open my eyes when I
+was surprised. I believe she did it out of pure mischief.
+
+Our talk was happily interrupted by the appearance of Mrs. Barton and the
+tea-tray, which at once turned Lady Betty's thoughts into a new channel.
+
+There was so much to do. First she must help to arrange the table, and,
+as no one else could cut such thin bread-and-butter, she must try her
+hand at that. Then Nap must have his tea before we touched ours; and when
+at last we did sit down she was praising the cake, and jumping up for the
+kettle, and waiting upon me 'because I was a dear good thing, and waited
+on poor people,' and coaxing me to take this or that as though I were her
+guest, and every now and then she paused to say 'how nice and cosy it
+was,' and how she was enjoying herself, and how glad she felt to miss
+that stupid dinner at Gladwyn, where no one talked but Giles and Etta,
+and Gladys sat as though she were half asleep, until she, Lady Betty,
+felt inclined to pinch them all.
+
+We were approaching the dangerous subject again, but I warded it off by
+asking how she and her sister employed their time.
+
+She made a little face at me, as though the question bothered her. 'Oh,
+I do things, and Gladys--does things,' rather lucidly.
+
+'Well, but what things, may I ask?'
+
+'Why do you want to know?' was the unexpected retort. 'I don't question
+you, do I? Giles says women are dreadfully curious.'
+
+'I think you are dreadfully mysterious; but, as you are evidently ashamed
+of your occupations, I will withdraw my question.'
+
+'I do believe you are cross, Miss Garston: you are not a saint, after
+all, though Giles says you sing like a cherub: I don't know where he ever
+heard one, but that is his affair. Well, as you choose to get pettish
+over it, I will be amiable, and tell you what we do. Etta says we waste
+our time dreadfully, but as it is our time and not hers, it is none of
+her business.'
+
+I thought it prudent to remain silent, so she wrinkled her brows and
+looked perplexed.
+
+'Gladys--let me see what Gladys does: well, she used to teach in the
+schools, but she does not teach now; she says the infants make her
+head ache; that is why she has dropped the Sunday-school. Now Etta
+has her class. Then there was the mothers' meeting; well, I never
+knew why she gave that up,--I wonder if she knows herself,--but Etta
+has got it. And she has left off singing at the penny readings and
+village entertainments; Etta would have replaced her there, only she has
+no voice. I think she works a little for the poor people at the East End
+of London, but she does it in her own room, because Etta laughs at her
+and calls her 'Madam Charity.' Gladys hates that. She takes long walks,
+and sketches a little, and reads a good deal; and--there, that is all I
+know of her majesty's doings.'
+
+Poor Miss Hamilton! it certainly did not sound much of a life.
+
+'And about yourself, Lady Betty?'
+
+'Oh, Lady Betty is here, there, and everywhere,' mimicking me in a droll
+way. 'Lady Betty walks a little, talks a little, plays a little, and
+dances when she gets a chance. At present, lawn-tennis is a great object
+in her life; last winter, swimming in Brill's bath and riding from Hove
+to Kemp Town or across the Brighton Downs were her hobbies. In the summer
+a gardening craze seized her, and just now she is in an idle mood. What
+does it matter? a short life and a merry one,--eh, Miss Garston?'
+
+I would not expostulate with this civilised little heathen, for she was
+evidently bent on provoking a lecture, and I determined to disappoint
+her. We had sat so long over our tea that the room was quite dark, and I
+rose to kindle the lamp. Lady Betty, as usual, was anxious to assist me,
+and went to the window to lower the blind. The next moment I heard an
+exclamation of annoyance, and as she came back to the table her little
+brown face was all aglow with some suppressed irritation.
+
+'What is the matter, Lady Betty?' I asked, in some surprise.
+
+'It is that provoking Etta again,' she began. 'She has guessed where I
+am, and has sent for me, the meddlesome old--' But here a tap at our room
+door stopped her outburst.
+
+As Lady Betty made no response, I said, 'Come in,' and immediately a
+respectable-looking woman appeared in the doorway.
+
+She looked like a superior lady's-maid, and had a plain face much marked
+by the smallpox, and rather dull light-coloured eyes.
+
+'Well, Leah,' demanded Lady Betty, rather sulkily, 'what is your business
+with Miss Garston?'
+
+'My business is with you, Lady Betty,' returned the woman
+good-humouredly. 'Master came in just now and asked where you were;
+I think he told Miss Darrell that it was too late for you to be out
+walking: so Miss Darrell said she believed you were at the White Cottage,
+for she saw your muff lying on Miss Garston's table; so she told me to
+step up here, as it was too dark for you to walk alone, and I was to tell
+you that they would be waiting dinner.'
+
+'It is just like her interference,' muttered Lady Betty. 'But I suppose
+there would be a pretty fuss if I let the dinner spoil. Help me on with
+my jacket, Leah; as you have come when no one wanted you, you had better
+make yourself useful.'
+
+She spoke with the peremptoriness of a spoiled child, but the woman
+smiled pleasantly and did as she was bid. She seemed a civil sort of
+person, evidently an old family servant. Something had struck me in her
+speech. Miss Darrell had seen Lady Betty's muff, and knew of her presence
+in the cottage, and yet she had made no remark on the subject; this
+seemed strange, but would she not wonder still more at my silence?
+
+'Lady Betty,' I said hastily, as this occurred to me, 'your cousin will
+think it odd that I never spoke of you this afternoon; but you ran out of
+the room so quickly, and then I forgot all about it.'
+
+'Oh, Etta will know I was only playing at hide-and-seek. Most likely she
+will think I bound you to secrecy. What a goose I was to leave my muff
+behind me,--the very one Etta gave me, too! why, she would see a pin;
+nothing escapes her: does it, Leah?'
+
+'Not much, Lady Betty: she has fine eyes for dust, I tell her. The new
+housemaid had better be careful with her room. Now, ma'am, if you are
+ready?'
+
+'Good-bye, Miss Garston; we shall meet to-morrow,' returned Lady Betty,
+standing on tiptoe to kiss me, and as they went out I heard her say in
+quite a friendly manner to Leah, as though she had already forgotten her
+grievance,--
+
+'Is not Miss Garston nice, Leah? She has got such a kind face.' But I did
+not hear Leah's reply.
+
+I had not seen the last of my visitors, for about an hour afterwards, as
+I was finishing a long chatty letter to Jill, there was the sharp click
+of the gate again, and Uncle Max came in.
+
+'Are you busy, Ursula?' he said apologetically, as I looked up in some
+surprise. 'I only called in as I was passing. I am going on to the
+Myers's: old Mr. Myers is ill and wants to see me.' But for all that
+Max drew his accustomed chair to the fire, and looked at the blazing
+pine-knot a little dreamily.
+
+'You keep good fires,' was his next remark. 'It is very cold to-night:
+there is a touch of frost in the air; Tudor was saying so just now. So
+you have had the ladies from Gladwyn here this afternoon?'
+
+'How do you know that?' I asked, in a sharp pouncing voice, for I was
+keeping that bit of news for a tidbit.
+
+'Oh, I met them,' he returned absently, 'and they told me that you were
+to dine with them to-morrow. I call that nice and friendly, asking you
+without ceremony. What time shall you be ready, Ursula? for of course I
+shall not let you go alone the first time.'
+
+I was glad to hear this, for, though I was not a shy person, my first
+visit to Gladwyn would be a little formidable; so I told him briefly that
+I would be ready by half-past six, as they wished me to go early, and it
+would never do to be formal on my side. And then I gave him an account of
+Lady Betty's visit, but it did not seem to interest him much: in fact, I
+do not believe that he listened very attentively.
+
+'She is an odd little being,' he said, rather absently, 'and prides
+herself on being as unconventional as possible. They have spoiled her
+among them, Hamilton especially, but her droll ways amuse him. She has
+sulked with me lately because I will not give in to her absurd fad about
+Lady Betty. I tell her that she ought not to be ashamed of her baptismal
+name; the angels will call her by it one day.'
+
+'She is very amusing. I think I shall like her, Max; but Miss Darrell
+does not please me. She is far too gushing and talkative for my taste;
+she patronised and repressed me in the same breath. If there is anything
+I dislike, it is to be patted on the head by a stranger.'
+
+'Miss Hamilton did not pat you on the head, I suppose.'
+
+'Miss Hamilton! Oh dear, no; she is of another calibre. I have quite
+fallen in love with her: her face is perfect, only rather too pale, and
+her manners are so gentle, and yet she has plenty of dignity; she reminds
+me of Clytie, only her expression is not so contented and restful: she
+looks far too melancholy for a girl of her age.'
+
+'Pshaw!' he said, rather impatiently, but I noticed he looked
+uncomfortable. 'What can have put such ideas in your head?--you have
+only seen her twice: you could not expect her to smile in church.'
+
+Max seemed so thoroughly put out by my remark that I thought it better
+to qualify my speech. 'Most likely Miss Darrell had been nagging at her.'
+
+His face cleared up directly. 'Depend upon it, that was the reason she
+looked so grave,' he said, with an air of relief. 'Miss Darrell can say
+ill-tempered things sometimes. Miss Hamilton is never as lively as Miss
+Elizabeth; she is always quiet and thoughtful; some girls are like that,
+they are not sparkling and frothy.'
+
+I let him think that I accepted this statement as gospel, but in my heart
+I thought I had never seen a sadder face than that of Gladys Hamilton; to
+me it looked absolutely joyless, as though some strange blight had fallen
+on her youth. I kept these thoughts to myself, like a wise woman, and
+when Max looked at me rather searchingly, as though he expected a verbal
+assent, I said, 'Yes, you are right, some girls are like that,' and left
+him to glean my meaning out of this parrot-like sentence.
+
+I could make nothing of Max this evening: he seemed restless and ill at
+ease; now and then he fell into a brown study and roused himself with
+difficulty. I was almost glad when he took his leave at last, for I had
+a feeling somehow--and a curious feeling it was--that we were talking at
+cross-purposes, and that our speeches seemed to be lost hopelessly in a
+mental fog; the cipher to our meaning seemed missing.
+
+But he bade me good-night as affectionately as though I had done him a
+world of good: and when he had gone I sat down to my piano and sang all
+my old favourite songs, until the lateness of the hour warned me to
+extinguish my lamp and retire to bed.
+
+I was just sinking into a sweet sleep when I heard Nathaniel's voice
+bidding some one good-night, and in another moment I could hear firm
+quick footsteps down the gravel walk, followed by Nap's joyous bark.
+
+Mr. Hamilton had been in the house all the time I had been amusing
+myself. I do not know why the idea annoyed me so. 'How I wish he would
+keep away sometimes!' I thought fretfully. 'He will think I am practising
+for to-morrow: I will not sing if they press me to do so.' And with this
+ill-natured resolve I fell asleep.
+
+My dinner-engagement obliged me to go to Phoebe quite early in the
+afternoon. Miss Locke looked surprised as she opened the door, but she
+greeted me with a pleased smile.
+
+'Phoebe will hardly be looking for you yet,' she said, leading the way
+into the kitchen in the evident expectation of a chat; 'she did finely
+yesterday in spite of her missing you; when I went in to her in the
+morning she quite took my breath away by asking if there were not an
+easier chair in the house for you to use. "'Deed and there is, Phoebe,
+woman," said I, quite pleased, for the poor thing is far too
+uncomfortable herself to look after other people's comforts, and it was
+such a new thing to hear her speak like that: so I fetched father's big
+elbow-chair with a cushion or two and his little wooden footstool, and
+there it stands ready for you this afternoon.'
+
+'That was very thoughtful of Phoebe,' was my reply.
+
+'Well, now, I thought you would be pleased, though it is only a trifle.
+But that is not all. Widow Drayton was sitting with me last afternoon,
+when all at once she puts up her finger and says, "Hark! Is not that your
+Kitty's voice?" And so I stole out into the passage to listen. And there,
+to be sure, was Kitty singing most beautifully some of the hymns you sang
+to Phoebe; and if she could not make out all the words she just went on
+with the tune, like a little bird, and Phoebe lay and listened to her,
+and all the time--as I could see through the crack of the door--her eyes
+were fixed on the picture you gave her, and I said to myself, "Phoebe,
+woman, this is as it should be. You may yet learn wisdom out of the lips
+of babes and sucklings."'
+
+'I am very glad to hear all this, Miss Locke,' I returned cheerfully.
+'Kitty will be able to take my place sometimes. She will be a valuable
+little ally. Now, as my time is limited, I will go to Phoebe.'
+
+I was much struck by the changed expression on Phoebe's face as soon
+as I had entered the room. She certainly looked very ill, and when I
+questioned her avowed she had suffered a good deal of pain in the night;
+but the wild hard look had left her eyes. There was intense depression,
+but that was all.
+
+She evidently enjoyed the singing as much as ever: and I took care to
+sing my best. When I had finished I produced a story that I thought
+suitable, and began to read to her. She listened for about half an hour
+before she showed a symptom of weariness. At the first sign I stopped.
+
+'Will you do something to please me in return?' I asked, when she had
+thanked me very civilly. 'I want you to go on with this book by yourself
+now. I know what you are going to say--that you never read--that it makes
+your head ache and tires you. But, if you care to please me, you will
+waive all these objections, and we can talk over the story to-morrow.'
+Then I told her about my invitation for this evening, and about the
+beautiful Miss Hamilton, whose sweet face had interested me. And when we
+had chatted quite comfortably for a little while I rose to take my leave.
+
+Of course she could not let me go without one sharp little word.
+
+'You have been kinder to me to-day,' she said, pausing slightly. 'I
+suppose that is because I let you take your own way with me.'
+
+'Every one likes his own way,' I said lightly. 'If I have been kinder to
+you, as you say, possibly it is because you have deserved kindness more.'
+And I smiled at her and patted the thin hand, as though she were a child,
+and so 'went on my way rejoicing,' as they say in the good old Book.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+UP AT GLADWYN
+
+
+Uncle Max had never been famous for punctuality. He was slightly Bohemian
+in his habits, and rather given to desultory bachelor ways; but his
+domestic timekeeper, Mrs. Drabble, ruled him most despotically in the
+matter of meals, and it was amusing to see how she kept him and Mr. Tudor
+in order: neither of them ventured to keep the dinner waiting, for fear
+of the housekeeper's black looks; such an offence they knew would be
+expiated by cold fish and burnt-up steaks. Uncle Max might invite the
+bishop to dine, but if his lordship chose to be late Mrs. Drabble would
+take no pains to keep her dinner hot.
+
+'If gentlemen like to shilly-shally with their food, they must take
+things as they find them,' she would say; and if her master ever ventured
+to remonstrate with her, she took care that he should suffer for it for a
+week.
+
+'We must humour Mother Drabble,' Mr. Tudor would say good-humouredly.
+'Every one has a crotchet, and, after all, she is a worthy little woman,
+and makes us very comfortable. I never knew what good cooking meant until
+I came to the vicarage.' And indeed Mrs. Drabble's custards and flaky
+crust were famed in the village. Miss Darrell had once begged very humbly
+that her cook Parker might take a lesson from her, but Mrs. Drabble
+refused point-blank.
+
+'There were those who liked to teach others, and plenty of them, but she
+was one who minded her own business and kept her own recipes. If Miss
+Darrell wanted a custard made she was willing to do it for her and
+welcome, but she wanted no gossiping prying cooks about her kitchen.'
+
+As I knew Max's peculiarity, I was somewhat surprised when, long before
+the appointed time, Mrs. Barton came up and told me that Mr. Cunliffe was
+in the parlour. I had commenced my toilet in rather a leisurely fashion,
+but now I made haste to join him, and ran downstairs as quickly as
+possible, carrying my fur-lined cloak over my arm.
+
+'You look very nice, my dear,' he said, in quite fatherly fashion. 'Have
+I ever seen that gown before?'
+
+The gown in point had been given to me by Lesbia, and had been made in
+Paris: it was one of those thin black materials that make up into a
+charming demi-toilette, and was a favourite gown with me.
+
+I always remember the speech Lesbia made as she showed it to me. 'When
+you put on this gown, Ursula, you must think of the poor little woman
+who hoped to have been your sister.' This was one of the pretty little
+speeches that she often made. Poor dear Lesbia! she always did things so
+gracefully. In Charlie's lifetime I had thought her cold and frivolous,
+for she had not then folded up her butterfly wings; but even then she
+was always doing kind little things.
+
+It was a dark night, neither moon nor stars to be seen, and after we had
+passed the church the darkness seemed to envelop us, and I could barely
+distinguish the path. Max seemed quite oblivious of this fact, for he
+would persist in pointing out invisible objects of interest. I was told
+of the wide stretch of country that lay on the right, and how freshly the
+soft breezes blew over the downs.
+
+'There is the asylum, Ursula,' he observed cheerfully, waving his hand
+towards the black outline. 'Now we are passing Colonel Maberley's house,
+and here is Gladwyn. I wish you could have seen it by daylight.'
+
+I wished so too, for on entering the shrubbery the darkness seemed to
+swallow us up bodily, and the heavy oak door might have belonged to a
+prison. The sharp clang of the bell made me shiver, and Dante's lines
+came into my mind rather inopportunely, 'All ye who enter here, leave
+hope behind.' But as soon as the door opened the scene was changed like
+magic; the long hall was deliciously warm and light: it looked almost
+like a corridor, with its dark marble figures holding sconces, and small
+carved tables between them.
+
+'I will wait for you here, Ursula,' whispered Uncle Max; and I went off
+in charge of the same maid that I had seen before. Lady Betty had called
+her Leah, and as I followed her upstairs I thought of that tender-eyed
+Leah who had been an unloved wife.
+
+Leah was very civil, but I thought her manner bordered on familiarity:
+perhaps she had lived long in the family, and was treated more as a
+friend than a servant. She was an exceedingly plain young woman, and her
+light eyes had a curious lack of expression in them, and yet, like Miss
+Darrell's, they seemed able to see everything.
+
+Seeing me glance round the room,--it was a large, handsomely furnished
+bedroom, with a small dressing-room attached to it,--she said, 'This is
+Miss Darrell's room. Mrs. Darrell used to occupy it, and Miss Etta slept
+in the dressing-room, but ever since her mother's death she has had both
+rooms.'
+
+'Indeed,' was my brief reply: but I could not help thinking that Miss
+Darrell had very pleasant and roomy quarters. There were evidences of
+luxury everywhere, from the bevelled glass of the walnut-wood wardrobe to
+the silver-mounted dressing-case and ivory brushes on the toilet-table. A
+pale embroidered tea-gown lay across the couch, and a book that looked
+very much like a French novel was thrown beside it. Miss Darrell was
+evidently a Sybarite in her tastes.
+
+Uncle Max was waiting for me at the foot of the stairs, and took me into
+the drawing-room at once.
+
+To our surprise, we found Miss Hamilton there alone. The room was only
+dimly lighted, and she was sitting in a large carved chair beside the
+fire with an open book in her lap.
+
+I wonder if Max noticed how like a picture she looked. She was dressed
+very simply in a soft creamy cashmere, and her fair hair was piled up on
+her head in regal fashion: the smooth plaits seemed to crown her; a
+little knot of red berries that had been carelessly fastened against her
+throat was the only colour about her; but she looked more like Clytie
+than ever, and again I told myself that I had never seen a sweeter face.
+
+She greeted me with gentle warmth, but she hardly looked at Max; her
+white lids dropped over her eyes whenever he addressed her, and when she
+answered him she seemed to speak in a more measured voice than usual. Max
+too appeared extremely nervous; instead of sitting down, he stood upon
+the bear-skin rug and fidgeted with some tiny Chinese ornaments on the
+mantelpiece. Neither of them appeared at ease: was it possible that they
+were not friends?
+
+'You are not often to be found in solitude, Miss Hamilton,' observed Max;
+and it struck me his voice was a little peculiar. 'I do not think I have
+ever seen you sitting alone in this room before.'
+
+'No,' she answered quickly, and then she went on in rather a hesitating
+manner: 'Etta and Lady Betty have been shopping in Brighton, and they
+came back by a late train, and now Etta is shut up with Giles in his
+study. Some letters that came by this morning's post had to be answered.'
+
+'Miss Darrell is Hamilton's secretary, is she not?'
+
+'She writes a good many of his letters. Giles is rather idle about
+correspondence, and she helps him with his business and accounts. Etta
+is an extremely busy person.'
+
+'Miss Hamilton used to be busy too,' returned Max quietly. 'I always
+considered you an example to our ladies. I lost one of my best workers
+when I lost you.'
+
+A painful colour came into Miss Hamilton's face.
+
+'Oh no,' she protested, rather feebly. 'Etta is far cleverer than I at
+parish work. Teaching does not make her head ache.'
+
+'Yours used not to ache last summer,' persisted Uncle Max, but she did
+not seem to hear him. She had turned to me, and there was almost an
+appealing look in her beautiful eyes, as though she were begging me to
+talk.
+
+'Oh, do you know, Miss Garston,' she said nervously, 'that Giles was very
+nearly sending for you last night? He was with Mrs. Blagrove's little
+girl until five this morning; the poor little creature died at half-past
+four, and he told us that he thought half a dozen times of sending for
+you.'
+
+'I wish he had done so. I should have been so glad to help.'
+
+'Yes, he knew that, but he said it would have been such a shame rousing
+you out of your warm bed; and he had not the heart to do it. So he
+stopped on himself; there was really nothing to be done, but the parents
+were in such a miserable state that he did not like to leave them. He was
+so tired this afternoon that he dropped asleep instead of writing his
+letters: that is why Etta has to do them.'
+
+'Who is talking about Etta?' observed Miss Darrell, coming in at that
+moment, with a quick rustle of her silk skirt, looking as well-dressed,
+self-possessed, and full of assurance as ever. 'Why are you good people
+sitting in the dark? Thornton would have lighted the candles if you had
+rung, Gladys; but I suppose you forgot, and were dreaming over the fire
+as usual. Miss Garston, I suppose I ought to apologise for being late,
+but we are such busy people here; every moment is of value; and though
+Gladys asked you to come early, I never thought you would be so good as
+to do so. Friendly people are scarce, are they not, Mr. Cunliffe? By the
+bye,' holding up a taper finger loaded with sparkling rings, 'I have a
+scolding in store for you. Why did you not examine my class as usual last
+Sunday?--the children tell me you never came near them.'
+
+'I had so little time that I asked Tudor to take the classes for me,' he
+returned quickly, but he was looking at Miss Hamilton as he spoke. 'I am
+always sure of the children in that class: they have been so thoroughly
+well taught that there is very little need for me to interfere.'
+
+'It would encourage their teachers if you were to do so,' returned Miss
+Darrell, smiling graciously. She evidently appropriated the praise to
+herself, but I am sure Uncle Max was not thinking of her when he spoke.
+Just then Lady Betty came into the room, followed by Mr. Tudor.
+
+Lady Betty looked almost pretty to-night. She wore a dark ruby velveteen
+that exactly suited her brown skin; her fluffy hair was tolerably smooth,
+and she had a bright colour. She came and sat down beside me at once.
+
+'Oh, I am so vexed that we are so late! but it was all Etta's fault: she
+would look in at every shop-window, and so of course we lost the proper
+train.'
+
+'What does the child say?' asked Miss Darrell good-humouredly. She seemed
+in excellent spirits this evening; but how silent Miss Hamilton had
+become since her entrance! 'Of course poor Etta is blamed; she always is
+if anything goes wrong in the house; Etta is the family scapegoat. But
+who was it, I wonder, who wanted another turn on the pier? Not Etta,
+certainly.'
+
+'Just as though those few minutes would have mattered; and I did want
+another look at the sea,' returned Lady Betty pettishly; 'but no, you
+preferred those stupid shops. That is why I hate to go into Brighton with
+you.' But Miss Darrell only laughed at this flimsy display of wrath.
+
+Just then Mr. Tudor had taken the other vacant chair beside me. 'How is
+the village nurse?' he asked, in his bright way. I certainly liked Mr.
+Tudor, he had such a pleasant, friendly way with him, and on his part he
+seemed always glad to see me. If I had ever talked slang, I might have
+said that we chummed together famously. He was a year younger than
+myself, and I took advantage of this to give him advice in an
+elder-sisterly fashion.
+
+'You must take care that the clergy do not spoil the village nurse,'
+observed Miss Darrell, who had overheard him, and this time the taper
+finger was uplifted against Mr. Tudor.
+
+'Oh, there is no fear of that,' he returned manfully; 'Miss Garston is
+too sensible to allow herself to be spoiled; but it is quite right that
+we all should make much of her.'
+
+'We will ask Giles if he agrees with this,' replied Miss Darrell, in
+a funny voice, and at that moment Mr. Hamilton entered the room.
+
+I do not know why I thought he looked nicer that evening: one thing, I
+had never seen him in evening dress, and it suited him better than his
+rough tweed; he was quieter and less abrupt in manner, more dignified and
+less peremptory, but he certainly looked very tired.
+
+He accosted me rather gravely, I thought, though he said that he was glad
+to see me at Gladwyn. His first remark after this was to complain of the
+lateness of the dinner.
+
+'Parker is not very punctual this evening, Etta,' he observed, looking
+at his watch.
+
+'I think it was our fault, Giles,' returned his cousin plaintively. 'We
+kept Thornton such a long time in the study, and no doubt that is the
+cause of the delay. Parker is seldom a minute behindhand; punctuality is
+her chief point, as Mrs. Edmonstone told me when I engaged her. You see,'
+turning to Uncle Max, 'we are such a regular household that the least
+deviation in our nature quite throws us into confusion. I am so sorry,
+Giles, I am, indeed; but will you ring for Thornton, and that will remind
+him of his duty?'
+
+Miss Darrell's submissive speech evidently disarmed Mr. Hamilton, and
+deprived him of his Englishman's right to grumble to his womankind: so he
+said, quite amiably, that they would wait for Parker's pleasure a little
+longer, and then relapsed into silence.
+
+The next moment I saw him looking at me with rather an odd expression;
+it was as though he were regarding a stranger whom he had not seen
+before; I suppose the term 'taking stock' would explain my meaning.
+Just then dinner was announced, and he gave me his arm.
+
+The dining-room was very large and lofty, and was furnished in dark oak.
+A circular seat with velvet cushions ran round the deep bay-window. A
+small oval table stood before it. Dark ruby curtains closed in the bay.
+
+My first speech to Mr. Hamilton was to regret that he had not sent for me
+the previous night.
+
+'Oh no,' he said pleasantly. 'I am quite glad now that your rest was
+not disturbed.' And then he went on looking at me with the same queer
+expression that his face had worn before.
+
+'Do you know, Miss Garston, your remark quite startled me? Somehow
+I do not seem to recognise my nurse to-night. When I came into the
+drawing-room just now I thought there was a strange young lady sitting
+by Tudor.'
+
+Of course I was curious to know what he meant; but he positively refused
+to enlighten me, and went on speaking about his poor little patient.
+
+'She was an only child; but nothing could have saved her. The Blagroves
+are well-to-do people,--Brighton shopkeepers,--so they hardly come under
+the category of your patients. Miss Garston, you call yourself a servant
+of the poor, do you not?'
+
+'I should not refuse to help any one who really needed it,' was my reply.
+'But, of course, if people can afford to hire service I should think my
+labour thrown away on them.'
+
+'Ah! just so. But now and then we meet with a case where hirelings can
+give no comfort. With the Blagroves, for example, there was nothing to be
+done but just to watch the child's feeble life ebb away. A miracle only
+could have saved her; but all the same it was impossible to go away and
+leave them. They were young people, and had never seen death before.'
+
+I was surprised to hear him speak with so much feeling. And I liked that
+expression 'servant of the poor.' It sounded to me as though he had at
+last grasped my meaning, and that I had nothing more to fear from his
+sarcasm.
+
+I wondered what had wrought such a sudden change in him, for I had only
+worked such a few days. Certainly it would make things far easier if I
+could secure him as an ally; and I began to hope that we should go on
+more smoothly in the future.
+
+Mr. Hamilton was evidently a man whom it would take long to know. His was
+by no means a character easy to read. One would be sure to be startled by
+new developments and curious contradictions. I had known him only for ten
+days; but then we had met constantly in that short time. I had seen him
+hard in manner and soft in speech, cool, critical, and disparaging, at
+one moment satirical and provoking, the next full of thoughtfulness and
+readiness to help. No wonder I found it difficult to comprehend him.
+
+When we had finished discussing the Blagroves, Mr. Hamilton turned
+his attention to his other guests, and tried to promote the general
+conversation: this left me at liberty to make my own observations.
+
+Miss Hamilton sat at the top of the table facing her brother, and Uncle
+Max and Mr. Tudor were beside her; but she did not speak to either of
+them unless they addressed her, and her replies seemed to be very brief.
+If I had been less interested in her I might have accused her of want of
+animation, for it is hardly playing the _role_ of a hostess to look
+beautiful and be chary of words and smiles.
+
+It was impossible to attribute her silence to absence of mind, for she
+followed with grave attention every word that was spoken; but for some
+inexplicable reason she had withdrawn into herself. Uncle Max left her
+to herself after a time, and began to talk politics with Mr. Hamilton,
+and Mr. Tudor was soon compelled to follow his example.
+
+Poor Mr. Tudor! I rather pitied him, for his other neighbour, Lady Betty,
+had turned suddenly very sulky, and I had my surmises that Miss Darrell
+had said something to affront her; for she made snapping little answers
+when any one spoke to her, and, though they laughed at her, and nobody
+seemed to mind, most likely they thought it prudent to give her time to
+recover herself.
+
+Miss Darrell's radiant good-humour was a strange contrast to her two
+cousins' silence. She threw herself gallantly into the breach, and talked
+fast and well on every topic broached by the gentlemen. She was evidently
+clever and well read, and had dabbled in literature and politics.
+
+Her energy and vivacity were almost fatiguing. She seemed able to keep up
+two or three conversations at once. The lowest whisper did not escape her
+ear; if Mr. Hamilton spoke to me, I saw her watchful eye on us, and she
+joined in at once with a sprightly word or two; the next moment she was
+answering Uncle Max, who had at last hazarded a remark to his silent
+neighbour. Miss Hamilton had no time to reply; her cousin's laugh and
+ready word were before her.
+
+I found the same thing happen when Mr. Tudor addressed me: before he had
+finished his sentence she had challenged the attention of the table.
+
+'Giles,' she said good-humouredly, 'do you know what Mr. Tudor said in
+the drawing-room just now, that it was the bounden duty of the Heathfield
+folk to spoil and make much of Miss Garston?'
+
+Both Mr. Tudor and I looked confused at this audacious speech, but he
+tried to defend himself as well as he could.
+
+'No, no, Miss Darrell, that was not quite what I said; the whole style
+of the sentence is too laboured to belong to me: "bounden duty,"--no, it
+does not sound like me at all.'
+
+'We need not quarrel about terms,' she persisted; 'your meaning was just
+the same. Come, Mr. Tudor, you cannot unsay your own words, that it was
+right for you all to make much of Miss Garston.'
+
+I thought this was spoken in the worst possible taste, and I am sure Mr.
+Hamilton thought so too, for he smiled slightly and said, 'Nonsense,
+Etta! you let your tongue run away with you. I daresay that was not
+Tudor's meaning at all; he is the most matter-of-fact fellow I know, and
+could not coin a compliment to save his life. Besides which, I expect he
+has found out by this time that it would be rather difficult to spoil
+Miss Garston. That cuts both ways, eh!' looking at me rather
+mischievously.
+
+'Oh, if all the gentlemen are in conspiracy to defend Miss Garston, I
+will say no more,' returned Miss Darrell, with a shrug, but she did not
+say it quite pleasantly. 'Gladys dear, I think we had better retire
+before I am quite crushed: Giles's frown has quite flattened me out. Miss
+Garston, if you are ready,' making me a mocking little courtesy; but Miss
+Hamilton waited for me at the door and linked her arm in mine, taking
+possession of me in a graceful way that evidently pleased Max, for he
+looked at us smiling.
+
+'Come into the conservatory, Gladys,' whispered Lady Betty in her
+sister's ear. 'Etta has a cold coming on, and will be afraid of following
+us.'
+
+The conservatory led out of the drawing-room, and was lighted by coloured
+lamps that gave a pretty effect; it was full of choice flowers, and two
+or three cane chairs filled up the centre. It was not so warm as the
+drawing-room, certainly, but it was pleasant to sit there in the dim
+perfumed atmosphere and peep through the open window at the firelight.
+Miss Darrell followed us to the window with a discontented air.
+
+'I hope you are not going to stay there many minutes, Gladys: you will
+certainly give yourself and Miss Garston a bad cold if you do. There is
+something wrong with the warming-apparatus, and Giles says it will be
+some days before it will be properly warmed. I thought I told you so this
+morning.'
+
+'I do not think Miss Garston will take cold, Etta, and it is very
+pleasant here'; but, though Miss Darrell retreated from the window, I
+think we all felt as much constrained as though she had joined us, for
+not a word could escape her ears if she chose to listen.
+
+But this fact did not seem to daunt Lady Betty for long, for she soon
+began chattering volubly to us both.
+
+'I am not so cross now as I was,' she said frankly. 'I am afraid I was
+very rude to Mr. Tudor at dinner; but what could I do when Etta was so
+impertinent? No, she is not there, Gladys; she has gone out of the room,
+looking as cross as possible. But what do you think she said to me?'
+
+'Never mind telling us what she said, dear,' returned Miss Hamilton
+soothingly.
+
+'Oh, but I want to tell Miss Garston: she looks dreadfully curious, and
+I do not like her to think me cross for nothing. I am not like that, am
+I, Gladys? Well, just before we went in to dinner, she begged me in a
+whisper not to talk quite so much to Mr. Tudor as I had done last time.
+Now, what do you want, Leah?' pulling herself up rather abruptly.
+
+'I have only brought you some shawls, Lady Betty, as Miss Darrell says
+the conservatory is so cold. She has told Thornton to mention to his
+master when he takes in the coffee that Miss Gladys is sitting here, and
+she hopes he will forbid it.'
+
+'You can take away the shawls, Leah,' returned Miss Hamilton quietly, but
+there was a scornful look on her pale face as she spoke. 'We are not
+going to remain here, since Miss Darrell is so anxious about our health.
+Shall we come in, Miss Garston? Perhaps it is a trifle chilly here.' And,
+seeing how the wind blew, and that Miss Darrell was determined to have
+her way in the matter, I acquiesced silently; but I was not a bit
+surprised to see Lady Betty stamp her little foot as she followed us.
+
+Miss Darrell was lying back on a velvet lounge, and welcomed us with
+a provoking smile.
+
+'I thought the threat of telling Giles would bring you in, Gladys,' she
+said, laughing. 'What a foolish child you are to be so reckless of your
+health! Every one knows Gladys is delicate,' she went on, turning to me;
+'everything gives her cold. Giles has been obliged to forbid her
+attending evening service this winter: you were terribly rebellious about
+it, were you not, my dear? but of course Giles had his way. No one in
+this house ventures to disobey him.'
+
+Miss Hamilton did not answer: she was standing looking into the fire, and
+her lips were set firmly as though nothing would make her unclose them.
+
+'Oh, do sit down,' continued her cousin pettishly; 'it gives one such an
+uncomfortable feeling when a tall person stands like a statue before
+one.' And as Miss Hamilton quietly seated herself, she went on, 'Don't
+you think religious people are far more self-willed than worldly ones,
+Miss Garston? I daresay you are self-willed yourself. Gladys made as much
+fuss about giving up evening service as though her salvation depended on
+her going twice or three times a day. "What is to prevent you reading the
+service in your own room?" I used to say to her. "It cannot be your duty
+to disobey your brother and make yourself ill."'
+
+'The illness lay in your own imagination, Etta,' observed Miss Hamilton
+coldly. 'Giles would never have found out my chest was delicate if you
+had not told him so.'
+
+Miss Darrell gave her favourite little shrug, and inspected her rings.
+
+'See what thanks I get for my cousinly care,' she said good-humouredly.
+'I suppose, Gladys, you were vexed with me for telling him that you were
+working yourself to death,--that the close air of the schoolroom made
+your head ache, and that so much singing was too much for your strength.'
+
+'If you please, Etta, we will talk about some other subject; my health,
+or want of health, will not interest Miss Garston.' She spoke with
+dignity, and then, turning to me with a winning smile, 'Giles has told me
+about your singing. Will you be good enough to sing something to us? It
+would be a great pleasure: both Lady Betty and I are so fond of music.'
+
+'Miss Garston looks very tired, Gladys; it is almost selfish to ask her,'
+observed Miss Darrell softly; and then I knew that Miss Hamilton's
+request did not please her.
+
+I had vowed to myself that no amount of pressing should induce me to sing
+that evening, but I could not have refused that gentle solicitation. As I
+unbuttoned my gloves and took my place at the grand piano, I determined
+that I would sing anything and everything that Miss Hamilton wished; Miss
+Darrell should not silence me; and with this resolve hot on me I
+commenced the opening bars of 'The Lost Chord,' and before I had finished
+the song Miss Hamilton had crept into the corner beside me, and remained
+there as motionless as though my singing had turned her into stone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+GLADYS
+
+
+I do not know how the majority of people feel when they sing, but with me
+the love of music was almost a passion. I could forget my audience in a
+moment, and would be scarcely aware if the room were empty or crowded.
+
+For example, on this evening I had no idea that the gentlemen had entered
+the room, and the first intimation of the fact was conveyed to me by
+hearing a 'Bravo!' uttered by Mr. Hamilton under his breath.
+
+'But you must not leave off,' he went on, quite earnestly. 'I want you to
+treat us as you treat poor Phoebe Locke, and sing one song after another
+until you are tired.'
+
+I was about to refuse this request very civilly but decidedly, for I
+had no notion of obeying such an arbitrary command, when Miss Hamilton
+touched my arm.
+
+'Oh, do please go on singing as Giles says: it is such a pleasure to hear
+you.' And after this I could no longer refuse.
+
+So I sang one song after another, chiefly from memory, and sometimes I
+could hear a soft clapping of hands, and sometimes there was breathless
+silence, and a curious feeling came over me as I sang. I thought that the
+only person to whom I was singing was Miss Hamilton, and that I was
+pleading with her to tell me the reason of her sadness, and why there was
+such a weary, hopeless look in her eyes, when the world was so young with
+her and the God-given gift of beauty was hers.
+
+I was singing as though she and I were alone in the room, when Max
+suddenly whispered in my ear, 'That will do, Ursula,' and as soon as the
+verse concluded I left off. But before I could rise Miss Darrell was
+beside us.
+
+'Oh, thank you so much, Miss Garston; you are very amiable to sing so
+long. Giles was certainly loud in your praises, but I was hardly prepared
+for such a treat. Why, Gladys dear, have you been crying? What an
+impressionable child you are! Miss Garston has not contrived to draw
+tears from my eyes.'
+
+But, without making any reply, Miss Hamilton quietly left the room. Were
+her eyes wet, I wonder? Was that why Max stopped me? Did he want to
+shield her from her cousin's sharp scrutiny? If so, he failed.
+
+'It is such a pity Gladys is so foolishly sensitive,' she went on,
+addressing Uncle Max: 'natures of this sort are quite unfit for the stern
+duties of life. I am quite uneasy about her sometimes, am I not, Giles?
+Her spirits are so uneven, and she has so little strength. Parochial work
+nearly killed her, Mr. Cunliffe. You said yourself how ill she looked in
+the summer.'
+
+'True; but I never thought the work hurt her,' replied Max, rather
+bluntly. 'I think it was a mistake for Miss Hamilton to give up all her
+duties; occupation is good for every one.'
+
+'That is my opinion,' observed Mr. Hamilton. 'Etta is always making a
+fuss about Gladys's health, but I tell her there is not the least reason
+for alarm; many people not otherwise delicate take cold easily. It is
+true I advised her to give up evening service for a few weeks until she
+got stronger.'
+
+'Indeed!' And here Max looked a little perplexed. 'I thought you told me,
+Miss Darrell, that your cousin found our service too long and wearisome,
+and this was the reason she stayed away.'
+
+'Oh no; you must have misunderstood me,' returned Miss Darrell, flushing
+a little. 'Gladys may have said she liked a shorter sermon in the
+evening, but that was hardly her reason for staying away; at least--'
+
+'Of course not. What nonsense you talk, Etta!' observed Mr. Hamilton
+impatiently. 'You know what a trouble I had to coax Gladys to stay at
+home; she was rather obstinate about it,--as girls are,--but I asked her
+as a special favour to myself to remain.'
+
+Max's face cleared up surprisingly, and as Miss Hamilton at that moment
+re-entered the room, he accosted her almost eagerly.
+
+'Miss Hamilton, we have been talking about you in your absence; your
+brother and I have been agreeing that it is really a great pity that you
+should have given up all your parish duties; it is a little hard on us
+all, is it not, Tudor? Your brother declares occupation will do you good.
+Now, I am sure your cousin will not have the slightest objection to give
+up your old class, and she can take Miss Matthews's, and then I shall
+have two good workers instead of one.'
+
+For an instant Miss Hamilton hesitated; her face relaxed, and she looked
+at Max a little wistfully; but Miss Darrell interposed in her sprightly
+way:
+
+'Do as you like, Gladys dear. Mr. Cunliffe will be too glad of your help,
+I am sure, as he sees how much you wish it. We all think you are fretting
+after your old scholars; home duties are not exciting enough, and even
+Giles notices how dull you are. Oh, you shall have my class with
+pleasure; anything to see you happy, love. Shall we make the exchange
+to-morrow?'
+
+'No, thank you, Etta; I think things had better be as they are.' And
+Miss Hamilton walked away proudly, and spoke to Mr. Tudor; the sudden
+brightness in her face had dimmed, and I was near enough to see that her
+hand trembled.
+
+'There, you see,' observed Miss Darrell complacently. 'I have done my
+best to persuade her in public and private to amuse herself and not give
+way to her feelings of lassitude. "Do a little, but not much," I have
+often said to her; but with Gladys it must be all or none.'
+
+'Ursula, do you know how late it is?' asked Max, coming up to me. He
+looked suddenly very tired, and I saw at once that he wished me to go: so
+I made my adieux as quickly as possible, and in a few minutes we had left
+the house, accompanied by Mr. Tudor.
+
+Uncle Max was very quiet all the way home. I had expected him to be full
+of questions as to how I had enjoyed my evening, but his only remark was
+to ask if I were very tired, and then he left me to Mr. Tudor.
+
+'Well, how do you like the folks up at Gladwyn?' demanded Mr. Tudor.
+'Lady Betty was not in the best of humours to-night, and hardly deigned
+to speak to me; but I am sure you must have admired Miss Hamilton.'
+
+'I like both of them,' was my temperate reply: 'you must not be hard on
+poor little Lady Betty. Miss Darrell had been lecturing her, and that
+made her cross.'
+
+'So I supposed,' was the prompt answer. 'Well, what did you think of the
+Dare-all,--as the vicar calls her sometimes? is she not like a pleasant
+edition of Tupper's _Proverbial Philosophy_,--verbose and full of long
+sentences? How many words did she coin to-night, do you think?'
+
+There was a little scorn in the young man's voice. Miss Darrell was
+evidently not a favourite in the vicarage, yet most people would have
+called her elegant and well-mannered, and, if she had no beauty, she was
+not bad-looking. She was so exceedingly well made up, and her style of
+dress was so suitable to her face, that I was not surprised to hear
+afterwards from Lady Betty that many people thought her cousin Etta
+handsome. Now when Mr. Tudor made this spiteful little speech I felt
+rather pleased, for my dislike to Miss Darrell had increased rather
+than diminished by the evening's experiences; under her smooth speeches
+there lurked an antagonistic spirit; something had prejudiced her against
+me even at our first meeting; I was convinced that she did not like me,
+and would not encourage my visit to Gladwyn. Mr. Tudor and I talked a
+good deal about Lady Betty; he described her as most whimsical and
+sound-hearted, half-child and half-woman, with a touch of the brownie;
+her brother often called her Brownie, or little Nix, to tease her. She
+was very fond of her sister, he went on to say, but there was not much
+companionship between them. Miss Hamilton was very intellectual, and read
+a good deal, and Lady Betty never read anything but novels; they all made
+a pet of her,--even Mr. Hamilton, who was not much given to pets,--but
+she was hardly an influence in the house.
+
+'She has not backbone enough,' he finished, 'and the Dare-all rules them
+all with a rod of iron--"cased in velvet."'
+
+Uncle Max listened to all this in silence, and as they parted with me at
+the gate of the White Cottage he only said 'Good-night, Ursula,' in a
+depressed voice. He was evidently rather cast down about something;
+perhaps Miss Hamilton's decision had disappointed him; she had been
+his favourite worker, and had helped him greatly; he seemed to feel it
+hard that she should withdraw her services so suddenly. How wistfully she
+had looked at him as he pleaded with her! it was the first time I had
+seen her look at him of her own accord, and yet she had denied his
+request,--very firmly and gently.
+
+'I must be friends with her, and then perhaps she will tell me all about
+it some day,' I thought; for I was convinced that there was more than met
+the eye; but it was some time before I could banish these perplexing
+thoughts.
+
+I saw a good deal of Lady Betty during the next week or two. I met her
+frequently on my way to the Lockes', and she would walk with me to the
+gate, and two or three times she made her appearance at the Marshall's';
+'for it's no use calling at the White Cottage of an afternoon,' she would
+say disconsolately, 'for you are never at home, you inhospitable
+creature.'
+
+'Why, do you think I live here, Lady Betty!' I returned, smiling. 'Do you
+know I am becoming a most punctual person? I am always back at the White
+Cottage by five, and sometimes a little earlier, and I shall always be
+pleased if you will come in and have tea with me.'
+
+'I should like it of all things,' replied Lady Betty, with a sigh; 'and I
+will come sometimes, you will see if I don't. But I know Etta will make a
+fuss; she always does if I stay out after dark; and it is dark at four
+now. That is why I pop in here to see you, because Etta is always busy in
+the mornings and never takes any notice of what we do.'
+
+'But surely Miss Darrell will not object to your coming to see me?' I
+asked, somewhat piqued at this.
+
+'Oh dear, no,' returned Lady Betty, jumbling her words as though she
+found my question embarrassing. 'Etta never objects openly to anything we
+do, only she throws stumbling-blocks in our way. I do not know why I have
+got it into my head that she would not like Gladys or me to come here
+without her, but it is there all the same,--the idea, I mean; it was
+something she said the other night to Mrs. Maberley that gave me this
+impression. Mrs. Maberley wanted to call on you, because she said you
+were Mr. Cunliffe's niece, and people ought to take notice of you. And
+Etta said, "Oh dear, yes; and it was a very kind thought on Mrs.
+Maberley's part, and Mr. Cunliffe would think it so. That was why Giles
+had invited you to Gladwyn. But there was no hurry, and you evidently
+were not prepared to enter into society. You had rather strong-minded
+views on this subject, and she was not quite sure whether Giles was wise
+to encourage the intimacy with his sisters."'
+
+'Miss Darrell said this to Mrs. Maberley?'
+
+'Yes. Was it not horrid of Etta? I felt so cross. And Mrs. Maberley is
+such an old dear: only rather old-fashioned in her notions about girls.
+So Etta's speech rather frightened her, I could see. Of course she has
+not called yet? I am almost inclined to tell Giles about it.'
+
+'Indeed, I hope you will do nothing of the kind, Lady Betty. I am sorry
+Miss Darrell does not like me; but I do not see that it matters so very
+much what people think of us.'
+
+'Yes; but when Etta takes a dislike to people she tries to prevent us
+from knowing them: that is the provoking part of it. She is so dreadfully
+jealous, and I expect it was your singing that gave umbrage. Etta is not
+at all accomplished; she never cared much for Gladys to sing, because she
+had such a sweet voice, and it put her in the background. Ah! I know how
+mean it sounds, but it is just the truth about Etta. And if I were to
+drop in for five-o'clock tea, as you say, Leah would be sure to make her
+appearance and say I was wanted at Gladwyn.'
+
+I found Lady Betty's confidential speeches rather embarrassing, and when
+I knew her a little better I took her to task rather seriously for her
+want of reticence. But she only pouted, and said, 'When one looks at you,
+Miss Garston, one cannot help telling you things: they all tumble out
+without one's will. That is what Gladys means when she says you have a
+sympathetic face. I wish you would get her to talk to you.'
+
+As Lady Betty persisted in haunting the Marshalls' cottage, I
+determined to make her useful. So I set her to read to Elspeth, or to
+give sewing-lessons to Peggy, or to amuse the younger children, while
+I was engaged with my patient; and I soon found that she was a most
+helpful little body.
+
+Mr. Hamilton found her sitting in the kitchen one day surrounded by the
+children. She was telling them a story. The baby was sucking her thumb
+contentedly on her lap. Poor Mary was worse that day, and I had begged
+Lady Betty to keep the little ones quiet.
+
+Mr. Hamilton came into the sick-room looking very much pleased. 'I only
+wish you could make Lady Betty a useful member of society, Miss Garston,'
+he said, with one of the rare smiles that always lit up his dark face so
+pleasantly. 'She is a good little thing, but she wants ballast. As a
+rule, young ladies are terribly idle.'
+
+I had called up at Gladwyn a few days after we had dined there, but, to
+my great disappointment, I did not see Miss Hamilton. Miss Darrell was
+alone, so my visit was as brief as possible.
+
+She told me at once that her cousins had gone over to Brighton for an
+afternoon's shopping, and that Mr. Hamilton had run up to London for a
+few hours. And then she commenced plying me with questions in a ladylike
+way about my work and my past life, but in such a skilful manner that it
+was almost impossible to avoid answering. She was so sure that I must be
+dull, living all alone. Oh, of course I was too good and unselfish to say
+so, but all the same I must be miserably dull. What could have put such a
+singular idea in my head, she wondered. When young ladies did this sort
+of thing there was generally some painful reason: they were unhappy at
+home, or they had had some disastrous love-affair. Of course--laughing
+a little affectedly--she had no intention of hinting at such a reason in
+my case; any one could see at a glance that I was not that sort of
+person; I was far too sensible and matter-of-fact: gentlemen would be
+quite afraid of me, I was so strong-minded. But all the same she pleaded
+guilty to a feeling of natural curiosity why such an idea had come into
+my head.
+
+When I had warded off this successfully,--for I declined to enlighten
+Miss Darrell on this subject,--she flew off at a tangent to Aunt
+Philippa.
+
+'It was such a pity when relations did not entirely harmonise. An aunt
+could never replace a mother. Ah! she knew that too well: and when there
+were daughters--and she had heard from Mr. Cunliffe that my cousin Sara
+was excessively pretty and charming--no doubt there would be natural
+misunderstandings and jealousies. In spite of all my goodness, I was only
+human. Of course she understood perfectly how it all happened, and she
+felt very sorry for me.'
+
+I disclaimed the notion of any family disagreement with some warmth, but
+I do not think she believed me. She had evidently got it into her head
+that I was a strong-minded young woman with an uncertain temper, who
+could not live peaceably at home. No doubt she had hinted this to Mrs.
+Maberley and other ladies. She would make this the excuse for
+discouraging any degree of intimacy with her cousins. I should not be
+asked very often to Gladwyn if it depended on Miss Darrell; but Mr.
+Hamilton had a will of his own, and if he chose me as a companion for
+his sisters, Miss Darrell would find it difficult to exclude me.
+
+One could see at a glance that Mr. Hamilton was master in his own house.
+Miss Darrell seemed perfectly submissive to him. There was something
+almost obsequious in her manner to him. She watched his looks anxiously,
+and, though she coaxed and flattered him, she did not seem quite certain
+how he would take her speeches.
+
+'We are a strange household; don't you think so, Miss Garston?' she
+observed presently. 'Giles is our lord and master. None of us poor women
+dare to contradict him. When dear mamma was alive, she had a great deal
+of influence over him. He was very fond of her. Her death made a great
+difference in the house.'
+
+'It must have been a great trouble to you, Miss Darrell.'
+
+'Yes, indeed. I was almost broken-hearted. She had been the dearest and
+most indulgent of mothers; but Giles was very good to me. Gladys and Lady
+Betty were very devoted to her; perhaps you have heard them speak of Aunt
+Margaret. Ah! I forgot, you have only seen Gladys twice.' And here she
+looked at me rather sharply, but I nodded acquiescence. 'Gladys was
+always a favourite with her.'
+
+'Miss Hamilton must be a general favourite,' I replied, a little
+unguardedly.
+
+'Ah! I suppose you think her handsome,' in rather a forced manner: 'many
+people say she is too pale, and rather too statuesque, for their taste.'
+
+'In my opinion she is very beautiful,' I replied quickly, 'I told Uncle
+Max the other day that I thought her face almost perfect.'
+
+'And what did he say?' she asked, rather eagerly. 'Did he agree with
+you?' But I was obliged to confess that I had forgotten his answer.
+
+'I know Mr. Cunliffe thinks Gladys cold,' she went on. 'He is too
+kind-hearted to say so; but I know he feels hurt at her desertion of her
+post. It was a strange whim on her part to give up all her parish work.
+I am afraid it was a little bit of temper. Gladys has a temper, though
+you may not think so. She is very firm, and does not brook the least
+interference on my part. Poor dear! if it were not wrong, I should say
+she was a little jealous of my influence with Giles, because he likes
+me to do things for him; but how am I to help doing what he asks me,
+when I owe the very bread I eat to his kindness?'
+
+Miss Darrell was poor and dependent then. This piece of news surprised
+me. I thought of the glittering rings and silver-mounted dressing-case
+and all the luxurious appliances in her toilet, and wondered if Mr.
+Hamilton had paid for them.
+
+Miss Darrell seemed to read my thoughts in a most wonderful way.
+
+'Poor mother left very little except personal jewellery. Yes, I owe
+everything to Giles's generosity. He is good enough to say that I earn my
+allowance,--and indeed I am never idle; but,' interrupting herself, 'I do
+not want to talk of myself; I am a very insignificant person,--just
+Giles's housekeeper; Gladys is mistress of the house. I only wanted you
+to explain to Mr. Cunliffe that I am not to blame for Gladys's strange
+whim. Let me explain a little. She was looking very ill and overworked,
+and I begged Giles to lecture her. I told him that there was no need for
+Gladys to do quite so much; in fact, she was putting herself a little too
+forward in the parish, considering how young she was, and the vicar an
+unmarried man. So Giles and I gave her a word. I am sure he spoke most
+gently, and I was very careful indeed in only giving her a hint that
+people, and even Mr. Cunliffe, might misconstrue such devotion. I never
+saw Gladys in such a passion; and the next day she had flung everything
+up. She told the vicar that the schoolroom made her head ache, and that
+her throat was delicate, and she could not sing. Poor Mr. Cunliffe was
+in such despair that I was obliged to offer my services. It is far too
+much for me; but what can I do? the parish must not suffer for Gladys's
+wilfulness. Now if you could only explain things a little to Mr.
+Cunliffe; he looked so hurt the other night when Gladys refused to take
+her old class. No wonder he misses her, for she used to teach the
+children splendidly; but if he knew it was only a little temper on
+Gladys's part he would look over it and be friends with her again. But
+you must have noticed yourself, Miss Garston, how little he had to say
+to her.'
+
+I had found it impossible to check Miss Darrell's loquacity or to edge in
+a single word; but as soon as her breath failed I rose to take my leave,
+and she did not seek to detain me.
+
+'You will explain this to Mr. Cunliffe, for Gladys's sake,' she said,
+holding my hand. 'I do want him to think well of her, and I can see his
+good opinion is shaken.'
+
+But to this I made no audible reply; but, as I shook off the dust of
+Gladwyn, I told myself that Uncle Max should not hear Miss Darrell's
+version from my lips. She wished to make me a tool in her hands; but her
+breach of confidence had a very different result from what she expected.
+Miss Darrell's words had cleared up a perplexity in my mind: I could read
+between the lines, and I fully exonerated Miss Hamilton.
+
+The following afternoon I had a most unexpected pleasure. When I came
+back to the cottage after my day's work Mrs. Barton met me at the door
+and told me that Miss Hamilton was in the parlour.
+
+I had thought she meant Lady Betty; but, to my surprise, I found Miss
+Hamilton seated by the fire. A pleased smile came to her face as I
+greeted her most warmly. She must have seen how glad I was; but she
+shrank back rather nervously when I begged her to take off her furred
+mantle and stay to tea.
+
+She was not sure that she could remain. Lady Betty was alone, as Giles
+and Etta were dining at the Maberleys'. She had been asked, and had
+refused; but Etta had taken in her work, as Mrs. Maberley had wanted them
+to go early. Perhaps she had better not stay, as it would not be kind to
+Lady Betty. But I soon overruled this objection. I told Miss Hamilton
+that I saw Lady Betty frequently, but that she herself had never called
+since her first visit, and that now I could not let her go.
+
+I think she wanted me to press her; she was arguing against her own
+wishes, it was easy to see that. By and by she asked me in a low voice if
+I were sure to be alone, or if I expected any visitors; and when I had
+assured her decidedly that no one but Uncle Max ever came to see me, and
+that I knew he was engaged this evening, her last scruple seemed to
+vanish, and she settled herself quite comfortably for a chat. We talked
+for a little while on indifferent subjects. She told me about the
+neighbourhood and the people who lived in the large houses by the church,
+and about her brother's work in the parish, and how if rich people sent
+for him he always kept them waiting while he went to the poor ones.
+
+'Giles calls himself the poor people's doctor: he attends them for
+nothing. He cannot always refuse rich people if they will have him, but
+he generally sends them to Dr. Ramsbotham. You see, he never takes money
+for his services, and as people know this, they are ashamed to send for
+him; and yet they want him because he is so clever. Giles is so fond of
+his profession; he is always regretting that he had a fortune left him,
+for he says it would have been far pleasanter to make one. Giles never
+did care for money; he is ready to fling it away to any one who asks
+him.'
+
+Miss Hamilton kept up this desultory talk all tea-time. She spoke with
+great animation about her brother, and I could hardly believe it was the
+same girl who had sat so silently at the head of the table that evening
+at Gladwyn. The sad abstracted look had left her face. It seemed as
+though for a little while she was determined to forget her troubles.
+
+When Mrs. Barton had taken away the tea-tray, she asked me, with the same
+wistful look in her eyes, to sing to her if I were not tired, and I
+complied at once.
+
+I sang for nearly half an hour, and then I returned to the fireside. I
+saw that Miss Hamilton put up her hand to shield her face from the light;
+but I took no notice, and after a little while she began to talk.
+
+'I never heard any singing like yours, Miss Garston; it is a great gift.
+There is something different in your voice from any one else's: it seems
+to touch one's heart.'
+
+'If my singing always makes you sad, Miss Hamilton, it is a very dubious
+gift.'
+
+'Ah, but it is a pleasant sadness,' she replied quickly. 'I feel as
+though some kind friend were sympathising with me when you sing: it tells
+me too that, like myself, you have known trouble.'
+
+I sighed as I looked at Charlie's picture. Her eyes followed my glance,
+and I saw again that tremulous motion of her hands.
+
+'Yes, I know,' she said hurriedly; but her beautiful eyes were full of
+tears. 'I have always been so sorry for you. You must feel so lonely
+without him.'
+
+The intense sympathy with which she said these few words seemed to break
+down my reserve. In a moment I had forgotten that we were strangers, as I
+told her about my love for Charlie, and the dear old life at the rectory.
+
+It was impossible to doubt the interest with which she listened to me. If
+I paused for an instant, she begged me very gently to tell her more about
+myself; she was so sorry for me; but it did her good to hear me.
+
+When I spoke of the life at Hyde Park Gate, and told her how little I was
+fitted for that sort of existence, she put down her shielding hand, and
+looked at me with strange wistfulness.
+
+'No, you are too real, too much in earnest, to be satisfied with that
+sort of life. Mr. Cunliffe used to tell us so. And I seemed to understand
+it all before I saw you. I always felt as though I knew you, even before
+we met. I hope,' hesitating a little, 'that we shall see a great deal of
+you. I know Giles wishes it.'
+
+'You cannot come here too often, Miss Hamilton. It will always be such a
+pleasure to me to see you.'
+
+'Oh, I did not mean that,' she returned nervously. 'I may not be able
+to come here,--that is, not alone; there are reasons, and you must not
+expect me; but I hope you will come to Gladwyn whenever you have an hour
+to spare. Giles said so the other day. I think he meant you to be friends
+with us. You must not mind,' getting still more nervous, 'if Etta is a
+little odd sometimes. Her moods vary, and she does not always make people
+feel as though they were welcome; but it is only her manner, so you must
+not mind it.'
+
+'Oh no; I shall hope to come and see you and Lady Betty some time.'
+
+'And,' she went on hurriedly, 'if there is anything that I can do to help
+you, I hope you will tell me so. Perhaps I cannot visit the people; but
+there are other things,--needlework, or a little money. Oh, I have so
+much spare time, and it will be such a pleasure.'
+
+'Oh yes; you shall help me,' I returned cheerfully, for she was looking
+so extremely nervous that I wanted to reassure her; but we were prevented
+from saying any more on this subject, for just then we heard the click of
+the little gate, and the next moment Uncle Max walked into the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+'WHY NOT TRUST ME, MAX?'
+
+
+Max looked very discomposed when he saw Miss Hamilton; he shook hands
+with her gravely, and sat down without saying a word. I wondered if it
+were my fancy, or if Miss Hamilton had really grown perceptibly paler
+since his entrance.
+
+'What does this mean, Uncle Max?' I asked gaily, for this sort of
+oppressive silence did not suit me at all. 'I understood that you and
+Mr. Tudor were dining at the Glynns' to-night.'
+
+'Lawrence has gone without me,' he replied. 'I had a headache, and so I
+sent an excuse; but, as it got better, I thought I would come up and see
+how you were getting on.'
+
+'A headache, Uncle Max!' looking at him rather anxiously, for I had never
+heard him complain of any ailment before. I had been dissatisfied with
+his appearance ever since I had come to Heathfield; he had looked worn
+and thin for some time, but to-night he looked wretched.
+
+'Oh, it is nothing,' he returned quickly. 'Miss Hamilton, I hardly
+expected to find you here with Ursula. I thought you were all going
+to the Maberleys'.'
+
+'Etta and Giles have gone,' she replied quietly. 'I ought not to be here,
+as Lady Betty is alone at Gladwyn; but Miss Garston persuaded me to
+remain; but it is getting late. I must be going,' rising as she spoke.
+
+'There is not the slightest need for you to hurry,' observed Max; 'it is
+not so very late, and I will walk up with you to Gladwyn.'
+
+'Indeed, I hope you will do nothing of the kind,' she said hurriedly.
+'Miss Garston, will you please tell him that there is no need, no need
+at all? indeed, I would much rather not.'
+
+Miss Hamilton had lost all her repose of manner; she looked as nervous
+and shy as any school-girl when Max announced his intention of escorting
+her; and yet how could any gentleman have allowed her to go down those
+dark roads alone?
+
+Perhaps Max thought she was unreasonable, for there was a touch of satire
+in his voice as he answered her:
+
+'I certainly owe it to my conscience to see you safe home. What would
+Hamilton say if I allowed you to go alone?--Ursula,' turning to me with
+an odd look, 'it is a fine starlight night; suppose you put on your
+hat,--a run will do you good,--and relieve Miss Hamilton's mind.'
+
+'Yes, do come,' observed Miss Hamilton, in a relieved voice; but, as she
+spoke, her lovely eyes seemed appealing to him, and begging him not to be
+angry with her; but he frowned slightly, and turned aside and took up a
+book. How was it those two contrived to misunderstand each other so
+often? Max looked even more hurt than he had done at Gladwyn.
+
+I was not surprised to find that when I left the room Miss Hamilton
+followed me, but I was hardly prepared to hear her say in a troubled
+voice,--
+
+'Oh, how unfortunate I am! I would not have had this happen for worlds.
+Etta will--oh, what am I saying?--I am afraid Mr. Cunliffe is offended
+with me because I did not wish him to go home with me--but,' a little
+proudly and resentfully, 'he is too old a friend to misunderstand me, so
+he need not have said that.'
+
+'I think Uncle Max is not well to-night,' I replied soothingly. 'I never
+heard him speak in that tone before; he is always so careful not to hurt
+people's feelings.'
+
+'Yes, I know,' stifling a sigh; 'it is more my fault than his; he is
+looking wretchedly ill; and--and I think he is a little offended with me
+about other things; it is impossible to explain, and so he misjudges me.'
+
+'Why do you not try to make things a little clearer?' I asked. 'Could you
+not say a word to him as we walk home? Uncle Max is so good that I cannot
+bear him to be vexed about anything, and I know he is disappointed that
+you will not work in the school.'
+
+'Yes, I know; but you do not understand,' she returned gently. 'I should
+like to speak to him, if I dared, but I think my courage will fail; it is
+not so easy as you think.' And then as we went downstairs she took my
+arm, and I could feel that her hand was very cold. 'I wish he had not
+asked you to come: it shows he is hurt with me; but all the same I should
+have asked you myself.'
+
+Uncle Max took up his felt hat directly he saw us, and followed us
+silently into the entry; he did not speak as we went down the little
+garden together; and as we turned into the road leading to the vicarage
+it was Miss Hamilton who spoke first. She was still holding my arm,
+perhaps that gave her courage, and she looked across at Max, who was
+walking on my other side.
+
+'Mr. Cunliffe, I am so sorry you were hurt with me the other night,
+when Etta spoke about the schools. I am not giving up work for my own
+pleasure; I loved it far too much; but there are reasons,'
+
+I heard Max give a quick, impatient sigh in the darkness.
+
+'So you always say, Miss Hamilton; you remember we have talked of this
+before. I have thought it my duty more than once to remonstrate with you
+about giving up your work, but one seems to talk in the dark; somehow you
+have never given me any very definite reasons,--headaches,--well, as
+though I did not know you well enough to be sure you are the last person
+to think of ailments.'
+
+'Yes, but one's friends are over-careful; but still you are right; it is
+not only that. Mr. Cunliffe, I wish you would believe that I have good
+and sufficient reasons for what I do, even if I cannot explain them. It
+makes one unhappy to be misunderstood by one's clergyman, and,'
+hesitating a moment, 'and one's friends,'
+
+'Friends are not left so completely in the dark,' was the pointed answer.
+'It is no use, Miss Hamilton. I find it impossible to understand you. I
+have no right to be hurt. No, of course not, no right at all,'--and here
+Max laughed unsteadily,--'but still, as a clergyman, I thought it could
+not be wrong to remonstrate when my best worker deserted her post.'
+
+There was no response to this, only Miss Hamilton's hand lay a little
+heavily on my arm, as though she were tired. I though it best to be
+silent. No word of mine was needed. I could tell from Max's voice and
+manner how bitterly he was hurt.
+
+But when he next spoke it was on a different subject.
+
+'I must beg your pardon, Miss Hamilton, for having wronged you in my
+thoughts about something else. I find your brother has forbidden you to
+attend evening service for the present. And no doubt he is right; but
+your cousin gave me to understand that you stayed away for a very
+different reason.'
+
+'What did Etta tell you?' she asked quickly. But before he could answer
+a dark figure seemed to emerge rather suddenly from the roadside. Miss
+Hamilton dropped my arm at once. 'Is that you, Leah? Have my brother and
+Miss Darrell returned from Maplehurst?' And I detected an anxious note
+in her voice.
+
+'Yes, ma'am,' returned Leah civilly; 'and Miss Darrell seemed anxious at
+your being out so late, because you would take cold, and master begged
+you would wrap up and walk very fast.'
+
+'Oh, I shall take no harm,' returned Miss Hamilton impatiently.
+'Good-night, Miss Garston, and thank you for a very happy evening.
+Good-night, Mr. Cunliffe, and thank you, too. There is no need to come
+any farther: Leah will take care of me.' And she waved her hand and moved
+away in the darkness.
+
+'What a bugbear that woman is!' I observed, rather irritably, as we
+retraced our steps in the direction of the Man and Plough, the little inn
+that stood at the junction of the four roads. Everything looked dark and
+eerie in the faint starlight. Our footsteps seemed to strike sharply
+against the hard, white road; there was a suspicion of frost in the air.
+When Max spoke, which was not for some minutes, he merely remarked that
+we should have a cold Christmas, and then he asked me if I would dine
+with him at the vicarage on Christmas Day. He and Mr. Tudor would be
+alone.
+
+'Christmas will be here in less than a fortnight, Ursula,' he went on,
+rather absently, but I knew he was not thinking of what he was saying.
+And when we reached the White Cottage he followed me into the parlour,
+sat down before the fire, and stretched out his hands to the blaze, as
+though he were very cold.
+
+I stood and watched him for a moment, and then I could bear it no longer.
+
+'Oh, Max!' I exclaimed, 'I wish you would tell me what makes you look so
+wretchedly ill to-night. Even Miss Hamilton noticed it. I am sure there
+is something the matter.'
+
+'Nonsense, child! What should be the matter?' But Max turned his face
+away as he spoke. 'I told you that I had a headache; but that is nothing
+to make a fuss about. Mrs. Drabble shall make me a good strong cup of tea
+when I get home.'
+
+Max's manner was just a trifle testy, but I was not going to be repelled
+after this fashion. On the contrary, I put my hand on his shoulder and
+obliged him to look at me.
+
+'It is not only a headache. You are unhappy about something; as though
+I do not see that. Max, you know we have always been like brother and
+sister, and I want you to tell me what has grieved you.'
+
+That touched him, as I knew it would, for he had dearly loved his sister.
+
+'I wish your mother were here now,' he returned, in a moved voice. 'I
+wish poor Emmie were here: there were not many women like her. One could
+have trusted her with anything.'
+
+'I think I am to be trusted too, Max.'
+
+'Yes, yes, you are like her, Ursula. You have got just the same quiet
+way. Your voice always reminds me of hers. She was a dear, good sister
+to me, more like a mother than a sister. I think if she had lived she
+would have been a great comfort to me now, Ursula.'
+
+'I know I am not so good as my mother, but I should like to be a comfort
+to you in her place.'
+
+I suppose Max's ear detected the suppressed pain in my voice, for as he
+looked at me his manner changed; the old affectionate smile came to his
+lips, and he put his hands lightly on me, as though to keep me near him.
+'You have been a comfort to me, my dear. You and I have always understood
+each other. I think you are as good as gold, Ursula.'
+
+'Then why not trust me, Max? Why not tell me what makes you so unhappy?'
+
+'Little she-bear,' he said, still smiling, 'you must not begin to growl
+at me after this fashion, because I am somewhat hipped and want a change.
+There is no need to be anxious about me. A man in my position must have
+his own and other people's difficulties to bear. No, no, my dear, you
+have a wise head, but you are too young to take my burdens on your
+shoulders. What should you know about an old bachelor's worries?'
+
+'An old bachelor,' I returned indignantly, 'when you know you are young
+and handsome, Max! How can you talk such nonsense?'
+
+I could see he was amused at this.
+
+'You must not expect me to believe that; a man is no judge of his own
+looks: but I never thought much about such things myself. I detest the
+notion of a handsome parson. There, we will dismiss the subject of your
+humble servant. I want to ask you a favour, Ursula.' And then I knew that
+all my coaxing had been in vain, and that he did not mean to tell me what
+troubled him and made him look so pinched and worn.
+
+But, in spite of this preface, he kept me waiting for a long time, while
+he sat silently looking into the fire and stroking his brown beard.
+
+'Ursula,' he began at last, still gazing into the red cavern of coals, as
+though he saw visions there, 'I want you and Miss Hamilton to be great
+friends. I am sure that she has taken to you, and she likes few people,
+and it will be very good for her to be with you.'
+
+Max's speech took me somewhat by surprise. I had not expected him to
+mention Miss Hamilton's name.
+
+'She is not happy,' he went on, 'and she is more lonely than other
+girls of her age. Miss Elizabeth is a nice bright little thing, but,
+as Lawrence says, she wants ballast; she is a child compared to
+Gladys,--Miss Hamilton, I mean.' And here Max stammered a little
+nervously.
+
+'No, you are right, she is not happy,' I returned quietly; 'she gives me
+the impression that she has known some great trouble.'
+
+'Every one has his troubles,' he replied evasively. 'Most people indulge
+in the luxury of a private skeleton. Now I have often thought that Miss
+Hamilton and her sister would have been far happier without Miss Darrell;
+she has rather a peculiar temper, and I have often fancied that she has
+misrepresented things. It is always difficult to understand women, even
+the best of them,' with a smothered sigh, 'but I confess Miss Darrell is
+rather a problem to me.'
+
+'I am not surprised to hear you say that,' I returned quickly: 'you are
+just the sort of man, Max, to be hoodwinked by any designing person. I am
+less charitable than you, and women are sharper in these matters. I have
+already found out that Miss Darrell makes Miss Hamilton miserable.'
+
+'Gently, gently, Ursula,' in quite a shocked voice; 'there is no need to
+put things quite so strongly: you are rather hasty, my dear. Miss Darrell
+may be a little too managing, and perhaps jealous and exacting; but I
+think she is very fond of her cousins.'
+
+'Indeed!' rather drily, for I did not agree with Max in the least; he was
+always ready to believe the best of every one.
+
+'Hamilton, too, is really devoted to his sisters, but they do not
+understand him. I believe Miss Hamilton is very proud of her brother, but
+she does not confide in him. He has often told me, in quite a pained way,
+how reserved they are with him. I believe Miss Darrell is far more his
+_confidante_ than his sisters.'
+
+'No doubt,' I returned, quite convinced in my own mind that this was the
+case.
+
+'So you must see yourself how much Miss Hamilton needs a friend,' he went
+on hurriedly. 'I want you to be very good to her, Ursula; perhaps you may
+think it a little strange if I say that I think it will be as much your
+duty to befriend Miss Hamilton as to minister to Phoebe Locke.'
+
+'I wonder who is speaking strongly now, Max.'
+
+'But if it be the truth,' he pleaded, a little anxiously.
+
+'You need not fear,' was my answer: 'if Miss Hamilton requires my
+friendship, I am very willing to bestow it. I will be as good to her as
+I know how to be, Max. Is it likely I should refuse the first favour you
+have ever asked me?' And, as he thanked me rather gravely, I felt that he
+was very much in earnest about this. He went away after this, but I think
+I had succeeded in cheering him, for he looked more like himself as he
+bade me good-night; but after he had gone I sat for a long time,
+reflecting over our talk.
+
+I felt perplexed and a little saddened by what had passed. Max had not
+denied that he was unhappy, but he had refused to confide in me. Was his
+unhappiness connected in any way with Miss Hamilton? This question
+baffled me; it was impossible for me to answer it.
+
+I could not understand his manner to her. He was perfectly kind and
+gentle to her, as he was to all women, but he was also reserved and
+distant; in spite of their long acquaintance, for he had visited at
+Gladwyn for years, there was no familiarity between them. Miss Hamilton,
+on her part, seemed to avoid him, and yet I was sure she both respected
+and liked him. There was some strange barrier between them that hindered
+all free communication. Max was certainly not like himself when Miss
+Hamilton was present; and on her side she seemed to freeze and become
+unapproachable the moment he appeared. But this was not the only thing
+that perplexed me. The whole atmosphere of Gladwyn was oppressive. I had
+a subtile feeling of discomfort whenever Miss Darrell was in the room;
+her voice seemed to have a curious magnetic effect on one; its tuneless
+vibrations seemed to irritate me; if she spoke loudly, her voice was
+rather shrill and unpleasant. She knew this, and carefully modulated it.
+I used to wonder over its smoothness and fluency.
+
+And there was another thing that struck me. Mr. Hamilton seemed fond of
+his step-sisters, but he treated them with reserve; the frank jokes that
+pass between brothers and sisters, the pleasant raillery, the blunt
+speeches, the interchange of confidential looks, were missing in the
+family circle at Gladwyn. Mr. Hamilton behaved with old-fashioned
+courtesy to his sisters; he was watchful over their comfort, but he was
+certainly a little stiff and constrained in his manner to them: he seemed
+to unbend more freely to his cousin than to them; he had scolded her
+good-humouredly once or twice, after quite a brotherly fashion, and she
+had taken his rebukes in a way that showed they understood each other.
+I grew tired at last of trying to adjust my ideas on the subject of the
+Hamilton family. I was rather provoked to find how they had begun to
+absorb my interest. 'Never mind, I have promised Uncle Max to be good to
+her,' was my last waking thought that night, 'and I am determined to keep
+my word.' And I fell asleep, and dreamt that I was trying to save Miss
+Hamilton from drowning, and that all the time Miss Darrell was standing
+on the shore, laughing and pelting us with stones, and when a larger one
+than usual struck me, I awoke.
+
+I wondered if it were accident or design that brought Miss Darrell across
+my path the next day. I had just left the Lockes' cottage, feeling
+somewhat tired and depressed: Phoebe had been in one of her contrary
+moods, and had given me a good deal of trouble, but the evil spirit had
+been quieted at last, and I had taken my leave after reprimanding her
+severely for her rudeness. I was just closing the garden gate, when Miss
+Darrell came up to me in the dusk, holding out her hand with her tingling
+little laugh.
+
+'How odd that we should have met just here! I hardly knew you, Miss
+Garston, in that long cloak, you looked so like a Sister of Charity.
+I think you are very wise to adopt a uniform.'
+
+'Thank you, but I have hardly adopted one,' I returned, folding the fur
+edges of my cloak closer to me, for it was a bitterly cold evening. 'Are
+you going home, Miss Darrell? because you have passed the turning that
+leads to Gladwyn.'
+
+'Oh, I do not mind a longer round,' was the careless answer. 'I am very
+hardy, and a walk never hurts me. If it were Gladys, now--by the bye,
+have you seen my cousin Giles to-day?'
+
+'No,' I returned, wondering a little at her question.
+
+'You are lucky to have escaped him,' with another laugh. 'Dear, dear,
+how angry Giles was last night, to be sure, when we came home and found
+Gladys out! he was far too angry to say much to her; he only asked her if
+she had taken leave of her senses, and that some people--I do not know
+whom he meant--ought to be ashamed of themselves.'
+
+'Indeed!' somewhat sarcastically, for I confess this speech made me feel
+rather cross. I wondered if Mr. Hamilton could really have said it. I
+determined that I would ask him on the first opportunity.
+
+'It was a very injudicious proceeding,' went on Miss Darrell smoothly.
+'Gladys was to blame, of course; but still, if you remember, I told you
+how delicate she was, and how we dreaded night air for her: young people
+are so careless of their health, but of course, as Giles said, we thought
+she would be safe with you. You see, Giles looks upon you in the
+character of nurse, Miss Garston, and forgets you are young too. "Depend
+upon it, they have forgotten the time," I said to him: "when two girls
+are chattering their secrets to each other, they are not likely to
+remember anything so sublunary." You should have seen Giles's expression
+of lordly disgust when I said that.'
+
+'I should rather have heard Mr. Hamilton's answer.'
+
+'Don't be too sure of that,' returned Miss Darrell, in a mocking voice
+that somehow recalled my dream. 'I am afraid it would not please you.
+Giles is no flatterer. He said he thought you would have been far too
+sensible for that sort of nonsense, but that one never knew, and that it
+was not only young and pretty girls like Gladys who could be romantic,
+and for all your staid looks you were not Methuselah: rather a dubious
+speech, Miss Garston.'
+
+'True!' far too dubious to be entirely palatable to my feminine pride;
+but I was careful not to hint this to Miss Darrell, and she went on in
+the same light jesting way.
+
+'It is terribly hard to satisfy Giles, he is so critical; he sets
+impossible standards for people, and then sneers if they do not reach
+them. He had conceived rather a high opinion of you, Miss Garston. He
+told me one day that he would be glad for you to be intimate with his
+sisters, as they would only learn good from you, and that he hoped that
+I would encourage your visits. I trust that he has not changed his
+opinion since then; but Giles is so odd when people disappoint him. I
+said last night that we would invite you for to-morrow, and then you
+and Gladys could finish your talk; but he was as cross as possible, and
+begged that I would invite no one for Thursday, as he was very busy, and
+Gladys must find another opportunity for her talk. There, how I am
+chattering on!--and perhaps I ought not to have said all that; but I
+thought you would wonder at our want of neighbourliness, and of course we
+cannot expect you to understand Giles's odd temper: it is a great pity
+he has got this idea in his head.'
+
+'What idea, Miss Darrell?'
+
+'Dear, dear, how sharp you are! how you take me up! Of course it is only
+Giles's ill temper: he cannot really think you wanting in ballast.'
+
+'Oh, I understand now. Please go on.'
+
+'But I have no more to say,' rather bewildered by my abruptness. 'Of
+course we shall see you soon, when all this has blown over. If you like,
+I will tell Giles I have seen you.'
+
+'Please tell Mr. Hamilton nothing. I will speak to him myself.
+Good-night, Miss Darrell; I am rather cold and tired after my day's work.
+I do not in the least expect that Miss Hamilton has taken any harm.' And
+I made my escape. I do not know what Miss Darrell thought of me, but she
+walked on rather thoughtfully; as for me, I felt tingling all over with
+irritation. If Mr. Hamilton had dared to imply these things of me, I
+should hardly be able to keep my promise to Uncle Max, for I would
+certainly decline to visit at Gladwyn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+MISS HAMILTON'S LITTLE SCHOLAR
+
+
+Miss Darrell's innuendoes were not to be borne with any degree of
+patience. Mr. Hamilton's opinion might be nothing to me,--how often I
+repeated that!--but all the same I owed it to my dignity to seek an
+explanation with him.
+
+The opportunity came the very next day.
+
+He called to speak to me about a new patient, a little cripple boy who
+had broken his arm; the father was a labourer, and there were ten
+children, and the mother took in washing. 'Poor Robin has not much chance
+of good nursing,' he went on; 'Mrs. Bell is not a bad mother, as mothers
+go, but she is overworked and overburdened; she has a good bit of
+difficulty in keeping her husband out of the alehouse. Good heavens! what
+lives these women lead! it is to be hoped that it will be made up to them
+in another world: no washing-tubs and ale-houses there, no bruised bodies
+and souls, eh, Miss Garston?'
+
+Mr. Hamilton was talking in his usual fashion; he had taken the arm-chair
+I had offered him, and seemed in no hurry to leave it, although his
+dinner-hour was approaching. When he had given me full directions about
+Robin, and I had promised to go to him directly after my breakfast the
+next morning, I said to him in quite a careless manner that I hoped Miss
+Hamilton was well and had sustained no ill effects from her visit to me.
+
+'Oh no: she is better than usual. I think you roused her and did her
+good. Gladys mopes too much at home. All the same,' in a tolerant tone,
+'you ought not to have kept her so late; as Etta very wisely remarked, it
+was no good for her to stay in on Sundays and remain out a couple of
+hours later another night; you see, Gladys takes cold so easily.'
+
+'I hear you were very much inclined to blame the village nurse, Mr.
+Hamilton.'
+
+'Who?--I?' looking at me in a little surprise. 'I do not remember that I
+said anything very dreadful. Etta was in a fuss, as usual; you managing
+women like to make a fuss sometimes: she sent off Leah, and wanted me to
+lecture Gladys for her imprudence; but I was not inclined to be bothered,
+and said it was Gladys's affair if she chose to make herself ill, but all
+the same she ought to be ashamed of such skittishness at her age. I don't
+believe Gladys knew I was joking; that is the worst of her, she never
+sees a joke; Etta does, though, for she burst out laughing when my lady
+walked off to bed in rather a dignified manner. I hope you are not easily
+offended too, Miss Garston?'
+
+'Oh dear, no,' I returned coolly, 'only I should be sorry if you had in
+any way changed your opinion of my steadiness. Miss Darrell hinted that
+you were vexed with me for keeping your sister, and thought that I was
+to blame.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton looked so bewildered at this that I exonerated him from that
+moment.
+
+'What nonsense has that girl been talking?' he said, rather irritated.
+'I always tell her that tongue of hers will lead her into trouble; I know
+she talked plenty of rubbish that night. When she said it was a pity that
+you and Gladys were always chattering secrets, I told her that though you
+were not a Methuselah, you were hardly the sort of person to indulge in
+that sort of sentimentality, that I could answer for your good sense in
+that, and that Etta need not be so hard on a pretty young girl like
+Gladys. That was not accusing you of want of steadiness.'
