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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Trial, by Charlotte M. Yonge
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+
+
+This Gutenberg Etext of "The Trial or More Links of the Daisy Chain"
+by Charlotte M. Yonge was scanned and proofed by Sandra Laythorpe,
+slaythorpe@cwcom.net, from the 1898 edition published by MacMillan
+and Co., Ltd., London.
+
+A Web Page for Miss Yonge may be found at www.menorot.com/cmyonge.htm.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TRIAL
+
+or
+
+MORE LINKS OF THE DAISY CHAIN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+
+Quand on veut dessecher un marais, on ne fait pas voter les
+grenouilles. --Mme. EMILE. DE GIRADIN
+
+
+'Richard?  That's right!  Here's a tea-cup waiting for you,' as the
+almost thirty-year-old Incumbent of Cocksmoor, still looking like a
+young deacon, entered the room with his quiet step, and silent
+greeting to its four inmates.
+
+'Thank you, Ethel.  Is papa gone out?'
+
+'I have not seen him since dinner-time.  You said he was gone out
+with Dr. Spencer, Aubrey?'
+
+'Yes, I heard Dr. Spencer's voice--"I say, Dick"--like three notes of
+consternation,' said Aubrey; 'and off they went.  I fancy there's
+some illness about in the Lower Pond Buildings, that Dr. Spencer has
+been raging so long to get drained.'
+
+'The knell has been ringing for a little child there,' added Mary;
+'scarlatina, I believe--'
+
+'But, Richard,' burst forth the merry voice of the youngest, 'you
+must see our letters from Edinburgh.'
+
+'You have heard, then?  It was the very thing I came to ask.'
+
+'Oh yes! there were five notes in one cover,' said Gertrude.  'Papa
+says they are to be laid up in the family archives, and labelled "The
+Infants' Honeymoon."'
+
+'Papa is very happy with his own share,' said Ethel.  'It was signed,
+"Still his own White Flower," and it had two Calton Hill real daisies
+in it.   I don't know when I have seen him more pleased.'
+
+'And Hector's letter--I can say that by heart,' continued Gertrude.
+'"My dear Father, This is only to say that she is the darlint, and
+for the pleasure of subscribing myself--Your loving SON,"--the son as
+big as all the rest put together.'
+
+'I tell Blanche that he only took her for the pleasure of being my
+father's son,' said Aubrey, in his low lazy voice.
+
+'Well,' said Mary, 'even to the last, I do believe he had as soon
+drive papa out as walk with Blanche.  Flora was quite scandalized at
+it.'
+
+'I should not imagine that George had often driven my father out,'
+said Aubrey, again looking lazily up from balancing his spoon.
+
+Ethel laughed; and even Richard smiled; then recovering herself, she
+said, 'Poor Hector, he never could call himself son to any one
+before.'
+
+'He has not been much otherwise here,' said Richard.
+
+'No,' said Ethel; 'it is the peculiar hardship of our weddings to
+break us up by pairs, and carry off two instead of one.  Did you ever
+see me with so shabby a row of tea-cups?  When shall I have them come
+in riding double again?'
+
+The recent wedding was the third in the family; the first after a
+five years' respite.  It ensued upon an attachment that had grown up
+with the young people, so that they had been entirely one with each
+other; and there had been little of formal demand either of the
+maiden's affection or her father's consent; but both had been implied
+from the first.  The bridegroom was barely of age, the bride not
+seventeen, and Dr. May had owned it was very shocking, and told
+Richard to say nothing about it!  Hector had coaxed and pleaded,
+pathetically talked of his great empty house at Maplewood, and
+declared that till he might take Blanche away, he would not leave
+Stoneborough; he would bring down all sorts of gossip on his
+courtship, he would worry Ethel, and take care she finished nobody's
+education.  What did Blanche want with more education?  She knew
+enough for him.  Couldn't Ethel be satisfied with Aubrey and
+Gertrude? or he dared say she might have Mary too, if she was
+insatiable.  If Dr. May was so unnatural as to forbid him to hang
+about the house, why, he would take rooms at the Swan.  In fact, as
+Dr. May observed, he treated him to a modern red-haired Scotch
+version of 'Make me a willow cabin at your gate;' and as he heartily
+loved Hector and entirely trusted him, and Blanche's pretty head was
+a wise and prudent one, what was the use of keeping the poor lad
+unsettled?