+
+'No, thank you. I am so glad that I know what you really said.'
+
+'Indeed, I was not aware that my good or bad opinion mattered to Miss
+Garston: you have certainly never given me the impression that you mind
+very much what I say or think.'
+
+Was Mr. Hamilton cross? He looked quite moody all at once; his face wore
+that hard disagreeable look that I so disliked. He had been so pleasant
+in his manners ever since that evening at Gladwyn that I was rather sorry
+that this agreeable state of things should be disturbed. He was evidently
+not to blame for Miss Darrell's misrepresentations, so I hastened with
+much policy to throw oil on the troubled waters.
+
+'I do not know why you should say that. It ought not to be a matter of
+indifference what people think of us.'
+
+'Ought it not? Would you like to know my opinion of you after nearly
+a month of acquaintance? Let me warn you, I have entirely changed my
+opinion since our stormy interview in Cunliffe's study.'
+
+I do not know what there was in Mr. Hamilton's look and manner that made
+me say hastily,--
+
+'Oh no, I would rather not know, and I hope you will not tell me. I am
+quite sure you do not misconstrue my motives now.'
+
+'You may be quite sure of that,' rather grimly, as though my last speech
+displeased him. 'It is difficult not to think you older than you are, you
+are so terribly sensible and matter-of-fact. How can Gladys get on with
+you, I wonder? Do you put a moral extinguisher on all her romance?'
+
+'I am not quite so matter-of-fact as you make out, Mr. Hamilton.'
+
+He shot an odd sort of glance at me. 'When you sing, one can believe
+that; there is nothing prosaic in a nestful of larks. Poor Phoebe, I do
+believe you are doing her good: she looks far more human already. By the
+bye, when are you coming to sing to us again? I told Etta that I was
+engaged on Thursday, and she declared it was our only free day until
+Christmas.'
+
+'I shall be too busy to come till after then,' I replied quietly, for I
+did not wish him to think that I was ready to jump at any invitation to
+Gladwyn. He seemed rather disconcerted at my coldness.
+
+'Why, it is more than ten days to Christmas! I hope you do not mean to
+be stiff and unneighbourly, Miss Garston. I am afraid,' with a decidedly
+quizzical look, 'that pride is a serious defect of yours.'
+
+'Perhaps so; but, you see, I do not wish to be different from my
+neighbours,' I replied quietly; but my speech was received by Mr.
+Hamilton with a hearty laugh.
+
+'Oh yes, you are right: we are a proud lot,' he observed, as he rose to
+take leave. 'Well, Miss Garston, after Christmas is over, we shall hope
+to see you for an evening; but any afternoon you are free they will be
+glad to see you. Etta makes excellent tea. What a craze five-o'clock tea
+is with you women! I have protested against it in vain: the girls are in
+majority against me.' With this speech he took himself off. I was much
+relieved at this peaceable ending to our interview. Now he was gone I
+could scarcely believe that I had ventured on a joke with the formidable
+Mr. Hamilton, a joke which he had taken in excellent part. I began to
+feel less in awe of him: he certainly knew how to shake hands heartily,
+and I could recapitulate Lady Betty's criticism on myself and apply it
+to him, for when Mr. Hamilton smiled he looked quite a different
+man,--years younger, and much better looking. Well, I was glad that
+he had such a good opinion of my common sense.
+
+My hands were likely to be full of business until after Christmas. Mrs.
+Marshall was growing gradually weaker, and Mr. Hamilton was doubtful
+whether she would last to see the New Year in. Her husband would be home
+on Christmas Eve; his work at Lewes would be finished by then, and he
+hoped to find work nearer home. Poor Mary told me this with tears in her
+eyes; her one prayer was that she might be spared to see Andrew again.
+'He has been a good husband to me, and has kept out of the public-house
+for the sake of his wife and the children, and I cannot die easy until I
+have said good-bye to him,' finished the poor woman; but when I repeated
+this to Mr. Hamilton he shook his head. 'A few hours may take her off any
+day,' he said; 'it is only a wonder that she has lasted so long. I
+believe she is keeping herself alive by the sheer force of her longing
+to see her husband. Women are strange creatures, Miss Garston.'
+
+My new patient was likely to give me plenty of occupation. I found the
+poor little fellow, looking very forlorn and dull, lying in a dark corner
+of a large chilly garret, which was evidently shared by two or three
+brothers.
+
+Mrs. Bell, who had left her washing-tub to accompany me upstairs, stood
+drying her arms on her apron, and talking in a high-pitched querulous
+voice. 'No one can say I have not been unfortunate this year,' she
+grumbled. 'There's Bell, he gets worse and worse. I fetched him myself
+out of the Man and Plough last Saturday night, where he was drinking the
+money that was to buy the children bread. "Do you call yourself a man or
+a brute?" I says, but in my opinions it's wronging the poor bruteses to
+compare them with such as him. "Work!" says he; "why don't you work
+yourself?" when I am at that wash-tub from morning till night.'
+
+'And now poor Robin is adding to your trouble, Mrs. Bell,' I observed,
+with a pitying look at the child's white face and large wistful eyes.
+
+'Ay, he has gone and done it now,' she returned, with a touch of motherly
+feeling; 'it was a slide those bad boys had made, and Robbie came down on
+it with his crutch under him. He is always in trouble, is Robbie, has had
+more illnesses than all the children put together; there is nothing Robin
+can't take: whooping-cough,--why, he nearly whooped himself to death;
+measles and scarlet fever,--why, he was as nearly gone as possible, the
+doctor said. He has always been puny and weakly from a baby. But there's
+Bell, now, makes more of a fuss over Rob than over the others; if there
+is anything that will keep him away from the Man and Plough, it is Rob
+asking him to take him out somewhere.'
+
+'Ay, father's promised to sit with me this evening,' observed Robin, in
+a faint little treble.
+
+'Then we must make the room comfortable for father,' I said quickly.
+'Mrs. Bell, I must not hinder you any more; but if you could spare one
+of the girls to help me tidy up a little.'
+
+'Ay, Sally can come,' she returned; 'the place does look like a piggery.
+You see, Tom and Ned and Willie sleep here along of Robin, and boys know
+naught about keeping a place tidy; Sally reds it up towards evening. But
+there, doctor said Robbie must have a fire, and I've clean forgotten it:
+I will send up Sally with some sticks and a lump or two of coal.'
+
+Mrs. Bell was not a bad sort of woman, certainly, but, like many of her
+class, she was not a good manager; and when a woman has ten children, and
+a husband rather too fond of the Man and Plough, and is obliged to stand
+at her washing-tub for hours every day, one cannot expect to find the
+house in perfect order.
+
+We had soon a bright little fire burning, which gave quite a cheery
+aspect to the large bare attic; the sloping roof and small window did not
+seem to matter so much. With Sally's help I moved Robin's little bed to a
+lighter part of the room, where the roof did not slope so much, and where
+the wintry sunlight could reach him. Robin seemed much pleased with this
+change of position, and when I had washed and made him comfortable he
+declared that he felt 'first-rate.'
+
+I had so much to do for my patient that I was obliged to let Sally tidy
+up the room in her usual scrambling way. The child had been sadly
+neglected by that time, and he was getting faint. I had to prepare some
+arrow-root for his dinner, and then hurry off to the Marshalls' before I
+had my own. I was obliged to omit my visit to Phoebe that day, and divide
+my time between Mrs. Marshall and Robin. When I had given Robin his tea,
+and had put a chair by the fire for father, I went off, feeling that I
+could leave him more comfortably. The eldest boy, Tom, a big, strapping
+lad of fourteen, who went to work, had promised to keep the other boys
+quiet, 'that the little chap might not be disturbed,' and as Robin again
+declared that he felt first-rate, if it weren't for his arm, I hoped that
+he might be able to sleep.
+
+'Father stopped with me ever so long, until the boys came to bed,' were
+Robin's first words the next morning; 'and doctor came, and said we
+looked quite snug, and he is going to send father some books to read, and
+some papers, and father said he was more comfortable than downstairs, as
+I did not mind his pipe, and Tom has hung my linnet there,' pointing to
+the window, 'and if you open the cage, miss, you will see him hop all
+over the bedclothes, and chirp in the beautifullest way.'
+
+We had a great deal of cleaning to do that day. I shall never forget Lady
+Betty's face when she came upstairs and saw me down on my knees at work
+in my corner of the room; for Sally was little, and the room was large,
+and I was obliged to go to her assistance.
+
+'Good gracious, Miss Garston!' she said, in quite a shocked voice, 'you
+do not mean to tell me that you consider it your duty to scrub floors?'
+
+'Well, no,' I returned, laughing, for really her consternation was
+ludicrous, 'I should consider it a waste of strength, generally; but
+we never know what comes in a day's work. Sally is so little that I am
+obliged to help her.'
+
+'Why can't Mrs. Bell do it?' asked Lady Betty indignantly.
+
+'Mrs. Bell has hardly time to cook the children's dinner. Please don't
+look so shocked. I don't often scrub floors, and I have nearly finished
+now. What have you brought in that basket, little Red Riding-Hood?' for
+in her little crimson hood-like bonnet she did not look so unlike Red
+Riding-Hood.
+
+'Oh, Giles asked Gladys to send some things for poor little Robin, and
+she packed them herself. There is a jar of beef-tea, and some jelly, and
+some new-laid eggs, and sponge-cakes, and a roll or two; and Gladys hopes
+you will let her know what Robin wants, for he used to be her little
+scholar, and she is so interested in him.'
+
+Of course I knew Lady Betty would chatter about me when she returned
+home, but I was rather vexed when Mr. Hamilton took me to task the next
+morning and gave me quite a lecture on the subject; he made me promise at
+last that I would never do anything of the kind again. I hardly know what
+made me so submissive. I think it was his threat of keeping any more
+patients from me, and then he seemed so thoroughly put out.
+
+'It is such folly wearing yourself out like this, Miss Garston,' he said
+angrily. 'I wonder why women never will learn common sense. If you work
+under me I will thank you to obey my directions, and I do not choose my
+nurse to waste her time and strength in scrubbing floors. Yes, Robin boy,
+I am very angry with nurse; but there is no occasion for you to cry about
+it; and--why, good heavens! if you are not crying too, Miss Garston! Of
+course; there, I told you so; you have just knocked yourself up.'
+
+His tone so aggravated me that I plucked up a little spirit.
+
+'I am not a bit knocked up,'--and, in rather a choky voice, 'I am not
+crying; I never cry before people; only I am a little tired. I was up all
+last night with Mrs. Marshall, and you talk so much.'
+
+'Oh, very well,' rather huffily; but he was in a bad humour that day. 'I
+won't talk any more to you. But I should like to know one thing: when are
+you going home?'
+
+'In another hour; my head aches, rather, and I think I shall lie down.'
+
+'Of course your head aches; but there, you have given me a promise, so I
+will not say any more. Try what a good nap will do. I am going round by
+the Lockes', and I shall tell Phoebe not to expect you this afternoon. It
+won't hurt her to miss you sometimes; it will teach her to value her
+blessings more, and people cannot sing when they have a headache.' And he
+walked off without waiting for me to thank him for his thoughtfulness.
+What did he mean by saying that I was crying, the ridiculous man, just
+because there were tears in my eyes? I certainly could not fancy myself
+crying because Mr. Hamilton scolded me!
+
+I had a refreshing nap, and kept my dinner waiting, but I must own I was
+a little touched when Mrs. Barton produced a bottle of champagne which
+she said Mr. Hamilton had brought in his pocket and had desired that I
+was to have some directly I woke. 'And I was to tell you, with his
+compliments, that his sister Gladys would sit with Robin all the
+afternoon, and that Lady Betty was at the Marshalls', and he was going
+again himself, and Phoebe Locke was better, and he hoped you would not
+stir out again to-day.'
+
+How very kind and thoughtful of Mr. Hamilton! He had sent his sisters
+to look after my patients, that I might be able to enjoy my rest with a
+quiet conscience. I was sorry that he should think that I was so easily
+knocked up; but it was not over-fatigue, nor yet his scolding, that had
+brought the tears to my eyes. To-day was the second anniversary of
+Charlie's death, and through that long, wakeful night, as I sat beside
+poor Mary's bed, I was recalling the bitter hours when my darling went
+down deeper into the place of shadows,--when he fought away his young
+life, while Lesbia and I wept and prayed beside him. No wonder a word
+unnerved me; but I could not tell Mr. Hamilton this.
+
+When we met the next day he asked me, rather curtly, if the headache had
+gone; but when I thanked him, somewhat shyly, for the medicine he had
+sent, he got rather red, and interrupted me with unusual abruptness.
+
+'You have nothing for which to thank me,' he said, in quite a repellent
+tone. 'I am glad you obeyed orders and stopped at home; I was afraid you
+might be contumacious, as usual,'--which was rather ungracious of him,
+after the promise he had extracted from me.
+
+I questioned Robin about Miss Hamilton's visit; she had remained with the
+boy some hours, reading to him and amusing him, and, in Robin's favourite
+language, 'getting on first-rate; only, just as I was drinking my mugful
+of tea, parson comes, and Miss Hamilton she says she will be late, and
+gets up in a hurry, and--'
+
+'Wait a minute, Robin: do you mean Mr. Cunliffe or Mr. Tudor?'
+
+'Oh, the vicar, to be sure; and he seemed finely surprised to see Miss
+Hamilton there. "So you've come to see your old scholar," he says,
+smiling, and Miss Hamilton says, "Yes; but she must go now," and she
+drops her glove, and parson looks for it, but it was too dark, and for
+all his groping it could not be found. "I must just go without it," says
+Miss Hamilton; "but I have got my muff, and it does not matter," and she
+says good-bye, and goes away. Parson found it, though,' went on Robin
+garrulously. 'When Sally lighted the candle he spies it at once, and puts
+it in his pocket. "Miss Hamilton will be fine and glad when you tell her
+it is found," I says to parson; but he just looks at me in an odd sort of
+way, and says, "Yes, Robin, certainly."--'And you won't forget to give it
+to her, to-morrow, sir?' but he did not seem to hear me. "Good-night,
+my man," he said. "So Miss Hamilton did not think you were too old to be
+kissed." And he kissed me just in the same place as she did. What did you
+say, miss?'
+
+'I did not say anything, Robin.'
+
+'Didn't you, miss? I thought I heard you say "poor man," or something
+like that. Is not Miss Hamilton beautiful? I think she is almost as
+beautiful as my picture of the Virgin Mary. I asked parson if he did not
+think so, and he said yes. Do you think she will come again soon?'
+
+'We shall see, Robbie dear.' But, as I spoke, something told me that we
+should not see Miss Hamilton there again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE PICTURE IN GLADYS'S ROOM
+
+
+The days flew rapidly by, and I was almost too busy to heed them as they
+passed. Each morning I woke with fresh energy to my day's work; the hours
+were so full of interest and varied employment that my evening rest came
+all too soon. I grew so fond of my patients, especially of poor little
+Robin, that I never left them willingly; and the knowledge that I was
+necessary to them, that they looked to me for relief and comfort, seemed
+to fill my life with sweetness.
+
+As I said to myself daily, no one need complain that one's existence is
+objectless, or altogether desolate, as long as there are sick bodies and
+sick souls to which one can minister. For 'Give, and it shall be given
+unto you,' is the Divine command, and sympathy and help bestowed on our
+suffering fellow-creatures shall be repaid into our bosoms a hundredfold.
+I was right in my surmise: Miss Hamilton did not again visit her little
+scholar; but Lady Betty came almost daily, and was a great help in
+amusing the child. I was with him for an hour in the morning, and again
+in the late afternoon; but Mrs. Marshall took up the greater part of my
+time; she was growing more feeble every day, and needed my constant care.
+Unless it were absolutely necessary, I was unwilling to sacrifice my
+night's rest, or to draw too largely on my stock of strength; but I had
+fallen into the habit, during the last week or two, of going down to the
+cottage in the evening about eight or nine, and settling her comfortably
+for the night. I found these late visits were a great boon to her, and
+seemed to break the length of the long winter night, and so I did not
+regret my added trouble. Poor Phoebe had to be content with an hour
+snatched from the busier portion of the day; but she was beginning to
+occupy herself now. I kept her constantly supplied with books; and Miss
+Locke assured me that she read them with avidity; her poor famished mind,
+deprived for so many years of its natural aliment, fastened almost
+greedily on the nourishment provided for it. From the moment I induced
+her to open a book her appetite for reading returned, and she occupied
+herself in this manner for hours.
+
+She never spoke to her sister about what she read, but when Kitty and she
+were alone she would keep the child entranced for an hour together by the
+stories she told her out of Miss Garston's books.
+
+'Sometimes Kitty sings to her, and sometimes they have a rare talk,' Miss
+Locke would say. 'I am often too busy to do more than look in for five
+minutes or so, to see how they are getting on. Phoebe grumbles far less;
+it is wonderful to hear her say, sometimes, that she did not know it was
+bedtime, when I go in to fetch the lamp. Reading? ay, she is always
+reading; but she sleeps a deal, too.'
+
+I used to look round Phoebe's room with satisfaction now; it had quite
+lost its stiff, angular look. A dark crimson foot-quilt lay on the bed,
+a stand of green growing ferns was on the table, and two or three books
+were always placed beside her.
+
+Some gay china figures that I had hunted out of the glass cupboard in the
+parlour enlivened the mantelpiece, and a simple landscape, with sheep
+feeding in a sunny field, hung opposite the bed. Some pretty cretonne
+curtains had replaced the dingy dark ones. Phoebe herself had a soft
+fleecy gray shawl drawn over her thin shoulders. Mr. Hamilton again and
+again commented on her improved appearance, but I always listened rather
+silently; the evil spirit that had taken possession of Phoebe had not
+finally left her; 'and why could not we cast it out?' used to come to
+my lips sometimes as I looked at her; but all the same I knew the
+Master-hand was needed for that.
+
+Christmas Day fell this year on a Tuesday. On Sunday afternoon I had
+finished my rounds and was returning home to tea, when, as I was passing
+the Marshalls' cottage, Peggy ran after me bareheaded to say her father
+had just arrived, and would I come in for a moment, as mother seemed a
+little faint, and granny was frightened.
+
+I hastened back with the child; for, of course, in poor Mary's state the
+least shock might prove fatal. I found Marshall stooping over the bed and
+supporting his wife with clumsy fondness, with the tears rolling clown
+his weather-beaten face.
+
+'I'm 'most 'feard she's gone, missis,' he said hoarsely. 'Poor lass,
+I took her too sudden, and she had not the strength of the little un
+there.'
+
+I bade him lay her down gently, and then applied the necessary remedies,
+and, to my great relief, my patient presently revived. It was touching to
+see the weak hand trying to feel for her husband; as it came into contact
+with the rough coat-sleeve, a smile came upon the death-like face.
+
+'It is Andrew himself,' she whispered; 'I feared it was naught but a
+dream, mother; it is Andrew's own self, and he is looking well and
+hearty. Ay, lad,' with a loving look at him, 'I could not have died in
+peace till I had seen you again; and now God's will be done, for He has
+been good to me and granted me my heart's desire.'
+
+Poor Marshall looked weary and travel-stained, so I beckoned Peggy out
+of the room, and with her help there was soon a comfortable meal on the
+table,--part of the meat-pie that was left from the children's dinner,
+a round or two of hot toast, and a cup of smoking coffee.
+
+The poor man looked a little bewildered when he saw these preparations
+for his comfort, and he wiped his eyes again with his rough coat-sleeve.
+
+'I have been so long without wife or child that I can't make it out to
+see them all flocking round me again. There is Tim a man almost. Well,
+I have been tramping it since five this morning, and I am nearly ready
+to drop; so thank you kindly, missis, and with your leave I will fall
+to.'
+
+When I returned to Mary I found her looking wonderfully revived and
+cheerful.
+
+'Isn't it grand to think that the Lord has let me have my own way about
+seeing Andrew?' she said, with a smile: 'he will be here now, poor lad,
+to see the last of me and look after the children. Now, you must not let
+me keep you, Miss Garston, for Andrew is that handy he can nurse as well
+as mother there before she lost her eyesight. I have been a deal of
+trouble to you, and now you must go home and rest.'
+
+I was glad to be set at liberty, for I hoped that I might be in time to
+attend evening service; but just as I had finished tea, and was trying to
+think that I was not so very tired, and that it would not be wiser to
+stay at home, the outer door unlatched, and the next moment there was a
+quick tap at the parlour door, and Lady Betty bustled in, looking very
+rosy from the cold.
+
+'Oh, I can't stop a moment,' she said breathlessly; 'I have given Etta
+the slip, and in five minutes she will be looking for me; but I took it
+in my head to ask you to go and see Gladys. She is in her room with a
+cold, and looks dreadfully dull, and I know it will do her so much good
+if you will go and talk to her. Giles is out, and every one else, so no
+one will disturb you: so do go, there's a good soul.' And actually before
+I could answer, the impetuous little creature had shut the door in my
+face, and I could hear her running down the garden path.
+
+I had not seen Miss Hamilton since the evening Uncle Max discovered us
+together, and I could not resist the temptation of finding her alone.
+Lady Betty had said she was in her room, and looked dreadfully dull. I
+had promised Max to be good to her, so of course it was my duty to go and
+cheer her up. I made this so plain to my conscience that in five minutes
+more I was on the road to Gladwyn, and before the church bells had
+stopped ringing I had entered the dark shrubberies, and was looking at
+the closed windows, wondering which of them belonged to Miss Hamilton's
+room.
+
+I was agreeably surprised when a pretty-looking maid admitted me. I had
+taken a strange dislike to Leah, and the man who had waited upon us at
+dinner that evening had a dark, unprepossessing face; but this girl
+looked bright and cheerful, and took my message to Miss Hamilton at once
+without a moment's hesitation. She returned almost immediately. Miss
+Hamilton was in her room, but she would be very glad to see me, and the
+girl looked glad too as she led the way to the turret-room. Miss Hamilton
+was standing on the threshold, and met me with outstretched hands; she
+looked ill and worn, and had a soft white shawl drawn closely round her
+as though she were chilly, but her eyes brightened at the sight of me.
+
+'This is good of you, Miss Garston; I never expected such a pleasure.
+That will do, Chatty; you can close the door.' And, still holding my
+hand, she drew me into the room. It was a pretty room, but furnished
+far more simply than Miss Darrell's. The deep bay-window formed a recess
+large enough to hold the dressing-table and a chair or two, and was
+half-hidden by the blue cretonne curtains; besides this there were two
+more windows. Miss Hamilton had been sitting in a low cushioned chair
+by the fire; a small table with a lamp and some books was beside her;
+a Persian kitten lay on the white rug. On a stand beside a chair was a
+large, beautifully-painted photograph in a carved frame; the folding
+doors were open, and a vase of flowers stood before it.
+
+'What has put this benevolent idea into your head?' she asked, as she
+drew forward a comfortable wicker chair with a soft padded seat. 'I
+thought I had a long, dull evening before me, with no resource but my own
+thoughts, for I was tired of reading. I could scarcely believe Chatty
+when she said that you were in the drawing-room.'
+
+I told Miss Hamilton of Lady Betty's visit, and she laughed quite
+merrily.
+
+'Good little Betty! She is always trying to give me pleasure. She wanted
+to stay with me herself, only Etta said it was no use for two people to
+stop away from church. They have all gone, even Thornton and Leah. I
+believe only Parker and Chatty are in the house.'
+
+'Is Chatty the housemaid?'
+
+'No, the under-housemaid; but Catherine's father is ill, so she has gone
+to nurse him--'
+
+'And Leah--who is Leah? I mean what is her capacity in the household?'
+as Miss Hamilton looked rather surprised at my question.
+
+'She used to be Aunt Margaret's attendant, and now she is Etta's
+maid,--at least, we call her so,--but she makes herself useful in many
+ways. She is rather a superior person, and well educated, but I like
+Chatty to wait on me best; she is such a simple, honest little soul.
+I know people say servants have not much feeling, but I am sure Chatty
+would do anything for me and Lady Betty.'
+
+'And you think Leah would not?' I asked, rather stupidly.
+
+'I did not say so, did I?' she answered quickly. 'We always look upon
+Leah as Etta's servant. She was devoted to her old mistress, and of
+course that makes Etta care for her so much. To me she is not a pleasant
+person. Etta has spoiled her, and she gives herself airs, and takes too
+much upon herself. Do you know'--with an amused smile--'Lady Betty and I
+think that Etta is rather afraid of her? She never ventures to find fault
+with her, and once or twice Lady Betty has heard Leah scolding Etta when
+something has put her out. I should not care to be scolded by my maid:
+should you, Miss Garston?'
+
+'No,' I returned, rather absently, for, unperceived by Miss Hamilton, my
+attention was arrested by the photograph. It was the portrait of a young
+man, and something in the face seemed familiar to me.
+
+The next moment I was caught. A distressed look crossed Miss Hamilton's
+face, and she made a sudden movement, as though she would close the
+photograph; but on second thoughts she handed it to me.
+
+'Should you like to see it more closely? It is a photograph of my
+twin-brother, Eric. They think--yes, they are afraid that he is dead.'
+
+Her lips had turned quite white as she spoke, and in my surprise, for
+I never knew there had been another brother, I did not answer, but only
+bent over the picture.
+
+It was the face of a young man about nineteen or twenty,--a beautiful
+face, that strangely resembled his sister's; the large blue-gray eyes
+were like hers, but the fair budding moustache scarcely hid the weak,
+irresolute mouth. Here the resemblance stopped, for Miss Hamilton's firm
+lips and finely-curved chin showed no lack of power; but in her brother's
+face--attractive as it was--there were clearly signs of vacillation.
+
+'Well, what do you think of it?' she asked, with a quick catch of her
+breath.
+
+'It is a beautiful face,' I returned, rather hesitating. 'Very striking,
+too. One could not easily forget it; and it is strangely like you: but--'
+
+'Yes, I know,'--taking it out of my hand and closing the carved
+panels,--'but you think it weak. Oh yes, we cannot all be strong alike.
+Our Creator has ordained that, and it is for us to be merciful. Poor
+Eric! He would be three-and-twenty now. He was just twenty when that was
+taken.'
+
+'And he is dead?'
+
+'They say so. They think he is drowned; but we have no real proof,
+and we cannot be sure of it. He is alive in my dreams. That is the best
+of not really knowing,' she went on, in a sad voice: 'one can go on
+praying for him, for, perhaps, after all, he may one day come back;
+not from the dead,--oh no, I do not believe that for a moment; but if
+he be alive--' her eyes dilating and her manner full of excitement.
+
+I pressed her to tell me about him, adding softly that I could feel for
+her more than any one else, as I had lost my own twin-brother. But she
+looked kindly at me and shook her head.
+
+'Not to-night, I do not feel well enough, and it always makes me so ill
+and excited to speak about it, and we should not have time. Perhaps some
+day, when I get more used to you. Oh yes, some day, perhaps.'
+
+'Indeed, I do not wish to intrude upon your trouble, Miss Hamilton,'
+I returned, colouring at this repulse. But she took my hand and pressed
+it gently.
+
+'You must not be hurt with me. I have never spoken to any one about Eric.
+Mr. Cunliffe knows. But he--he--is different, and he was very kind to me.
+I must always be grateful.' The tears came into her eyes, and she hurried
+on:
+
+'I should like you to know, only I am such a coward. I am so sure of
+your sympathy, you seem already such a friend. Why do you call me Miss
+Hamilton? I am younger than you. I should like to hear you say Gladys.
+Miss Hamilton seems so stiff from you, and for years I have thought of
+you as Ursula.'
+
+'You mean that Uncle Max has often talked of me?'
+
+'Oh yes,' with an involuntary sigh, 'of you and your brother. He was
+always so fond of you both. He used to say very often that he wished that
+I knew you; that you were so good, so unlike other people; that you bore
+your trouble so beautifully.'
+
+'I bore my trouble well! Oh, Miss Hamilton, it is impossible that he
+could have said that, when he knew how rebellious I was.' But here I
+could say no more.
+
+'Don't cry, Ursula,' she said, very sweetly; 'you are not rebellious now.
+Oh, I used to be so sorry for you; you little thought at that dreadful
+time, when you were so lonely and desolate, that a girl whom you had
+never seen, and perhaps of whom you had never heard, was praying for you
+with all her heart. That is what I mean by saying that I have known you
+for a long time.'
+
+By mutual impulse we bent forward and kissed each other,--a quiet
+lingering kiss that spoke of full understanding and sympathy. I had
+promised Uncle Max to be good to this girl, to do all I could to help
+her, but I did not know as I gave that promise how my heart would cleave
+to her, and that in time I should grow to love her with that rare
+friendship that is described in Holy Writ as 'passing the love of women.'
+We were silent for a little while, and then by some sudden impulse I
+began to speak of Max; I told her that I felt a little anxious about him,
+that he did not seem quite well or quite happy.
+
+'I have thought so myself,' she returned, very quietly.
+
+'Max is so good that I cannot bear to see him unhappy,--he is so
+unselfish, so full of thought for other people, so earnest in his work,
+so conscientious and self-denying.'
+
+'True,' she replied, taking up a little toy screen that lay in her lap
+and shielding her face from the flame: 'he is all that. If any one
+deserves to be happy, it is your uncle.'
+
+I was glad to hear her say this, but her voice was a little constrained.
+
+'He seems very far from happy just now,' was my answer: 'he looks worn
+and thin, as though he were overworking himself. I asked him the other
+night what ailed him. Are you cold, Miss Hamilton? I thought you shivered
+just now.'
+
+'No, no,' she returned, a little impatiently: 'you were speaking of your
+uncle.'
+
+'Yes. I could not get him to tell me what was the matter; he began to
+joke: you know his way; men are so tiresome sometimes.'
+
+'It is not always easy to understand them,' she said, turning away her
+face: 'perhaps they do not wish to be understood. It must be a great
+comfort to Mr. Cunliffe to have you so near him. I have thought lately
+that he has seemed a little lonely.'
+
+'But he comes here very often,' I said, rather quickly; 'he need not be
+dull, with so many friends.'
+
+To my surprise, Miss Hamilton's fair face flushed almost painfully.
+
+'He does not come so often as he used; perhaps he finds us a little too
+quiet. I am sorry for Giles's sake--oh yes, I do not mean that,' as I
+looked at her rather reproachfully. 'Of course we all like Mr. Cunliffe.'
+
+I was about to reply to this, when Miss Hamilton suddenly grew a little
+restless, and the next moment the door-bell sounded.
+
+I rose at once. 'They have come back from church. I will bid you good-bye
+now.' And, as I expected, she made no effort to keep me.
+
+'You will come again,' she said, kissing me affectionately. 'I have so
+enjoyed our little talk; you have done me good, indeed you have, Ursula,'
+watching me from the threshold. I knew I could not escape my fate, so I
+walked downstairs as coolly as I could, and encountered them all in the
+hall. Miss Darrell gave a little shriek when she saw me.
+
+'Dear me, Miss Garston, how you startled me! Who would have thought of
+finding you here on Sunday evening, when all good people are at church!'
+but here Mr. Hamilton put her aside with little ceremony: he really
+seemed as though he were glad to see me.
+
+'You came to sit with Gladys: it was very kind and thoughtful of you.
+Poor girl, she seemed rather dull, but now you have cheered her up.'
+
+'Perhaps Miss Garston will extend her cheering influence, Giles,'
+observed Miss Darrell in her most staccato manner, 'and remain to supper.
+Leah will see her home.'
+
+'I am going to perform that office myself, Etta. Will you stay?' looking
+at me in a friendly manner.
+
+'Not to-night,' I returned hurriedly; 'and, indeed, I can very well
+walk alone.' But Mr. Hamilton settled that question by putting on his
+greatcoat.
+
+'Oh, of course Giles will walk with you: how could he do less?' replied
+Miss Darrell, with a scarcely perceptible sneer. 'You have timed your
+visit so well that he will be just back to supper. So you have been
+sitting with dear Gladys? I wonder how you knew she had a cold: private
+information, I suppose. I should hardly have thought Gladys was well
+enough to see visitors, she was so feverish when I left her; but that
+stupid Chatty makes such mistakes.'
+
+'Miss Hamilton was not at all feverish, I assure you. My visit has done
+her no harm.' And I turned to Lady Betty, who stood on tiptoe to kiss me
+and breathed a 'thank you' into my ear; but Miss Darrell could not
+forbear from a parting fling as she bade me good-night.
+
+'We shall wait supper for you, Giles,' she said rather pointedly; but Mr.
+Hamilton took no notice; he only bade me be careful, as it was rather
+slippery by the gate, and then he began telling me about the sermon, and,
+strangely enough, he endorsed my opinion of Max.
+
+'I tell him he must have a change after Christmas; he looks knocked up,
+and a trifle thin. It will not hurt Tudor to work a little harder; you
+may tell Cunliffe I say so. Halloo! I think you had better take my arm,
+Miss Garston; it is confoundedly dark and slippery.' But I declined this,
+as I was tolerably sure-footed.
+
+Mr. Hamilton seemed in excellent spirits, and talked well and with great
+animation, as though he were bent on amusing me; he was a clever man,
+and had a store of useful information which he did not always care to
+produce. I never heard him talk better than on this occasion: there were
+flashes of wit and brilliancy that surprised me: I was almost sorry when
+I reached the cottage.
+
+'Good-night, Miss Garston, and thank you again for your deed of charity,'
+he said quite heartily, and as though he meant it. Really, I never liked
+Mr. Hamilton so much before; but then he had never shown himself so
+genial. I saw Lady Betty the next morning, and asked her after Miss
+Hamilton, but I almost regretted my question when the naughty little
+thing treated me to one of her usual confidences: there was no inducing
+her to hold her tongue when she was in the humour for chatting.
+
+'Oh, it was such fun!' she said, her eyes dancing with mischief. 'Etta
+was so cross when you were gone; she declared it was a conspiracy between
+us three, and that you only wanted Giles to walk home with you. No, I did
+not mean to repeat that, so please don't look so angry. Etta did not
+really think so, but she will say these things about people. I tell
+Gladys Etta wants Giles herself. She scolded Chatty for being so stupid,
+and said if Leah had been at home she would have shown more sense; and
+then she went up to Gladys's room in a nice temper, but Gladys would not
+listen, said she was tired, and ordered Etta out of the room. When Gladys
+is like that Etta can do nothing with her, so she sulked until Giles came
+home, and then began teasing him about his gallantry, and wondering how
+he enjoyed his walk, and you know her way.'
+
+'Lady Betty, I am busy; besides which, I do not wish to hear any more of
+your cousin's improving conversation.'
+
+'Oh, there is nothing more to tell,' she returned triumphantly. 'Giles
+silenced her so completely that she did not dare to open her lips again.
+Oh, she is properly frightened of Giles when he is in one of his moods.
+He told her that he disliked observations of this sort, that in his
+opinion they were both undignified and vulgar, especially when they
+related to a person whom he so much respected as Miss Garston. "And allow
+me to remark," he continued, looking at poor little me rather fiercely,
+as though I were in fault too, "that I shall consider it an honour if
+Miss Garston bestows her friendship on any member of my household. I am
+very glad she seems to like Gladys, and I only hope she will do the poor
+girl good and come every day if she likes, and that is all I mean to say
+on the subject." But I think he said quite enough; don't you, Miss
+Garston?' finished naughty Lady Betty, looking up at me with such
+innocent eyes that I could not have scolded her any more than I could
+have scolded a kitten.
+
+But if only Lady Betty could learn to hold her tongue--!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+ERIC
+
+
+That afternoon I had rather an adventure. I was just walking up the hill
+on my way to the post-office, when a handsome carriage came round the
+corner by the church rather sharply, and the same moment a little dog
+crossing the road in the dusk seemed to be under the horses' feet.
+
+That was my first impression. My next was that the coachman was trying
+to pull up his horses. There was a sudden howl, the horses kicked and
+plunged, some one in the carriage shrieked, and then the little dog was
+in my arms, and even in the dim light I could feel one poor little leg
+was broken.
+
+The horses were quieted with difficulty, and the footman got down and
+went to the carriage window.
+
+'It is poor little Flossie, ma'am,' he said, touching his hat: 'she must
+have got out into the road and recognised the carriage, for she was under
+the horses' feet. This lady got her out somehow.' And indeed I had no
+idea how I had managed it. One of the horses had reared, and his front
+hoof almost touched me as I snatched up Flossie. I suppose it was a risky
+thing to do, for I never liked the remembrance afterwards, and I do not
+believe I could have done it again.
+
+'Oh dear! oh dear!' observed a pleasant voice, 'do let me thank the lady.
+Stand aside, Williams.' And a pretty old lady with white hair looked out
+at me.
+
+'I am afraid the poor dog's leg is broken,' I observed, as the little
+animal lay in my arms uttering short barks of pain. 'Happily your man
+pulled up in time, or it must have been killed.'
+
+'Oh dear! oh dear! what will the colonel say to such carelessness?'
+exclaimed the old lady. 'He's so fond of Flossie, and makes such a fuss
+with her. And Mr. Hamilton has gone to Brighton, or I would have sent
+Flossie in for him to attend to her.'
+
+'Will you let me see what I can do, Mrs. Maberley?' I said, for I had
+recognised the pretty old lady at once. 'I am the village nurse, Miss
+Garston, and I think I can bind up poor Flossie's leg.'
+
+'Miss Garston!' in quite a different voice; it seemed to have grown
+rather formal. 'Oh, I am so much obliged to you, but I am ashamed to give
+you the trouble; only for poor Flossie's sake,' hesitating, 'will you
+come into the carriage and let me drive you to Maplehurst?' And to this
+I readily consented. I could never bear to see an animal in pain, and the
+little creature, a beautiful brown-and-white spaniel, was already licking
+my hand confidingly.
+
+I could see Mrs. Maberley was embarrassed by my presence, for she talked
+in rather a nervous manner about it being Christmas Eve, and how busy the
+young ladies were decorating the church.
+
+'I wanted to speak to Miss Darrell for a moment,' she went on, 'and I
+found her and Lady Betty putting up wreaths in the chancel, and that
+good-looking Mr. Tudor was helping them. I was so sorry poor dear Gladys
+was not there; but Miss Darrell says her cold is so much better that she
+is downstairs again. I am afraid she is very delicate and takes after
+her poor mother.'
+
+'I saw Miss Hamilton yesterday, and I certainly thought she looked very
+ill.'
+
+'So Miss Darrell told me. What a good, unselfish little creature she is,
+Miss Garston! I do not know what Mr. Hamilton and his sisters would do
+without her. Ah, here we are at Maplehurst, and Tracy is looking out for
+us. Tracy, is the colonel at home? No, I am thankful to hear it. Poor
+little Flossie has met with an accident, and this lady has saved her
+life, but she tells me her leg is broken. Now, Miss Garston, will you
+believe it that I am such a coward that I could not be of the least
+assistance? Tracy, take Miss Garston into the morning room, and do your
+best to help her.' And Mrs. Maberley trotted away as fast as she could,
+while Tracy ushered me into a bright snug-looking room and asked me very
+civilly what she could do for me.
+
+Tracy was a handy, sensible woman, and in a few minutes I had managed,
+with her help, to strap up poor Flossie's leg in the most successful
+manner.
+
+'I am sure, ma'am, Mr. Hamilton couldn't have done better himself,'
+observed Tracy, looking at me with respectful admiration, while I petted
+Flossie, who was now lying comfortably in her basket, trying to lick her
+bandages. 'I must go and tell my mistress that it is done, for she will
+be fretting herself ill over poor Flossie.'
+
+I expect Tracy sounded my praises, for when Mrs. Maberley entered the
+room in her pretty cap with gray ribbons there was not a trace of
+formality in her manner as she thanked me with tears in her eyes for
+my kindness to Flossie.
+
+'To think of a young creature being so clever!' she said, folding her
+soft dimpled hands together. 'My dear, the colonel will be so grateful to
+you: he dotes on Flossie. You must stay and have tea with me, and then he
+can thank you himself. No, I shall take no refusal. Tracy, tell Marvel to
+bring up the tea-tray at once. My dear,' turning to me, when Tracy had
+left the room, 'I am almost ashamed to look you in the face when I
+remember how long you have been in Heathfield and that I have never
+called on you; but Etta told me that you did not care to have visitors.'
+
+'Yes, I know, Mrs. Maberley; but that is quite a mistake,' I returned,
+somewhat eagerly, for I had fallen in love with the pretty old lady, and
+her tall, aristocratic colonel with his white moustache and grand
+military carriage, and had watched them with much interest from my place
+in church. She was such a dainty old lady, like a piece of Dresden china,
+with her pink cheeks and white curls and old-fashioned shoe-buckles; and
+she had such beautiful little hands, plump and soft as a baby's, which
+she seemed to regard with innocent pride, for she was always settling the
+lace ruffles round her wrists and pinching them up with careful fingers.
+
+'Dear, dear! I thought Etta told me,' she began rather nervously.
+
+'Miss Darrell makes mistakes, like other people,' I answered, smiling.
+'I shall be very pleased to know my neighbours; it is quite true that I
+am not often at home, and just now I am very busy, but all the same I do
+not mean to shut myself out from society. One owes a duty to one's
+neighbours.'
+
+'My dear Miss Garston, I am quite pleased to hear you talk so sensibly.
+I was afraid from what Etta said that you were a little eccentric and
+strong-minded, and I have such a dislike to that in young people; young
+ladies are so terribly independent at the present day, in my opinion, and
+I know the colonel thinks the same. They are sadly deficient in good
+manners and reverence. That is why I am so fond of the Hamilton girls:
+they are perfect young gentlewomen; they never talk slang or slip-shod
+English, and they know how to respect gray hairs. The colonel is devoted
+to Gladys: I tell him he is as fond of her as though she were his own
+daughter.'
+
+'I think every one must be fond of Miss Hamilton.'
+
+'Yes, poor darling! and she is much to be pitied,' returned Mrs.
+Maberley, with a sigh. 'Oh, here comes Marvel with the tea. Now, Miss
+Garston, my dear, take off that bonnet and jacket: I like people to look
+as though they were at home. Marvel, draw up that chair to the fire, and
+give Miss Garston a table to herself, and put the muffins where she can
+reach them; there, now I think we look comfortable: young people always
+look nicer without their bonnets; it was a pity to hide your pretty
+smooth hair. Now tell me a little about yourself. I am sure Etta is
+wrong: you do not look in the least strong-minded. Tracy said it was
+wonderful how such slender little fingers could ever do hospital work.
+She has fallen in love with you, my dear; and Tracy has plenty of
+penetration. I never can understand why she does not take to Etta; and
+Etta is so good to her; but there, we all have our prejudices.'
+
+As soon as Mrs. Maberley's ripple of talk had died away, I told her a
+little about my work, and how much I liked my life at Heathfield, and
+then I spoke of my great interest in Gladys Hamilton.
+
+It was really very pleasant sitting in this warm, softly-lighted room and
+talking to this charming, kind-hearted old lady. Christmas Eve was not so
+dull, after all, as I had expected; it was nice to feel that I was making
+a new friend,--that the little service I had rendered Mrs. Maberley had
+broken down the barrier between us and overcome her prejudice. I knew
+that Miss Darrell had set her against me, and that for some reason of
+her own she wished to prevent her calling upon me.
+
+Did Miss Darrell dislike my coming to Heathfield? Was she afraid of
+finding me in her way? Was she at all desirous of making my stay irksome
+to me? These were some of the questions I was continually asking myself.
+
+I noticed that Mrs. Maberley sighed and shook her head when I spoke of
+Miss Hamilton. As I warmed to my subject, and praised her beauty and
+gentleness and intelligence, she sighed still more.
+
+'Yes, she is a dear girl, a dear good girl; but she has never been the
+same since Eric went. Does she talk to you about Eric, Miss Garston? Etta
+says she talks of nothing else to her.'
+
+I opened my eyes rather widely at this statement, for I could not forget
+what Miss Hamilton had said to me that night: 'I have never spoken to any
+one about Eric.' Was it likely that she would choose Miss Darrell for a
+_confidante_? But I kept my incredulity to myself, and simply related to
+Mrs. Maberley the circumstance that I had seen the photograph by accident
+the previous evening, and only knew then that Miss Hamilton had had a
+twin-brother.
+
+'How very singular!' she observed, putting down her tea-cup in a hurry.
+'I should have thought every one in the place would have spoken about the
+young man, he was such a favourite; and it was no use Mr. Hamilton trying
+to keep it a secret. Why, the postmaster's wife told me before Eric had
+been gone twenty-four hours, and then I went to Mr. Cunliffe. Why, child,
+do you mean your uncle has never told you about it?'
+
+'Oh no, Uncle Max never repeats anything; he would be the last person
+from whom I should hear it.'
+
+'And yet he was up at Gladwyn every day,--ay, twice a day; and people
+said--But what an old gossip I am! Well, about poor Eric, there can be
+no harm in your knowing what all the world knows, even Marvel and Tracy;
+it is a very sore subject with poor Mr. Hamilton, and no one dares to
+mention Eric's name to him; but, as Etta says, Gladys can never hold her
+tongue about him when they two are alone together.' I certainly held mine
+at that moment. I began to wonder what Miss Darrell would say next.
+
+'So you have seen his picture, Miss Garston, my dear: well, now, is it
+not a beautiful face?--not sufficiently manly, as the colonel says; but
+then, poor fellow, he had not a strong character. Still, it was a lovely
+sight to see them together: our gardens join, you know, and often and
+often, as I have sat under our beech, I have seen Gladys and Eric walking
+up and down the little avenue, with his arm round her, and their two
+heads shining like gold, and she would be talking to him and smiling
+in his face, until it made me quite young to see them.'
+
+'Wait a moment, Mrs. Maberley, please. I am deeply interested; but would
+Gladys--would Miss Hamilton like me to know all this?'
+
+'To be sure she would,--though perhaps she would not care for the pain
+of telling it herself; but it would be better for you to hear it from me
+than from Mrs. Barton, or Mrs. Drabble, or any other gossiping person
+that takes it into her head to tell you, for you could not be much longer
+at Heathfield without hearing of it, when, as I say, every Jack and Tom
+in the village knows it,--though how it all got about is more than I can
+say. I tell the colonel, Leah must have had a hand in it: I know it was
+she who told Tracy.'
+
+I saw by this time that Mrs. Maberley had quite made up her mind to tell
+me the story herself; she was garrulous, like many other old ladies, and
+perhaps she enjoyed a little gossip about her neighbours, so I only
+essayed one other feeble protest.
+
+'I hope Mr. Hamilton will not mind--' but she answered me quite
+briskly,--
+
+'Well, poor fellow, he knows by this time people will talk; I daresay
+he thinks Mr. Cunliffe has told you. Now, I do not want to blame Mr.
+Hamilton; he is a great favourite of mine ever since he cured the
+colonel's gout, and I would not be hard on him for worlds; but I have
+always been afraid that he did not rightly understand Eric; the brothers
+were so different. Mr. Hamilton is very hard-working and rather
+matter-of-fact, and Eric was quite different, more like a girl, dreamy
+and enthusiastic and terribly idle, and then he fancied himself an
+artist. Mr. Hamilton could not bear that.'
+
+'Why not? An artist's is a very good profession.'
+
+'Yes, but he did not believe in his talent; and then Eric was intended
+for the law; his brother had sent him to Oxford, but he would not work,
+and he was extravagant, and got into debt,--and, oh yes, there was no end
+of trouble. I do not know how it was,' went on Mrs. Maberley, 'but Eric
+always seemed in the wrong. Etta used to take his part,--which was very
+good of her, as Eric could not bear her and treated her most rudely. Mr.
+Hamilton used to complain that Gladys encouraged him in his idleness; he
+sometimes came in here of an evening looking quite miserable, poor
+fellow, and would say that his sisters and Eric were leagued against him;
+that but for Etta he would be at his wits' end what to do. Eric would not
+obey him; he simply defied his authority; he was growing more idle every
+day, and when he remonstrated with him, Gladys took his part. Oh dear, I
+am afraid they were all very wretched.'
+
+'You think Mr. Hamilton did not understand his young brother.'
+
+'Well, perhaps not. You see, Mr. Hamilton had not the same temptations;
+he was always steady and hard-working from a boy, and never cared much
+about his own comfort. As for getting into debt, why, he would have
+considered it wicked to do so. I know the colonel thought once or twice
+that he was a little hard on Eric. I remember his saying once 'that boys
+will be boys, and that all are not good alike, and that he must not use
+the curb too much.' It was a pity, certainly, that Mr. Hamilton was so
+angry about his painting. I daresay it was only a temporary craze. I am
+afraid, though, Eric must have behaved very badly. I know he struck his
+elder brother once. Anyhow, things went on from bad to worse; and one day
+a dreadful thing happened. A cheque of some value, I have forgotten the
+particulars, was stolen from Mr. Hamilton's desk, and the next day Eric
+disappeared.'
+
+'Was he accused of taking it?'
+
+'To be sure. Leah saw him with her own eyes. You must ask Mr. Cunliffe
+about all that; my memory is apt to be treacherous about details. I know
+Leah saw him with his hand in his brother's desk, and though Eric vowed
+it was only to put a letter there,--a very impertinent letter that he had
+written to his brother,--still the cheque was gone, and, as they heard
+afterwards, cashed by a very fair young man at some London Bank; and the
+next morning, after some terrible quarrel, during which Gladys fainted,
+poor girl, Eric disappeared, and the very next thing they heard of him,
+about three weeks afterwards, was that his watch and a pocket-book
+belonging to him had been picked up on the Brighton beach close to Hove.'
+
+'Do you mean that this is all they have ever heard of him?'
+
+'Yes. I believe Mr. Hamilton employed every means of ascertaining his
+fate. For some months he refused to believe that he was dead. I am not
+sure if Gladys believes it now. But Etta did from the first. "He was weak
+and reckless enough for anything," she has often said to me. Of course it
+is very terrible, and one cannot bear to think of it, but when a young
+man has lost his character he has not much pleasure in his life.'
+
+'I do not think Miss Hamilton really believes that he is dead.'
+
+'Perhaps not, poor darling. But Mr. Hamilton has no doubt on the subject,
+my dear Miss Garston. He is much to be pitied: he has never been the same
+man since Eric went. I am afraid that he repents of his harshness to the
+poor boy. He told the colonel once that he wished he had tried milder
+treatment.'
+
+'One can understand Mr. Hamilton's feelings so well. You are right, Mrs.
+Maberley: he is much to be pitied.'
+
+'Yes, and, to make matters worse, Gladys was very ill, and refused to see
+or speak to him in her illness. I believe the breach is healed between
+them now; but she is not all that a sister ought to be to him.'
+
+'Perhaps Miss Darrell usurps her place,' I replied a little incautiously,
+but I saw my mistake at once. Mrs. Maberley was evidently a devout
+believer in Miss Darrell's merits.
+
+'Oh, my dear, you must not say such things. Mr. Hamilton has told me over
+and over again that he does not know how he would have got through that
+miserable time but for his cousin Etta's kindness. She did everything for
+him, and nursed Gladys in her illness. I am sure she would have died but
+for Etta. Dear me! Flossie looks restless. I do believe she hears her
+master's step outside.--Yes, Flossie, that is his knock.--But I wonder
+whom he is bringing in with him.' And Mrs. Maberley straightened herself
+and smoothed the folds of her satin gown, and tried to look as usual,
+though there were tears in her bright eyes and her hands were a little
+tremulous. I do not know why I felt so sure that it would be Mr.
+Hamilton, but I was not at all surprised when he followed the tall old
+colonel into the room. But he certainly looked astonished when he saw me.
+
+'Miss Garston!' he ejaculated, darting one of his keen looks at me. But
+when he had shaken hands he sat down by Mrs. Maberley somewhat silently.
+
+I was rather sorry to see Mr. Hamilton, for our talk had unsettled me
+and made me feel nervous in his presence. I was afraid he would read
+something from our faces. And I certainly saw him look at me more than
+once, as though something had aroused his suspicion. For the first time
+I was unwilling to encounter one of those straight glances. I felt
+guilty, as though I must avoid his eyes, but all the more I felt he
+was watching me.
+
+I was anxious to put a stop to this uncomfortable state of things, but
+I could not silence Mrs. Maberley, who was relating to her husband the
+story of poor Flossie's accident. My presence of mind and skill were so
+much lauded, and the colonel said so many civil things, that I felt
+myself getting hotter every moment.
+
+Mr. Hamilton came at last to my relief.
+
+'I think Miss Garston resembles me in one thing, colonel. She hates to be
+thanked for doing her duty. You will drive her away if you say any more
+about Flossie. Oh, I thought so,' as I stretched out my hand for my hat:
+'I thought I interpreted that look aright. Well, I must be going too. I
+only brought him back safe to you, Mrs. Maberley.--By the bye, colonel,
+I shall tell Gladys that you have never asked after her.'
+
+'My sweetheart, Gladys! To be sure I have not. Well, how is she, my dear
+fellow?'
+
+'As obstinate as ever, colonel. Came downstairs to-day, and declares she
+will go to early service to-morrow, because it will be Christmas Day,
+and she has never missed yet. Women are kittle cattle to manage. Now,
+Miss Garston, if you are ready, I will see you a little on your way.'
+
+I knew it was no good to remonstrate, so I held my peace, Mrs. Maberley
+kissed me quite affectionately, and begged me to come whenever I had an
+hour to spare.
+
+'I wish I had known you before, my dear. But there, we all make mistakes
+sometimes.' And she patted me on the shoulder. 'Edbrooke, will you see
+them out? He will be your friend for ever, after your goodness to
+Flossie: won't you, Edbrooke?'
+
+I never felt so afraid of Mr. Hamilton before. I was wondering what I
+should say to him, and hoping that he had not noticed my nervousness,
+when he startled me excessively by saying,--
+
+'What makes you look so odd this evening? You are not a bit yourself,
+Miss Garston. Come! I shall expect you to confess. Mrs. Maberley is an
+old friend of mine, and I am very much attached to her. I should like to
+know what you and she have been talking about?'
+
+It was too dark for Mr. Hamilton to see my face, so I answered a little
+flippantly,--
+
+'I daresay you would like to know. Women are certainly not much more
+curious than men, after all.'
+
+'Oh, as to that, I am not a bit curious,' was the contradictory answer.
+'But all the same I intend to know. So you may as well make a clean
+breast of it.'
+
+'But--but you have no right to be so inquisitive, Mr. Hamilton.'
+
+'Again I say I am not inquisitive, but I mean to know this. Mrs. Maberley
+had been crying. I could see the tears in her eyes. You looked inclined
+to cry too, Miss Garston. Now,'--after a moment's hesitation, as though
+he found speech rather difficult,--'I know the dear old lady has only one
+fault. She is rather too fond of gossiping about her neighbours, though
+she does it in the kindest manner. May I ask if her talk this evening
+at all related to a family not a hundred miles away from Maplehurst?'
+
+His voice sounded hard and satirical in the darkness. 'I wish you would
+not ask me such a question, Mr. Hamilton,' I returned, much distressed.
+'It was not my fault: I did not wish--' But he interrupted me.
+
+'Of course; I knew it. When am I ever deceived by a face or manner? Not
+by yours, certainly. So my good old friend told you about that miserable
+affair. I wish she had held her tongue a little longer. I wish--'
+
+But I burst out, full of remorse,--
+
+'Oh, Mr. Hamilton, I am so sorry! I have no right to know, but indeed
+I was hardly to blame.'
+
+'Who says you are to blame?' he returned, so harshly that I remained
+silent: 'it is no fault of yours if people will not be silent. But all
+the same I am sorry that you know; your opinion of me is quite changed
+now, eh? You think me a hard-hearted taskmaster of a brother. Well, it
+does not matter: Gladys would have made you believe that in time.'
+
+His voice was so full of concentrated bitterness that I longed to say
+something consoling; in his own fashion he had been kind to me, and I
+did not wish to misjudge him.
+
+'I know your sister Gladys sufficiently to be sure that she will never
+act ungenerously by her brother,' I returned hotly. 'Mr. Hamilton, you
+need not say such things: it is not for me to judge.'
+
+'But all the same you will judge,' he replied moodily. 'Oh, I know how
+you good women cling together: you know nothing of a man's nature; you
+cannot estimate his difficulties; because he has not got your sweet
+nature, because he cannot bear insolence patiently--Oh,' with an
+abruptness that was almost rude but for the concealed pain in his voice,
+'I am not going to excuse myself to you: why should I? I have only to
+account to my Maker and my own conscience,' And he was actually walking
+off in the darkness, for we were now in sight of the parlour window, but
+I called him back so earnestly that he could not refuse to obey.
+
+'Mr. Hamilton, pray do not leave me like this; it makes me unhappy. Do
+you know it is Christmas Eve?'
+
+'Well, what of that?' with a short laugh.
+
+'People ought not to quarrel and be disagreeable to each other on
+Christmas Eve.'
+
+'I am afraid, Miss Garston, that I do feel intensely disagreeable this
+evening.'
+
+'Yes, but you must try and forgive me all the same. I could not quite
+help myself; but indeed I do not mean to judge you or any one, and I
+should like you to shake hands.'
+
+'There, then,' with a decidedly hearty grasp; and then, without releasing
+me, 'So you don't think so very badly of me, after all?'
+
+'I am very sorry for you,' was my prudent answer; 'I think you have had
+a great deal to bear. Good-night, Mr. Hamilton.'
+
+'Wait a minute; you have not answered my question. You must not have
+it all your own way. I repeat, has Mrs. Maberley given you a very bad
+impression of my character?'
+
+'Certainly not; oh, she spoke most kindly; I should not have been afraid
+if you had heard the whole of our conversation.'
+
+'I wish I had heard it.'
+
+'She made me feel very sorry for you all. Oh, what trouble there is in
+the world, Mr. Hamilton! It does seem so blind and foolish to sit in
+judgment on other people! how can we know their trials and temptations?'
+
+'That is spoken like a sensible woman. Try to keep a good opinion of us,
+Miss Garston: we shall be the better for your friendship. Well, so we are
+friends again, and this little misunderstanding is healed: so much the
+better; I should hate to quarrel with you. Now run in out of the cold.'
+
+I hastened to obey him, but he stood at the gate until I had entered
+the house; his voice and manner had quite changed during the last few
+minutes, and had become strangely gentle, reminding me of his sister
+Gladys's voice. What a singular man he was!--and yet I felt sorry for
+him. 'I wonder if he is really to blame!' I thought, as I opened the
+parlour door.
+
+The lamp was alight; the fire burnt ruddily; Tinker was stretched on the
+rug as usual, but something else was on the rug too.
+
+A girlish figure in a dark tweed gown was huddled up before the grate; a
+head, with short thick locks of hair tossing roughly on her neck, turned
+quickly at my entrance.
+
+'Jill!'
+
+'Yes, it is I, Ursie dear! Oh, you darling bear, what a time you have
+been!' Two strong arms pulled me down in the usual fashion, and a hot
+cheek was pressed lovingly against mine.
+
+'Oh, Jill, Jill, what does this mean?' I exclaimed, in utter amazement;
+but for a long time Jill only laughed and hugged me, and there was no
+getting an answer to my question.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+'I RAN AWAY, THEN!'
+
+
+'Now, Jill,' I demanded, at last, taking her by the shoulders, 'I insist
+on knowing what this means.' And when I spoke in that tone Jill always
+obeyed me at once.
+
+So she shook her untidy mane, and looked at me with eyes that were
+brimful of fun and naughtiness.
+
+'Very well, Ursie dear, if you will know, you shall; but first sit down
+in that cosy-looking chair, and I will put my elbows in your lap, in the
+dear old fashion, and then we can talk nicely. What a snug little room
+this is! it looked just delicious when I came in, and Mrs. Barton made me
+such a nice cup of tea, and then I went upstairs to look at your bedroom,
+and there was a beautiful fire there, and Mrs. Barton says you always
+have one: so you are not so poor and miserable, after all.'
+
+'I am not at all poor, thank you; and I work so hard that I think I
+deserve to be warm and comfortable. And when people live alone, a fire
+is a nice, cheerful companion. But this is not answering my question,
+Jocelyn.'
+
+Now Jill hated me to call her Jocelyn, so she made a face at me, and
+said, in rather a grumpy voice, 'Well, I ran away, then!'
+
+'Ran away from Hyde Park Gate! Were you mad, Jill?'
+
+'Oh dear, no,--not from Hyde Park Gate. Did you not get my letter? Oh,
+I remember, I forgot to post it: it is in my blotting-case now. Then you
+did not know that Sara has scarlatina?'
+
+'No, indeed; but I am very sorry to hear it.'
+
+'Oh, she is nearly well now; but no one knows how she caught it. There
+was a terrible fuss when Dr. Armstrong pronounced it scarlatina. Mamma
+made father take lodgings at Brighton at once, and Fraeulein and I were
+packed off there at a minute's notice. You can fancy what my life has
+been for the last ten days, mewed up in a dull, ugly parlour with that
+old cat.'
+
+'My poor, dear Jill! But why did you not write to me, and I would have
+come over at once?'
+
+'So I did write, twice, and I do believe that horrid creature never
+posted my letters,--I daresay they are in her pocket now,--and I could
+not get out by myself until to-day. Now just think, Ursula, what sort of
+a Christmas Day I was likely to have; and then you never came to me, and
+I got desperate; so when Fraeulein said she had one of her headaches,' and
+here Jill made a comical grimace, 'I just made up my mind to take French
+leave, and spend Christmas Day with you, and here I am; and scold me if
+you dare, and I will hug you to death.' And, indeed, Jill's powerful
+young arms were quite capable of fulfilling her threat.
+
+'It is not for me to scold you,' I replied quietly; 'but I am afraid
+you will get into trouble for this piece of recklessness. Think how
+frightened poor Fraeulein will be when she misses you.'
+
+'Poor Fraeulein, indeed! a deceitful creature like that. Why, Ursula, what
+do you think? I just peeped into her room to be sure that she was safe
+and it was all dark: she was not there at all. Oh, oh, my lady, I said to
+myself, so that is your little game, is it? And, just to be certain, I
+rang at the bell at 37 Brunswick Place, where the Schumackers live, and
+asked the servant if Fraeulein Hennig was still there, and when I heard
+that she was having tea I nearly laughed in his face. What do you think
+of that for an instructress of youth,--getting up the excuse of a
+headache, and leaving me over those stupid lessons, while she paid a
+visit on her own account? Does she not deserve a thorough good fright
+as a punishment?'
+
+'I think Aunt Philippa ought to be undeceived. I have never trusted
+Fraeulein Hennig since you told me she shut herself up in her bedroom to
+read novels. Jill, my dear, you have acted very wrongly, and I am afraid
+we shall all get into trouble over this school-girl trick of yours. I
+must think what is best to be done under the circumstances.'
+
+'You may think as much as you like,' returned Jill obstinately, 'but I
+have come to spend my Christmas Day with you, and nothing will induce me
+to go back to Fraeulein: I shall murder her if I do. Now, Ursie darling,'
+in a coaxing voice, 'do be nice, and make much of me. You can't think how
+delicious it is to see your face again; it is such a dear face, and I
+like it ever so much better than Sara's and Lesbia's.'
+
+I was unable to reply to this flattering speech, for Jill suddenly put up
+her hand--I noticed it was a little inky--and said, 'Hark, there is some
+one coming up to the door?' and for the moment we both believed that it
+was Fraeulein; but, to Jill's immense relief, it was only Mr. Tudor, with
+a great bough of holly in his hand.
+
+'We have just finished at the church, and I have brought you this, Miss
+Garston,' he began, and then he stopped, and said, 'Miss Jocelyn here!'
+in a tone of extreme surprise, and Jill got up rather awkwardly and shook
+hands with him. I could see that she felt shy and uncomfortable. I was
+very pleased to see Mr. Tudor, for I knew he would help us in this
+emergency. Jill was such a child, in spite of her womanly proportions,
+that I was sure that her escapade would not seriously shock him; he was
+young enough himself to have a fellow-feeling for her; and I was not
+wrong. Mr. Tudor looked decidedly amused when I told him Jill had taken
+French leave. He tried to look grave until I had finished, but the effort
+was too much for him, and he burst out laughing.
+
+Jill, who was looking very sulky, was so charmed by his merriment that
+she began to laugh too, and we were all as cheerful as possible until I
+called them to order, and asked Mr. Tudor if he would send off a telegram
+at once.
+
+'A telegram! Oh, Ursula!' And Jill's dimples disappeared like magic.
+
+'My dear, Fraeulein would not have a moment's sleep to-night if she did not
+know you were safe. Do not be afraid, Jill: we will spend our Christmas
+Day together, in spite of all the Fraeuleins in the world.' And then I
+wrote off the telegram, and a short note, and gave them to Mr. Tudor. The
+telegram was necessarily brief:
+
+'Jocelyn safe with me. Will not return until Thursday. Write to explain.'
+
+The note was more explanatory.
+
+I apologised profusely to Fraeulein for her pupil's naughtiness, but
+begged her to say nothing to her mother, as I would communicate myself
+with Aunt Philippa and let her know what had happened. Under the
+circumstances I thought it better to keep Jocelyn with me over Christmas
+Day, until I heard from Aunt Philippa. But she might depend on my
+bringing her back myself.
+
+'It is far too polite,' growled Jill, who had been reading the letter
+over my shoulder. 'How can you cringe so to that creature?'
+
+'I consider it a masterpiece of diplomacy,' observed Mr. Tudor, as I
+handed it for his inspection. 'Civil words pay best in the long-run; and
+you know it was very naughty to run away, Miss Jocelyn.'
+
+'It was nothing of the kind,' returned Jill rebelliously. 'And I would do
+it again to-morrow. I am more than sixteen; I am not a child now, and I
+have a right to come and see Ursula if I like.' And Jill threw back her
+head, and the colour came into her face, and she looked so handsome that
+I was not surprised to see Mr. Tudor regard her attentively. I never saw
+a face so capable of varying expression as Jill's.
+
+Jill declared she was glad when Mr. Tudor was gone. But I think she liked
+him very well on the whole; and, indeed, no one could dislike such a
+bright, kind-hearted fellow. As soon as he had left the house I had to
+call a council. It was quite certain my bed would not hold Jill; so, at
+Mrs. Barton's suggestion, some spare mattresses were dragged in my room
+and a bed made up on the floor. Jill voted this delicious; nothing could
+have pleased her more, and she was so talkative and excited that I had
+the greatest trouble in coaxing her to be quiet and let me go to sleep:
+in fact, I had to feign sleep to make her hold her tongue.
+
+But I was much too restless to sleep, and once when I crept out of bed to
+replenish the fire I stood still for a moment to look at Jill.
+
+She was sleeping as placidly as an infant in its cradle, her short black
+locks pushed back from her face, and one arm stretched on the coverlet.
+I was surprised to see how fine Jill's face really was. The ugly
+duckling, as Uncle Brian called her, was fast changing into a swan. At
+present she was too big and undeveloped for grace; her awkward manners
+and angularities made people think her rough and uncouth. 'I expect she
+will eclipse Sara's commonplace prettiness some day; but, poor child,
+no one understands her,' I sighed, and as I tucked her up more warmly,
+with a kiss, Jill's sleepy arms found their way to my neck and held me
+there. 'Is not it delicious, Ursie dear?' she murmured drowsily.
+
+I was glad to see that Miss Hamilton was at the early service. She looked
+pale and delicate, but there was a brighter look upon her face when she
+nodded to me in the porch. Her brother was putting her into a fly, and
+Miss Darrell and Lady Betty followed.
+
+I was rather surprised to see him close the door after them and step back
+into the porch. And the next moment he joined us.
+
+'Well, Miss Garston,' holding out his hand, with a friendly smile, 'you
+see Gladys contrived to have her way. A happy Christmas to you! But I see
+you are not alone,' looking rather inquisitively at Jill, who looked very
+big and shy as usual.
+
+'I think you have heard of my cousin Jocelyn?' I returned, without
+entering into any further particulars. I should have been sorry for
+Jill's escapade to reach Mr. Hamilton's ears. But he shook hands with
+her at once, and said, very pleasantly, that he had heard of her from
+Mr. Cunliffe. And then, after a few more words, we parted.
+
+Mr. Hamilton was unusually genial this morning. There was nothing in his
+manner to recall our stormy interview on the previous evening. Perhaps he
+wished to efface the recollection from my memory, for there was something
+significant in his smile, as though we perfectly understood each other.
+
+I had lain awake for a long time thinking over Mrs. Maberley's talk and
+that uncomfortable walk from Maplehurst. Mr. Hamilton's voice and words
+haunted me; the suppressed irritation and pain that almost mastered him,
+and how he had flung away from me in the darkness.
+
+I was glad to remember that I had called him back and spoken a
+conciliatory word. No doubt he had been to blame. I could imagine him
+hard and bitter to a fault. But he had suffered; there were lines upon
+his face that had been traced by no common experience. No, it was not for
+me to judge him. As he said, what could I know of a man's nature? And I
+was still more glad when I saw Mr. Hamilton in the church porch, and knew
+that the day's harmony was not disturbed, and that there was peace
+between us. His bright, satisfied smile made me feel more cheerful.
+
+'What a strange-looking man!' observed Jill, in rather a grumbling voice,
+as we walked up the hill. 'Is that Mr. Hamilton? I thought he was young;
+but he is quite old, Ursula.'
+
+'No, dear, not more than three-or four-and-thirty, Uncle Max says.'
+
+'Well, I call that old,' returned Jill, with the obstinacy of sixteen.
+'He is an old bachelor, too, for of course nobody wants to marry him; he
+is too ugly.'
+
+'Oh, Jill, how absurd you are! Mr. Hamilton is not ugly at all. You will
+soon get used to his face. It is only rather peculiar.' And I quite meant
+what I said, for I had got used to it myself.
+
+'Humph!' observed Jill significantly. But she did not explain the meaning
+of her satirical smile, and I proceeded to call her attention to the
+hoar-frost that lay on the cottage roof, and the beauty of the clear
+winter sky. 'It is a glorious Christmas morning,' I finished.
+
+We had a very merry breakfast, for Jill was almost wild with spirits, and
+then we went to church again. Gladys was in her usual place, and looked
+round at me with a smile as I entered. When the service was over, I went
+to the Marshalls', accompanied by Jill, who announced her intention of
+not letting me out of her sight, for I had to preside over the children's
+Christmas dinner, and to look after my patient. We visited Robin next,
+and then went on to the Lockes', and Jill sat open-eyed and breathless
+in a corner of the room as I sang carols to Phoebe in the twilight.
+
+She rose reluctantly when I put my hand on her shoulder and told her
+that we must hurry back to the cottage to make ourselves smart for the
+evening. Jill seldom troubled her head about such sublunary affairs as
+dress.
+
+'I shall be obliged to wear my old tweed,' she said contentedly. 'I have
+only to smooth my hair, and then I shall be ready.' And she grumbled not
+a little when I insisted on arranging a beautiful spray of holly as a
+breast-knot, and twisting some very handsome coral beads that Charlie had
+given me round her neck. Jill always looked better for a touch of warm
+colour: the dark-red berries just suited her brown skin. 'You will do
+better now,' I said, pushing her away gently, 'so you need not pout and
+hunch your shoulders. Have I not told you that it is your duty to make
+the best of yourself?--we cannot be all handsome, but we need not offend
+our neighbours' eyes.' But, as usual, Jill turned a deaf ear to my
+philosophy.
+
+The study looked very cosy when we entered it, and Uncle Max gave us a
+warm welcome. To be sure, he shook his head at Jill, and told her that he
+was afraid she was a naughty girl, but both he and Mr. Tudor prudently
+refrained from teasing her on the subject of her escapade. On the
+contrary, they treated her with profound respect, as though she were
+a grown-up, sensible young lady, and this answered with Jill. She grew
+bright and animated, forgot her shyness, and talked in her quaint racy
+manner. I could see that Mr. Tudor was much taken with her. She was so
+different from the stereotyped young lady; her cleverness and originality
+amused him; and I am sure Uncle Max was equally surprised and pleased.
+
+I could see Max was making strenuous efforts to be cheerful, but every
+now and then he relapsed into gravity. After dinner I drew him aside a
+moment to speak to him about Jill: to my relief, he promised to be the
+bearer of a letter to Aunt Philippa.
+
+'I want to go up to town for a day or two,' he said, 'and I may as well
+do this business for you. How happy the child looks, Ursula! I wish you
+could keep her a little longer. She is very much improved. I had no idea
+that there was so much in her; she will be far more attractive than Sara
+when she has developed a moderate amount of vanity.' And I fully endorsed
+this opinion.
+
+We went home early, for I could see Max was very tired, but both he and
+Mr. Tudor insisted on escorting us. It was a beautiful starlight night,
+clear and frosty: our footsteps rang crisply on the ground: not a breath
+of wind stirred the skeleton branches that stretched above our heads: a
+solemn peacefulness seemed to close us round. Jill's mirthful laugh quite
+startled the echoes. She and Mr. Tudor were following very slowly. Once
+or twice we stood still and waited for them, but Mr. Tudor was in the
+middle of some amusing story, and so they took no notice of us.
+
+I told Max about my visit to Mrs. Maberley, and of the conversation
+that had taken place between us. I thought he started a little when
+I mentioned Eric Hamilton's name.
+
+'What a pity!' he said quietly. 'I had hoped she would have told you
+herself. I was waiting for her to do so.'
+
+'But, Max, surely you might have told me?'
+
+'Who?--I? I should not have presumed. You must remember that I was in
+Hamilton's confidence, and,' after a moment's hesitation, 'in hers too.
+Ursula,' with a sudden passionate inflexion in his voice, 'you have no
+idea how she loved that poor boy, and how she suffered: it nearly killed
+her. Now you know why I say that she is lonely and wants a friend.' 'But
+she has you, Max,' I exclaimed involuntarily, for I knew what he must
+have been to them in their trouble; Max could be as tender as a woman;
+but he started aside as though I had struck him; and his voice was quite
+changed as he answered me.
+
+'You mistake, Ursula. I was only her clergyman: if she confided in me it
+was because she could not do otherwise; she is naturally reserved. She
+would find it easier to be open with you.'
+
+'I do not think so, Max. I--But what does it matter what I think? There
+is one question I want to ask: do you think Mr. Hamilton was at all to
+blame?'
+
+'I am Hamilton's friend,' he returned, in a tone that made me regret that
+I had asked the question, and then he stood still and waited for the
+others to join us. Indeed, he did not speak again, except to wish us
+good-night.
+
+'It is the loveliest Christmas Day I have ever spent,' cried Jill,
+flinging herself on me, and she was no light weight. 'I do like Mr. Tudor
+so; he is nicer than any one I know, more like a nice funny boy than a
+man, only he tells me he can be grave sometimes. What was the matter with
+Mr. Cunliffe?--he looks tired and worried and not inclined to laugh.' And
+so Jill chattered on without waiting for my answers, talking in the very
+fulness of her young heart, until I pretended again to be asleep, and
+then she consented to be quiet.
+
+I saw Max for a few minutes the next day when he came to fetch my letter.
+He looked more like himself, only there was still a tired expression
+about his eyes; but he talked very cheerfully of what he should do during
+the few days he intended to remain in town.
+
+I made him promise to be very diplomatic with Aunt Philippa, and he most
+certainly kept his word, for the next morning I received a letter that
+surprised us both, and that drove Jill nearly frantic with joy.
+
+Aunt Philippa's letter was very long and rambling. She began by
+expressing herself as deeply shocked and grieved at Jocelyn's behaviour,
+which was both dishonourable and unlady-like, and had given her father
+great pain. 'Dear old dad! I don't believe it,' observed Jill, pursing
+her lips at this.
+
+Aunt Philippa regretted that she could no longer trust her young
+daughter,--she was sure Sara would never have behaved so at her age,--and
+she felt much wounded by Jocelyn's defiant action. At the same time, she
+was equally deceived in Fraeulein Hennig, she was certainly more to blame
+than Jocelyn. Mr. Cunliffe had told her things that greatly surprised
+her. Uncle Brian was very angry, and insisted that she should be
+dismissed. Under these distressing circumstances, and as it would not be
+safe for Jocelyn to come back to Hyde Park Gate until the rooms had been
+properly disinfected, she must beg me as a favour to herself and Uncle
+Brian to keep Jocelyn with me until they went to Hastings. Mr. Cunliffe
+knew of a finishing governess, a Miss Gillespie, who was most highly
+recommended as a well-principled and thoroughly cultured person, only she
+would not be at liberty for three or four weeks. As I reached this point
+of Aunt Philippa's letter, I was obliged to lay it down to prevent myself
+from being strangled.
+
+'Well, Jill, there is no need to hug me to death: it is Uncle Max that
+you have to thank, and not me.'
+
+'Yes, but you see it would never do to hug him, for he is not a bit my
+uncle, so I am doing it by deputy,' observed Jill recklessly. 'Oh,
+Ursula, what a darling you are! and what a dear fellow he is! To think
+of my staying here three or four weeks! You will let me help you nurse
+people, won't you?' very coaxingly.
+
+'We will see about that presently; but, Jill, you have never opened your
+mother's letter. Now, as it is perfectly impossible that you can sleep on
+the floor for weeks, and as I do not intend to keep such a chatterbox in
+my room, I am going to see what Mrs. Barton advises.' And leaving Jill to
+digest Aunt Philippa's scolding as well as she could, I went in search of
+the little widow.
+
+I found, to my relief, that there was another room in the cottage, though
+it could not boast of much furniture beyond a bed and wash-stand: so,
+after a little consideration, I started off to the vicarage to hold a
+consultation with Mrs. Drabble.
+
+The upshot of our talk was so satisfactory, and Mrs. Barton and Nathaniel
+worked so well in my service, that when bedtime came Jill found herself
+the possessor of quite a snug room. There were curtains up at the window,
+and strips of carpet on the floor. A dressing-table had been improvised
+out of a deal packing-case, and covered with clean dimity. Jill's
+travelling-box stood in one corner, and on the wall there was a row of
+neat pegs for Jill's dresses. Jill exclaimed at the clean trim look of
+the room, but I am sure she regretted her bed on the floor. She came down
+presently in her scarlet dressing-gown to give me a final hug and
+reiterate her petition for work.
+
+'Mamma has talked a lot of rubbish about my keeping up my studies and
+practising two hours a day, and she means to disinfect my books and send
+them down, but I have made up my mind that I will not open one. I am
+going to enjoy myself, and nurse sick people, and do real work, instead
+of grinding away at that stupid German.' And Jill set her little white
+teeth, and looked determined, so I thought it best not to contradict
+her.
+
+'I am so glad Uncle Max thought of Miss Gillespie, dear.'
+
+'Who is she? I hate her already. I expect she is only an Anglicised
+Fraeulein,' observed Jill, with a vixenish look.
+
+'You are quite wrong. Miss Gillespie is Scotch, and she is very nice and
+good, and pretty too, for I have often heard Uncle Max talk of her. Her
+father was Max's great friend, and at his death the daughters were
+obliged to go out in the world. Miss Gillespie is the eldest. No, she is
+not very young,--nearly forty, I believe,--but she is so nice-looking;
+she was engaged to a clergyman, but he died, and they had been engaged
+so many years, and so now she will not marry. She is very cheerful,
+however, and all her pupils love her, and I am sure you will be happy
+with her, Jill.'
+
+Jill would not quite allow this, but the next day she recurred to the
+subject, and asked me a good many questions about Miss Gillespie, and
+when I told her that it was settled that Miss Gillespie should join them
+at Hastings she really looked quite pleased; but nothing would induce her
+to open the case of books Aunt Philippa had sent down, and when I told
+Uncle Max he only laughed.
+
+'Let her be as idle as she likes. She is over-educated now, and knows far
+more than most girls of her age. Take her about with you, and make her
+useful.' And I followed this advice implicitly, but for a different
+reason,--there was no keeping Mr. Tudor out of the house; so when I was
+engaged, and Jill could not be with me, I took advantage of a general
+invitation that Miss Hamilton had given me, and sent her up to Gladwyn.
+
+They were all very kind to her, and she seemed to amuse Miss Darrell, but
+after a time Mr. Tudor began going there too, and then indeed I should
+have been at my wits' end, only Mrs. Maberley came to my rescue. She took
+a fancy to Jill, and Jill reciprocated it, and presently she and Lady
+Betty began to spend most of their idle hours at Maplehurst.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+'THEY HAVE BLACKENED HIS MEMORY FALSELY'
+
+
+I loved having Jill with me, but I could not deny to myself or other
+people that I found her a great responsibility. In the first place, I
+had so little leisure to devote to her, for just after Christmas I was
+unusually busy. Poor Mrs. Marshall died on the eve of the New Year, and
+both Mr. Hamilton and I feared that Elspeth would soon follow her.
+
+A hard frost had set in, and granny's feeble strength seemed to succumb
+under the pressure of the severe cold; she had taken to her bed, and lay
+there growing weaker every day. Poor Mary had died very peacefully, with
+her hand in her husband's. I had been with her all day, and I did not
+leave until it was all over.
+
+Jill was as good as gold, and helped me with Elspeth and the children,
+and she always spent an hour or two with Robin; but by and by she began
+asking to go up to Gladwyn of her own accord, or proposing to have tea
+with Mrs. Maberley.
+
+'Of course I would prefer to stop with you, Ursie dear,' she said
+affectionately; 'I would rather talk to you than to any one else; but
+then, you see, you are never at home, and when you do come in, poor
+darling, you are so tired that you are only fit for a nap.' And I could
+not deny that this was the truth. After my hard day's work I was not
+always disposed for Jill's lively chatter, and yet her bright face was
+a very pleasant sight for tired eyes.
+
+I used to question her sometimes about her visits to Gladwyn, and she
+was always ready to talk of what had passed in the day. She and Lady
+Betty had struck up quite a friendship: this rather surprised me, as
+they were utterly dissimilar, and had different tastes and pursuits. Jill
+was far superior in intelligence and intellectual power; she had wider
+sympathies, too; and though Lady Betty had a fund of originality, and was
+fresh and _naive_; I could hardly understand Jill's fancy for her, until
+Jill said one day,
+
+'I do like that dear Lady Betty, she is such a crisp little piece of
+human goods; no one has properly unfolded her, or tested her good
+qualities; she is quite new and fresh, a novelty in girls. One never
+knows what she will say or do next: it is that that fascinates me, I
+believe; because,' went on Jill, and her great eyes grew bright and
+puzzled, 'it is not that she is clever; one gets to the bottom of her
+at once; there is not enough depth to drown you.'
+
+Jill did not take so readily to Gladys; she admired her, even liked her,
+but frankly owned that she found her depressing. 'If I talk to her long,
+I get a sort of ache over me,' she observed, in her graphic way. 'It is
+not that she looks dreadfully unhappy, but that there is no happiness in
+her face. Do you know what I mean? for I am apt to be vague. It rests me
+to look at you, Ursula; there is something quiet and comfortable in your
+expression; now, Miss Hamilton looks as though she had lost something she
+values, or never had it, and must go on looking for it, like that poor
+ghost lady who wanted to find her lost pearl.'
+
+Jill never could be induced to say much in Mr. Hamilton's favour, though
+he was very civil to her and paid her a great deal of attention. 'Oh,
+him!' she would say contemptuously, if I ever hazarded an observation: 'I
+never take much notice of odd-looking, ugly men: they may be clever, but
+they are not in my line. Mr. Hamilton stares too much for my taste, and
+I don't believe he is kind to his sisters; they are half afraid of him.'
+And nothing would induce her to alter her opinion.
+
+But Miss Darrell thoroughly amused her. Jill's shrewd, honest eyes were
+hardly in fault there: she used to narrate with glee any little fact she
+could glean about 'the lady with two faces,' as she used to call her.
+
+'Oh, she is a deep one,' Jill would say. 'I could not understand her at
+first. I thought she was just bright and talkative and good-natured, and
+I thought it nice to sit and listen to her, and she was very kind, and
+petted me a good deal, and I did not find her out at first.'
+
+'Find her out! what do you mean, Jill?' I asked innocently.