+
+So Mrs. Rivers, the eldest sister and the member's wife, had come to
+arrange matters and help Ethel, and a very brilliant wedding it had
+been.  Blanche was too entirely at home with Hector for flutterings
+or agitations, and was too peacefully happy for grief at the
+separation, which completed the destiny that she had always seen
+before her.  She was a picture of a bride; and when she and Hector
+hung round the Doctor, insisting that Edinburgh should be the first
+place they should visit, and calling forth minute directions for
+their pilgrimage to the scenes of his youth, promising to come home
+and tell him all, no wonder he felt himself rather gaining a child
+than losing one.  He was very bright and happy; and no one but Ethel
+understood how all the time there was a sensation that the present
+was but a strange dreamy parody of that marriage which had been the
+theme of earlier hopes.
+
+The wedding had taken place shortly after Easter; and immediately
+after, the Rivers family had departed for London, and Tom May had
+returned to Cambridge, leaving the home party at the minimum of four,
+since, Cocksmoor Parsonage being complete, Richard had become only a
+daily visitor instead of a constant inhabitant.
+
+There he sat, occupying his never idle hands with a net that he kept
+for such moments, whilst Ethel sat behind her urn, now giving out its
+last sighs, profiting by the leisure to read the county newspaper,
+while she continually filled up her cup with tea or milk as occasion
+served, indifferent to the increasing pallor of the liquid.
+
+Mary, a 'fine young woman,' as George Rivers called her, of blooming
+face and sweet open expression, had begun, at Gertrude's entreaty, a
+game of French billiards.  Gertrude had still her childish sunny face
+and bright hair, and even at the trying age of twelve was pleasing,
+chiefly owing to the caressing freedom of manner belonging to an
+unspoilable pet.  Her request to Aubrey to join the sport had been
+answered with a half petulant shake of the head, and he flung himself
+into his father's chair, his long legs hanging over one arm--an
+attitude that those who had ever been under Mrs. May's discipline
+thought impossible in the drawing-room; but Aubrey was a rival pet,
+and with the family characteristics of aquiline features, dark gray
+eyes, and beautiful teeth, had an air of fragility and easy languor
+that showed his exercise of the immunities of ill-health.  He had
+been Ethel's pupil till Tom's last year at Eton, when he was sent
+thither, and had taken a good place; but his brother's vigilant and
+tender care could not save him from an attack on the chest, that
+settled his public-school education for ever, to his severe
+mortification, just when Tom's shower of honours was displaying to
+him the sweets of emulation and success.  Ethel regained her pupil,
+and put forth her utmost powers for his benefit, causing Tom to
+examine him at each vacation, with adjurations to let her know the
+instant he discovered that her task of tuition was getting beyond
+her.  In truth, Tom fraternally held her cheap, and would have
+enjoyed a triumph over her scholarship; but to this he had not
+attained, and in spite of his desire to keep his brother in a
+salutary state of humiliation, candour wrung from him the admission
+that, even in verses, Aubrey did as well as other fellows of his
+standing.
+
+Conceit was not Aubrey's fault.  His father was more guarded than in
+the case of his elder sons, and the home atmosphere was not such as
+to give the boy a sense of superiority, especially when diligently
+kept down by his brother.  Even the half year at Eton had not
+produced superciliousness, though it had given Eton polish to the
+home-bred manners; it had made sisters valuable, and awakened a
+desire for masculine companionship.  He did not rebel against his
+sister's rule; she was nearly a mother to him, and had always been
+the most active president of his studies and pursuits; and he was
+perfectly obedient and dutiful to her, only asserting his equality,
+in imitation of Harry and Tom, by a little of the good-humoured
+raillery and teasing that treated Ethel as the family butt, while she
+was really the family authority.