+
+'Why, that she is not good-natured a bit, really,' with a sagacious nod
+of her head. 'She keeps a stock of smiles for Cousin Giles and any chance
+visitor. She is not half so nice and charming when Miss Hamilton and Lady
+Betty are alone with her. Oh, I heard her one day, when I was in the
+conservatory with Lady Betty. Lady Betty held up her finger and said,
+'Hush!' and there she was talking in such a disagreeable, sneering voice
+to Miss Hamilton, only I stopped my ears and would not listen. And now
+she has got used to me she says unpleasant little things before my face,
+and then when "dear Cousin Giles" comes in'--and here Jill looked
+wicked--'she is all sweetness and amiability, quite charming, in fact.
+Now, that is what I hate, for a person to wear two faces, and have
+different voices: it shows they are not true.'
+
+'Well, perhaps you are right, dear'; for, without being uncharitable
+to Miss Darrell, I wished to put Jill on her guard a little.
+
+'I don't like the way she talks about you,' went on Jill indignantly.
+'She always begins when we are alone; not exactly saying things so much
+as implying them.'
+
+'Indeed! What sort of things?' I asked carelessly.
+
+'Oh, she is always hinting that it is rather odd for you to be living
+alone; she calls you deliciously unconventional and strong-minded,
+but I know what she means by that. Then she is so curious: she is always
+trying to find out how often Mr. Cunliffe or Mr. Tudor comes to see you,
+or if you go to the vicarage; and she said one day that she thought you
+preferred gentlemen's society to ladies', as they could never induce you
+to come up to Gladwyn, but of course you saw plenty of her cousin Giles
+in the village.'
+
+I felt my cheeks burn at this unwarrantable accusation, but Jill begged
+me not to disturb myself.
+
+'She won't make those sort of speeches to me again,' she said calmly.
+'She had a piece of my mind then that will last her for a long time.'
+
+'I hope you were not rude, Jill?'
+
+'Oh no! I only flew into a passion, and asked her how she dared to imply
+such a thing?--that my cousin Ursula was the best and the dearest woman
+in the world, and that no one else could hold a candle to her. "Ursula
+care for gentlemen's society!" I exclaimed: "why, at Hyde Park Gate we
+never could get her to remain in the drawing-room when those stupid
+officers were there: she never would talk to any of them, except old
+Colonel Trevanion, who is nearly blind! You do not understand Ursula: she
+is a perfect saint: she is the simplest, most unselfish, grandest-hearted
+creature; and you make out that she is a silly flirt like Sara." And then
+I had to hold my tongue, though I was as red as a turkey-cock, for there
+was Mr. Hamilton staring at us both, and asking if I were in my senses,
+and why I was quarrelling about my cousin, for of course my voice was as
+gruff and cross as possible.'
+
+'Oh, Jill!' I exclaimed, much distressed, 'how could you say such absurd
+things?--you know I never like you to talk in this exaggerated fashion. A
+saint, indeed! A pretty sort of saint Mr. Hamilton must think me!' for it
+nettled me to think that he had ever heard Jill's ridiculous nonsense.
+
+'Wait a moment, till I have finished: you are not too saintly to be cross
+sometimes. I will tell him that, if you like. Well, when he said this
+about quarrelling, Miss Darrell gave him one of her sweet smiles.
+
+'"Nonsense, Giles, as though I mind what this dear foolish child says;
+she is indulging in a panegyric on her cousin's virtues, because I said
+she was a little masculine and strong-minded and rather looked down upon
+us poor women. I have pressed her over and over again to spend an evening
+with us, but she always puts us off. I am afraid we Gladwyn ladies are
+not to her taste."
+
+'"Don't be silly, Etta. Have I not told you poor old Elspeth is
+dying?--Miss Garston will not leave her, you may be sure of that." And
+then Mr. Hamilton said to me in quite a nice way,--oh, I did not dislike
+him so much that evening,--"I daresay you misunderstand Etta. I assure
+you we all think most highly of your cousin, and she will always be a
+welcome guest here, and I hope you will induce her to come soon."
+Wasn't it nice of him? Dear Etta did not dare to say another word.'
+
+'Very nice, Jill; but indeed I do not want to hear any more of Miss
+Darrell's speeches.' And I got up hastily and opened the piano to put
+a stop to the conversation. Jill was always pleased when I would sing
+to her, but somehow my voice was not quite in order that evening.
+
+The next day Jill surprised me very much by asking me if I knew that Miss
+Hamilton was going to Bournemouth for the rest of the winter.
+
+'Mrs. Maberley has invited her, and Mr. Hamilton thinks it will do her so
+much good: they are going early next week. She wants to see you, Ursula;
+she says you have not met since Christmas. Could you go this afternoon?
+Miss Darrell will be out.'
+
+I considered for a moment, and then said yes, I would certainly go up to
+Gladwyn. It made me feel a little dull to think Miss Hamilton was going
+away; we had not exchanged a word since that Sunday evening, but I had
+thought of her so much since then. My patients had engrossed my time, but
+hardly my thoughts. Poor Elspeth was slowly dying, and I had to be
+constantly with her. Marshall had not yet resumed work, but he was in
+poor spirits from the loss of his wife, and could hardly be a comfort to
+the poor creature. I put off my visit to Phoebe until the evening, and
+walked up to Gladwyn with Jill; she and Lady Betty were going for a walk,
+and were to have tea with the Maberleys. I learned afterwards that Mr.
+Tudor met them quite accidentally about three miles from Heathfield, and
+had accompanied them to Maplehurst, where he made himself so pleasant to
+the old lady that he was pressed to remain. Oh, Mr. Tudor, I am afraid
+you are not quite so artless as you look! I began to wish Aunt Philippa
+would soon recall Jill.
+
+I found Miss Hamilton alone, and she seemed very glad to see me; her fair
+face quite flushed with pleasure when she saw me enter the drawing-room.
+
+'I was afraid it was some stupid visitor,' she said frankly, 'when I
+heard the door-bell ring. Did it trouble you to come? How tired you look!
+there, you shall take Giles's chair,' putting me with gentle force in a
+big blue-velvet chair that always stood by the fire; and then she took
+off my wraps and unfastened my gloves, and made me feel how glad she was
+to wait on me.
+
+'You are going away,' I said, rather lugubriously, for I felt all at
+once how I should miss her. She looked a little better and brighter, I
+thought, or was it only temporary excitement?
+
+'Yes,' she returned seriously, but not sadly, 'I think it will be better.
+I am almost glad to go away, except that I shall not see you,' looking at
+me affectionately.
+
+'Oh, if you wish to go,' for I was so relieved to hear her say this.
+
+'It is not that I wish it, exactly, but that I feel it will be better:
+things are so uncomfortable just now, more than usual, I think. Etta
+seems always worrying herself and me; sometimes I fancy that she wants
+to get rid of me, that I am too troublesome,' with a faint smile. 'She
+worries about my health and want of spirits. I suppose I am rather a
+depressing element in the house, and, as I get rather tired of all this
+fuss, I think it will be better to leave it behind for a little.'
+
+'That sounds as though you were driven away from home, Miss Hamilton.'
+
+'Miss Hamilton!' reproachfully; 'that is naughty, Ursula. I do not call
+you Miss Garston.'
+
+'Gladys, then.'
+
+'Perhaps my restlessness is driving me away,' she returned sadly. 'I do
+feel so restless without my work. I never minded Etta's fussiness so
+much. I daresay she means it kindly, but it harasses me. I am one of
+those reserved people who do not find it easy to talk of their feelings,
+bodily or mental, except to a chosen few. You are one,--perhaps not the
+only one.'
+
+'Of course not,' for she hesitated. 'You do not suppose that I laid such
+flattering unction to my soul?'
+
+'Oh, but I could tell you anything,' she returned seriously. 'You seem to
+draw out one's thoughts while one is thinking them. Yes, I am sorry to
+leave you even for a few weeks; but, for many reasons, Giles is right,
+and the change will be good for me.'
+
+'If you will only come back looking better and brighter I will gladly let
+you go.'
+
+'I do not promise you that,' she answered quickly, 'unless you remove
+the pressure of a very heavy burden; but I shall be quieter and more at
+peace, and I am very fond of Colonel and Mrs. Maberley: they are dear
+people, and they spoil me dreadfully.'
+
+'I am thankful some one spoils you, Gladys.'
+
+She smiled at that.
+
+'Uncle Max is still away,' I observed, after a brief silence. 'He went to
+Torquay to see an invalid friend, and he is still there. Mr. Tudor does
+not expect him back until the end of next week.'
+
+'Yes, I know,' she returned, in a low voice; 'but we shall be at
+Bournemouth before then. Will you bid him good-bye for me, Ursula, and
+say that I hope his visit has rested and refreshed him? He was not very
+well, you told me.'
+
+'No, but he is better now: he writes very cheerfully. Gladys, when you
+come back you will be stronger, I hope. I really do hope you will resume
+your work then; it will be far better for you to do so.'
+
+'You cannot judge,' she said gently. 'I am afraid that I shall be unable
+to do that.' And somehow her manner closed the subject; but I was
+determined to make her speak on another subject.
+
+'I want to tell you something that I think you ought to know,' I began,
+rather abruptly. 'Mrs. Maberley spoke to me about your brother Eric.'
+
+'Ursula!'
+
+'I could not let you go away and not know this: it did not seem honest.
+It has troubled me a great deal. Mrs. Maberley would tell me, and she
+told it so nicely; and Mr. Hamilton is aware that I know, and I am afraid
+he is not pleased about it.'
+
+She put up her hands to her face for a moment, with a gesture full of
+distress.
+
+'I meant to tell you myself,' she said, in a stifled voice, 'but not now;
+not until I felt stronger.'
+
+'And now you will not have that pain, Gladys. I think you ought to be
+relieved that some one else has told me.' But she shook her head.
+
+'How do I know what they said? And Giles is aware of it, you say. Oh,
+Ursula, for pity's sake, tell me, has he talked to you about Eric?'
+
+'No, no, not in the way you mean: he only said that we must not judge or
+misjudge other people. He seemed afraid that I should misjudge him.'
+
+'Oh, I am thankful to know that. I could not bear to have the poor boy
+discussed between you two. Giles would have made you believe everything,
+he has such a way with him, and you would not know any better. Oh,
+Ursula,' in a piteous voice, 'you must not listen to them; they are all
+so hard on my poor darling. Faulty as he was, he was innocent of the
+crime laid to his charge; they have accused him falsely. Eric never
+took that cheque.'
+
+I could see she was strongly agitated. Her delicate throat swelled with
+emotion, and she took hold of my hands and held them tightly, and her
+large blue-gray eyes were fixed on my face with such a beseeching
+expression that I could have promised to believe anything. And yet she
+was right. Mr. Hamilton had a way with him that influenced people
+strongly; he could speak with a power and authority that seemed to
+dominate one in spite of one's self. It has always appeared to me that we
+poor women are easily silenced and subjugated by a strong masculine will.
+It is difficult to assert a timid individuality in the presence of a
+regnant force.
+
+I answered her as gently as I could. 'Dear Gladys, you will make yourself
+ill. Will it give you any relief to speak out? I will listen to anything
+you have to say.'
+
+She drew a deep breath, and the colour ebbed back into her face.
+
+'Perhaps it may be a relief: I am weary of silence,--of trying to bear
+it alone; and other things are wearing me out. Etta is not so far wrong,
+after all.' And then she stopped, and looked at me wistfully, and her
+lips trembled. 'Ursula, you are a nurse; you go about comforting sick
+bodies and sick minds. If I am ill,--one must be ill sometimes,--will you
+promise to come and take care of me, in spite of all Etta may do or say?'
+
+I hesitated for a moment, for it seemed to me impossible to give an
+unconditional promise, but she continued reproachfully, 'You cannot have
+the heart to refuse! I wanted to ask you this before. You would not,
+surely, leave me to eat out my heart in this loneliness! If you knew what
+it is to have Etta with one at such times! an east wind would be more
+merciful and comforting. I know I am expressing myself far too strongly,
+but all this excites me. Do promise me this, Ursula. Giles will not
+hinder you coming: he appreciates you thoroughly: it will only be Etta
+who may try to oppose you.'
+
+Gladys was right; I had not the heart to refuse: so I gave her the
+required promise, and she grew calmed at once.
+
+'Now that is settled, I can breathe more freely,' she said presently.
+'I am afraid I am growing fanciful, but lately I have had such a horror
+of being ill. Giles would be kind, I know,--he is always kind in
+illness,--but he lets Etta influence him. Ursula, she influenced him and
+turned him against my poor boy; with all Giles's faults,--and he can be
+very hard and stern and unforgiving,--I am sure that of his own accord he
+would never have been so harsh to Eric.'
+
+'But Mrs. Maberley told me that Miss Darrell took your brother Eric's
+part.'
+
+'Yes, I know, she believes in Etta, and so does Giles; but she is not
+true; she has a dangerous way of implying blame when she is apparently
+praising a person: have you never noticed this? Giles was always more
+angry with Eric after Etta had been into the study to intercede for him.
+If she would only have let him alone; but that is not Etta's way: she
+must make or mar people's lives.'
+
+There was a concentrated bitterness in Gladys's voice, and her face grew
+stern.
+
+'There was no love between them. Eric detested Etta, and on her side I
+know she disliked him. Eric never would tell me the reason; he was always
+hinting that he had found her out, and that she knew it, and that in
+consequence she wanted to get rid of him; but I thought it was all fancy
+on the poor boy's part, and I used to laugh at him. I wish I had not
+laughed now, for there was doubtless truth in what he said.'
+
+'You were very fond of him, Gladys?' I asked softly, and as I spoke her
+face changed, and its expression grew soft and loving in a moment.
+
+'Love him? he was everything to me: he was my twin, you know,--and so
+beautiful. Oh, I never saw a man's face so beautiful as his; he had such
+bright ways, too, and such a ringing laugh,--I wake up sometimes and
+fancy I hear it; and then came his whistle and light footstep springing
+up the stairs; but it is only a part of my dream.' She sighed, and went
+on: 'He was so fond of me, and used to tell me everything, and he was
+never cross to me, however put out and miserable he was; and I know they
+made him very miserable. Giles was so strict with him, and would not give
+him any liberty, and when Eric rebelled he was cruel to him.'
+
+'Oh, not cruel, surely!' I could not help the involuntary exclamation.
+I thought Gladys looked at me a little strangely before she answered:
+
+'It seemed cruel to us; he was very harsh,--oh, terribly harsh; but I
+think--nay, I am sure--he has repented of his hardness. I was slow to
+forgive him: perhaps it would be more true to say I have not wholly
+forgiven him yet; but I know now that he has suffered, that he would undo
+a great deal of the past if he could, and this makes me more merciful.
+Sometimes in my heart I feel quite sorry for Giles.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE MYSTERY AT GLADWYN
+
+
+Just then Leah entered the room to replenish the fire, and Gladys dropped
+my hand hastily and took up a screen.
+
+'When my brother comes in we will have tea, Leah,' she said quickly.
+'Where is Thornton, that he does not come in to do this?'
+
+'I was passing through the hall, and I thought I would have a look at the
+fire, ma'am,' observed Leah, as she stooped to throw on a log. As she did
+so, I saw her take a furtive look at us both,--it gave me an unpleasant
+feeling,--and a moment afterwards she said in a soft, civil voice,--
+
+'There is no reason why Thornton should not bring tea now, if you like,
+ma'am. Master never cares to be waited for, and most likely he will be
+late this afternoon. I can walk home with Miss Garston when she is ready.
+I am sure my mistress would spare me.'
+
+'We will see about that presently, Leah; when I want Thornton I will ring
+for him.' Gladys spoke somewhat haughtily, and Leah left the room without
+another word; but I was sorry and troubled in my very heart to see Gladys
+motion me to be silent, and then go quickly to the door and open it and
+stand there for a moment. Her colour was a little heightened when she
+came back to her seat.
+
+'She has gone now, but we must be careful and not speak loudly. I hate
+myself for being so suspicious, but I have found out that some of our
+conversations have been retailed to Etta. I am afraid Leah listens at the
+door. She came in just now to interrupt our talk: it is Thornton's place
+to put coals on the drawing-room fire.'
+
+I felt an uncomfortable sensation creeping over me.
+
+'Do you think she even heard us just now?'
+
+'I fear so; and now Etta will know we have been talking about Eric. Oh, I
+am glad I am going away! it gets too unbearable. Ursula, I shall write to
+you, and you must answer me. Think what a comfort your letters will be to
+me; I shall be able to depend on what you say. Lady Betty is so careless,
+she knows what Etta is, and yet she will leave her letters about, and
+more than once they have not reached me. I am afraid that Leah is a
+little unscrupulous in such matters.'
+
+I was aghast as I listened to her, but she changed the subject quickly.
+
+'What were we talking about? Oh, I said Giles was hard; and so he was;
+but Eric was faulty too.
+
+'He was very idle; he would not work, and he thought of nothing but his
+painting. Giles always says I encouraged him in his idleness; but this is
+hardly the truth. I used to try and coax him to open his books, but he
+had got this craze for painting, and he spent hours at his easel. I
+thought it was a great pity that Giles forced him to take up law; if he
+had talent it was surely better for him to be an artist; but Giles and
+Etta persisted in ignoring his talent. They called his pictures daubs,
+and ridiculed his artistic notions.'
+
+'Do you really believe that he would have worked successfully as an
+artist?'
+
+'It is difficult for me to judge. Eric was so young, and had had little
+training, and then he only painted in a desultory way: as I have told
+you, he was very idle. I think if Giles had been more fatherly with him,
+and had remonstrated with him more gently, and showed him the sense and
+fitness of things, Eric would have been reasonable; but Etta made so much
+mischief between them that things only got worse and worse. Eric was
+extravagant; he never managed money well, and he got into debt, and that
+made Giles furious, and when Eric lost his temper--for he was very hot
+and soon got into a passion--Giles's coolness and hard sneering speeches
+nearly drove Eric wild. He came to me one day in the garden looking as
+white as a sheet,--that was the day before the cheque was missed,--and
+told me, in a conscience-stricken voice, that it was all up between him
+and Giles, he had got into a passion and struck Giles across the face.
+
+'"I don't know why he did not knock me down," cried the poor lad. "I
+deserved it, for I saw him wince with the pain; but he only took me by
+the shoulder--you know how strong Giles is--and turned me out of the room
+without saying a word, and there was the mark of my hand across his
+cheek. I feel like Cain, I do indeed, Gladys, 'For he that hateth his
+brother is a murderer'; and I hate Giles." And the poor boy--he was only
+twenty, Ursula--put his head down on my shoulder and sobbed like a child.
+If only Giles could have seen him then!'
+
+'Do you know what passed between them?'
+
+'Yes; I heard a little from both of them. Some of Eric's bills had been
+opened accidentally by Giles. Etta had told Giles that they were his,
+and he had called Eric to account. And then it seems that Eric's affairs
+were mixed up with another young man's, Edgar Brown, a very wild young
+fellow, with whom Giles had forbidden Eric to associate. They had been
+school-fellows, and Giles knew his father, Dr. Brown, and disliked him
+much; and it seems that Eric had promised to break with him, and had not
+kept his promise; and when Giles called him mean and dishonourable, Eric
+had forgotten himself, and struck Giles.
+
+'"It is all over between us, I tell you, Gladys," the poor boy kept
+saying. "Giles says he shall take me away from Oxford, and I am to be put
+in an attorney's office: he declares I shall ruin him. I cannot stop here
+to be tormented and bullied, and I will never go near old Armstrong: why,
+the life would be worse than a convict's. I shall just go and enlist, and
+then there is a chance of getting rid of this miserable life." But I did
+not take much notice of this speech, for I knew Eric had no wish to enter
+the army; and certainly he would never do such a rash thing as enlist: he
+always declared he would as soon be a shoeblack. What does that look
+mean, Ursula?' for I was glancing uneasily at the door. Was it my fancy,
+or did I really hear the faint rustle of a dress on the tessellated
+pavement of the hall? In another moment Gladys understood, and her voice
+dropped into a whisper.
+
+'Come closer to me. I mean to tell you all in spite of them. I will be as
+quick as I can, or Giles will be here.
+
+'I never saw Eric in such a state as he was that day. He seemed nearly
+beside himself: nothing I could say seemed to give him any comfort. He
+shut himself up in his room and refused to eat. He would not admit me for
+a long time, but when he at last opened the door I saw that his table was
+strewn with papers, and a letter directed to Giles lay beside them.
+
+'We sat down and had a long talk. He told me that he had got into more
+difficulties than even Giles suspected. He had been led away by Edgar
+Brown. I brought him all the money I had, which was little enough, and
+promised him my next quarter's allowance. I remember he spoke again of
+enlisting, and said that any life, however hard, would be preferable to
+the present one. He could not stay here and be slandered by Etta and
+bullied by Giles. He seemed very unhappy, and once he put down his head
+upon his arms and groaned. It was just then that I heard a slight
+movement outside the door, and opened it just in time to see Leah gliding
+round the corner. Ursula, she had heard every word that my poor boy had
+said, and it is Leah's evidence that has helped to criminate him.'
+
+'Yes, I see. But did you not put your brother on his guard?'
+
+'No,' she returned sadly, 'I made the grievous mistake of keeping Leah's
+eavesdropping to myself. I thought Eric had enough to trouble him,
+without adding to his discomfort. I would give much now to have done
+otherwise.
+
+'I stayed up late with him, and did not leave him until he had promised
+to go to bed. Giles was still in the study when I went to my room, but he
+came up shortly afterwards, for I could hear his footsteps distinctly
+passing my door. He must have passed Leah in the passage, for I heard him
+say, "You are up late to-night, Leah," but her answer escaped me.
+
+'I can tell you no more on my own evidence; but Eric's account, which I
+believe as surely as I am holding your hand now, is this:
+
+'He heard Giles come up to bed, and a sudden impulse prompted him to go
+down to the study and place his letter on Giles's desk. It was a very
+wild, foolish letter, written under strong excitement. I saw it
+afterwards, and felt that it had better not have been written. Among
+other things, he informed Giles that he would sooner destroy himself than
+go into Armstrong's office, and that he (Giles) had made his life so
+bitter to him that he thought he might as well do it: oh, Ursula, of
+course it was wrong of him, but indeed he had had terrible provocation.
+He had made up his mind to put this letter on Giles's desk before he
+slept: so he slipped off his boots, that I might not hear him pass my
+door, and crept down to the study. He had his chamber candlestick, as he
+feared that he might have some difficulty with the fastenings, for he had
+heard Giles put up the chain and bell. All our doors on that floor have
+chains and bells; it is one of Giles's fads. To his great surprise,
+the door was ajar, and when he put down the candle on the table he had
+a passing fancy that the thick curtains that were drawn over one of the
+windows moved slightly, as though from a draught of air. He blamed
+himself afterwards that he had not gone up to the window and examined
+it, but in his perturbed mood he did not take much notice; but he was
+certainly startled when he turned round to see Leah, in her dark
+dressing-gown, standing in the threshold watching him with a queer look
+in her eyes. There was something in her expression that made him feel
+uneasy.
+
+'"I thought it was thieves," she said, and now she looked not at him, but
+across at the curtain. "What are you doing with master's papers, Mr.
+Eric?"
+
+'"Mind your own business," returned Eric sulkily: "do you think I am
+going to account to you for my actions?" And he took up his candlestick
+and marched off.'
+
+'And he left that woman in possession?'
+
+'Yes,' returned Gladys in a peculiar tone, and then she hurried on:
+'The next morning Giles missed a cheque for a large amount that he had
+received the previous night and placed in one of the compartments of
+his desk, and in its place he found Eric's letter. Do you notice the
+discrepancy here? Eric vowed to me that he had placed the letter on the
+desk, that he never dreamt of opening it, that he always believed Giles
+kept it locked, that if Giles had been careless and left the key in it
+he knew nothing about it. His business to the study was to put his letter
+where Giles would be likely to find it on entering the room. Ursula, how
+did that letter get into the desk?
+
+'We were all summoned to the study when the cheque was missed. Etta
+fetched me. She said very little, and looked unusually pale. Giles was in
+a terrible state of anger, she informed me, and Leah was speaking to him.
+
+'Alas! she had been speaking to some purpose. I found Eric almost dumb
+with fury. Giles had refused to believe his assertion of innocence, and
+he had no proof. Leah's statement had been overwhelming, and bore the
+outward stamp of veracity.
+
+'She told her master that, thinking she heard a noise, and being fearful
+of thieves, she had crept down in her dressing-gown to the study, and, to
+her horror, had seen Mr. Eric with his hand in his brother's desk, and
+she could take her oath that he put some paper or other in his pocket.
+She had not liked to disturb her master, not knowing that there was money
+in the case.
+
+'Ursula, I cannot tell you any more that passed. That woman had
+effectually blackened my poor boy's honour. No one believed his word,
+though he swore that he was innocent. I heard high words pass between
+the brothers. I know Giles called Eric a liar and a thief, and Eric
+rushed at him like a madman, and then I fainted. When I recovered I
+found Lady Betty crying over me and Leah rubbing my hands. No one else
+was there. Eric had dashed up to his room, and Giles and Etta were in
+the drawing-room. I told Leah to go out of my sight, for I hated her; and
+I felt I did hate her. And when she left us alone I managed, with Lady
+Betty's help, to crawl up to Eric's room. But, though we heard him raging
+about it, he would not admit us. So I went and lay down on my bed and
+slept from sheer grief and exhaustion.
+
+'When I woke from that stupor,--for it was more stupor than sleep,--it
+was late in the afternoon. I shall always believe the wine Leah gave me
+was drugged. How I wish I had dashed the glass away from my lips! But I
+was weak, and she had compelled me to drink it.
+
+'Lady Betty was still sitting by me. She seemed half frightened by my
+long sleep. She said Eric had come in and had kissed me, but very
+lightly, so as not to disturb me. And she thought there were tears
+in his eyes as he went out. Ursula, I have never seen him since. He
+left the house almost immediately afterwards, but no one saw him go. By
+some strange oversight Giles's telegram to the London Bank to stop the
+cheque did not reach them in time. And yet Etta went herself to the
+telegraph-office. As you may have perhaps heard, a tall fair young man,
+with a light moustache, cashed the cheque early in the afternoon. Yes, I
+know, Ursula, the circumstantial evidence is rather strong just here. I
+am quite aware that it was possible for Eric after leaving our house to
+be in London at the time mentioned, but no one can prove that it was
+Eric.
+
+'Edgar Brown is tall and fair, and there are plenty of young men
+answering to that description; and I maintain, and shall maintain to my
+dying day,--and I am sure Mr. Cunliffe agrees with me,--that it was not
+Eric who presented that cheque. The clerk told Giles that the young man
+had a scar across his cheek and a slight cut, though he was decidedly
+good-looking. But Giles refused to believe this. He says the clerk made
+a mistake about the last.
+
+'The next morning I received a letter from Eric, written at the Ship
+Hotel, Brighton, containing the exact particulars that I have given, and
+reiterating in the most solemn way that he was perfectly innocent of the
+shameful crime laid to his charge.
+
+'"You will believe me, Gladys, I know," he went on. "You will not let my
+enemies blacken my memory if you can help it. If I could only be on the
+spot to clear up the mystery; for there is a mystery about the cheque.
+But I have sworn never to cross the threshold of Gladwyn again until this
+insult is wiped out and Giles believes in my innocence. If we never meet
+again, my sweet sister, you will know I loved you as well as I could love
+anything; but I was never good and unselfish like you. And I fear--I
+greatly fear--that I shall never weather through this." That was all.
+The letter ended abruptly.
+
+'The following afternoon a messenger from the Ship asked to see Mr.
+Hamilton; and after Giles had been closeted with him for a few minutes he
+came out, looking white and scared, with Eric's watch and scarf in his
+hands. The man had told him the young gentleman had gone out and had not
+returned, and they had been found on the beach, at the extreme end of
+Hove, and they feared something had happened to him. He had ordered
+dinner at a certain time, but he had not made his appearance. The next
+morning they had heard reports in the town that caused them to institute
+inquiries. A letter in the pocket of the coat, directed to Eric Hamilton,
+Gladwyn, Heathfield, enabled them to communicate with his relatives. And
+they had lost no time in doing so. I never saw Giles so terribly upset.
+He looked as though he had received a blow. He went to Brighton at once,
+and afterwards to London, and employed every means to set our fears at
+rest, for a horrible suspicion that he had really made away with himself
+was in all our minds.
+
+'I was far too ill to notice all that went on. A fever seemed about me,
+and I could not eat or sleep. I think I should have done neither, that my
+poor brain must have given way under the shock of my apprehensions, but
+for Mr. Cunliffe.
+
+'He was a true friend,--a good Samaritan. He bound up my wounds and
+poured in oil and wine of divinest charity. He did not believe that Eric
+was guilty of either dishonesty or self-destruction. In his own mind he
+was inclined to believe that he wished us to think him dead. It was all
+a mystery; but we must wait and pray; and in time he managed to instil
+a faint hope into my mind that this might be so.
+
+'Etta was rather kind to me just then. She looked ill and worried, and
+seemed taken up with Giles. It was well that he should have some one to
+look after his comforts, for there was a breach between us that seemed as
+though it would never be healed. I saw that he was irritable and
+miserable,--that the thought of Eric robbed him of all peace. But I could
+make no effort to console him, for I felt as though my heart was
+breaking. I--' And here she hid her face in her hands, and I could see
+she was weeping, and I begged her earnestly to say no more, that I quite
+understood, and she might be sure of my sympathy with her and Eric. She
+kissed me gratefully, and said, 'Yes, I know. I am glad to have told you
+all this. Now you understand why I am so grateful to Mr. Cunliffe, why I
+am so sorry'--and here her lips quivered--'if I disappoint him. I feel as
+though he has given me back Eric from the dead. It is true I doubt
+sometimes, when I am ill or gloomy, but generally my faith is strong
+enough to withstand Etta's incredulity.'
+
+'Does Miss Darrell believe that he is dead?'
+
+'Yes; and she is so angry if any one doubts the fact. I don't know why
+she hates the poor boy so: even Mr. Cunliffe has reproved her for her
+want of charity. I think she fears Mr. Cunliffe more than any one, even
+Giles: she is always so careful what she says before him.'
+
+'Gladys, I think I hear your brother's voice in the hall, and your cheeks
+are quite wet: he will wonder what we have been talking about.'
+
+'I will ring for Thornton, and the tea: he shall find me clearing the
+table. Don't offer to help me, Ursula.' And I sat still obediently,
+watching her slow, graceful movements about the room in the firelight:
+her fair hair shone like a halo of gold, and the dark ruby gown she wore
+gathered richer and deeper tints. That beautiful, sad face, how I should
+miss it!
+
+It was some little time before Mr. Hamilton entered the room. Thornton
+had lighted the candles and arranged the tea-tray, and Gladys had placed
+herself at the table.
+
+He testified no surprise at seeing me, but walked to the fire, after
+greeting me, and warmed himself.
+
+'They told me you were here,' he said abruptly: 'I was at the cottage
+just now. Have you not had your tea? Why, it is quite late, Gladys, and
+I want to take Miss Garston away.'
+
+'Is there anything the matter, Mr. Hamilton?' for I was beginning to
+understand his manner better now.
+
+'Oh, I have some business for you, that is all,--another patient; but I
+will not tell you about it yet: you must have a good meal before you go
+out into the cold. I shall ring the bell for some more bread-and-butter;
+I know you dined early; and this hot cake will do you no good.' And, as
+I saw he meant to be obeyed, I tried to do justice to the delicious brown
+bread and butter; but our conversation had taken away my appetite.
+
+He stood over me rather like a sentinel until I had finished.
+
+'Now, then, I may as well tell you. Susan Locke is ill,--acute pneumonia.
+I have just been down to see her, and I am afraid it is a sharp attack.
+Well, if you are ready, we may as well be going; the neighbour who is
+with her seems a poor sort of body. They sent for you, but Mrs. Barton
+said you were with Elspeth, and when Kitty went there you were nowhere to
+be found.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+WEEPING MAY ENDURE FOR A NIGHT
+
+
+I could not suppress an exclamation when Mr. Hamilton mentioned the name.
+
+Susan Locke! Poor, simple, loving-hearted Susan! What would become of
+Phoebe if she died?
+
+Mr. Hamilton seemed to read my thoughts.
+
+'Yes,' he said, looking at me attentively, 'I knew you would be sorry;
+Miss Locke was a great favourite of yours. Poor woman! it is a sad
+business. I am afraid she is very ill: they ought to have sent for me
+before. Now, if you are ready, we will start at once.'
+
+'I will not keep you another minute. Good-bye, Ursula.' And Gladys kissed
+me, and quietly followed us to the door. It was snowing fast, and the
+ground was already white with the fallen flakes. Mr. Hamilton put up his
+umbrella, and stood waiting for me under the shrubs, but a sudden impulse
+made me linger.
+
+Gladys was still standing in the porch; her fair hair shone like a halo
+in the soft lamplight, her eyes were fixed on the falling snow. I had
+said good-bye to her so hastily: I ran back, and kissed her again.
+
+'I wish you were not going, Gladys; I shall miss you so.'
+
+'It is nice to hear that,' she returned gently. 'I shall remember those
+words, Ursula. Write to me often; your letters will be my only comfort.
+There, Giles is looking impatient; do not keep him waiting, dear.' And
+she drew back, and a moment afterwards I heard the door shut behind us.
+
+Mr. Hamilton did not speak as I joined him, and I thought that our walk
+would be a silent one, until he said presently, in rather a peculiar
+tone,--
+
+'Well, Miss Garston, I suppose I ought to congratulate you for succeeding
+where I have failed.' Of course I knew what he meant, but I pretended to
+misunderstand him, and he went on,--
+
+'You have won my sister's heart. Gladys cares for few people, but she
+seems very fond of you.'
+
+'The feeling is reciprocated, I can assure you.'
+
+'I am glad to know that,' he returned heartily. 'I only wish you
+could teach Gladys to be like other girls; she is too young and too
+pretty to take such grave views of life; it is unnatural at her age. One
+disappointment, however bitter, ought not to cloud her whole existence.
+Try to make her see things in a more reasonable light. Gladys is as good
+as gold. Of course I know that she is a fine creature; but it is not like
+a Christian to mourn over the inevitable in this undisciplined way.'
+
+He spoke with great feeling, and with a gentleness that surprised me.
+I felt sure then of his affection for his young sister; I wished Gladys
+could have heard him speak in this fatherly manner. But, in spite of my
+sympathy, it was difficult for me to answer him. I felt that this was a
+subject that I could not discuss with Mr. Hamilton, and yet he seemed to
+wish me to speak.
+
+'You must give her time to recover herself,' I said, rather lamely.
+'Gladys is very sensitive; she is more delicately organised than most
+people; her feelings are unusually deep. She has had a severe shock; it
+will not be easy to comfort her.'
+
+'No, I suppose not,' with a sigh; 'her faith has suffered shipwreck;
+but you must try to win her back to peace. Oh, you have much to do at
+Gladwyn, as well as other places. I want you to feel at home with us,
+Miss Garston. Some of us have our faults, we want knowing; but you must
+try and like us better, and then you will not find us ungrateful.'
+
+He stopped rather abruptly, as though he expected an answer, but I only
+stammered out that he was very kind, and that I hoped when Gladys
+returned from Bournemouth that I should often see her.
+
+'Oh, to be sure,' he returned hastily. 'I forgot that her absence would
+make a difference. You do not like poor Etta: I have noticed that. Well,
+perhaps she is a little fussy and managing; but she is a kind-hearted
+creature, and very good to us all. I do not know what I should have done
+without her; my sisters do not understand me, they are never at their
+ease with me. I feel this a trouble; I want to be good to them; but there
+always seems a barrier that one cannot break down. I suppose,' with
+intense bitterness, 'they lay the blame of that poor boy's death at my
+door, as though I would not give my right hand to have him back again.'
+
+'Oh no, Mr. Hamilton,' I exclaimed, shocked to hear him speak in this
+way, 'things are not so bad as that. I know Gladys would be more to you
+if she could.' But he turned upon me almost fiercely.
+
+'Do not tell me that,' he said harshly, 'for I cannot believe you. Gladys
+cared more for Eric's little finger than the whole of us put together;
+she looks upon me as his destroyer, as a hard taskmaster who oppressed
+him and drove him out of his home. Oh, you want to contradict me; you
+would tell me how gentle Gladys is, and how submissive. No, she is never
+angry, but her looks and words are cold as this frozen snow; she has not
+kissed me of her own accord since Eric left us. I sometimes think it is
+painful for her to live under my roof.'
+
+'Mr. Hamilton!'
+
+'Well, what now?' in the same repellent tone.
+
+'You are wrong; you are unjust. Gladys does not feel like that; she has
+tried to forgive you in her heart for any past mistake; she sees you
+regret much that has passed, and she is no longer bitter against you.
+I wish you would believe this. I wish you could understand that she, too,
+longs to break down the barrier. Perhaps I ought not to say it, but I
+think Miss Darrell keeps you apart from your sisters.'
+
+'What, Etta!' in an astonished tone. 'Why, she is always making
+excuses for Gladys's coldness. Come, Miss Garston, I cannot have you
+misunderstand my poor little cousin in this way. You have no idea how
+faithful and devoted she is. She has actually refused a most advantageous
+offer of marriage to remain with us. She told me this in confidence; the
+girls do not know it: perhaps I ought not to have repeated it; but you
+undervalue Etta. Few women would sacrifice themselves so entirely for
+their belongings.'
+
+'No, indeed,' was my reply to this; but I secretly marvelled at this
+piece of intelligence, and there was no time to ask any questions, for
+we had reached the cottage, and the next minute I was standing by Susan
+Locke's bedside.
+
+There was no need to tell me that poor Susan was in danger; the
+inflammation ran high; the flushed face, the difficult breathing,
+the strength and fulness of the rapid pulse, filled me with grave
+forebodings. Mr. Hamilton remained with me some time, and when he took
+his leave he promised to come again as early as possible in the morning.
+
+'I will stay altogether if you wish it,' he said kindly, 'if you feel
+the least uneasiness at being alone.' But I disclaimed all fear on this
+score. I only begged him to remain with the patient a few minutes while
+I spoke to Phoebe, and he agreed to this.
+
+It was late; but I knew she would not be asleep. How could she sleep,
+poor soul, with this fresh stroke threatening her? As I opened the door
+I heard her calling to me in a voice broken with sobs.
+
+'Oh, Miss Garston, I have been longing for you to come to me; you have
+been here for hours. I have been lying listening to your footsteps
+overhead. Do you know, the suspense is killing me?'
+
+'Yes, I am so sorry for you, Phoebe: it is hard to bear, is it not?
+But I could not leave your sister. We are doing all we can to ease her
+sufferings, but she is very very ill.'
+
+'Do you think that I do not know that? She is dying! My only sister is
+dying!' And here her tears burst out again. 'Ah, Miss Garston, those
+dreadful words are coming true, after all.'
+
+'What words, my poor Phoebe?' And I knelt down by her side and smoothed
+the hair from her damp forehead.
+
+'Oh, you know what I mean. I have repeated them before; they haunt me day
+and night, and you refused to take them back. "If we will not lie still
+under His hand, and learn the lesson He would teach us, fresh trials may
+be sent to humble us,"--fresh trials; and, oh, my God, Susan is dying!'
+
+'You must not say that to her nurse, Phoebe; you must try and strengthen
+my hands: indeed, all hope is not lost: the inflammation is very high,
+but who knows if your prayers may not save her?'
+
+'My prayers! my prayers!' covering her face while the tears trickled
+through her wasted fingers; 'as though God would listen to me who have
+been a rebel all my life.'
+
+'Ah, but you are not rebellious now: you have fought against Him all
+these years, but now all His waves and billows have gone over your head,
+and you cannot breast them alone.'
+
+'No, and I have deserved it all. I do try to pray, Miss Garston, I do
+indeed, but the words will not come. I can only say over and over again,
+"Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee," and then I stop
+and my heart seems breaking.'
+
+'Well, and what can be better than that cry of your poor despairing heart
+to your Father! Do you think that He will not have pity on His suffering
+child? Be generous in your penitence, Phoebe, and trust yourself and
+Susan in His hands.'
+
+'Ah, but you do not know all,' she continued, fixing her miserable eyes
+on me. 'I have not been good to Susan: I have let her sacrifice her life
+for me, and have taken it all as a matter of course. I made her bear all
+my bad tempers and never gave her a good word. She was too tired,--ah,
+she was often tired,--and then she took this chill, and I made her wait
+on me all the same. She told me she was ill and in great pain, and I kept
+her standing for a long time; and I would not bid her good-night when she
+went away; and I heard her sigh as she closed the door, and I called her
+back and she did not hear me; and now--' But here hysterical sobs checked
+her utterance.
+
+'Yes, but you are sorry now, and Susan has forgiven you. I think she
+wanted to send you a message, but she is in too great pain to speak. I
+heard her say, "Poor Phoebe," but I begged her not to make the effort;
+you see she is thinking of you still.'
+
+'My poor Susan! But she must not miss you; I am wicked and selfish to
+keep you like this. Go to her, Miss Garston!' And I was thankful to be
+dismissed.
+
+My heart was full when I re-entered the sick-room. Mr. Hamilton looked
+rather scrutinising as he rose to give me his place.
+
+'Your thoughts must be here,' he said meaningly. 'Forgive me, if I give
+you that hint: do not forget Providence is watching over that other room.
+One duty at a time, Miss Garston.' And, though I coloured at this
+wholesome rebuke, I knew he was correct.
+
+'Yes, he is right,' I thought, as I stood listening to poor Susan's
+oppressed and difficult breathing: 'the Divine Teacher is beside His
+child. It is not for us to question this discipline or plead for an
+easier lesson.' But none the less did the fervent petition rise from my
+heart that the angel of death might not be suffered to enter this house.
+
+The night wore on, but, alas! there was no improvement. When Mr. Hamilton
+came through the snow the next morning he looked grave and dissatisfied,
+and then he asked me if I wanted any help; but I shook my head. 'Mrs.
+Martin is in the house: she will look after Phoebe and Kitty.'
+
+When he had gone, I wrote a little note and gave it to Kitty:
+
+'I cannot leave Susan for a minute, she is so very ill. Mr. Hamilton can
+see no improvement. He is coming again at mid-day. She suffers very much;
+but we will not give up hope, you and I;' and I bade Kitty carry it to
+her aunt.
+
+When Mr. Hamilton returned, he brought a little covered basket with him,
+and bade me rather peremptorily take my luncheon while he watched beside
+the patient.
+
+This act of thoughtfulness touched me. I wondered who had packed the
+basket: there was the wing of a chicken, some delicate slices of tongue,
+a roll, and some jelly. A little note lay at the bottom:
+
+'Giles has asked me to provide a tempting luncheon: he says you have
+had a sad night with poor Miss Locke, and are looking very tired. Poor
+Ursula! you are spending all your strength on other people.
+
+'In another half-hour I shall leave Gladwyn. I think I am glad to go,
+things are so miserable here, and one loses patience sometimes. I wish
+I could know poor Susan Locke's fate before I go; but Giles seems to have
+little hope. Take care of yourself for my sake, Ursula. I have grown to
+love you very dearly.
+
+'--Your affectionate friend,
+
+'Gladys.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton came again early in the evening, and I took the opportunity
+of paying Phoebe another visit.
+
+She was lying with her eyes closed, and looked very ill and
+exhausted,--alarmingly so, I thought: her emotion had nearly spent
+itself, and she was now passive and waiting for the worst.
+
+'Let me know when it happens,' she whispered. 'I have no hope now, but I
+will try and bear it.' And she drew my hands to her lips and kissed them:
+'they have touched Susan, they are doing my work, they are blessed hands
+to me.' And then she seemed unable to bear more.
+
+When Mr. Hamilton paid his final visit he announced his intention of
+remaining in the house. 'There will be a change one way or another before
+long, and I shall not leave you by yourself to-night,' he said quietly;
+and in my heart I was not sorry to hear this. He told me that there was a
+good fire downstairs, and that he meant to take possession of a very
+comfortable arm-chair, but that he wanted to remain in the sick-room for
+half an hour or so.
+
+I fancied that his professional eyes had already detected some change.
+Presently he walked away to the fireplace and stood looking down into the
+flames in rather an absent way.
+
+I could not help looking at him once or twice, he seemed so absorbed in
+thought; his dark face looked rigid, his lips firmly closed, and his
+forehead slightly puckered.
+
+More than once I had puzzled myself over a fancied resemblance of Mr.
+Hamilton to some picture I had seen. All at once I remembered the
+subject. It was the picture of a young Christian sleeping peacefully just
+before he was called to his combat with wild beasts in the amphitheatre:
+the keeper was even then opening the door: the lions were waiting for
+their prey. The face was boyish, but still Mr. Hamilton reminded me of
+him. And there was a picture of St. Augustine sitting with his mother
+Monica, that reminded me of Mr. Hamilton too. I had called him plain, and
+Jill thought him positively ugly, but, after all, there was something
+noble in his expression, a power that made itself felt.
+
+Just then the lines of his face relaxed and softened; he half smiled,
+looked up, and our eyes met. I was terribly abashed at the thought that
+he should find me watching him; but, to my surprise, his face brightened,
+and he roused himself and crossed the room.
+
+'I was dreaming, I think, but you woke me. Are you very tired? Shall I
+take your place?' But before I could reply his manner changed, and he
+stooped over the bed, and then looked at me with a smile.
+
+'I thought so. The breathing is certainly less difficult: the
+inflammation is diminishing. I see signs of improvement.'
+
+'Thank God!' was my answer to this, and before long this hope was
+verified: the pain and difficulty of breathing were certainly less
+intense, the danger was subsiding.
+
+Mr. Hamilton went downstairs soon after this, and I settled to my
+solitary night-watch, but it was no longer dreary: every hour I felt more
+assured that Susan Locke would be restored to her sister.
+
+Once or twice during the night I crept into Phoebe's room to gladden her
+heart with the glad news, but she was sleeping heavily and I would not
+disturb her. 'Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the
+morning,' I said to myself, as I sat down by Susan's bedside. I was very
+weary, but a strange tumult of thoughts seemed surging through my brain,
+and I was unable to control them. Gladys's pale face and tear-filled eyes
+rose perpetually before me: her low, passionate tones vibrated in my ear.
+'They have accused him falsely,' I seemed to hear her say: 'Eric never
+took that cheque.'
+
+What a mystery in that quiet household! No wonder there was something
+unrestful in the atmosphere of Gladwyn,--that one felt oppressed and ill
+at ease in that house.
+
+Fragments of my conversation with Mr. Hamilton came unbidden to my
+memory. How strange that that proud, reserved man should have spoken so
+to me, that he had suffered his heart's bitterness to overflow in words
+to me, who was almost a stranger: 'They lay the blame of that poor boy's
+death at my door, as though I would not give my right hand to have him
+back again.' Oh, if Gladys had only heard the tone in which he said this,
+she must have believed and have been sorry for him.
+
+'They are too hard upon him,' I said to myself. 'If he has been stern
+and injudicious with his poor young brother, he has long ago repented
+of his hardness. He is very good to them all, but they will not try to
+understand him: it is not right of Gladys to treat him as a stranger.
+I am sorry for them all, but I begin to feel that Mr. Hamilton is not the
+only one to blame.'
+
+I wished I could have told him this, but I knew the words would never
+get themselves spoken. I might be sorry for him in my heart, but I could
+never tell him so, never assure him of my true sympathy. I was far too
+much in awe of him: there are some men one would never venture to pity.
+
+But all the same I longed to do him some secret service; he had been kind
+to me, and had helped me much in my work. If I could only succeed in
+bringing him and Gladys nearer together, if I could make them understand
+each other, I felt I would have spared no pains or trouble to do so.
+
+If he were not so infatuated on the subject of his cousin's merits, I
+thought scornfully, I should be no more sanguine about my success; but
+Miss Darrell had hoodwinked him completely. As long as he believed in all
+she chose to tell him, Gladys would never be in her proper place.
+
+As soon as it was light I heard Mr. Hamilton stirring in the room below.
+He came up for a moment to tell me that he was going home to breakfast;
+he looked quite fresh and brisk, and declared that he had had a capital
+night's sleep.
+
+'I am going to find some one to take your place while you go home and
+have a good seven hours' rest,' he said, in his decided way. 'I suppose
+you are aware that you have not slept for forty-eight hours? Kitty is
+going to make you some tea.' And with this he took himself off.
+
+I went into Phoebe's room presently. Kitty told me that she was awake at
+last. As soon as she saw me she put up her hands as though to ward off my
+approach.
+
+'Wait a moment,' she said huskily. 'You need not tell me; I know what you
+have come to say; I have no longer a sister: Susan is a saint in heaven.'
+
+For a moment I hesitated, afraid to speak. She had nerved herself to bear
+the worst, and I feared the revulsion of feeling would be too great. As I
+stood there silently looking down at her drawn, haggard face, I felt she
+would not have had strength to bear a fresh trial. If Susan had died
+Phoebe would not have long survived her.
+
+'You are wrong,' I said, very gently. 'I have no bad news for you this
+morning. The inflammation has diminished. Susan breathes more easily:
+each breath is no longer acute agony.'
+
+'Do you mean that she is better?' staring at me incredulously.
+
+'Most certainly she is better. The danger is over; but we must be very
+careful, for she will be ill for some time yet. Yes, indeed, Phoebe, you
+may believe me. Do you think I would deceive you? God has heard your
+prayers, and Susan is spared to you.'
+
+I never saw a human countenance so transformed as Phoebe's was that
+moment; every feature seemed to quiver with ecstasy; she could not speak,
+only she folded her hands as though in prayer. Presently she looked up,
+and said, as simply as a child,--
+
+'Oh, I am so happy! I never thought I should be happy again. You may
+leave me now, Miss Garston, for I want to thank God, for the first time
+in my life. I feel as though I must love Him now for giving Susan back
+to me.' And then again she begged me to leave her.
+
+Mr. Hamilton did not forget me. I had just put the sick-room in order
+when a respectable young woman made her appearance. She told me that her
+name was Carron, that she was a married woman and a friend of Miss
+Locke's, and she would willingly take my place until evening.
+
+I was thankful to accept this timely offer of help, and went home and
+enjoyed a deep dreamless sleep for some hours. When I woke it was
+evening. Jill was standing by my bedside with a tray in her hands.
+The room was bright with firelight. Jill's big eyes looked at me
+affectionately.
+
+'How you have slept, Ursie dear! just like a baby! I have been in and out
+half-a-dozen times; but no, you never stirred. I told Mr. Hamilton so,
+when he inquired an hour ago. Now, you are to drink this coffee, and when
+you are quite awake I will give you his message.'
+
+'I am quite awake now,' I returned, rubbing my eyes vigorously.
+
+'Well, then, let me see. Oh, Miss Locke is going on well, and Mrs. Carron
+will stop with her until eight o'clock. Phoebe has been ill, and they
+sent for him; but it was only faintness and palpitation, and she is
+better now. He has been to see Elspeth, and she is poorly; but there is
+no need for you to trouble about her. Miss Darrell is sending her broth
+and jelly, and Peggy waits on her very nicely. Lady Betty and I went to
+see her to-day, and she was as comfortable and cheery as possible, and
+told us that she felt like a lady in that big bed downstairs. Mr.
+Hamilton says she will not die just yet, but one of these days she will
+go off as quietly as a baby. She asked after you, Ursie, and sent you a
+power of love, and I hope it will do you good.'
+
+'And what have you been doing with yourself all day, Jill?' I asked,
+rather anxiously.
+
+'Oh, lots of things,' tossing back her thick locks. 'Let me see. Lady
+Betty came to fetch me for a walk, and we met Mr. Tudor. He is all alone,
+poor man, and very dull without Mr. Cunliffe; he told us so: so Lady
+Betty brought him back to lunch. And Miss Darrell was so cross, and told
+poor Lady Betty that she was very forward to do such a thing; they had
+such a quarrel in the drawing-room about it. Mr. Tudor came in and
+found Lady Betty crying, so he made us come out in the garden, and we
+played a new sort of Aunt Sally. Mr. Tudor stuck up an old hat of Mr.
+Hamilton's,--at least we found out it was not an old one after all,--and
+we snowballed it, and Mr. Hamilton came out and helped us. After tea, we
+all told ghost-stories round the fire. Miss Darrell does not like them,
+so she went up to her room. Mr. Tudor had to see a sick man, but he came
+back to dinner; but I would not stay, for I thought you would be waking,
+Ursie, so Mr. Hamilton brought me home.'
+
+'Jill!' I asked desperately, 'have they not written for you to join them
+at Hastings yet? I begin to think you have been idle long enough.'
+
+'Had you not better go to sleep again, Ursie dear?' returned Jill,
+marching off with my tray. But she made a little face at me as she went
+out of the door. 'I shall get into trouble over this,' I thought. 'I
+really must write to Aunt Philippa.' But I was spared the necessity, for
+the very next day Jill came to me at Miss Locke's to tell me, with a very
+long face, that her mother had written to say that Miss Gillespie was
+coming the following week, and Jill was to pack up and join them at
+Hastings the very next day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+'THERE IS NO ONE LIKE DONALD'
+
+
+Mrs. Carron very kindly took my place that I might be with Jill that last
+evening, and we spent it in Jill's favourite fashion, talking in the
+firelight.
+
+She was a little quiet and subdued, full of regret at leaving me, and
+more affectionate than ever.
+
+'I have never been so happy in my life,' she said, in rather a melancholy
+voice. 'When I get to Hastings, my visit here will seem like a dream, it
+has been so nice, somehow; you are such a dear old thing, Ursula, and I
+am so fond of Lady Betty, I shall ask mother to invite her in the
+holidays.'
+
+'And there is no one else you will regret, Jill?' I asked, anxious to
+sound her on one point.
+
+'Oh yes; I am sorry to bid good-bye to Mr. Tudor. He has been such fun
+lately. I really do think he is quite the nicest young man I know.'
+
+'Do you know many young men, my dear?' was my apparently innocent remark;
+but Jill was not deceived by this smooth speech.
+
+'Of course I do,' in a scornful voice; 'they come to see Sara, and I
+hate them so, flimsy stuck-up creatures, with their white ties and absurd
+little moustaches. Each one is more stupid and vapid than the other. And
+Sara must think so too; for she smiles on them all alike.'
+
+'You are terribly hard on the young men of your generation, Jill; I
+daresay I should think them very harmless and pleasant.' But she shook
+her head vigorously.
+
+'Why cannot they be natural, and say good-natured things, like Mr. Tudor?
+He is real, and not make-believe, pretending that he is too bored to live
+at all. One would think there was no truth anywhere, nothing but tinsel
+and sham, to listen to them. That is why I like Mr. Tudor: he has the
+ring of the true metal about him. Even Miss Darrell agrees with me
+there.'
+
+'Do you discuss Mr. Tudor with Miss Darrell?'
+
+'Why not?' opening her eyes widely. 'I like to talk about my friends,
+and I feel Mr. Tudor is a real friend. She was so interested,--really
+interested, I mean, without any humbug,--at least, pretence,' for here I
+held up my finger at Jill. 'She wanted to know if you liked him too, and
+I said, "Oh yes, so much; he was a great favourite of yours," and she
+seemed pleased to hear it.'
+
+'You silly child! I wish you would leave me and my likes and dislikes out
+of your conversations with Miss Darrell.'
+
+'Well, do you know, I try to do so, because I know how you hate her,--at
+least, dislike her: that is a more ladylike term,--you are so horribly
+particular, Ursula; but somehow your name always gets in, and I never
+know how, and there is no keeping you out. Sometimes she makes me
+dreadfully angry about you, and sometimes she says nice things; but
+there, we will not talk about the double-faced lady to-night. I
+understand her less than ever.'
+
+We glided into more serious subjects after this. I made Jill promise to
+be more patient with her life, and work from a greater sense of duty, and
+I begged her most earnestly to fight against discontent, and exorcise
+this youthful demon of hers, and again she promised to do her best.
+
+'I feel better about things, somehow: you have done me good, Ursie; you
+always do. I must make mother understand that I am nearly a woman, and
+that I do not intend to waste my time any longer dreaming childish
+dreams. I suppose mother is really fond of me, though she does find fault
+with me continually, and is always praising Sara.' Jill went on talking
+in this way for some time, and then we went upstairs together.
+
+I was rather provoked to find Mr. Tudor at the station the next morning.
+I suppose my steady look abashed him, for he muttered something about
+Smith's bookstall, as though I should be deceived by such a flimsy
+excuse. After all, Mr. Tudor was not better than other young men; in
+spite of Jill's praises, he was capable of this mild subterfuge to get
+his own way.
+
+Jill was so honestly and childishly pleased to see him that I ought to
+have been disarmed. She went off with him to the bookstall, while I
+looked after her luggage, and they stood there chattering and laughing
+until I joined them, and then Mr. Tudor grew suddenly quiet.
+
+As the train came up, I heard him ask Jill how long they were to stay at
+Hastings, and if they would be at Hyde Park Gate before Easter.
+
+'I shall be up in town then,' he remarked carelessly, 'to see some of my
+people.'
+
+'Oh yes, and you must come and see us,' she returned cheerfully.
+'Good-bye, Mr. Tudor. I am so sorry to leave Heathfield.'
+
+But, after all, Jill's last look was for me: as she leaned out of the
+carriage, waving her hand, she did not even glance at the young man who
+was standing silent and gloomy beside me. I felt rather sorry for the
+poor boy, as he turned away quite sadly.
+
+'I must go down to the schools: good-bye, Miss Garston,' he said
+hurriedly. One would have thought he had to make up for lost time, as he
+strode through the station and up the long road. Had Jill really taken
+his fancy, I wondered? had her big eyes and quaint speeches bewitched
+him? Mr. Tudor was a gentleman, and we all liked him; but what would
+Uncle Brian and Aunt Philippa say if a needy, good-looking young curate
+were suddenly to present himself as a lover for their daughter Jocelyn?
+Why, Jill would be rich some day,--poor Ralph was dead, and she and Sara
+would be co-heiresses. Her parents would expect her to make a grand
+match.
+
+I shook my head gravely over poor Lawrence's prospects as I took my way
+slowly up the hill. I was rather glad when his broad shoulders were out
+of sight; I should be sorry if any disappointment were to cloud his
+cheery nature.
+
+I missed Jill a great deal at first, but in my heart I was not sorry
+to get rid of the responsibility; a lively girl of sixteen, with strong
+individuality and marked precocity, is likely to be a formidable charge;
+but Mrs. Barton lamented her absence in no measured terms.
+
+'It seems so dull without Miss Jocelyn,' she said, the first evening.
+'She was such a lively young lady, and made us all cheerful. Why, she
+would run in and out the kitchen a dozen times a day, to feed the
+chickens, or pet the cat, or watch me knead the bread. She and Nathaniel
+got on famously together, and often I have found her helping him with the
+books, and laughing so merrily when he made a mistake. I used to think
+Nathaniel did it on purpose sometimes, just for the fun of it.'
+
+Yes, we all missed Jill, and I for one loved the girl dearly. It made me
+quite happy one day when she wrote a long letter, telling me that she was
+delighted with her new governess.
+
+'Miss Gillespie is as nice as possible,' she wrote. 'I already feel quite
+fond of her; my lessons are as interesting now as they used to be dull
+with Fraeulein. She knows a great deal, and is not ashamed to confess when
+she is ignorant of anything; she says right out that she cannot answer my
+questions, and proposes that we should study it together. I quite enjoy
+our walks and talks, for she takes so much interest in all I tell her.
+She is a little dull and sad sometimes, as though she were thinking of
+past troubles; but I like to feel that I can cheer her up and do her
+good. Mother and Sara are delighted with her; she plays so beautifully,
+and they say that she is such a gentlewoman. When we come downstairs in
+the evening she will not allow me to creep into a corner; she makes me
+join in the conversation, and coaxes me to play my pieces; and she tries
+to prevent mother making horrid little remarks on my awkwardness.
+
+'"It will all come right, Mrs. Garston," I heard her say one day. "It is
+far wiser not to notice it: young girls are so sensitive, and Jocelyn is
+keenly alive to her shortcomings." And mother actually nodded assent to
+this, and the next moment she called me up, and said how much I had
+improved in my playing, and that Colonel Ferguson had told her that I
+had been exceedingly well taught.
+
+'By the bye, I am quite sure that Colonel Ferguson intends to be my
+brother-in-law: he is always here in the evening, and yesterday he sent
+Sara such a magnificent bouquet.'
+
+Jill's chatty letters were always amusing. She had prepared me
+beforehand, so I was not surprised at receiving a voluminous letter from
+Aunt Philippa a few days afterwards, informing me of Sara's engagement to
+Colonel Ferguson.
+
+'Your uncle and I are delighted with the match,' she wrote. 'Colonel
+Ferguson belongs to a very good old family, and he has private property.
+Your uncle says that he is a very intelligent man, and is much respected
+in the regiment.
+
+'Mrs. Fullerton thinks it is a pity for Sara to marry a widower; but I
+call that nonsense; he is a young-looking man for his age, and every one
+thinks him so handsome. Sara, poor darling, is as happy as possible. I
+believe that they are to be married soon after Easter, as he wants to get
+some salmon fishing in Norway: so we shall come up to Hyde Park Gate
+early next week, and see about the trousseau, for there is no time to be
+lost.'
+
+Sara added a few words in her pretty girlish handwriting.
+
+'I wonder if you will be very much surprised by mamma's letter, Ursula
+dear. We all thought he liked Lesbia, but no, he says that was entirely a
+mistake on our part, he never really thought of her at all.
+
+'Of course I am very happy. I think there is no one like Donald in the
+world. I cannot imagine why such a wise, clever man should fall in love
+with a silly little body like me. I suppose I must please him in some
+way, for, really, he seems dreadfully in love.
+
+'You must come to my wedding, Ursula, and I must choose your dress
+for you; of course father will pay for it, but I promise you it shall
+be pretty, and suitable to your complexion. I mean to have eight
+bridesmaids. Jocelyn will be one, of course, and I shall get that tall,
+fair Grace Underley to act as a foil to her bigness. I shall not ask
+poor Lesbia to be one; it would be too trying for her, and I know you
+will not care about it; but you must come for a week, and see all my
+pretty things, and help poor mamma, for she has only Jocelyn: so remember
+you are to keep yourself disengaged the week after Easter.'
+
+I wrote back that same evening warm congratulations to Sara and Aunt
+Philippa, and promised to come when Sara wanted me. A gay wedding was not
+to my taste, but I knew I owed this duty to them: they had been kind to
+me in their own fashion and according to their lights, and I would not
+fail them. Easter would fall late this year,--in the middle of April:
+there were still three months before Sara would be married, and most
+likely by that time I should need a few days' rest and change.
+
+The next morning I heard from Lesbia. It was a kind, sad little letter;
+she told me she was glad about Sara's engagement, and as they were still
+at Hastings she and her mother had called at Warrior Square, and had
+found Sara and her _fiance_ together.
+
+'I think it has improved Sara already,' it went on; 'she was looking
+exceedingly pretty, and in good spirits, and she seemed very proud of
+her tall, grave-looking soldier. Mother and I always liked Colonel
+Ferguson. He and Sara are complete contrasts; I think her brightness
+and good-humour, as well as her beauty, have attracted him, for he is
+honestly in love! I liked the quiet, deferential way in which he treated
+her. I am sure he will make a kind husband. Mrs. Garston looked as happy
+as possible. I did not see Jocelyn; she was out riding with her father.
+
+'We are going down to dear Rutherford in March, but I have promised Sara
+to come up for the wedding. Don't sigh, Ursula: it is all in the day's
+work, and one has to do trying things sometimes.
+
+'I have come to think that perhaps dear Charlie is better off where he
+is. He was so enthusiastic and so true that life must have disappointed
+him. Perhaps I should have disappointed him too; but no, I should have
+loved him too well to do that.
+
+'I shall love to be at Rutherford during the spring. Everything will
+remind me of those sweet spring days two years ago. Oh, those walks and
+rides, and the evening when we listened to the nightingale and he told me
+that he loved me! I remember the very patch of grass where I stood. There
+was a little clump of alders, and I can see how he looked then. Oh,
+Ursula, these memories are very sad, but they are sweet, too; for Charlie
+is our Charlie still, is he not?'
+
+'Poor Lesbia!' I sighed, as I folded up her letter and prepared for my
+day's work. 'It must be hard for her to witness Sara's happiness, when
+her own life is so clouded. Her heart is still true to Charlie; but she
+is so young, and life is so long. I trust that better things are in store
+for her.'
+
+Miss Locke was recovering very slowly. Years of anxiety and hard work
+had overtaxed her strength sorely. Mr. Hamilton used to shake his head
+over her tardy progress, and tell her that she was a very unsatisfactory
+patient, and that he had expected to cure her long before this.
+
+'If it were not for you and my dear Miss Garston, I should never be lying
+here now,' she returned gratefully. 'I must have died; you know that,
+doctor; and even now, in spite of all the good things you send me, I am
+so weary and fit for nothing I feel as though I should never sit up
+again.'
+
+'Oh, we shall have you up before long,' he returned cheerfully. 'You
+are only rather slow about it. You are not troubling about your work or
+anything else, I hope, because the rent is paid, and there is plenty in
+the cupboard for Phoebe and Kitty.'
+
+'I know you have paid the rent, and I shall never be grateful enough to
+you, doctor; for what should I have done, with this long illness making
+me behindhand with everything? I am afraid Miss Garston puts her hand in
+her pocket sometimes. I hope the Lord will bless you both for your
+goodness to two helpless women. Ay, and he will bless you, doctor!'
+
+'I am sure I hope so,' he returned, in a good-humoured tone, shaking her
+hand. 'There! mind what your nurse says, and keep yourself easy: you will
+find Phoebe a different person when you see her next.'
+
+I was afraid Phoebe would find her sister much changed when they met.
+Miss Locke had greatly aged since her illness; her hair was much grayer,
+and her face was sunken, and I doubted whether she would ever be the same
+woman again. Mr. Hamilton and I had already discussed the sisters'
+future.
+
+'I am afraid they will be terribly pinched,' he said once. 'Miss Locke
+is suffering now from years of overwork. She will never be able to work
+as hard as she has done. And she has to provide for that child Kitty, as
+well as for poor Phoebe.'
+
+'We must think what is to be done,' I replied. 'Miss Locke is a very good
+manager: she is careful and thrifty. A little will go a long way with
+her.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton said no more on the subject just then, but a few days
+afterwards he told me that he intended to buy the cottage. He had a good
+deal of house-property in Heathfield, and a cottage more or less did not
+matter to him.
+
+'They shall live in it rent-free, and I will take care of the repairs.
+There will be no need for Miss Locke to work so hard then. She is a good
+woman, and I thoroughly respect her. Of course I know she is a favourite
+of yours, Miss Garston, but you must not think that influences me.'
+
+'As though I should imagine such a thing!' I returned, in quite an
+affronted tone. But Mr. Hamilton only laughed.
+
+'You are such an insignificant person, you see,' he went on
+mischievously. 'You are of so little use to your generation. People do
+not benefit by your example, or defer to your opinion. There is no St.
+Ursula in the calendar.' Now what did he mean by all this rigmarole? But
+he only laughed again in a provoking way, and went out.
+
+I had had both the sisters on my hands. Those hours of fearful suspense
+had told on Phoebe, and for a week or two we were very anxious about her.
+
+I kept the extent of her illness from Susan, and she never knew that
+Mr. Hamilton visited her daily. Strange to say, Phoebe gave us little
+trouble. She bore her bodily sufferings with surprising patience, and
+even made light of them; and she would thank me most gratefully when I
+waited on her.
+
+I was never long in her room. There was no reading or singing now.
+Nothing would induce her to keep me from Susan. She used to beg me to
+go back to Susan and leave her to Kitty. I never forgot Susan's look of
+astonishment when I told her this.
+
+'Somehow, it doesn't sound like Phoebe,' she said, looking at me a
+little wistfully. 'Are you sure you understand her, Miss Garston?--that
+something has not put her out? She has often sulked with me like that.'
+
+'Oh, Phoebe never sulks now,' I returned, smiling at this view of the
+case. 'She is not like the same woman, Susan. She thinks of other people
+now.' Miss Locke heard me silently, but I saw that she was still
+incredulous. She was not sanguine enough to hope for a miracle; and
+surely only a miracle could change Phoebe's sullen and morbid nature.
+
+The sisters were longing to meet, but the helplessness of the one and the
+long-protracted weakness of the other kept them long apart, though only a
+short flight of stairs divided them.
+
+At last I thought we might venture to bring Susan into Phoebe's room.
+
+The weather was less severe, and Susan seemed a little stronger, so Kitty
+and I hurried ourselves in preparation for a festive tea in Phoebe's
+room.
+
+She watched us with unconcealed interest as we spread the tea-cloth, and
+arranged the best china, and then placed an easy-chair by her bedside.
+
+The room really looked very bright and cosy. A little gray kitten that I
+had brought Kitty was asleep on the quilt; Phoebe had taken a great fancy
+to the pretty, playful little creature, and it was always with her;
+Kitty's large wax doll was lying with its curly head on her pillow.
+
+Susan trembled very much as she entered the room, leaning heavily on
+my arm. Phoebe lay quite motionless, watching her as she walked slowly
+towards the bed, then her face suddenly grew pitiful, and she held out
+her arms.
+
+'Oh, how ill you look, my poor Susan, and so old and gray! but what does
+it matter, so that I have got my Susan back? If you had died, I should
+have died too; God never meant to punish me like that.' And she stroked
+and kissed her face as though she were a child, and for a little while
+the two sisters mingled their tears together.
+
+Susan was too weak for much emotion, so I placed her comfortably in her
+easy-chair, and bade her look at Phoebe without troubling to talk; but
+her heart was too full for silence.
+
+'Why, my woman,' she burst out, 'you look real bonnie! I do believe your
+face has got a bit of colour in it, and you remind me of the old Phoebe;
+nay,' as Phoebe laughed at this, 'I never thought to hear you laugh
+again, my dearie.'
+
+'It is with the pleasure of seeing you,' returned Phoebe. 'If you only
+knew what I suffered while you lay ill! "there is no improvement," they
+said, and Miss Garston looked at me so pityingly; and if you had died and
+never spoken to me again,--and I had refused to bid you good-night,--you
+remember, Susan! oh, I think my heart would have broken if you had gone
+away and left me like that.'
+
+'Nay, I should have thought nothing about it, but that it was just
+Phoebe's way. Do you mean that you fretted about that, lass? Oh,' turning
+to me, for Phoebe was crying bitterly over the recollection, 'I would not
+believe you, Miss Garston, when you said Phoebe was changed, for I said
+to myself, "Surely she will be up to her old tricks again soon"; but now
+I see you are right. Nay, never fret, my bonnie woman, for I loved you
+when you were as tiresome and cross-grained as possible. I think I cannot
+help loving yon,' finished Susan simply, as she took her sister's hand.
+
+That was a happy evening that we spent in Phoebe's room. When tea was
+over we read a few chapters, Kitty and I, and then I sang some of
+Phoebe's favourite songs. When I had finished, I looked at them: Phoebe
+had fallen asleep with Susan's hand still in hers: there was a look of
+peaceful rest on the worn gray face that made me whisper to Miss Locke,--
+
+'The evil spirit is cast out at last, Susan.'
+
+'Ay,' returned Susan quietly. 'She is clothed and in her right mind, and
+I doubt not sitting at the feet of Him who has called her. I have got my
+Phoebe back again, thank God, as I have not seen her for many a long
+year.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+I HEAR ABOUT CAPTAIN HAMILTON
+
+
+It was now more than five weeks since Gladys had left us, but during that
+time I had heard from her frequently.
+
+Her letters were deeply interesting. She wrote freely, pouring out her
+thoughts on every subject without reserve. Somehow I felt, as I read
+them, that those letters gave as much pleasure to the writer as to the
+recipient; and I found afterwards that this was the case. Her
+consciousness of my sympathy with her made her open her heart more freely
+to me than to any other person. She delighted in telling me of the books
+she read, in describing the various effects of nature. Her descriptions
+were so powerful and graphic that they quite surprised me. She made me
+feel as though I were walking through the fir woods beside her, or
+standing on the sea-shore watching the white-crested waves rolling in and
+breaking into foam at our feet. A sort of dewy freshness seemed to stamp
+the pages. Gladys loved nature with all her heart; she revelled in the
+solemn grandeur of those woods, in the breadth and freedom of the ocean;
+it seemed to harmonise with her varying moods.
+
+'I feel a different creature already,' she wrote when she had been away
+a fortnight. 'Without owning myself happy (but happiness, active or
+negative, will never come to me again), still I am calmer and more at
+peace,--away from the oppressive influences that surrounded me at home.
+
+'I have made up my mind that the atmosphere of Gladwyn is fatal to my
+soul's health. I seem to wither up like some sensitive plant in that
+blighting air; half-truths, misunderstandings, and jealousies have
+corroded our home peace. I am better away from it all, for here I can own
+myself ill and miserable, and no one blames or misapprehends my meaning:
+there are no harsh judgments under the guise of pity.
+
+'These dear people are so truly charitable, they think no evil of a poor
+girl who is faithful to a brother's memory: they are patient with my sad
+moods, they leave me free to follow out my wishes. I wander about as I
+will, I sketch or read, I sit idle; no one blames me; they are as good to
+me as you would be in their place.
+
+'I shall stay away as long as possible, until I feel strong enough to
+take up my life again. You will not be vexed with me, my dear Ursula: you
+know how I have suffered; you of all others will sympathise with me.
+Think of the relief it is to wake up in the morning and feel that no
+jarring influences will be at work that day; that no eyes will pry into
+my secret sorrow, or seek to penetrate my very thoughts; that I may look
+and speak as I like; that my words will not be twisted to serve other
+people's purposes. Forgive me if I speak harshly, but indeed you do not
+know all yet. Your last letter made me a little sad, you speak so much of
+Giles. Do you really think I am hard upon him? The idea is painful to me.
+
+'I like you to think well of him. He is a good man. I have always
+thoroughly respected him, but there is no sympathy between us. Of course
+it is more Etta's fault than his: she has usurped my place, and Giles no
+longer needs me. Perhaps I am not kind to him, not sisterly or soft in my
+manners; but he treats me too much as a child. He never asks my opinion
+on any subject. We live under his protection, and he never grudges us
+money; he is generous in that way; but he never enters into our thoughts.
+Lady Betty and I lead our own lives.
+
+'You ask me why I do not write to him, my dear Ursula. Such a thought
+would never enter my head. Write to Giles! What should I say to him? How
+would such a letter ever get itself written? Do you suppose he would care
+for me as a correspondent? I should like you to ask him that question, if
+you dared. Giles's face would be a study. I fancy I write that letter,--a
+marvellous composition of commonplace nothings. "My dear brother, I think
+you will like to hear our Bournemouth news," etc. I can imagine him
+tossing it aside as he opens his other letters: "Gladys has actually
+written to me. I suppose she wants another cheque. See what she says,
+Etta. You may read it aloud, if you like, while I finish my breakfast."
+Now do not look incredulous. I once saw Lady Betty's letter treated in
+this way, and all her poor little sentences pulled to pieces in Etta's
+usual fashion. No, thank you, I will not write to Giles. I write to Lady
+Betty sometimes, but not often: that is why she comes to you for news. We
+are a queer household, Ursula. I am very fond of my dear little Lady
+Betty, but somehow I have never enjoyed writing to her since Etta one day
+handed to her one of my letters opened by mistake. Lady Betty has fancied
+the mistake has occurred more than once.'
+
+I put down this letter with a sigh; it was the only painful one I had
+received from Gladys. My remark about her writing to her brother had
+evidently upset her, but after this she did not speak much about Gladwyn,
+and by tacit consent we spoke little about any of her people except Lady
+Betty. When I mentioned Mr. Hamilton I did so casually, and only with
+reference to my own work. He was so mixed up with my daily life, I came
+so continually into contact with him, that it was impossible to avoid his
+name.
+
+Gladys understood this, for she once replied,--
+
+'I am really and honestly glad that you and Giles work so well together.
+He will be a good friend to you, I know, for when he forms a favourable
+opinion of a person he is slow to change it, and Giles is one who, with
+all his faults, will go through fire and water for his friends. I like to
+hear of him in this way, for you always put him in the best light, and
+though you may not believe it after all my hard speeches, I am
+sufficiently proud of my brother to wish him to be properly appreciated.'
+And after this I mentioned him less reluctantly.
+
+Max came back about ten days after Jill had left us. I found him waiting
+for me one evening when I got back to the cottage. As usual, he greeted
+me most affectionately, only he laughed when I made him turn to the light
+that I might see how he looked.
+
+'Well, what is your opinion, Ursula, my dear? I hope you have noticed the
+gray hairs in my beard. I saw them there this morning.'
+
+'You are rather tanned by the cold winds. I suppose Torquay has done you
+good; but your eyes have not lost their tired look, Max: you are not a
+bit rested.'
+
+'I believe I want more work: too much rest would kill me with ennui,'
+stretching out his arms with a sort of weary gesture. 'I walked a great
+deal at Torquay; I was out in the air all day; but it did not seem to be
+what I wanted: I was terribly bored. Tudor is glad to get me back. The
+fellow actually seems dull. Have you any idea what has gone wrong with
+him, Ursula?' But I prudently turned a deaf ear to this question, and he
+did not follow it up; and a moment afterwards he mentioned that he had
+been at Gladwyn, and that Miss Darrell had given him a good account of
+Miss Hamilton.
+
+'I had no idea that she was away until this afternoon. Her departure was
+rather sudden, was it not?'
+
+I think he was glad when I gave him Gladys's message; but he looked
+rather grave when I told him how much she was enjoying her freedom.
+
+'She seems a different creature; those Maberleys are so good to her; they
+pet her, and yet leave her uncontrolled to follow her own wishes. I am
+more at rest about her there.'
+
+'A girl ought to be happy in her own home,' he returned, somewhat
+moodily. 'I think Miss Hamilton has indulged her sadness long enough.
+Perhaps there are other reasons for her being better. I suppose she has
+not heard--?' And here he stopped rather awkwardly.
+
+'Do you mean whether she has heard anything of Eric? Oh no, Max.'
+
+'No, I was not meaning that,' looking at me rather astonished. 'Of course
+we know the poor boy is dead. I was only wondering if she had had an
+Indian letter lately. Well, it is none of my affair, and I cannot wait to
+hear more now. Good-night, little she-bear; I am off.' And he actually
+was off, in spite of my calling him quite loudly in the porch, for I
+wanted him to tell me what he meant. Had Gladys any special correspondent
+in India? I wondered if I might venture to question Lady Betty.
+
+As it very often happens, she played quite innocently into my hands, for
+the very next day she came to tell me that she had had a letter from
+Gladys.
+
+'It was a very short one,' she grumbled. 'Only she had an Indian letter
+to answer, and that took up her time, so that was a pretty good excuse
+for once.'
+
+'Has Gladys any special friend in India?'
+
+'Only Claude!--I mean our cousin, Claude Hamilton. Have you not often
+heard us talk of him? How strange! Why, he used to stay with us for
+months at a time, and he and Gladys were great friends: they correspond.
+He is Captain Hamilton now; his regiment was ordered to India just at the
+time poor dear Eric disappeared; he was awfully shocked about that, I
+remember. Etta wrote and told him all about it; he was a great favourite
+of hers. We none of us thought him handsome except Etta; he was a
+nice-looking fellow, but nothing else.'
+
+'And you and Gladys are fond of him?'
+
+'Oh yes.' But here Lady Betty looked a little queer.
+
+'Gladys writes to him most: she has always been his correspondent.
+Now and then I get a letter written to me. You see, he has no one else
+belonging to him, now his mother is dead. Aunt Agnes died about two years
+ago, and he never had brothers or sisters, so he adopted us.'
+
+'Uncle Max knew him, of course?'
+
+'To be sure. Mr. Cunliffe knew all our people. Claude was a favourite of
+his, too. I think every one liked him; he was so straightforward, and
+never did anything mean. I think he will make a splendid officer; he has
+had fever lately, and we rather expect he is coming home on sick-leave.
+Etta hopes so.'
+
+'Gladys has never spoken of her cousin to me.'
+
+'That is because you two are always talking about other things,--poor
+Eric, for example. Gladys likes to talk about Claude, of course: he is
+her own cousin.' And Lady Betty's manner was just a little defiant, as
+though I had accused Gladys of some indiscretion. I heard her mutter,
+'They find plenty of fault with her about that,' but I took no notice.
+I had satisfied my curiosity, and I knew now why Max fancied an Indian
+letter would raise Gladys's spirits; but all the same he might have
+spoken out. Max had no business to be so mysterious with me.
+
+I heard Captain Hamilton's name again shortly afterwards. I was calling
+at Gladwyn one afternoon. I was loath to do so in Gladys's absence, but
+I dared not discontinue my visits entirely, for fear of Miss Darrell's
+remarks. To my surprise, I found her _tete-a-tete_ with Uncle Max. She
+welcomed me with a great show of cordiality; but before I had been five
+minutes in the room I found out that my visit was inopportune, though
+Max seemed unfeignedly pleased to see me, and she had repeated his words
+in almost parrot-like fashion. 'Oh yes, I am so glad to see you, Miss
+Garston! it is so good of you to call when dear Gladys is away! Of course
+I know she is the attraction: we all know that, do we not?' smiling
+sweetly upon me. 'She has been away more than five weeks now,--dear,
+dear! how time flies!--really five weeks, and this is your first call.'
+
+'You know how Miss Locke's illness has engrossed me,' I remonstrated.
+'I never pretend to mere conventional calls.'
+
+'No, indeed. You have a code of your own, have you not? Your niece is
+fortunate, Mr. Cunliffe. She makes her own laws, while we poor inferior
+mortals are obliged to conform to the world's dictates. I wish I were
+strong-minded like you. It must be such a pleasure to be free and despise
+_les convenances_. People are so artificial, are they not?'
+
+'Ursula is not artificial, at any rate,' returned Max, with a benevolent
+glance. It had struck me as I entered the room that he looked rather
+bored and ill at ease, but Miss Darrell was in high spirits, and looked
+almost handsome. I never saw her better dressed.
+
+'No, indeed. Miss Garston is almost too frank; not that that is a fault.
+Oh yes, Miss Locke's illness has been a tedious affair: even Giles got
+weary of it, and used to grumble at having to go every day. Of course,
+seeing Giles once or twice a day, you heard all our news, so we did not
+expect you to toil up here: that would have been unnecessary trouble
+after your hard work.'
+
+Miss Darrell spoke quite civilly, and I do not know why her speech
+rankled and made me reply, rather quickly,--
+
+'Nurses do not gossip with the doctor, Miss Darrell. Mr. Hamilton has
+told me no news, I assure you. Gladys's letters tell me far more.'
+
+I was angry with myself when I said this, for why need I have answered
+her at all or taken notice of her remark? and, above all, why need I have
+mentioned Gladys's name? Miss Darrell's colour rose in a moment.
+
+'Dear me! I am glad to hear dear Gladys writes to you. She does not
+honour us. Lady Betty gets a note sometimes, but Giles and I are never
+favoured with a word. Giles feels terribly hurt about it sometimes, but
+I tell him it is only Gladys's way. Girls are careless sometimes. Of
+course she does not mean to slight him.'
+
+'Of course not,' rather gravely from Max.
+
+'All the same it is very neglectful on Gladys's part. If you are a real
+friend, Miss Garston, you will tell her what a mistake it is,--really a
+fatal mistake, though I do not dare to tell her so. I see Giles's look of
+disappointment when the post brings him nothing but dry business letters.
+He is so anxious about her health. He let her go so willingly, and yet
+not one word of recognition for her own, I may say her only, brother.'
+
+Max was looking so exceedingly grave by this time that I longed to change
+the subject. I would say a word in defence of Gladys when we were alone,
+he and I. It would be worse than useless to speak before Miss Darrell.
+She would twist my words before my face. I never said a word in Gladys's
+behalf that she did not make me repent it.
+
+The next moment, however, she had started on a different tack.
+
+'Oh, do you know, Mr. Cunliffe,' she said carelessly, as she crossed the
+hearth-rug to ring the bell, 'we have heard again from Captain Hamilton?'
+
+Max raised his head quickly. 'Indeed! I hope he is quite well. By the
+bye, I remember you told me he had a touch of fever; but I trust he has
+got the better of that.'
+
+'We hope so,' in a very impressive tone; 'but it was a sharp attack, and
+no doubt home-sickness and worry of mind accelerated the mischief. Poor
+Claude! I fear he has suffered much; not that he says so himself: he is
+far too proud to complain. But he is likely to come home on sick-leave;
+next mail will settle the question, but I believe we may expect him about
+the end of July.'
+
+'Indeed! That is good news for all of you'; but the poker that Max had
+taken up fell with a little crash among the fire-irons. Miss Darrell gave
+a faint scream, and then laughed at her foolish nervousness.
+
+'It was very clumsy on my part,' stammered Max. Could it be my fancy, or
+had he turned suddenly pale, as though something had startled him too?
+
+'Oh no, it was only my poor nerves,' replied Miss Darrell, with her
+brightest smile. 'What was I saying? Oh yes, I remember now,--about
+Claude: he wrote to Gladys to ask if he might come, and she said yes.
+Ah, here comes tea, and I believe I heard Giles's ring at the bell.'
+
+I cannot tell which of the two revealed it to me,--whether it was the
+sudden pallor on Max's face, or the curious watchful look that I detected
+in Miss Darrell's eyes: it was only there for a moment, but it reminded
+me of the look with which a cat eyes the mouse she has just drawn within
+her claws. I saw it all then with a quick flash of intuition. I had
+partly guessed it before, but now I was sure of it.
+
+My poor Max, so brave and cheery and patient! But she should not torment
+him any longer in my presence. If he had to suffer,--and the cause of
+that suffering was still a mystery to me,--she should not spy out his
+weakness. He had turned his face aside with a quick look of pain as he
+spoke, and the next moment I had mounted the breach and was begging Miss
+Darrell to assist me in the case of a poor family,--old hospital
+acquaintances of mine, who were emigrating to New Zealand.
+
+My importunity seemed to surprise her. My sudden loquacity was an
+interruption; but I would not be repressed or silenced. I took the chair
+beside her, and made her look at me. I fixed her wandering attention and
+pressed her until she grew irritable with impatience. I saw Max was
+recovering himself: by and by he gave a forced laugh.
+
+'You will have to give in, Miss Darrell. Ursula always gets her own way.
+How much do you want, child? You must be merciful to a poor vicar. Will
+that satisfy you?' offering me a sovereign, and Miss Darrell, after a
+moment's hesitation, produced the same sum from her purse.
+
+I took her money coolly, but I would not resign the reins of the
+conversation any more into her hands. When Mr. Hamilton entered the room
+he stopped and looked at me with visible astonishment: he had never heard
+me so fluent before; but somehow my eloquence died a natural death after
+his entrance. I was still a little shy with Mr. Hamilton.
+
+His manner was unusually genial this afternoon. I was sure he was
+delighted to see us both there again. He spoke to Max in a jesting tone,
+and then looked benignly at his cousin, who was superintending the
+tea-table. She certainly looked uncommonly well that day; her dress of
+dark maroon cashmere and velvet fitted her fine figure exquisitely; her
+white, well-shaped hands were, as usual, loaded with brilliant rings. She
+was a woman who needed ornaments: they would have looked lavish on any
+one else, they suited her admirably. Once I caught her looking with
+marked disfavour on my black serge dress: the pearl hoop that had been my
+mother's keeper was my sole adornment. I daresay she thought me extremely
+dowdy. I once heard her say, in a pointed manner, that 'her cousin Giles
+liked to see his women-folk well dressed; he was very fastidious on that
+point, and exceedingly hard to please.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton seemed in the best of humours. I do not think that he
+remarked how very quiet Max was all tea-time. He pressed us to remain to
+dinner, and wanted to send off a message to the vicarage; but we were
+neither of us to be persuaded, though Miss Darrell joined her entreaties
+to her cousin's.
+
+I was anxious to leave the house as quickly as possible, and I knew by
+instinct what Max's feelings must be. I could not enjoy Mr. Hamilton's
+conversation, amusing as it was. I wanted to be alone with Max; I felt
+I could keep silence with him no longer. But we could not get rid of Mr.
+Hamilton; as we rose to take our departure he coolly announced his
+intention of walking with us.
+
+'The Tylcotes have sent for me again,' he said casually. 'I may as well
+walk down with you now.' He looked at me as he spoke, but I am afraid my
+manner disappointed him. For once Mr. Hamilton was decidedly _de trop_.
+I am sure he must have noticed my hesitation, but it made no difference
+to his purpose. I had found out by this time that when Mr. Hamilton had
+made up his mind to do a certain thing, other people's moods did not
+influence him in the least. He half smiled as he went out to put on his
+greatcoat, and, as though he intended to punish me for my want of
+courtesy, he talked to Max the whole time; not that I minded it in the
+least, only it was just his lordly way.
+
+To my great relief, however, he left us as soon as we reached the
+vicarage, so I wished him good-night quite amiably, and of course Max
+walked on with me to the cottage.
+
+He was actually leaving me at the gate without a word except 'Good-night,
+Ursula,' but I laid my hand on his arm.
+
+'You must come in, Max. I want to speak to you.'
+
+'Not to-night, my dear,' he returned hurriedly. 'I have business letters
+to write before dinner.'
+
+'They must wait, then,' I replied decidedly, 'for I certainly do not
+intend to let you leave me just yet. Don't be stubborn, Max, for you know
+I always get my own way. Come in. I want to tell you why Gladys never
+writes to her brother.' And he followed me into the house without a word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+MAX OPENS HIS HEART
+
+
+But I did not at once join Max in the parlour, though he was evidently
+expecting me to do so: instead of that, I ran upstairs to take off my
+walking-things. It would be better to leave him alone a few minutes. When
+I returned he was leaning back in the easy-chair, with his hands clasped
+behind his head, evidently absorbed in thought. I was struck by his
+expression: it was that of a man who was nerving himself to bear some
+great trouble; there was a quiet, hopeless look on his face that touched
+me exceedingly. I took the chair opposite him, and waited for him to
+speak. He did not change his attitude when he saw me, but he looked at me
+gravely, and said, 'Well, Ursula?' but there was no interest in his tone.
+
+Of course I knew what he meant, but I let that pass, and something seemed
+to choke my voice as I tried to answer him:
+
+'Never mind that now: we will come to that presently. I want to tell you
+that I know it now, Max. I guessed a little of it before, but now I am
+sure of it.'
+
+I had roused him effectually. A sort of dusky red came to his face
+as he sat up and looked at me. He did not ask me what I meant: we
+understood each other in a moment. He only sighed heavily, and said, 'I
+have never told you anything, Ursula, have I?' but his manner testified
+no displeasure. He would never have spoken a word to me of his own
+accord, and yet my sympathy would be a relief to him. I knew Max's nature
+so well: he was a shy, reticent man; he could not speak easily of his own
+feelings unless the ice were broken for him.
+
+'Max,' I pleaded, and the tears came into my eyes, 'if my dear mother
+were living you would have told her all without reserve.'
+
+'I should not have needed to tell her: she would have guessed it, Ursula.
+Poor Emmie! I never could keep anything from her. I have often told you
+you are like her: you reminded me of her this afternoon.'
+
+'Then you must make me your _confidante_ in her stead. Do not refuse
+me again, Max: I have asked this before. In spite of our strange
+relationship, we are still like brother and sister. You know how quickly
+I guessed Charlie's secret: surely you can speak to me, who am her
+friend, of your affection for Gladys.'
+
+I saw him shrink a little at that, and his honest brown eyes were full of
+pain.
+
+'My affection for Gladys,' he repeated, in a low voice. 'You are very
+frank, Ursula; but somehow I do not seem to mind it. I never care for
+Miss Darrell to speak to me on the subject, although she has been so
+kind; in fact, no one could have been kinder. We can only act up to our
+own natures: it is certainly not her fault, but only my misfortune, that
+her sympathy jars on me.'
+
+Max's words gave me acute pain.
+
+'Surely you have not chosen Miss Darrell for your _confidante_, Max?'
+
+'I have chosen no one,' he returned, with gentle rebuke at my vehemence.
+'Circumstances made Miss Darrell acquainted with my unlucky attachment.
+She did all she could to help me, and out of common gratitude I could not
+refuse to listen to her well-meant efforts to comfort me.'
+
+I remained silent from sheer dismay. Things were far worse than I had
+imagined. I began to lose hope from the moment I heard Miss Darrell had
+been mixed up in the affair; the thought sickened me. I could hardly bear
+to hear Max speak; and yet how was I to help him unless he made me
+acquainted with the real state of the case?
+
+'I suppose I had better tell you all from the beginning,' he said, rather
+dejectedly; 'that is, as far as I know myself, for I can hardly tell you
+when I began to love Gladys. I call her Gladys to myself,' with a faint
+smile, 'and it comes naturally to me. I ought to have said Miss
+Hamilton.'
+
+'But not to me, Max,' I returned eagerly.
+
+'What does it matter what I call her? She will never take the only name
+I want to give her!' was the melancholy reply to this. 'I only know one
+thing, Ursula, that for three years--ay, and longer than that--she has
+been the one woman in the world to me, and that as long as she and I live
+no other woman shall ever cross the threshold of the vicarage as its
+mistress.'
+
+'Has it gone so deep as that, my poor Max?'
+
+'Yes,' he returned briefly. 'But we need not enter into that part of the
+subject; a man had best keep his own counsel in such matters. I want to
+tell you bare facts, Ursula; we may as well leave feelings alone. If you
+can help me to understand one or two points that are still misty to my
+comprehension, you will do me good service.'
+
+'I will try my very best for you both.'
+
+'Thank you, but we cannot both be helped in the same way; our paths do
+not lie together. Miss Hamilton has refused to become my wife.'
+
+'Oh, Max! not refused, surely.' This was another blow,--that he
+should have tried and failed,--that Gladys with her own lips should
+have refused him; but perhaps he had written to her, and there was some
+misunderstanding; but when I hinted this to Max he shook his head.
+
+'We cannot misunderstand a person's words. Oh yes, I spoke to her,
+and she answered me; but I must not tell you things in this desultory
+fashion, or you will never understand. I have told you that I do not
+know when my attachment to Miss Hamilton commenced. It was gradual and
+imperceptible at first,--very real, no doubt, but it had not mastered my
+reason. I always admired her: how could I help it?' with some emotion.
+'Even you, who are not her lover, have owned to me that she is a
+beautiful creature. I suppose her beauty attracted me first, until I saw
+the sweetness and unselfishness of her nature, and from that moment I
+lost my heart.
+
+'The full consciousness came to me at the time of their trouble about
+Eric. I had been fond of the poor fellow, for his own sake as well as
+hers, but I never disguised his faults from her. I often told her that I
+feared for Eric's future; he had no ballast, it wanted a moral earthquake
+to steady him, and it was no wonder that his caprices and extravagant
+moods angered his brother. She used to be half offended with me for my
+plain speaking, but she was too gentle to resent it, and she would beg
+me to use my influence with Hamilton to entreat him not to be so hard
+on Eric.
+
+'When the blow came, I was always up at Gladwyn once, sometimes twice, a
+day. They all wanted me; it was my duty to be their consoler. I am glad
+to remember now that I was some comfort to her.'
+
+'Wait a moment, Max; I must ask you something. Do you believe that Eric
+was guilty?'
+
+'I am almost sorry that you have put that question,' he returned
+reluctantly. 'I never would tell her what I thought. It was all a
+mystery. Eric might have been tempted; it was not for me to say. She
+could see I was doubtful. I told her that, whether he were sinned against
+or sinning, our only thought should be to bring him back and reconcile
+him to his brother. "God will prove his innocence if he be blackened
+falsely," I said to her; and, strange to say, she forgave me my doubts.'
+
+'Oh, Max, I see what you think.'
+
+'How can I help it,' he replied, 'knowing Eric's character so well? he
+was so weak and impulsive, so easily led astray, and then he was under
+bad influences. You will have heard Edgar Brown's name. He was a wild,
+dissipated fellow, and Hamilton had a right to forbid the acquaintance;
+both he and I knew that Edgar had low propensities, and was always
+lounging about public-houses with a set of loafers like himself. He has
+got worse since then, and has nearly broken his mother's heart. Do you
+think any man with a sense of responsibility would permit a youth of
+Eric's age to have such a friend? Yet this was a standing grievance with
+Eric, and I am sorry to say his sister took Edgar's part. Of course she
+knew no better: innocence is credulous, and Edgar was a sprightly,
+good-looking fellow, the sort that women never fail to pet.'
+
+'Yes, I see. Eric was certainly to blame in this.'
+
+'He was faulty on many more points. I am afraid, Ursula you have been
+somewhat biassed by Miss Hamilton. You must remember that she idolised
+Eric,--that she was blind to many of his faults; she made excuses for him
+whenever it was possible to do so, but with all her weak partiality she
+could not deny that he was thriftless, idle, and extravagant, that he
+defied his brother's authority, that he even forgot himself so far as to
+use bad language in his presence. I believe, once, he even struck him;
+only Hamilton declared he had been drinking, so he merely turned him out
+of the room.'
+
+I looked at Max sadly. 'This may be all true; but I cannot believe that
+he took that cheque.'
+
+'The circumstantial evidence against him is very strong,' he replied
+quietly. 'You do not know what power a sudden temptation has over these
+weak natures: he was hard pressed, remember that; he had gambling debts,
+thanks to Edgar. Fancy gambling debts at twenty! I have tried to take
+Miss Hamilton's view of the case, but I cannot bring myself to believe
+in his innocence. Most likely he repented the moment he had done it,
+poor boy. Eric was no hardened sinner. I sometimes fear--at least, the
+terrible thought has crossed my mind, and I know Hamilton has had it
+too--that in his despair he might have made away with himself.'
+
+'Oh, Max, this is too horrible!' And I shuddered as I thought of the
+beautiful young face so like Gladys's, with its bright frank look that
+seemed to appeal to one's heart.
+
+'Well, well, we need not speak of it; but it was a sad time for all of
+us; and yet in some ways it was a happy time to me. It was such a comfort
+to feel that I was necessary to them all; that they looked for me daily;
+that they could not do without me. I used to be with Hamilton every
+evening; and when Gladys was very ill they sent for me, because they
+said no one knew how to soothe her so well.
+
+'Do you wonder, Ursula, that, seeing her in her weakness and sorrow, she
+grew daily into my life, that my one thought was how I could help and
+comfort her?
+
+'She was very gentle and submissive, and followed my advice in
+everything. When I told her that only work could cure her sore heart,
+she did not contradict me: in a little while I had to check her feverish
+activity. She had overwhelmed herself with duties; she managed our
+mothers' meetings with Miss Darrell's help, taught in our schools, and
+helped train the choir. I had allotted her a district, and she worked it
+admirably. She was my right hand in everything; all the poor people
+worshipped her.'
+
+'Yes, Max,' for he paused, as though overwhelmed with some bitter-sweet
+recollection.
+
+'I loved her more each day, but I respected her sorrow, and tried to hide
+my feelings from her. It was more than a year after Eric's disappearance
+before I ventured to speak, and then it was by Hamilton's advice that I
+did so. He had set his heart on the match. He told me more than once that
+he would rather have me as a brother-in-law than any other man.
+
+'I thought I had prepared her sufficiently, but it seems that she was
+very much, startled by my proposal. Her trouble had so engrossed her that
+she had been perfectly blind to my meaning. It was all in vain, Ursula,
+for she did not love me,--at least not in the right way. She told me so
+with tears, accusing herself of unkindness. She liked, most certainly she
+liked me, but perhaps she knew me too well.
+
+'She was so unhappy at the thought of giving me pain, so sweet and gentle
+in her efforts to console me and heal the wound she had inflicted, that I
+could not lose hope. She told me that, though she had trusted me entirely
+as her friend, she had never thought of me as her lover, and the idea was
+strange to her. This thought gave me courage, and I begged that I might
+be allowed to speak to her again at some future time.
+
+'She wanted to refuse, and said hurriedly that she never intended to
+marry. But I took these words as meaning nothing. A girl will tell you
+this and believe it as she says it. I suppose I pressed her hard to leave
+me this margin of hope, for after reflecting a few minutes she looked at
+me gravely and said it should be as I wished. In a year's time I might
+speak to her again, and she would know her own mind.
+
+'I pleaded for a shorter ordeal, though secretly I was overjoyed at this
+crumb of consolation vouchsafed to me. But she was inexorable, though
+perfectly gentle in her manner.
+
+'"I wish you had set your heart on some one else, Mr. Cunliffe,"
+she said, with a melancholy smile, "for I can give you so little
+satisfaction. I feel so confused and weary, as though life afforded me
+no pleasure. But, indeed, I do all you tell me, and I mean to go on with
+my work."
+
+'I was glad to hear her say this, for at least I should have the
+happiness of seeing her every day.
+
+'"In a year's time," she went on, "my heart may feel a little less heavy,
+and I shall have had opportunity to reflect over your words. I cannot
+tell you what my answer may be, but if you are wise you will not hope. If
+you do not come to me then, I shall know that you have changed, and shall
+not blame you in the least. You are free to choose any one else. I have
+so little encouragement to give you that I shall not expect you to submit
+to this ordeal." But I think her firmness was a little shaken, and she
+looked at me rather timidly when I thanked her very quietly and said that
+at the time appointed I would speak to her again. I supposed she had not
+realised the strength of my feelings.
+
+'Ursula, I was by no means hopeless. And as the months passed on my hopes
+grew.
+
+'I saw her daily, and after the first awkwardness had passed we were good
+friends. But her manner changed insensibly. She was less frank with me;
+at times she was almost shy. I saw her change colour when I looked at
+her. She was quiet in my presence, and yet my coming pleased her. I
+thought it would be well with me when the time came for renewing my
+suit; but it seems that I was a blind fool.
+
+'I had put down the exact date, May 7. It was last year, Ursula. I meant
+to adhere to the very day and hour; but before February closed my hopes
+had suffered eclipse.
+
+'All at once Miss Hamilton's manner became cold and constrained, as
+you see it now. Her soft shyness, that had been so favourable a sign,
+disappeared entirely. She avoided me on every occasion. She seemed to
+fear to be alone with me a moment. Her nervousness was so visible and so
+distressing that I often left her in anger. A barrier--vague, and yet
+substantial--seemed built up between us.
+
+'She began to neglect her work, and then to make excuses. She was
+overdone, and suffered from headache. The school-work tired her. You
+have heard it all, Ursula: I need not repeat it.
+
+'One by one she dropped her duties. The parish knew her no more. She
+certainly looked ill. Her melancholy increased. Something was evidently
+preying on her mind.
+
+'One day Miss Darrell spoke to me. She had been very kind, and had fed my
+hopes all this time. But now she was the bearer of bad news.
+
+'She came to me in the study, while I was waiting for Hamilton. She
+looked very pale and discomposed, and asked if she might speak to me. She
+was very unhappy about me, but she did not think it right to let it go
+on. Gladys wanted me to know. And then it all came out.
+
+'It could never be as I wished. Miss Hamilton had been trying all this
+time to like me, and once or twice she thought she had succeeded, but the
+feeling had never lasted for many days. I was not the right person. This
+was the substance of Miss Darrell's explanation.
+
+'"You know Gladys," she went on, "how sensitive and affectionate her
+nature is; how she hates to inflict pain. She is working herself up into
+a fever at the thought that you will speak to her again.
+
+'"It was too terrible last time, Etta," she said to me, bursting into
+tears. "I cannot endure it again. How am I to tell him about Claude?"
+
+'"About Claude!" I almost shouted. Miss Darrell looked frightened at my
+violence. She shrank back, and turned still paler. I noticed her hands
+trembled.
+
+'"Oh, have you not noticed?" she returned feebly. "Oh, what a cruel task
+this is! and you are so good,--so good."
+
+'"Tell me what you mean!" I replied angrily, for I felt so savage at that
+moment that a word of sympathy was more than I could bear. You would not
+have known me at that moment, Ursula. I am not easily roused, as you
+know, but the blow was too sudden. I must have forgotten myself to have
+spoken to Miss Darrell in that tone. When I looked at her, her mouth was
+quivering like a frightened child's, and there were tears in her eyes.
+
+'"I scarcely know that it is you," she faltered. "Are men all like that
+when their wills are crossed? It is not my fault that you are hurt in
+this way. And it is not Gladys's either. She has tried--I am sure she has
+tried her hardest--to bring herself to accede to your wishes. But a woman
+cannot always regulate her own heart."
+
+'"You have mentioned Captain Hamilton's name," I returned coldly, for her
+words seemed only to aggravate and widen the sore. "Perhaps you will
+kindly explain what he has to do with the matter?"
+
+'She hesitated, and looked at me in a pleading manner. I saw that she did
+not wish to speak; but for once I was inexorable.
+
+'"I must rely upon your honour, then, not to repeat my words either to
+Giles or Gladys. Your doing so would bring Gladys into trouble; and,
+after all, there is nothing definitely settled." I nodded assent to this,
+and she went on rather reluctantly:
+
+"Claude was always fond of Gladys, but we never knew how much he admired
+her until he went away. They are only half-cousins. Gladys's father was
+step-brother to Claude's. Giles has always been averse to cousins
+marrying, but we thought this would make a difference."
+
+'"They are engaged, then?" I asked, in a loud voice, that seemed to
+startle Miss Darrell.
+
+'"Oh no, no," she returned eagerly; "there is no engagement at all.
+Claude writes to her, and she answers him, and I think he is making way
+with her: she has owned as much to me. Gladys is not one to talk of her
+feelings, especially on this subject; but it is easy to see how absorbed
+she is in those Indian letters; she is always brighter and more like
+herself when she has heard from Claude."
+
+'"I am to deduce from all this that you believe Captain Hamilton has a
+better chance of winning her affections than I?"
+
+'Again she hesitated, then drew a foreign letter slowly from her pocket.
+"I think I must read you a sentence from his last letter: he often writes
+to me as well as to Gladys. Yes, here it is: 'Your last letter has been a
+great comfort to me, my dear Etta: it was more than a poor fellow had a
+right to expect. I do believe that this long absence has served my
+purpose, and the scratch I got at Singapore. Girls are curious creatures;
+one never can tell how to tackle them, and my special cousin knows how to
+keep one at a distance, but I begin to feel I am making way at last. She
+wrote to me very sweetly last mail. I carry that letter everywhere; there
+was a sweetness about it that gave me hope. If I can get leave,--though
+heaven knows when that will be,--I mean to come home and carry the breach
+boldly. I shall first show her my wound and my medal, and then throw
+myself at her pretty little feet. Gladys--' No, I must not read any more;
+you see how it is, Mr. Cunliffe?"
+
+'"Yes, I see how it is," I returned slowly. "Forgive me if I have been
+impatient or unmindful of your kindness." And then I took up my hat and
+left the room, and it was weeks before I set foot in Gladwyn again.'
+
+'Oh, Max! my poor Max!' I returned, stroking his hand softly. He did not
+take it away: he only looked at me with his kind smile.
+
+'That was Emmie's way,--her favourite little caress. Wait a moment,
+Ursula, my dear; I am going out for a breath of air,' And he stood in the
+porch for a few minutes, looking up at the winter sky seamed with stars,
+and then came back to me quietly, and waited for me to speak.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+CROSSING THE RIVER
+
+
+Max waited for me to speak, but I had no words ready for the occasion. My
+silence seemed to perplex him.
+
+'You have heard everything now, Ursula.'
+
+'Yes, I suppose so. I am very sorry for you, Max; you have suffered
+cruelly. And this only happened last year?'
+
+'Last February.'
+
+'It is very strange,--very mysterious. I do not seem to understand it.
+I cannot find the clue to all this.'
+
+'There is no clue needed,' he returned impatiently. 'Miss Hamilton is in
+love with her cousin, and is sorry for my disappointment.'
+
+'I do not believe it,' I replied bluntly. And yet, as I said this,
+Gladys's conduct seemed to me perfectly inexplicable. It was just
+possible that Max's statement, after all, might be correct,--that she did
+not love him well enough to marry him: and this would account for her
+nervousness and constraint in his presence: a sensitive girl like Gladys
+would never be at her ease under such circumstances. But she had promised
+not to withdraw her friendship: why had she then given up her work and
+made herself a stranger to his dearest interest? I had seen her struggle
+with herself when he had begged her to resume her class. A brightness had
+come to her eyes, her manner had become warm and animated, as though the
+stirring of new life were in her veins, and then she had refused him very
+gently, and a certain dimness and blight had crept over her. I had
+wondered then at her.
+
+No, I could not bring myself to believe that she was indifferent to Max.
+He was so good, so worthy of her. And yet--and yet, do we women always
+choose the best? Perhaps, as Max said, she knew him too well for him to
+influence her fancy. Captain Hamilton's scars and medals might cast a
+glamour over her. Gladys was very impulsive and enthusiastic; perhaps Max
+was too quiet and gentle to take her heart by storm.
+
+I had plenty of time for these reflections, for Max sat moodily silent
+after my blunt remark, but at last he said,--
+
+'I am afraid I believe it, Ursula, and that is more to the purpose. Miss
+Darrell has dispelled my last hope.'
+
+'You mean that Captain Hamilton's return speaks badly for your chances?'
+
+'I have no chances,' very gloomily. 'I am out of the running. Miss
+Hamilton's message--for I suppose it was a message--was my final answer.
+She did not wish me to speak to her again.'
+
+'Are you sure that she sent that message?'
+
+'Am I sure that I am sitting here?' he answered, rather irritably. 'What
+have you got in your head, Ursula, my dear? You must not let personal
+dislike influence your better judgment. Perhaps Miss Darrell is not to my
+taste; I think her sometimes officious and wanting in delicacy; but I do
+not doubt her for a moment.'
+
+'That is a pity,' I returned drily, 'for she is certainly not true; but
+all you men swear by her.' For I felt--heaven forgive me!--almost a
+hatred of this woman, unreasonable as it seemed; but women have these
+instincts sometimes, and Max had warned me against Miss Darrell from the
+first.
+
+'I will be frank with you,' I continued, more quietly. 'I do not read
+between the lines: in other words, I do not understand Gladys's
+behaviour. It may be as you say; I do not wish to delude you with false
+hopes, my poor Max; Gladys may care more for Captain Hamilton than she
+does for you; but it seems to me that you acted wrongly on one point; you
+meant it for the best; but you ought to have spoken to Gladys yourself.'
+
+'I wonder that you should say that, Ursula,' he returned, in rather a
+hurt voice. 'I may be weak about Miss Hamilton, but I am hardly as weak
+as that. Do you think me capable of persecuting the woman I love?'
+
+'It would not be persecution,' I replied firmly, for I was determined
+to speak my mind on this point. 'Miss Darrell may have misconstrued
+her meaning: the truth loses by repetition: she may have added to or
+diminished her words. A third person should never be mixed up in a love
+affair: trouble always comes of it. I think you were wrong, Max: you let
+yourself be managed by Miss Darrell. She has nothing to do with you or
+Gladys.'
+
+'I could not help it if she came to me.'
+
+'True, she thrust herself in between you. Well, it is too late to speak
+of that now. If you will take my advice, Max,' for the thought had come
+upon me like a flash of inspiration, 'you will go down to Bournemouth and
+speak to Gladys, keeping your own counsel and telling no one of your
+intention.'
+
+I saw Max stare at me as though he thought I had lost my senses, and then
+a sudden light came into his eyes.
+
+'You will go down to Bournemouth,' I went on, 'and the Maberleys will be
+glad to see you; you are an old friend, and they will ask no questions
+and think no ill. You will have no difficulty in seeing Gladys alone.
+Speak to her promptly and frankly; ask her what her behaviour has meant,
+and if she really prefers her cousin. If you must know the worst, it will
+be better to know it now, and from her own lips. Do go, Max, like a brave
+man.' But even before I finished speaking, the light had died out of his
+eyes, and his manner had resumed its old sadness.
+
+'No, Ursula; you mean well, but it will not do. I cannot persecute her
+in this way. Captain Hamilton is coming home in July: she has given him
+permission to come. I will wait for that. I shall very soon see how
+matters stand between them. I shall only need to see her with him;
+probably I shall not speak to her at all.'
+
+I could have wrung my hands over Max's obstinacy and quixotism: he
+carried his generosity to a fault. Few men would be so patient and
+forbearing.
+
+How could he stand aside hopelessly and let another man win his prize?
+But perhaps he considered it was already won. I pleaded with him again.
+I even went so far as to contradict my theory about a third person, and
+offered to sound Gladys about her cousin; but he silenced me
+peremptorily.
+
+'Promise me that you will do nothing of the kind; give me your word of
+honour, Ursula, that you will respect my confidence. Good heavens! if I
+thought that you would betray me, and to her of all people, I should
+indeed bitterly repent my trust in you.'
+
+Max was so agitated, he spoke so angrily, that I hastened to soothe him.
+Of course his confidence was sacred; how could he think such things of
+me? I was not like Miss--. But here I pulled myself up. He might be as
+blind and foolish as he liked, he might commit suicide and I would not
+hinder him; he should enjoy his misery in his own way. And more to that
+effect.
+
+'Now I have made you cross, little she-bear,' he said, laying his hand
+on mine, 'and you have been so patient and have given my woes such a
+comfortable hearing. You frightened me for a moment, for I know how quick
+and impulsive you can be. No, no, my dear. I hold you to your own words:
+a third person must not be mixed up in a love affair; it only brings
+trouble.'
+
+'You have proved the truth of my words,' I remarked coolly. 'Very well,
+I suppose I must forgive you; only never do it again, on your peril: you
+know I am to be trusted.'
+
+'To be sure; you are as true as steel, Ursula.'
+
+'Very well, then: in that case you have nothing to fear. I will be wise
+and wary for your sake, and guard your honour sacredly as my own; if I
+can give you a gleam of hope, I will. Anyhow, I shall watch.'
+
+'Thank you, dear. And now we will not talk any more about it; now you
+know why I wanted you to be her friend. I am glad to think she is so fond
+of you.' But I would not let him change the subject just yet.
+
+'Max,' I said, detaining him, for he rose to go, 'all this is dreadfully
+hard for you. Shall you go away--if--if--this happens?'
+
+'No,' he returned quietly; 'it is they who will go away. Captain Hamilton
+cannot leave his regiment: he is far too fond of an active life. It will
+be dreary enough, God knows, but it will not be harder than the life I
+have led these twelve months, trying to win her back to her work and to
+put myself in the background. It has worn me out, Ursula. I could not
+stand that sort of thing much longer. It is a relief to me that she is
+away.'
+
+'Yes, I can understand this.'
+
+'It makes one think, after all, that the extreme party have something in
+their argument in favour of the celibacy of the clergy. Not that I hold
+with them, for all that; but all this sort of thing takes the heart out
+of a man, and comes between him and his work. I should be a better priest
+if I were a happier man, Ursula.'
+
+'I doubt that, Max.' And the tears rose to my eyes, for I knew how good
+he was, and what a friend to his people.
+
+'My dear, I differ from you. I believe there is no work like happy
+work,--work done by a heart at leisure from itself; but of course we
+clergy and laity must take what heaven sends us.' And then he held out
+his hands to me, and I suppose he saw how unhappy I was for his sake.
+
+'Don't fret about me, my dear little Ursula,' he said kindly. 'The back
+gets fitted for the burden, and by this time I have grown accustomed to
+my pain; it will all be right some day: I shall not be blamed up there
+for loving her.' And he left me with a smile.
+
+I passed a miserable evening thinking of Max. Next to Charlie, he had
+been my closest friend from girlhood; I had been accustomed to look to
+him for advice in all my difficulties, to rely upon his counsel. I knew
+that people who were comparatively strangers to him thought he was almost
+too easy-going, and a little weak from excess of good-nature. He was too
+tolerant of other folk's failings; they said he preached mercy where
+severity would be more bracing and wholesome; and no doubt they thought
+that he judged himself as leniently; but they did not know Max.
+
+I never knew a man harder to himself. Charitable to others, he had no
+self-pity; selfish aims were impossible to him. He who could not endure
+to witness even a child or an animal suffer, would have plucked out his
+right eye or parted with his right hand, in gospel phrase, if by doing so
+he could witness to the truth or spare pain to a weaker human being. It
+was this knowledge of his inner life that made Max so priestly in my
+eyes. I knew he was pure enough and strong enough to meet even Gladys's
+demands. Nothing but a modern Bayard would ever satisfy her fastidious
+taste; she would not look on a man's stature, or on his outward beauty;
+such things would seem paltry to her; but he who aspired to be her lord
+and master must be worthy of all reverence and must have won his spurs:
+so much had I learnt from my friendship with Gladys.
+
+I pondered over Max's words, and tried to piece the fragments of our
+conversation with recollections of my talks with Gladys. I recalled much
+that had passed. I endeavoured to find the clue to her downcast, troubled
+looks, her quenched and listless manner. I felt dimly that some strange
+misunderstanding wrapped these two in a close fog. What had brought about
+this chill, murky atmosphere, in which they failed to recognise each
+other's meaning? This was the mystery: lives had often been shipwrecked
+from these miserable misunderstandings, for want of a word. I felt
+completely baffled, and before the evening was over I could have cried
+with the sense of utter failure and bewilderment. If Max's chivalrous
+scruples had not tied my hands, I would have gone to Gladys boldly and
+asked her what it all meant; I would have challenged her truth; I would
+have compelled her to answer me; but I dared not break my promise. By
+letter and in the spirit I would respect Max's wishes.
+
+But I resolved to watch: no eyes should be so vigilant as mine. I was
+determined, that nothing should escape my scrutiny; at least I was in
+possession of certain facts that would help me in finding the clue I
+wanted. I knew now that Max loved Gladys and had tried to win her: that
+he had nearly done so was also evident. What had wrought that sudden
+change? Had Captain Hamilton's brilliant successes really dazzled her
+fancy and blinded her to Max's quiet unobtrusive virtues? Did she really
+and truly prefer her cousin? This was what I had to find out, and here
+Max could not help me.
+
+There was one thing I was glad to know,--that Mr. Hamilton favoured Max's
+suit. At least I should not be working against him. I do not know why,
+but the thought of doing so would have pained me: I no longer wished to
+array myself for war against Mr. Hamilton; my enmity had died a natural
+death for want of fuel.
+
+I felt grateful to him for his kindness to Max; no doubt he had a
+fellow-feeling with him. That dear old gossip, Mrs. Maberley, had told
+me something about Mr. Hamilton on my second visit that had made me feel
+very sorry for him. Max knew about it, of course; he had said a word to
+me once on the subject, but it was not Max's way to gossip about his
+neighbours; he once said, laughing, that he left all the choice bits
+of scandal to his good old friend at Maplehurst.
+
+It was from Mrs. Maberley that I heard all about Mr. Hamilton's
+disappointment, and why he had not married. When he was about
+eight-and-twenty he had been engaged to a young widow.
+
+'She was a beautiful creature, my dear,' observed the old lady; 'the
+colonel said he had never seen a handsomer woman. She was an Irish
+beauty, and had those wonderful gray eyes and dark eyelashes that make
+you wonder what colour they are, and she had the sweetest smile possible;
+any man would have been bewitched by it. I never saw a young man more in
+love than Giles: when he came here he could talk of nothing but Mrs.
+Carrick: her name was Ella, I remember. Well, it went on for some months,
+and he was preparing for the wedding,--there was to be a nursery got
+ready, for she had one little boy, and Giles already doted on the
+child,--when all at once there came a letter from his lady-love; and a
+very pretty letter it was. Giles must forgive her, it said, she was
+utterly wretched at the thought of the pain she was giving him, but she
+was mistaken in the strength of her attachment. She had come to the
+conclusion that they would not be happy together, that in fact she
+preferred some one else.
+
+'She did not mention that this other lover was richer than Giles and had
+a title, but of course he found out that this was the case. The fickle
+Irish beauty had caught the fancy of an elderly English nobleman with a
+large family of grown-up sons and daughters. My dear, it was a very
+heartless piece of work: it changed Giles completely. He never spoke
+about it to any one, but if ever a man was heart-broken, Giles was: he
+was never the same after that; it made him hard and bitter; he is always
+railing against women, or saying disagreeable home-truths about them. And
+of course Mrs. Carrick, or rather Lady Howe, is to blame for that. Oh, my
+dear, she may deck herself with diamonds, as they say she does, and call
+herself happy,--which she is not, with a gouty, ill-tempered old husband
+who is jealous of her,--but I'll be bound she thinks of Giles sometimes
+with regret, and scorns herself for her folly.'
+
+Poor Mr. Hamilton! And this had all happened about six or seven years
+ago. No wonder he looked stern and said bitter things. He was not
+naturally sweet-tempered, like Max; such a misfortune would sour him.
+
+'All well,' I said to myself, as I went up to bed, 'it is perfectly true
+what Longfellow says, "Into each life some rain must fall, some days must
+be dark and dreary"; but it is strange that they both have suffered. It
+is a good thing, perhaps, that such an experience is never likely to
+happen to me. There is some consolation to be deduced even from my want
+of beauty: no man will fall in love with me and then play me false.' And
+with that a curious feeling came over me, a sudden inexplicable sense of
+want and loneliness, something I could not define, that took no definite
+shape and had no similitude, and yet haunted me with a sense of ill; but
+the next moment I was struggling fiercely with the unknown and unwelcome
+guest.
+
+'For shame!' I said to myself; 'this is weakness and pure selfishness,
+mere sentimental feverishness; this is not like the strong-minded young
+person Miss Darrell calls me. What if loneliness be appointed me?--we
+must each have our cross. Perhaps, as life goes on and I grow older, it
+may be a little hard to bear at times, but my loneliness would be better
+than the sort of pain Mr. Hamilton and Max have endured.' And as I
+thought this, a sudden conviction came to me that I could not have borne
+a like fate, a dim instinct that told me that I should suffer keenly and
+long,--that it would be better, far better, that the deepest instincts of
+my woman's nature should never be roused than be kindled only to die away
+into ashes, as many women's affections have been suffered to die.
+'Anything but that,' I said to myself, with a sudden thrill of pain
+that surprised me with its intensity.
+
+All this time through the long cold weeks Elspeth had been slowly dying.
+Quietly and gradually the blind woman's strength had ebbed and lessened,
+until early in March we knew she could not last much longer.
+
+She suffered no pain, and uttered no complaint. She lay peacefully
+propped up with pillows on the bed where Mary Marshall had breathed her
+last, and her pale wrinkled face grew almost as white as the cap-border
+that encircled it.
+
+At the commencement of her illness I was unable to be much with her.
+Susan and Phoebe Locke had thoroughly engrossed me, and a hurried visit
+morning and evening to give Peggy orders was all that was possible under
+the circumstances; but I saw that she was well cared for and comfortable,
+and Peggy was very good to her and kept the children out of the room.
+
+'Ah, my bairn, I am dying like a lady,' she said to me one day, 'and it
+is good to be here on poor Mary's bed. See the fine clean sheets that
+Peggy has put me on, and the grand quilt that keeps my feet warm!
+Sometimes I could cry with the comfort of it all; and there is the broth
+and the jelly always ready; and what can a poor old body want more?'
+
+When Susan was convalescent I spent more time with Elspeth. I knew she
+loved to have me beside her, and to listen to the chapters and Psalms I
+read to her. She would ask me to sing sometimes, and often we would sit
+and talk of the days that seemed so 'few and evil' in the light of
+advancing immortality.
+
+'Ay, dearie,' she would say, 'it is not much to look back upon except in
+an angel's sight,--a poor old woman's life, who worked and struggled to
+keep her master and children from clemming. I used to think it hard
+sometimes that I could not get to church on Sunday morning,--for I was
+aye a woman for church,--but I had to stand at my wash-tub often until
+late on Saturday night. "After a day's charing, rinsing out the
+children's bits of things, and ironing them too, how is a poor tired
+body like me to get religion?" I would say sometimes when I was fairly
+moithered with it all. But, Miss Garston, my dear, I'm glad, as I lie
+here, to know that I never neglected the children God had given me; and
+so He took care of all that; He knew when I was too tired to put up a
+prayer that it was not for the want of loving Him.'
+
+'No, indeed, Elspeth. I often think we ought not to be too hard on poor
+people.'
+
+'That's true,' brightening up visibly. 'He is no severe taskmaster
+demanding bricks out of stubble; He knows poor labouring people are often
+tired, and out of heart. I used to say to my master sometimes, "Ah well,
+we must leave all that for heaven; we shall have a fine rest there, and
+plenty of time to sing our hymns and talk to the Lord Jesus. He was a
+labouring man too, and He will know all about it." I often comforted my
+master like that.'
+
+Elspeth's quaint talk interested me greatly. I grew to love her dearly,
+and I liked to feel that she was fond of me in return. I could have sat
+by her contentedly for hours, holding her hard work-worn hand and
+listening to her gentle flow of talk with its Scriptural phrases and
+simple realistic thoughts. It was like washing some pilgrim's feet at
+a feast to listen to Elspeth.
+
+One evening she told me that she had been thinking of me.
+
+'I wanted to know what you were like, my bairn,' she said, with her
+pretty Scotch accent; 'and the doctor came in as I was turning it over
+in my mind, so I made bold to ask him to describe you. I thought he was
+a long time answering, and at last he said, "What put that into your
+head, granny?" as if he were a little bit taken aback by the question.
+
+'"Well, doctor," I returned, "we all of us like to see the faces of those
+we love; and I am all in the dark. That dear young lady is doing the
+Lord's work with all her might, and she has a voice that makes me think
+of heaven, and the choirs of angels, and the golden harps, and maybe her
+face is as beautiful as her voice."
+
+'"Oh no," he says quite sharply to that, "she is not beautiful at all:
+indeed, I am not sure that most people would not think her plain."
+
+'I suppose I was an old ninny, but I did not like to hear him say this,
+my bairn, for I knew it could not be the truth; but he went on after a
+minute,--
+
+'"It is not easy to describe the face of a person one knows so well. I
+find it difficult to answer your question. Miss Garston has such a true
+face, one seems to trust it in a minute: it is the face of an honest
+kindly woman who will never do you any harm;" and then I saw what he
+meant. Why, bairn, the angels have this sort of beauty, and it lasts the
+longest; that is the sort of face they have there.'
+
+I heard all this silently, and was thankful that Elspeth's blind eyes
+could not see the burning flush of mortification that rose to my face.
+The dear garrulous old body, how could she have put such a question to
+Mr. Hamilton? and yet how kindly he had answered! A sudden recollection
+of Irish dark-gray eyes with black lashes came to my mind; I knew Mr.
+Hamilton was a connoisseur of beauty. I had often heard him describe
+people, and point out their physical defects with the keenest criticism;
+he was singularly fastidious on this point; but, in spite of my
+humiliation, I was glad to know that he had spoken so gently. He had told
+the truth simply, that was all: at least he had owned I was true; I must
+content myself with this tribute to my honesty.
+
+But it was some days before I could recall Elspeth's words without a
+sensation of prickly heat: it is strange how painfully these little
+pin-pricks to our vanity affect us. I was angry with myself for
+remembering them, and yet they rankled, in spite of Elspeth's quaint
+and homely consolation. Alas! I was not better than my fellows: Ursula
+Garston was not the strong-minded woman that Miss Darrell called her.
+
+But when I next met Mr. Hamilton I had other thoughts to engross me, for
+Elspeth was dying, and we were standing together by her bedside. I had
+not sent for Mr. Hamilton, for I knew that he could do nothing more for
+her; but he had met one of the children in the village, and on hearing
+the end was approaching had come at once to render me any help in his
+power. Perhaps he thought I should like to have him there.
+
+Elspeth's pinched wrinkled face brightened as she heard his voice. 'Ay,
+doctor, I am glad to know you are there; you have been naught but kind
+to me all these years, and now, thanks to this bairn, I am dying like
+a lady. The Lord bless you both! and He will,--He will!' with feeble
+earnestness.
+
+I bent down and kissed her cold cheek. 'Never mind us, Elspeth: only tell
+us that all is well with you. You are not afraid, dear granny?'
+
+'What's to fear, my bairn, with the Lord holding my hand?--and He will
+not let go; ah no, He will never let go! Ay, I have come to the dark
+river, but it will not do more than wet my feet. I'll be carried over,
+for I am old and weak,--old and weak, my dearie.' These were her last
+words, and half an hour afterwards the change came, and Elspeth's
+sightless eyes were opened to the light of immortality.
+
+That night I took up a little worn copy of the _Pilgrim's Progress_ that
+I had had from childhood, and opened it at a favourite passage, where
+Christian and his companion are talking with the shining ones as they
+went up towards the Celestial city, and I thought of Elspeth as I read
+it. 'You are going now,' said they, 'to the paradise of God, wherein you
+shall see the Tree of Life, and eat of the never-failing fruit thereof;
+and when you come there you shall have white robes given you, and your
+walk and talk shall be every day with the King, even all the days of
+eternity. There you shall not see again such things as you saw when you
+were in the lower regions, upon the earth, to wit, sorrow, sickness, and
+death, for the former things are passed away....
+
+'And the men asked, "What must we do in that holy place?" To whom it was
+answered, "You must then receive the comfort of your toil, and have joy
+for all your sorrow."' I thought of Elspeth's last words, 'Old and
+weak,--old and weak, my dearie.' Surely they had come true: those aged
+feet had barely touched the cold water. Gently and tenderly she had been
+carried across to the green pastures and still waters in the paradise of
+God.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+MISS DARRELL HAS A HEADACHE
+
+
+I began to feel that Gladys had been away a long time, and to wish for
+her return. I was much disappointed, then, on receiving a letter from her
+about a fortnight after Elspeth's death, telling me that Colonel Maberley
+had made up his mind to spend Easter in Paris, and that she had promised
+to accompany them.
+
+'I shall be sorry to be so long without your companionship,' she wrote.
+'I miss you more than I can say; but I am sure that it is far better for
+me to remain away as long as possible: the change is certainly doing me
+good. I am quite strong and well: they spoil me dreadfully, but I think
+this sort of treatment suits me best.'
+
+It was a long letter, and seemed to be written in a more cheerful mood
+than usual. There was a charming description of a trip they had taken,
+with little graceful touches of humour here and there.
+
+I handed the letter silently to Max when he called the next day. I
+thought that it would be no harm to show it to him. He took it to the
+window, and was so busy reading it that I had half finished a letter
+I was writing to Jill before he at last laid it down on my desk.
+
+'Thank you for letting me see it,' he said quietly: 'it has been a great
+pleasure. Somehow, as I read it, it seemed as though the old Gladys
+Hamilton had written it,--not the one we know now. Indeed, she seems much
+better.'
+
+'Yes, and we must make up our minds to do without her,' I answered, with
+a sigh.
+
+'And we shall do so most willingly,' he returned, with a sort of tacit
+rebuke to my selfishness, 'if we know the change is benefiting her.' And
+then, with a change of tone, 'What a beautiful handwriting hers is,
+Ursula!--so firm and clear, so characteristic of the writer. Does she
+often write you such long, interesting letters? You are much to be
+envied, my dear. Well, well, the day's work is waiting for me.' And with
+that he went off, without saying another word.
+
+My next visitor was Mr. Hamilton. He came to tell me of an accident case.
+A young labourer had fallen off a scaffolding, and a compound fracture of
+the right arm had been the result. He was also badly shaken and bruised,
+and was altogether in a miserable plight.
+
+I promised, of course, to go to him at once; but he told me that there
+was no immediate hurry; he had attended to the arm and left him very
+comfortable, and he would do well for the next hour or two; and, as Mr.
+Hamilton seemed inclined to linger for a little chat, I could not refuse
+to oblige him.
+
+'It is just as well that this piece of work has come to me,' I said
+presently, 'for I was feeling terribly idle. Since Elspeth's death I have
+not had a single case, and have employed my leisure in writing long
+letters to my relations and taking country rambles with Tinker.'
+
+'That is right,' he returned heartily. 'I am sure we worked you far too
+hard at one time.'
+
+'It did not hurt me, and I should not care to be idle for long.--Yes, I
+have heard from Gladys,' for his eyes fell on the open letter that lay
+beside us. 'I am rather disappointed that I shall not see her before I go
+away.'
+
+'Are you going away, then?' he asked, very quickly, and I thought the
+news did not seem to please him.
+
+'Not for three weeks. I hope my patient will be getting on by that time,
+and will be able to spare me: at any rate, I can give his mother a lesson
+or two. You know my cousin is to be married, and I have promised to help
+Aunt Philippa.'
+
+'How long do you think you will be away?' he demanded, with a touch of
+his old abruptness.
+
+'For a fortnight. I could not arrange for less. Sara is making such a
+point of it.'
+
+'A whole fortnight! I am afraid you are terribly idle, after all, Miss
+Garston. You are growing tired of this humdrum place. You are yearning
+for "the leeks and cucumbers of Egypt,"' with a grim smile.
+
+'You are wrong,' I returned, with more earnestness than the occasion
+warranted. 'I feel a strange reluctance to re-enter Vanity Fair. The
+splendours of a gay wedding are not to my taste. Sara tells me that her
+reception after the ceremony will be attended by about two hundred
+guests. To me the idea is simply barbarous. I expect I shall be heartily
+glad to get back to Heathfield.'
+
+I was surprised to see how pleased Mr. Hamilton looked at this speech. I
+had been thinking of my work and my quiet little parlour, not of Gladwyn,
+when I spoke; but he seemed to accept it as a personal compliment.
+
+'I assure you that we shall welcome you back most gladly,' he returned.
+'The place will not seem like itself without our busy village nurse.
+Well, you have worked hard enough for six months: you deserve a holiday.
+I should like to see you in your butterfly garb, Miss Garston. I fancy,
+however, that I should not recognise you.'
+
+With a sudden pang I remembered Elspeth's words. He does not think that
+such home attire will become me. I thought he preferred me in my usual
+nun's garb of black serge.
+
+'Oh,' I said, petulantly and foolishly, 'I must own that I shall look
+rather like a crow dressed up in peacock's feathers in the grand gown
+Sara has chosen for me'; but I was a little taken aback, and felt
+inclined to laugh, when he asked me, with an air of interest, what it
+was like in colour and material.
+
+'Sara wished it to be red plush,' I replied demurely; 'but I refused to
+wear it; so she has waived that in favour of a dark green velvet. I think
+it is absolutely wicked to make Uncle Brian pay for such a dress; but it
+seems that Sara will get her own way, so I must put up with all they
+choose to give me.'
+
+'That is hardly spoken graciously. If your uncle be rich, why should
+he not please himself in buying you a velvet gown? I think the fair
+bride-elect has good taste. You will look very well in dark-green velvet:
+light tints would not suit you at all; red would be too gay.'
+
+He spoke with such gravity and decision that I thought it best not to
+contradict him. I even repressed my inclination to laugh: if he liked to
+be dogmatic on the subject of my dress, I would not hinder him. The next
+moment, however, he dismissed the matter.
+
+'I agree with you in disliking gay weddings. The idea is singularly
+repugnant to me. Because two people elect to join hands for the journey
+of life, is there any adequate reason why all their idle acquaintances
+should accompany them with cymbals and prancings and all sorts of
+fooleries just at the most solemn moment of their life?'
+
+'I suppose they wish to express their sympathy,' I returned.
+
+'Sympathy should wear a quieter garb. These folks come to church to show
+their fine feathers and make a fuss; they do not care a jot for the
+solemnity of the service; and yet to me it is as awful in its way as the
+burial service. "Till death us do part,"--can any one, man or woman, say
+these words lightly and not bring down a doom upon himself?' He spoke
+with suppressed excitement, walking up and down the room: one could see
+how strongly he felt his words. Was he thinking of Mrs. Carrick? I
+wondered. He gave a slight shudder, as though some unwelcome thought
+obtruded itself, and then he turned to me with a forced smile.
+
+'I am boring you, I am afraid. I get horribly excited over the shams of
+conventionality. What were we talking about? Oh, I remember: Gladys's
+letter. Yes, she has written to Lady Betty, but not such a volume as
+that,' glancing at the closely written sheets. 'You are her chief
+correspondent, I believe; but she told us her plans. For my part, I am
+glad that she should enjoy this trip to Paris. Really, the Maberleys are
+most kind. I sent her a cheque to add to her amusements, for of course
+all girls like shopping.'
+
+How generous he was to his sisters! with all his faults of manner, he
+seemed to grudge them nothing. But all the same I knew Gladys would have
+valued a few kind words from him far more than the cheque; but perhaps he
+had written to her as well. But he seemed rather surprised when I asked
+him the question.
+
+'Oh no; I never write to my sisters: they would not care for a letter
+from me. Etta offered to enclose it in a letter she had just finished to
+Gladys, so that saved all trouble. By the bye, Miss Garston, I hope you
+will come up to Gladwyn one evening before you leave Heathfield. I do not
+see why we are to be deserted in this fashion.'
+
+Neither did I, if he put it in this way: reluctant as I was to spend an
+evening there in Gladys's absence, it certainly was not quite kind either
+to him or to Lady Betty to refuse. He seemed to anticipate a refusal,
+however, for he said hastily,--
+
+'Never mind answering me now. Etta shall write to you in proper form,
+and you shall fix your own evening. Now I have hindered you sufficiently,
+so I will take my leave,'--which he did, but I heard him some time
+afterwards talking to Nathaniel in the porch.
+
+A few days after this I received a civil little note from Miss Darrell,
+pressing me to spend a long evening with them, and begging me to bring my
+prettiest songs.
+
+I made the rather lame excuse that I was much engaged with my new
+patient, and fixed the latest day that I could,--the very last evening
+before I was to leave for London. Mr. Hamilton met me a few hours
+afterwards, and asked me rather drily what my numerous engagements
+could be.
+
+'You are the most unsociable of your sex,' he added, when I had no answer
+to make to this. 'I shall take care that you are properly punished, for
+neither Cunliffe nor Tudor shall be asked to meet you. Etta was sure you
+would like one or both to come, but I put my veto on it at once.'
+
+'Then you were very disagreeable,' I returned laughingly. 'I wanted Uncle
+Max very much.' But he only shook his head at me good-humouredly, and
+scolded me for my want of amiability.
+
+I determined, when the evening came, that he should not find fault with
+me in any way. I was rather in holiday mood; my patient was going on
+well, and his mother was a neat, capable body, and might be trusted to
+look after him. No other cases had come to me, and I might leave
+Heathfield with a clear conscience. Uncle Max would miss me, but an old
+college friend was coming to stay at the vicarage, so I could be better
+spared. I had seen a great deal of Mr. Tudor lately. I often met him in
+the village, and he always turned back and walked with me: he met me on
+this occasion, and walked to the gates of Gladwyn. Indeed, he detained me
+for some minutes in the road, trying to extract particulars about the
+wedding.
+
+'Miss Jocelyn is to be bridesmaid, then?' describing a circle with his
+stick in the dust.
+
+'Yes. Poor Sara is afraid that she will be quite overshadowed by Jill's
+bigness; she has made her promise not to stand quite close. They have got
+a match for her. Grace Underley is as tall as Jill, and very fair. Sara
+calls them her night and morning bridesmaids.'
+
+'I think I shall be in London on the fourteenth. I thought, Miss Garston,
+that there was a prejudice to weddings in May.'
+
+'Yes; but Sara laughs at the idea, and Colonel Ferguson says it is all
+nonsense. I did not know you were coming to town so soon.'
+
+'Some of my people will be up then,' he said absently. 'Perhaps I shall
+have a peep at you all; but of course'--rather hastily--'I shall not call
+at Hyde Park Gate until the wedding is over.'
+
+I wished he would not call then. What was the good of feeding his boyish
+fancy? it would soon die a natural death, if he would only be wise. Poor
+Mr. Tudor! I began to be afraid that he was very much in earnest after
+all: there was a grave expression on his face as he turned away. Perhaps
+he knew, as I did, that our big awkward Jill would develop into a
+splendid woman; that one of these days Jocelyn Garston would be far more
+admired than her sister; that the ugly duckling would soon change into a
+swan. There were times even now when Jill looked positively handsome,
+if only her short black locks would grow, and if she would leave off
+hunching her shoulders.
+
+'I should like Lawrence Tudor to have my Jill, if he were only rich; but
+there is no hope for him now, poor fellow!' I said to myself, as I walked
+up the gravel walk towards the house.
+
+Gladwyn looked its best this evening. The shady little lawns that
+surrounded the house looked cool and inviting; the birds were singing
+merrily from the avenue of young oaks; the air was sweet with the scent
+of May-blossoms and wall-flowers: great bunches of them were placed in
+the hall.
+
+Thornton, who admitted me, said that Leah would be waiting for me in the
+blue room, as Miss Darrell's room was called; so I went up at once.
+
+I was passing through the dressing-room, when I saw the bedroom door was
+half opened, and a voice--I scarcely recognised it as Miss Darrell's, it
+was so different from her usual low, toneless voice--exclaimed angrily,
+'You forget yourself strangely, Leah! one would think you were the
+mistress and I the maid, to hear you speaking to me.'
+
+'I can't help that, Miss Etta,' returned the woman insolently. 'If you
+are not more punctual in your payments I will go to the master myself and
+tell him.' But here I knocked sharply at the door to warn them of my
+presence, and Leah ceased abruptly, while Miss Darrell bade me enter.
+
+She tried to meet me as usual, but her face was flushed, and she looked
+at me uneasily, as though she feared that I had overheard Leah's speech.
+I thought Leah looked sullen and stolid as she waited upon me. It was a
+most forbidding face. I was glad when Miss Darrell dismissed her on some
+slight pretext.
+
+'Leah is in a bad temper this evening,' she observed, examining the
+clasp of a handsome bracelet as she spoke. I noticed then that she had
+beautiful arms, as well as finely-shaped hands, and the emerald-eyed
+snake showed to advantage. 'She is a most invaluable person, but she can
+take liberties sometimes. Perhaps you heard me scolding her; but I
+consider she was decidedly in the wrong.'
+
+'She does not look very good-tempered,' was my reply.
+
+Miss Darrell still looked flushed and perturbed; but she took up her
+fan and vinaigrette, and proposed that we should join Lady Betty in the
+drawing-room. Leah was in the hall. As we passed her she addressed Miss
+Darrell.
+
+'If you can spare me a moment, ma'am, I should like to speak to you,' she
+said, quite civilly; but I thought her manner a little menacing.
+
+'Will not another time do, Leah?' returned her mistress in a worried
+tone; but the next moment she begged me to go in without her.
+
+Lady Betty was sitting by the open window with Nap beside her. I thought
+the poor little girl looked dull and lonely. She gave an exclamation of
+pleasure at seeing me, and ran towards me with outstretched hands. She
+looked like a child in her little white gown and blue ribbons, with her
+short curly hair.
+
+'I am so glad to see you, Miss Garston! I thought Etta would keep you,
+I have been alone all the afternoon: Etta never sits with me now. How
+I wish Gladys would come back! I have no one to speak to, and I miss her
+horribly.'
+
+'Poor Lady Betty!'
+
+'You would say so, if you knew how horrid it all was. Just now, as I was
+sitting alone, I felt like a poor little princess shut up in an enchanted
+tower. Giles is the magician, and Etta is the wicked witch. I was making
+up quite a story about it.'
+
+'Why have you not been to see me lately, Lady Betty?'
+
+'Oh, how silly you are to ask me such a question!' she returned
+pettishly. 'You had better ask Witch Etta. Now you pretend to look
+surprised. She won't let me come--there!'
+
+'My dear child, surely you need not consult your cousin.'
+
+'Of course not,' wrinkling her forehead; 'but then, you see, Witch Etta
+consults me: she makes a point of finding out all my little plans and
+nipping them in the bud. She says she really cannot allow me to go so
+often to the White Cottage; Mr. Cunliffe and Mr. Tudor are always there,
+and it is not proper. She is always hinting that I want to meet Mr.
+Tudor, and it is no good telling her that I never think of such a thing.'
+Lady Betty was half crying. A more innocent, harmless little soul never
+breathed; she had not a spice of coquetry in her nature. I felt indignant
+at such an accusation.
+
+'It is all nonsense, Lady Betty,' I returned sharply. 'Mr. Tudor has not
+called at the cottage more than once since Jill left me, and then Uncle
+Max sent him. When I first came to Heathfield he was very kind in doing
+me little services, and he dropped in two or three times when Jill was
+with me; but indeed he has never been a constant visitor. When we meet
+it is at the vicarage or in the street.'
+
+'You would never convince Etta of that,' replied Lady Betty
+disconsolately. 'She has even told Giles how often Mr. Tudor goes to the
+cottage, and she has got it into her head that I am always trying to meet
+him there. It is such an odious idea, only worthy of Etta herself!' went
+on the little girl indignantly. 'If I could only make her hold her tongue
+to Giles!'
+
+'I would not trouble about it if I were you, dear. No one who knows you
+would believe it. Such an idea would never occur to Mr. Tudor; he is an
+honest, simple young fellow, who is not ashamed to respect women in the
+good old-fashioned way.'
+
+'Oh yes, I like him, and so does Jill; but I wish he were a thousand
+miles off, and then Etta would give me a little peace. How angry Gladys
+would be if she knew it! But I don't mean to trouble her about my small
+worries, poor darling.'
+
+I had never heard Lady Betty speak with such womanly dignity. She was so
+often childish and whimsical that one never expected her to be grave and
+responsible like other people. She kissed me presently, and said I had
+done her good, and would I always believe in her in spite of Etta, for
+she was not the giddy little creature that Etta made her out to be; she
+was sure Giles would think more of her but for Etta's mischief-making.
+
+Mr. Hamilton came in after this, and sat down by us, but Miss Darrell did
+not make her appearance until the gong sounded, and then she hurried in
+with a breathless apology. I do not know what made me watch her so
+closely all dinner-time. She took very little part in the conversation,
+seemed absent and thoughtful, and started nervously when Mr. Hamilton
+spoke to her. He told her once that she looked pale and tired, and she
+said then that the evening was close, and that her head ached. I wondered
+then if the headache had made her eyes so heavy, or if she had been
+crying.
+
+Mr. Hamilton was a little quiet, too, through dinner, but listened with
+great interest when Lady Betty and I talked about the approaching
+wedding. I had to satisfy her curiosity on many points,--the bride's and
+bridesmaids' dresses, and the programme for the day.
+
+The details did not seem to bore Mr. Hamilton. His face never once wore
+its cynical expression; but when we returned to the drawing-room, and
+Lady Betty wanted to continue the subject, he took her quietly by the
+shoulders and marched her off to Miss Darrell.
+
+'Make the child hold her tongue, Etta,' he said good-humouredly. 'I want
+to coax Miss Garston to sing to us.' And then he came to me with the
+smile I liked best to see on his face, and held out his hand.
+
+I was quite willing to oblige him, and he kept me hard at work for nearly
+an hour, first asking me if I were tired, and then begging for one more
+song; and sometimes I thought of Gladys as I sang, and sometimes of Max,
+and once of Mrs. Carrick, with her wonderful gray eyes, and her false
+fair face.
+
+When I had finished I saw Mr. Hamilton looking at me rather strangely.
+
+'Why do you sing such sad songs?' he asked, in a low voice, as though he
+did not wish to be overheard; but he need not have been afraid: Miss
+Darrell was evidently taking no notice of any one just then. She was
+lying back in her chair with her eyes closed, and I noticed afterwards
+that her forehead was lined like an old woman's.
+
+'I like melancholy songs,' was my reply, and I fingered the notes a
+little nervously, for his look was rather too keen just then, and I had
+been thinking of Mrs. Carrick.
+
+'But you are not melancholy,' he persisted. 'There is no weak
+sentimentality in your nature. Just now there was a passion in your voice
+that startled me, as though you were drawing from some secret well.' He
+paused, and then went on, half playfully,--
+
+'If I were like the Hebrew steward, and asked you to let down your
+pitcher and give me a draught, I wonder what you would answer?'
+
+'That would depend on circumstances. You would find it difficult to
+persuade me that you were thirsty, or needed anything that I could give.'
+
+'Would it be so difficult as all that?' he returned thoughtfully. 'I
+thought we were better friends; that you had penetrated beneath the upper
+crust; that in spite of my faults you trusted me a little.'
+
+His earnestness troubled me. I hardly knew what he meant.
+
+'Of course we are friends,' I answered hastily. 'I can trust you more
+than a little.' And I would have risen from my seat, but he put his hand
+gently on my sleeve.
+
+'Wait a moment. You are going away, and I may not have another
+opportunity. I want to tell you something. You have done me good; you
+have taught me that women can be trusted, after all. I thank you most
+heartily for that lesson.'
+
+'I do not know what you mean,' I faltered; but I felt a singular pleasure
+at these words. 'I have done nothing. It is you that have been good to
+me.'
+
+'Pshaw!' impatiently. 'I thought you more sensible than to say that. Now,
+I want you,' his voice softening again, 'to try and think better of me;
+not to judge by appearances, or to take other people's judgments, but to
+be as true and charitable to me as you are to others. Promise me this
+before you go, Miss Garston.'
+
+I do not know why the tears started to my eyes. I could hardly answer
+him.
+
+'Will you try to do this?' he persisted, stooping over me.
+
+'Yes,' was my scarcely audible answer, but he was satisfied with that
+monosyllable. He walked away after that, and joined Lady Betty. Miss
+Darrell had not moved; she still lay back on the cushions, and I thought
+her face looked drawn and old. When I spoke to her, for it was getting
+late, she roused herself with difficulty.
+
+'My head is very bad, and I shall have to go to bed, after all,' she
+said, giving me her hand. 'I am afraid your beautiful singing has been
+thrown away on me, for I was half asleep. I thought I heard you and Giles
+talking by the piano, but I was not sure.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton walked home with me. He had resumed his usual manner; he
+told me he had had a letter that day that would oblige him to go to
+Edinburgh for a week or so.
+
+'I think I shall take the night mail to-morrow evening, though it will
+give me a busy day: so, after all, I shall not miss you, Miss Garston.'
+And after a little more talk about the business that had summoned him,
+we reached the White Cottage and he bade me good-bye.
+
+'I hope you will have a pleasant holiday. Take care of yourself, for all
+our sakes.' And with that he left me.
+
+It was long before I slept that night. I felt confused and feverish, as
+though I were on the brink of some discovery that would overwhelm and
+alarm me. I could not understand myself or Mr. Hamilton. His words
+presented an enigma. I felt troubled by them, and yet not unhappy.
+
+Had Miss Darrell overheard him? I wondered. I felt, if she had done so,
+her manner would have been different. She seemed jealous of her cousin,
+and always monopolised his words and looks. He had never spoken to me a
+dozen words in her presence that she had not tried to interrupt us. Had
+she really been asleep? These doubts kept recurring to me. Just before
+I fell asleep a remembrance of Leah's sullen face came between me and my
+dreams. Her insolent voice rang in my ears. What had she meant by her
+words? Why had Miss Darrell submitted to her impertinence? Was she afraid
+of Leah, as Gladys said? I began to feel weary of all these mysteries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+WITH TIMBRELS AND DANCES
+
+
+Aunt Philippa and Sara came to meet me at Victoria. They both seemed
+unfeignedly glad to see me.
+
+Aunt Philippa was certainly a kind-hearted woman. Her faults were those
+that were engendered by too much prosperity. Overmuch ease and luxury had
+made her lymphatic and indolent. Except for Ralph's death, she had never
+known sorrow. Care had not yet traced a single line on her smooth
+forehead; it looked as open and unfurrowed as a child's. Contentment and
+a comfortable self-complacency were written on her comely face. Just now
+it beamed with motherly welcome. Somehow, I never felt so fond of Aunt
+Philippa as I did at that moment when she leaned over the carriage with
+outstretched hands.
+
+'My dear, how well you are looking! Five years younger.--Does she not
+look well, Sara?'
+
+Sara nodded and smiled, and made room for me to pass her, and then gave
+orders that my luggage should be intrusted to the maid, who would convey
+it in a cab to Hyde Park Gate.
+
+'If you do not mind, Ursula, we are going round the Park for a little,'
+observed Sara, with a pretty blush.
+
+Her mother laughed: 'Colonel Ferguson is riding in the Row, and will be
+looking out for us. He is coming this evening, as usual, but Sara thinks
+four-and-twenty hours too long to wait.'
+
+'Oh, mother, how can you talk so?' returned Sara bashfully. 'You know
+Donald asked us to meet him, and he would be so disappointed. And it is
+such a lovely afternoon,--if Ursula does not mind.'
+
+'On the contrary, I shall like it very much,' I returned, moved by
+curiosity to see Colonel Ferguson again. I had never seen him by
+daylight, and, though we had often met at the evening receptions, we
+had not exchanged a dozen words.
+
+I thought Sara was looking prettier than ever. A sort of radiance seemed
+to surround her. Youth and beauty, perfect health, a light heart, and
+satisfied affections,--these were the gifts of the gods that had been
+showered upon her. Would those bright, smiling eyes ever shed tears? I
+wondered. Would any sorrow drive away that light, careless gaiety? I
+hoped not. It was pleasant to see any one so happy. And then I thought
+of Lesbia and Gladys, and sighed.
+
+'You do not look at all tired, Ursie,' observed Sara affectionately,
+laying her little gloved hand on mine. 'She looks quite nice and fresh:
+does she not, mother?--I was so afraid that you would have come up in
+your nurse's livery, as Jocelyn calls it,--black serge, and a horrid
+dowdy bonnet.'
+
+'Oh no; I knew better than that,' I returned, with a complacent glance
+at my handsome black silk, one of Uncle Brian's presents. I had the
+comfortable conviction that even Sara could not find fault with my bonnet
+and mantle. I had made a careful toilet purposely, for I knew what
+importance they attached to such things. Sara's little speech rewarded
+me, as well as Aunt Philippa's approving look.
+
+'It has not done her any harm,' I heard her observe, _sotto voce_. 'She
+certainly looks younger.'
+
+I took advantage of a pause in Sara's chatter to ask after Jill. Aunt
+Philippa answered me, for Sara was bowing towards a passing carriage.
+
+'Oh, poor child, she wanted to come with us to meet you, but it was
+Professor Hugel's afternoon. He teaches her German literature, you know.
+I was anxious for her not to miss his lesson, and she was very good about
+it. She is coming down to afternoon tea, and of course we shall see her
+in the evening.'
+
+'Poor dear Jocelyn! she was longing to come, I know. You and Miss
+Gillespie are terribly severe,' observed Sara, with a light laugh. She
+was so free and gay herself that she rather pitied her young sister,
+condemned to the daily grind of lessons and hard work.
+
+'Nonsense, Sara!' returned her mother sharply. 'We are not severe at all.
+Jocelyn knows that it is all for her good if Miss Gillespie keeps her to
+her task. My dear Ursula, we are all charmed with Miss Gillespie,--even
+Sara, though she pretends to call her strict and old-fashioned. She is a
+most amiable, ladylike woman, and Jocelyn is perfectly happy with her.
+
+'I am very pleased with Jocelyn,' she went on. 'You have done her good,
+Ursula, and both her father and I are very grateful to you. She is not
+nearly so wayward and self-willed. She takes great pains with her
+lessons, and is most industrious. She is not so awkward, either, and Miss
+Gillespie thinks it will be a good plan if I take her out with me driving
+sometimes when Sara is married. I shall only have Jocelyn then,' finished
+Aunt Philippa, with a regretful look at her daughter. I was much
+interested in all they had to tell me, but I was not sorry when we
+entered the Park and the stream of talk died away.
+
+I almost felt as though I were in a dream, as the moving kaleidoscope
+of horses and carriages and foot-passengers passed before my eyes.
+
+Yesterday at this time I was sitting in poor Robert Lambert's whitewashed
+attic, listening to the sparrows that were twittering under the eaves.
+When I had left the cottage I had walked down country roads, meeting
+nothing but a donkey-cart and two tramps.
+
+Now the sunshine was playing on the rhododendrons and on the green leaves
+of the trees in Hyde Park. A brass band had struck up in the distance.
+The riders were cantering up and down the Row, to the admiration of the
+well-dressed crowds that sauntered under the trees or lingered by the
+railings. Carriages were passing and repassing. A four-in-hand drove past
+us, followed by a tandem. Beautiful young faces smiled out of the
+carriages. A few of them looked weary and careworn. Now and then under
+the smart bonnet one saw the pinched weazened face of old age,--dowagers
+in big fur capes looking out with their dim hungry eyes on the follies of
+Vanity Fair. One wondered at the set senile smile on these old faces;
+they had fed on husks all their lives, and the food had failed to nourish
+them; their strength had failed over the battle of life, but they still
+refused to leave the field of their former triumphs. Everywhere in these
+fashionable crowds one sees these pale meagre faces that belong to a past
+age. They wear gorgeous velvets, jewels, feathers, paint: like Jezebel,
+they would look out of the window curiously to the last. How one longs to
+take them gently out of the crowd, to wash their poor cheeks, and lead
+them to some quiet home, where they may shut their tired eyes in peace!
+'What is the world to you?' one would say to them. 'You have done all
+your tasks,--well or badly; leave the arena to the young and the strong;
+it is no place for you; come home and rest, before the dark angel finds
+you in your tinsel and gewgaws.' Would they listen to me, I wonder?
+
+Sara's soft dimples came into play presently. A pretty blush rose to her
+face. A tall man with a bronzed handsome face and iron-gray moustache had
+detached himself from the other riders, and was cantering towards the
+carriage that was now drawn up near the entrance: in another moment he
+had checked his horse with some difficulty.
+
+'I have been looking out for you the last three-quarters of an hour,' he
+said, addressing Sara. 'I could not see the carriage anywhere.--Miss
+Garston, we have met before, but I think we hardly know each other,'
+looking at me with some degree of interest. Sara's cousin was no longer
+indifferent to him.
+
+I answered him as civilly as I could, but I could see his attention
+wandered to his young _fiancee_, and he soon rode round to her side of
+the carriage. It was evident, as Lesbia said, that the colonel was
+honestly in love with Sara. She looked very young beside him, but there
+must have been something very winning in her sweet looks and words to the
+man who had known trouble and had laid a young wife and child to rest in
+an Indian grave.
+
+Before the evening was over I felt I liked Colonel Ferguson immensely,
+and thought far more of Sara for being his choice; there was an air of
+frankness and _bonhomie_ about him that won one's heart; he was sensible
+and practical. In spite of his fondness for Sara, he would keep her in
+order: one could see that. I heard him rebuke her very gently that first
+evening for some extravagance she was planning. They were standing apart
+from the others on the balcony, but I was near the open window, and I
+heard him say distinctly, in a grave voice,--
+
+'I am very sorry to disappoint you, but I must ask you to give up this
+idea, my darling; it would not be right in our position: surely you must
+see that.'
+
+'No, Donald, I do not see it a bit,' she answered quickly.
+
+'Then will you be satisfied with my seeing it, and give it up for my
+sake, dear?'
+
+I knew when they came back into the room that he had got his way. Sara
+was smiling as happily as usual: her disappointment had not gone very
+deep. Her future husband would have very little trouble with her. She was
+neither self-willed nor selfish. She wanted to be happy herself and make
+other people happy; she would be easily guided.
+
+When we left the Park Colonel Ferguson rode off to his club, and we drove
+home rather quickly. There were some visitors waiting for Sara in the
+drawing-room, so I went up to my old room to take off my bonnet. Martha
+would unpack my boxes, Aunt Philippa told me, as she gave me another kiss
+in the hall.
+
+I had not been there for five minutes when I heard flying footsteps down
+the passage, and the next moment Jill's strong arms had taken me by the
+shoulders and turned me round.
+
+'Now, Jill, I don't mean to be strangled as usual'; but she left me no
+breath for more.
+
+'Oh, my dear, precious old bear, this is too good to be true! I nearly
+cried with joy this morning at the idea of seeing you in your old room
+and knowing you will be here a whole fortnight. I declare, after all,
+Sara is very nice to get married.'
+
+No, Jill was not changed; she was as real and big and demonstrative as
+usual, but somehow she looked nicer.
+
+'You must be quick,' she continued, 'for father has come in, and Clayton
+has taken in the tea. We must go down directly; but I want you to see
+Miss Gillespie first.' And Jill looked proud and eager as she led me down
+the passage.
+
+The schoolroom was still the same dull back room that Aunt Philippa
+thought so conducive to her young daughter's studies, but it certainly
+looked more cheerful this evening.
+
+The window was opened. There was a window-box full of gay flowers. A
+great bowl of my favourite wall-flowers was on the table, and another
+vase, with trails of laburnum and lilac, was on Jill's little table. The
+fresh air and sunshine and the sweet scent of the flowers had quite
+transformed the dingy room. There was new cretonne on the old sofa, a
+handsome cloth on the centre-table, and a new easy-chair.
+
+Miss Gillespie was sitting by the window, reading. She had an interesting
+face and rather sad gray eyes, but her manner was decidedly
+prepossessing.
+
+She looked at her pupil with affection. Evidently Jill's abruptness and
+awkwardness were not misunderstood by her.
+
+'I want you two to like each other,' Jill had said, without a pretence of
+introduction; and we had both laughed and extended our hands.
+
+'I seem to know you already, Miss Garston,' she said, in a pleasant
+voice. 'Jocelyn talks about you so much that you cannot be a stranger
+to me.--Do you know your father has come in, dear?' turning to Jill.
+
+'Yes, and I must take my cousin downstairs. Good-bye for the present,
+Gypsy.'
+
+Miss Gillespie smiled again when she saw my astonishment at Jill's
+familiarity.
+
+'Jocelyn thinks my name too long, and has abbreviated it to Gypsy. Mrs.
+Garston was terribly shocked at first, but I told her that it did not
+matter in the least: in fact, I like it.'
+
+'She is such a dear old thing!' burst out Jill, as we left the schoolroom
+and proceeded downstairs arm in arm. 'I never think of her as my
+governess; she is just a kind friend who helps me with my lessons and
+walks with me. We do have such cosy times together. Does not the
+schoolroom look nice, Ursie?'
+
+'Very nice indeed, my dear.'
+
+'So I think; but Sara says it is horrid: she has made mother promise to
+give me her room directly she is married. Sara has a beautiful piano
+there, and a book-case, and all sorts of pretty things. It is a lovely
+room, you know, and looks out over the Park. Mother thinks it too nice
+and pretty for a schoolroom; but I am to call it my study and keep it
+tidy. And Gypsy is to have the old schoolroom for herself: so we are both
+pleased. It is nice for her to have a room of her own, where she can be
+alone.'
+
+'Your mother is very kind to you, Jill.'
+
+'Awfully kind--I mean very kind: Gypsy does so dislike that expression.
+Do you know, I think you two are rather alike in that? Gypsy is very
+unhappy sometimes, though. I have found her crying more than once when I
+have left her long alone; only mother does not know, and I don't mean to
+tell her, because she thinks people ought always to be cheerful. It was
+so sad that clergyman dying,--the one she was to marry; his name was
+Maurice Compton. I saw the name in one of her books: "Lilian Gillespie,
+from her devoted friend, Maurice Compton."'
+
+'My dear Jill, how long are you going to keep me standing in the hall?
+Clayton will find us here directly.'
+
+'Yes, I know'; but Jill showed no intention of moving; the prospect of
+cold tea did not trouble her; 'but I want to tell you something before
+you go in. Mother is certainly kinder to me than she ever has been; she
+says I am to drive with her very often, and that she shall take me to see
+picture-galleries. And father is going to buy a horse for me, because he
+says I ride so well that I may go out with him, as a rule, instead of
+with a master; and--'
+
+'You shall tell me all that presently,' I returned, 'for I am too tired
+to stand on this mat any longer. Are you coming, Jill? or shall I go in
+without you?' but of course I knew she would follow me.
+
+The room seemed full when we entered. Aunt Philippa was at the tea-table;
+Sara was flitting about the room from one guest to another. Uncle Brian,
+who was standing on the hearth-rug, put out his hand to me.
+
+'I am glad to see you back again, Ursula,' looking at me with his cool,
+penetrating glance. Uncle Brian was never demonstrative. 'I think the
+work suits you, to judge by your looks. Take that chair by your aunt,
+child, and she will give you some tea.' And accordingly I placed myself
+under Aunt Philippa's wing, while Jill and a boy-officer with a budding
+moustache waited on me.
+
+The rest of the evening passed very pleasantly. I had a long conversation
+with Miss Gillespie in the inner drawing-room while Sara and Jill played
+duets: of course our subject was Jill. Miss Gillespie spoke most warmly
+of her excellent abilities and fine development of character. 'She will
+be a very striking woman,' she finished, when the last chords were played
+and a soft clapping of hands succeeded. 'Whether she will be a happy one
+is more doubtful: she must not be thwarted too much, and she must have
+room to expand. Jocelyn wants space and sunshine.'
+
+I thought these remarks very sensible; they taught me that Miss Gillespie
+had grasped the true idea of Jill's character. There was nothing little
+about Jill: she never did things by halves: she either loved or hated.
+She was truthful to a fault. There was a massive freedom and simplicity
+about her that would guide her safely through the world's pitfalls.
+'Space and sunshine,' that was all Jill needed to bring her to maturity
+and fruition. Some girls may be trusted to educate themselves. Jill was
+one of these.
+
+The next morning Sara took possession of me. A great honour was to be
+vouchsafed me: I was to be treated to a private view of the trousseau
+and wedding-presents.
+
+I had exhausted my vocabulary of admiring epithets, and sat in eloquent
+silence, long before Sara had finished her display. It was like the
+picture of Pandora opening her box, to see the pretty creature opening
+the big, carved wardrobe to show me the layers of delicate embroidered
+raiment, muslin and laces and jewels, curious trinkets and wonderful
+gifts worthy of the Arabian Nights. There were two rooms full of
+treasures that had been laid at her feet, and no doubt, like Pandora,
+Sara had the rainbow-tinted hope lying amid the bridal gifts.
+
+'This is Donald's present,' she said, smiling, showing me a diamond
+spray. 'I am to wear it on Thursday: it is the loveliest present of
+all,--though mother has given me that beautiful pearl necklace.'
+
+'Wait a moment, Sara,' I said, detaining her as she closed the morocco
+case: 'tell me, do you not feel like a princess in fairy-land, with all
+this glitter round you? Does it all seem real, somehow?'
+
+'Donald is real, anyhow,' she returned, with a charming blush. 'Nothing
+would be real without him. Oh, Ursula, it is nice to be so happy! I
+always have been happier than other girls.' And something like a tear
+stole to her pretty eyes.
+
+'Now you must see your own dress,' she continued, brushing off the tiny
+tear-drop, with a laugh at her own sentimentality. 'What do you think of
+that? Is that not charming taste?'
+
+'It is far too good for me,' I returned seriously. 'How could Uncle Brain
+buy that for me? It is beautiful; it is perfect, and just my taste.' And
+then I could say no more, for Sara had placed her hands across my lips to
+silence me.
+
+'Then you must wear it, dear. Father and mother wanted to give you
+something nice, because you were so good to Jocelyn, and I knew you had a
+fancy for a velvet gown. Is not that yellowish lace charming, Ursula? and
+the bonnet harmonises so well! Your bouquet is to be cream-coloured, too,
+with just a tea-rose or so. You will look quite pretty in it, Ursula
+dear. Do you know Donald liked the look of you so yesterday? he said you
+looked so strong and sensible; he called you an interesting woman.'
+
+I hastened to change the subject, for it recalled certain words that I
+vainly tried to forget. It was a relief when visitors were announced and
+Sara left me to go down to the drawing-room. I was glad to be alone for
+a few minutes. Aunt Philippa came up soon afterwards with a bevy of
+friends, and I escaped to my own room until luncheon-time.
+
+I grew a little weary of the bustle by and by, and yet I was pleased and
+interested too; the excitement was infectious; one smiled to see so many
+happy faces; and then there was so much to do, every one was pressed into
+the service. Jill shut up her books with a bang; her piano remained
+closed. She and Miss Gillespie were answering notes, unpacking presents,
+running to and fro with messages; people came all day long; they talked
+in corners on the balcony, in Uncle Brian's study; no room was held
+sacred.
+
+A cargo of flowers arrived presently; the hall and drawing-room were to
+be transformed into bowers. It must rain roses as well as sunshine on the
+young princess. Sara's bright face appeared every now and then among the
+workers; a little court surrounded her; sometimes Colonel Ferguson's
+bronzed face looked over her shoulders.
+
+'That is very pretty, Ursula. I see you have caught the right idea.