+
+'All gone, Ethel,' he said, with a lazy smile, as Ethel mechanically,
+with her eyes on the newspaper, tried all her vessels round, and
+found cream-jug, milk-jug, tea-pot, and urn exhausted; 'will you have
+in the river next?'
+
+'What a shame!' said Ethel, awakening and laughing.  'Those are the
+tea-maker's snares.'
+
+'Do send it away then,' said Aubrey, 'the urn oppresses the
+atmosphere.'
+
+'Very well, I'll make a fresh brew when papa comes home, and perhaps
+you'll have some then.  You did not half finish to-night.'
+
+Aubrey yawned; and after some speculation about their father's
+absence, Gertrude went to bed; and Aubrey, calling himself tired,
+stood up, stretched every limb portentously, and said he should go
+off too.  Ethel looked at him anxiously, felt his hand, and asked if
+he were sure he had not a cold coming on.  'You are always thinking
+of colds,' was all the satisfaction she received.
+
+'What has he been doing?' said Richard.
+
+'That is what I was thinking.  He was about all yesterday afternoon
+with Leonard Ward, and perhaps may have done something imprudent in
+the damp.  I never know what to do.  I can't bear him to be a coddle;
+yet he is always catching cold if I let him alone.  The question is,
+whether it is worse for him to run risks, or to be thinking of
+himself.'
+
+'He need not be doing that,' said Richard; 'he may be thinking of
+your wishes and papa's.'
+
+'Very pretty of him and you, Ritchie; but he is not three parts of a
+boy or man who thinks of his womankind's wishes when there is
+anything spirited before him.'
+
+'Well, I suppose one may do one's duty without being three parts of a
+boy,' said Richard, gravely.
+
+'I know it is true that some of the most saintly characters have been
+the more spiritual because their animal frame was less vigorous; but
+still it does not content me.'
+
+'No, the higher the power, the better, of course, should the service
+be.  I was only putting you in mind that there is compensation.  But
+I must be off.  I am sorry I cannot wait for papa.  Let me know what
+is the matter to-morrow, and how Aubrey is.'
+
+Richard went; and the sisters took up their employments--Ethel
+writing to the New Zealand sister-in-law her history of the wedding,
+Mary copying parts of a New Zealand letter for her brother, the
+lieutenant in command of a gun-boat on the Chinese coast.  Those
+letters, whether from Norman May or his wife, were very delightful,
+they were so full of a cheerful tone of trustful exertion and
+resolution, though there had been perhaps more than the natural
+amount of disappointments.  Norman's powers were not thought of the
+description calculated for regular mission work, and some of the
+chief aspirations of the young couple had had to be relinquished at
+the voice of authority without a trial.  They had received the charge
+of persons as much in need of them as unreclaimed savages, but to
+whom there was less apparent glory in ministering.  A widespread
+district of very colonial colonists, and the charge of a college for
+their uncultivated sons, was quite as troublesome as the most ardent
+self-devotion could desire; and the hardships and disagreeables,
+though severe, made no figure in history--nay, it required ingenuity
+to gather their existence from Meta's bright letters, although, from
+Mrs. Arnott's accounts, it was clear that the wife took a quadruple
+share.  Mrs. Rivers had been heard to say that Norman need not have
+gone so far, and sacrificed so much, to obtain an under-bred English
+congregation; and even the Doctor had sighed once or twice at having
+relinquished his favourite son to what was dull and distasteful; but
+Ethel could trust that this unmurmuring acceptance of the less
+striking career, might be another step in the discipline of her
+brother's ardent and ambitious nature.  It is a great thing to
+sacrifice, but a greater to consent not to sacrifice in one's own
+way.