+Jocelyn dear, you are overfilling that basket, and some of the stalks are
+showing. Miss Gillespie will put it right for you. Come, Grace, shall we
+go upstairs?'
+
+Sara nodded and smiled at us as she led the way to the upper regions.
+Pandora was for ever opening her box in those days: she was never weary
+of fingering her silks and satins.
+
+'Now she has gone, let us rest a little,' Jill exclaimed, letting her
+arms fall to her side. 'Are you not tired of it all, Ursie dear? I get so
+giddy that I keep rubbing my eyes. I never knew weddings meant all this
+fuss. Why cannot people do things more quietly? If I ever get married I
+shall just put on my bonnet and walk to the nearest church with father.
+What is the use of all this nonsense? It is like decking the victim for
+the sacrifice, to see all these roses and green leaves. Supposing we have
+a band of music to drown her groans while she is dressing,' finished Jill
+rebelliously, as she contemplated her flower-basket with dissatisfied
+eyes.
+
+Jill's speech recalled Mr. Hamilton's words most vividly: 'Because two
+people elect to join hands for the journey of life, is there any adequate
+reason why all their idle acquaintances should accompany them with
+cymbals and prancings, and all sorts of fooleries, just at the most
+solemn moment of life?' and again, '"Till death us do part,"--can any
+one, man or woman, say those words lightly and not bring down a doom upon
+himself?'
+
+Could I ever forget how solemnly he had said this? After all, Mr.
+Hamilton was right, and I think Jill was right too.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+WEDDING-CHIMES
+
+
+When we had finished the flowers and brought in Aunt Philippa to see the
+effect, I left the others and went up to my room. I had been busy since
+the early morning, and felt I had fairly earned a little rest.
+
+The room that was still called mine had a side-window looking over the
+Park. Down below carriages were passing and repassing; a detachment of
+hussars trotted past; people were pouring out from the Albert Hall,--some
+afternoon concert was just over; the children were playing as usual on
+the grass; the soft evening shadows were creeping up between the trees;
+the sky was blue and cloudless. May was wearing her choicest smiles on
+the eve of Sara's wedding-day.
+
+Martha, the schoolroom maid, had brought me a cup of tea; the rest of the
+family were crowded in Uncle Brian's study; the dining-room was already
+in the hands of Gunter's assistants; the long drawing-room and inner
+drawing-room were sweet with roses and baskets of costly hot-house
+flowers; a bank of rhododendrons was under the hall window; the house was
+full of sunshine, flowers, and the ripple of laughter. I could hear the
+laughter through the closed door. Sara's musical tinkle rang out whenever
+the door opened. I had fallen into a sort of waking dream, when something
+white and golden passed between me and the sunlight; a light kiss was
+dropped on my drowsy eyelids, and there was Lesbia smiling at me.
+
+She looked so cool and fair in her white gown, with a tiny bouquet of
+delicious tea-roses in her hand, her golden hair shining under her little
+lace bonnet. I thought she looked more than ever like Charlie's white
+lily, only now there was a touch of colour on her face.
+
+'Oh, Ursie dear, I am so pleased to see you!' she said gently, laying
+the flowers on my lap. 'Clayton told me that every one else was in Mr.
+Garston's study, so I begged to run up here. We only came up from
+Rutherford this morning, and we have been so busy ever since. I was
+afraid you were asleep, for I knocked at the door without getting any
+answer; but no, your eyes were wide open; so you were only dreaming.'
+
+'I believe I was very tired, they have kept me running about all day.
+Take this low chair by the window, dear, and tell me all about yourself.
+Do you know it is six months since we met? There must be so much to say
+on both sides. But, first, how is Mrs. Fullerton? and is it Rutherford
+that has given you those pretty roses, Lesbia?' But the roses I meant
+were certainly not on my lap.
+
+She answered literally and seriously, in her usual way: 'Yes, they are
+from Rutherford: I cut them myself, in spite of Patrick's grumbling.
+Mother is very well, Ursula; I am sure the country agrees with her. We
+have been there since March, and these two months have been the happiest
+to me since dear Charlie died.'
+
+'You need not tell me that,' I returned, with a satisfied look at the
+sweet face. 'Health has returned to you; you are no longer languid and
+weary; your eyes are bright, your voice has a stronger tone in it.'
+
+'Is it wrong?' she answered quickly. 'I do not forget, I shall never
+forget, but the pain seems soothed somehow. When I wake up in the bed
+where I slept as a child, I hear the birds singing, and I do not say to
+myself, "Here is another long weary day to get through." On the contrary,
+I jump up and dress myself as quickly as I can, for I love to be out
+among the dews; everything is so sweet and still in the early morning;
+there is such freshness in the air.'
+
+'And these early walks are good for you.'
+
+'Oh, I never leave the grounds. I just saunter about with Flo and Rover.
+When breakfast is ready I have a bouquet to lay beside mother's plate.
+Dear, good mother! do you know she cannot say enough in praise of
+Rutherford, now she sees the breakfasts I eat? I think she would be
+reconciled to any place if she saw me enjoy my food: at the Albert Hall
+Mansions I never felt hungry; I was always too tired to eat.'
+
+'I knew Mrs. Fullerton would never repent her sacrifice.'
+
+'No, indeed; mother and I have never been so cosy in our lives. She sits
+in the verandah and laughs over my quarrels with Patrick: he is quite as
+cross-grained as ever, dear old fellow, but there is nothing that he will
+not do for me. We are making a rose-garden now. Do you remember that
+sunny corner by the terrace and sundial?--dear Charlie always wanted me
+to have a rose-garden there. We have trellis-work arches and a little
+arbour. Patrick and Hawkins are doing the work, but I fancy they cannot
+get on without me.'
+
+She stopped with a little laugh at her own conceit, and then went on:
+
+'And I am so busy in other ways, Ursula. Every Monday I go to the
+mothers' meeting with Mrs. Trevor, and I have some of the old women at
+the almshouses besides,--I am so fond of those old women,--and I have
+just begun afternoons for tennis; people like these, and they come from
+such a distance. Mr. Manners declares the Rutherford Thursdays will
+soon be known all over the country.'
+
+'Bravo, Lesbia! you are taking your position nobly, my dear; this is just
+what Charlie wanted to see you,--a brave sweet woman who would not let
+sorrow and disappointment spoil her own and other people's lives.' Then,
+as she blushed with pleasure at my words, I said carelessly, 'Do you
+often see Mr. Manners?'
+
+'Oh yes,' she returned without hesitation,--'on my Thursdays, and at
+church, and at the vicarage: we are always meeting somewhere. He was
+Charlie's friend, you know, and he is so nice and sympathising, and tells
+me so much about their school life and college life together. He was so
+fond of Charlie, and the undergraduates used to call them Damon and
+Pythias.'
+
+'To be sure: Charlie was always talking about Harcourt. He has grown very
+handsome, I have heard.'
+
+'Mother says so: he is certainly good-looking,' she answered simply; 'and
+then he is so kind. I feel almost ashamed at troubling him so much with
+our business and commissions, but he never seems to mind any amount of
+trouble. I have never met any one so unselfish.'
+
+I turned away my head to hide a smile. Lesbia was quite serious. She was
+too much absorbed in the memory of Charlie to read the secret of Harcourt
+Manners's unselfishness: the kindly attentions of the young man, his
+solicitude and sympathy, had not yet awakened a suspicion of the truth.
+
+One day Lesbia's eyes would be opened, and she would be shocked and
+surprised to find the hold that Charlie's friend had got over her heart.
+Very likely she would dismiss him and lock herself up in her room and cry
+for hours; probably she would persist for some weeks in making herself
+and him exceedingly unhappy. But it would be all no use; the tie of
+sympathy would be too strong; he would have made himself too necessary to
+her. One day she would have to yield, and find her life's happiness in
+thus yielding. Charlie's white lily was too fair to be left to wither
+alone, and I knew Harcourt Manners would be worthy to win the prize.
+
+I could see it all before it happened, while Lesbia talked in her serious
+way of Mr. Manners's unselfishness. Presently, however, she changed the
+subject, and began questioning me eagerly about my work; and just then
+Jill joined us, and placed herself on the floor at my feet, with the firm
+intention, evidently, of listening to our remarks.
+
+The conversation drifted round to Gladwyn presently. I could see Lesbia
+was a little curious about these friends of mine that I had mentioned
+casually in my letters.
+
+'I can't quite make out the relationship,' she said, in a puzzled tone.
+'You are always talking about this Gladys. Is she really so beautiful and
+fascinating? And who is Miss Darrell?'
+
+'You had better ask me,' interrupted Jill, quite rudely, 'for Ursula is
+so absurdly infatuated about the whole family; she thinks them all quite
+perfect, with the exception of the double-faced lady, Miss Darrell; but
+they are very ordinary,--quite ordinary people, I assure you.'
+
+'Now, Jill, we do not want any of your impertinence. Lesbia would rather
+hear my description of my friends.'
+
+'On the contrary, she would prefer the opinion of an unprejudiced
+person,' persisted Jill, with a voluble eloquence that took away my
+breath. 'Listen to me, Lesbia. This Mr. Hamilton that Ursula is always
+talking about'--how I longed to box Jill's pretty little ears! she had
+lovely ears, pink and shell-like, hidden under her black locks--'is an
+ugly, disagreeable-looking man.'
+
+'Oh!' from Lesbia, in rather a disappointed tone.
+
+'He is quite old,--about five-and-thirty, they say,--and he has a long
+smooth-shaven face like a Jesuit. I don't recollect seeing a Jesuit,
+though; but he is very like one all the same. He has dark eyes that stare
+somehow and seem to put you down, and he has a way of laughing at you
+civilly that makes you wild; and Ursula believes in him, and is quite
+meek in his presence, just because he is a doctor and orders her about.'
+
+'My dear Lesbia, I hope you are taking Jill's measure with a grain of
+salt. Mr. Hamilton is not disagreeable, and he never orders me about.'
+
+Jill shook her head at me, and went on:
+
+'Then there is the double-faced lady--but never mind her; we both hate
+her.'
+
+'You mean Miss Darrell, Mr. Hamilton's cousin?'
+
+'Yes, Witch Etta, as Lady Betty calls her. She is a dark-eyed, slim piece
+of elegance, utterly dependent on her clothes for beauty; she dresses
+perfectly, and makes herself out a good-looking woman, but she is not
+really good-looking; and she is always talking, and her talk is exciting,
+because there is always something behind her words, something mildly
+suggestive of volcanoes, or something equally pleasant and enlivening.
+If she smiles, for instance, one seems to think one must find out the
+meaning of that.'
+
+'Who has taught you all this, Jill?' asked Lesbia, bewildered by this
+sarcasm.
+
+'My mother-wit,' returned Jill, utterly unabashed. 'Well, then there is
+Gladys. Ah, now we are coming to the saddest part. Once upon a time there
+was a beautiful maiden, really a lovely creature,--oh, I grant you that,
+Ursula,--but she fell under the power of some wicked magician, male or
+female,--some folks say Witch Etta,--who changed her into a snow-maiden
+or an ice-maiden. If she were only alive, this Gladys would be most
+lovely and bewitching; but, you see, she is only a poor snow-maiden, very
+white and cold. If she gives you her hand, it quite freezes you; her kiss
+turns you to ice too; her smile is congealing. Ursula tries to thaw her
+sometimes, but it does no good. She is only Gladys, the snow-maiden.'
+
+I was too angry with Jill to say a word. Lesbia looked more mystified
+than ever.
+
+'If she be so cold and sad, how can Ursula be so fond of her?' she
+demanded, in her practical way. But Jill took no notice, but rattled on:
+
+'Little brown Betsy--I beg her pardon--Lady Betty, is the best of all:
+she is really human. Gladys is only half alive. Lady Betty laughs and
+talks and pouts; she wrinkles up like an old woman when she is cross, and
+has lovely dimples when she smiles. She is not pretty, but she is quaint,
+and interesting, and childlike. I am very fond of Lady Betty,' finished
+Jill, with a benevolent nod.
+
+I proceeded to annotate Jill's mischievous remarks with much severity.
+I left Mr. Hamilton alone, with the exception of a brief sentence; I
+assured Lesbia that he was not ugly, but only peculiar-looking, and that
+he was an intellectual, earnest-minded man who had known much trouble.
+Jill made a wry face, but did not dare to contradict me.
+
+'As for his sister Gladys,' I went on, 'she is simply a most beautiful
+girl, whose health has failed a little from a great shock'; here Jill and
+Lesbia both looked curious, but I showed no intention of enlightening
+them. 'She is a little too sad and quiet for Jill's taste,' I continued,
+'and she is also somewhat reserved in manner, but when she likes a person
+thoroughly she is charming.'
+
+I went on a little longer in this strain, until I had thoroughly
+vindicated my favourite from Jill's aspersion.
+
+'You are very fond of her, Ursula: your eyes soften as you talk of her.
+I should like to see this wonderful Gladys.'
+
+'You must see her one day,' I rejoined; and then the gong sounded, and
+Lesbia jumped up in a fright, because she said she would keep her mother
+waiting, and Jill hurried off to her room to dress.
+
+We had what Jill called a picnic dinner in Uncle Brian's study. Every one
+enjoyed it but Clayton, who seemed rather put out by the disorganised
+state of the house, and who was always getting helplessly wedged in
+between the escritoire and the table. We would have much rather waited on
+ourselves, and we wished Mrs. Martin had forgone the usual number of
+courses. When it was over we all went into the long drawing-room, and
+Jill played soft snatches of Chopin, while Sara and Colonel Ferguson
+whispered together on the dark balcony.
+
+Mrs. Fullerton and Lesbia joined us later on, and then Colonel Ferguson
+took his leave. I thought Sara looked a little quiet and subdued when she
+joined us; her gay chatter had died away, her eyes were a little
+plaintive. When we had said good-night, and Jill and I were passing down
+the corridor hand in hand, we could hear voices from Aunt Philippa's
+room. Through the half-opened door I caught a glimpse of Sara: she was
+kneeling by her mother's chair, with her head on Aunt Philippa's
+shoulder. Was she bidding a tearful regret to her old happy life? I
+wondered; was she looking forward with natural shrinking and a little
+fear to the new responsibility that awaited her on the morrow? It was the
+mother who was talking; one could imagine how her heart would yearn over
+her child to-night,--what fond prayers would be uttered for the girl.
+Aunt Philippa was a loving mother: worldliness had not touched the
+ingrained warmth of her nature.
+
+I am glad to remember how brightly the sun shone on Sara's wedding-day.
+There was not a cloud in the sky. When I woke, the birds were singing in
+Hyde Park, and Jill in her white wrapper was looking at me with bright,
+excited eyes.
+
+'It is such a lovely morning!' she exclaimed rapturously. 'Actually Sara
+is asleep! Fancy sleeping under such circumstances! She and mother are
+going to have breakfast together in the schoolroom. Do be quick and
+dress, Ursula; father is always so early, you know.'
+
+Uncle Brian was reading his paper as usual when I entered the study. Miss
+Gillespie was pouring out coffee. Jill was fidgeting about the room,
+until her father called her to order, and then she sat down to the table.
+I do not think any of us enjoyed our breakfast. Uncle Brian certainly
+looked dull; Jill was too excited to eat; poor Miss Gillespie had tears
+in her eyes; she poured out tea and coffee with cold shaking hands.
+'Lilian Gillespie, from her devoted friend Maurice Compton,' came into my
+head: no wonder the thought of marriage-bells and bridal finery made her
+sad. I am afraid I should have shut myself up in my own room, and refused
+to mingle with the crowd, under these circumstances. I quite understood
+the feeling of sympathy that made Jill stoop down and kiss the smooth
+brown hair as she passed the governess's chair: it was a sort of
+affectionate homage to misfortune patiently borne.
+
+I went up to the schoolroom when breakfast was over. Aunt Philippa looked
+as though she had not slept: there was a jaded look about her eyes. Sara,
+on the contrary, looked fresh and smiling; she was just going to put
+herself in her maid's hands; but she tripped back in her pretty muslin
+dressing-gown and rose-coloured ribbons to kiss me and ask me to look
+after Jill's toilet.
+
+'Every one is so busy, and mother and Draper will be attending to me.
+Do, please, Ursie dear, see that she puts on her bonnet straight.' And
+of course I promised to do my best.
+
+As it happened, Jill was very tractable and obedient. I think her
+beautiful bridesmaid's dress rather impressed her. I saw a look of awe in
+her eyes as she regarded herself, and then she dropped a mocking courtesy
+to her own image.
+
+'I am Jocelyn to-day, remember that, Ursula. I don't look a bit like
+Jill. Jocelyn Adelaide Garston, bridesmaid.'
+
+'You look charming, Jill--I mean Jocelyn.'
+
+'Oh, how horrid it sounds from your lips, Ursie! I like my own funny
+little name best from you. Now come and let me finish you.' And Jill, in
+spite of her fine dress, would persist in waiting on me. She was very
+voluble in her expression of admiration when I had finished, but I did
+not seem to recognise 'Nurse Ursula' in the elegantly-dressed woman that
+I saw reflected in the pier-glass. 'Fine feathers make fine birds,' I
+said to myself.
+
+I think we all agreed that Sara looked lovely. Lesbia, who joined us in
+the drawing-room, contemplated her with tears in her eyes.
+
+'You look like a picture, Sara,' she whispered,--'like a fairy queen,--in
+all that whiteness.' Sara dimpled and blushed. Of course she knew how
+pretty she was, and how people liked to look at her; but I am sure she
+was thinking of Donald, as her eyes rested on her bridal bouquet. Dearly
+as she loved all this finery and consequence, there was a soft,
+thoughtful expression in her eyes that was quite new to them, and
+that I loved to see.
+
+We went to church presently, and Lesbia and I, standing side by side,
+heard the beautiful, awful service. 'Till death us do part.' Oh, what
+words to say to any man! Surely false lips would grow paralysed over
+them!
+
+A most curious thing happened just then. I had raised my eyes, when they
+suddenly encountered Mr. Hamilton's. A sort of shock crossed me. Why was
+he here? How had he come? How strange! how very strange! The next moment
+he had disappeared from my view: probably he had withdrawn behind a
+pillar that he might not attract my notice. I could almost have believed
+that it was an illusion and fancied resemblance, only I had never seen a
+face like Mr. Hamilton's.
+
+The momentary glimpse had distracted me, and I heard the remainder of the
+service rather absently; then the pealing notes of the wedding-march
+resounded through the church; we all stood waiting until Sara had signed
+her name, and had come out of the vestry leaning on her husband's arm.
+
+I was under Major Egerton's care. The crowd round the door was so great
+that it was with the greatest difficulty that he could pilot me to the
+carriage. Lesbia was following us with another officer, whose name I did
+not know. As we took our seats I distinctly saw Mr. Hamilton cross the
+road. He was walking quietly down Hyde Park. As we passed he turned and
+took off his hat. I thought it was a strange thing that he should be in
+the neighbourhood on Sara's wedding-day, and that he should have deigned
+to play the part of a spectator after his severe strictures on gay
+weddings. I supposed his business in Edinburgh was finished, and he had
+an idle day or two on his hands. I half expected him to call the next
+day, for I had given him my address; but he did not come, and I heard
+from Mr. Tudor afterwards that he had gone on to Folkestone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+A FIERY ORDEAL
+
+
+It is a hackneyed truism, and, like other axioms, profoundly true, that
+wedding-festivities are invariably followed by a sense of blank dulness.
+
+It is like the early morning after a ball, when the last guests have left
+the house: the lights flicker in the dawn, the empty rooms want sweeping
+and furnishing to be fit for habitation. Yawns, weariness, satiety, drive
+the jaded entertainers to their resting-places. Every one knows how
+tawdry the ball-dress looks in the clear morning light. The diamonds
+cease to flash, the flowers are withered, the game is played out.
+
+Something of this languor and vacuum is felt when the bride and
+bridegroom have driven away amid the typical shower of rice. The smiles
+seem quenched, somehow; mother and sisters shed tears; a sense of loss
+pervades the house; the bridal finery is heaped up in the empty room; one
+little glove is on the table, another has fallen to the floor. All sorts
+of girlish trinkets that have been forgotten lie unheeded in corners.
+
+I know we all thought that evening would never end, and I quite
+understood why Jill hovered near her mother's chair, listening to her
+conversation with Mrs. Fullerton. Every now and then Aunt Philippa broke
+down and shed a few quiet tears. I heard her mention Ralph's name once.
+'Poor boy! how proud he would have been of his sister!' Uncle Brian heard
+it too, for I saw him wince at the sound of his son's name; but Jill
+stroked her mother's hand, and said, quite naturally, 'Most likely Ralph
+knows all about it, mamma, and of course he is glad that Sara is so
+happy.'
+
+Our pretty light-hearted Sara. I had no idea that I should miss her
+so much! Indeed, we all missed her: it seemed to me now that I had
+undervalued her. True, she had not been a congenial companion to me in my
+dark days; but even then I had wronged her. Why should I have expected
+her to grope among the shadows with me, instead of following her into the
+sunshine? Sara could not act contrary to her nature. Sad things depressed
+her. She wanted to cause every one to be happy.
+
+Her feelings were far deeper than I had imagined them to be. I liked the
+way she spoke to Jill when she was bidding good-bye to us all.
+
+'Jocelyn dear, promise me that you will be good to mother. She has no one
+but you now to study her little ways and make her comfortable, and she is
+not as young as she was, and things tire her.' Of course Jill promised
+with tears in her eyes, and Sara went away smiling and radiant. Jill was
+already trying to redeem her promise, as she hovered like a tall slim
+shadow behind her mother's chair in the twilight.
+
+'Come and sit down, Jocelyn, my dear,' observed Aunt Philippa at last, in
+her motherly voice. When I looked again, Jill's black locks were bobbing
+on her mother's lap, and the three seemed all talking together.
+
+There was very little rest for any one during the next few days. Sara's
+marriage had brought sundry relations from their country homes up to
+town, and there was open house kept for all. Jill went sight-seeing with
+the young people. Aunt Philippa drove some of the elder ladies to the
+Academy, to the Grosvenor Gallery, to the Park, and other places.
+
+Every day there were luncheon-parties, tea-parties, dinner-parties; the
+long drawing-room seemed full every evening. Jill put on one or other of
+her pretty new gowns, and played her pieces industriously; there was no
+stealing away in corners now. There were round games for the young
+people; now and then they went to the theatre or opera: no wonder Jill
+was too tired and excited to open her lesson-books. My fortnight's visit
+extended itself to three weeks. Aunt Philippa could not spare me; she
+said I was much too useful to her and Uncle Brian. I wrote to Mrs. Barton
+and also to Lady Betty, and I begged the latter to inform her brother
+that I could not leave my relations just yet.
+
+Lady Betty wrote back at once. She had given my message, she said, but
+Giles had not seemed half pleased with it. She thought he was going away
+somewhere, she did not know where; but he had told her to say that there
+were no fresh cases, and that Robert Lambert was going on all right, and
+that as I seemed enjoying myself so much it was a pity not to take a
+longer holiday while I was about it, and he sent his kind regards; and
+that was all. I suppose I ought to have been satisfied, but it struck me
+that there was a flavour of sarcasm about Mr. Hamilton's message.
+
+But he was right; I was enjoying myself. Lesbia was still in town, and I
+saw her every day. My acquaintance with Miss Gillespie grew to intimacy,
+and I think we mutually enjoyed each other's society. Aunt Philippa
+seemed to turn to me naturally for help and comfort, and her constant
+'Ursula, my dear, will you do this for me?' gave me a real feeling of
+pleasure; and then there was Jill to pet and praise at every odd moment.
+
+One day we were all called upon to admire Sara's new signature, 'Sara
+Ferguson,' written in bold, girlish characters. 'Donald is looking over
+my shoulder as I write it, dear mamma,' Sara wrote, in a long postscript.
+'Are husbands always so impertinent? Donald pretends that it is part of
+his duty to see that I dot my _i_'s and cross my _t_'s: he will talk such
+nonsense. There, he has gone off laughing, and I may end comfortably by
+telling you that he spoils me dreadfully and is so good to me, and that
+I am happier than I deserve to be, and your very loving child, Sara.'
+
+'Poor darling! she always did make her own sunshine,' murmured Aunt
+Philippa fondly.
+
+Now, that afternoon who should call upon us but Mr. Tudor? Jill was out,
+as usual, riding with two of her cousins and Uncle Brian; they had gone
+off to Kew or Richmond for the afternoon; but Aunt Philippa, who had been
+dozing in her easy-chair by the window, welcomed the young man very
+kindly, and made him promise to stay to dinner.
+
+Mr. Tudor tried not to look too much pleased as he accepted the
+invitation. A sort of blush crossed his honest face as he turned to me:
+he had two or three messages to deliver, he said. Mr. Cunliffe had given
+him one, and Mrs. Barton, and Lady Betty. She, Lady Betty, wanted me to
+know that Miss Darrell was going to Brighton for a week or ten days, and
+that she hoped I should come home before then.
+
+I heard, too, that Mr. Hamilton had gone to Folkestone, and that he had
+tried to induce Uncle Max to go with him. 'But it is no use telling him
+he wants a change,' finished Mr. Tudor, with a sigh; 'he is bent on
+wearing himself out for other people.'
+
+Mr. Tudor and I chatted on for the remainder of the afternoon. I had
+taken him out on the balcony: there were an awning and some chairs, and
+we could sit there in comparative privacy looking down on the passers-by.
+Aunt Philippa was nodding again: we could hear her regular breathing
+behind us: poor woman! she was worn out with bustle and gaiety. I was
+thankful that a grand horticultural _fete_ kept all the aunts and cousins
+away, with the exception of the two who were riding with Jill.
+
+Clayton brought us out some tea presently, and we found plenty of topics
+for conversation.
+
+All at once I stopped in the middle of a conversation.
+
+'Mr. Tudor, have my eyes deceived me, or was that Leah?'
+
+'Who?--what Leah? I do not know whom you mean!' he returned, rather
+stupidly, staring in another direction. There was a cavalcade coming up
+the road,--a tall slim girl, on a chestnut mare, riding on in front with
+a young man, another girl and an elderly man with a gray moustache
+following them, a groom bringing up the rear.
+
+Of course it was Jill, smiling and waving towards the balcony; she could
+not see Mr. Tudor under the awning, but she had caught sight of my silk
+dress. Jill looked very well on horseback: people always turned round to
+watch her. She had a good seat, and rode gracefully; the dark habit
+suited her; she braided her unmanageable locks into an invisible net that
+kept them tidy.
+
+'Is that Miss Jocelyn?' asked Lawrence, almost in a voice of awe. The
+young curate grew very red as Jill rode under the balcony and nodded to
+him in a friendly manner.
+
+'There is Mr. Tudor,' we heard her say. 'Be quick and lift me off my
+horse, Clarence.' But she had slipped to the ground before her cousin
+could touch her, and had run indoors.
+
+Mr. Tudor went into the room at once, but I sat still for a moment.
+Why had I asked him? Of course it was Leah. I could see her strange
+light-coloured eyes glancing up in my direction. What was she doing in
+London? I wondered. She was dressed well, evidently in her mistress's
+cast-off clothes, for she wore a handsome silk dress and mantle. Had they
+quarrelled and parted? I felt instinctively that it would be a good day
+for Gladwyn if Leah ever shook off its dust from her feet. Gladys
+regarded her as a spy and informer, and she had evidently an unwholesome
+influence over her mistress.
+
+We separated soon after this to dress for dinner, and Mr. Tudor went to
+his hotel. I was rather sorry when I came downstairs to find that Jill
+had made rather a careless toilet. She wore the flimsy Indian muslin gown
+that I thought so unbecoming to her style, with a string of gold beads of
+curious Florentine work round her neck. She looked so different from the
+graceful young Amazon who had ridden up an hour ago that I felt provoked,
+and was not surprised to hear the old sharp tone in Aunt Philippa's
+voice:
+
+'My dear Jocelyn, why have you put on that old gown? Surely your new
+cream-coloured dress with coffee lace would have been more suitable. What
+was Draper thinking about?'
+
+'I was in too great a hurry; I did not wait for Draper,' returned Jill
+candidly. 'Draper was dreadfully cross about it, but I ran away from her.
+What does it matter, mamma? They have all seen my cream-coloured dress,
+except--' But here Jill laughed: the naughty child meant Mr. Tudor.
+
+'I am afraid there is not time to change it now; but I am very much vexed
+about it,' returned Aunt Philippa, in a loud whisper. 'You are really
+looking your worst to-night.' But Jill only laughed again, and asked her
+cousin Clarence when he took her down to dinner if it were not a very
+pretty gown.
+
+'I don't know much about gowns,' drawled the young man,--Mr. Tudor and
+I were following them: 'it looks rather flimsy and washed out. If I were
+you I would wear something more substantial. You see, you are so big,
+Jocelyn; your habit suits you better.'
+
+We heard Jill laughing in a shrill fashion at this dubious compliment,
+and presently she and Mr. Tudor, who sat next to her, were talking as
+happily as possible. I do not believe he noticed her unbecoming gown: his
+face had lighted up, and he was full of animation. Poor Lawrence! he was
+five-and-twenty, and yet the presence of this girl of sixteen was more to
+him than all the young-ladyhood of Heathfield. Even charming little Lady
+Betty was beaten out of the field by Jill's dark eyes and sprightly
+tongue.
+
+It was a very pleasant evening, and we were all enjoying ourselves: no
+one imagined anything could or would happen; life is just like that: we
+should just take up our candlesticks, we thought, and march off to bed
+when Aunt Philippa gave the signal. No one could have imagined that there
+would be a moment's deadly peril for one of the party,--an additional
+thanksgiving for a life preserved that night.
+
+And then no one seemed to know how it happened; people never do see,
+somehow.
+
+There was music going on. Agatha Chudleigh--the Chudleighs were Aunt
+Philippa's belongings--was playing the piano, and her brother Clarence
+was accompanying her on the violoncello. There was a little group round
+the piano. Jill was beating time, standing with her back to a small
+inlaid table with a lamp on it. Mr. Tudor was beside her. Jill made a
+backward movement in her forgetfulness and enthusiasm. The next moment
+the music stopped with a crash. There was a cry of horror, the lamp
+seemed falling, glass smashed, liquid fire was pouring down Jill's
+unfortunate dress. If Mr. Tudor had not caught it, they said afterwards,
+with all that lace drapery, the room must have been in flames; but he had
+jerked it back in its place, and, snatching up a bear-skin rug that lay
+under the piano, had wrapped it round Jill. He was so strong and prompt,
+there was not a moment lost.
+
+We had all crowded round in a moment, but no one dared to interfere with
+Mr. Tudor. We could hear Aunt Philippa sobbing with terror. Clarence
+Chudleigh extinguished the lamp, some one else flung an Indian blanket
+and a striped rug at Jill's feet. For one instant I could see the girl's
+face, white and rigid as a statue, as the young man's powerful arms
+enveloped her. Then the danger was over, and Jill was standing among us
+unhurt, with her muslin gown hanging in blackened shreds, and with
+bruises on her round white arms from the rough grip that had saved her
+life.
+
+One instant's delay, and the fiery fluid must have covered her from head
+to foot; if Lawrence had not caught the falling lamp, if he had lost one
+moment in smothering the lighted gown, she must have perished in agony
+before our eyes; but he was strong as a young Hercules, and, half
+suffocated and bruised as she was, Jill knew from what he had saved her.
+
+As the scorched bear-skin dropped to the floor, Lawrence picked up the
+Indian blanket and flung it over Jill's tattered gown. 'Go up to your
+room, Miss Jocelyn,' he whispered: 'you are all right now.' And she
+obeyed without a word. Miss Gillespie and I followed. I think Aunt
+Philippa was faint or had palpitations, for I heard Uncle Brian calling
+loudly to some one to open the windows. Jill was hysterical as soon as
+she reached her room. She was quite unnerved, and clung to me, shaking
+with sobs, while Miss Gillespie mixed some sal-volatile. I could not help
+crying a little with her from joy and thankfulness; but we got her quiet
+after a time, and took off the poor gown, and Jill showed us her bruises,
+and cheered up when we told her how brave and quiet she had been; and
+then she sat for some minutes with her face hidden in my lap, while I
+stroked her hair silently and thanked God in my heart for sparing our
+Jill.
+
+Miss Gillespie had gone downstairs to carry a good report to Aunt
+Philippa. Directly she had gone, Jill jumped up, still shaking a little,
+and went to her wardrobe.
+
+'I must go downstairs,' she said, a little feverishly. 'I have never
+thanked Mr. Tudor for saving my life. Help me to be quick, Ursie dear,
+for I feel so queer and tottery.' And nothing I could say would prevail
+on her to remain quietly in her room. While I was arguing with her, she
+had dragged out her ruby velveteen and was trying to fasten it with her
+trembling fingers.
+
+'Oh, you are obstinate, Jill: you ought to be good on this night of all
+nights.' But she made no answer to this, and, seeing her bent on her own
+way, I brought her a brooch, and would have smoothed her hair, but she
+pushed me away.
+
+'It does not matter how I look. I am only going down for a few minutes.
+He is going away, and I want to say good-night to him, and thank him.'
+And Jill walked downstairs rather unsteadily.
+
+Mr. Tudor was just crossing the hall. When he saw Jill, he hurried up to
+her at once.
+
+'Miss Jocelyn, this is very imprudent. You ought to have gone to bed: you
+are not fit to be up after such a shock,' looking at her pale face and
+swollen eyes with evident emotion.
+
+Jill looked at him gently and seriously, and held out her hands to him
+quite simply.
+
+'I could not go to bed without thanking you, I am not quite so selfish
+and thoughtless. You have saved my life: do you think I shall ever forget
+that?'
+
+Poor Lawrence! the excitement, the terror, and the relief were too much
+for him; and there was Jill holding his hands and looking up in his face,
+with her great eyes full of tears. It was not very wonderful that for a
+moment he forgot himself.
+
+'I could not help doing it,' he returned. 'What would have become of me
+if you had died? I could not have borne it.'
+
+Jill drew her hands away, and her face looked a little paler in the
+moonlight. The young man's excited voice, his strange words, must have
+told her the truth. No, she was not too young to understand; her head
+drooped, and she turned away as she answered him,--
+
+'I shall always be grateful. Good-night, Mr. Tudor: I must go to my
+mother. Come, Ursula.'
+
+She did not look back as we walked across the hall, though poor Lawrence
+stood quite still watching us. Why had the foolish boy said that? Why had
+he forgotten his position and her youth? Why had he hinted that her life
+was necessary to his happiness? Would Jill ever forget those words, or
+the look that accompanied them? I felt almost angry with Lawrence as
+I followed Jill into the room.
+
+Jill need never have doubted her mother's love. Aunt Philippa had been
+too faint and ill to follow her daughter to her room, but her face was
+quite beautiful with maternal tenderness as she folded the girl in her
+arms. Not even her father, who especially petted Jill, showed more
+affection for her that night.
+
+'Oh, Jocelyn, my darling, are you quite sure that you are unhurt? Miss
+Gillespie says you were only frightened and a little bruised; but I
+wanted to see for myself. Mr. Tudor will not let us thank him, but we
+shall be grateful to him all our lives, my pet. What would your poor
+father and I have done without you?'
+
+Jill hid her face like a baby on her mother's bosom: she was crying
+quietly. Her interview with Mr. Tudor had certainly upset her. Uncle
+Brian put his hand in her rough locks. 'Never mind, my little girl: it is
+now over; you must go to bed and forget it,'--which was certainly very
+good advice. I coaxed Aunt Philippa to let her go, and promised to remain
+with her until she was asleep. She was very quiet, and hardly said a word
+as I helped her to undress, but as I sat down by the bedside she drew my
+head down beside hers on the pillow.
+
+'Don't think I am not grateful because I do not talk about it, Ursie
+dear,' she whispered. 'I hope to be better all my life for what has
+happened to-night.' But as Jill lay, with wide, solemn eyes, in the
+moonlight, I wondered what thoughts were coursing through her mind. Was
+she looking upon her life preserved as a life dedicated, regarding
+herself as set apart for higher work and nobler uses? or was her
+gratitude to her young preserver mixed with deeper and more mysterious
+feelings? I could not tell, but from that night I noticed a regular
+change in Jill: she became less girlish and fanciful, a new sort of
+womanliness developed itself, her high spirits were tempered with
+softness. Uncle Brian was right when he said a few days afterwards
+'that his little girl was growing a woman.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+JACK POYNTER
+
+
+My conscience felt decidedly uneasy that night: in spite of all argument
+to the contrary, I could not shake off the conviction that it was my duty
+to speak to Aunt Philippa. I ought to warn her of the growing intimacy
+between the young people. She and Uncle Brian ought to know that Mr.
+Tudor was not quite so harmless as he looked.
+
+It made me very unhappy to act the traitor to this honest, simple young
+fellow. I would rather have taken his hand and bidden him God-speed with
+his wooing. If I had been Uncle Brian I would have welcomed him heartily
+as a suitor for Jill. True, she was absurdly young,--only sixteen,--but I
+would have said to him, 'If you are in earnest, if you really love this
+girl, and are willing to wait for her, go about your business for three
+years, and then come and try your chance with her. If she likes you she
+shall have you. I am quite aware you are poor,--that you are a curate on
+a hundred and fifty a year; but you are well connected and a gentleman,
+and as guileless as a young Nathaniel. I could not desire a better
+husband for my daughter.'
+
+But it was not likely that Uncle Brian would be so quixotic. And I
+knew that Aunt Philippa was rather ambitious for her children, and it
+had been a great disappointment to her that Sara had refused a young
+baronet. So it was with the guilty feelings of a culprit that I entered
+the morning-room the next morning and asked Aunt Philippa if I might
+have a few minutes' conversation with her.
+
+To my relief, she treated the whole matter very coolly, and with a
+mixture of shrewdness and common sense that quite surprised me.
+
+She assured me that it was not of the least consequence. Young creatures
+like Jocelyn must pass through this sort of experiences. She was
+certainly rather young for such an experiment, but it would do her no
+harm. On the contrary, a little stimulus of gratified vanity might be
+extremely beneficial in its after-effects. She was somewhat backward and
+childish for her age. She would have more self-respect at finding herself
+the object of masculine admiration.
+
+'Depend upon it, it will do her a great deal of good,' went on Aunt
+Philippa placidly. 'She will try now in earnest to break herself off her
+little _gaucheries_. As for Mr. Tudor, do not distress yourself about
+him. He is young enough to have half-a-dozen butterfly fancies before he
+settles down seriously.'
+
+'I remember,' she continued, 'that during Sara's first season we had
+rather a trouble about a young barrister. He was a handsome fellow, but
+terribly poor, and your uncle told me privately that he must not be
+encouraged. Well, Sara got it into her head that she was in love with
+him, and, in spite of all I could say to her by way of warning, she
+would promise him dances, and, in fact, they did a good bit of flirting
+together. So I told your uncle that we had better leave town earlier that
+year. We went into Yorkshire, paying visits, and then to Scotland. Sara
+had never been there before, and we took care that she should have a
+thoroughly enjoyable trip. My dear, before three months were over
+she had forgotten Henry Brabazon's existence. It was just a girlish
+sentimentality; nothing more. When we got back to town we made Mr.
+Brabazon understand that his attentions were displeasing to your uncle,
+and before the next season he was engaged to a rich young widow. I do
+not believe Sara ever missed him.'
+
+I listened to all this in silence. I was much relieved to find that Aunt
+Philippa was not disposed to blame me for Lawrence Tudor's infatuation.
+She told me that she was not the least afraid of his influence, and
+should not discourage his visits. Jocelyn would never see him alone, and
+it was not likely that she would be staying at Heathfield again. I
+thought it useless to say any more. I had satisfied my conscience, and
+might now safely wash my hands of all responsibility. If the thought
+crossed my mind that Jill was very different from Sara,--that her will
+was stronger and her affections more tenacious,--there was no need to
+give it utterance. Sixteen was hardly the age for a serious love-affair,
+and I might well be content to leave Jill in her mother's care.
+
+Now and then a doubt of Aunt Philippa's wisdom came to me,--on the last
+evening, for instance, when I was speaking to Jill about Heathfield, and
+when I rather incautiously mentioned Lawrence Tudor's name.
+
+I recollected then that Jill had never once spoken of him since the night
+of the accident. It had dropped completely out of our conversation. I
+forget what I said then, but it was something about my seeing him at
+Heathfield.
+
+We were standing together on the balcony, and as I spoke Jill stooped
+suddenly to look at a little flower-girl who was offering her wares on
+the pavement below. For a moment she did not answer. But I could see her
+cheek and even her little ear was flushed.
+
+'Oh yes, you will see him,' she returned presently. 'What a little mite
+of a child! Look, Ursula. Please remember us to him, and--and we hope he
+is quite well.' And Jill walked away from me rather abruptly, saying she
+must ask her mother for some pence. It was then that a doubt of Aunt
+Philippa's policy crossed my mind; Jill was so different from other
+girls; and Lawrence Tudor had saved her life.
+
+I had other things to occupy my mind just then,--a fresh anxiety that I
+could share with no one, and which effectually spoiled the last few days
+of my London visit.
+
+The sight of Leah had somewhat disturbed me. It had brought back memories
+of the perplexities and mysteries of Gladwyn. Strange to say, I saw her
+again the very next day.
+
+Mr. Tudor was calling at the door to inquire after Jill: he had his bag
+in his hand, and was on his way to the station. I was just going out to
+call on Lesbia, and we walked a few yards together. Just as I was bidding
+him good-bye, two women passed us: as I looked at them casually, I saw
+Leah's flickering light-coloured eyes; she was looking in my direction,
+but, though I nodded to her, she did not appear to recognise me. The
+other woman was a stranger.
+
+I was sitting alone on the balcony that afternoon. Aunt Philippa and Jill
+and Miss Gillespie were driving. I took advantage of their absence and
+the unusual quiet of the house to finish a book in which I was much
+interested.
+
+I was very fond of this balcony seat: the awning protected me from the
+hot June sun, and the flower-boxes at my feet were sweet with mignonette.
+I could see without being seen, and the cool glimpses of the green Park
+were pleasant on this hot afternoon.
+
+The adjoining house was unoccupied: it was therefore with feelings of
+discomfort that I heard the sound of workmen moving about the premises,
+and by and by the smell of fresh paint made me put down my book with
+suppressed annoyance.
+
+A house-painter was standing very near me, painting the outside sashes of
+the window: he had his back turned to me, and was whistling to himself in
+the careless way peculiar to his class. It was a clear, sweet whistling,
+and I listened to it with pleasure.
+
+A sudden noise in the street caused him to look round, and then he saw
+me, and stopped whistling.
+
+Where had I seen that face? It seemed familiar to me. Of whom did that
+young house-painter remind me? Could I have seen him at St. Thomas's
+Hospital? Was it some patient whose name I had forgotten during my year's
+nursing? I had had more than one house-painter on my list.
+
+I was tormented by the idea that I ought to recognise the face before
+me, and yet recognition eluded me. I felt baffled and perplexed by some
+subtile fancied resemblance. As for the young painter himself, he looked
+at me quietly for a moment, as though I were a stranger, touched his cap,
+and went on painting. When he had finished his job, he went inside, and
+I heard him whistling again as he moved about the empty room.
+
+It was a beautiful face: the features were very clearly cut and defined,
+like--Good heavens! I had it now: it reminded me of Gladys Hamilton's.
+The next moment I was holding the balcony railing as though I were giddy;
+it was like Gladys, but it was still more like the closed picture in
+Gladys's room. I pressed my hands on my eyelids as with a strong effort
+I recalled her brother Eric's face, and the next moment the young painter
+had come to the window again, and I was looking at him between my
+fingers.
+
+The resemblance could not be my fancy; those were Eric's eyes looking at
+me. It was the same face, only older and less boyish-looking. The fair
+moustache was fully grown; the face was altogether more manly and full of
+character. It must be he; I must go and speak to him; but as I rose, my
+limbs trembling with excitement, he moved away, and his whistle seemed to
+die in the distance.
+
+It was nearly six o'clock, and there was no time to be lost. I ran
+upstairs and put on my bonnet and mantle. I thought that Clayton looked
+at me in some surprise,--I was leaving the house without gloves; but I
+did not wait for any explanation: the men would be leaving off work. The
+door was open, and I quickly found my way to the drawing-room, but, to my
+chagrin, it was empty, and an elderly man with gray hair came out of a
+back room with a basket of carpenter's tools and looked at me
+inquiringly.
+
+'There is a workman here that I want to find,' I said breathlessly,--'the
+one that was painting the window-frames just now,--a tall, fair young
+man.'
+
+'Oh, you'll be meaning Jack Poynter,' he returned civilly; 'he and his
+mate have just gone.'
+
+'It cannot be the one I mean,' I answered, somewhat perplexed at this.
+'He was very young, not more than three-or four-and-twenty, good-looking,
+with a fair moustache, and he was whistling while he worked.'
+
+'Ay, that's Jack Poynter,' returned the man, taking off his paper cap and
+rubbing up his bristly gray hair. 'We call Jack "The Blackbird" among us;
+he is a famous whistler, is Jack.'
+
+'Oh, but that is not his name,' I persisted, in a distressed voice. 'Why
+do you call him Jack Poynter?'
+
+'That is what he calls himself,' returned the man drily. Evidently he
+thought my remarks a little odd. 'Folks mostly calls themselves by their
+own names; among his mates he is known as "The Whistler," or "The
+Blackbird," or "Gentleman Jack."'
+
+'Well, never mind about his name,' I replied impatiently. 'I want to
+speak to him. Where does he live? Will you kindly give me his address?'
+
+'You would be welcome to it if I knew it, but "Gentleman Jack" keeps
+himself dark. None of us know where he lives. I believe it used to be
+down Holloway; but he has moved lately.'
+
+'I wish you would tell me what you know about him,' I pleaded. 'It is
+not idle curiosity, believe me, but I think I shall be able to do him
+a service.'
+
+'I suppose you know something of his belongings,' returned the man with a
+shrewd glance. 'Now that is what me and my mates say. We would none of us
+be surprised if "Gentleman Jack" has respectable folk belonging to him.
+He has not quite our ways. He is a cut above us, and clips his words like
+the gentlefolk do. But he is an industrious young fellow, and does not
+give himself airs.'
+
+'Could you not find out for me where he lives?'
+
+'Well, for the matter of that, you might ask him yourself, miss; he will
+be here again to-morrow morning, and I am off to Watford on a job. Jack
+is not at work regularly in these parts. He is doing a turn for a mate of
+his who is down with a touch of colic. He is working at Bayswater mostly,
+and he will be here to-morrow morning.'
+
+'You are sure of that?'
+
+'Oh yes. Tom Handley won't be fit for work for a spell yet. He will be
+here sharp enough, and then you can question him yourself.' And, bidding
+me a civil good-evening, the man took up his tools and went heavily
+downstairs, evidently expecting me to follow him. I went back and stole
+up quietly to my room. Aunt Philippa and Jill had returned from their
+drive. I could hear their voices as I passed the drawing-room; but I
+wanted to be alone to think over this strange occurrence.
+
+My pulses were beating high with excitement. Not for one moment did I
+doubt that I had really seen Eric in the flesh. Gladys's intuition was
+right: her brother was not dead. I felt that this assurance alone would
+make her happy.
+
+If she were only at Heathfield, or even at Bournemouth, I would telegraph
+for her to come; I could word the message so that she would have hastened
+to me at once; but Paris was too far; too much time would be lost.
+
+Uncle Max, too, had been called to Norwich to attend a cousin's
+death-bed: I had had a note from him that very morning, so I could not
+have the benefit of his advice and assistance. I knew that I dared not
+summon Mr. Hamilton: the brothers had parted in ill blood, with bitter
+words and looks. Eric looked on his step-brother as his worst enemy. All
+these years he had been hiding himself from him. I dared not run the risk
+of bringing them together. I could not make a _confidante_ of Aunt
+Philippa or Uncle Brian. They had old-fashioned views, and would have at
+once stigmatised Eric as a worthless fellow. Circumstantial evidence was
+so strong against him that few would have believed in his innocence. Even
+Uncle Max condemned him, and in my own heart there lurked a secret doubt
+whether Gladys had not deceived herself.
+
+No, my only course would be to speak to him myself, to implore him for
+Gladys's sake to listen to me. My best plan would be to rise as early as
+possible the next morning, and to be on the balcony by six o'clock. I
+should see the men come in to their work, and should have no difficulty
+in making my way to them. The household was not an early one, especially
+in the season. I should have the house to myself for an hour or so.
+
+Of course my future movements were uncertain. I must speak to Eric first,
+and induce him to reopen communications with his family. I would tell him
+how his brother grieved over his supposed death, how changed he was; and
+he should hear, too, of Gladys's failing health and spirits. I should not
+be wanting in eloquence on that subject. If he loved Gladys he would not
+refuse to listen to me.
+
+After a time I tried to set aside these thoughts, and to occupy myself
+with dressing for the evening. We had a dinner-party that night. Mrs.
+Fullerton and Lesbia were to be of the party. They were going down to
+Rutherford the next day, so I should have to bid them good-bye.
+
+The evening was very tedious and wearisome to me: my head ached, and the
+glitter of lights and the sound of many voices seemed to bewilder me.
+Lesbia came up after dinner to ask if I were not well, I was so pale and
+quiet. We sat out on the balcony together in the starlight for a little
+while, until Mrs. Fullerton called Lesbia in. I would gladly have
+remained there alone, drinking in the freshness of the night dews, but
+Jill came out and began chattering to me, until I went back with her into
+the room.
+
+There was very little sleep for me that night. When at last I fell into
+a dose, I was tormented by a succession of miserable dreams. I was
+following a supposed Eric down long country roads in the darkness.
+Something seemed always to retard me: my feet were weighted with lead,
+invisible hands were pulling me back. I heard him whistling in the
+distance, then I stumbled, and a black bog engulfed me, and I woke with
+a stifled cry.
+
+I woke to the knowledge that the sun was streaming in at my windows,
+and that some sound like a falling plank had roused me from my uneasy
+slumbers. It must be past six o'clock, I thought; surely the men must be
+at work. Yes, I could hear their voices; and the next moment I had jumped
+out of bed, and was dressing myself with all possible haste.
+
+It was nearly seven when I crept down into the drawing-room to
+reconnoitre the adjoining house. As I unfastened the window I heard the
+same sweet whistling that had arrested my attention yesterday.
+
+Without a moment's hesitation I walked out on the balcony. The young
+painter looked round in some surprise at the sound of my footsteps, and
+touched his cap with a half-smile.
+
+'It is a beautiful morning,' I began nervously, for I wanted to make him
+speak. 'Have you been at work long?'
+
+'Ever since six o'clock,' he returned, and I think he was a little
+surprised at hearing himself addressed. 'We work early these light
+mornings.' And then he took up his brush and went on painting.
+
+I watched him for a minute or two without a word. How was I to proceed?
+My presence seemed to puzzle him. Perhaps he wondered why a lady should
+take such interest in his work. I saw him glance at me uneasily.
+
+'Will you let me speak to you?' I said, in a very low voice, and as he
+came towards me, rather unwillingly, I continued: 'I know the men call
+you Jack Poynter, but that is not your name. You are Eric Hamilton; no,
+do not be frightened: I am Gladys's friend, and I will not injure you.'
+
+I had broken off abruptly, for I was alarmed at the effect of my words.
+The young painter's face had become ashen pale, and the brush had fallen
+out of his shaking hand. The next moment a fierce, angry light had come
+to his eyes.
+
+'What do you mean? who are you?' he demanded, in a trembling voice, but
+even at the moment's agitation I noticed he spoke with the refined
+intonation of a gentleman. 'I know nothing of what you say: you must
+take me for another man. I am Jack Poynter.'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Hamilton,' I implored, stretching out my hands across the
+balcony, 'do not treat me as an enemy. I am a friend, who only means
+well. For Gladys's sake listen to me a moment.'
+
+'I will hear nothing!' he stammered angrily. 'I will not be hindered in
+my work any longer. Excuse me if I am rude to a lady, but you take me for
+another man.' And before I could say another word he had stepped through
+the open window.
+
+I could have wrung my hands in despair. He had denied his own identity at
+the very moment when his paleness and terror had proved it to me without
+doubt. 'You take me for another man,' he had said; and yet I could have
+sworn in a court of justice that he was Eric Hamilton; not only his face,
+but his voice; his manner, told me he was Gladys's brother.
+
+But he should not elude me like this, and I hurried downstairs,
+determined to find my way into the empty house and confront him again.
+The fastenings of the hall door gave me a little difficulty. I was afraid
+Clayton would hear me, but I found myself outside at last, and in another
+minute I was in the deserted drawing-room.
+
+Alas! Eric was not there: only his paint-pot and brush lay on the balcony
+outside. Surely he could not have escaped me in these few minutes; he
+must be in one of the other rooms. At the top of the stairs I encountered
+a young workman, and began questioning him at once.
+
+'Well, this is a queer start,' he observed, in some perplexity. 'I saw
+Jack only this moment: he wanted his jacket, for he said he had a summons
+somewhere. I noticed he was palish, and seemed all of a shake, but he did
+not answer when I called out to him.'
+
+'Do you mean he has gone?' I asked, feeling ready to cry with
+disappointment.
+
+'Yes, he has gone right enough; but he'll be back presently, by the time
+the governor comes round. I wonder what's up with Jack; he looked mighty
+queer, as though the peelers were after him; in an awful funk, I should
+say.'
+
+'Will you do me a favour, my man?' and as I spoke a shining half-crown
+changed hands rather quietly. 'I want to speak to your friend Jack
+Poynter very particularly, but I am quite sure that he wishes to avoid
+me. If he comes back, will you write a word on a slip of paper and throw
+it on to the balcony of 64?--Just the words "At work now" will do, or any
+direction that will find him. I am very much in earnest over this.'
+
+The man looked at me and then at the half-crown. He had a good-humoured,
+stupid-looking face, but was young enough to like an unusual job.
+
+'It will be worth more than that to you to bring me face to face with
+Jack Poynter, or to give me any news of him,' I continued. 'You do not
+know where he lives, for example?'
+
+'No: we are none of us his mates, except Fowler and Dunn, and they don't
+know where he lodges: "Gentleman Jack" keeps himself close. But he'll be
+here sure enough by and by, and then I will let you know,' and with this
+I was obliged to be content. I was terribly vexed with myself. I felt I
+had managed badly. I ought to have confronted him in the empty house,
+where he could not have escaped me so easily. Would he come back again?
+As I recalled his terrified expression, his agitated words, I doubted
+whether he would put himself within my reach. I was so worried and
+miserable that I was obliged to own myself ill and to beg that I might be
+left in quiet. I had to endure a good deal of petting from Jill, who
+would keep coming into my room to see how my poor head was. Happily,
+one of my windows commanded an uncovered corner of the balcony. I could
+see without going down if any scrap of paper lay there. It was not until
+evening that I caught sight of an envelope lying on one of the seats.
+
+I rang my bell and begged Draper to bring it to me at once. She thought
+it had fluttered out of my window, and went down smilingly to fulfil my
+behest.
+
+It was a blank envelope, closely fastened, and I waited until Draper was
+out of the room to open it: the slip of paper was inside.
+
+'Jack has not been here all day,' was scrawled on it, 'and the governor
+is precious angry. I doubt Jack has got into some trouble or other.--Your
+obedient servant, Joe Muggins.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+I COMMUNICATE WITH JOE MUGGINS
+
+
+Of course I knew it would be so; Eric had escaped me; but I could not
+help feeling very down-hearted over the disappointment of all my hopes.
+
+I longed so much to comfort Gladys, to bring back peace and unity to that
+troubled household. I had nourished the secret hope, too, that I might
+benefit Mr. Hamilton without his knowledge, and so return some of his
+many kindnesses to me. I knew--none better--how sincerely he had mourned
+over the supposed fate of his young brother, how truly he lamented his
+past harshness. If I could have brought back their young wanderer, if I
+could have said to them, 'If he has done wrong he is sorry for his fault;
+take him back to your hearts,' would not Mr. Hamilton have been the first
+to hold out his hand to the prodigal? Here there was no father; it must
+be the elder brother who would order the fatted calf to be killed.
+
+I had forgotten Miss Darrell. The sudden thought of her was like a dash
+of cold water to me. Would she have welcomed Eric? There again was the
+miserable complication!
+
+All the next day I watched and fretted. The following evening Clayton
+told me, with rather a supercilious air, that a workman calling himself
+Joe Muggins wanted to speak to me. 'He did not know your name, ma'am, but
+he described the lady he wanted, so I knew it was you. He said you had
+asked him a question about a man named Jack Poynter.'
+
+'Oh, it is all right, thank you, Clayton,' I returned quickly, and I went
+out into the hall.
+
+Joe Muggins looked decidedly nervous. He was in his working dress,
+having, as he said, 'come straight to me, without waiting to clean
+himself.'
+
+'I made so bold, miss,' went on Joe, 'because you seemed anxious about
+Jack, and I would not lose time. Well, Jack has been and given the
+governor the sack,--says he has colic too; but we know that is a sham. My
+mate saw him in Lisson Grove last night. He was walking along, his hands
+in his pockets, when Ned pounces on him. "What are you up to, Jack?" he
+says. "Why haven't you turned up at our place? The governor's in a
+precious wax, I can tell you. They want him to put on more men, as
+there's a press for time."--"Well, I am not coming there any more," says
+Jack, looking as black as possible. "The work doesn't suit my complaint,
+and I have written to tell Page so." And he stuck to that, and Ned could
+not get another word out of him: but he says he is shamming, and is not
+ill a bit. It is my belief, and Ned's too, that he has got into some
+trouble with the governor.'
+
+'No, I am sure you are wrong,' I returned, with a sigh; 'but I am very
+much obliged to you for the trouble you have taken. If you hear anything
+more about Jack Poynter, or can find out where he lives, will you
+communicate with me at this address?' And I handed Joe my card and a
+half-sovereign.
+
+'Yes, I'll do it, sure and certain,' he replied, with alacrity. 'Some of
+us will come across him again, one of these days, and we will follow him
+for a bit. You may trust me for that, miss. We will find him, sure
+enough.' And then I thanked him, and bade him good-night.
+
+There was only one thing now that I could do before taking counsel with
+Gladys, and that was to advertise in some of the London papers. I wrote
+out some of these advertisements that evening:
+
+'Jack Poynter is earnestly requested to communicate with Ursula G. He may
+possibly hear of something to his advantage.' And I gave the address of
+an old lawyer who managed my business, writing a note to Mr. Berkeley at
+the same time, begging him to forward any answer to Ursula G.
+
+Another advertisement was of a different character:
+
+'For Gladys's sake, please write to me, or give me a chance of speaking
+to you. An unknown but most sincere friend, U. G.'
+
+The third advertisement was still more pressing:
+
+'Jack Poynter's friends believe him dead, and are in great trouble: he
+is entreated to undeceive them. One word to the old address will be a
+comfort to his poor sister.'
+
+As soon as I had despatched these advertisements to the paper offices, I
+sat down and wrote to Gladys. It was not my intention to tell her about
+Eric, but I must say some word to her that would induce her to come home.
+I told her that I was going back to Heathfield the following afternoon,
+and that I was beginning to feel impatient for her return.
+
+'I cannot do without you any longer, my dear Gladys,' I wrote. 'There is
+so much that I want to talk to you about, and that I cannot write. I have
+heard something that has greatly excited me, and that makes me think that
+your view of the case is right, and that your brother Eric is alive. Of
+course we must not be too sanguine, but I begin to have hopes that you
+may see him again.'
+
+More than this I did not venture to say, but I knew that these few words
+would make Gladys set her face homeward: she would not rest until she
+asked me my meaning. As I gave Clayton the letter I felt convinced that
+before a week was over Gladys would find her way to Heathfield.
+
+I had to give all my attention to Jill after this; but, though she hung
+about me in her old affectionate way, I felt that I should leave her far
+happier than she had ever been before, and she did not deny this, only
+begged me to come and see them sometimes.
+
+'You know I can't do without you, you darling bear,' she finished, with
+one of her old hugs.
+
+I was still more touched by Aunt Philippa's regret at parting with me;
+she said so many kind things; and, to my surprise, Uncle Brian relaxed
+from his usual coldness, and quite warmed into demonstration.
+
+'Come to us as often as you can, Ursula,' he said. 'Your aunt and I
+will be only too pleased to see you.' And then he asked me, a little
+anxiously, if I found my small income sufficient for my needs.
+
+I assured him that my wants were so few, and Mrs. Barton was so
+economical, that but for my poorer neighbours I could hardly use it all.
+
+'Well, well,' he returned, putting a handsome cheque in my hands, 'you
+can always draw on me when you feel disposed. I suppose you like pretty
+things as much as other girls.' And he would not let me even thank him
+for his generosity.
+
+Aunt Philippa only smiled when I showed her the cheque.
+
+'My dear, your uncle likes to do it, and you must not be too proud to
+accept his gifts: you may need it some day. We have only two daughters:
+as it is, Jocelyn will be far too rich. I do not like the idea that
+Harley's child should want anything.' And she kissed me with tears in her
+eyes.
+
+Dear Aunt Philippa! she had grown quite motherly during those three
+weeks.
+
+It was a lovely June afternoon: when I started from Victoria there was a
+scent of hay in the air. Jill had brought with her to the station a great
+basketful of roses and narcissus and heliotrope, and had put it on the
+seat beside me that its fragrance might refresh me.
+
+I felt a strange sort of excitement and pleasure at the thought of
+returning home. Mrs. Barton would be glad to get me back, I knew. Uncle
+Max would not be at the station to meet me, for he had written to say
+that he was still detained at Norwich. His cousin was dead, and had left
+him her little property,--some six or seven hundred a year. There were
+some valuable books and antiquities, and some old silver besides. He was
+the only near relation, and business connected with the property would
+oblige him to remain for another week or ten days. I was rather sorry to
+hear this, for Heathfield was not the same without Uncle Max.
+
+But not even Uncle Max's absence could damp me, I felt so light-hearted.
+'I hope I am not fey,' I said to myself, with a little thrill of
+excitement and expectation as the familiar station came in view. Never
+since Charlie's death had I felt so cheerful and full of life.
+
+Nathaniel was on the platform to look after my luggage, so I walked up
+the hill quietly, with my basket of flowers. As I passed the vicarage,
+Mr. Tudor came out and walked with me to the gate of the White Cottage.
+I had a dim suspicion that he had been watching for me.
+
+Of course he asked after the family at Hyde Park Gate, and was most
+particular in his inquiries after Aunt Philippa. Just at the last he
+mentioned Jill.
+
+'I hope your cousin Jocelyn is well,--I mean none the worse for her
+accident,' he said, turning very red.
+
+'Oh no,' I returned carelessly; 'nothing hurts Jill. She was riding in
+the Park the next morning as though nothing had happened.'
+
+'I remember you told me so, when I called to inquire,' was his answer.
+'It was a nasty accident, and might have upset her nerves; but she is
+very strong and courageous.'
+
+'She has great reason to be grateful to you,' I returned, for I felt very
+sorry for him. He was hoping that she had sent him some message; she
+would surely desire to be remembered to him. When I repeated Jill's
+abrupt little speech his face cleared, and he looked quite bright.
+
+'There is Mrs. Barton looking out for you: I must not keep you at the
+gate talking,' he said cheerfully. 'Besides, I see Leah Bates coming down
+from Gladwyn, and I want to speak to her.' And he ran off in his boyish
+fashion.
+
+I was glad to escape Leah, so I went quickly up the garden-path. The
+little widow was waiting for me in the porch, her face beaming with
+welcome. Tinker rushed out of the kitchen as soon as he heard my voice,
+and gambolled round us with awkward demonstrations of joy that nearly
+upset us, and Joe the black cat came and rubbed himself against my gown,
+with tail erect and loud purring.
+
+The little parlour looked snug and inviting. The fireplace was decorated
+with fir cones and tiny boughs covered with silvery lichen. A great pot
+of mignonette perfumed the room with its sweetness. Charlie's face seemed
+to greet me with grave sweet smiles. I seemed to hear his voice, 'Welcome
+home, Ursula.'
+
+'Oh, I am so glad to be home!' I said, as I went upstairs to my pretty
+bedroom.
+
+When I had finished my unpacking, and had had tea, I sat down in my
+easy-chair, with a book that Miss Gillespie had lent me. Tinker laid his
+head in my lap, and we both disposed ourselves for an idle, luxurious
+evening. The bees were still humming about the honeysuckles; one great
+brown fellow had buried himself in one of my crimson roses; the birds
+were twittering in the acacia-tree, chirping their good-night to each
+other; the sun was setting behind the limes in a glory of pink and golden
+clouds, and a mingled scent of roses, mignonette, and hay seemed to
+pervade the atmosphere.
+
+I laid down my book and fell into a waking dream; my thoughts seemed to
+take bird-flights into all sorts of strange places; the summer sounds and
+scents seemed to lull me into infinite content. Now I heard a drowsy
+cluck-cluck from the poultry-yard,--Dame Partlet remonstrating with her
+lord; then a faint moo from the field where pretty brown-eyed Daisy was
+chewing the cud; down below they were singing in the little dissenting
+chapel; sweet shrill voices reached me every now and then. I could hear
+Nathaniel chanting in a deep bass, as he worked in the back-yard, 'All
+people that on earth do dwell,'--the dear homely Old Hundredth. It was no
+wonder that a light, very light, footstep on the gravel outside did not
+rouse me. The door behind me opened, and Tinker turned his head lazily,
+and his tail began to flop heavier against the floor. The next moment two
+soft arms were round my neck.
+
+'Gladys,--oh, Gladys!' and for the moment I could say no more, in my
+delight and surprise at seeing the dear beautiful face again.
+
+'I wanted to surprise you, Ursula dear,' she said, laughing and kissing
+me. 'How still and quiet you and Tinker were! I believe you were both
+asleep. When I heard you were coming home I planned with Lady Betty that
+I would creep down to the cottage and take you unawares. I made Mrs.
+Barton promise not to betray me.'
+
+'When did you come back?' I asked, bewildered. 'Why did you not write and
+tell me you were coming?'
+
+'Oh, it was decided all in a hurry. The Maberleys heard that their
+daughter, Mrs. Egerton, would arrive in England this week, a whole month
+before they expected her, so they have gone down to Southampton, and left
+me to find my way home alone. I arrived last night, much to Giles's
+astonishment. You know Dora is their only surviving child, and she has
+been in India the last five years. She is bringing her two boys home.'
+
+'Last night. Then you did not get my letter?'
+
+'No; but it will follow me. How good you have been to write so often,
+Ursula! I have quite lived on your letters.'
+
+'Let me see how you look,' was my answer to this; and indeed I thought
+she had never looked more beautiful. There was a lovely colour in her
+face, and she seemed bright and animated, though I could not deny that
+she was still very thin.
+
+'You have not grown fatter,' I went on, pretending to grumble; 'you are
+still too transparent, in my opinion; but Jill's snow-maiden has a little
+life in her.'
+
+'Does Jill call me that?' she returned, in some surprise. 'Oh, I am quite
+well: even Giles says so. He declares he is glad to have me back, and
+poor little Lady Betty quite cried with joy. It was nice, after all,
+coming home.'
+
+'I am so glad to hear you say that.'
+
+'Etta is away, you know: that makes the difference. Gladwyn never seemed
+so homelike before. By the bye, Ursula, Giles has sent you a message;
+he--no, we all three, want you to spend a long evening with us to-morrow.
+He has been called away to Brighton, and will not be back until mid-day;
+but we all three agreed that it would be so nice if you came early in the
+afternoon, and we would have tea in the little oak avenue. Etta never
+cares about these _al fresco_ meals, she is so afraid of spiders and
+caterpillars; but Lady Betty and I delight in it.'
+
+I wish Jill could have heard Gladys talk in this bright, natural way. I
+am sure she would not have recognised her snow-maiden. There was no weary
+constraint in her manner to-night, no heavy pressure of unnatural care on
+her young brow: she seemed too happy to see me again to think of herself
+at all.
+
+When we had talked a little more I began to approach the subject of Eric
+very gradually. At my first word her cheek paled, and the old wistfulness
+came to her eyes.
+
+'What of Eric?' she asked quickly. 'You look a little strange, Ursula.
+Do not be afraid of speaking his name: he is never out of my thoughts,
+waking or sleeping.'
+
+I told her that I knew this, but that I had something very singular to
+narrate, which I feared might excite and disappoint her, but that I could
+assure her of the certainty that he was alive and well.
+
+She clasped her hands almost convulsively together, and looked at me
+imploringly. 'Only tell me that, and I can bear everything else,' she
+exclaimed.
+
+But as she listened her face grew paler and paler, and presently she
+burst into tears, and sobbed so violently that I was alarmed.
+
+'It is nothing,--nothing but joy,' she gasped out at length. 'I could
+not hear you say that you had seen him, my own Eric, and not be overcome.
+Oh, Ursula, if I had only been with you!' And she hid her face on my
+shoulder, and for a little while I could say no more.
+
+When she was calmed I finished all that I had to tell, and read her the
+advertisements, but they seemed to frighten her.
+
+'How dreadful if Etta or Giles should see them!' she said nervously.
+'Etta is so clever, she finds out everything. I would not have her read
+one of them for worlds. Why did you put your name, Ursula?--it is so
+uncommon.'
+
+'No one will connect me with Jack Poynter. I did not think there would be
+any risk,' I replied soothingly. 'I put "for Gladys's sake" in the _Daily
+Telegraph_. You see, we must try to attract his notice.'
+
+'Giles never takes in the _Daily Telegraph_. We have the _Times_ and the
+_Standard_, and the _Morning Post_ for Etta. Which did you put in the
+_Standard_?'
+
+I repeated the advertisement: 'Jack Poynter's friends believe him dead,
+and are in great trouble: he is entreated to undeceive them. One word to
+the old address will be a comfort to his poor sister.'
+
+'That will do,' she answered, in a relieved tone. 'Etta cannot read
+between the lines there. Oh, Ursula, do you think that Eric will see
+them?'
+
+I assured her that there was no doubt on the subject. All the better
+class of workmen had access to some club or society, where they saw the
+leading papers. I thought the _Daily Telegraph_ the most likely to meet
+his eyes, and should continue to insert an advertisement from time to
+time. 'We must be patient and wait a little,' I continued. 'Even if our
+appeals do not reach him, there is every probability that Joe Muggins
+or one of the other workmen will come across him. We want to find out
+where Jack Poynter lives. I mean to write to Joe in a few days, and offer
+him a handsome sum if he can tell me his address.'
+
+'That will be the best plan; but, oh, Ursula, how am I to be patient?
+To think of my dear boy becoming a common workman! he is poor, then; he
+wants money. I feel as though I cannot rest, as though I must go to
+London and look for him myself.'
+
+Gladys looked so excited and feverish that I almost repented my
+confidence. I did all I could to soothe her.
+
+'Surely, dear, it is not so difficult to wait a little, knowing him to be
+alive and well, as it was to bear that long suspense.'
+
+'Oh, but I never believed him to be dead,' she answered quickly. 'I was
+very anxious, very unhappy, about him, often miserable, but in my dreams
+he was always full of life. When I woke up I said to myself, "They are
+wrong; Eric is in the world somewhere; I shall see him again."'
+
+'Just so; and now with my own eyes I have seen him, evidently in perfect
+health and in good spirits.'
+
+'Ah, but that troubles me a little,' she returned, and her beautiful
+mouth began to quiver like an unhappy child's. 'How can Eric, my Eric who
+loved me so, be so light-hearted, knowing that all these years I have
+been mourning for him? I remember how he used,' she went on plaintively,
+'to whistle over his work, and how Giles used to listen to him. Sometimes
+they kept up a duet together, but Eric's note was the sweeter.'
+
+'We must be careful not to misjudge him even in this,' was my answer:
+'how do you know, Gladys, that he has not assured himself that you are
+all well, and, as far as he knows, happy? Or perhaps his heart was very
+heavy in spite of his whistling. A young man does not show his feelings
+like a girl.'
+
+'No doubt you are right,' she replied, sighing, and then she turned her
+head away, and I could see the old tremulous movement of her hands.
+'Ursula,' she said, in a very low voice, 'have you told Mr. Cunliffe
+about this?'
+
+'Uncle Max!' I exclaimed, concealing my astonishment at hearing her
+mention his name of her own accord. 'No; indeed, he is away from home:
+we have not met for the last three weeks. Would you wish me to tell him,
+Gladys?'
+
+She pondered over my question, and I could see the curves of her throat
+trembling. Her voice was not so clear when she answered me:
+
+'He might have helped us. He is kind and wise, and I trusted him once.
+But perhaps it will be hardly safe to tell him: he might insist on Giles
+knowing, and then everything would be lost.'
+
+'What do you mean?' I asked hastily. 'Surely Mr. Hamilton ought to know
+that his brother is alive.'
+
+'Yes, but not now--not until I have seen him. Ursula, you are very good;
+you are my greatest comfort; but indeed you must be guided in this by me.
+You do not know Giles as I do. He is beginning to influence you in spite
+of yourself. If Giles knows, Etta will know, and then we are lost.'
+
+Her tone troubled me: it was the old keynote of suppressed hopeless
+pain: it somehow recalled to me the image of some helpless innocent bird
+struggling in a fowler's net. Her eyes looked at me with almost agonised
+entreaty.
+
+'If Etta knows, we should be lost,' she repeated drearily.
+
+'She shall not know, then,' I returned, pretending cheerfulness, though
+I was inwardly dismayed. 'You and I will watch and wait, Gladys. Do not
+be so cast down, dear. Remember it is never so dark as just before the
+dawn.'
+
+'No,' she replied, with a faint smile, 'you are right there; but it is
+growing dark in earnest, Ursula, and I must go home, or Leah will be
+coming in search of me.'
+
+'Very well; I will walk with you,' I replied; and in five minutes more we
+had left the cottage.
+
+We walked almost in silence, for who could tell if eaves-droppers might
+not lurk in the dark hedgerows? I know this feeling was strong in both
+our minds.
+
+At the gate of Gladwyn we kissed each other and parted.
+
+'I am happier, Ursula,' she whispered. 'You must not think I am
+ungrateful for the news you have given me, only it has made me restless.'
+
+'Hush! there is some one coming down the shrubbery,' I returned, dropping
+her hand, and going quickly into the road. As I did so, I heard Leah's
+smooth voice address Gladys:
+
+'You were so, late, ma'am, that I thought I had better step down to the
+cottage, for fear you might be waiting for me.'
+
+'It is all right, Leah,' was Gladys's answer. 'Miss Garston walked back
+with me. Thank you for your thoughtfulness.' And then I heard their
+footsteps dying away in the distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+NIGHTINGALES AND ROSES
+
+
+I was very busy the next morning. I went round to the Marshalls' cottage
+to see Peggy, and then I paid Phoebe a long visit, and afterwards I went
+to Robert Stokes.
+
+They seemed all glad to welcome me back, especially Phoebe, who lay and
+looked at me as though she never wished to lose sight of me again.
+
+When I had left her room I sat a little while with Susan. She still
+looked delicate, but at my first pitying word she stopped me.
+
+'Please don't say that, Miss Garston. If you knew how I thank God for
+that illness! it has opened poor Phoebe's heart to me as nothing else
+could have opened it.'
+
+'She does indeed seem a different creature,' I returned, full of
+thankfulness to hear this.
+
+'Different,--nay, that is not the word: the heart of a little child has
+come back to her. It rests me now, if I am ever so tired, to go into her
+room. It is always "Sit down, Susan, my woman, and talk to me a bit," or
+she will beg me to do something for her, just as though she were asking a
+favour. I read the Bible to her now morning and evening, and Kitty sings
+her sweet hymns to us. It is more like home now, with Phoebe to smile
+a welcome whenever she sees me. I do not miss father and mother half so
+much now.'
+
+'If you only knew how happy it makes me to hear you say all this, Miss
+Locke!'
+
+'Nay, but I am thinking we owe much of our comfort to you,' she answered
+simply. 'You worked upon her feelings first, and then Providence sent
+that sharp message to her. And we have to be grateful to the doctor, too.
+What do you think, Miss Garston? He is our landlord now, and he won't
+take a farthing of rent from us. He says we are doing him a kindness by
+living in the house, and that he only wished his other tenants took as
+much care of his property; but of course I know what that means.' And
+here Susan's thin hands shook a little. 'The doctor is just a man whose
+right hand does not know what his left hand does; he is just heaping us
+with benefits, and making us ashamed with his kindness.'
+
+'You are a great favourite of his,' I answered, smiling, as I took my
+leave; but Susan answered solemnly,--
+
+'It won't be forgotten in his account, Miss Garston. The measure running
+over will surely be returned to him, and not only to him.' And here she
+looked at me meaningly, and pressed my hand. Poor Susan! she had grown
+very fond of her nurse.
+
+As I walked up to Gladwyn that afternoon I felt a pleasant sense of
+excitement, a sort of holiday feeling, that was novel to me. Miss Darrell
+was away, and Gladys and Lady Betty would be at their ease. We might look
+and talk as we liked, no one would find fault with us.
+
+I was pleased, too, at the thought of seeing Mr. Hamilton again. I was in
+the mood to be gay: perhaps the summer sunshine infected me, for who
+could be dull on such a day? There was not a cloud in the sky, the birds
+were singing, the rooks were cawing among the elms, the very sparrows had
+a jaunty look and cheeped busily in the ivy. As I approached Gladwyn, I
+saw Mr. Hamilton leaning on the gate: he looked as though he had been
+standing there some time.
+
+'Were you watching for me?' I asked, rather thoughtlessly, as he threw
+the gate open with a smile and shook hands with me. I had asked the
+question quite innocently and casually; but the next moment I felt hot
+and ashamed. Why had I supposed such a thing? Why should Mr. Hamilton be
+watching for me?
+
+He did not seem to notice my confusion: he looked very glad to see me.
+I think he was in a gay mood too.
+
+'Yes, I was looking for you. You are a little late, do you know that? I
+was just meditating whether I should walk down the road to meet you. Come
+and take a turn with me on this shady little lawn. Gladys and Lady Betty
+are arranging the tea-table, and are not quite ready for us.'
+
+He led the way to the little lawn in front of the house. Gladwyn was
+surrounded with charming lawns: the avenue of young oaks was at the back.
+We could catch glimpses of Lady Betty's white gown as she flitted
+backward and forward. The front window of Mr. Hamilton's study was before
+us.
+
+'Well,' he said, looking at me brightly, 'we are all glad to welcome
+Nurse Ursula back: the three weeks have seemed very long somehow.'
+
+'Have you any more cases ready for me?' I returned, trying to appear at
+my usual ease with him. It seemed ridiculous, but I was certainly rather
+shy with Mr. Hamilton this afternoon. He looked different somehow.
+
+'If I have, you will not know them to-day. I am not going to talk
+business to you this afternoon. Tell me about your visit: have you
+enjoyed yourself? But I need not ask: your looks answer for you.'
+
+'I have most certainly enjoyed myself. Aunt Philippa was so kind: indeed,
+they were all good to me. Did you hear of Jill's accident, Mr. Hamilton?
+No. I must tell you about it, and of Mr. Tudor's presence of mind.' And I
+narrated the whole circumstance.
+
+'It was a marvellous escape,' he returned thoughtfully. 'Poor child! she
+might have fared badly. Well, Miss Garston, the green velvet gown was
+very becoming.'
+
+I looked up quickly, but there was no mockery in Mr. Hamilton's smile. He
+was regarding me kindly, though his tone was a little teasing.
+
+'I saw you in the church,' I returned quietly.
+
+'Yes, I suppose there is a kind of magnetism in a fixed glance.
+I was looking at you, trying to identify Nurse Ursula with the
+elegantly-dressed woman before me, and somehow failing, when your
+eyes encountered mine. Their serious disapproval most certainly
+recalled Nurse Ursula with a vengeance.'
+
+He was laughing at me now, but I determined to satisfy my curiosity.
+
+'I was so surprised to see you there,' I replied seriously: 'you were so
+strong in your denunciations of gay weddings that your presence as a
+spectator at one quite startled me. Why were you there, Mr. Hamilton?'
+
+'Do you want to know, really?' still in a teasing tone.
+
+'Of course one always likes an answer to a question.'
+
+'You shall have it, Miss Garston. I came to see that velvet gown.'
+
+'Nonsense!'
+
+'May I ask why?'
+
+'Well, it is nonsense; as though you came for such an absurd purpose!'
+But, though I answered Mr. Hamilton in this brusque fashion, I was aware
+that my heart was beating rather more quickly than usual. Did he really
+mean that he had come to see me? Could such a thing be possible? I began
+to wish I had never put that question.
+
+'I either came to see the gown or the wearer: upon my honour I hardly
+know which. Perhaps you can tell me?' But if he expected an answer to
+that he did not get it: I was only meditating how I could break off this
+_tete-a-tete_ without too much awkwardness. No, I did not recognise Mr.
+Hamilton a bit this afternoon: he had never talked to me after this
+fashion before. I was not sure that I liked it.
+
+'After all, I am not certain that I do not like you best in that gray
+one, especially after I have picked you some roses to wear with it:
+something sober and quiet seems to suit Nurse Ursula better.'
+
+'Mr. Hamilton, if you please, I do not want to talk any more about my
+gown.'
+
+'What shall we talk about, then? Shall I--' And then he looked at my face
+and checked himself. His teasing mood, or whatever it was, changed.
+Perhaps he saw my embarrassment, for his manner became all at once very
+gentle. He said we must go in search of the roses; and then he began to
+talk to me about Gladys,--how much brighter she looked, but still thin,
+oh, far too thin,--and was I not glad to have her back again? and all the
+time he talked he was looking at me, as though he wanted to find out the
+reason of something that perplexed him.
+
+'He will think that I am not glad to be home again, that all this gaiety
+has spoiled me for my work,' I thought, with some vexation; but no effort
+of my part would overcome this sudden shyness, and I was much relieved
+when we turned the corner of the house and encountered Lady Betty coming
+in search of us.
+
+'Of course we saw you on the little lawn,' she said eagerly, 'but we were
+too busy arranging the table. Tea is ready now. Where are you going,
+Giles? Oh, don't pick any more roses: we have plenty for Ursula.'
+
+'But if I wish Miss Garston to wear some of my picking, what then,
+Elizabeth?' he asked, in a laughing tone, and Lady Betty tossed her head
+in reply and led me away; but a moment afterwards he followed us with the
+roses, and mollified the wilful little soul by asking Ladybird--his pet
+name for her--to fasten them in my dress. Both the sisters wore white
+gowns. I thought Gladys looked like a queen in hers, as she moved slowly
+under the oak-trees to meet us, the sun shining on her fair hair. As I
+looked at her lovely face and figure, I thought it was no wonder that she
+was poor Max's Lady of Delight. Who could help admiring her?
+
+She met me quite naturally, although her brother was beside us.
+
+'Have we kept you waiting too long? I thought you would not mind putting
+up with Giles's society for a little while. Oh, Thornton was so stupid; I
+suppose he did not approve of the trouble, for he would forget everything
+we asked him to bring.'
+
+'This is quite a feast, Gladys,' observed Mr. Hamilton gaily. And indeed
+it was a pretty picture when we were all seated: a pleasant breeze
+stirred the leaves over our head, the rooks cawed and circled round us,
+Nap laid himself at his master's feet, and a little gray kitten came
+gingerly over the grass, followed by some tame pigeons.
+
+There was a basket of roses on the table, and great piles of strawberries
+and cherries. Gladys poured out the tea in purple cups bordered with
+gold. Mr. Hamilton held out a beautiful china plate for my inspection.
+'This belonged to Gladys's mother,' he said: 'we are only allowed to use
+it on high days and holidays. Etta was unfortunate enough to break a
+saucer once: we have never seen the tea-set since.'
+
+I saw Gladys colour, but she said nothing: only naughty Lady Betty
+whispered in my ear, 'She did it on purpose. I saw her throw it down
+because she was angry with Gladys.' But, happily, Mr. Hamilton was deaf
+to this.
+
+I hardly know what we talked about, but we were all very happy. Gladys,
+as usual, was rather quiet, but I noticed that she spoke freely to her
+brother, without any constraint of manner, and that he seemed pleased
+and interested in all she said; and Lady Betty chatted as merrily as
+possible.