+
+Ethel sat up for her father, and Mary would not go to bed and leave
+her, so the two sisters waited till they heard the latch-key.  Ethel
+ran out, but her father was already on the stairs, and waved her
+back.
+
+'Here is some tea.  Are you not coming, papa?--it is all here.'
+
+'Thank you, I'll just go and take off this coat;' and he passed on to
+his room.
+
+'I don't like that,' said Ethel, returning to the drawing-room, where
+Mary was boiling up the kettle, and kneeling down to make some toast.
+
+'Why, what's the matter?'
+
+'I have never known him go and change his coat but when some
+infectious thing has been about.  Besides, he did not wait to let me
+help him off with it.'
+
+In a few seconds the Doctor came down in his dressing-gown, and let
+himself be put into his easy-chair; his two daughters waiting on him
+with fond assiduity, their eyes questioning his fagged weary face,
+but reading there fatigue and concern that made them--rather awe-
+struck--bide their time till it should suit him to speak.  Mary was
+afraid he would wait till she was gone; dear old Mary, who at twenty-
+two never dreamt of regarding herself as on the same footing with her
+three years' senior, and had her toast been browner, would have
+relieved them of her presence at once.  However, her father spoke
+after his first long draught of tea.
+
+'Well!  How true it is that judgments are upon us while we are
+marrying and giving in marriage!'
+
+'What is it, papa?  Not the scarlatina?'
+
+'Scarlatina, indeed!' he said contemptuously.  'Scarlet fever in the
+most aggravated form.  Two deaths in one house, and I am much
+mistaken if there will not be another before morning.'
+
+'Who, papa?' asked Mary.
+
+'Those wretched Martins, in Lower Pond Buildings, are the worst.  No
+wonder, living in voluntary filth; but it is all over the street--
+will be all over the town unless there's some special mercy on the
+place.'
+
+'But how has it grown so bad,' said Ethel, 'without our having even
+heard of it!'
+
+'Why--partly I take shame to myself--this business of Hector and
+Blanche kept Spencer and me away last dispensary day; and partly it
+was that young coxcomb, Henry Ward, thought it not worth while to
+trouble me about a simple epidemic.  Simple epidemic indeed!'
+repeated Dr. May, changing his tone from ironical mimicry to hot
+indignation.  'I hope he will be gratified with its simplicity!  I
+wonder how long he would have gone on if it had not laid hold on
+him.'
+
+'You don't mean that he has it?'
+
+'I do.  It will give him a practical lesson in simple epidemics.'
+
+'And Henry Ward has it!' repeated Mary, looking so much dismayed that
+her father laughed, saying--
+
+'What, Mary thinks when it comes to fevers being so audacious as to
+lay hold of the doctors, it is time that they should be put a stop
+to.'
+
+'He seems to have petted it and made much of it,' said Ethel; 'so no
+wonder!  What could have possessed him?'
+
+'Just this, Ethel; and it is only human nature after all.  This young
+lad comes down, as Master Tom will do some day, full of his lectures
+and his hospitals, and is nettled and displeased to find his father
+content to have Spencer or me called in the instant anything serious
+is the matter.'
+
+'But you are a physician, papa,' said Mary.
+
+'No matter for that, to Mr. Henry I'm an old fogie, and depend upon
+it, if it were only the giving a dose of salts, he would like to have
+the case to himself.  These poor creatures were parish patients, and
+I don't mean that his treatment was amiss.  Spencer is right, it was
+an atmosphere where there was no saving anyone, but if he had not
+been so delighted with his own way, and I had known what was going
+on, I'd have got the Guardians and the Town Council and routed out
+the place.  Seventeen cases, and most of them the worst form!'
+
+'But what was Mr. Ward about?
+
+         "Says I to myself, here's a lesson for me;
+          This man's but a picture of what I shall be,"
+
+when Master Tom gets the upper hand of me,' returned Dr. May.  'Poor
+Ward, who has run to me in all his difficulties these thirty years,
+didn't like it at all; but Mr. Henry was so confident with his simple
+epidemic, and had got him in such order, that he durst not speak.'