+
+When tea was over we all strolled about the garden, down the long
+asphalt walk that skirted the meadow, where a little brown cow was
+feeding, down to the gardener's cottage and the kitchen-garden, and to
+the poultry-yard, where Lady Betty reigned supreme. Then we sat down on
+the terrace by the conservatory, and Mr. Hamilton threw himself down on
+the grass and played with Nap, as he talked to us.
+
+I could see Leah sewing at her mistress's window, but the sight did not
+disturb me in the least. Yes, I must be fey, I thought. I could find no
+reason for the sudden feeling of contentment and well-being that
+possessed me; in all my life I had never felt happier than I did that
+evening; and yet I was more silent than usual. Mr. Hamilton talked more
+to his sisters than to me, but his manner was strangely gentle when he
+addressed me. I was conscious all that evening that he was watching me,
+and that my reserve did not displease him. Once, when he had been called
+away on business, and Lady Betty had tripped after him, Gladys said, with
+a half-sigh,--
+
+'How young and well Giles looks to-day! He seems so much happier. I wish
+we could always be like this. I am sure if it were not for Etta we should
+understand each other better.'
+
+I assented to this, and Gladys went on:
+
+'I wonder if you have ever heard Mrs. Carrick's name, Ursula?'
+
+What a strange question! I flushed a little as I told her that her old
+friend Mrs. Maberley had put me in possession of all the family secrets.
+'Quite against my will, I assure you,' I added; for I always had a
+lurking consciousness that I had no right to know Mr. Hamilton's affairs.
+
+'Well, it does not matter. I daresay Giles will tell you all about
+it himself some day. You and he seem great friends, Ursula; and
+indeed--indeed I am glad to know it. Poor Giles! Why should you not be
+kind to him?'
+
+What in the world could Gladys mean?
+
+'I was only a child,' she went on; 'but of course I remember Ella. She
+was very beautiful and fascinating, and she bewitched us all. She had
+such lovely eyes, and such a sweet laugh; and she was so full of fun, and
+so high-spirited and charming altogether. Giles was very different in
+those days; but he reminds me of his old self this evening.'
+
+I made no answer. I seemed to have no words ready, and I was glad when
+Gladys rather abruptly changed the subject. Leah was crossing the field
+towards the cottage with a basket of eggs on her arm. As we looked after
+her, Gladys said quickly--
+
+'Your talk last night seems like a dream. This morning I asked myself,
+could it be true--really true--that you saw Eric? I have hardly slept,
+Ursula. Indeed, I do not mean to be impatient; but how am I to bear this
+restlessness?'
+
+'It is certainly very hard.'
+
+'Oh, so hard! But for Eric's sake I must be patient. I saw the
+advertisement this morning in the _Standard_. Lady Betty read it aloud to
+us at breakfast-time; but Giles took no notice. I wished that we dared to
+tell Mr. Cunliffe about it; he might employ a detective: but I am so
+afraid of Etta.'
+
+'I think we may safely wait a little,' I returned. 'I have faith in Joe
+Muggins: a five-pound note may do our work without fear of publicity.'
+
+'If you hear any news, if you can find out where he lives, remember that
+I must be the first to see him: Giles shall be told, but not until I have
+spoken to Eric.'
+
+'Do you think that you will be able to persuade him to come home?'
+
+'I shall not try to persuade him,' she returned proudly. 'I know Eric too
+well for that. Nothing will induce him to cross the threshold of Gladwyn
+until his innocence is established, until Giles has apologised for the
+slur he has thrown upon his character.'
+
+'I am afraid Mr. Hamilton will never do that.'
+
+'Then there will be no possibility of reconciliation with Eric, Ursula.
+If Eric does not come home, if things remain as they are, I have made up
+my mind to leave Giles's roof. I cannot any longer be separated from
+Eric: if he be poor I will be poor too: it will not hurt me to work;
+nothing will hurt me after the life I have been leading these three
+years.' And the old troubled look came back to Gladys's face. Lady Betty
+joined us, and our talk ceased, and soon afterwards we went up into the
+turret-room to prepare for dinner.
+
+After dinner Lady Betty proposed that we should go down the road a little
+to hear the nightingales; but Mr. Hamilton informed her with a smile that
+he had a nightingale on the premises, and, turning to me, he asked me if
+I were in the mood to give them all pleasure, and if I would sing to them
+until they told me to stop.
+
+I was rather dubious on this latter point, for how could I know, I asked
+him, laughing, that they might not keep me singing until midnight?
+
+'You ought to have more faith in our humanity,' he returned, with much
+solemnity, as he opened the piano. Gladys crept into her old seat by me,
+but Mr. Hamilton placed himself in an easy-chair at some little distance.
+As the room grew dusk, and the moonlight threw strange silvery gleams
+here and there, I could see him leaning back with his arms crossed under
+his head, and wondered if he were asleep, he was so still and motionless.
+
+How I thanked God in my heart for that gift of song, a more precious gift
+to me than even beauty would have been! As usual, I forgot everything,
+myself, Gladys, Mr. Hamilton; I seemed to sing with the joyousness of a
+bird that is only conscious of life and freedom and sunshine.
+
+I would sing no melancholy songs that night,--no love-sick adieux, no
+effusions of lachrymose sentimentality,--only sweet old Scotch and
+English ballads, favourites of Charlie's; then grander melodies, 'Let the
+bright seraphim,' and 'Waft her, angels, through the air.' As I finished
+the last I was conscious that Mr. Hamilton was standing beside me; the
+next moment he laid his hand on mine.
+
+'That will do. You must not tire yourself: even the nightingales must
+leave off singing sometimes; thank you so much. No! that sounds cold and
+conventional. I will not thank you. You were very happy singing, were you
+not?'
+
+I could not see his face, but he was so close,--so close to me in the
+moonlight, and there was something in his voice that brought the old
+shyness back.
+
+I was trying to answer, when we heard the front door open and some one
+speaking to Parker. Was that Miss Darrell's voice? Mr. Hamilton heard it,
+for he moved away, and Gladys gave a half-stifled exclamation as he
+opened the door and confronted his cousin.
+
+'Where are you all?' she asked, in a laughing voice. 'You look like bats
+or ghosts in the moonlight. No lights, and past ten o'clock! that is
+Gladys's romantic idea, I suppose. What a dear fanciful child it is! Lady
+Betty, come and kiss me! Oh, I am so glad to be home again!'
+
+'Good-evening, Miss Darrell.'
+
+'Good gracious! is that you, Miss Garston? I never dreamt of seeing you
+here to-night; and you were hiding behind that great piano. Giles, do,
+for pity's sake, light those candles, and let me see some of your faces.'
+
+But Mr. Hamilton seemed to take no notice of her request.
+
+'What brought you back so soon, Etta?' he asked; and it struck me that he
+was not so pleased to see his cousin as usual. 'I thought you intended to
+remain another week.'
+
+'Oh, but I wanted to see Gladys, after these months of absence. I thought
+it would be unkind to remain away any longer. Besides, I was not enjoying
+myself,--not a bit. Mrs. Cameron grows deafer every day, and it was very
+_triste_ and miserable.'
+
+'How did you know I was at home, Etta?' asked Gladys, in her clear voice.
+
+Miss Darrell hesitated a moment: 'A little bird informed me of the fact.
+You did not wish me to remain in ignorance of your return, did you? It
+sounds rather like it, does it not, Giles? Well, if you must be
+inquisitive, Leah was writing to me about my dresses for the cleaner,
+and she mentioned casually that "master had gone to the station to meet
+Miss Gladys."'
+
+'I see; but you need not have hurried home on my account.'
+
+'Dear me! what a cousinly speech! That is the return one gets for
+being a little more affectionate than usual. Giles,'--with decided
+impatience,--'why don't you light those candles? You know how I hate
+darkness; and there is Miss Garston standing like a gray nun in the
+moonlight.'
+
+'It is so late that I must put on my bonnet,' I replied quickly; for I
+was bent on making my escape before the candles were lighted. Never had
+I dreaded Miss Darrell's cold scrutiny as I did that night.
+
+Gladys followed me rather wearily.
+
+'Well it has been very pleasant, but our holiday has been brief,' she
+said, with a sigh; and then she laid her cheek against mine, and it felt
+very soft and cold. With a sudden rush of tenderness I drew it down and
+kissed it again and again.
+
+'Don't let the hope go out of your voice, Gladys: it will all come right
+by and by. Only be strong and patient, my darling.'
+
+'I am strong when I am near you, but not when I am alone,' she answered,
+with a slight shiver; and then we heard Lady Betty's voice calling her,
+and she left me reluctantly.
+
+I thought she would come back, so I did not hurry myself; but presently
+I got tired of waiting, and walked to the head of the staircase.
+
+As I looked down on the lighted hall I saw Mr. Hamilton standing with
+folded arms, as though he had been waiting there some time; at the sound
+of my footstep he looked up quickly and eagerly, and our eyes met, and
+then I knew,--I knew!
+
+'Come, Ursula,' he said, with a sort of impatience, holding out his hand;
+and somehow, without delay or hesitation, just as though his strong will
+was drawing me, I went down slowly and put my hand in his, and it seemed
+as though there was nothing more to be said.
+
+I saw his face light up; he was about to speak, when Miss Darrell swept
+up to us noiselessly with a hard metallic smile on her face.
+
+'Do you know, Miss Garston, Lady Betty tells me that the nightingales are
+singing so charmingly; she and I are just going down the road to listen
+to them, if you can put up with our company for part of the way.'
+
+Giles--I called him Giles in my heart that night, for something told me
+we belonged to each other--said nothing, but his face clouded, and we
+went out together.
+
+No one heard the nightingales, but only Lady Betty commented on that
+fact. Miss Darrell was talking too volubly to hear her. She clung to my
+side pertinaciously, almost affectionately; she wanted to hear all about
+the wedding; she plied me with questions about Sara, and Jill, and Mr.
+Tudor. All the way up the hill she talked until we passed the church and
+the vicarage, until we were at the gate of the White Cottage, and then
+she stopped with an affected laugh.
+
+'Dear me, I have actually walked the whole way; how tired I am!--and no
+wonder, for there is eleven chiming from the church tower. For shame, to
+keep us all up so late, Miss Garston!'
+
+'I will not detain you,' I returned, with secret exasperation.
+
+Mr. Hamilton had not spoken once the whole way, only walked silently
+beside me; but as he set open the gate and wished me good-night, his
+clasp of my hand gave me the assurance that I needed.
+
+'Never mind: he will come to-morrow and tell me all about it,' I said to
+myself as I walked up the narrow garden-path between the rows of sleeping
+flowers. If I lingered in the porch to watch a certain tall figure
+disappear into the darkness, no one knew it, for the stars tell no tales.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+BREAKERS AHEAD
+
+
+It was well that the stars, those bright-eyed spectators of a sleeping
+world, tell no tales of us poor humans, or they might have whispered the
+fact that the reasonable sober-minded Ursula Garston was holding foolish
+vigil that night until the gray dawn drove her away to seek a brief rest.
+
+But how could I sleep?--how could any woman sleep when such a revelation
+had been vouchsafed her?--when a certain look, and those two words,
+'Come, Ursula,' still haunted me,--that strange brief wooing, that was
+hardly wooing, and yet meant unutterable things, that silent acceptance,
+that simple yielding, when I put my hand in his, Giles's, and saw the
+quick look of joy in his eyes?
+
+Ah, the veil had fallen from my eyes at last: for the first time I
+realised how all these weeks he had been drawing me closer to himself,
+how his strong will had subjugated mine. My dislike of him had been
+brief; he had awakened my interest first, then attracted my sympathy, and
+finally won my respect and friendship, until I had grown to love him in
+spite of myself. Strange to say, I had lost all fear of him; as I sat
+holding communion with myself that night, I felt that I should never be
+afraid of him again. 'Perfect love casteth out fear': is not that what
+the apostle tells us? It was true, I thought, for now I did not seem to
+be afraid either of Mr. Hamilton's strange stern nature, of the sadness
+of his past life, or of the mysteries and misunderstandings of that
+troubled household. It seemed to me I feared nothing,--not even my own
+want of beauty, that had once been a trial to me; for if Giles loved me
+how could such minor evils affect me?
+
+Yes, as I sat there under the solemn starlight, with the jasmine sprays
+cooling my hot cheek and the soft night breeze fanning me, I owned, and
+was not ashamed to own, in my woman's heart, and with all the truth of
+which I was capable, that this was the man whom my soul delighted to
+honour; not faultless, not free from blame, full of flaws and
+imperfections, but still a strong grand man, intensely human in his
+sympathies, one who loved his fellows, and who did his life's work in
+true knightly fashion, running full tilt against prejudices and the
+shams of conventionality.
+
+Often during the night I thought of my mother, and how she had told me,
+laughing, that my father had never really asked her to marry him.
+
+'I don't know how we were engaged, Ursula,' she once said, when we
+were talking about Charlie and Lesbia in the twilight; 'we were at a
+ball,--Lady Fitzherbert's,--and of course being a clergyman he did not
+dance, but he took me into the conservatory and gave me a flower: I think
+it was a rose. There were people all round us, and neither he nor I could
+tell how it was done, but when he put me into the carriage I knew we were
+somehow promised to each other, and when he came the next day he called
+me Amy, and kissed me in the most quite matter-of-fact way. I often laugh
+and tell him that he took it all, for granted.'
+
+'Giles will come to-morrow,' I said to myself, as the first pale gleam
+came over the eastern sky, 'and then I shall know all about it.' And I
+fell asleep happily, and dreamt of Charlie, and I thought he was pelting
+me with roses in the old vicarage garden.
+
+'"And the evening and the morning were the first day,"' were my waking
+words when I opened my eyes; for in the inward as well as the outward
+creation, in hearts as well as worlds, all things become new under the
+grace of such miracle. I was not the same woman that I had been
+yesterday, neither should I ever be the same again. I seemed as though I
+were in accord with all the harmonies of nature. 'And surely God saw that
+it was good,' ought to be written upon all true and faithful earthly
+attachments. I was expecting Mr. Hamilton, and yet it gave me a sort of
+shock when I saw him coming up the road: he was walking very fast, with
+his head bent, but his face was set in the direction of the cottage.
+
+I sat down by the window and took out some work, but my hands trembled so
+that I was compelled to lay it aside. It was not that I was afraid of
+what he might say to me, for my heart had its welcome ready, but natural
+womanly timidity caused the slight fluttering of my pulses.
+
+The moments seemed long before I heard the click of the gate, before the
+firm regular footsteps crunched the gravel walk; then came his knock at
+my door, and I rose to greet him. But the moment I saw his face a sudden
+anxiety seized me. What had happened? What made him look so pale and
+embarrassed, so strangely unlike himself? This was not the greeting I
+expected. This was not how we ought to meet on this morning of all
+mornings.
+
+As he shook hands with me quickly and rather nervously, he seemed to
+avoid my eyes. He walked to the window, picked a spray of jasmine, and
+began pulling it to pieces, all the time he talked. As for me, I sat down
+again and took up my work: he should not see that I felt his coldness,
+that he had disappointed me.
+
+'I have come very early, I am afraid,' he began, 'but I thought I ought
+to let you know. Mrs. Hanbury's little girl, the lame one, Jessie, has
+got badly burnt,--some carelessness or other; but they are an ignorant
+set, and the child will need your care.'
+
+'I will go at once. Where do they live?' But somehow as I asked the
+question I felt as though my voice had lost all tone and sounded like
+Miss Darrell's.
+
+He told me, and then gave me the necessary instructions. 'Janet Coombe,
+a servant at the Man and Plough, is ill too, and they sent up for me this
+morning; it seems a touch of low fever,--nothing really infectious,
+though; but the men from the soap-works are having their bean-feast, and
+all the folks are too busy to pay Janet much attention.'
+
+'I will see about her,' I returned. 'Are those the only cases, Mr.
+Hamilton?' He looked round at me then, as though my quiet matter-of-fact
+answer had surprised him, and for a moment he surveyed me gravely and
+wistfully; then he seemed to rouse himself with an effort.
+
+'Yes, those are the only cases at present. Thank you, I shall be much
+obliged if you will attend to them. Little Jessie is a very delicate
+child: things may go hardly with her.' Then he stopped, picked another
+spray of jasmine, and pulled off the little starry flowers remorselessly.
+
+'Miss Garston, I want to say something: I feel I owe you some sort of
+explanation. I wish to tell you that I have only myself to blame. I have
+thought it all over, and I have come to the conclusion that it is no
+fault of yours that I misunderstood you. It is your nature to be kind.
+You did not wish to mislead me.'
+
+'I am not aware that I ever mislead people,' I returned, rather proudly,
+for I could not help feeling a little indignant: Mr. Hamilton was
+certainly not treating me well.
+
+'No, of course not,' looking excessively pained. 'I know you too well to
+accuse you of that. If I misunderstood you, if I imagined things, it was
+my own fault,--mine solely. I would not blame you for worlds.'
+
+'I am glad of that, Mr. Hamilton,' in rather an icy tone.
+
+'No, you could not have told me: I ought to have found it out for myself.
+Do you mind if I go away now? I do not feel quite myself, and I would
+rather talk of this again another time. Perhaps you will tell me all
+about it then.' And he actually took up his hat and shook hands with me
+again. Somehow his touch made me shiver when I remembered the long
+hand-clasp of the previous night,--only ten or eleven hours ago; and yet
+this strange change had been worked in him.
+
+I let him go, though it nearly broke my heart to see him look so careworn
+and miserable. My woman's pride was up in arms, though for very pity and
+love I could have called him back and begged him to tell me in plain
+English and without reservation what he meant by his vague words. Once I
+rose and went to the door, the latch was in my hand, but I sat down again
+and watched him quietly until he was out of sight. I would wait, I said
+to myself; I would rather wait until he came to his senses; and then I
+laughed a little angrily, though the tears were in my eyes. It was
+vexatious, it was bitterly disappointing, it was laying on my shoulders a
+fresh burden of responsibility and anxiety. The happiness that a quarter
+of an hour ago seemed within my reach had vanished and left me worried
+and perplexed. And yet, in spite of the pain Mr. Hamilton had inflicted,
+I did not for one moment lose hope or courage.
+
+Something had gone wrong, that was evident. The perfect understanding
+that had been between us last night seemed ruthlessly disturbed and
+perhaps broken. Could this be Miss Darrell's work? Had she made mischief
+between us? I wondered what part of my conduct or actions she had
+misrepresented to her cousin. It was this uncertainty that tormented
+me: how could I refute mere intangible shadows?
+
+Strange to say, I never doubted his love for a moment. If such a doubt
+had entered my mind I should have been miserable indeed; but no such
+thought fretted me. I was only hurt that he could have brought himself
+to believe anything against me, that he should have listened to her false
+sophistry and not have asked for my explanation; but, as I remembered
+that love was prone to jealousy and not above suspicion, I soon forgave
+him in my heart.
+
+Ah well, we must both suffer, I thought; for he certainly looked very
+unhappy, fagged, and weary, as though he had not slept. If he had told me
+what was wrong I would have found some comfort for him; but under such
+circumstances any woman must be dumb.
+
+He had made me understand that he did not intend to ask me to marry him,
+at least just yet; that for some reason best known to himself he wished
+for no further explanation with me. Well, I could wait until he was ready
+to speak; he need not fear that I should embarrass him. 'Men are strange
+creatures,' I thought, as I rose, feeling tired in every limb, to put on
+my bonnet; but, cast down and perplexed as I was, I would not own for a
+minute that I was really miserable. My faith in Mr. Hamilton was too
+strong for that; one day things would be right between us; one day he
+would see the truth and know it, and there would be no cloud before his
+eyes. I went rather sadly about my duties that day, but I was determined
+that no one else should suffer for my unhappiness, so I exerted myself to
+be cheerful with my patients, and the hard work did me good.
+
+I was tired when I reached home, and I spent rather a dreary evening: it
+was impossible to settle to my book. I could not help remembering how I
+had called this a new day. As I prayed for Mr. Hamilton that night, I
+could not help shedding a few tears; he was so strong, all the power was
+in his hands; he might have saved me from this trouble. Then I remembered
+that we were both unhappy together, and this thought calmed me; for the
+same cloud was covering us both, and I wondered which of us would see the
+sunshine first.
+
+I do not wish to speak much of my feelings at this time: the old adage,
+that 'the course of true love never runs smooth,' was true, alas, in my
+case; but I was too proud to complain, and I tried not to fret overmuch.
+Most women have known troubled days, when the current seems against them
+and the waves run high; their strength fails and they seem to sink in
+deep waters. Many a poor soul has suffered shipwreck in the very sight
+of the haven where it would fain be, for man and woman too are 'born to
+trouble as the sparks fly upward.'
+
+Sometimes my pain was very great; but I would not succumb to it. I worked
+harder than ever to combat my restlessness. My worst time was in the
+evening, when I came home weary and dispirited. We seemed so near, and
+yet so strangely apart, and it was hard at such times to keep to my old
+faith in Mr. Hamilton and acquit him of unkindness.
+
+'Why does he not tell me what he means? Do I deserve this silence?' I
+would say to myself. Then I remembered his promise that he would speak
+to me again about these things, and I resolved to be brave and patient.
+
+I was longing to see Gladys, but she did not come for more than ten days.
+And, alas! I could not go up to Gladwyn to seek her. This was the first
+bitter fruit of our estrangement,--that it separated me from Gladys.
+
+Lady Betty had gone away the very next day to pay a two months' visit to
+an old school-fellow in Cornwall: so Gladys would be utterly alone. Uncle
+Max was still in Norwich, detained by most vexatious lawyer's business:
+so that I had not even the solace of his companionship. If it had not
+been for Mr. Tudor, I should have been quite desolate. But I was always
+meeting him in the village, and his cheery greeting was a cordial to me.
+He always walked back with me, talking in his eager, boyish way. And I
+had sometimes quite a trouble to get rid of him. He would stand for a
+quarter of an hour at a time leaning over the gate and chatting with me.
+By a sort of tacit consent, he never offered to come in, neither did I
+invite him. We were both too much afraid of Miss Darrell's comments.
+
+In all those ten days I only saw Mr. Hamilton once, for on Sunday his
+seat in church had been vacant.
+
+I was dressing little Jessie's burns one morning, and talking to her
+cheerfully all the time, for she was a nervous little creature, when I
+heard his footstep outside. And the next instant he was standing beside
+us.
+
+His curt 'Good-morning; how is the patient, nurse?' braced my faltering
+nerves in a moment, and enabled me to answer him without embarrassment.
+He had his grave professional air, and looked hard and impenetrable. I
+had reason afterwards to think that this sternness of manner was assumed
+for my benefit, for once, when I was preparing some lint for him, I
+looked up inadvertently and saw that he was watching me with an
+expression that was at once sad and wistful.
+
+He turned away at once, when he saw I noticed him, and I left the room as
+quickly as I could, for I felt the tears rising to my eyes. I had to sit
+down a moment in the porch to recover myself. That look, so sad and
+yearning, had quite upset me. If I had not known before, past all doubt,
+that Mr. Hamilton loved me, I must have known it then.
+
+We met more frequently after this. Janet Coombe was dangerously ill, and
+Mr. Hamilton saw her two or three times a day. And, of course, I was
+often there when he came.
+
+He dropped his sternness of manner after a time, but he was never
+otherwise than grave with me. The long, unrestrained talks, the friendly
+looks, the keen interest shown in my daily pursuits, were now things of
+the past. A few professional inquiries, directions about the treatment,
+now and then a brief order to me, too peremptory to be a compliment,
+not to over-tire myself, or to go home to rest,--this was all our
+intercourse. And yet, in spite of his guarded looks and words, I was
+often triumphant, even happy.
+
+Outwardly, and to all appearance, I was left alone, but I knew that it
+was far otherwise in reality. I was most strictly watched. Nothing
+escaped his scrutiny. At the first sign of fatigue he was ready to take
+my place, or find help for me. Mrs. Saunders, the mistress of the Man and
+Plough, told me more than once that the doctor had been most particular
+in telling her to look after me. Nor was this all.
+
+Once or twice, when I had been singing in the summer twilight, I had
+risen suddenly to lower a blind or admit Tinker, and had seen a tall,
+dark figure moving away behind the laurel bushes, and knew that it was
+Mr. Hamilton returning from some late visit and lingering in the dusky
+road to listen to me.
+
+After I had discovered this for the third time, I began to think he came
+on purpose to hear me. My heart beat happily at the thought. In spite of
+his displeasure with me, he could not keep away from the cottage.
+
+After this I sang every evening regularly for an hour, and always in
+the gloaming: it became my one pleasure, for I knew I was singing to him.
+Now and then I was rewarded by a sight of his shadow. More than once I
+saw him clearly in the moonlight. When I closed my piano, I used to
+whisper 'Good-night, Giles,' and go to bed almost happy. It was a little
+hard to meet him the next morning in Janet's room and answer his dry
+matter-of-fact questions. Sometimes I had to turn away to hide a smile.
+
+Gladys's first visit was very disappointing. But everything was
+disappointing in those days. She had her old harassed look, and seemed
+worried and miserable, and for once I had no heart to cheer her, only I
+held her close, very close, feeling that she was dearer to me than ever.
+
+She looked in my face rather inquiringly as she disengaged herself, and
+then smiled faintly.
+
+'I could not come before, Ursula; and you have never been to see me,' a
+little reproachfully, 'though I looked for you every afternoon. I have no
+Lady Betty, you know, and things have been worse than ever. I cannot
+think what has come to Etta. She is always spiteful and sneering when
+Giles is not by. And as for Giles, I do not know what is the matter with
+him.'
+
+'How do you mean?' I faltered, hunting in my work basket for some silk
+that was lying close to my hand.
+
+'That is more than I can say,' she returned pointedly. 'Have you and
+Giles had a quarrel, Ursula? I thought that evening that you were the
+best of friends, and that--' But here she hesitated, and her lovely eyes
+seemed to ask for my confidence; but I could not speak even to Gladys of
+such things, so I only answered, in a business-like tone,--
+
+'It is true that your brother does not seem as friendly with me just now;
+but I do not know how I have offended him. He has rather a peculiar
+temper, as you have often told me: most likely I have gone against some
+of his prejudices.' I felt I was answering Gladys in rather a reckless
+fashion, but I could not bear even the touch of her sympathy on such a
+wound. She looked much distressed at my reply.
+
+'Oh no, you never offend Giles. He thinks far too much of you to let
+any difference of opinion come between you. I see you do not wish me
+to ask you, Ursula; but I must say one thing. If you want Giles to tell
+you why he is hurt or distant with you,--why his manner is different, I
+mean,--ask him plainly what Etta has been saying to him about you.'
+
+I felt myself turning rather pale. 'Are you sure that Miss Darrell has
+been talking about me, Gladys?'
+
+'I have not heard her do so,' was the somewhat disappointing reply, for
+I had hoped then that she had heard something. 'But I was quite as sure
+of the fact as though my ears convicted her. I have only circumstantial
+evidence again to offer you, but to my mind it is conclusive. You parted
+friends that evening with Giles. Correct me if I am wrong.'
+
+'Oh no; you are quite right. Your brother and I had no word of
+disagreement.'
+
+'No; he left the house radiant. When he returned, which was not for an
+hour,--for he and Etta were out all that time in the garden, and they
+sent Lady Betty in to finish her packing,--he was looking worried and
+miserable, and shut himself up in his study. Since then he has been in
+one of his taciturn, unsociable moods: nothing pleases him. He takes no
+notice of us. Even Etta is scolded, but she bears it good-humouredly
+and takes her revenge on me afterwards. A pleasant state of things,
+Ursula!'
+
+'Very,' I returned, sighing, for I thought this piece of evidence
+conclusive enough.
+
+'Now you will be good,' she went on, in a coaxing voice, 'and you will
+ask Giles, like a reasonable woman, what Etta has been saying to him?'
+
+'Indeed, I shall do no such thing,' I answered. And my cheek began to
+flush. 'If your brother is ungenerous enough to condemn me unheard, I
+shall certainly not interfere with his notions of justice. Do not trouble
+yourself about it, Gladys. It will come right some day. And indeed it
+does not matter so much to me, except it keeps us apart.'
+
+Now why, when I spoke so haughtily and disagreeably, and told this little
+fib, did Gladys suddenly take me in her arms and kiss me most sorrowfully
+and tenderly?
+
+'One after another!' she sighed. 'Oh, it is hard, Ursula!' But I would
+not let her talk any more about it, for I was afraid I was breaking down
+and might make a goose of myself: so I spoke of Eric, and told her that
+I had written to Joe Muggins without success, and soon turned her
+thoughts into another channel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+'I CLAIM THAT PROMISE, URSULA'
+
+
+It was soon after this that Uncle Max came home.
+
+I met Mr. Tudor in the village one morning, and he told me with great
+glee that they had just received a telegram telling them that he was on
+his way, and an hour after his arrival he came down to the cottage.
+
+Directly I heard his 'Well, little woman, how has the world treated you
+in my absence?' I felt quite cheered, and told my little fib without
+effort:
+
+'Very well indeed, thank you, Max.'
+
+It is really a psychological puzzle to me why women who are otherwise
+strictly true and honourable in their dealings and abhor the very name
+of falsehood are much addicted to this sort of fibbing under certain
+circumstances; for instance, the number of white lies that I actually
+told at that time was something fabulous, yet the sin of hypocrisy did
+not lie very heavily on my soul.
+
+When I assured Uncle Max with a smiling face that things were well with
+me, his only answer was to take my chin in his hand and turn my face
+quietly to the light.
+
+'Are you quite sure you are speaking the truth? You look rather thin; and
+why are your eyes so serious, little she bear?'
+
+'It is such hot weather,' I returned, wincing under his kindly scrutiny.
+'And we--that is, I have had anxious work lately. I wrote to you about
+poor Janet Coombe. It is a miracle that she has pulled through this
+illness.'
+
+'Yes, indeed: I met Hamilton just now on his way to her, and he declared
+her recovery was owing to your nursing; but we will take that with a
+grain of salt, Ursula: we both know how devoted Hamilton is to his
+patients.'
+
+'He has saved her life,' was my reply, and for a moment my eyes grew dim
+at the remembrance of the untiring patience with which he had watched
+beside the poor girl. It was in the sick-room that I first learned to
+know him,--when metaphorically I sat at his feet, and he taught me
+lessons of patience and tenderness that I should never forget until
+my life's end.
+
+When we had talked about this a little while, Max asked me rather
+abruptly when Captain Hamilton was expected. The question startled me,
+for I had almost forgotten his existence.
+
+'I do not know,' I returned uneasily, for I was afraid Max would think
+I had been remiss. 'Lady Betty is away, and I have only seen Gladys twice
+since my return, and each time I forgot to ask her.'
+
+'Only twice, and you have been at home more than three weeks,' observed
+Max, in a dissatisfied voice.
+
+'I have been so engaged,' I replied quickly, 'and you know how seldom
+Gladys comes to the cottage. Max, do you know you have been here a
+quarter of an hour, and I have never congratulated you on your good
+fortune! I was so glad to hear Mrs. Trevor left you that money.'
+
+'I did not need it,' he returned, rather gloomily. 'I had quite
+sufficient for my own wants. I do not think that I am particularly
+mercenary, Ursula: the books and antiquities were more to my taste.'
+
+Max was certainly not in the best of spirits, but I did all I could to
+cheer him. I told him of Gladys's improved looks, and how much her change
+had benefited her, but he listened rather silently. I saw he was bent on
+learning Captain Hamilton's movements, and reproached myself that I had
+not questioned Gladys. I was determined that I would speak to her about
+her cousin the next time we met.
+
+Max went away soon after this; he was rather tired with his journey, he
+said; but the next morning I received a note from him asking me to dine
+with him the following evening, as he had seen so little of me lately,
+and he wanted to hear all about the wedding.
+
+Of course I was too glad to accept this invitation,--I always liked to go
+to the vicarage,--and this evening proved especially pleasant.
+
+Max roused himself for my benefit, and Mr. Tudor seemed in excellent
+spirits, and we joked Uncle Max a great deal about his fortune, and after
+dinner we made a pilgrimage through the house, to see what new furniture
+was needed.
+
+Max accompanied us, looking very bored, and entered a mild protest to
+most of our remarks. He certainly agreed to a new carpet for the study
+and a more comfortable chair, but he turned a perfectly deaf ear when Mr.
+Tudor proposed that the drawing-room should be refurnished.
+
+'It is such a pretty room, Mr. Cunliffe,' he remonstrated; 'and it
+will be ready by the time you want to get married. Mother Drabble's
+arrangement of chairs and tables is simply hideous. I was quite ashamed
+when Mrs. Maberley and her daughter called the other day.'
+
+'Nonsense, Lawrence!' returned Max, rather sharply. 'What do two
+bachelors want with a drawing-room at all? You and Ursula may talk as
+much as you like, but I do not mean to throw away good money on such
+nonsense. We will have a new book-case and writing-table, and fit up the
+little gray room as your study--and, well, perhaps I may buy a new
+carpet, but nothing more.' And we were obliged to be content with this.
+
+Max brought out a couple of wicker chairs on the terrace presently, and
+proposed that we should have our coffee out of doors. Mr. Tudor grumbled
+a little, because he had a letter to write; but I was not sorry when he
+left me alone with Max. I really liked Mr. Tudor, but we were neither of
+us in the mood for his good-natured chatter.
+
+'I think old Lawrence is very much improved,' observed Max, as we watched
+his retreating figure. 'His sermons have more ballast, and he is
+altogether grown. I begin to have hopes of him now.'
+
+'He is older, of course,' I remarked oracularly, wondering what Max would
+say if he knew the truth. 'Well, Max, did you go up to Gladwyn last
+night?'
+
+'Yes,' he returned, with a quick sigh, 'and Hamilton made me stay to
+dinner. I have found out about Captain Hamilton. He cannot get leave just
+yet, and they do not expect him until the end of November.'
+
+'I am sorry to hear that. Do you not wish that you had taken my advice
+now, and gone down to Bournemouth?' But a most emphatic 'No' on Max's
+part was my answer to this.
+
+'I am very thankful I did nothing of the kind,' he returned, a little
+irritably. 'You meant well, Ursula, but it would have been a mistake.'
+
+'Hamilton told me about his cousin,' he went on; 'but his sister was in
+the room. She coloured very much and looked embarrassed directly Claude's
+name was mentioned.'
+
+'That was because Miss Darrell was there.' But I should have been wiser
+and, held my tongue.
+
+'You are wrong again,' he returned calmly. 'Miss Darrell was dining at
+the Maberleys', and never came in until I was going.'
+
+'How very strange!' was my comment to this.
+
+'Not stranger than Miss Hamilton's manner the whole evening, I never felt
+more puzzled. When I came in she was alone. Hamilton did not follow me
+for five minutes. She came across the room to meet me, with one of her
+old smiles, and I thought she really seemed glad to see me; but
+afterwards she was quite different. Her manner changed and grew listless.
+She did not try to entertain me; she left me to talk to her brother. I
+don't think she looks well, Ursula. Hamilton asked her once if her head
+ached, and if she felt tired, and she answered that her head was rather
+bad. I thought she looked extremely delicate.'
+
+'Oh, Gladys is never a robust woman. She is almost always pale.'
+
+'It is not that,' he returned decidedly. 'I consider she looked very
+ill. I don't believe the change has done her the least good. There is
+something on her mind: no doubt she is longing for her cousin.'
+
+I thought it well to remain silent, though Max's account made me anxious.
+If only I could have spoken to him about Eric! Most likely Gladys was
+fretting because there was no news from Joe Muggins. She was certainly
+not fit for any fresh anxiety. I felt my banishment from Gladwyn acutely.
+If Gladys were ill or dispirited, she would need me more than any one.
+
+I think both Max and I were sorry when Mr. Tudor came back and
+interrupted our conversation. He carried me off presently to show me
+some improvements in the kitchen-garden; but Max was too lazy to join us,
+and we had quite a confidential talk, walking up and down between the
+apple-trees. Mr. Tudor told me that, after all, he was becoming fond of
+his profession, and that the old women did not bore him quite so much.
+When we returned, Max was not on the lawn, but a few minutes afterwards
+he appeared at the study window.
+
+'I was just speaking to Hamilton,' he said. 'He came while you were in
+the kitchen-garden, but he was in a hurry and could not wait. By the bye,
+he told me that I was not to let you sit out there any longer, as the
+dews are so heavy. So come in, my dear.'
+
+I obeyed Max without a word. He had been here, and I had missed him!
+Everything was flat after that.
+
+I took my leave early, feeling as though all my merriment had suddenly
+dried up. How would he have met me? I wondered. Would Max have noticed
+anything different? 'How long will this state of things go on?' I
+thought, as I bade Max good-bye in the porch.
+
+I waited for some days for Gladys to come to me, and then I wrote to
+her just a few lines, begging her to have tea with me the following
+afternoon; but two or three hours afterwards Chatty brought me a note.
+
+'Do not think me unkind, Ursula,' she wrote, 'if I say that it is better
+for us not to meet just now. I have twice been on my way to you, and Etta
+has prevented my coming each time. My life just now is unendurable. Giles
+notices nothing. I sometimes think Etta must be possessed, to treat me as
+she does: I can see no reason for it. I hope I am not getting ill, but I
+do not seem as though I could rouse myself to contend with her. I do not
+sleep well, and my head pains me. If I get worse, I must speak to Giles:
+I cannot be ill in this place.'
+
+Gladys's letter made me very anxious. There was a tone about it that
+seemed as though her nerves were giving way. The heat was intense, and
+most likely anxiety about Eric was disturbing her night's rest. Want of
+sleep would be serious to Gladys's highly-strung organisation. I was
+determined to speak to Mr. Hamilton, or go myself to Gladwyn.
+
+My fears were still further aroused when Sunday came and Gladys was not
+in her usual place. After service Miss Darrell was speaking to some
+friends in the porch. As I passed Mr. Hamilton I paused for a moment, to
+question him: 'Why was Gladys not at church? Why did she never come to
+see me now?'
+
+'We might ask you that same question, I think,' he returned, rather
+pointedly. 'Gladys is not well: she spoke to me yesterday about herself,
+and I was obliged to give her a sleeping-draught. She was not awake when
+we left the house.'
+
+'I will come and see her,' I replied quickly, for Miss Darrell was
+bearing down upon us, and I am sure she heard my last words; and as I
+walked home I determined to go up to Gladwyn that very evening while the
+family were at church.
+
+I thought I had timed my visit well, and was much exasperated when Miss
+Darrell opened the door to me.
+
+'I saw you coming,' she said, in her smooth voice, 'and so I thought I
+would save Leah the trouble. She is the only servant at home, and I sent
+her upstairs to see if Gladys wanted anything. I hope you do not expect
+to see Gladys to-night, Miss Garston?'
+
+'I most certainly expect it,' was my reply. 'I have given up the evening
+service, hearing that she was ill.'
+
+'It is too kind of you; but I am sorry that I could not allow it for a
+moment. Giles was telling me an hour ago that he could not think what
+ailed Gladys: he was afraid of some nervous illness for her unless she
+were kept quiet. I could not take the responsibility of disobeying
+Giles.'
+
+'I will take the responsibility on myself,' I returned coolly. 'You
+forget that I am a nurse, Miss Darrell. I shall do Gladys no harm.'
+
+'Excuse me if I must be the judge of that,' she returned, and her thin
+lips closed in an inflexible curve: 'in my cousin's absence I could not
+allow any one to go near Gladys. Leah is with her now trying to induce
+her to take her sleeping-draught.'
+
+I looked at Miss Darrell, and wondered if I could defy her to her face,
+or whether I had better wait until I could speak to Mr. Hamilton. If
+Gladys were really taking her sleeping-draught, my presence in her room
+might excite her. If I could only know if she were telling me the truth!
+
+My doubts were answered by Leah's entrance. Miss Darrell addressed her
+eagerly:
+
+'Have you given Miss Gladys the draught, Leah?'
+
+'Yes, ma'am, and she seems nicely inclined to sleep. She heard Miss
+Garston's voice, and sent me down with her love, and she is sorry not
+to be able to see her to-night.'
+
+I thought it better to take my leave after this, hoping for better
+success next time. I watched anxiously for Mr. Hamilton the next day, but
+unfortunately I missed him. When I arrived at Janet's he had just left
+the house, and I did not meet him in the village. I was growing desperate
+at hearing no news of Gladys, and had determined to go up boldly to
+Gladwyn that very evening, when I saw Chatty coming in the direction of
+the cottage. She looked very nicely dressed, and her round face broke
+into dimples as she told me that Miss Darrell had sent her to the
+station, and that she meant to call in and have a chat with Mrs. Hathaway
+on her way, as she need not hurry back.
+
+Jem Hathaway was pretty Chatty's sweetheart. I knew him well. He was
+a blacksmith, and lived with his mother in the little stone-coloured
+cottage that faced the green. He was an honest, steady young fellow,
+a great friend of Nathaniel, and Mrs. Barton often told me that she
+considered Chatty a lucky girl to have Jem for a sweetheart.
+
+'And if you please, ma'am,' went on Chatty, looking round-eyed and
+serious, 'my mistress said that I was to give you this.' And she produced
+a slip of paper with a pencilled message. I knew Chatty always called
+Gladys her mistress: so I opened the paper eagerly:
+
+'Why did you go away on Sunday evening without seeing me? I implored Leah
+to bring you up when I heard your voice talking to Etta, and when the
+door closed I turned quite sick with disappointment. Ursula, I must see
+you; they shall not keep you from me. Come up this evening at half-past
+seven, while they are at dinner. Chatty will let you in.'
+
+'Very well: tell your mistress I will come,' I observed; and Chatty
+dropped a rustic courtesy, and said, 'Thank you, ma'am; that will do my
+mistress good,' and tripped on her way.
+
+I went back into my parlour, feeling worried and excited. Gladys had sent
+for me, and I must go; but the idea of slipping into the house in this
+surreptitious way was singularly repugnant to me. I would rather have
+chosen a time when I knew Mr. Hamilton would be absent; but in that case
+I might find it impossible to obtain admittance to Gladys's room. No,
+I must put my own feelings aside, and follow her directions. But, in
+spite of this resolve, I found it impossible to settle to anything until
+the time came for keeping my appointment.
+
+I arrived at Gladwyn just as the half-hour was chiming from the church
+clock. As I walked quickly through the shrubbery I glanced nervously up
+at the windows. Happily, the dining-room was at the back of the house,
+but Leah might be sewing in her mistress's room and see me. As this
+alarming thought occurred to my mind, I walked still more rapidly, but
+before I could raise my hand to the bell the door opened noiselessly, and
+Chatty's smiling face welcomed me.
+
+'I was watching for you,' she whispered. 'Leah is in the housekeeper's
+room, and master and Miss Darrell are at dinner. You can go up to my
+mistress at once.'
+
+I needed no further invitation. As I passed the dining-room door I could
+hear Miss Darrell's little tinkling laugh and Mr. Hamilton's deep voice
+answering her. The next moment Thornton came out of the room, and I had
+only time to whisk round the corner. I confess this narrow escape very
+much alarmed me, and my heart beat a little quickly as I tapped at
+Gladys's door; then, as I heard her weak 'Come in,' I entered.
+
+The room was full of some pungent scent, hot and unrefreshing. Some one
+had moved the dressing-table, and Gladys lay on a couch in the circular
+window, within the curtained enclosure. I always thought it the prettiest
+window in the house. It looked full on the oak avenue, and on the elms,
+where the rooks had built their nests. There was a glimpse of the white
+road, too, and the blue smoke from the chimneys of Maplehurst was plainly
+visible.
+
+The evening sunshine was streaming full on Gladys's pale face, and my
+first action after kissing her was to lower the blind. I was glad of the
+excuse for turning away a moment, for her appearance gave me quite a
+shock.
+
+She looked as though she had been ill for weeks. Her face looked dark and
+sunken, and the blue lines were painfully visible round her temples. Her
+forehead was contracted, as though with severe pain, and her eyes were
+heavy and feverish. When she raised her languid eyelids and looked at me,
+a sudden fear contracted my heart.
+
+'Ursula, thank God you have come!'
+
+'We must always thank Him, dearest, whatever happens,' I returned, as
+I knelt down by her and took her burning hand in mine. 'And now you must
+tell me what is wrong with you, and why I find you like this.'
+
+'I do not know,' she whispered, almost clinging to me. And it struck me
+then that she was frightened about herself. 'As I told Giles, I feel very
+ill. The heat tries me, and my head always aches,--such a dull, miserable
+pain; and, most of all, I cannot sleep, and all sorts of horrid thoughts
+come to me. Sometimes in the night, when I am quite alone, I feel as
+though I were light-headed and should lose my senses. Oh, Ursula, if
+this goes on, what will become of me?'
+
+'We will talk about that presently. Tell me, have you ever been ill in
+this way before?'
+
+'Yes, last summer, only not so bad. But I had the pain and the
+sleeplessness then. Giles was so good to me. He said I wanted change, and
+he took a little cottage at Westgate-on-Sea and sent me down with Lady
+Betty and Chatty, and I soon got all right.'
+
+'So I thought. And now--'
+
+'Oh, it is different this time,' she replied nervously. 'I did not have
+dreadful thoughts then, or feel frightened, as I do now. Ursula, I know
+I am very ill. If you leave me to Etta and Leah, I shall get worse. I
+have sent for you to-night to remind you of your promise.'
+
+'What promise?' I faltered. But of course I knew what she meant. A sense
+of wretchedness had been slowly growing on me as she talked. If it should
+come to that,--that I must remain under his roof! I felt a tingling sense
+of shame and humiliation at the bare idea.
+
+'Of your solemn promise, most solemnly uttered,' she repeated, 'that if I
+were ill you would come and nurse me. I claim that promise, Ursula.'
+
+'Is it absolutely necessary that I should come?' I asked, in a distressed
+voice, for all at once life seemed too difficult to me. How had I
+deserved this fresh pain!
+
+In a moment her manner grew more excited.
+
+'Necessary! If you leave me to Etta's tender mercies I shall die. But
+no--no! you could not be so cruel. They are making me take those horrid
+draughts now, and I know she gives me too much. I get so confused, but it
+is not sleep. My one terror is that I shall say things I do not mean,
+about--well, never mind that. And then she will say that my brain is
+queer. She has hinted it already, when I was excited at your going away.
+There is nothing too cruel for her to say to me. She hates me, and I do
+not know why.'
+
+'Hush! I cannot have you talk so much,' for her excitement alarmed me.
+'Remember, I am your nurse now,--a very strict one, too, as you will
+find. Yes, I will keep my promise. I will not leave you, darling.'
+
+'You promise that? You will not go away to-night?'
+
+'I shall not leave you until you are well again,' I returned, with forced
+cheerfulness. But if she knew how keenly I felt my cruel position, how
+sick and trembling I was at heart! What would he think of me? No, I must
+not go into that. Gladys had asked this sacrifice of me. She had thrown
+herself on my compassion. I would not forsake her. 'God knows my
+integrity and innocence of intention. I will not be afraid to do my duty
+to this suffering human creature,' I said to myself. And with this my
+courage revived, and I felt that strength would be given me for all that
+I had to do.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+IN THE TURRET-ROOM
+
+
+My promise to stay with Gladys soothed her at once, and she lay back on
+her pillows and closed her aching eyes contentedly, while I sat down and
+wrote a hasty note to Mrs. Barton.
+
+When I had finished it, I said quietly that I was going downstairs in
+search of her brother; and when she looked a little frightened at this, I
+made her understand, in as few words as possible, that it was necessary
+for me to obtain his sanction, both as doctor and master of the house,
+and then we should have nothing to fear from Miss Darrell. And when I had
+said this she let me go more willingly.
+
+My errand was not a pleasant one, and I felt very sorry for myself as I
+walked slowly downstairs hoping that I should find Mr. Hamilton alone in
+his study; but they must have lingered longer than usual over dessert,
+for before I reached the hall the dining-room door opened, and they came
+out together; and Miss Darrell paused for a moment under the hall lamp.
+
+She was very much overdressed, as usual, in an _eau de Nile_ gown,
+trimmed with costly lace: her gold bangles jangled as she fanned herself.
+
+'Come out into the garden, Giles,' she said, with a ladylike yawn; 'it is
+so hot indoors. I thought you said that you expected Mr. Cunliffe.'
+
+'Perhaps he will be here by and by,' returned Mr. Hamilton; and then he
+looked up and saw me.
+
+'Miss Garston!' he ejaculated, as though he could scarcely believe his
+eyes, and Miss Darrell broke into an angry little laugh; but I took no
+notice of her. I determined to speak out boldly what I had to say.
+
+'Mr. Hamilton,' I said quickly, 'I have seen Gladys. I am quite shocked
+at her appearance: she certainly looks very ill. If you will allow me,
+I should like to remain and nurse her.'
+
+'But you must allow no such thing, Giles,' interfered his cousin sharply.
+'I have always nursed poor dear Gladys myself, and no one understands her
+as I do.'
+
+'Gladys sent for me just now,' I went on firmly, without taking any
+notice of this speech, 'to beg me to remain with her. She has set her
+heart on my nursing her, and she reminded me of my promise.'
+
+'What promise?' he asked, rather harshly; but I noticed that he looked
+disturbed and ill at ease.
+
+'Some months ago, just before Gladys went to Bournemouth, she asked me to
+make her a promise, that if she were ever ill in this house I would give
+up my work and come and nurse her. She was perfectly well then,--at
+least, in her ordinary health,--and I saw no harm in giving her the
+promise. She claims from me now the fulfilment.'
+
+'Very extraordinary,' observed Miss Darrell, in a sneering voice. 'But
+then dear Gladys was always a little odd and romantic. You remember I
+warned you some time ago, Giles, that if we were not careful and firm--'
+
+'Pshaw!' was the impatient answer, and I continued pleadingly,--
+
+'Gladys seems to me in a weak, nervous state, and I do not think it would
+be wise to thwart her in this. Sick people must be humoured sometimes. I
+think you could trust me to watch over her most carefully.'
+
+'Giles, I will not answer for the consequences if Miss Garston nurses
+Gladys,' interposed Miss Darrell eagerly. 'You have no idea how she
+excites her. They talk, and have mysteries together, and Gladys is always
+more low-spirited when she has seen Miss Garston. You know I have only
+dear Gladys's interest at heart, and in a serious nervous illness like
+this--' But he interrupted her.
+
+'Etta, this is no affair of yours: you can leave me, if you please, to
+make arrangements for my sister. I am very much obliged to you, Miss
+Garston, for offering to nurse Gladys, but there was no need of all this
+explanation; you might have known, I think, that I was not likely to
+refuse.'
+
+He spoke coldly, and his face looked dark and inflexible, but I could see
+he was watching me. I am sure I perplexed and baffled him that night: as
+I thanked him warmly for his consent, he checked me almost irritably:
+
+'Nonsense! the thanks are on our side, as we shall reap the benefit of
+your services. What shall you do about your other patients, may I ask?'
+
+'I will tell you,' I returned, not a bit daunted either by his
+irritability or sternness. In my heart I knew that he was glad that
+I had asked this favour of him. Oh, I understood him too well to be
+afraid of his moods now!
+
+'I must ask you to help me,' I went on. 'Will you kindly send that note
+to Mrs. Barton. It is to beg her to furnish me with all I need.'
+
+'Thornton shall take it at once,' he returned promptly.
+
+'Thank you. Now about my poor people. Little Jessie still needs care, and
+Janet will be an invalid for some time. I do not wish them to miss me.'
+
+His face softened; a half-smile came to his lips. 'There is only one
+village nurse,' he said dubiously.
+
+'True, but I think I can find an excellent substitute. Do you remember my
+speaking to you of a young nurse at St. Thomas's who was obliged to leave
+from ill health? She is better now, only not fit for hospital work. I am
+thinking of writing to her, and asking her to occupy my rooms at the
+cottage for a week or two until Gladys is better. Change of air will do
+Miss Watson good, and it will not hurt her to look after Janet and little
+Jessie.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton looked pleased at this suggestion,--'an excellent idea,'
+and, as though by an afterthought, 'a very kind one. I did not wish to
+add to your burdens, but Janet Coombe is hardly out of the wood yet.'
+
+Miss Darrell tittered scornfully. As I glanced at her, I saw she was
+dragging her gold bangles over her arm until there was a red line on the
+flesh. Her eyes looked dark and glittering, but she was obliged to
+suppress her anger.
+
+'Janet Coombe is only a poor servant. The work is not so attractive to
+Miss Garston, I should think,' she said, in a tone so suggestive that the
+blood rushed to my face. Women know how to stab sometimes. Happily, Mr.
+Hamilton's common sense came to my aid. I quieted down directly at the
+first sound of his voice.
+
+'What makes you so uncharitable, Etta? We all know our village nurse too
+well to believe that insinuation. If Gladys be only nursed with half the
+tenderness that was shown to Janet, I shall be quite content to leave her
+under Miss Garston's care.' Then, turning to me, with something of his
+old cordial manner, 'Well, it is all settled, is it not, that you remain
+here to-night? Is there anything else you wish to say to me?'
+
+'Only one thing,' I replied quietly. 'Will you kindly give orders that
+Gladys's little maid, Chatty, waits upon the sick-room? Leah seems to
+have taken that office upon herself lately, and Gladys has a great
+dislike to her.'
+
+'Really, this passes everything!' exclaimed Miss Darrell angrily. 'What
+has my poor Leah done, to be set aside in this way?'
+
+'She is your maid, is she not, Etta?'
+
+'Yes; but, Giles--'
+
+'And Chatty always waits on my sisters. It is certainly not Leah's
+business to wait on the turret-room.'
+
+'Leah,' raising his voice a little, as Leah came downstairs with a tray
+of linen, 'I want to speak to you a moment. Miss Garston has undertaken
+to nurse my sister, and all her orders are to be carried out. Chatty is
+to attend to the sick-room for the future; there is no need for you to
+neglect your mistress.'
+
+'Very well, sir,' replied the woman civilly; but he did not see the look
+she gave me. I had made an enemy of Leah from that moment: neither she
+nor her mistress would ever forgive me that slight.
+
+'If Miss Garston has no more orders to give me,' observed Miss Darrell,
+with ill-concealed temper, 'I may as well go, for I am rather tired of
+this, Giles.' And she followed Leah, and we could hear them whispering
+in the little passage leading to the housekeeper's room.
+
+'You must not mind Etta's little show of temper,' remarked Mr. Hamilton
+apologetically. 'She is rather put out because Gladys prefers your
+nursing. Between ourselves, she is a little too fussy to suit a nervous
+invalid; but she is kind-hearted and means well. I was rather sorry for
+her just now, but I know how to bring her round.'
+
+'I am no favourite with Miss Darrell,' I returned, wondering secretly at
+his blind infatuation for his cousin.
+
+'No; it is easy to see that you do not understand each other. Etta was
+not quite fair to you just now. That is why I spoke so decidedly. I will
+have no interference with the sick-room: you will have to account to me,
+but to no one else.'
+
+I did not venture to raise my eyes. I was so afraid they might betray me.
+How could I repent my trust in such a man? I felt I could wait cheerfully
+for years, until he chose to break down the barrier between us.
+
+I bade him good-night, after this, and hurried back to Gladys. I had no
+idea that he was following me. As I closed the door, I said, in quite a
+gay tone,--
+
+'Well, darling, I always told you your brother was your best friend, and
+he has proved the truth of my words. I knew we could trust him--' But a
+knock at the door interrupted me. I felt rather confused when he entered,
+for I knew I must have been overheard; but he took no notice, and went
+straight up to Gladys.
+
+'You see, it is to be as you wished,' he said pleasantly, 'and Miss
+Garston has installed herself here as your nurse. Is your mind easier
+now, you foolish child?'
+
+'Oh yes, Giles, and I am so much obliged to you; it is so good of you to
+allow it.'
+
+'Humph! I don't see the goodness much; but never mind that now: you must
+promise me to do all Miss Garston tells you, and get well as soon as you
+can. Make up your mind, my dear, that you will try and overcome all these
+nervous fancies.'
+
+'Yes, Giles,' very faintly.
+
+'You have let yourself get rather too low, and so it will be hard work to
+pull you up again; but we mean to do it between us, eh, Miss Garston?'
+
+I told him that I hoped Gladys would soon be better.
+
+'Oh yes; but Rome was not built in a day,' patting her hand: 'we want a
+little time and patience, that is all.' And he was leaving the room, when
+her languid voice recalled him:
+
+'I mean to be good, and give as little trouble as possible,--and--and--I
+should like you to kiss me, Giles.'
+
+I saw a dusky flush come to his face as he stooped and kissed her. I knew
+it was the first time that she had ever voluntarily kissed him since
+Eric's loss.
+
+'Good-night, my dear,' he said, very gently; but he did not look at me as
+he left the room.
+
+I put Gladys to bed after this, with Chatty's help. She was very faint
+and exhausted, and I sat down in the moonlight to watch her. My thoughts
+were busy enough. There would be little sleep for me that night, I knew.
+It was so strange for me to be under that roof,--so strange and so sweet
+that I should be serving him and his; and then I thought of Uncle Max,
+and how troubled he would be to hear of Gladys's illness, and I
+determined to write to him the next day.
+
+I was rather startled later on, when most of the household had retired to
+rest, to hear a gentle tap at the door.
+
+Of course it was Mr. Hamilton, and I went into the passage, half closing
+the door behind me.
+
+'Is she asleep?' he asked anxiously, as he noticed this action.
+
+'No, not asleep, but quite drowsy. I have given her the draught as you
+wished, but it is singular how she objects to it. She says it only
+confuses her head, and gives her nightmare.'
+
+'We must quiet her by some means,' he returned; and I saw by the light of
+the lamp he carried that his face looked rather grave. 'Perhaps you did
+not know that Etta and I were up with her last night. She was in a
+condition that bordered on delirium.'
+
+'No; I certainly did not know that.'
+
+'She may be better to-night,' he returned quickly: 'her mind is more at
+rest. Poor child! I cannot understand what has brought on this state of
+disordered nerves.'
+
+'Nor I.'
+
+'It is very sad altogether. It is a great relief to me to know you are
+with her. I must have had a professional nurse, for Etta's fussiness was
+driving her crazy. Now, Miss Garston,' in a business-like tone, 'I want
+to know how they have provided for your comfort. Where do you sleep
+to-night?'
+
+I could not suppress a smile, for I knew that there had been no provision
+made for my accommodation: the whole household had metaphorically washed
+their hands of me.
+
+'I shall rest very well on the couch,' I returned, unwilling to disturb
+him.
+
+'Good heavens!' he exclaimed, looking excessively displeased. 'Do you
+mean that Lady Betty's room has not been got ready for you? I told Leah
+myself, as Chatty was in the sick-room; and she certainly understood me.
+This shall be looked into to-morrow. Leah will find I am not to be
+disobeyed with impunity. I thought Lady Betty's room would do so well for
+you, as there is a door of communication, and if you left it open you
+could hear Gladys in a moment.'
+
+'Never mind to-night,' I returned cheerfully. 'I am quite fresh, and
+shall not need much sleep. No doubt the room will be ready for me
+to-morrow.'
+
+'Well, I suppose it is too late to disturb them now; but I feel very much
+ashamed of our inhospitality.' Then, in rather an embarrassed voice, 'I
+am afraid I must have seemed rather ungracious in my manner downstairs,
+but I am really very grateful to you.'
+
+This was too much for me. 'Please don't talk of being grateful to me, Mr.
+Hamilton,' I returned, rather too impulsively. 'You do not know how glad
+I am to do anything for you--all.' The word 'all' was added as though by
+an afterthought, and came in a little awkwardly.
+
+There was a sudden gleam in Mr. Hamilton's eyes; he seemed about to
+speak; impetuous words were on his tongue, then he checked himself.
+
+'Thank you. Good-night, Nurse Ursula,' he said, very kindly, and I went
+back to Gladys, feeling happier than I had felt since that afternoon when
+he had given me the roses.
+
+Gladys was quieter that night; she slept fitfully and uneasily, and
+moaned a little as though she were conscious of pain, but there was no
+alarming excitement.
+
+Early the next morning I heard them preparing Lady Betty's room, and once
+when I went into the passage in search of Chatty I met Leah coming out
+with a dusting-brush: she looked very sullen, and took no notice of my
+greeting. Chatty helped me arrange my goods and chattels: as we worked
+together she told me confidentially that master had been scolding Leah,
+and had told her she ought to be ashamed of herself, and when Miss
+Darrell had taken her part he had been angry with her too. 'Thornton says
+Miss Darrell has been crying, and has not eaten a mouthful of breakfast,'
+went on Chatty; but I silenced these imprudent communications. It was
+quite evident that I was a bone of contention in the household, and that
+Mr. Hamilton would have some difficulty in subduing Leah's contumacy.
+
+I wrote to Ellen Watson that morning, and soon received a rapturous
+acceptance of my invitation. She would be delighted to come to the
+cottage and to look after my poor people.
+
+'I am very much stronger,' she wrote, 'but I must not go back to the
+hospital for two months: a breath of country air will be delicious, and
+it is so good of you, my dear Miss Garston, to think of me. I am sure
+Mrs. Barton will make me comfortable, and I will do all I can for poor
+Janet Coombe and that dear little burnt child.'
+
+I showed Mr. Hamilton the letter, and while he was reading it Chatty
+brought me word that Uncle Max was waiting to speak to me.
+
+'If you like to go down to him I will wait here until you come back,' he
+said; and I was too glad to avail myself of this offer, for Gladys seemed
+more suffering and restless than usual. I found Max walking up and down
+the drawing-room. As he came forward to meet me his face looked quite old
+and haggard.
+
+'I am glad you have not kept me waiting, Ursula. I sent up that message
+in spite of Leah's telling me that you never left the sick-room.'
+
+'Leah is wrong,' I replied coolly. 'Mr. Hamilton insists on my going in
+the garden for at least half an hour daily, while Chatty takes my place.
+I cannot stay long, Max, but all the same I am glad you sent for me.'
+
+'I felt I must see you,' he returned, rather huskily. 'Letters are so
+unsatisfactory; but it was good of you to write, always so kind and
+thoughtful, my dear.' He paused for a moment as though to recover
+himself. 'She is very ill, Ursula?'
+
+'Very ill.'
+
+'How gravely you speak! Are things worse than you told me? You do not
+mean to tell me there is absolute danger?'
+
+'Oh no; certainly not; but it is very sad to see her in such a state. Her
+nerves have quite broken down; all these three years have told on her,
+and there seems some fresh trouble on her mind!'
+
+'God forbid!' he returned quickly.
+
+'Ay, God forbid, for He alone knows what is burdening the mind of this
+young creature: she is too weak to throw off her nervous fancies. She
+blames herself for harbouring such gloomy thoughts, and it distresses her
+not to be able to control them. The night is her worst time. If we could
+only conquer this sleeplessness! I have sad work with her sometimes.'
+
+I spared Max further particulars: he was harassed and anxious enough.
+I would not harrow up his feelings by telling him how often that feeble,
+piteous voice roused me from my light slumbers; how, hurrying to her
+bedside, I would find Gladys bathed in tears, and cold and trembling in
+every limb, and how she would cling to me, pouring out an incoherent
+account of some vague shadowy terror that was on her.
+
+There were other things I could have told him: how in that semi-delirium
+his name, as well as Etta's, was perpetually on her lips, uttered in a
+tone sometimes tender, but more often reproachful, sometimes in a very
+anguish of regret. Now I understood why she dreaded Etta's presence in
+her room: she feared betraying herself to those keen ears. Often after
+one of these outbursts she would strive to collect her scattered
+faculties.
+
+'Have I been talking nonsense, Ursula?' she would ask, in a tremulous
+voice. 'I have been dreaming, I think, and the pain in my head confuses
+me so: do not let me talk so much.' But I always succeeded in soothing
+her.
+
+If I read her secret, it was safe with me. I must know more before I
+could help either her or him. If she would only get well enough for me to
+talk to her, I knew what to say; and I did all I could to console Max.
+But I could not easily allay his anxiety or my own; it was impossible to
+conceal from him that she was in a precarious state, and that unless the
+power of sleep returned to her there was danger of actual brain-fever; in
+her morbid condition one knew not what to fear. Perfect quiet, patience,
+and tenderness were the only means to be employed. As I moved about the
+cool, dark room, where no uneasy lights and shadows fretted her weakened
+eyes, I could not help remembering the comfortless glare and the hot,
+pungent scents that Miss Darrell had left behind her. Most likely she had
+rustled over the matting in her silk gown, and her hard, metallic voice
+had rasped the invalid's nerves. Doubtless there was hope for her now in
+her brother's skilful treatment, and when I told Max so he went away a
+little comforted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+
+WHITEFOOT IS SADDLED
+
+
+After the first day or so the strangeness and novelty of my
+position wore off, and I settled down to my work in the sick-room.
+
+Chatty waited upon us very nicely; but Miss Darrell never came near us.
+Once a day a formal message was brought by Chatty asking after the
+invalid. I used to think this somewhat unnecessary, as Mr. Hamilton could
+report his sister's progress at breakfast-time.
+
+When I encountered Miss Darrell on my way to the garden I always accosted
+her with marked civility; her manner would be a little repelling in
+return, and she would answer me very coldly. In spite of her outward
+politeness, I think she was a little afraid of me at that time. I always
+felt that a concealed sneer lay under her words. She made it clearly
+understood that she considered that I had forced myself into the house
+for my own purposes. Under these conditions I thought it better to avoid
+these encounters as much as possible.
+
+I saw Uncle Max two or three times. He had timed his visits purposely
+that he might join me in my stroll in the garden. We had made the
+arrangement to meet in this way daily. Max's society and sympathy would
+have been a refreshment to me, but we were obliged to discontinue the
+practice. Max never appeared without Miss Darrell following a few minutes
+afterwards. She would come out of the house, brisk and smiling, in
+_grande toilette_,--to take a turn in the shrubberies, as she said.
+Max would look at me and very soon take his leave. At last he told
+me dejectedly that we might as well give it up, as Miss Darrell was
+determined that he should not speak to me alone: so after that I
+contrived to send him daily notes by Chatty, who was always delighted
+to do an errand in the village.
+
+'I can't think what makes Miss Darrell so curious, ma'am,' the girl once
+said to me. 'She asks me every day if I have been down to the vicarage.
+She did it while master was by the other afternoon, and he told her quite
+sharply that it was no affair of hers.'
+
+'Never mind that, Chatty.'
+
+'Oh, but I am afraid she means mischief, ma'am,' persisted Chatty, who
+had a great dislike to Miss Darrell, which she showed by being somewhat
+pert to her, 'for she said in such a queer tone to master, "There, I told
+you so: now you will believe me," and master looked as though he were not
+pleased.'
+
+As I strolled round the garden in Nap's company I often saw Leah
+sitting sewing at her mistress's window: she would put down her work and
+watch me until I was out of sight. I felt the woman hated me, and this
+surveillance was very unpleasant to me. I never felt quite free until
+I reached the kitchen-garden.
+
+Mr. Hamilton visited his sister's room regularly three times a day. He
+never stayed long: he would satisfy himself about her condition, say a
+few cheerful words to her, and that was all.
+
+His manner to me was grave and professional. Now and then, when he had
+given his directions, he would ask me if there were anything he could do
+for me, and if I were comfortable: and yet, in spite of his reserve and
+guarded looks and words, I felt an atmosphere of protection and comfort
+surrounding me that I had not known since Charlie's death.
+
+Every day I had proofs of his thought for me. The flowers and fruits that
+were sent into the sick-room were for me as well as Gladys. I was often
+touched to see how some taste of mine had been remembered and gratified:
+sometimes Chatty would tell me that master had given orders that such a
+thing should be provided for Miss Garston; and in many other ways he made
+me feel that I was not forgotten.
+
+For some days Gladys continued very ill; she slept fitfully and uneasily,
+waking in terror from some dream that escaped her memory. I used to hear
+her moaning, and be beside her before she opened her eyes. 'It is only a
+nightmare,' I would say to her as she clung to me like a frightened
+child; but it was not always easy to banish the grisly phantoms of a
+diseased and overwrought imagination. The morbid condition of her mind
+was aggravated and increased by physical weakness; at the least exertion
+she had fainting-fits that alarmed us.
+
+She told me more than once that a sense of sin oppressed her; she must be
+more wicked than other people, or she thought Providence would not permit
+her to be so unhappy. Sometimes she blamed herself with influencing Eric
+wrongly: she ought not to have taken his part against his brother. '"He
+that hateth his brother is a murderer." Ursula, there were times, I am
+sure, when I hated Giles.' And with this thought upon her she would beg
+him to forgive her when he next came into the room.
+
+He never seemed surprised at these exaggerated expressions of penitence:
+he treated it all as part of her malady.
+
+'Very well, I will forgive you, my dear,' he would say, feeling her
+pulse. 'Have you taken your medicine, Gladys?'
+
+'Oh, but, Giles, I do feel so wretched about it all! Are you sure that
+you really and truly forgive me?'
+
+'Quite sure,' he returned, smiling at her. 'Now you must shut your eyes,
+like a good child, and go to sleep.' But, though she tried to obey him, I
+could see she was not satisfied: tears rolled down her cheeks from under
+her closed eyelids.
+
+'What is it, my darling?' I asked, kissing her. 'Do you feel more ill
+than usual?'
+
+'No, no; it is only this sense of sin. Oh, Ursula, how nice it would be
+to die, and never do anything wrong again!' And so she went on bemoaning
+herself.
+
+I had thought it better to move her into Lady Betty's room. It was a
+large square room opening out of the turret-room, and very light and
+airy. I had a little bed put up for my use, so that I could hear her
+every movement. I told Mr. Hamilton that I could not feel easy to have
+her out of my sight; and he quite agreed with me.
+
+In the daytime we carried her into the turret-room. The little recess
+formed by the circular window made a charming sitting-room, and just held
+Gladys's couch and an easy-chair and a little round table with a basket
+of hot-house flowers on it. Mr. Hamilton declared that we looked very
+cosy when he first found us there.
+
+In the cool of the evening, when Gladys could bear the blind raised, it
+was very pleasant to sit there looking down on the little oak avenue,
+where the girls had set their tea-table that afternoon: we could watch
+the rooks cawing and circling about the elms. Sometimes Mr. Hamilton
+would pass with Nap at his heels and look up at us with a smile. Once a
+great bunch of roses all wet with dew came flying through the open window
+and fell on Gladys's muslin gown. 'Did Giles throw them? Will you thank
+him, Ursula?' she said, raising them in her thin fingers. 'How cool and
+delicious they are?' But when I looked out Mr. Hamilton was not to be
+seen.
+
+Lady Betty wrote very piteous letters begging to be recalled, which Mr.
+Hamilton answered very kindly but firmly. He told her that Gladys
+required perfect quiet, that if she came home she would not be allowed to
+be with her; and when Lady Betty heard that I was nursing her she grew a
+little more content.
+
+Gladys was always more restless and suffering towards evening; 'her bad
+thoughts,' as she called them, came out like bats in the darkness. I
+tried the experiment of singing to her one evening, and I found, to my
+delight, that my voice had a soothing influence: after this I always sang
+to her after she was in bed: I used to take up my station by the window
+and sing softly one song after another, until she was quiet and drowsy.
+
+As I sang I always saw a dark shadow, moving slowly under the oak-trees,
+pacing slowly up and down; sometimes it approached the house and stood
+motionless under the window, but I never took any notice.
+
+'Thank you, dear Ursula,' Gladys would say when I at last ceased; 'I
+feel more comfortable now.' And after a time I would hear her regular
+breathing and know she was asleep. I shall never forget the relief with
+which I watched her first natural sleep: she had had a restless night, as
+usual, but towards morning she had fallen into a quiet, refreshing sleep,
+which had lasted for three hours.
+
+I had finished my breakfast when I heard her stirring, and hurried in to
+her; to my delight, she spoke to me quite naturally, without a trace of
+nervousness:
+
+'I have had such a lovely sleep, Ursula, and without any bad dreams.
+I feel so refreshed.'
+
+'I am so glad to hear it, dear,' I replied; and, overjoyed at this good
+news, I went out into the passage to find Chatty, for I wanted Mr.
+Hamilton to know at once of this improvement. He had been very anxious
+the previous night, and had talked of consulting with an old friend of
+his who knew Gladys's constitution.
+
+On the threshold I encountered Miss Darrell.
+
+'Were you looking for any one?' she asked coldly.
+
+'Yes, for Chatty. I want Mr. Hamilton to know that Gladys has had three
+hours' sleep, and has awakened refreshed and without any nervous
+feelings. Will you be kind enough to tell him?'
+
+'Oh, certainly: not that I attach much importance to such a transient
+improvement. Gladys's case is far too serious for me to be so sanguine.
+I believe you have not nursed these nervous patients before. If Giles had
+taken my advice he would have had a person trained to this special work.'
+
+'Gladys's case does not require that sort of nurse,' I replied quickly.
+'Excuse me, Miss Darrell, but I am anxious that Mr. Hamilton should know
+of his sister's improvement before he goes out. Chatty told me that they
+had sent for him from Abbey Farm.'
+
+'Yes, I believe so,' she replied carelessly. 'Don't trouble yourself Miss
+Garston: I am quite as anxious as yourself that Giles's mind should be
+put at rest. He has had worry enough, poor fellow.'
+
+I was rather surprised and disappointed when, ten minutes afterwards, I
+heard the hall door close, and, hurrying to a window, I saw Mr. Hamilton
+walking very quickly in the direction of Maplehurst. A moment afterwards
+Chatty brought me a message from him. He had been called off suddenly,
+and might not be back for hours. If I wanted him, Atkinson was to take
+one of the horses. He would probably be at Abbey Farm or at Gunter's
+Cottages in the Croft.
+
+This message rather puzzled me. After turning it over in my mind, I went
+in search of Miss Darrell. I found her in the conservatory gathering some
+flowers.
+
+'Did you give my message to Mr. Hamilton?' I asked, rather abruptly. I
+thought she hesitated and seemed a little confused.
+
+'What message? Oh, I remember,--about Gladys. No, I just missed him: he
+had gone out. But it is of no consequence, is it? I will tell him when he
+comes home.'
+
+I would not trust myself to reply. She must have purposely loitered on
+her way downstairs, hoping to annoy me. He would spend an anxious day,
+for I knew he was very uncomfortable about Gladys: perhaps he would write
+to Dr. Townsend. It was no use speaking to Miss Darrell: she was only too
+ready to thwart me on all occasions. I would take the matter into my own
+hands. I went down to the stables and found Atkinson, and asked him to
+ride over to Abbey Farm and take a note to his master.
+
+'I hope Miss Gladys is not worse, ma'am,' he said civilly, looking rather
+alarmed at his errand; but when I had satisfied him on this point he
+promised to find him as quickly as possible.
+
+'There is only Whitefoot in the stable,' he said. 'Master has both the
+browns out: Norris was to pick him up in the village. But he is quite
+fresh, and will do the job easily.' I wrote my note while Whitefoot was
+being saddled, and then went back to the house. Miss Darrell looked at me
+suspiciously.
+
+'I thought I heard voices in the stable-yard,' she said; and I at once
+told her what I had done.
+
+For the first time she seemed utterly confounded.
+
+'You told Atkinson to saddle Whitefoot and go all these miles just to
+carry that ridiculous message! I wonder what Giles will say,' she
+observed indignantly. 'All these years that I have managed his house
+I should never have thought of taking such a liberty.'
+
+This was hard to bear, but I answered her with seeming coolness:
+
+'If Mr. Hamilton thinks I am wrong, he will tell me so. In this house
+I am only accountable to him.' And I walked away with much dignity.
+
+But I knew I had been right when I saw Mr. Hamilton's face that evening,
+for he did not return until seven o'clock. He came up at once, and
+beckoned me into Lady Betty's room.
+
+'Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Miss Garston,' he said gratefully.
+'You have spared me a wretchedly anxious day. A bad accident case at
+Abbey Farm called me off, and I had only time to get my things ready, and
+I was obliged to see the colonel first. If you had not sent me that note
+I should have written to Dr. Townsend. But why did not Chatty bring me a
+message before I went?'
+
+I explained that I had given the message to Miss Darrell.
+
+'That is very strange,' he observed thoughtfully. 'Thornton was helping
+me in the hall when I saw Etta watering her flower-stand. Well, never
+mind; she shall have her lecture presently. Now let us go to Gladys.'
+
+Of course his first look at her told him she was better, and he went
+downstairs contentedly to eat his dinner. After this Gladys made slow but
+steady progress: she gained a little more strength; the habit of sleep
+returned to her; her nights were no longer seasons of terror, leaving her
+dejected and exhausted. Insensibly her thoughts became more hopeful; she
+spoke of other things besides her own feelings, and no longer refused to
+yield to my efforts to cheer her.
+
+I watched my opportunity, and one evening, as we were sitting by the
+window looking out at a crescent moon that hung like a silver bow behind
+the oak-trees, I remarked, with assumed carelessness, that Uncle Max had
+called earlier that day. There was a perceptible start on Gladys's part,
+and she caught her breath for an instant.
+
+'Do you mean that Mr. Cunliffe often comes?' she asked, in a low voice,
+and turning her long neck aside with a quick movement that concealed her
+face.
+
+'Oh yes, every day. I do not believe that he has missed more than once,
+and then he sent Mr. Tudor. You see your friends have been anxious about
+you, Gladys. I wrote to Max often to tell him exactly what progress you
+were making.'
+
+'It was very kind of him to be so anxious,' she answered slowly, and
+with manifest effort. I thought it best to say no more just then, but to
+leave her to digest these few words. That night was the best she had yet
+passed, and in the morning I was struck by the improvement in her
+appearance; she looked calmer and more cheerful.
+
+Towards mid-day I noticed that she grew a little abstracted, and when
+Uncle Max's bell rang, she looked at me, and a tinge of colour came to
+her face.
+
+'Should you not like to go down and speak to Mr. Cunliffe?' she said
+timidly. 'I must not keep you such a prisoner, Ursula.' But when I
+returned indifferently that another day would do as well, and that I had
+nothing special to say to him, I noticed that she looked disappointed. As
+I never mentioned Miss Darrell's name to her, I could not explain my real
+reason for declining to go down. I was rather surprised when she
+continued in an embarrassed tone, as though speech had grown difficult to
+her,--she often hesitated in this fashion when anything disturbed her,--
+
+'I am rather sorry that Etta always sees him alone: one never knows what
+she may say to him. I have begun to distrust her in most things.'
+
+'I do not think that it matters much what she says to him,' I returned
+briskly; for it would never do to leave her anxious on this point. 'You
+know I have provided an antidote in the shape of daily notes.'
+
+'Surely you do not write every day,' taking her fan from the table with
+a trembling hand. 'What can you have to say to Mr. Cunliffe about me?'
+And I could see she waited for my answer with suppressed eagerness.
+
+'Oh, he likes to know how you slept,' I returned carelessly, 'and if you
+are quieter and more cheerful. Uncle Max has such sympathy with people
+who are ill; he is very kind-hearted.'
+
+'Oh yes; I never knew any one more so,' she replied gently; but I
+detected a yearning tone in her voice, as though she was longing for his
+sympathy then. We did not say any more, but I thought she was a trifle
+restless that afternoon, and yet she looked happier; she spoke once or
+twice, as though she were tired of remaining upstairs.
+
+'I think I am stronger. Does Giles consider it necessary for me to stop
+up here?' she asked, once. 'If it were not for Etta I should like to be
+in the drawing-room. But no, that would be an end to our peace.' And here
+she looked a little excited. 'But if Giles would let me have a drive.'
+
+I promised to speak to him on the subject of the drive, for I was sure
+that he would hail the proposition most gladly as a sign of returning
+health; but I told her that in my opinion it would be better for her to
+remain quietly in these two pleasant rooms until she was stronger and
+more fit to endure the little daily annoyances that are so trying to a
+nervous invalid.
+
+'When that time comes you will have to part with your nurse,' I went on,
+in a joking tone. But I was grieved to see that at the first hint of my
+leaving her she clung to me with the old alarm visible in her manner.
+
+'You must not say that! I cannot part with you, Ursula!' she exclaimed
+vehemently. 'If you go, you must take me with you.' And it was some time
+before she would let herself be laughed out of her anxious thoughts.
+
+When I revolved all these things in my mind,--her prolonged delicacy and
+painful sensitiveness, her aversion to her cousin, and her evident dread
+of the future,--I felt that the time had come to seek a more complete
+understanding on a point that still perplexed me: I must come to the
+bottom of this singular change in her manner to Max. I must know without
+doubt and reserve the real state of her feeling with regard to him and
+her cousin Claude. If, as I had grown to think during these weeks of
+illness, one of these two men, and not Eric, was the chief cause of her
+melancholy, I must know which of these two had so agitated her young
+life. But in my own mind I never doubted which it was.
+
+This was the difficult task I had set myself, and I felt that it would
+not be easy to approach the subject. Gladys was exceedingly reserved,
+even with me; it had cost her an effort to speak to me of Eric, and she
+had never once mentioned her cousin Captain Hamilton's name.
+
+A woman like Gladys would be extremely reticent on the subject of lovers:
+the deeper her feelings, the more she would conceal them. Unlike other
+girls, I never heard her speak in the light jesting way with which others
+mention a love-affair. She once told me that she considered it far too
+sacred and serious to be used as a topic of general conversation. 'People
+do not know what they are talking about when they say such things,' she
+said, in a moved voice: 'there is no reverence, and little reticence,
+nowadays. Girls talk of falling in love, or men felling in love with
+them, as lightly as they would speak of going to a ball. They do not
+consider the responsibility, the awfulness, of such an election, being
+chosen out of a whole worldful of women to be the light and life of a
+man's home. Oh, it hurts me to hear some girls talk!' she finished, with
+a slight shudder.
+
+Knowing the purity and uprightness of this girl's nature, I confess I
+hesitated long in intruding myself into that inner sanctuary that she
+guarded so carefully; but for Max's sake--poor Max, who grew more
+tired-looking and haggard every day--I felt it would be cruel to hesitate
+longer.
+
+So one evening, when we were sitting quietly together enjoying the cool
+evening air, I took Gladys's thin hand in mine and asked her if she felt
+well enough for me to talk to her about something that had long troubled
+me, and that I feared speaking to her about, dreading lest I should
+displease her. I thought she looked a little apprehensive at my
+seriousness, but she replied very sweetly, and the tears came into her
+beautiful eyes as she spoke, that nothing I could say or do could
+displease her; that I was so true a friend to her that it would be
+impossible for her to take offence.
+
+'I am glad of that, Gladys dear,' I returned quietly; 'for I have long
+wanted courage to ask you a question. What is the real reason of your
+estrangement from Max?' and then, growing bolder, I whispered in her ear,
+as she shrank from me, 'I do not ask what are your feelings to him, for I
+think I have guessed them,--unless, indeed, I am wrong, and you prefer
+your cousin Captain Hamilton.' I almost feared that I had been too abrupt
+and awkward when I saw her sudden paleness: she began to tremble like a
+leaf until I mentioned Captain Hamilton's name, and then she turned to me
+with a look of mingled astonishment and indignation.
+
+'Claude? Are you out of your senses, Ursula? Who has put such an idea
+into your head?'
+
+I remembered Uncle Max's injunctions to secrecy, and felt I must be
+careful.
+
+'I thought that it could not be Captain Hamilton,' I returned, rather
+lamely: 'you have never mentioned his name to me.' But she interrupted me
+in a tone of poignant distress, and there was a sudden trouble in her
+eyes, brought there by my mention of Claude.
+
+'Oh, this is dreadful!' she exclaimed: 'you come to me and talk about
+Claude, knowing all the time that I have never breathed his name to you.
+Who has spoken it, then? How could such a thought arise in your mind? It
+must be Etta, and we are undone,--undone!'
+
+'My darling, you must not excite yourself about a mere mistake,' I
+returned, anxious to soothe her. 'I cannot tell you how it came into my
+head; that is my little secret, Gladys, my dear: if you agitate yourself
+at a word we shall never understand each other. I want you to trust me as
+you would trust a dear sister,--we are sisters in heart, Gladys,'--but
+here I blushed over my words and wished them unuttered,--'and to tell me
+exactly what has passed between you and Max.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL
+
+THE TALK IN THE GLOAMING
+
+
+I heard Gladys repeat my words softly under her breath,--she seemed to
+say them in a sort of dream,--'what has passed between you and Max.' And
+then she looked at me a little pitifully, and her lip quivered. 'Oh, if I
+dared to speak! but to you of all persons,--what would you think of me?
+Could it be right?--and I have never opened my lips to any one on that
+subject of my own accord; if Lady Betty knows, it is because Etta told
+her. Oh, it was wrong--cruel of Giles to let her worm the truth out of
+him!'
+
+'If Lady Betty and Miss Darrell know, you might surely trust me,--your
+friend,' I returned. 'Gladys, you know how I honour reticence in such
+matters; I am the last person to force an unwilling confidence; but there
+are reasons--no, I cannot explain myself; you must trust me implicitly or
+not at all. I do not think you will ever repent that trust; and for your
+own sake as well as mine I implore you to confide in me.' For a moment
+she looked at me with wide, troubled eyes, then she ceased to hesitate.
+
+'What is it you want to know?' she asked, in a low voice.
+
+'Everything, all that has passed between you and my poor Max, who always
+seems so terribly unhappy. Is it not you who have to answer for that
+unhappiness?'
+
+A pained expression crossed her face.
+
+'It is true that I made him unhappy once, but that is long ago; and men
+are not like us: they get over things. Oh, I must explain it to you, or
+you will not understand. Do not be hard upon me: I have been sorely
+punished,' she sighed; and for a few moments there was silence between
+us. I had no wish to hurry her. I knew her well: she was long in giving
+her confidence, but when once she gave it, it would be lavishly,
+generously, and without stint, just as she would give her love, for
+Gladys was one of those rare creatures who could do nothing meanly or
+by halves.
+
+Presently she began to speak of her own accord:
+
+'You know how good Mr. Cunliffe was to me in my trouble; at least you can
+guess, though you can never really know it. When I was most forlorn and
+miserable I used to feel less wretched and hopeless when he was beside
+me; in every possible way he strengthened and braced me for my daily
+life; he roused me from my state of selfish despondency, put work into my
+hands, and encouraged me to persevere. If it had not been for his help
+and sympathy, I never could have lived through those bitter days when all
+around me believed that my darling Eric had died a coward's death.'
+
+'Do not speak of Eric to-night, dearest,' I observed, alarmed at her
+excessive paleness as she uttered his name.
+
+'No,' with a faint smile at my anxious tone; 'we are talking about some
+one else this evening. Ursula, you may imagine how grateful I was,--how I
+grew to look upon him as my best friend, how I learned to confide in him
+as though he were a wise elder brother.'
+
+'A brother!--oh, Gladys!'
+
+'It was the truth,' she went on mournfully: 'no other thought entered my
+mind, and you may conceive the shock when one morning he came to me, pale
+and agitated, and asked me if I could love him well enough to marry him.
+
+'How I recall that morning! It was May, and I had just come in from
+the garden, laden with pink and white May blossoms, and long trails of
+laburnum, and there he was waiting for me in the drawing-room. Every one
+was out, and he was alone.
+
+'I fancied he looked different,--rather nervous and excited,--but I never
+guessed the reason until he began to speak, and then I thought I should
+have broken my heart to hear him,--that I must give him pain who had been
+so good to me. Oh, Ursula! I had never had such cruel work to do as that.
+
+'But I must be true to him as well as myself: this was my one thought. I
+did not love him well enough to be his wife; he had not touched my heart
+in that way; and, as I believed at that time that I could never care
+sufficiently for any man to wish to marry him, I felt that I dared not
+let him deceive himself with any future hopes.'
+
+'You were quite right, my darling. Do not look so miserable. Max would
+only honour you the more for your truthfulness.'
+
+'Yes, but he knew me better than I knew myself,' she whispered. 'When he
+begged to speak to me again I wanted to refuse, but he would not let me.
+He asked me--and there were tears in his eyes--not to be so hard on him,
+to let him judge for us both in this one thing. He pressed me so, and he
+looked so unhappy, that I gave way at last, and said that in a year's
+time he might speak again. I remember telling him, as he thanked me very
+gratefully, that I should not consider him bound in any way; that I had
+so little hope to give him that I had no right to hold him to anything;
+if he did not come to me when a year had expired, I should know that he
+had changed. There was a gleam in his eyes as I said this that made me
+feel for the first time the strength and purpose of a man's will. I grew
+timid and embarrassed all at once, and a strange feeling came over me.
+Was I, after all, so certain that I should never love him? I could only
+breathe freely when he left me.'
+
+'Yes, dear, I understand,' I returned soothingly, for she had covered her
+face with her hands, as though overpowered with some recollection.
+
+'Ursula,' she whispered, 'he was right. I had never thought of such
+things. I did not know my own feelings. Before three months were over, I
+knew I could give him the answer he wanted. I regretted the year's delay;
+but for shame, I would have made him understand how it was with me.'
+
+'Could you not have given a sign that your feelings were altered, Gladys?
+it would have been generous and kind of you to have ended his suspense.'
+
+'I tried, but it was not easy; but he must have noticed the change in me.
+If I were shy and embarrassed with him it was because I cared for him so
+much. It used to make me happy only to see him; if he did not speak to
+me, I was quite content to know he was in the room. I used to treasure up
+his looks and words and hoard them in my memory; it did not seem to me
+that any other man could compare with him. You have often laughed at my
+hero-worship, but I made a hero of him.'
+
+I was so glad to hear her say this of my dear Max that tears of joy came
+to my eyes, but I would not interrupt her by a word: she should tell her
+story in her own way.
+
+'Etta had spoken to me long before this. One day when we were sitting
+over our work together, and I was thinking happily about Max--Mr.
+Cunliffe, I mean.'
+
+'Oh, call him Max to me,' I burst out, but she drew herself up with
+gentle dignity.
+
+'It was a mistake: you should not have noticed it. I could never call him
+that now.' Poor dear! she had no idea how often she had called him Max in
+her feverish wanderings. 'Well, we were sitting together,--for Etta was
+nice to me just then, and I did not avoid her company as I do now,--when
+she startled me by bursting into tears and reproaching me for not having
+told her about Mr. Cunliffe's offer, and leaving her to hear it from
+Giles; and then she said how disappointed they all were at my refusal,
+and was I really sure that I could not marry him?
+
+'I was not so much on my guard then as I am now, and, though I blamed
+Etta for much of the home unhappiness, I did not know all that I have
+learned since. You have no idea, either, how fascinating and persuasive
+she can be: her influence over Giles proves that. Well, little by little
+she drew from me that I was not so indifferent to Mr. Cunliffe as she
+supposed, and that in a few months' time he would speak to me again.
+
+'She seemed very kind about it, and said over and over again how glad she
+was to hear this; and when I begged her not to hint at my changed
+feelings to Giles, she agreed at once, and I will do her the justice to
+own that she has kept her word in this. Giles has not an idea of the
+truth.'
+
+'Nevertheless, I wish you had kept your own counsel, Gladys.'
+
+'You could not wish it more than I do; but indeed I said very little. I
+think my manner told her more than my words, for I cannot remember really
+saying anything tangible. I knew she plied me with questions, and when I
+did not answer them she laughed and said that she knew.
+
+'I have paid dearly for my want of caution, for I have been in bondage
+ever since. My tacit admission that I cared for Mr. Cunliffe has given
+Etta a cruel hold over me; my thoughts do not seem my own. She knows how
+to wound me: one word from her makes me shrink into myself. Sometimes I
+think she takes a pleasure in my secret misery,--that she was only acting
+a part when she pretended to sympathise with me. Oh, what a weak fool I
+have been, Ursula, to put myself in the power of such a woman!'
+
+'Poor Gladys!' I said, kissing her; and she dashed away her indignant
+tear, and hurried on.
+
+'Oh, let me finish all the miserable story. There is not much to say, but
+that little is humiliating. It was soon after this that I noticed a
+change in Mr. Cunliffe's manner. Scarcely perceptible at first, it became
+daily more marked. He came less often, and when he came he scarcely spoke
+to me. It was then that Etta began to torment me, and, under the garb of
+kindness, to say things that I could not bear. She asked me if Mr.
+Cunliffe were not a little distant in his manners to me. She did not wish
+to distress me, but there certainly was a change in him. No, I must not
+trouble myself, but people were talking. When a vicar was young and
+unmarried, and as fascinating as Mr. Cunliffe, people would talk.
+
+'What did they say? Ah, that was no matter, surely. Well, if I would
+press her, two or three busybodies had hinted that a certain young lady,
+who should be nameless, was rather too eager in her pursuit of the vicar.
+
+'"Such nonsense, Gladys, my dear," she went on, as I remained dumb and
+sick at heart at such an imputation. "Of course I told them it was only
+your enthusiasm for good works. 'She meets him in her district and at the
+mothers' meeting; and what can be the harm of that?' I said to them. 'And
+of course she cannot refuse to sing at the penny readings and people's
+entertainments when she knows that she gives such pleasure to the poor
+people, and it is rather hard that she should be accused of wanting to
+display her fine voice.' Oh, you may be sure that I took your part. Of
+course it is a pity folks should believe such things, but I hope I made
+them properly ashamed of themselves."
+
+'You may imagine how uneasy these innuendoes made me. You know my
+sensitiveness, and how prone I am to exaggerate things. It seemed to
+me that more lay behind the margin of her words; and I was not wrong.
+
+'In a little while there were other things hinted to me, but very gently.
+Ah, she was kind enough to me in those days. Did I not think that I was a
+little too imprudent and unreserved in my manner to Mr. Cunliffe? She
+hated to make me uncomfortable, and of course I was so innocent that I
+meant no harm; but men were peculiar, especially a man like Mr. Cunliffe:
+she was afraid he might notice my want of self-control.
+
+'"You do not see yourself, Gladys," she said, once; "a child would find
+out that you are over head and ears in love with him. Perhaps it would
+not matter so much under other circumstances, but I confess I am a little
+uneasy. His manner was very cold and strange last night: he seemed afraid
+to trust himself alone with you. Do be careful, my dear. Suppose, after
+all, his feelings are changed, and that he fears to tell you so?"
+
+'Ursula, can you not understand the slow torture of these days and weeks,
+the first insidious doubts, the increasing fears, that seemed to be
+corroborated day by day? Yes, it was not my fancy; Etta was right; he
+was certainly changed; he no longer loved me.
+
+'In desperation I acted upon her advice, and resigned my parish work. It
+seemed to me that I was parting with the last shred of my happiness when
+I did so. I made weak health my excuse, and indeed I was far from well;
+but I had the anguish of seeing the unspoken reproach in Mr. Cunliffe's
+eyes: he thought me cowardly, vacillating; he was disappointed in me.
+
+'It was the end of April by this time, and in a week or two the day would
+come when he would have to speak to me again. Would you believe it?--but
+no, you could not dream that I was so utterly mad and foolish,--but in
+spite of all this wretchedness I still hoped. The day came and passed,
+and he never came near me, and the next day, and the next; and then I
+knew that Etta was right,--his love for me was gone.'
+
+'You believed this, Gladys?' but I dared not say more: my promise to Max
+fettered me.
+
+'How could I doubt it?' she returned, looking at me with dry, miserable
+eyes; and I seemed to realise then all her pain and humiliation. 'His not
+coming to me at the appointed time was to be a sign between us that he
+had changed his mind. Did I not tell him so with my own lips? did I not
+say to him that he was free as air, and that no possible blame could
+attach itself to him if he failed to come? Do you suppose that I did
+not mean those words?'
+
+'Could you not have given him the benefit of a doubt?' I returned.
+'Perhaps your manner too was changed and made him lose hope: the
+resignation of all your work in the parish must have discouraged him,
+surely.'
+
+'Still, he would have come to me and told me so,' she replied quickly.
+'He is not weak or wanting in moral courage: if he had not changed to me
+he would have come.
+
+'I have never had hope since that day,' she went on mournfully. 'He is
+very kind to me,--very; but it is only the kindness of a friend. He tries
+to hide from me how much he is disappointed in me, how I have failed to
+come up to his standard; but of course I see it. But for Etta I should
+have resumed my work. You were present when he nearly persuaded me to do
+so; I was longing then to please him; I think it would be a consolation
+to me if I could do something, however humble, to help him; but Etta
+always prevents me from doing so. She has taken all my work, and I do not
+think she wants to give it up, and she makes me ready to sink through the
+floor with the things she says. I dare not open my lips to Mr. Cunliffe
+in her presence; she always says afterwards how anxious I looked, or how
+he must have noticed my agitation: if I ever came down to see you,
+Ursula, she used to declare angrily that I only went in the hope of
+meeting him. She thinks nothing of telling me that I am so weak that she
+must protect me in spite of myself, and sometimes she implies that he
+sees it all and pities me, and that he has hinted as much to her. Oh,
+Ursula, what is the matter?' for I had pushed away my chair and was
+walking up and down the room, unable to endure my irritated feelings.
+She had suffered all this ignominy and prolonged torture under which her
+nerves had given way, and now Max's ridiculous scruples hindered me from
+giving her a word of comfort. Why could I not say to her, 'You are wrong:
+you have been deceived; Max has never swerved for one instant from his
+love to you?' And yet I must not say it.
+
+'I cannot sit down! I cannot bear it!' I exclaimed recklessly, quite
+forgetting how necessary it was to keep her quiet; but she put out her
+hand to me with such a beautiful sad smile.
+
+'Yes, you must sit down and listen to what I have to say: I will not have
+you so disturbed about this miserable affair, dear. The pain is better
+now; one cannot suffer in that way forever. I do not regret that I have
+learned to love Max, even though that love is to bring me unhappiness in
+this world. He is worthy of all I can give him, and one day in the better
+life what is wrong will be put right; I always tell myself this when I
+hear people's lives are disappointed: my illness has taught me this.'
+
+I did not trust myself to reply, and then all at once a thought came to
+me: 'Gladys, when I mentioned Captain Hamilton's name just now--I mean at
+the commencement of our conversation--why did you seem so troubled? He is
+nothing to you, and yet the very mention of his name excited you. This
+perplexes me.'
+
+She hesitated for a moment, as though she feared to answer: 'I know I can
+trust you, Ursula; but will it be right to do so? I mean, for other
+people's sake. But, still, if Etta be talking about him--' She paused,
+and seemed absorbed in some puzzling problem.
+
+'You write to him very often,' I hazarded at last, for she did not seem
+willing to speak.
+
+'Who told you that?' she returned quickly. 'Claude is my cousin,--at
+least step-cousin,--but we are very intimate; there can be no harm in
+writing to him.'
+
+'No, of course not: but if people misconstrue your correspondence?'
+
+'I cannot help that,' rather despondently; 'and I do not see that it
+matters now; but still I will tell you, Ursula. Claude is in love with
+Lady Betty.'
+
+'With Lady Betty?'
+
+'Yes, and Giles does not know. Etta did not for a long time, but she
+found out about it, and since then poor Lady Betty has had no peace. You
+see the poor children consider themselves engaged, but Lady Betty will
+not let Claude speak to Giles until he has promotion. She has got an idea
+that he would not allow of the engagement; it sounds wrong, I feel that;
+but in our unhappy household things are wrong.'
+
+'And Miss Darrell knows?'
+
+'Yes; but we never could tell how she found it out: Claude corresponds
+with me, and Lady Betty only puts in an occasional letter; she is so
+dreadfully frightened, poor little thing! For fear her secret should be
+discovered. We think that Etta must have opened one of my letters;
+anyhow, she knows all there is to know, and she holds her knowledge as a
+rod over the poor child. She has promised to keep her counsel and not
+tell Giles; but when she is in one of her tempers she threatens to speak
+to him. Then she is always hinting things before him just to tease or
+punish Lady Betty, but happily he takes no notice. When you said what you
+did I was afraid she had made up her mind to keep silence no longer.'
+
+'Why do you think your brother would object to Captain Hamilton?' I
+asked, trying to conceal my relief at her words.
+
+'He would object to the long concealment,' she returned gravely. 'But
+from the first I wanted Lady Betty to be open about it; but nothing would
+induce her to let Claude write to him. Our only plan now is to wait for
+Claude to speak to him when he arrives in November. Nothing need be said
+about the past: Claude has been wounded, and will get promotion, and
+Giles thinks well of him.'
+
+She seemed a little weary by this time, and our talk had lasted long
+enough; but there was still one thing I must ask her.
+
+'Gladys, you said you trusted me just now. I am going to put that trust
+to the proof. All that has passed between us is sacred, and shall never
+cross my lips. On my womanly honour I can promise you that; but I make
+one reservation,--what you have just told me about Captain Hamilton.'
+
+She looked at me with an expression of incredulous alarm.
+
+'What can you mean, Ursula? Surely not to repeat a single word about
+Claude?'
+
+'I only mean to mention to one person, with whom the knowledge will be as
+safe as it will be with me, that Lady Betty is engaged to your cousin
+Claude.'
+
+'You will tell Mr. Cunliffe,' she replied, becoming very pale again. 'I
+forbid it, Ursula!' But I hindered all further remonstrance on her part,
+by throwing my arms round her and begging her with tears in my eyes, and
+with all the earnestness of which I was capable, to trust me as I would
+trust her in such a case.
+
+'Listen to me,' I continued imploringly. 'Have I ever failed or
+disappointed you? have I ever been untrue to you in word or deed? Do
+you think I am a woman who would betray the sacred confidence of another
+woman?'
+
+'No, of course not; but--' Here my hand resolutely closed her lips.
+
+'Then say to me, "I trust you, Ursula, as I would trust my own soul. I
+know no word would pass your lips that if I were standing by you I should
+wish unuttered." Say this to me, Gladys, and I shall know you love me.'
+
+She trembled, and turned still paler.
+
+'Why need he know it? What can he have to do with Lady Betty?' she said
+irresolutely.
+
+'Leave that to me,' was my firm answer: 'I am waiting for you to say
+those words, Gladys.' Then she put down her head on my shoulder, weeping
+bitterly.
+
+'Yes, yes, I will trust you. In the whole world I have only you, Ursula,
+and you have been good to me.' And, as I soothed and comforted her, she
+clung to me like a tired child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI
+
+'AT FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING'
+
+
+I passed a wakeful and anxious night, pondering over this strange recital
+that seemed to me to corroborate Max's account. I had no doubt in my own
+mind as to the treachery that had alienated these two hearts. I knew too
+well the subtle power of the smooth false tongue that had done this
+mischief; but the motive for all this evil-doing baffled me. 'What is her
+reason for trying to separate them?' I asked myself, but always
+fruitlessly. 'Why does she dislike this poor girl, who has never harmed
+her? Why does she render her life miserable? It is she who has sown
+discord between Mr. Hamilton and myself. Ah, I know that well, but I am
+powerless to free either him or myself at present. Still, one can detect
+a motive for that. She has always disliked me, and she is jealous of her
+position. If Mr. Hamilton married she could not remain in his house; no
+wife could brook such interference. She knows this, and it is her
+interest to prevent him from marrying. All this is clear enough; but
+in the case of poor Gladys?' But here again was the old tangle and
+perplexity.
+
+I was not surprised that Gladys slept little that night: no doubt
+agitating thoughts kept her restless. Towards morning she grew quieter,
+and sank into a heavy sleep that I knew would last for two or three
+hours. I had counted on this, and had laid my plan accordingly.
+
+I must see Uncle Max at once, and she must not know that I had seen him.
+In her weak state any suspense must be avoided. The few words that I
+might permit myself to say to him must be spoken without her knowledge.
+
+I knew that in the summer Max was a very early riser. He would often be
+at work in his garden by six, and now and then he would start for a long
+country walk,--'just to see Dame Earth put the finishing-touches to her
+toilet,' he would say. But five had not struck when I slipped into
+Chatty's room half dressed. The girl looked at me with round sleepy eyes
+as I called her in a low voice.
+
+'Chatty, it is very early, not quite five, but I want you to get up and
+dress yourself as quietly as you can and come into the turret-room. I am
+going out, and I do not want to wake anybody, and you understand the
+fastenings of the front door. I am afraid I should only bungle at them.'
+
+'You are going out, ma'am!' in an astonished voice. Chatty was thoroughly
+awake now.
+
+'Yes, I am sorry to disturb you, but I do not want Miss Gladys to miss
+me. I shall not be long, but it is some business that I must do.' And
+then I crept back to the turret-room.
+
+Leah slept in a little room at the end of the passage, and I was very
+unwilling that any unusual sound should reach her ears. Chatty seemed
+to share this feeling, for when she joined me presently she was carrying
+her shoes in her hands. 'I can't help making a noise,' she said
+apologetically; 'and so I crept down the passage in my stockings. If
+you are ready, ma'am, I will come and let you out.'
+
+I stood by, rather nervously, as Chatty manipulated the intricate
+fastenings. I asked her to replace them as soon as I had gone, and to
+come down in about half an hour and open the door leading to the garden.
+'I will return that way, and they will only think I have taken an early
+stroll,' I observed. I was rather sorry to resort to this small
+subterfuge before Chatty, but the girl had implicit trust in me, and
+evidently thought no harm; she only smiled and nodded; and as I lingered
+for a moment on the gravel path I heard the bolt shoot into its place.
+
+It was only half-past five, and I walked on leisurely. I had not been
+farther than the garden for three weeks, and the sudden sense of freedom
+and space was exhilarating.
+
+It was a lovely morning. A dewy freshness seemed on everything; the birds
+were singing deliciously; the red curtains were drawn across the windows
+of the Man and Plough; a few white geese waddled slowly across the green;
+some brown speckled hens were feeding under the horse-trough; a goat
+browsing by the roadside looked up, quite startled, as I passed him,
+and butted slowly at me in a reflective manner. There was a scent of
+sweet-brier, of tall perfumy lilies and spicy carnations from the
+gardens. I looked at the windows of the houses I passed, but the blinds
+were drawn, and the bees and the flowers were the only waking things
+there. The village seemed asleep, until I turned the corner, and there,
+coming out of the vicarage gate, was Uncle Max himself. He was walking
+along slowly, with his old felt hat in his hand, reading his little
+Greek Testament as he walked, and the morning sun shining on his
+uncovered head and his brown beard.
+
+He did not see me until I was close to him, and then he started, and an
+expression of fear crossed his face.
+
+'Ursula, my dear, were you coming to the vicarage? Nothing is wrong,
+I hope?' looking at me anxiously.
+
+'Wrong! what should be wrong on such a morning?' I returned playfully.
+'Is it not delicious? The air is like champagne; only champagne never had
+the scent of those flowers in it. The world is just a big dewy bouquet.
+It is good only to be alive on such a morning.'
+
+Max put his Greek Testament in his pocket and regarded me dubiously.
+
+'Were you not coming to meet me, then? It is not a quarter to six yet.
+Rather early for an aimless stroll, is it not, my dear?'
+
+'Oh yes, I was coming to meet you,' I returned carelessly. 'I thought you
+would be at work in the garden. Max, you are eying me suspiciously: you
+think I have something important to tell you. Now you must not be
+disappointed; I have very little to say, and I cannot answer questions;
+but there is one thing, I have found out all you wish to know about
+Captain Hamilton.'
+
+It was sad to see the quick change in his face,--the sudden cloud that
+crossed it at the mention of the man whom he regarded as his rival. He
+did not speak; not a question came from his lips; but he listened as
+though my next word might be the death-warrant to his hopes.
+
+'Max, do not look like that: there is no cause for fear. It is a great
+secret, and you must never speak of it, even to me,--but Lady Betty is
+engaged to her cousin Claude.'
+
+For a moment he stared at me incredulously. 'Impossible! you must have
+been deceived,' I heard him mutter.
+
+'On the contrary, I leave other people to be duped,' was my somewhat cool
+answer. 'You need not doubt my news: Gladys is my informant: only, as I
+have just told you, it is a great secret. Mr. Hamilton is not to know
+yet, and Gladys writes most of the letters. Poor little Lady Betty is in
+constant terror that she will be found out, and they are waiting until
+Captain Hamilton has promotion and comes home in November.'
+
+He had not lost one word that I said: as he stood there, bareheaded, in
+the morning sunshine that was tingeing his beard with gold, I heard his
+low, fervent 'Thank God! then it was not that;' but when he turned to me
+his face was radiant, his eyes bright and vivid; there was renewed hope
+and energy in his aspect.
+
+'Ursula, you have come like the dove with the olive-branch. Is this
+really true? It was good of you to come and tell me this.'
+
+'I do not see the goodness, Max.'
+
+'Well, perhaps not; but you have made me your debtor. I like to owe this
+to you,--my first gleam of hope. Now, you must tell me one thing. Does
+Miss Darrell know of this engagement?'
+
+'She does.'
+
+'Stop a moment: I feel myself getting confused here. I am to ask no
+questions: you can tell me nothing more. But I must make this clear to
+myself: How long has she known, Ursula? a day? a week?'
+
+'Suppose you substitute the word months,' I observed scornfully. 'I know
+no dates, but Miss Darrell has most certainly been acquainted with her
+cousin's engagement for months.'
+
+'Oh, this is worse than I thought,' he returned, in a troubled tone.
+'This is almost too terrible to believe. She has known all I suffered on
+that man's account, and yet she never undeceived me. Can women be so
+cruel? Why did she not come to me and say frankly, "I have made a
+mistake; I have unintentionally misled you: it is Lady Betty, not Gladys,
+who is in love with her cousin"? Good heavens! to leave me in this
+ignorance, and never to say the word that would put me out of my misery!'
+
+I was silent, though silence was a torture to me. Even, now the extent of
+Miss Darrell's duplicity had not clearly dawned on him. He complained
+that she had left him to suffer through ignorance of the truth; but the
+idea had not yet entered his mind that possibly she had deceived him from
+the first. 'Oh, the stupidity and slowness of these honourable men where
+a woman is concerned!' I groaned to myself; but my promise to Gladys kept
+me silent.
+
+'It was too bad of her, was it not?' he said, appealing to me for
+sympathy; but I turned a deaf ear to this.
+
+'Max, confess that you were wrong not to have taken my advice and gone
+down to Bournemouth: you might have spared yourself months of suspense.'
+
+'Do you mean--' And then he reddened and stroked his beard nervously; but
+I finished his sentence for him: he should not escape what I had to say
+to him.
+
+'It is so much easier to come to an understanding face to face; but you
+would not take my advice, and the opportunity is gone. Gladys is in the
+turret-room: you could not gain admittance to her without difficulty:
+what you have to say must be said by letter; but you might trust that
+letter to me, Max.'
+
+He understood me in a moment. I could see the quick look of joy in his
+eyes. I had not betrayed Gladys, I had adhered strictly to my word that I
+would only speak of Lady Betty's engagement; and with his usual delicacy
+Max had put no awkward questions to me: he had respected my scruples, and
+kept his burning curiosity to himself. But he would not have been a man
+if he had not read some deeper meaning under my silence: he told me
+afterwards that the happy look in my eyes told him the truth.
+
+So he merely said very quietly, 'You were right, and I was wrong, Ursula:
+I own my fault. But I will write now: I owe Miss Hamilton some
+explanation. When the letter is ready, how am I to put it into your
+hands?'
+
+'Oh,' I answered in a matter-of-fact way, as though we were speaking of
+some ordinary note, and it was not an offer of marriage from a penitent
+lover, 'when you have finished talking to Miss Darrell,--you will enjoy
+her conversation, I am sure, Max; it will be both pleasant and
+profitable,--you might mention casually that there was something you
+wanted to say to your niece Ursula, and would she kindly ask that young
+person to step down to you for a minute? and then, you see, that little
+bit of business will be done.'
+
+'Yes, I see; but--' but here Max hesitated--'but the answer, Ursula?'
+
+'Oh, the answer!' in an off-hand manner; 'you must not be looking for
+that yet. My patient must not be hurried or flurried: you must give
+her plenty of time. In a day or two--well, perhaps, I might find an
+early stroll conducive to my health; these mornings are so beautiful;
+and--Nonsense, Max! I would do more than this for you'; for quiet,
+undemonstrative Max had actually taken my hand and lifted it to his lips
+in token of his gratitude.
+
+After this we walked back in the direction of Gladwyn, and nothing more
+was said about the letter. We listened to the rooks cawing from the elms,
+and we stood and watched a lark rising from the long meadow before
+Maplehurst and singing as though its little throat would burst with its
+concentrated ecstasy of song; and when I asked Max if he did not think
+the world more beautiful than usual that morning, he smiled, and suddenly
+quoted Tennyson's lines, in a voice musical with happiness:
+
+'All the land in flowery squares,
+Beneath a broad and equal-flowing wind,
+Smelt of the coming summer, as one large cloud
+Drew downward; but all else of heaven was pure
+Up to the sun, and May from verge to verge,
+And May with me from heel to heel.'
+
+'Yes, but, Max, it is July now. The air is too mellow for spring. Your
+quotation is not quite apt.'
+
+'Oh, you are realistic; but it fits well enough. Do you not remember how
+the poem goes on?
+
+"The garden stretches southward. In the midst
+A cedar spread its dark-green layers of shrub.
+The garden-glasses shone, and momently
+The twinkling laurel scattered silver lights."
+
+I always think of Gladwyn when I read that description.'
+
+I laughed mischievously: 'I am sorry to leave you just as you are in a
+poetical vein; but I must positively go in. Good-bye, Max,' I felt I had
+lingered a little too long when I saw the blinds raised in Mr. Hamilton's
+study. But apparently the room was empty. I sauntered past it leisurely,
+and walked down the asphalt path. On my return I picked one or two roses,
+wet with dew. As I raised my head from gathering them I saw Leah standing
+at the side door watching me.
+
+'Oh, it was you,' she grumbled. 'I thought one of those girls had left
+the door unlocked. A pretty piece of carelessness that would have been
+to reach the master's ears! You are out early, ma'am.'
+
+I was somewhat surprised at these remarks, for Leah had made a point of
+always passing me in sullen silence since I had refused her admittance
+into the sick-room. Her manner was hardly civil now, but I thought it
+best to answer her pleasantly.
+
+'Yes, Leah, I have taken my stroll early. It was very warm last night,
+and I did not sleep well. There is nothing so refreshing as a morning
+walk after a bad night. I am going to take these roses to Miss Gladys.'
+But she tossed her head and muttered something about people being mighty
+pleasant all of a sudden. And, seeing her in this mood, I walked away.
+She was a bad-tempered, coarse-natured woman, and I could not understand
+why Mr. Hamilton seemed so blind to her defects. 'I suppose he never sees
+her; that is one reason,' I thought, as I carried up my roses.
+
+Gladys was still asleep. I had finished my breakfast, and had helped
+Chatty arrange the turret-room for the day, when I heard the long-drawn
+sigh that often preluded Gladys's waking. I hastened to her side, and
+found her leaning on her elbow looking at my roses.
+
+'They used to grow in the vicarage garden,' she said wistfully. 'Dark
+crimson ones like these. I have been dreaming.' And then she stopped and
+flung herself back wearily on her pillow. 'Why must one ever wake from
+such dreams?' she finished, with the old hopeless ring in her voice.
+
+'What was the dream, dear?' I asked, smoothing her hair caressingly. It
+was fine, soft hair, like an infant's, and its pale gold tint, without
+much colour or gloss, always reminded me of baby hair. I have heard
+people find fault with it. But when it was unbound and streaming in wavy
+masses over her shoulders it was singularly beautiful. She used to laugh
+sometimes at my admiration of her straw-coloured tresses, or lint-white
+locks, as she called them. But indeed there was no tint that quite
+described the colour of Gladys's hair.
+
+'Oh, I was walking in some fool's paradise or other. There were roses in
+it like these. Well, another blue day is dawning, Ursula, and has to be
+lived through somehow. Will you help me to get up now?' But, though she
+tried after this to talk as usual, I could see the old restlessness was
+on her. A sort of feverish reaction had set in. She could settle to
+nothing, take pleasure in nothing; and I was not surprised that Mr.
+Hamilton grumbled a little when he paid his morning visit.
+
+'How is this? You are not quite so comfortable to-day, Gladys,' he asked,
+in a dissatisfied tone. 'Is your head aching again?'
+
+She reluctantly pleaded guilty to the headache. Not that it was much, she
+assured him; but I interrupted her.
+
+'The fact is, she sat up too late last night, and I let her talk too
+much and over-exert herself.' For I saw he was determined to come to the
+bottom of this.
+
+'I think the nurse was to blame there,' he returned, darting a quick,
+uneasy look at me. I knew what he was thinking: Miss Darrell's speech,
+that Miss Garston always excited Gladys, must have come into his mind.
+
+'If the nurse deserves blame she will take it meekly,' I replied. 'I know
+I was wrong to let her talk so much. I must enforce extra quiet to-day.'
+And then he said no more. I do not think he found it easy to give me the
+scolding that I deserved. And, after all, I had owned my fault.
+
+I had just gone out in the passage an hour later, to carry away a bowl of
+carnations that Gladys found too strong in the room, when I heard Uncle
+Max's voice in the hall. The front door was open, and he had entered
+without ringing. I was glad of this. The door of the turret-room was
+closed, and Gladys would not hear his voice. I should manage to slip
+down without her noticing the fact.
+
+So I busied myself in Lady Betty's room until I heard the drawing-room
+door open and close again, and I knew Miss Darrell was coming in search
+of me. I went out to meet her, with Gladys's empty luncheon-tray in my
+hands. I thought she looked rather cross and put out, as though her
+interview with Uncle Max had disappointed her.
+
+'Mr. Cunliffe is in the drawing-room, and he would like to speak to you
+for a moment.' she said, in a voice that showed me how unwilling she was
+to bring me the message. 'I told him that you never cared to be disturbed
+in the morning, as you were so busy; but he was peremptory.'
+
+'I am never too busy to see Uncle Max: he knows that,' I returned
+quickly. 'Will you kindly allow me a few moments alone with him?' for she
+was actually preparing to follow me, but after this request she retired
+sulkily into her own room.
+
+I found Max standing in the middle of the room, looking anxiously towards
+the door: the moment it closed behind me he put a thick white envelope in
+my hand.
+
+'There it is, Ursula,' he said nervously: 'will you give it to her as
+soon as possible? I have been literally on thorns the last quarter of an
+hour. Miss Darrell would not take any of my hints that I wished to see
+you: so I was obliged at last to say that I could not wait another
+moment, and that I must ask her to fetch you at once.'
+
+'Poor Max! I can imagine your feelings; but I have it safe here,' tapping
+my apron pocket. 'But you must not go just yet.' And I beckoned him
+across the room to the window that overlooked a stiff prickly shrub.
+
+He looked at me in some surprise. 'We are alone, Ursula.'
+
+'Yes, I know: but the walls have ears in this house: one is never safe
+near the conservatory: there are too many doors. Tell me, Max, how have
+you got on with Miss Darrell this morning?'
+
+'I was praying hard for patience all the time,' he replied, half
+laughing. 'It was maddening to see her sitting there so cool and crisp
+in her yellow tea-gown--well, what garment was it?' as I uttered a
+dissenting ejaculation: 'something flimsy and aesthetic. I thought her
+smooth sentences would never stop.'
+
+'Did she notice any change in your manner to her?'
+
+'I am afraid so, for I saw her look at me quite uneasily more than once.
+I could not conceal that I was terribly bored. I have no wish to be
+discourteous to a lady, especially to one of my own church workers; but
+after what has passed I find it very difficult to forgive her.'
+
+This was strong language on Max's part. I could see that as a woman he
+could hardly tolerate her, but he could not bring himself to condemn her
+even to me. He hardly knew yet what he had to forgive: neither he nor
+Gladys had any real idea of the treachery that had separated them.
+
+Max would not stay many minutes, he was so afraid of Miss Darrell coming
+into the room again. I did rather an imprudent thing after that. Max was
+going to the Maberleys', for the colonel was seriously ill, so I begged
+him to go the garden way, and I kept him for a moment under the window of
+the turret-room.
+
+I saw him glance up eagerly, almost hungrily, but the blinds were
+partially down, and there was only a white curtain flapping in the summer
+breeze.
+
+But an unerring instinct told me that the sound of Max's voice would be a
+strong cordial to the invalid, it was so long since she had heard or seen
+him. As we sauntered under the oak-trees I knew Gladys would be watching
+us.
+
+On my return to the room I found her sitting bolt upright in her
+arm-chair, grasping the arms; there were two spots of colour on her
+cheeks; she looked nervous and excited.
+
+'I saw you walking with him, Ursula; he looked up, but I am glad he could
+not see me. Did--did he send me any message?' in a faltering voice.
+
+'Yes, he sent you this.' And I placed the thick packet on her lap. 'Miss
+Hamilton,'--yes, it was her own name: he had written it. I saw her look
+at it, first incredulously, then with dawning hope in her eyes; but
+before her trembling hands could break the old-fashioned seal with which
+he had sealed it I had noiselessly left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII
+
+DOWN THE PEMBERLEY ROAD
+
+
+Three-quarters of an hour had elapsed before I ventured into the room
+again; but at the first sound of my footsteps Gladys looked up, and
+called to me in a voice changed and broken with happiness.
+
+'Ursula, dear Ursula, come here.' And as I knelt down beside her and put
+my arms round her she laid her cheek against my shoulder: it was wet with
+tears.
+
+'Ursula, I am so happy. Do you know that he loves me, that he has loved
+me all through these years? You must not see what he says; it is only for
+my eyes; it is too sweet and sacred to be repeated; but I never dreamt
+that any one could care for me like that.'
+
+I kissed her without speaking; there seemed a lump in my throat just
+then. I did not often repine, but the yearning sense of pain was strong
+on me. When would this cruel silence between me and Giles be broken? But
+Gladys, wrapt in her own blissful thoughts, did not notice my emotion.
+
+'He says that there is much that he can only tell me by word of mouth,
+and that he dare not trust to a letter explanations for his silence, and
+much that I shall have to tell him in return; for we shall need each
+other's help in making everything clear.
+
+'He seems to reproach himself bitterly, and asks my pardon over and over
+again for misunderstanding me so. He says my giving up my work was the
+first blow to his hopes, and then he had been told that I cared for my
+cousin Claude. He believed until this morning that I was in love with
+him; and it was your going to him--oh, my darling! how good you have been
+to me and him!--that gave him courage to write this letter, Ursula.'
+And here she cried a little. 'Was it Etta who told him this falsehood
+about, Claude? How could she he so wicked and cruel?'
+
+'Do not think about her to-day, my dearest,' I returned soothingly. 'Her
+punishment will be great some day. We will not sit in judgment on her
+just now. She cannot touch your happiness again, thank heaven!'
+
+'No,' with a sigh; 'but, as Max says, it is difficult to forgive the
+person who is the chief source of all our trouble. He did say that, and
+then he reproached himself again for uncharitableness, and added that he
+ought to have known me better.
+
+'He does not seem quite certain yet that I can care for him, and he begs
+for just one word to put him out of his suspense, to tell him if I can
+ever love him well enough to be his wife. I don't want him to wait long
+for my answer, Ursula: he has suffered too much already. I think I could
+write a few words that would satisfy him, if I could only trust Chatty to
+take them.'
+
+'You had better wait until to-morrow morning and intrust your letter to
+the "five-o'clock carrier."' And as my meaning dawned on her her doubtful
+expression changed into a smile. 'Do wait, Gladys,' I continued
+coaxingly. 'It is very selfish of me, perhaps, but I should like to give
+that letter to Max.'
+
+'You may have your wish, then, for I was half afraid of sending it by
+Chatty. I have grown so nervous, Ursula, that I start at a shadow. I can
+trust you better than myself. Well, I will write it, and then it will be
+safe in your hands.'
+
+I went away again after this, and left her alone in the quiet shady room.
+I fought rather a battle with myself as I paced up and down Lady Betty's
+spacious chamber. Why need I think of my own troubles? why could I not
+keep down this pain? I would think only of Gladys's and of my dear Max's
+happiness, and I dashed away hot tears that would keep blinding me as I
+remembered the chilly greeting of the morning. And yet once--but no; I
+would not recall that bitter-sweet memory. I left Gladys alone for an
+hour: when I went back she was leaning wearily against the cushions of
+her chair, the closely-written sheets still open on her lap, as though
+she needed the evidence of sight and touch to remind her that it was not
+part of her dream.
+
+'Have you written your letter, Gladys?'
+
+'Yes,' with a blush; 'but it is very short, only a few words. He will
+understand that I am weak and cannot exert myself much. Will you read it,
+Ursula, and tell me if it will do?'
+
+I thought it better to set her mind at rest, so I took it without demur.
+The pretty, clear handwriting was rather tremulous: he would be sorry to
+see that.
+
+'My dear Mr. Cunliffe,'--it said,--'Your letter has made me very happy.
+I wish I could answer it as it ought to be answered; but I know you will
+not misunderstand the reason why I say so little.
+
+'I have been very ill, and am still very weak, and my hand trembles too
+much when I try to write; but I am not ungrateful for all the kind things
+you say; it makes me very happy to know you feel like that, even though I
+do not deserve it.
+
+'You must not blame yourself so much for misunderstanding me: we have
+both been deceived; I know that now. It was wrong of me to give up my
+work; but Etta told me that people were saying unkind things of me, and
+I was a coward and listened to her: so you see I was to blame too.
+
+'I have not answered your question yet, but I think I will do so by
+signing myself,
+
+'Yours, always and for ever,
+
+'Gladys.'
+
+'Will he understand that, Ursula?'
+
+'Surely, dear; the end is plain enough: you belong to Max now.'
+
+'I like to know that,' she returned simply. 'Oh, the rest of feeling that
+he will take care of me now! it is too good to talk about. But I hope I
+am sufficiently thankful.' And Gladys's lovely eyes were full of solemn
+feeling as she spoke.
+
+I thought she wanted to be quiet,--it was difficult for her to realise
+her happiness at once,--so I told her that I had some letters to write,
+and carried my desk into the next room, but she followed me after a time,
+and we had a long talk about Max.
+
+When Mr. Hamilton came up in the evening he noticed the improvement in
+Gladys's appearance.
+
+'You are better to-night, my dear.'
+
+'Oh yes, so much better,' looking up in his face with a smile. 'Giles, do
+you think it would hurt me to have a drive to-morrow? I am so tired of
+these two rooms. A drive alone with Ursula would be delicious. We could
+go down the Redstone lanes towards Pemberley: one always has a whiff of
+sea-air there over the downs.'
+
+Gladys's request surprised me quite as much as it did Mr. Hamilton. She
+had proposed it in all innocence; no idea of encountering Max entered her
+head for a moment; Gladys's simplicity would be incapable of laying plans
+of this sort. Her new-born happiness made her anxious to lay aside her
+invalid habits; she wanted to be strong, to resume daily life, to breathe
+the fresh outer air.
+
+As for Mr. Hamilton, he did not try to conceal his pleasure.
+
+'I see we shall soon lose our patient, nurse,' he said, with one of his
+old droll looks. 'She is anxious to make herself independent of us.--Oh,
+you shall go, by all means. I will go round to the stable and tell
+Atkinson myself. It is an excellent idea, Gladys.'
+
+'I am so glad you do not object. I am so much stronger this evening,
+and I have wanted to go out for days; but, Giles,'--touching his arm
+gently,--'you will make Etta understand that I want to go alone with
+Ursula.'
+
+'Certainly, my dear.' He would not cross her whim; she might have her way
+if she liked; but the slight frown on his face showed that he was not
+pleased at this allusion to Miss Darrell. He thought Gladys was almost
+morbidly prejudiced against her cousin; but he prudently refrained from
+telling her so, and Gladys went to bed happy.
+
+I had taken the precaution of asking Chatty to wake me the next morning.
+I had slept little the previous night, and was afraid that I might
+oversleep myself in consequence. It was rather a trial when her touch
+roused me out of a delicious dream; but one glance at Gladys's pale face
+made me ashamed of my indolence. I dressed myself as quickly as I could,
+and then looked at my little clock. Chatty had been better than her word:
+it had not struck five yet.
+
+Max would not be out for another hour, I thought, but all the same I
+might as well take advantage of the morning freshness: so I summoned
+Chatty to let me out as noiselessly as possible, and then I stole through
+the shrubberies, breaking a silver-spangled cobweb or two and feeling the
+wet beads of dew on my face.
+
+I walked slowly down the road, drinking deep draughts of the pure morning
+air. I had some thoughts of sitting down in the churchyard until I saw
+some sign of life in the vicarage; but as I turned the corner I heard a
+gate swing back on its hinges, and there was Max standing bareheaded in
+the road, as though he had come out to reconnoitre; but directly he
+caught sight of me two or three strides seemed to bring him to my side.
+
+'Have you brought it?' he asked breathlessly.
+
+'Yes, Max.' And I put the letter in his outstretched hand; and then,
+without looking at him, I turned quietly and retraced my steps. I would
+not wait with him while he read it; he should be alone, with only the
+sunshine round him and the birds singing their joyous melodies in his
+ear. No doubt he would join his _Te Deum_ with theirs. Happy Max, who had
+won his Lady of Delight!
+
+But I had not quite crossed the green when I heard his footsteps behind
+me, and turned to meet him.
+
+'Ursula, you naughty child! why have you run away without waiting to
+congratulate me? And yet I'll be bound you knew the contents of this
+letter.'
+
+'Yes, Max, and from my heart I wish you and Gladys every happiness.'
+
+'Good little Ursula! Oh yes, we shall be happy.' And the satisfaction in
+Max's brown eyes was pleasant to see. 'She will need all the care and
+tenderness that I can give her. We must make her forget all these sad
+years. Do you think that she will be content at the old vicarage,
+Ursula?' But as he asked the question there was no doubt--no doubt at
+all--on his face.
+
+'I think she will be content anywhere with you, Max. Gladys loves you
+dearly.'
+
+'Ah,' he said humbly, 'I know it now, I am sure of it; but I wish I
+deserved my blessing. All these years I have known her goodness. She used
+to show me all that was in her heart with the simplicity of a child. Such
+sweet frankness! such noble unselfishness! was it a wonder that I loved
+her? If I were only more worthy to be her husband!'
+
+I liked Max to say this: there was nothing unmanly or strained in this
+humility. The man who loves can never think himself worthy of the woman
+he worships: his very affection casts a glamour over her. When I told Max
+that I thought his wife would be a happy woman, he only smiled and said
+that he hoped so too. He had not the faintest idea what a hero he was
+in our eyes; he would not have believed me if I had told him.
+
+Max said very little to me after that: happiness made him reticent. Only,
+just as he was leaving me, I said carelessly, 'Max, do you ever go to
+Pemberley?'
+
+'Oh yes, sometimes, when the Calverleys are at the Hall,' he returned,
+rather absently.
+
+'Pemberley is a very pretty place,' I went on, stopping to pick a little
+piece of sweet-brier that attracted me by its sweetness: 'it is very
+pleasant to walk there through the Redstone lanes. There is a fine view
+over the down, and at four o'clock, for example--'
+
+'What about four o'clock?' he demanded: and now there was a little
+excitement in his manner.
+
+'Well, if you should by chance be in one of the Redstone lanes about
+then, you might possibly see an open barouche with two ladies in it.'
+
+'Ursula, you are a darling!' And Max seized my wrists so vigorously that
+he hurt me. 'Four--did you say four o'clock?'
+
+'It was very wrong of me to say anything about it. Gladys would be
+shocked at my making an appointment. I believe you are demoralising me,
+Max; but I do not mean to tell her.' And then, after a few more eager
+questions on Max's part, he reluctantly let me go.
+
+I had plenty to tell Gladys when she woke that morning, but I prudently
+kept part of our conversation to myself. She wanted to know how Max
+looked when he got her letter. Did he seem happy? had he sent her any
+message? And when I had satisfied her on these points she had a hundred
+other questions to ask. 'I am engaged to him, and yet we cannot speak
+to each other,' she finished, a little mournfully.
+
+I turned her thoughts at last by speaking about the promised drive. We
+decided she should put on her pretty gray dress and bonnet to do honour
+to the day. 'It is a fete-day, Gladys,' I said cheerfully, 'and we must
+be as gay as possible.' And she agreed to this.
+
+At the appointed time we heard the horses coming round from the stables,
+and Mr. Hamilton came upstairs himself to fetch his sister. Chatty had
+told me privately that Miss Darrell had been very cross all day. She had
+wanted the carriage for herself that afternoon, and had spoken quite
+angrily to Mr. Hamilton about it; but he had told her rather coldly that
+she must give up her wishes for once. Thornton heard master say that he
+was surprised at her selfishness: he had thought she would be glad that
+Miss Gladys should have a drive. 'Miss Darrell looked as black as
+possible, Thornton said, ma'am,' continued Chatty; 'but she did not dare
+argue with master; he always has the best of it with her.'
+
+As we drove off, I saw Miss Darrell watching us from the study window:
+evidently her bad temper had not evaporated, for she had not taken the
+trouble to come out in the hall to speak to Gladys, and yet they had not
+met for a month. Gladys did not see her: she was smiling at her brother,
+who was waving a good-bye from the open door. My heart smote me a little
+as I looked at him. Would he think me very deceitful, I wondered, for
+giving Max that clue? but after a moment I abandoned these thoughts and
+gave myself up to the afternoon's enjoyment.
+
+The air was delicious, the summer heat tempered by cool breezes that
+seemed to come straight from the sea. Gladys lay back luxuriously among
+the cushions, watching the flicker of green leaves over our heads, or the
+soft shadows that lurked in the distant meadows, or admiring the
+picturesque groups of cattle under some wide-spreading tree.
+
+We had nearly reached Pemberley, the white roofs of the cottages were
+gleaming through a belt of firs, when I at last caught sight of Max. He
+was half hidden by some blackberry-bushes. I think he was sitting on a
+stile resting himself; but when he heard the carriage-wheels he came
+slowly towards us and put up his hand as a sign that Atkinson should pull
+up.
+
+I shall never forget the sudden illumination that lit up Gladys's face
+when she saw him: a lovely colour tinged her cheeks as their eyes met,
+and she put out her little gray-gloved hand to touch his. I opened the
+carriage door and slipped down into the road.
+
+'The horses can stand in the shade a little while, Atkinson,' I said
+carelessly: 'I want to get some of those poppies, if the stile be not
+very high.' I knew he would be watching me and looking after Whitefoot,
+who was often a little fidgety, and would take the vicar's appearance on
+the Pemberley road as a matter of course.
+
+I was a long time gathering those poppies. Once I peeped through the
+hedge. I could see two heads very close together. Max's arms were on the
+carriage; the little gray-gloved hands were not to be seen; the sunshine
+was shining on Gladys's fair hair and Max's beard. Were they speaking at
+all? Could Atkinson have heard one of those low tones? And then I went
+on with my poppies.
+
+It was more than a quarter of an hour when I climbed over the stile
+again, laden with scarlet poppies and pale-coloured convolvuli. Gladys
+saw me first. 'Here is Ursula,' I heard her say; and Max moved away
+reluctantly.
+
+'I do not see why we should not drive you back to Heathfield, Max,' I
+remarked coolly; and, as neither of them had any objection to raise, we
+soon made room for Max.
+
+There was very little said by any of us during the drive home; only
+Gladys pressed my hand in token of gratitude; her eyes were shining with
+happiness. As Max looked at the pale, sweet face opposite to him his
+heart must have swelled with pride and joy: nothing could come between
+those two now; henceforth they would belong to each other for time and
+eternity.
+
+Max asked us to put him down at the Three Firs; he had to call at 'The
+Gowans,' he said. 'In two or three days--I cannot wait longer,' he said,
+in a meaning tone, as he bade good-bye to Gladys. She blushed and smiled
+in answer.
+
+'What does Max mean?' I asked, as we left him behind us in the road.
+
+'It is only that he wishes to speak to Giles,' she returned shyly. 'I
+asked him to wait a day or two until I felt better; but he does not wish
+to delay it; he says Giles has always wanted it so, but that he has long
+lost hope about it.'
+
+'I don't see why Max need have waited an hour,' was my reply; but there
+was no time for Gladys to answer me, for we were turning in at the gate,
+and there were Mr. Hamilton and Miss Darrell walking up and down the lawn
+watching for us.
+
+Mr. Hamilton came towards us at once, and gave his hand to Gladys.
+
+'I need not ask how you have enjoyed your drive,' he said, looking at her
+bright face with evident satisfaction.
+
+'Oh, it has been lovely!' she returned, with such unwonted animation that
+Miss Darrell stared at her. 'How do you do, Etta? It is long since we
+have met.--Giles, if you will give me your arm, I think I will go
+upstairs at once, for I am certainly a little tired.--Come, Ursula.'
+
+'We met Mr. Cunliffe in the Pemberley Road, and drove him back,' I
+observed carelessly, when Miss Darrell was out of hearing. I thought it
+better to allude to Max in case Atkinson mentioned it to one of the
+servants.
+
+'You should have brought him in to dinner,' was Mr. Hamilton's only
+comment. 'By the bye, Miss Garston, when do you intend to honour us with
+your company downstairs? Your patient is convalescent now.'
+
+'I have just awoke to that fact,' was my reply, 'and I have told Mrs.
+Barton that she will soon see me back at the White Cottage. Miss Watson
+leaves next Tuesday: I think Gladys could spare me by then.'
+
+Gladys shook her head. 'I shall never willingly spare you, Ursula; but of
+course I shall have no right to trespass on your time.'
+
+'No, of course not,' returned her brother sharply; 'Miss Garston has been
+too good to us already: we cannot expect her to sacrifice herself any
+longer. We will say Tuesday, then. You will come downstairs on Sunday,
+Gladys?'
+
+'Yes,' with a faint sigh.
+
+'We need not talk about my going yet, when Gladys is tired,' I returned,
+feeling inclined to scold Mr. Hamilton for his want of tact. Tuesday, and
+it was Wednesday now,--not quite a week more; but, looking up, I saw Mr.
+Hamilton regarding me so strangely, and yet so sorrowfully, that my
+brief irritability vanished. He was sorry that I was going; he seemed
+about to speak; his lips unclosed, then a sudden frown of recollection
+crossed his brow, and with a curt good-night he left us.
+
+'What is the matter with Giles?' asked Gladys, rather wearily: I could
+see she was very tired by this time. 'Have you and he quarrelled,
+Ursula?'
+
+'Not to my knowledge,' I replied quietly, turning away, that she should
+not see my burning cheeks. 'There is Chatty bringing the tea: are you not
+glad, dear?' And I busied myself in clearing the table.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII
+
+'CONSPIRACY CORNER'
+
+
+Gladys went to bed very early that night: her long drive had disposed her
+for sleep. The summer twilight was only creeping over the western sky
+when I closed her door and went out into the passage: the evening was
+only half over, and a fit of restlessness induced me to seek the garden.
+
+The moon was just rising behind the little avenue, and the soft rush of
+summer air that met me as I stepped through the open door had the breath
+of a thousand flowers on it. Mr. Hamilton was shut safely in his study;
+I was aware of that fact, as I had heard him tell Gladys that night
+that he had a medical article to write that he was anxious to finish.
+Miss Darrell would be reading novels in the drawing-room; there was no
+fear of meeting any one; but some instinct--for we have no word in our
+human language to express the divine impetus that sways our inward
+promptings--induced me to take refuge in the dark asphalt path that
+skirted the meadow and led to Atkinson's cottage and the kitchen-garden.
+
+I was unhappy,--in a mood that savoured of misanthropy; my fate was
+growing cross-grained, enigmatical. Mr. Hamilton's frown had struck
+cold to my heart; I was beginning to lose patience (to lose hope was
+impossible),--to ask myself why he remained silent.
+
+'If he has anything against me,--and his manner tells me that he
+has,--why does he not treat me with frankness?' I thought. 'He calls
+himself my friend, and yet he reposes no trust in me. He breaks my heart
+with his changed looks and coldness, and yet he gives me no reason for
+his injustice. I would not treat my enemy so, and yet all the time I feel
+he loves me.' And as I paced under the dark hanging shrubs I felt there
+was nothing morbid or untrue in those lines, that 'to be wroth with one
+that we love does work like madness on the brain,' and that I was growing
+angry with Mr. Hamilton.
+
+I had just reached a dark angle where the path dips a little, when I was
+startled by hearing voices close to me. There was a seat screened by some
+laurel-bushes that went by the name of 'Conspiracy Corner,' dating back
+from the time when Gladys and Eric were children and had once hidden some
+fireworks among the bushes. It was there that Claude Hamilton had
+proposed to Lady Betty, when Gladys had found them, and the two young
+creatures had appealed to her to help them. The seat was so hidden and
+secluded by shrubs that you could pass without seeing its occupants,
+unless a little bit of fluttering drapery or the gleam of some gold chain
+or locket caught one's eye. I remembered once being very much startled
+when Lady Betty popped out suddenly on me as I passed.
+
+I was just retracing my steps, with a sense of annoyance at finding my
+privacy invaded, when a sentence in Leah's voice attracted my attention:
+
+'I tell you he was driving with them this afternoon: I heard Miss Garston
+tell the master so. It is no good you fretting and worrying yourself,
+Miss Etta, to prevent those two coming together. I've always warned you
+that the vicar cares more for her little finger than he does for all your
+fine airs and graces.'
+
+I stood as though rooted to the spot, incapable of moving a step.
+
+'You are a cruel, false woman!' returned another voice, which I
+recognised as Miss Darrell's, though it was broken with angry sobs. 'You
+say that to vex me and make me wretched because you are in a bad temper.
+You are an ungrateful creature, Leah, after all my kindness; and it was
+you yourself who told me that he was getting tired of Gladys's whims and
+vagaries.'
+
+'I can't remember what I told you,' replied the woman sullenly. 'There
+are no fools like old ones, they say, and you need not believe everything
+as though it is gospel truth. There is not a man in the world worth all
+this worry. Why don't you give it up, Miss Etta? Do you think Mr.
+Cunliffe will ever give you a thought? I would be too proud, if I were
+a lady, to fling myself under a man's feet. Do you think he would like
+your crooked ways about Mr. Eric?'
+
+'Hush, Leah! for pity's sake, hush! What makes you so cruel to me
+to-night?'
+
+'Well now, look here, Miss Etta; I am not going to be hushed up when I
+choose to speak; and who is to hear us, I should like to know? only it is
+your guilty conscience that is always starting at shadows. I mean to
+speak to you pretty plainly, for I am getting sick of the whole business.
+You are playing fast and loose with me about that money. Are you going to
+give it me or not?'
+
+I drew a step nearer. Leah had mentioned Eric's name. Was it not my
+duty,--my bounden duty,--for Gladys's sake, for all their sakes, to hear
+what this woman had to say? Would it be dishonourable to listen when so
+much was at stake? Already I had been startled by a revelation that
+turned me cold with horror. Miss Darrell was Gladys's rival,--her deadly,
+secret rival,--and not one of us, not even Max, guessed at this unhealthy
+and morbid passion. That such a woman should love my pure-minded,
+honourable Max! I recoiled at the mere idea.
+
+'You are so impatient, Leah,' returned the other reproachfully. 'You know
+it is not easy for me to get the money. Giles was complaining the other
+day that so much was spent in the housekeeping; he never thought me
+extravagant before, but he seemed to say that my personal expenses were
+rather lavish. "You have twice as many gowns as Gladys," he said: "and,
+though I do not grudge you things, I think you ought to keep within your
+allowance."'
+
+'I can't help all that, Miss Etta,' and I could tell by the voice that
+the woman meant to be insolent. 'A promise is a promise, and must be
+kept, and poor Bob must not suffer from your procrastinating ways. You
+are far too slippery and shifty, Miss Etta; but I tell you that money I
+must and will have before this week is over, if I have to go to master
+myself about it.'
+
+'You had better go to him, then,' with rising temper. 'I don't quite know
+what Giles will say about retaining you in his service when he knows you
+have a brother at Millbank. A servant with a convict-brother is not
+considered generally desirable in a house.' But Leah broke in upon this
+sneering speech in sudden fury: even in my disgust at this scene I could
+not but marvel at Miss Darrell's recklessness in rousing the evil spirit
+in this woman.
+
+'You to talk of my poor Bob being in Millbank, who ought to be there
+yourself!' she cried, in a voice hoarse and low with passion. 'Are you
+out of your senses, Miss Etta, to taunt me with poor Bob's troubles? What
+is to prevent me from going to master now and saying to him--'
+
+'Oh, hush, Leah! please forgive me; but you made me so angry.'
+
+'From saying to him,' persisted Leah remorselessly, "'You are all of you
+wrong about Mr. Eric. You have hunted the poor boy out of the house, and
+driven him crazy among you; and if he has drowned himself, as folk
+believe, his death lies at Miss Etta's door. It was she who stole the
+cheque. I saw her take it with my own eyes, only she begged me on her
+knees not to betray her; and just then Mr. Eric came in with his letter,
+and the devil entered into me to cast the suspicion on him."'
+
+'Leah,' in a voice of deadly terror, 'for God's sake be silent! if any
+one should hear us! There was a crackling just now in the bushes. Leah,
+you were good to my mother: how can you be so cruel to me?'
+
+'It is no use your whining to me, Miss Etta,' returned the same hard,
+dogged voice; 'Bob must have that money. When I promised to keep your
+disgraceful secret,--when I stood by and helped you ruin that poor boy,
+and Bob cashed your cheque,--I named my price. I wanted to keep Bob out
+of mischief, but his bad companions were too much for him. Now are you
+going to get that money for me or not?'
+
+'I dare not ask Giles for more,' replied Miss Darrell, and I could hear
+she was crying. 'I gave you half the housekeeping money last week and the
+week before. If Giles looks at my accounts I am undone.'
+
+'And there was that cheque that you were to send Miss Gladys when she was
+at Bournemouth, and for which she sent that pretty message of thanks,'
+interposed Leah, with a sneer. 'Shall I tell master where that has gone,
+Miss Etta? And you to speak of my poor Bob because he is at Millbank!'
+
+'Leah, you are killing me,' renewed Miss Darrell. 'I might as well die as
+go on living like this. You are always threatening to turn against me,
+and I give you money whenever you ask me. You shall have my gold bracelet
+with the emerald star. It was my mother's and it will fetch a good deal.
+I cannot get more from Giles now. He is not like himself just now, and I
+dare not make him angry.'
+
+'Oh, you have tried your hand there, Miss Etta. No, I am not asking you,
+so you need not tell me any lies. I knew all about it when you sent me up
+to Hyde Park Gate to spy on my young lady. I have worked willingly for
+you there. I've hated Miss Garston ever since I set eyes on her. She is a
+sharp one, I tell you that, Miss Etta. She means to bring these two
+together, and she will do it in spite of you.'
+
+'I wish I were dead!' moaned Miss Darrell.
+
+But I did not dare to linger another moment. My heart was beating so
+loudly that I feared it would betray me. The faint stir of the bushes
+turned me sick, for I thought they might be moving from their seat. Not
+for worlds would I have confronted them alone in that dark asphalt walk.
+My fears were absurd, but I felt as though Leah were capable of
+strangling me. Granted that this terror was unreasonable and childish,
+I knew I could not breathe freely until I was within reach of Mr.
+Hamilton. As I crept down the path the sensation of a nightmare haunted
+me. I felt as though my feet were weighted with lead. My face was cold
+and damp, and I drew my breath painfully. I almost felt as though I must
+hide myself in the shrubbery until the faintness passed off; but I shook
+off my weakness as I remembered that I might be shut out of the house if
+I allowed them to go in first. As I emerged from the dark overhanging
+trees I grew calmer and walked on more quickly. I dared not cross the
+open lawn, for fear I might be seen, but took the most secluded route
+through the oak avenue. If they should perceive me walking down the
+terrace towards the conservatory they would only think that I had just
+left the house. I could see no signs of them, however, and gained the
+open door safely.
+
+Even in my state of terror I had made my plan, and without giving myself
+a moment to recover my self-possession I knocked at the study door, and,
+at Mr. Hamilton's rather impatient 'Come in,' entered it with the same
+sort of feeling that one would enter an ark of refuge.
+
+He laid down his pen in some surprise when he saw me, and then rose
+quickly from his seat.
+
+'You are ill; you have come to tell me so,' in an anxious voice. 'Don't
+try to speak this moment: sit down--my--Miss Garston'; but I caught his
+arm nervously as he seemed about to leave me.
+
+'Don't go away: I must speak to you. I am not ill: only I have had a
+turn. You may give me some water'; for there was a bottle and glass on
+the table. He obeyed me at once, and watched me as I tried to take it;
+but my hand trembled too much: the next moment he had put it to my lips,
+and had wiped the moisture gently from my forehead.
+
+'It is only faintness; it will pass off directly,' he said quietly. 'I
+will not leave you; but I have some sal volatile in that cupboard, and I
+think you will be the better for it.' And he mixed me some, and stood by
+me without speaking until the colour came back to my face. 'You are
+better now, Ursula--I mean,' biting his lips--'well, never mind. Do you
+feel a little less shaky?'
+
+'Yes, thank you. I did not mean to be so foolish, but it was dark, and
+I got frightened and nervous; and oh, Mr. Hamilton, I must not lose time,
+or they will be coming in.'
+
+'Who will be coming in?' he asked, rather bewildered at this. 'There is
+no one out, is there?'
+
+'Yes, Miss Darrell and Leah. I heard them talking in "Conspiracy Corner";
+you know that seat in the asphalt walk?'
+
+'Well?' regarding me with an astonished air.
+
+'Mr. Hamilton, I am better now. I am not frightened any longer now I am
+with you. Will you please call Leah when she comes in from the garden? I
+want to speak to her in your presence. I have a most serious charge to
+make against her and against your cousin Miss Darrell. It relates,' and
+here I felt my lips getting white again,--'it relates to your brother
+Eric.'
+
+He started, and an expression of pain crossed his face,--a sudden look
+of fear, as though he dreaded what I might have to tell him; but the next
+moment he was thinking only of me.
+
+'You shall speak to Leah to-morrow,' he said gently; 'it is late
+now,--nearly ten o'clock,--and you are ill, and had better go to bed
+and rest yourself. I can wait until to-morrow,' taking my cold hand.
+
+But I would not be silenced. I implored him earnestly to do this for
+me,--to summon Leah into the study, but not to let Miss Darrell know.
+
+'I suppose you think you could not sleep until you had relieved your
+mind,' he said, looking at me attentively. 'Well, they are coming in now.
+Leah is fastening the door. Finish that sal volatile while I fetch her.'
+
+I took it at a draught. But Mr. Hamilton's kindness had been my best
+restorative: I was no longer faint or miserable: he had cheered and
+comforted me.
+
+I heard Leah's voice approaching the study door with perfect calmness.
+
+'Miss Etta has gone up to bed, sir,' I heard her say; 'she has a
+headache: that is what makes her eyes so weak.'
+
+'I should have said myself that she was crying,' returned Mr. Hamilton
+drily. 'Come in here a moment, Leah; I want to speak to you.'
+
+She did not see me until the door was closed behind her, and then I saw
+her glance at me uneasily. Mr. Hamilton had evidently not prepared her
+for my presence in the study.
+
+'Did you or Miss Garston wish to speak to me, sir?' she asked, with a
+veiled insolence of manner that she had shown to me lately; but I could
+see that no suspicion of the truth had dawned on her.
+
+'It is I who wish to speak to you, Leah,' I returned severely; 'and
+I have asked your master to send for you that I might speak in his
+presence. Mr. Hamilton, I am going to repeat the conversation that I have
+just overheard between Leah and her mistress when they were in the seat
+in the asphalt walk: you shall hear it from my lips word for word.'
+
+I never saw a countenance change as Leah's did that moment: her ordinary
+sallow complexion became a sort of dead-white; from insolence, her manner
+grew cringing, almost abject; the shock deprived her of all power of
+speech; only directly I began she caught hold of my gown with both hands,
+as though to implore me to stop; but Mr. Hamilton shook off her touch
+angrily, and asked her if it looked as though she were an honest woman to
+be so afraid of her own words. And then the sullen look came back to her
+face and never left it again.
+
+I repeated every word. I do not believe I omitted a sentence, except
+that part that referred to Uncle Max. I could see Leah shrink and
+collapse as I mentioned her convict-brother, and such a gleam of fierce
+concentrated hatred shot from beneath her drooping lids that Mr. Hamilton
+instinctively moved to my side; but a low groan escaped him when I
+repeated Leah's words about the cheque. 'Good heavens! do you mean that
+Eric never took it?' he exclaimed, in a horror-stricken tone; but the
+woman merely raised her eyes and looked at him, and he was silent again
+until I had finished.
+
+There was a moment's ominous silence after that: perhaps Mr. Hamilton was
+praying for self-control; he had grown frightfully pale, and yet he was a
+man who rarely changed colour: the veins on his forehead were swollen,
+and when he spoke his voice was hoarse with repressed passion.
+
+'What have you to say for yourself, Leah? Do you know I could indict you
+for conspiracy and conniving at theft?'
+
+'I know that very well,' returned the woman, trying to brave it out; but
+she could not meet his indignant look. 'But it is your own flesh and
+blood that is in fault here. Miss Etta is more to blame than I.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton crossed the room and locked the door, putting the key coolly
+in his pocket; then he made me sit down,--for I had been standing all
+this time,--and, as though to enforce obedience, he kept his hand on my
+arm. I could see Leah looking about her as though she were caught in a
+trap: her light-coloured eyes had a scintillating look of fear in them.
+
+'Now, Leah,' observed her master, in a terrible voice, 'if you are to
+expect any mercy at my hand you will make a clean breast; but first you
+will answer my question: Has Miss Garston repeated the conversation
+between you and Miss Etta correctly?'
+
+'Yes, I believe so,' very sullenly.
+
+'You saw Miss Etta take the cheque with your own eyes the night before
+Mr. Eric left home?'
+
+'Yes.' Then, as though these questions tortured her, she said doggedly--
+
+'Look here, sir; I am caught in a trap, and there is no getting
+out of it. I have lost my place and my character, thanks to Miss
+Garston,'--another vindictive look at me. 'If you will promise like
+a gentleman not to take advantage of my evidence, I will tell you all
+about it.'
+
+'I will make no promises,' he returned, in the same stern voice; 'but
+if you do not speak I will send for the police at once, and have you up
+before a magistrate. You have connived at theft; that will be sufficient
+to criminate you.'
+
+'I know all about that,' was the unflinching answer; 'and I know for the
+old mistress's sake you will be glad to hush it all up: it would not be
+pleasant to bring your own cousin before a magistrate, especially after
+promising the old mistress on her death-bed to be as good to Miss Etta as
+though she were your own sister.'
+
+I saw the shadow of some sorrowful recollection cross his face as she
+said this. I had heard from Max how dearly he had loved his aunt
+Margaret: though her daughter had wrought such evil in his life, he would
+still seek to shield her. Leah knew this too, and took advantage of her
+knowledge in her crafty manner.
+
+'It would be best to tell you all, for Mr. Eric's sake. I know Miss Etta
+will be safe with you. She has done a deal of mischief since she has been
+under your roof. Somehow crooked ways come natural to her: the old
+mistress knew that, for she once said to me towards the last, "Leah, I am
+afraid my poor child has got some twist or warp in her nature; but I hope
+my nephew will never find out her want of straightforwardness." And she
+begged me, with tears in her eyes, to watch over her and try to influence
+her, although I was only a servant; and for a little while I tried, only
+the devil tempted me, for the sake of poor Bob.'
+
+'Bob is the name of your brother who is at Millbank?' asked Mr. Hamilton,
+in the same hard voice.
+
+'Yes, sir; he got into a bit of trouble through mixing with bad
+companions. But there,'--with a sudden fierce light in her eyes that
+reminded me of a tigress protecting her young,--'I am not going to
+talk of Bob: lads will get into trouble sometimes. If Mr. Eric had
+not been so interfering at that time, ordering Bob off the premises
+whenever he caught sight of him, and calling him a good-for-nothing
+loafer and all sorts of hard names,--why, he gave Bob a black eye one
+day when he was doing nothing but shying stones at the birds in the
+kitchen-garden,--if it had not been for Mr. Eric's treatment of Bob
+I might have acted better by him.'
+
+'Will you keep to the subject, Leah?' observed her master, in a warning
+voice. 'I wish to hear how that cheque was taken from my study that
+night.'
+
+'Well, sir, if you must know,' returned Leah reluctantly, 'Miss Etta was
+in a bit of a worry about money just then: she had got the accounts wrong
+somehow, and there was a heavy butcher's bill to be paid. She had let it
+run on too long, and all the time you believed it was settled every week:
+it was partly your fault, because you so seldom looked at the accounts,
+and was always trusting her with large sums of money. Miss Etta did not
+mean to be dishonest, but she was extravagant, and sometimes her
+dressmaker refused to wait for the money, and sometimes her milliner
+threatened to dun her; but she would quiet them a bit with a five- or
+ten-pound note filched from the housekeeping, always meaning, as she
+said, to pay it back when she drew her quarterly allowance.
+
+'I used to know of these doings of hers, for often and often she has sent
+me to pacify them with promises. I told her sometimes that she would do
+it once too often, but she always said it was for the last time.
+
+'She got afraid to tell me at last, but I knew all about the butcher's
+bill, for Mr. Dryden had been up to the house asking to see you, as he
+wanted his account settled. You were out when he called, but I never saw
+Miss Etta in such a fright: she had a fit of hysterics in her own room
+after he had left the house, and I had trouble enough to pacify her. She
+said if you found out that Dryden's account had not been settled for
+three months that you would never trust her again; that she was afraid
+Mr. Eric suspected her, and that she did not feel safe with him, and a
+great deal more that I cannot remember.
+
+'It ended with her making up her mind to pawn most of her jewellery, and
+we arranged that Bob should manage the business. He was up at the cottage
+for a night or two, though no one was aware of that fact, for he kept
+close, for fear Mr. Eric should spy upon him.
+
+'He slept at the cottage the very night the cheque was stolen from the
+study'; but as Leah paused here Mr. Hamilton lifted his head from his
+hands and bade her impatiently go on with the history of that night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV
+
+LEAH'S CONFESSION
+
+
+'You know what happened that day, sir,' observed Leah, hesitating a
+moment, for even her hard nature felt some compunction at the look of
+suffering on her master's face. She had eaten his bread for years, and
+had deceived and duped him; but she must have felt remorse stirring in
+her as she saw him drop his head on his clasped hands again, as though
+he were compelling himself to listen without interruption.
+
+'You had been talking to Mr. Eric a long time in the study, Miss Etta
+told me; he had been going on like mad about Mr. Edgar Brown, and having
+to go to Mr. Armstrong's office; but you had been very firm, and had
+refused to hear any more, and he had flung off to his own room in one of
+his passions. Miss Gladys had followed him, and I heard him telling her
+that he had forgotten himself and struck you, and that you had turned
+him out of the study, and that he was in difficulties and must have
+money, for Mr. Edgar had got him into some trouble.'
+
+'You heard this by listening at Mr. Eric's door, for Miss Gladys saw
+you,' I observed, not willing to let this pass.
+
+'What has that got to do with it?' she returned rudely. 'I am speaking
+to the master, not you': but she grew a shade paler as I spoke. 'You
+were up late that night, sir; I was waiting to speak to Miss Etta, and
+encountered you in the passage. I went back to my own room for a little
+while, and then I knocked at her door; but there was no answer. I could
+see the room was dark, but I could hardly believe she was asleep: so I
+went to the bed and called Miss Etta, but I very soon found she was not
+there: her gown was on the couch and her dressing-gown missing from its
+place.
+
+'I had a notion that I might as well follow her, for somehow I guessed
+that she had gone to the study; but I was certainly not prepared to see
+Mr. Eric stooping over your desk. He had a letter in his hand, and had
+just put down his chamber candlestick. All at once it flashed upon my
+mind that Miss Etta had told me that you had received a large cheque that
+night, and that you were going up to London the next day to cash it, and
+she hoped Dryden would not call again before you went. She said it quite
+casually, and I am sure then she had not thought of helping herself. Then
+the thought must have come to her all of a sudden.
+
+'I remembered the cheque, and for an instant I suspected Mr. Eric. But as
+I was watching him I saw the curtain of one of the windows move, and I
+had a glimpse of yellow embroidery that certainly belonged to Miss Etta's
+dressing-gown. In a moment I grasped the truth: she had taken the cheque
+to settle Dryden's bill. But I must make myself certain of the fact: so
+I asked Mr. Eric, rather roughly, what he was doing, and he retorted by
+bidding me mind my own business.
+
+'He had laid his letter on the desk, but when he had gone I walked up
+straight to the window, and nearly frightened Miss Etta into a fit by
+asking her what she had done with the cheque. She was grovelling on her
+knees before me in a moment, calling me her dear Leah and imploring me to
+shield her. I was very fierce with her at first, and was for putting it
+back again, until she told me, trembling all over, that she had endorsed
+it. She had copied your writing, and only an expert could have told the
+difference.
+
+'"It is too late, Leah," she kept saying; "we cannot hide it from Giles
+now, and I must have the money, and you must help me to get it." And then
+she whispered that I should have some of it for Bob.
+
+'"It is a nasty bit of business, Miss Etta," I replied, for I did not
+want to spare her; "it is forgery, that is what they would call it in a
+court of law"; but she would not let me finish, but flung herself upon me
+with a suppressed scream, and I could not shake her off. She kept saying
+that she would destroy herself if I would not help her: so I turned it
+over in my mind. I wanted money for Bob, and--well, sir, the devil had a
+deal to do with that night's business. I had settled it all before an
+hour was over. Bob would go up to London with the cheque, and cash it at
+the bank: he was tall and fair, and a suit of Mr. Eric's old clothes
+would make him quite the gentleman, and no one would notice the scar;
+when he was safely off and you missed the cheque there would be little
+trouble in casting the blame on Mr. Eric. I had taken care to place the
+letter in the desk, and I had plenty of circumstantial evidence to offer.
+
+'Well, you know the rest, sir,--how you called Miss Etta into your study,
+and how she begged you to send for me. I had my story all ready,--my fear
+of thieves, and how I saw Mr. Eric standing with his hand in your desk.
+Of course the cheque could not be found: no one believed the poor young
+gentleman's ravings, especially after his talk with Miss Gladys. We took
+care that the telegram should not be sent too soon. Bob was on his way
+back by then, and before evening Dryden had his money, and Bob was safe
+in Clerkenwell. What is the good of my repeating it all? I shielded Miss
+Etta at Mr. Eric's expense; and, though I was sorry enough to drive him
+away from his home, we had to look to our own safety, and Miss Etta was
+nearly out of her mind with remorse and terror.' But here Mr. Hamilton's
+voice interrupted her harshly.
+
+'Wait a moment, woman: have you ever since that day heard anything of
+that unfortunate boy?'
+
+To my surprise Leah hesitated. 'Miss Etta believes that he is dead, sir;
+but I can't help differing from her, though I never told her the reason;
+but I have fancied more than once,--indeed I am speaking the truth now,
+sir,' as he darted a meaning look at her, 'I have no motive to do
+otherwise.--I have fancied that I have seen some one very like Mr. Eric
+lurking about the road on a dark night. Once I was nearly sure it was Mr.
+Eric, though he wore a workman's dress as a disguise. He was looking at
+the windows; the blind was up in the study, and Miss Gladys was there
+with Mr. Cunliffe; he had made her laugh about something. It was a warm
+night, and rather wet, and the window was open; I was just shutting it
+when I caught sight of him, and nearly called out; but he turned away
+quickly, and hid himself in the shrubbery, and though I went out to look
+for him I was too late, for I could see him walking down the road.'
+
+'You are sure it was Mr. Eric.' Oh, the look of intense relief on Mr.
+Hamilton's face! He must have believed him dead all this time.
+
+'I am nearly sure, sir. I saw him again in town. I was passing the Albert
+Memorial when I looked up at one of the fine houses opposite, and saw a
+young workman on the balcony with a painter's brush in his hand: the sun
+was shining full on his face. I saw him plainly then.'
+
+Mr. Hamilton started from his seat. 'If this be true!--my father's son
+gaining his bread as a house-painter!'
+
+'It is true,' I whispered; 'for I saw him myself, and told Gladys.'
+
+'You saw him!--you!' with an air of utter incredulity.
+
+'Yes; and I tried to speak to him. He was so like the picture in Gladys's
+room, I thought it must be Eric. But he would not hear me, and in a
+moment he was gone. The men called him Jack Poynter, and said he was a
+gentleman, but no one knew where he lived. Oh, I have tried so hard to
+find him for you, but he will not be found.'
+
+'And you did not tell me of this,' very reproachfully.
+
+'Gladys would not let me tell you,' I returned: 'we could not be sure,
+and--' But he put up his hand to stop me.
+
+'That will do,' in a tone of suppressed grief that went to my heart. 'I
+will not wrong you if I can help it; no doubt you did it for the best;
+you did not willingly deceive me.'
+
+'Never! I have never deceived you, Mr. Hamilton.'
+
+'Not intentionally. I will do you justice even now; but, oh,'--and here
+he clinched his right hand, and I saw the veins on it stand out like
+whip-cord,--'how I have been betrayed! Those I have trusted have brought
+trouble and confusion in my household; and, good God! they are women, and
+I cannot curse them.'
+
+I saw Leah quail beneath this burst of most righteous indignation.
+The blinding tears rushed to my eyes as I heard him: in spite of his
+sternness, he had been so simple and so unsuspicious. He trusted people
+so fully, he was so generous in his confidence, and yet the woman he
+loved had played him false, and the pitiful creatures he had sheltered
+under his roof had hatched this conspiracy against his peace.
+
+'You can leave me now,' he continued harshly, turning to Leah. 'I will
+not trust myself to say more to you. If you receive mercy and not justice
+at my hands, it is because your confederate is even more guilty than you.
+I cannot spare the one without letting the other go unpunished. To-morrow
+morning, before the household is up, you and everything belonging to you
+shall leave this house. If you ever set foot in Heathfield again it will
+be at your own peril. Go up to your own room now and pack your boxes; I
+shall take the precaution of turning the key in your door to prevent your
+holding communication with any member of my household.'
+
+'I give you my word, sir--' began Leah, turning visibly pale at the idea
+of finding herself a prisoner.
+
+'Your word!' was the disdainful reply; and then he pointed to the door.
+'Go at once!' But she still lingered. There was a spark of good even in
+this woman. She was unwilling to quit our presence without knowing what
+was to become of her mistress.
+
+'You will not be hard on Miss Etta, sir? She has done wrong, but she is
+a poor creature, and--' But Mr. Hamilton walked to the door and threw it
+open with a gesture that compelled obedience.
+
+The next moment, however, he recoiled with a low exclamation of horror;
+for there, drawn up against the wall, in a strange half-crouching
+attitude, as though petrified with terror, was his miserable cousin.
+
+I heard Leah's shocked 'Miss Etta! How could you be so mad?' And then Mr.
+Hamilton put out his hand, as though to forbid approach; but with a cry
+of despair Miss Darrell seemed to sink to the ground, and held him
+convulsively round the knees, so that he could not free himself.
+
+'Get up, Etta!' he said indignantly. 'It is not to me you have to kneel';
+for he thought her attitude one of supplication. But I knew better. She
+had not strength to stand or support herself, and I passed behind him
+quickly and went to her help.
+
+'You cannot speak to him like that, Miss Darrell. He will not hear you.'
+But, though Leah assisted me, we had some difficulty in inducing her to
+relax her frantic grip. And even when we placed her in a chair she seemed
+as though she would sink again on the ground. She was trembling all over,
+her teeth chattering; the muscles of her face worked convulsively.
+
+'Giles, Giles,' she screamed, as he seemed about to leave her, 'you may
+kill me if you like, but you shall not look at me like this.' But,
+without vouchsafing her any answer, he turned to me.
+
+'Will you wait with my cousin a moment? I will be back directly.' I
+nodded assent. I knew he wished to see Leah safely in her room, but as
+he closed the door Miss Darrell clutched my arm. She seemed really beside
+herself.
+
+'Where has he gone? Will he fetch the police, Miss Garston? Will they put
+me in prison for it?'
+
+'No,' I returned sternly. 'You know you are safe with him. He will not
+hurt a hair of your head, because you are a woman, and his own flesh and
+blood.'
+
+'But he will banish me from his house!' she moaned. 'He will never
+forgive me or let me see his face again. He will tell--oh, I cannot bear
+it!'--her words strangled by a hoarse scream. 'I cannot and will not bear
+it.'
+
+I put my hand on her shoulder. 'You must control yourself,' I said
+coldly. 'Would you wish Mr. Hamilton to treat you as a mad woman? Listen
+to me, Miss Darrell. One part of your secret is safe with me. Try and
+restrain yourself, and I will promise you that it shall never pass my
+lips.'
+
+Even in her hysterical excitement she understood me, and a more human
+expression came into her hard, glaring eyes. 'Say it again; promise me,'
+she moaned. 'I hate you, but I know you are to be trusted.'
+
+'If you behave yourself and try to control your feelings a little,' I
+returned slowly, 'I will say nothing about Uncle Max.' But at the name
+she covered her face with her hands and rocked herself in agony. In spite
+of all her sins I pitied her then.
+
+At that moment Mr. Hamilton returned; but before he could speak I said
+quickly--
+
+'Your cousin is not in a condition to listen to you to-night, and it is
+very late: I am going to take her up to her room and do what I can to
+help her. Will you allow us to go?'
+
+He looked at her and then at me. His face was hard and sombre; there was
+no relenting there. 'Perhaps it will be better,' he returned slowly.
+'Yes, you may go, but do not stay long with her. I may want to speak
+to you again.'
+
+'Not to-night,' I remonstrated; for I could see he was oblivious of the
+time, and it was near midnight. 'To-morrow morning, as early as you like;
+but I cannot come down again.'
+
+'Oh, I see,' the meaning of my words dawning upon him. 'To-morrow
+morning, then. Take her away now.' And, without another glance, he walked
+away to his study table.
+
+'Come, Miss Darrell,' I whispered, touching her; and she rose
+reluctantly. 'Giles,--let me say one word to him,' said she, trying to
+follow him feebly, but I recalled her sternly and made her follow me. I
+had no fear of her now. Leah, whom I dreaded, was locked safely in her
+room, and this poor miserable woman was harmless enough.
+
+She broke into hysterical sobs and moans when I got her into her own
+room. I was afraid Gladys might hear her, and I insisted on her showing
+more self-control. My sharp words had their effect after a time, but it
+was impossible to induce her to undress or go to bed. She had flung
+herself across the foot and lay crouched up in a heap, with all the
+delicate embroidery of her French dressing-gown crushed under her. When
+she was quieter I put pillows under her head and covered her up warmly,
+and then sat down to watch her.
+
+I was about to leave the room once to fetch something I wanted, when she
+suddenly struggled into a sitting posture, and begged me, in a voice of
+horror, not to leave her.
+
+'Leah will murder me if you do!' she cried. 'She has frightened me
+often,--she says such things,--oh, you do not know! I should never have
+been so bad but for Leah!'
+
+'I shall not be long; and Leah is locked in her room; Mr. Hamilton has
+the key,' I returned quietly. But it was with difficulty that she would
+let me go. I suppose even criminals feel the need of sympathy. Miss
+Darrell hated me in her heart, had always hated me, but the sight of even
+an unloved human face was better than solitude. No wonder with such
+thoughts people go mad sometimes.
+
+I was surprised to see Mr. Hamilton walking up and down the long passage,
+as though he were keeping guard. He was going to let me pass him without
+a word, but I stopped and asked what he was doing.
+
+'I was waiting until you were safe in your own room,' was the reply.
+'What has kept you so long?'
+
+'I must go back again,' I returned quickly; 'she is not fit to be left
+alone. I am not afraid of her now, Mr. Hamilton: she can do me no harm.
+Please do not watch any longer.'
+
+'You were ill: have you forgotten that? I ought not to allow you to make
+yourself worse. Why,' with a sort of impatience visible in his manner,
+'need you be troubled about our miserable affairs?'
+
+'Let me go back for a little while,' I pleaded; for I knew if he ordered
+me into my own room I should be obliged to obey him. 'It keeps her in
+check, seeing me there: she is so exhausted that she must sleep soon; and
+then I will lie down.' I suppose he thought there was no help for it, for
+he drew back for me to pass; but I was grieved to hear his footsteps for
+a long time after that pacing slowly up and down, and it was more for his
+sake than my own that I was glad when Miss Darrell's moans ceased, and
+the more quiet regular breathing proved to me that she was asleep.
+
+The passage was empty when I came out, and the first faint streak of dawn
+was visible. It was too late then to think of going to bed. I lay down,
+dressed as I was, and slept for a couple of hours; then the sunshine woke
+me, and I got up and took my bath and felt refreshed.
+
+Chatty brought me my tea early, and told me that Mr. Hamilton was walking
+in the garden. 'And do you know, ma'am,' observed the girl breathlessly,
+'something strange must have happened since last evening; for when I
+looked out of my window before six this morning I saw master standing
+before the door, and there was Leah, in her bonnet, speaking to him, and
+she went off with Pierson, wheeling off her boxes on his truck. I do
+believe she has really gone, ma'am, and not a creature in the house knows
+it.'
+
+'Never mind: it is not our business, Chatty; but I think I will go and
+speak to your master when I have finished my tea.'
+
+'I was to give you a message, ma'am,--that he would be glad if you could
+join him in the garden as soon as you were up, as he had to go some
+distance, and he wanted to tell you about it.' I put down my cup at once
+when I heard this, and hurried out into the garden.
+
+Mr. Hamilton was pacing up and down the asphalt walk as he had paced the
+passage last night. He did not quicken his steps when he saw me, but
+walked towards me slowly, with the gait of a man who has a load on his
+mind.
+
+'I hardly expected you so early. Have you had any rest at all?' looking
+at me rather anxiously.
+
+'Yes, thank you; I have slept for two hours. But you have not, Mr.
+Hamilton'; for he was looking wretchedly worn and ill.
+
+'Was it likely that I could sleep?' he returned impatiently. 'But I have
+no time to waste. Atkinson will be round here directly with the dog-cart.
+I am going off to Liverpool by the 12.10 train.'
+
+'To Liverpool?' in unfeigned surprise.
+
+'Yes; I have been thinking all night what is to be done about my
+unfortunate cousin. She is dependent on me, and I cannot send her away
+without finding her a home. That home,' pausing as though to give
+emphasis to his words, 'can never be under my roof again.'
+
+'I suppose not.'
+
+'The sin is of too black a dye for me to bring myself to forgive her. If
+I were to say that I forgive her I should lie.' And here his face became
+dark again. 'She has disgraced that poor boy Eric, and driven him away
+from his home; she has made Gladys's life wretched: her whole existence
+must have been a tissue of deceit and treachery. How could I sleep when
+I was trying to disentangle this mesh of deception and lies? how do I
+know when she has been true or when wholly false?'
+
+'I fear there has been little truth spoken to you, Mr. Hamilton.' I was
+thinking of Gladys when I said that, but something in my words seemed to
+strike him.
+
+'Is there anything else I ought to know? But no, I have no time for that:
+I must try and make some arrangements at once: she cannot break bread
+with us again. The people I want to find are old patients of mine. I was
+able to serve them once: I feel as though I have a claim on them.'
+
+'But you will be back soon?' for I could not bear him to leave us alone.
+
+'To-morrow morning. I will take the night train up, but I shall be
+detained in London. Take care of Gladys for me, Miss Garston. Do not tell
+her more than you think necessary. Do not let Etta see her, if you can
+help it; but I know you will act for the best.' Then, as he looked at me,
+his face softened for a moment. 'I wish I had not to leave you; but you
+could send for Mr. Cunliffe.'
+
+'Oh, there will be no need for that,' I returned hastily, for the thought
+of the wretched woman upstairs would prevent me from sending for Uncle
+Max. 'Come back as quickly as you can, and I will do my best for Gladys.'
+
+'I know it. I can trust you,' he replied, very gently. 'Take care of
+yourself also.' Then, as the wheels of the dog-cart sounded on the
+gravel, he held out his hand to me gravely, and then turned away. A
+moment afterwards I heard his voice speaking to Atkinson, and as I
+entered the shrubbery Pierson was fastening the gate after them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV
+
+'THIS HOME IS YOURS NO LONGER'
+
+
+There are long gray days in every one's life.
+
+I think that day was the longest that I ever spent: it seemed as though
+the morning would never merge into afternoon, or the afternoon into
+evening. Of the night I could not judge, for I slept as only weary youth
+can sleep.
+
+Sheer humanity, the mere instinct of womankind, had obliged me to watch
+by Miss Darrell through the previous night: for some hours her hysterical
+state had bordered on frenzy. I knew sleep was the best restorative in
+such cases: she would wake quieter. There would be no actual need for my
+services, and unless she sent for me I thought it better to leave her
+alone: she was only suffering the penalty of her own sin, the shame of
+detected guilt. There was no sign of real penitence to give me hope for
+the future.
+
+I found Gladys awake when I returned from the garden: in spite of my
+anxiety, it gave me intense pleasure to hear her greeting words.
+
+'Oh, Ursula, come and kiss me; it is good morning indeed. I woke so
+happy; everything is so lovely,--the sunshine, and the birds, and the
+flowers!' And, with a smile, 'I wished somebody could have seen--"my
+thoughts of Max."' And then, still holding me fast, 'I do not forget my
+poor boy, in spite of my happiness, but something tells me that Eric will
+soon come back.'
+
+'He might have been here now,' I grumbled, 'if you had allowed me to tell
+your brother'; for those few reproachful words haunted me.
+
+'Yes, dear; I know I was wrong,' she answered, with sweet candour. 'Giles
+is so kind now that I cannot think why I was so reserved with him; but of
+course,' flushing a little, 'I was afraid of Etta.'
+
+'I suppose that was the reason,' I returned, busying myself about the
+room; for I did not care to pursue the subject. Mr. Hamilton's few words
+had convinced me that he thought it would be wiser to leave Gladys in
+ignorance of what was going on until Miss Darrell was out of the house.
+She had borne so much, and was still weak and unfit for any great
+excitement. My great fear was lest Miss Darrell should force her way
+into Gladys's presence and disturb her by a scene; and this fear kept
+me anxious and uneasy all day.
+
+Gladys was a trifle restless; she wanted a drive again, and when I made
+her brother's absence a pretext for refusing this, she pleaded for a
+stroll in the garden. It was with great difficulty that I at last induced
+her to remain quietly in her room. But when she saw that I was really
+serious she gave up her wishes very sweetly, and consoled herself by
+writing to Max, in answer to a letter that he had sent under cover to me.
+
+It was nearly noon before Chatty brought me a message that Miss Darrell
+was just up and dressed, and wished to speak to me; and I went at once to
+her.
+
+The usually luxurious room had an untidy and forlorn aspect. The crumpled
+Indian dressing-gown and the breakfast-tray littered the couch;
+ornaments, jewellery, and brushes strewed the dressing-table. Miss
+Darrell was sitting in an easy-chair by the open window. She did not
+move or glance as I entered in the full light. She looked pinched and
+old and plain. Her eyelids were swollen; her complexion had a yellowish
+whiteness; as I stood opposite to her, I could see gray hairs in the
+smooth dark head; before many years were over Miss Darrell would look an
+old woman. I could not help wondering, as I looked at her, how any one
+could have called her handsome.
+
+'Chatty says Leah has gone,' she said, in a voice fretful with misery.
+'I told her that that was too good news to be true. Is it true, Miss
+Garston?'
+
+'Yes; she has gone.'
+
+'I am glad of it,' with a vixenish sharpness that surprised me. 'I hated
+that woman, and yet I was afraid of her too: she got me in her toils, and
+then I was helpless. Where has Giles gone, Miss Garston? Chatty said he
+went off in a dog-cart with his portmanteau.'
+
+How I wished Chatty would hold her tongue sometimes! but most likely Miss
+Darrell had questioned her.
+
+'Mr. Hamilton's business is not our affair,' I returned coldly.
+
+'That means I am not to ask; but all the same you are in his secret,'
+with one of her old sneers. 'Will he be back to-night?'
+
+'No, not to-night; to-morrow morning early.'
+
+'That is all I want to know, Miss Garston,' hesitating a little
+nervously. 'I have never liked you, but all the same I have not injured
+you.'
+
+'Have you not, Miss Darrell?'
+
+'No,' very uneasily; but she did not meet my eyes. 'I defy you to prove
+that I have. Still, if I were your enemy, ought you not to heap coals of
+fire on my head?'
+
+'Possibly.'
+
+My coolness seemed to frighten her; she lost her sullen self-possession.
+
+'Have you no heart?' she said passionately. 'Will you not hold up a
+finger to help me? You have influence with Giles; do not deny it. If you
+ask him to keep me here he will not refuse you, and you will make me your
+slave for life.'
+
+I heard this proposition with disgust. She could cringe to me whom she
+hated. I shook my head, feeling unable to answer her.
+
+'I could help you,' she persisted, fixing her miserable eyes on me. 'Oh,
+I know what you want: you cannot hide from me that you are unhappy. I
+know where the hindrance lies; one word from me would bring Giles to your
+feet. Am I to say that word?'
+
+'No,' I returned indignantly. 'Do you think that I would owe anything
+to you? I would rather be unhappy all my life than be under such an
+obligation. You are powerless to harm me, Miss Darrell; your plots are
+nothing to me.'
+
+'And yet a word from me would bring him to your feet.'
+
+'I do not want him there,' I replied, irritated at this persistence.
+'I do not wish you to mention his name to me; if you do so again I will
+leave you.'
+
+'On your head be your own obstinacy,' she returned angrily; but I could
+see the despair in her eyes, and I answered that.
+
+'Miss Darrell,' I went on, more gently, 'I cannot help you in this. How
+could I ask Mr. Hamilton to keep you under his roof, knowing that you
+have poisoned his domestic happiness? Even if I could be so mad or
+foolish, would he be likely to listen to me?'
+
+'He would listen to you,' half crying: 'you know he worships the ground
+you walk on.'
+
+I tried to keep back the rebellious colour that rose to my face at her
+words.
+
+'Do not cheat yourself with this insane belief,' I returned quietly. 'Mr.
+Hamilton is inexorable when he has decided on anything.'
+
+'Inexorable! you may well say so!' rocking herself in an uncontrollable
+excitement. 'Giles is hard,--cruel in his wrath: he will send me away and
+never see me again.' And now the tears began to flow.
+
+'Miss Darrell,' I continued pityingly, 'for your own sake listen to me a
+moment. You have failed most miserably in the past: let the future years
+be years of repentance and atonement. Mr. Hamilton will not forgive until
+you have proved yourself worthy of forgiveness: remember you owe the
+future to him.'
+
+She stared at me for a moment as though my words held some hope for her;
+then she turned her back on me and went on rocking herself. 'Too late!'
+I heard her mutter: 'I cannot be good without him.' And, with a strange
+sinking of heart, I left the room.
+
+She could bring him to my feet with a word. Was this the truth, or only
+an idle boast? No matter; I would not owe even his love to this woman.
+'I can live without you, Giles,--my Giles,' I whispered; but hot tears
+burnt my cheeks as I spoke.
+
+In the afternoon I saw Miss Darrell pacing up and down the asphalt walk.
+Gladys saw her too, and turned away from the window rather nervously.
+'How restless Etta seems!' she said once; but I made no answer. Towards
+evening I heard her footsteps perambulating the long passage, and softly
+turned the key in the lock without Gladys noticing the movement. Gladys
+noticed very little in that sweet dreamy mood that had come to her; her
+own thoughts occupied her; her lover's letter had more than contented
+her.
+
+About ten o'clock I went in search of Chatty, and came face to face with
+Miss Darrell. She was in her crumpled yellow dressing-gown, and her dark
+hair hung over her shoulders; her eyes looked bright and strange. I moved
+back a step and laid my hand on the handle.
+
+She greeted this action with a disagreeable laugh.
+
+'I suppose you heard me trying the door just now. Yes, I wanted to see
+Gladys; I wished to make some one feel as wretched as I do myself; but
+you were too quick for me. Do you always keep your patients under lock
+and key?'
+
+'Sometimes,' laconically, for I disliked her manner more than ever
+to-night: it was not the first time that I had fancied that she had had
+recourse to some form of narcotic. 'Why do you not go to bed, Miss
+Darrell?'
+
+'Perhaps I shall when I have thoroughly tired myself. These passages have
+rather a ghastly look: they remind me of Leah, too,' with a shudder.
+'Good-night, Miss Garston; pleasant dreams to you. I suppose you have
+not thought better of what I said about Giles?'
+
+'No, certainly not,' retreating into my room and locking the door in a
+panic. I heard a husky laugh answer me. Perhaps last night's watching had
+tired my nerves, for it was long before I could compose myself to sleep.
+
+The night passed quietly, and I woke, refreshed, to the sound of summer
+rain pattering on the shrubs. The little oak avenue looked wet and
+dreary; but no amount of rain or outward dreariness could damp me, with
+the expectation of Mr. Hamilton's return; and I helped Chatty arrange our
+rooms with great cheerfulness.
+
+He came back earlier than I expected. I had hardly finished settling
+Gladys for the day,--she took great pains with her toilet now, and was
+hard to please in the matter of ruffles and ornaments,--when Chatty told
+me that he wished to speak to me a moment.
+
+I made some excuse and joined him without delay. He looked much as he
+had the previous morning,--very worn and tired, and his eyes a little
+sunken; but he greeted me quietly, and even kindly; he asked me if I felt
+better, and how Gladys was. I was rather ashamed of my nervous manner of
+answering, but that odious speech of Miss Darrell would come into my
+mind when he looked at me.
+
+'Chatty says my cousin is in the dining-room: do you mind coming down
+with me for a few minutes? I do not wish to see her alone.'
+
+Of course I signified my willingness to accompany him, and he walked
+beside me silently to the dining-room door.
+
+Miss Darrell was sitting on the circular seat looking out on the oak
+avenue; she did not turn her head, and there was something hopeless in
+the line of her stooping shoulders. I saw her hands clutch the cushions
+nervously as her cousin walked straight to the window.
+
+'Etta,' he began abruptly, 'I wish you to listen to me a moment. I will
+spare you all I can, for Aunt Margaret's sake: I do not intend to be more
+hard with you than my duty demands.'
+
+'Oh, Giles!' raising her eyes at this mild commencement; but they dropped
+again at the sight of the dark impenetrable face, which certainly had no
+look of pity on it. She must have felt then, what I should certainly have
+felt in her place, that any prayers or tears would be wasted on him.
+
+'It would be useless, and worse than useless,' he went on, 'to point out
+to you the heinousness of your sin,--perhaps I should say crime. All
+these years you have not faltered in your relentless course; no pity for
+me and mine has touched your heart; you have allowed our poor lad to
+wander about the world as an outcast; you have suffered Gladys to carry a
+heavy and bitter weight in her bosom. Pshaw! why do I reiterate these
+things? you know them all.'
+
+'Giles, I have loved you in spite of it all! Be merciful to me!' But he
+went on as though he heard her no more than the rain dripping on the
+leaves.
+
+'This home is yours no longer; you are no fit companion for my sisters,
+even if I could bear to shelter a traitor under my roof. If I know my
+present feelings, I will never willingly see your face again: whether I
+ever do see it depends on your future conduct.'
+
+'Oh, for pity's sake, Giles!' She was writhing now. In spite of all her
+sins against him, she had loved him in her perverse way.
+
+'I have found you a home far from here,' he continued in the same
+chilling manner, 'and to-morrow morning you will be taken to it. The
+Alnwicks are kind, worthy people--not rich in this world's goods, or what
+the world would call refined. I was able to help them once when they were
+in bitter straits: in return they have acceded to my request and have
+offered you a home.'
+
+'I will not go!' she sobbed passionately. 'I would rather you should kill
+me, Giles, than treat me with such cruelty!'
+
+'They are old,' he went on calmly, 'but more with trouble than years, and
+they have no one belonging to them, and they promise to treat you like a
+daughter. You will be in comfort, but not luxury: luxury has been your
+curse, Etta. A moderate sum will be paid to you yearly for your dress and
+personal expenses, but if overdrawn or misapplied it will be curtailed
+or stopped altogether. Your maintenance will be arranged between the
+Alnwicks and myself, and, unless I give you permission to write,--which
+is distinctly not my purpose now,--no letter from you will be read or
+answered, and I forbid all such communication.'
+
+'I cannot--I cannot bear it!' she screamed, springing to her feet; but he
+waved her back with such a look that her arms dropped to her side.
+
+'No scene, I beg,' in a tone of disgust. 'Let me finish quietly what I
+have to say.--Miss Garston,' turning to me, 'could you spare Chatty to
+help my cousin pack her clothes and books? for we shall start early in
+the morning. Mr. Alnwick has promised to meet us half-way.'
+
+'I can set Chatty at liberty for the day,' was my answer.
+
+'Very well. Etta, you may as well go at once. Your meals will be served
+in your room. I do not wish you to resume your usual habits: this is my
+house, not yours. Your only course now must be obedience and submission.
+Let your future conduct atone to me for the past, that I may remember
+without shame that I have a cousin Etta.'
+
+He turned away then, but I could see his face working. He had dearly
+loved this miserable creature, and had cared for her as though she had
+been his sister, and he could not leave her without this vague word of
+hope. Did she understand him, I wonder,--that in the future he might
+bring himself to forgive her? I heard her weeping bitterly in her room
+afterwards, and Chatty, in her fussy, good-natured way, trying to comfort
+her: the girl had a kind heart.
+
+Early in the afternoon Mr. Hamilton joined us in the turret-room.
+Directly he came in and sat down by his sister's couch I knew that he
+meant to tell her everything,--that he thought it best that she should
+hear it from him.
+
+He told it very quietly, without any explanation or expression of
+feeling; but it was not possible for Gladys to hear that Eric's name was
+cleared without keen emotion. 'Oh, thank God for this other mercy!' she
+sobbed, bursting into tears; and presently, as he went on, she crept
+closer to him, and before he had finished she had clasped his arm with
+her two hands and her face was hidden in them.
+
+'Oh, Giles! if you only knew what she has made me suffer!' she whispered.
+'We should have understood each other better if Etta had not always come
+between us.'
+
+'You are right; I feel you are right, Gladys,' stroking her fair hair as
+he spoke; then she looked up and smiled affectionately in his face.
+
+'Ursula, will you leave me alone with my brother for a little? There is
+something I want to tell him!' And I went away at once.
+
+As I opened the door, Chatty came down the passage with a pile of
+freshly-ironed linen. Her round face looked unusually disturbed.
+
+'She is going on so, ma'am,' she whispered, 'it is dreadful to hear her.
+She is making us turn out all her drawers, and there are three big trunks
+to fill. She says she is going away for ever.'
+
+'Hush!' I returned, with a warning look, for Miss Darrell was at the door
+watching us. She was in her yellow dressing-gown, and the old pinched
+look was still in her face.
+
+'Why are you stopping to gossip, Chatty?' she said querulously. 'I shall
+not have finished until midnight at this rate. Leah would have packed by
+this time.' And Chatty, with rather a frightened look, carried in her
+pile of clean linen.
+
+I strolled about the garden for an hour, and then went back to the house.
+Mr. Hamilton was just closing the door of his sister's room. He looked
+happier, I thought: the dark, irritable expression had left his face. He
+came forward with a smile.
+
+'Gladys has been telling me, Miss Garston. I am more glad than I can say.
+Cunliffe is a fine fellow; there is no one that I should like so well for
+a brother.'
+
+'I knew you would say so. Uncle Max is so good.'
+
+'Well, he has secured a prize,' with a slight sigh. 'Gladys is a noble
+woman; she will make her husband a happy man. There is little doubt that
+Etta did mischief there; but Gladys was not willing to enter on that part
+of the subject. I begin to think,' with a quick, searching look that
+somewhat disturbed me, 'that we have not yet reached the limits of her
+mischief-making.'
+
+I could have told him that I knew that. I think he meant to have said
+something more; but a slight movement in the direction of Miss Darrell's
+room made us separate somewhat quickly. I saw Mr. Hamilton glance
+uneasily at the half-closed door as he went past it.
+
+I found Gladys in tears, but she made me understand with some difficulty
+that they were only tears of relief and joy.
+
+'But I am sorry too, because I have so often grieved him so,' she said,
+drying her eyes. 'Oh, how good Giles is!--how noble!--and I have
+misunderstood him so! he was so glad about Max, and so very very kind.
+And then we talked about Eric. He says we were wrong to keep it from him,
+that even you were to blame in that. He thinks so highly of you, Ursula;
+but he said even good people make mistakes sometimes, and that this was
+a great mistake. I was so sorry when he said that, that I asked his
+pardon over and over again.'
+
+I felt that I longed to ask his pardon too; and yet the fault had been
+Gladys's more than mine; but I knew she had talked enough, so I kissed
+her, and begged her to lie down and compose herself while I got the tea
+ready.
+
+We did not see Mr. Hamilton again that night. Gladys and I sat by the
+open window, talking by snatches or relapsing into silence. When she had
+retired to rest I stole out into the passage to see what had become of
+tired Chatty, but I repented this charitable impulse when I saw Miss
+Darrell standing in the open doorway opposite, as though she were
+watching for some one.
+
+On seeing me she beckoned imperiously, and I crossed the passage with
+some reluctance.
+
+'Come in a moment: I want to speak to you,' she said hoarsely; and I
+saw she was much excited. 'I sent Chatty to bed. We have finished
+packing,--oh, quite finished. Giles will be satisfied with my obedience;
+and now I want you to tell me what you and he were saying about Mr.
+Cunliffe.' But her white lips looked whiter as she spoke.
+
+'Excuse me, Miss Darrell,' I returned; but she stopped me.
+
+'You are going to say that it is no business of mine. You are always
+cautious, Miss Garston; but I am resolved to know this, or I will refuse
+to leave the house to-morrow morning. Are they engaged? is that what
+Giles meant when he said he was a fine fellow?'
+
+I thought it wiser to tell her the truth. 'They are engaged.'
+
+'And Giles knows it, and gives his consent?'
+
+'Most gladly and willingly.'
+
+'I wish I could kill them both!' was the sullen reply; and then, without
+taking any further notice of me, she sat down on one of the boxes and hid
+her face in her hands, and when I tried to speak to her she shook her
+head with a gesture of impatience and despair.
+
+'The game is played out; I may as well go,' she muttered; and seeing her
+in this mood I thought it better to leave her; but I slept uneasily, and
+often started up in bed fancying I heard something. I remembered her
+words with horror: the whole scene was like a nightmare to me,--the
+disordered and desolate room, with the great heavily-corded trunks, the
+dim light, the wretched woman in her yellow dressing-gown sitting
+crouched on a box. 'Can this be love?' I thought, with a shudder,--'this
+compound of vanity and selfishness?' and I felt how different was my
+feeling for Giles. The barrier might never be broken down between us, I
+might never be to him more than I was now, but all my life I should love
+and honour him as the noblest man I knew on God's earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI
+
+NAP BARKS IN THE STABLE-YARD
+
+
+I was arranging some flowers that Max had sent us the next morning, and
+waiting for Gladys to join me, when Mr. Hamilton came in.
+
+'Where is Gladys?' he asked, looking round the room; but when he heard
+that she had not finished dressing, he would not hear of my disturbing
+her.
+
+'It is no matter,' he went on. 'I shall be back before she is in bed. I
+only wanted to tell her that I have seen Cunliffe. I breakfasted with him
+this morning. He will be up here presently to see her. He looks ten years
+younger, Miss Garston.' And, as I smiled at that, he continued, in rather
+a constrained voice,--
+
+'Mr. Tudor breakfasted with us.'
+
+'Yes, I suppose so,' I returned carelessly. 'What splendid carnations
+these are, Mr. Hamilton! You have not any so good at Gladwyn.'
+
+'Cunliffe must spare me some cuttings,' he replied, rather absently;
+then, without looking at me, and in a peculiar voice, 'Is it still a
+secret, Miss Garston, or may I be allowed to congratulate you?'
+
+I dropped the carnations as though they suddenly scorched me.
+
+'Why should you congratulate me, Mr. Hamilton?'
+
+'I thought you considered me a friend,' he replied, rather nervously.
+'But, of course, if it be still a secret, I must beg your pardon for my
+abruptness.'
+
+'I don't know what you mean,' I said, very crossly, but my cheeks were
+burning. 'If this be a joke, I must tell you once for all that I dislike
+this sort of jokes: they are not in good taste': for I was as angry with
+him as possible, for who knew what nonsense he had got into his head? He
+looked at me in quite a bewildered fashion; my anger was evidently
+incomprehensible to him. We were playing at cross-purposes.
+
+'Do you think I am in the mood for joking?' he said, at last. 'Have you
+ever heard me jest on such subjects, Miss Garston? I thought we agreed on
+that point.'
+
+'Do you mean you are serious?'
+
+'Perfectly serious.'
+
+'Then in that case will you kindly explain to me why you think I am to be
+congratulated?'
+
+He looked uncomfortable. 'I have understood that you and Mr. Tudor
+were engaged, or, at least, likely to become so. Do you mean,' as
+my astonished face seemed to open room for doubt, 'that it is not
+true?--that Etta deceived me there?'
+
+'Miss Darrell!' scornfully; then, controlling my strong indignation
+with an effort, I said, more quietly, 'I think that we ought to beg Mr.
+Tudor's pardon for dragging in his name in this way: he would hardly
+thank us. If I am not mistaken, he is in love with my cousin Jocelyn.'
+
+'Impossible! What a credulous fool I have been to believe her! Your
+cousin Jocelyn,--do you mean Miss Jill?'
+
+'Yes,' I returned, smiling, for a sense of renewed happiness was stealing
+over me. 'The foolish fellow is always following me about to talk of her.
+I do believe he is honestly in love with her. He saved her life, and that
+makes it all the worse.'
+
+'All the better, you mean,' regarding me gravely. That fixed, serious
+look made me rather confused.
+
+'Would you mind telling me, Mr. Hamilton,' I interposed hurriedly, 'what
+put this absurd idea into your head?'
+
+'It was Etta,' he returned, in a low voice. 'It was that night when you
+had been singing to us, and she came home unexpectedly.'
+
+'Yes, yes, I remember'; but I could not meet his eyes.
+
+'She told me when we got home that Mr. Tudor was in love with you, and
+that she believed you were engaged, or that, at least, there was an
+understanding between you; and she added that if I did not believe her I
+might watch for myself, and I should see that you were always together.'
+
+'Well?' rather impatiently.
+
+'I will beg your pardon afterwards for following Etta's advice, but I did
+watch, and it was not long before I came round to her opinion.'
+
+'Mr. Hamilton!'
+
+'Wait a moment before you get angry with me again. I never saw you in a
+passion before'; but I knew he was laughing at me. 'Etta was certainly
+right in one thing: I seemed always finding you together.'
+
+'That was because I often met Mr. Tudor in the village, and he turned
+back and walked with me a little; but we always talked of Jill.'
+
+'How could I know that?' in rather an injured voice. 'Were you talking of
+Miss Jocelyn in the vicarage kitchen-garden that evening?'
+
+'Probably,' was my cool reply; for how could I remember all the subjects
+of our conversation?
+
+'And when you went to Hyde Park Gate, you were together then,--Leah saw
+you,--and--' But I could bear no more.
+
+'How could I know that I should be watched and spied upon, and all my
+innocent actions misrepresented?' I exclaimed indignantly. 'It was not
+fair, Mr. Hamilton. I could not have believed it of you, that you should
+listen to such things against me. That boy, too!'
+
+'Nonsense!' speaking in his old good-humoured voice, and looking
+exceedingly pleased. 'He is five-and-twenty, and a very good-looking
+fellow: a girl might do worse for herself than marry Lawrence Tudor.'
+
+'But I intend to have him as my cousin some day,' was my reply; but at
+this moment Chatty came in to tell Mr. Hamilton that the boxes were in
+the cart, and Miss Darrell waiting in the carriage.
+
+'Confound it! I had forgotten all about Etta,' he returned impatiently.
+'Well, it cannot be helped: we must finish our conversation this
+evening.' And with a smile that told of restored confidence he went off.
+
+I sat down and cried a little for sheer happiness, for I knew the barrier
+was broken at last, and that we should soon arrive at a complete
+understanding. It was hard that he should have to leave me just then; and
+the thought of resuming the conversation in the evening made me naturally
+a little nervous. 'Supposing I go back to the White Cottage,' I thought
+once; but I knew he would follow me there, and that it would seem idle
+coquetting on my part. It would be more dignified to wait and hear what
+he had to say. I should go back to the White Cottage in a day or two.
+
+Gladys came out of her room when she heard the wheels, and proposed that
+we should go down into the drawing-room. 'Poor poor Etta!' she sighed. 'I
+try to pity and be sorry for her, but it is impossible not to be glad
+that she has gone. I want to look at every room, Ursula, and to realise
+that I am to have my own lovely home in peace. We must send for Lady
+Betty; and Giles must know about Claude. I do not believe that he will
+be angry: oh no, nothing will make Giles angry now.'
+
+Max found us very busy in the drawing-room. I was just carrying out a
+work-box and a novel that belonged to Miss Darrell, and Gladys had picked
+up a peacock-feather screen, and a carved ivory fan, and two or three
+little knick-knacks. 'Take them all away, Ursula dear,' she pleaded, with
+a faint shudder; but as she put them in my arms there were Max's eyes
+watching us from the threshold.
+
+I saw her go up to him as simply as a child, and put her hands in his,
+and as I closed the door Max took her in his arms. The peacock screen
+fell at my feet, the ivory fan and a hideous little Chinese god rolled
+noisily on the oilcloth. I smiled as I picked them up. My dear Max and
+his Lady of Delight were together at last. I felt as though my cup of joy
+were full.
+
+Max remained to luncheon, but he went away soon afterwards. Gladys must
+rest, and he would come again later in the evening. I was rather glad
+when he said this, for I wanted to go down to the White Cottage and see
+Mrs. Barton, and I could not have left the house while he was there. Yes,
+Max was certainly right: it would be better for him to come again when
+Mr. Hamilton was at home.
+
+I made Gladys take possession of her favourite little couch in the
+drawing-room, but she detained me for some time talking about Max, until
+I refused to hear another word, and then I went up to my own room, and
+put on my hat.
+
+I thought Nap would like a run down the road,--and I could always make
+Tinker keep the peace,--so I went into the stable-yard in search of him.
+He was evidently there, for I could hear him barking excitedly. The next
+moment a young workman came out of the empty coach-house, and walked
+quickly to the gate, followed closely by Nap, jumping and fawning on him.
+
+'Down, down, good dog!' I heard him say, and then I whistled back Nap,
+who came reluctantly, and with some difficulty I contrived to shut him up
+in the stable-yard. There seemed no man about the premises. Then I
+hurried down the road in the direction of the village: my heart was
+beating fast, my limbs trembled under me. I had caught sight of a perfect
+profile and a golden-brown moustache as the young workman went out of the
+gate, and I knew it was the face of Eric Hamilton.
+
+My one thought was that I must follow him, that on no account must I lose
+sight of him. As I closed the gate I could see him in the distance, just
+turning the corner by the Man and Plough; he was walking very quickly in
+the direction of the station. I quickened my steps, breaking into a run
+now and then, and soon had the satisfaction of lessening the distance
+between us; my last run had brought me within a hundred yards of him,
+and slackened my pace, and began to look the matter in the face.
+
+I remembered that the London train would be due in another quarter of an
+hour; no doubt that was why he was walking so fast. I must keep near him
+when he took his ticket. I had no fear of his recognising me; he had only
+seen me twice, without my bonnet, and now I wore a hat that shaded my
+face, and my plain gray gown was sufficiently unlike the dress I had
+worn at Hyde Park Gate. I had a sudden qualm as the thought darted into
+my mind that he might possibly have a return-ticket; but I should know if
+he got into the Victoria train, and I determined on taking a ticket for
+myself.
+
+I had a couple of sovereigns and a little loose silver in my purse. I had
+assured myself of this fact as I walked down the hill. As soon as the
+young workman had entered the booking-office, I followed him closely, and
+to my great relief heard him ask for a third-class ticket for Victoria.
+When he had made way for me I took the same for myself, and then, as I
+had seven minutes to spare, I went into the telegraph-office and dashed
+off a message to Gladys.
+
+'Called to town on important business; may be detained to-night. Will
+write if necessary.'
+
+As I gave in the form I could hear the signal for the up train, and had
+only time to reach the platform when the Victoria train came in.
+
+The young workman got into an empty compartment, and I followed and
+placed myself at the other end. I had no wish to attract his notice; the
+ill success of my former attempt had frightened me, and I felt I dared
+not address him, for fear he should leave the train at the next station.
+Some workmen had got in and were talking noisily among themselves. I did
+not feel that the opportunity would he propitious.
+
+When we had actually left Heathfield I stole a glance at the young man:
+he had drawn his cap over his eyes, and seemed to feign sleep, no doubt
+to avoid conversation with the noisy crew opposite us; but that he was
+not really asleep was evident from the slight twitching of the mouth and
+a long-drawn sigh that every now and then escaped him.
+
+I could watch him safely now, and for a few minutes I studied almost
+painfully one of the most perfect faces I had ever seen. It was thin and
+colourless, and there were lines sad to see on so young a face; but it
+might have been a youthful Apollo leaning his head against the wooden
+wainscotting.
+
+Once he opened his eyes and pushed back his cap with a gesture of
+weariness and impatience. He did not see me: those sad, blue-gray eyes
+were fixed on the moving landscape; but how like Gladys's they looked!
+I turned aside quickly to hide my emotion. I thought of Gladys and Mr.
+Hamilton, and a prayer rose to my lips that for their sake I might
+succeed in bringing the lost one back.
+
+The journey seemed a long one. All sorts of fears tormented me. I
+remembered Mr. Hamilton was in London: there was danger of encountering
+him at Victoria. It was five now: he might possibly return to dinner. I
+could scarcely breathe as this new terror presented itself to me, for if
+Eric caught sight of his brother all would be lost.
+
+When the train stopped, I followed the young workman as closely as
+possible. As we were turning in the subterranean passage for the District
+Railway, my heart seemed to stop. There was Mr. Hamilton reading his
+paper under the clock: we actually passed within twenty yards of him, and
+he did not raise his eyes. I am sure Eric saw him, for he suddenly dived
+into the passage, and I had much trouble to keep him in sight: as it was,
+I was only just in time to hear him ask for a third-class single to
+Bishop's Road.
+
+I did not dare enter the same compartment, but I got into the next,
+and now and then, when our train stopped at the different stations,
+I could hear him distinctly talking to a fellow-workman, in a refined,
+gentlemanly voice, that would have attracted attention to him anywhere.
+Once the other man called him Jack, and asked where he hung out, and I
+noticed this question was cleverly eluded, but I heard him say afterwards
+that he was in regular work, and liked his present governor, and that the
+old woman who looked after him was a tidy, decent lady, and kept things
+comfortable. My thoughts strayed a little after this. The sight of Mr.
+Hamilton had disturbed me. What would he think when Gladys showed him
+my telegram? He had promised to finish our conversation this evening.
+I felt with a strange soreness of longing that I should not see Gladwyn
+that night. My absence of mind nearly cost me dear, for I had no idea
+that we had reached Bishop's Road until Eric passed my window, and with a
+smothered exclamation I opened the door: happily, the passengers were
+numerous and blocked up the stairs, so I reached the street to find him
+only a few yards before me.
+
+My patience was being severely exercised after this, for Eric did not go
+straight to his lodgings. He went into a butcher's first, and after a few
+minutes' delay--for there were customers in the shop--came out with a
+newspaper parcel in his hand. Then he went into a grocer's, and through
+the window I could see him putting little packets of tea and sugar in his
+pocket.
+
+His next business was to the baker's, and here a three-cornered crusty
+loaf was the result. The poor young fellow was evidently providing his
+evening meal, and the sight of these homely delicacies reminded me that
+I was tired and hungry and that a cup of tea would be refreshing. Eric
+carried his steak and three-cornered loaf jauntily, and every now and
+then broke into a sweet low whistle that reminded me of his nickname
+among his mates of 'Jack the Whistler.'
+
+We were threading the labyrinth of streets that lie behind Bishop's Road
+Station; I was beginning to feel weary and discouraged, when Eric stopped
+suddenly before a neat-looking house of two stories, with very bright
+geraniums in the parlour window, and taking out his latch-key let himself
+in, and closed the door with a bang.
+
+I stalked carelessly to the end of the street, and read the name. 'No. 25
+Madison Street,' I said to myself, and then I went up to the door and
+knocked boldly. My time had come now, I thought, trying to pull myself
+together, for I felt decidedly nervous.
+
+A stout, oldish woman with rather a pleasant face opened the door; her
+arms were bare, and she dried her hands on her apron as she asked me my
+business.
+
+'Your lodger Jack Poynter has just come in,' I said quietly. 'I have a
+message for him. Can I see him, please?'
+
+'Oh ay,--you can see him surely.' And she stepped back into the passage
+and called out, 'Jack, Jack! here is a young woman wants to speak to
+you.' But I shut the door hurriedly and interrupted her:
+
+'Let me go up to his room: you can tell me where it is'; for it never
+would do to speak to him in the passage.
+
+'Well, perhaps he may be washing and brushing himself a bit after his
+journey,' she returned good-humouredly: 'he is a tidy chap, is Jack. If
+you go up to the top landing and knock at the second door, that is his
+sitting-room; he sleeps at the back, and Sawyer has the other room.'
+
+I followed these instructions, and knocked at the front-room door; but no
+voice bade me come in; only a short bark and a scuffle of feet gave me
+notice of the occupant: so I ventured to go in.
+
+It was a tidy little room, and had a snug aspect. A white fox-terrier
+with a pretty face retreated growling under a chair, but I coaxed her to
+come out. The steak and the loaf were on the table. But I had no time for
+any further observation, for a voice said, 'What are you barking at,
+Jenny?' and the next moment Eric entered the room.
+
+He started when he saw me caressing the dog.
+
+'I beg your pardon for this intrusion,' I began nervously, for I saw I
+was not recognised; 'but I have followed you from Heathfield to tell you
+the good news. Mr. Hamilton, it is all found out; Miss Darrell stole that
+cheque.'
+
+I had blurted it out, fearing that he might start away from me even then:
+he must know that his name was cleared, and then I could persuade him to
+listen to me. I was right in my surmise, for as I said his name he put
+his hand on the door, but my next words made him drop the handle.
+
+'What?' he exclaimed, turning deadly pale, and I could see how his lips
+quivered under his moustache. 'Say that again: I do not understand.'
+
+'Mr. Hamilton,' I repeated slowly, 'you need not have rushed past your
+poor brother in that way at Victoria, for he is breaking his heart, and
+so is Gladys, with the longing to find you. Your name is cleared: they
+only want to ask your forgiveness for all you have suffered. It was a
+foul conspiracy of two women to save themselves by ruining you. Leah has
+made full confession. Your cousin Etta took the cheque out of your
+brother's desk.'
+
+'Oh, my God!' he gasped, and, sitting down, he hid his face in his hands.
+The little fox-terrier jumped on his knee and began licking his hands.
+'Don't, Jenny: let me be,' he said, in a fretful, boyish voice that made
+me smile. 'I must think, for my brain seems dizzy.'
+
+I left him quiet for a few minutes, and Jenny, after this rebuke, curled
+herself up at his feet and went to sleep. Then I took the chair beside
+him, and asked him, very quietly, if he could listen to me. He was
+frightfully pale, and his features were working, but he nodded assent and
+held his head between his hands again, but I know he heard every word.
+
+I told him as briefly as I could how Gladys had languished and pined all
+these years, how she had clung to the notion of his innocence and would
+not believe that he was dead. He started at that, and asked what I meant.
+Had Giles really believed he was dead?
+
+'He had reason to fear so,' I returned gravely; and I told him how his
+watch and scarf had been found on the beach at Brighton, and how the
+hotel-keeper had brought them to Mr. Hamilton.
+
+He seemed shocked at this. 'I had been bathing,' he said, in rather an
+ashamed voice: 'some boy must have stolen them, and then dropped his
+booty for fear of the police. I missed them when I came out of the water,
+and I hunted about for them a long time. As I was leaving the beach I saw
+one of Giles's friends coming down towards me, and I got it into my head
+that I was recognised. I dared not go back to the hotel. Besides, my
+money was running short. I took a third-class ticket up to London, and
+on my way fell in with a house-painter, who gave me lodging for a few
+nights.'
+
+'Yes, and then--' for he hesitated here.
+
+'Well, you see, I was just mad with them at home. I thought I could never
+forgive Giles that last insult. My character and honour were gone. Etta
+had been my secret enemy all along, because she knew I read her truly.
+Leah had given in her false evidence. My word was nothing. I was looked
+upon as a common thief. I swore that I would never cross the threshold of
+Gladwyn again until my name was cleared. They should not hear of me; if
+they thought me dead, so much the better!'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Eric, and you never considered how Gladys would suffer!'
+
+'Yes, that was my only trouble; but I thought they would turn her against
+me in time. I was nearly mad, I tell you: but for Phil Power I believe I
+should have been desperate; but he stuck to me, and was always telling me
+that a man can live down anything. Indeed, but for Phil and his pretty
+little wife I should have starved, for I had no notion of helping myself,
+and would not have begged for a job to save my life, for I could not
+forget I was a gentleman. But Phil got me work at his governor's. So
+I turned house-painter, and rather liked my employment. I used to tell
+myself that it was better than old Armstrong's office. Why, I make two
+pounds a week now when we are in full work,' finished the poor lad
+proudly.
+
+My heart was yearning over him, he was so boyish and weak and impulsive;
+but I would not spare him. I told him that it was cowardly of him to hide
+himself,--that it would have been braver and nobler to have lived his
+life openly. 'Why not have let your brother know what you were doing?' I
+continued. 'For years this shadow has been over his home. He has believed
+you dead. He has even feared self-destruction. This fear has embittered
+his life and made him a hard, unhappy man.'
+
+'Do you mean Giles has suffered like that?' he exclaimed; and his gray
+eyes grew misty.
+
+'Yes, in spite of all your sins against him, he has loved you dearly; and
+Gladys--' But he put up his hand, as though he could hear no more.
+
+'Yes, I know, poor darling; but I have often seen her, often been near
+her; but I heard her laugh, and thought she was happy and had forgotten
+me. How long is it since Leah confessed, Miss--Miss--' And here he
+laughed a little nervously. 'I do not know who you are, and yet you
+must be a friend.'
+
+'I am Ursula Garston, a very close friend of your sister Gladys, and
+I have been nursing her in this last illness.'
+
+'What! has she been ill?' he asked anxiously. And when I had given him
+full particulars he questioned me again about Leah's confession, and I
+had to repeat all I could remember of her words.
+
+'Then I was not cleared when you spoke to me at Hyde Park Gate?' he
+returned, with a relieved air. 'So it did not matter my giving you the
+slip. You frightened me horribly, Miss Garston, I can tell you that. I
+saw those advertisements, too, to Jack Poynter, and I was very near
+leaving the country; but I am glad I held on, as Phil advised,' drawing
+a long breath as he spoke.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII
+
+'AT LAST, URSULA, AT LAST!'
+
+
+We were interrupted at this moment by the landlady's voice calling to
+Eric from the bottom of the stairs.
+
+'Jack,--I say, Jack, what has become of the steak I promised to cook for
+you? I'll be bound Jenny has eaten it.'
+
+Eric gave a short laugh and went out into the passage, and I heard him
+say, in rather a low voice,--
+
+'A lady, a friend of my sister's, has just brought me some news. I expect
+she is as tired and hungry as I am. Do you think,' coaxingly, 'that you
+could get tea for us in the parlour, Mrs. Hunter? and perhaps you will
+join us there'; for class-instinct had awoke in Eric at the sight of a
+lady's face, and I suppose, in spite of my Quakerish gray gown, I was
+still young enough to make him hesitate about entertaining me in his
+bachelor's room.
+
+There was a short parley after this. Then Mrs. Hunter came up panting,
+and, still wiping her hands from imaginary soap-suds, carried off the
+steak and the three-cornered loaf. 'It will be ready in about twenty
+minutes, Jack,' she observed, with a good-natured nod.
+
+Eric employed the interval of waiting by questioning me eagerly about his
+sisters. Then he tried to find out, in a gentlemanly way, how I contrived
+to be so mixed up with his family. This led to a brief _resume_ of my own
+history and work, and by the time Mrs. Hunter called us I felt as though
+I had known Eric for years.
+
+Mrs. Hunter beamed on us as we entered. There was really quite a tempting
+little meal spread on the round table, though the butter was not fresh
+nor the forks silver, but the tea was hot and strong, and the bread was
+new. And Eric produced from his stores some lump sugar and a pot of
+strawberry jam, and I did full justice to the homely fare.
+
+When Mrs. Hunter went into the kitchen to replenish the teapot I took the
+opportunity of consulting Eric about a lodging for the night. It was too
+late to return to Heathfield. Besides, I had made up my mind that Eric
+should accompany me. Aunt Philippa and Jill were in Switzerland, and the
+house at Hyde Park Gate would be empty. I could not well go to an hotel
+without any luggage. Eric seemed rather perplexed, and said we must take
+Mrs. Hunter into our confidence, which we did, and the good woman soon
+relieved our minds.
+
+She said at once that she knew an excellent person who let lodgings round
+the corner,--a Miss Moseley. Miss Gunter, who had been a music-mistress
+until she married the young chemist, had lived with her for six years;
+and Miss Crabbe, who was in the millinery department at Howell's, the big
+shop in Kimber Street, was still there. Miss Gunter's room was vacant,
+and she was sure Miss Moseley would take me in for the night and make me
+comfortable.
+
+I begged Mrs. Hunter to open negotiations with this obliging person, and
+she pulled down her sleeves at once, and tied her double chin in a very
+big black bonnet. While she was gone on this charitable errand, Eric and
+I sat by the parlour window in the gathering dusk, and I told him about
+Gladys's engagement to Uncle Max.
+
+He seemed much excited by the news. 'I always thought that would be a
+case,' he exclaimed: 'I could see Mr. Cunliffe cared for her even then.
+Well, he is a first-rate fellow, and I am awfully glad.' And then he fell
+into a reverie, and I could see there were tears in his eyes.
+
+Mrs. Hunter returned presently with the welcome news that Miss Moseley
+was airing my sheets at the kitchen fire, and, after a little more talk,
+Eric walked with me to Prescott Street and gave me in charge to Miss
+Moseley, after promising to be with me soon after nine the next morning.
+
+I found Miss Moseley a cheerful talkative person, with very few teeth and
+a great deal of good-nature. She gave me Miss Gunter's history as she
+made the bed. I could see that her marriage with the young chemist was
+a great source of glorification to all connected with her. She was still
+holding forth on the newly-furnished drawing-room, with its blue sofa
+and inlaid chiffonier, as she lighted a pair of candles in the brass
+candlesticks, and brought me a can of hot water. I am afraid I was rather
+thankful when she closed the door and left me alone, for I was tired, and
+longed to think over the wonderful events of the day. I slept very
+sweetly in the old-fashioned brown bed that was sacred to the memory of
+Miss Gunter, and woke happily to the fact that another blue day was
+shining, and that in a few hours Eric and I would be at Heathfield. I
+ate my frugal breakfast in a small back parlour overlooking the blank
+wall of a brewery, and before I had finished there was a quick tap at the
+door, and Eric entered. A boyish blush crossed his handsome face as I
+looked at him in some surprise. He had laid aside his workman's dress,
+and wore the ordinary garb of a gentleman. Perhaps his coat was a little
+shabby and the hat he held in his hand had lost its gloss, but no one
+would have noticed such trifles with that bright speaking face and air
+of refinement; and, though he looked down at his uncovered hands and
+muttered something about stopping to buy a pair of gloves, I hastened to
+assure him that it was so early that it did not matter. 'I should hardly
+have recognised you, Mr. Eric,' I ventured to observe, for I saw he was
+a little sensitive about his appearance; and then he told me in his frank
+way that the clothes he wore were the same in which he left Gladwyn
+nearly four years ago.
+
+'They have been lying by all this time,' he went on, 'and they are sadly
+creased, I am afraid. I have grown a little broader, and they don't seem
+to fit me, somehow, but I did not want Gladys to see me in anything
+else.'
+
+We had decided to take the ten o'clock train to Heathfield, so I did
+not keep him long waiting for me. On our way to the station we met a
+house-painter: he looked rather dubiously at Eric.
+
+'All right, Phil,' he laughed, 'I am going home; but I shall turn up
+again all right: this lady has brought me good news.' And he wrung Phil's
+hand with a heartiness that spoke volumes.
+
+He was very excited and talkative at first, but as soon as we left
+Victoria behind us he became quieter, and soon afterwards perfectly
+silent; and I did not disturb him. He grew more nervous as we approached
+Heathfield, and when the train stopped he had not an atom of colour in
+his face.
+
+'I do not know what I shall say to Giles,' he said, as we walked up the
+hill. 'It will be very awkward for both of us, Miss Garston. Of course
+I know that--'
+
+But I begged him not to anticipate the awkwardness. 'You will be welcomed
+as we only welcome our dearest and best,' I assured him. 'Your brother's
+heart has been sore for you all these years: you need not fear one word
+of reproach from him.' But he only sighed, and asked me not to walk so
+quickly; his courage was failing; I could see the look of nervous fear
+on his face.
+
+We had arranged that he should accompany me to Gladwyn. Gladys never left
+her room before twelve, and I thought that I could shut him safely in the
+dining-room while I prepared her for his arrival. I knew Mr. Hamilton was
+never at home at this hour, but I had not reckoned on the disorganised
+state of the house, or the difference my brief absence would make in the
+usual routine.
+
+I blamed myself for rashness and want of consideration when, on opening
+the gate, I saw Gladys crossing one of the little lawns around the house,
+with Max and Mr. Hamilton. At my faint exclamation Eric let go the gate
+rather too suddenly, and it swung back on its hinges so noisily that they
+all looked round, and the poor boy stood as though rooted to the spot.
+But the next moment there was the gleam of a white gown, and Gladys came
+running over the grass towards us with outstretched hands, and in another
+second the brother and sister were locked in each other's arms.
+
+'Oh, my darling,' we heard her say, as she put up her face and kissed
+him, and then her fair head seemed to droop lower and lower until it
+touched Eric's shoulder. I glanced anxiously at Mr. Hamilton.
+
+'Take her into the house, Eric,' he said, in his ordinary voice; but how
+white his face looked! 'It has been too sudden, and she has fainted.'
+And, without a word, Eric lifted her in his strong arms and carried her
+of his own accord to the little blue couch in the drawing-room, and then
+stood aside while his brother administered the usual remedy. Not a look
+had passed between them yet: they were both too much absorbed in Gladys.
+
+She soon opened her eyes, and pushed away the vinaigrette I was holding
+to her.
+
+'It is nothing, Ursula. I am well, quite well. Where is my dear boy? Do
+not keep him from me.' And then Eric knelt down beside her, and put his
+arm round her with a sort of sob.
+
+'I ought not to have startled you so, Gladys. I have made you look so
+pale.' But she laughed again, and pushed back his hair from his forehead,
+and feasted her eyes on his face as though they could never be satisfied.
+
+'Eric, darling, it seems like a dream; and it was Ursula, dear good
+Ursula, who has given you back to us. We must thank her presently; but
+not now. Oh, I must look at you first. He looks older, does he not,
+Giles?--older and more manly. And what broad shoulders, and such a
+moustache!' but Eric silenced her with a kiss.
+
+'That will do, Gladys dear,' he whispered, springing to his feet; and
+then, with downcast eyes and a flush on his face, he held out his hand
+to his brother. It was taken and held silently, and then Mr. Hamilton's
+disengaged hand was laid on his shoulder caressingly.
+
+'Welcome home, my dear boy,' he said; but his voice was not quite so
+clear as usual.
+
+'I am very sorry, Giles,' he faltered; but Mr. Hamilton would not let him
+speak.
+
+'There is nothing to be sorry for, now,' he said significantly. 'Have you
+shaken hands with Mr. Cunliffe, Eric? Gladys, can you spare your boy for
+a few moments while I carry him off?' And, as Gladys smiled assent, Mr.
+Hamilton signed to Eric to follow him.
+
+Max sat down beside Gladys when they had left the room, and Gladys made
+a space for me on the couch.
+
+'You must tell us how it happened,' she said, fixing her lovely eyes on
+me. 'Dear Ursula, we owe this fresh happiness to you: how can I thank you
+for all your goodness to us?' But I would not allow her to talk in this
+fashion, and I left Max to soothe her when she cried a little, and then
+I told them both how I had found Eric in the stable-yard with Nap, and
+how I had tracked him successfully to his lodgings.
+
+'She is a brave, dear child, is she not, Gladys?' observed Max. Then,
+with a mischievous look in his brown eyes, 'You are proud of your
+presumptive niece, are you not, dear?' And then, in spite of Gladys's
+confusion, for she was still a little shy with him, I burst out laughing,
+and she was obliged to join me, for it had never entered into our heads
+that Gladys would be my aunt. The laugh brought back her colour and did
+her good; but she would not look at Max for a long time after that,
+though he was on his best behaviour and said all sorts of nice things
+to us both.
+
+It was a long time before Mr. Hamilton brought Eric back to us. They
+both looked very happy, but Eric's eyes had a strangely softened look
+in them. The gong sounded for luncheon just then, and Mr. Hamilton asked
+me, in rather a surprised tone, why I had not taken off my hat and
+jacket, so I ran off to my room in a great hurry. As he opened the door
+for me, he said, in rather an odd tone, 'Do you know you have not wished
+me good-morning, Miss Garston?' I muttered some sort of an answer, but he
+merely smiled, and told me not to keep them waiting. Gladys came in to
+luncheon, and took her usual place; but neither she nor Eric made much
+pretence of eating, though Mr. Hamilton scolded them both for their want
+of appetite. Nobody talked much, and there was no connected conversation:
+I think we were all too much engrossed in watching Gladys. Max was in the
+background for once, but he did not seem to think of himself at all: the
+sight of Gladys's sweet face, radiant with joy, was sufficient pleasure
+for him; but now and then she turned to him in a touching manner, as
+though to show she had not forgotten him, and then he was never slow
+to respond.
+
+When luncheon was over, Mr. Hamilton begged me to take Gladys to the
+turret-room and persuade her to lie down.
+
+'I am going to send Cunliffe away until dinner-time,' he said, with
+a sort of good-natured peremptoriness: 'under the circumstances he is
+decidedly _de trop_. Yes, my dear, yes,' as Gladys looked pleadingly at
+him, 'Eric shall come and talk to you. I am not so unreasonable as that.'
+And I think we all understood the feeling that made Gladys put her arms
+round her brother's neck, though we none of us heard her whisper a word.
+Max consented very cheerfully to efface himself for the remainder of the
+afternoon, and Gladys accompanied me upstairs. I waited until Eric joined
+us, and then I left them together.
+
+'Oh, Gladys, he was so good, and I did not deserve it!' he burst out
+before I had closed the door. 'I never knew Giles could be like that.'
+But I took care not to hear any more. I hardly knew what to do with
+myself that afternoon, but I made up my mind at last that I would finish
+a letter I had begun to Jill. The inkstand was in the turret-room, but I
+thought I would fetch one out of the drawing-room; but when I reached
+the head of the staircase I drew back involuntarily, for Mr. Hamilton was
+standing at the bottom of the stairs, leaning against the wall with
+folded arms, as though he were waiting for somebody or something. An
+unaccountable timidity made me hesitate; in another second I should have
+gone back into my room, but he looked up, and, as before, our eyes met.
+
+'Come,' he said, holding out his hand, and there was a sort of impatience
+in his manner. 'How long are you going to keep me waiting, Ursula?' And I
+went down demurely and silently, but I took no notice of his outstretched
+hands.
+
+I was trying to pass him in a quiet, ordinary fashion, as though there
+were no unusual meaning in his deep-set eyes; but he stopped me somewhat
+coolly by taking me in his arms.
+
+'At last, Ursula, at last!' was all he said, and then he kissed me....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I remember I told Giles, when I had recovered myself a little, that he
+had taken things too much for granted.
+
+He had brought me into the drawing-room, and was sitting beside me on the
+little couch. To my dazzled eyes the room seemed full of sunshine and the
+sweet perfume of flowers: to this day the scent of heliotrope brings back
+the memory of that afternoon when Giles first told me that he loved me.
+He seemed rather perplexed at first by my stammering little speech, and
+then I suppose my meaning dawned on him, for his arm pressed me more
+closely.
+
+'I think I understand: you mean, do you not, Ursula, that I have not
+asked you in plain English to be my wife? I thought we understood each
+other too well for any such word to be necessary. Ever since you told me
+that fellow Tudor was nothing to you, I felt you belonged to me.'
+
+'I do not see that,' I returned shyly, for Giles in his new character was
+rather formidable. He had taken such complete possession of me, and, as I
+had hinted, had taken everything for granted. 'Because Mr. Tudor was
+simply a friend, it did not follow that I cared for any one else.'
+
+'Yes; but you do care for me a good deal, darling, do you not?' in a
+most persuasive voice. 'But, for my own comfort, I want you to tell me
+if you are quite content to accept such a crabbed old bachelor for your
+husband.'
+
+It was a little difficult to answer, but I made him understand that
+I looked upon him in a very different light, and I think I managed to
+content him.
+
+'And you are really happy, dear?'
+
+'Yes, very happy'; but the tears were in my eyes as I answered. He seemed
+distressed to see them, and wanted me to tell him the reason; but I think
+he understood me thoroughly when I whispered how glad Charlie would have
+been. I asked him presently how long he had cared for me, but, to my
+surprise, he declared that he hardly knew himself: he had been interested
+in me from the first hour of our meeting, but it was when he heard me
+sing in Phoebe Locke's room that the thought came to him that he must try
+and win me for his wife.
+
+I think it was in answer to this that I said some foolish word about my
+want of beauty. I was a little sensitive on the subject, but, to my
+dismay, Giles's face darkened, and he dropped my hand.
+
+'Never say that to me again, if you love me, Ursula,' he said, in such
+a grieved voice that I could hardly bear to hear it. 'Do you think I
+would have married you if you had been handsome? Do you know what you
+are talking about, child? Has no one told you about Ella?'
+
+'Oh yes,' I returned, terrified at his sternness, for he had never spoken
+to me in such a tone before. 'Yes, indeed, and I know she was very
+beautiful.'
+
+'She was perfectly lovely,'--in the same hard voice. Oh, how he must have
+suffered, my poor Giles! 'And the memory of that false loveliness has
+made me loathe the idea of beauty ever since. No, I would never have let
+myself love you if you had been handsome, Ursula.'
+
+'I am glad I am not,' I returned, in a choked voice, for all this was
+very painful to me. Something in my tone attracted his notice, for he
+stooped and looked in my face, and his manner instantly changed.
+
+'Oh, you foolish child,' very caressingly, 'there are actually tears in
+your eyes! You are not afraid of me, Ursula? I am always excited when I
+speak of Ella: she very nearly destroyed my faith in women.'
+
+'I cannot bear to think how you suffered,' I faltered, but he would not
+let me finish.
+
+'Never mind; you have been my healer; you have always rested me so. Never
+call yourself plain again in my hearing. No other face could be half so
+dear to me.' And then, with his old smile, 'Do you know, dear, when I saw
+you in that velvet gown at your cousin's wedding you looked so handsome
+that I went home in a bad humour, and then Etta told me about Tudor.
+Well, I have you safe now.' But I will not transcribe all Giles's speech;
+it was so lover-like, it made me understand, once for all, what I was to
+him, and how little he cared for life unless I shared it with him.
+
+By and by he went on to speak of our mutual work, and here again he more
+than contented me.
+
+'I do not mean to rob the poor people of their nurse, Ursula,' he said
+presently. 'When you come to Gladwyn as its mistress, I hope we shall
+work together as we do now.'
+
+I told him I hoped so too; that I never wished to lay down my work.
+
+'You are quite right, dear,' he answered cheerfully. 'We will not be
+selfish in our happiness. True, your work must be in limits. When I come
+home I shall want to see my wife's face. No,' rather jealously, 'I could
+not spare you of an evening, and in the morning there will be household
+duties. You must not undertake too much, Ursula.'
+
+I told Giles, rather demurely, that there was plenty of time for the
+consideration of this point. He was inclined to bridge over the present
+in a man's usual fashion, but my new position was too overwhelming for me
+to look beyond the deep abiding consciousness that Giles loved me and
+looked to me for happiness.
+
+So I turned a deaf ear when he asked me presently if I should mind Lady
+Betty sharing our home; 'for,' he went on, 'the poor child has no other
+home, and she is so feather-headed that no sensible man will think of
+marrying her.' It was not my place to enlighten Giles about Claude, but
+I thought it very improbable that Lady Betty would be long at Gladwyn;
+but I was a little oppressed by this sort of talk, and yet unwilling that
+he should notice my shyness, so I took the opportunity of saying it was
+tea-time, and did he not think that Gladys and Eric had been talking long
+enough?
+
+He seemed unwilling to let me go, but I pleaded my nurse's duties, and
+then he told me, laughing, that I was a wilful woman, and that I might
+send Eric to him. As it happened, Eric was coming in search of Giles, and
+I found him in the passage.
+
+Gladys was lying on her couch, looking worn out with happiness. She
+was beginning to speak about Eric, when something in my face seemed to
+distract her. She watched me closely for a moment, then threw her arms
+round me and drew my head on her shoulder.
+
+'Is it so, Ursula? Oh, my dear dear sister! I am so glad!' And she seemed
+to understand without a word when my over-excited feelings found vent in
+a flood of nervous tears, for she only kissed me quietly, and stroked my
+hair, until I was relieved and happy again.
+
+'Dear Ursula,' she whispered, 'how can I help being glad, for Giles's
+sake?'
+
+'And not for mine?' drying my eyes, and feeling very much ashamed of
+myself.
+
+'Ah, you will see how good Giles will be,' was her reply to this. 'You
+will be a happy woman, Ursula. You are exactly suited to each other.' And
+I knew she was right.
+
+Max's turn came presently.
+
+I was sitting alone in the drawing-room before dinner. Giles had brought
+me some flowers, and had rushed off to dress himself; and I was looking
+out on the garden and the strip of blue sky, and buried in a happy
+reverie, when two hands suddenly lifted me up, and a brown beard brushed
+my face.
+
+'Little she-bear, do you know how glad I am!' Max joyously exclaimed. And
+indeed he looked very glad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII
+
+'WHAT 0' THE WAY TO THE END?'
+
+
+Two days afterwards I went back to the White Cottage and took up my old
+life again,--my old life, but how different now!
+
+I shall never forget how Phoebe welcomed me back, and how she and Susan
+rejoiced when I told them the news. Strange to say, neither of them
+seemed much surprised. They had expected it, Susan said, in rather an
+amused tone, for it was easy to see the doctor had thought there was no
+one like me, and was always hinting as much to them. 'Why, I have seen
+him watch you as though there were nothing else worth looking at,'
+finished Susan, with simple shrewdness.
+
+I kept my own counsel with regard to Aunt Philippa and Jill, for I had
+made up my mind to go up to Hyde Park Gate as soon as they had returned,
+and tell them myself. But I wrote to Lesbia, with strong injunctions of
+secrecy.
+
+The answer came by return of post.
+
+It was a most loving, unselfish little letter, and touched me greatly.
+
+'I shall be your bridesmaid, Ursula,' it said, 'whether you ask me or
+not. Nothing will keep me away that day. I shall love to be there for
+dear Charlie's sake.
+
+'The news has made me so happy. Mother scolded me when she found me
+crying over your letter, but she cried herself too. We both agreed that
+no one deserved happiness more. I am longing to see your Mr. Hamilton,
+Ursie dear. He has one great virtue in my eyes already, that he
+appreciates you,' and so on, in Lesbia's gentle, sisterly way.
+
+The fact of our engagement made a great sensation in the place. People
+who had hitherto ignored the village nurse came to call on me. I suppose
+curiosity to see Mr. Hamilton's _fiancee_ brought a good many of them.
+
+My new position was not without its difficulties. Giles, who was
+impatient and domineering by nature, chafed much against the restraints
+imposed upon him by my loneliness.
+
+His brief calls did not suffice him. I would not let him come often or
+stay long. Max asked us to the vicarage sometimes, and now and then
+Gladys or Lady Betty would call for me and carry me off to Gladwyn for
+the evening; and of course I saw Giles frequently when he visited his
+patients, but with his dislike to conventionality it was rather difficult
+to keep him in good-humour. He could not be made to see why I should not
+marry him at once and put an end to this awkward state of things.
+
+We had our first lovers' quarrel on this point,--our first and our
+last,--for I never had to complain of my dear Giles again.
+
+I think hearing about Lady Betty's long engagement with Claude Hamilton
+had made him very sore. He had been bitterly angry both with poor little
+Lady Betty and also with Gladys. He declared the secrecy had hurt him
+more than anything; but Eric acted as peacemaker, and he was soon induced
+to condone his sisters' trangression.
+
+He came down to talk over the matter with me, and to tell me of the
+arrangements he had made for them.
+
+It seemed that a letter from Claude had arrived that very mail; telling
+Giles of his promotion, and asking leave to come and fetch his dear
+little Lady Betty. It was an honest, manly letter, Giles said; and as
+Claude was in a better position, and Lady Betty had five thousand pounds
+of her own, there seemed no reason against their marrying.
+
+He had talked to both Max and Gladys, and they were willing that Claude
+and Lady Betty should be married at the same time. The New Year had been
+already fixed for Gladys's, and Max meant to get leave of absence for two
+or three months and take her to Algiers; and as Claude would have to
+start for India early in March, Giles thought the double wedding would be
+best. They could get their _trousseaux_ together, and the fuss would be
+got over more easily.
+
+I expressed myself as charmed with all these arrangements, for I thought
+it would be very dull for Lady Betty to be left behind at Gladwyn; and
+then I asked Giles what he had settled about Eric.
+
+He told me that Eric was still undecided, but he rather thought of going
+to Cirencester to enter the agricultural college there.
+
+'You see, Ursula,' he went on, 'the lad is a bit restless. He has given
+up his absurd idea of becoming an artist,--I never did believe in those
+daubs of his,--but he feels he can never settle down to city life. He is
+very much improved, far more manly and sensible than I ever hoped to see
+him; but he is of different calibre from myself,'
+
+'Do you think farming will suit him?' I asked anxiously.
+
+'Better than anything else, I should say,' was the reply. 'Eric is an
+active, capable fellow, and he was always fond of out-door pursuits. He
+is young enough to learn. I have promised to keep Dorlicote Farm in my
+own hands until he is ready to take it. It is only ten miles from here,
+and has a very good house attached to it, and Eric will find himself in
+clover.' Then, as though some other thought were uppermost in his mind,
+he continued, 'I am so glad that you and he are such friends, Ursula, for
+he will often take up his quarters at Gladwyn.'
+
+It was after this that Giles asked me to marry him at once. He was
+strangely unreasonable that morning, and very much bent on having his own
+way. My objections were overruled one by one; he absolutely refused to
+listen to my arguments when I tried to show him how much wiser it would
+be to have his sisters and Eric settled before he brought me home as
+mistress to Gladwyn.
+
+It was the first time our wills had clashed; and, though I knew that I
+was right and that he was wholly in the wrong, it was very painful for me
+to refuse his loving importunities and to turn a deaf ear when he told me
+how he was longing for his wife; but I held firmly to my two points, that
+I would settle nothing without Aunt Philippa's advice, and that I would
+not marry him until Easter.
+
+I told him so very gently, but Giles was not quite like himself that day.
+Lady Betty's secrecy was still rankling in his mind, and he certainly
+used his power over me to make me very unhappy, for he accused me of
+coldness and over-prudence, and reproached me with my want of confidence
+in his judgment. My pride took fire at last, and rose in arms against his
+tyranny. 'You must listen to me, Giles,' I returned, trying to keep down
+a choking feeling. 'You are not quite just to me to-day, but you do not
+mean what you say. You will be sorry afterwards for your words. If I do
+not accede to your wishes, it is not because I do not love you well
+enough to marry you to-morrow, if it were expedient to do so; but under
+the circumstances it will be wiser to wait. I will marry you at Easter,
+If Uncle Max comes back by that time, for neither you nor I would like
+any one else to perform the ceremony. Will you not be content with this?'
+
+'No,' he returned gloomily. 'You are keeping me waiting for a mere
+scruple: neither Gladys nor Lady Betty would say a dissenting word if
+I brought you to Gladwyn at once. You are disappointing me very much,
+Ursula. I could not have believed that my wishes were so little to you.'
+But he was not able to finish this cutting speech, for I could bear no
+more, and suddenly burst into such an agony of tears that Giles was quite
+frightened.
+
+I found out then the goodness of his heart and his deep unselfish
+affection for me. He reproached himself bitterly for causing me such
+pain, begged my pardon a dozen times for his ill temper, and so coaxed
+and petted me that I could not refuse to be comforted.
+
+He laughed and kissed me when I implored him to take back his words about
+my coldness.
+
+'My darling!--as though I meant it!' he said; but he had the grace to
+look very much ashamed of himself. 'Of course you were right,--you always
+are, Ursula: we will wait until Easter if you think it best. Miss
+Prudence shall have her own way in the matter; but I will not wait a day
+longer for all the Uncle Maxes in the world.' And so we settled it.
+
+I remember how I tried to make up to Giles for his disappointment, and to
+show him how much I cared for him. We were dining at the vicarage that
+evening with Gladys and Eric, and as he walked home with me in the
+moonlight he took me to task very gently for being too good to him.
+
+'You have been like a little angel this evening, Ursula, and I have not
+deserved it. I believe I love you far more for not giving me my own way.
+It was pure selfishness: I see it now.'
+
+'I hope it is the last time that your will will not be mine,' I answered,
+rather sadly. 'If you knew what it cost me to refuse you, Giles!' But one
+of his rare smiles answered me.
+
+It was the end of September when I went up to Hyde Park Gate to tell my
+wonderful piece of news to Aunt Philippa and Jill. Jill was very naughty
+at first, and declared that she should forbid the banns; her dear Ursula
+should not marry that ugly man. But she changed her opinion after a long
+conversation with Giles, and then her enthusiasm knew no bounds. It was
+amusing to see the admiring awe with which Aunt Philippa looked at me. My
+engagement had raised her opinion of me a hundredfold. I was no longer
+the plain eccentric Ursula in her eyes; the future Mrs. Hamilton was a
+person of far greater consequence.
+
+I could see that her surprise could scarcely be concealed. I used to
+notice her eyes fixed on me sometimes in a wondering way. She told Lesbia
+that she could hardly understand such brilliant prospects for dear
+Ursula. I had not Sara's good looks; and yet I was marrying a far richer
+man than Colonel Ferguson.
+
+'I think Mr. Hamilton a very distinguished man, my dear,' she continued,
+much to Lesbia's amusement. 'He is peculiar-looking, certainly, and a
+little too dark for my taste; but his manners are charming, and he is
+certainly very much in love with Ursula. She looks very nice, and is very
+much improved; but still, one hardly expected such a match for her.'
+
+Lesbia retailed this little speech with much gusto. Dear Aunt Philippa!
+she certainly did her duty by me then: nothing could exceed her kindness
+and motherliness. And Sara came very often, looking the prettiest and
+happiest young matron in the world, and almost overwhelmed me with advice
+and petting.
+
+They had come to the conclusion that my position was a somewhat awkward
+one, and that it would not do for me to go on living at the White
+Cottage. They wanted me to give up my work at Heathfield until after my
+marriage; and at last Aunt Philippa conceived the brilliant idea of
+taking a house at Brighton for the winter.
+
+'You have never liked Hyde Park Gate, Ursula,' she said, very kindly;
+'and we shall all be glad to escape London fogs this year: your uncle
+will not mind the expense, and I think the plan will suit admirably.
+Heathfield is only twenty minutes from Brighton, and Mr. Hamilton will be
+able to visit you far more comfortably, and you can sleep a night or two
+at Sara's when you want to go up to London to get your _trousseau_.'
+
+I thanked Aunt Philippa warmly for her kind thought, and then I wrote to
+Giles, and asked his opinion. I found that he entirely agreed with Aunt
+Philippa.
+
+'I think it an excellent plan, dear,' he wrote; 'and you must thank your
+good aunt for her consideration for us both. I shall see you far oftener
+at Brighton than at the White Cottage. Miss Prudence will be less active
+there: I shall be allowed to enjoy a reasonable conversation without the
+speech--"Oh, do please go away now, Giles; you have been here nearly an
+hour"--that invariably closed our cottage interviews.' I could see Giles
+was really pleased with Aunt Philippa's proposition, so I promised to go
+back to Heathfield and settle my affairs, and join them directly the
+house in Brunswick Place was ready; and by the middle of October we were
+all settled comfortably for the winter.
+
+I found Giles was right. I saw him oftener, and there was less restraint
+on our intercourse. He would come over to luncheon whenever he had a
+leisure day, and take me for a walk, or drop in to dinner and take the
+last train back. Gladys and Lady Betty came over perpetually. I used to
+help them with their shopping, and often go back with them for a few
+hours. Max was also a frequent visitor, and Mr. Tudor. Aunt Philippa kept
+open house, and made all my visitors welcome. I think she was a little
+sorry that Mr. Tudor came so perseveringly: but she was true to her
+principles to let things take their course and not to fan the flame by
+opposition. She was always kind to the young man, and though she
+generally contrived to keep Jill beside her when he dropped in for
+afternoon tea or encountered them on the parade, she did it so quietly
+that no one noticed any significance in the action.
+
+But I think Aunt Philippa's maternal fears would have been up in arms if
+she had overheard a conversation between Jill and myself one wintry
+afternoon.
+
+Aunt Philippa had gone up to town to see Sara, who was a little ailing,
+and she and Uncle Brian were to return later. Gladys and Giles were to
+dine with us, and Max would probably join them. Aunt Philippa was very
+fond of these impromptu entertainments, but she had not extended the
+invitation to Mr. Tudor, who had called the previous day, and I had got
+it into my head that Jill was a little disappointed.
+
+She sat rather soberly by the fire that afternoon; but when Miss
+Gillespie left us she took her usual seat on the rug, and her black locks
+bobbed into my lap as usual, but I thought the firelight played on a very
+serious face.
+
+'What makes you so silent this afternoon, Jill?' I asked, rather
+curiously; but she did not answer for a moment, only drew down my
+hand, and looked at the diamonds that were flashing in the ruddy
+blaze,--Giles's pledge that he had placed there; then she laid her cheek
+against them, and said suddenly--
+
+'I was only thinking, Ursie dear: I often think about things. Do you
+remember that evening at Hyde Park Gate when the lamp fell on me, and
+I might have been burnt to death?'
+
+'Oh yes, Jill,' with a shudder, for I never cared to recall that scene.
+
+'Well, I was thinking,' still dreamily. Then, with a change of manner
+that startled me, 'Ursie, if a person saves another person's life, don't
+you think that life ought to belong to them?--that is, if they wish it?'
+with a sudden blush that rather alarmed me.
+
+'Stop, my dear,' I returned coolly. 'This is very vague. I do not think
+I quite understand. A person and another person, and them, too: it is
+terribly involved. Which is which? As the children say.'
+
+Jill gave a nervous little laugh, but her eyes gave me no doubt of her
+meaning: they looked strangely dark and soft.
+
+'Mr. Tudor saved my life,' she whispered. 'Ursie, if he wants it, that
+life ought to belong to him.'
+
+'Jill, my dear,' for I was thoroughly startled now. Things were growing
+serious; but Jill gave me a little push in her childish way.
+
+'Ursie, don't pretend to look so surprised: you knew all about it: I saw
+it in your face. Don't you remember what he said that night, that he did
+not know what would become of him if I died, that he could not bear it?
+Did you see how he looked when he said it?'
+
+I remained silent, for I could not deny that Mr. Tudor had betrayed
+himself at that moment; but she went on very quietly, 'Ursie dear, I know
+Mr. Tudor cares for me; he does not always hide it, though he tries to do
+so. You see he is so real and honest that he cannot help showing things.'
+
+'Jill,' I exclaimed anxiously, 'what would your mother say if she knew
+this?'
+
+'I think she does know it,' replied Jill calmly. 'She does not care for
+Mr. Tudor to come so often, but she is good to him all the same. Neither
+father nor mother will be pleased about it, because he is not rich, poor
+fellow; not that I think that matters,' finished Jill, in a grave,
+old-fashioned manner.
+
+'My dear child,' in a horrified tone, 'you talk as though you were sure
+of your own mind, and you are hardly seventeen.'
+
+'So I am sure,' was the confused answer. 'If Mr. Tudor cares enough for
+me to wait for a good many years,--until I am one-and-twenty,--he will
+find me all ready: of course I belong to him, Ursula: has he not saved my
+life? There is no hurry,' went on Jill, in her matter-of-fact way; 'he is
+very nice, and I shall always like him better than any one else; but
+I should not care to be engaged until I am one-and-twenty. One wants
+a little fun and a good deal of work before settling down into an engaged
+person,' finished the girl, with a droll little laugh.
+
+I was spared the necessity of any reply to this surprising confession by
+the entrance of our three visitors, for Max had encountered them at the
+station, of course by accident, and had walked up with them. That fact
+was sufficient to account for Gladys's soft bloom and the satisfied look
+in her eyes: she looked so lovely in the new furs Giles had bought her,
+that I did not wonder that Max was a little absent in his replies to me.
+Jill had made some excuse and left us, and it was really a very good
+idea of Giles's to ask me to come out on the balcony and look at the sea.
+He wrapped me in his plaid and placed me in a sheltered corner, and we
+stood watching the twinkling lights, and the dark water under the glimmer
+of starlight. He had a great deal to tell me, first how happy Eric was in
+his new work, and what cheerful letters he wrote to Gladys, and next
+about Captain Hamilton, with whom he professed himself much pleased.
+
+'Lady Betty is just as much a child as ever. It is ridiculous to think of
+her as a married woman,' he went on; 'but Claude declares himself to be
+perfectly satisfied. Well, there is no accounting for tastes,' with a
+change of intonation that was very intelligible.
+
+'And how is Phoebe, Giles?'
+
+'Oh, first-rate,' he answered cheerfully; 'she likes her new couch much
+better than the bed. I tell her if she goes on improving like this we
+shall have her in the next room before Easter. By the bye, Ursula, have
+you digested the contents of my last letter? Shall we go to the Pyrenees
+to spend our honeymoon? It will be too early for Switzerland; we might
+go later on, or to the Italian lakes.'
+
+'Anywhere with you, Giles,' I whispered; and he gave me silent thanks for
+that pretty speech.
+
+He did not say any more for a little time, and I stood by him watching
+the dark, wintry sea. Once my life had been dark and wintry too, but how
+mercifully I had been drawn out of the deep waters and brought to this
+dear haven of rest! As I crept nearer to Giles he seemed to utter my
+unspoken thought.
+
+'I am very happy to-night, Ursula, I have been thinking as I travelled
+down what it will be to me to have you always near me, to share my work
+and life. I am so glad you love Gladwyn so dearly.'
+
+'Love Gladwyn,--your home, Giles: is there anything strange in that?'
+
+'No, dear, perhaps not; but I like to hear you say so. There will not
+be a wish of yours ungratified if I can help it. I mean to spoil you
+dreadfully, Ursula.'
+
+I told him, smiling, that I was not afraid of this threat, and just then
+Max's voice interrupted us:
+
+'Little she-bear, do you know this is dreadfully imprudent? Is this the
+way Hamilton means to take care of you?'
+
+'Wait a moment, Ursula,' whispered Giles. 'Do you hear that ballad-singer
+in the square?' A voice clear and shrill seemed to float to us in the
+darkness: 'Sweet and low, sweet and low, wind of the western sea,' she
+sang. The waves seemed to splash in harmonious accompaniment; the lights
+were flickering, the carriages rolling under the faint starlight. I saw
+Giles's face--as I loved to see it--grave, thoughtful, and satisfied.
+
+'After all,' he said, as though answering some inward questioning, 'a man
+cannot know what his life will bring him. Do you remember what Robert
+Browning says:
+
+"What o' the way to the end?--The end crowns all."
+
+The end crowns all to me, Ursula.' And Giles's deep-set eyes gave me no
+doubt of his meaning.
+
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #16080 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16080)