+
+'And what brought it to light at last?'
+
+'Everything at once.  First the clerics go to see about the family
+where the infant died, and report to Spencer; he comes after me, and
+we start to reconnoitre.  Then I am called in to see Shearman's
+daughter--a very ugly case that--and coming out I meet poor Ward
+himself, wanting me to see Henry, and there's the other boy sickening
+too.  Then I went down and saw all those cases in the Lower Ponds,
+and have been running about the town ever since to try what can be
+done, hunting up nurses, whom I can't get, stirring dishes of skim
+milk, trying to get the funerals over to-morrow morning by daybreak.
+I declare I have hardly a leg to stand on.'
+
+'Where was Dr. Spencer?'
+
+'I've nearly quarrelled with Spencer.  Oh! he is in high feather! he
+will have it that the fever rose up bodily, like Kuhleborn, out of
+that unhappy drain he is always worrying about, when it is a regular
+case of scarlet fever, brought in by a girl at home from service; but
+he will have it that his theory is proved.  Then I meant him to keep
+clear of it.  He has always been liable to malaria and all that sort
+of thing, and has not strength for an illness.  I told him to mind
+the ordinary practice for me; and what do I find him doing the next
+thing, but operating upon one of the worst throats he could find!  I
+told him he was as bad as young Ward; I hate his irregular practice.
+I'll tell you what,' he said, vindictively, as if gratified to have
+what must obey him, 'you shall all go off to Cocksmoor to-morrow
+morning at seven o'clock.'
+
+'You forget that we two have had it,' said Mary.
+
+'Which of you?'
+
+'All down to Blanche.'
+
+'Never mind for that.  I shall have enough to do without a sick house
+at home.  You can perform quarantine with Richard, and then go to
+Flora, if she will have you.  Well, what are you dawdling about?  Go
+and pack up.'
+
+'Papa,' said Ethel, who had been abstracted through all the latter
+part of the conversation, 'if you please, we had better not settle my
+going till to-morrow morning.'
+
+'Come, Ethel, you have too much sense for panics.  Don't take
+nonsense into your head.  The children can't have been in the way of
+it.'
+
+'Stay, papa,' said Ethel, her serious face arresting the momentary
+impatience of fatigue and anxiety, 'I am afraid Aubrey was a good
+while choosing fishing-tackle at Shearman's yesterday with Leonard
+Ward; and it may be nothing, but he did seem heavy and out of order
+to-night; I wish you would look at him as you go up.'
+
+Dr. May stood still for a few moments, then gave one long gasp, made
+a few inquiries, and went up to Aubrey's room.  The boy was fast
+asleep; but there was that about him which softened the weary
+sharpness of his father's manner, and caused him to desire Ethel to
+look from the window whence she could see whether the lights were out
+in Dr. Spencer's house.  Yes, they were.
+
+'Never mind.  It will make no real odds, and he has had enough on his
+hands to-day.  The boy will sleep quietly enough to-night, so let us
+all go to bed.'
+
+'I think I can get a mattress into his room without waking him, if
+you will help me, Mary,' said Ethel.
+
+'Nonsense,' said her father, decidedly.  'Mary is not to go near him
+before she takes Gertrude to Cocksmoor; and you, go to your own bed
+and get a night's rest while you can.'
+
+'You won't stay up, papa.'
+
+'I--why, it is all I can do not to fall asleep on my feet.  Good
+night, children.'
+
+'He does not trust himself to think or to fear,' said Ethel.  'Too
+much depends on him to let himself be unstrung.'
+
+'But, Ethel, you will not leave, dear Aubrey.'
+
+'I shall keep his door open and mine; but papa is right, and it will
+not do to waste one's strength.  In case I should not see you before
+you go--'
+
+'Oh, but, Ethel, I shall come back!  Don't, pray don't tell me to
+stay away.  Richard will have to keep away for Daisy's sake, and you
+can't do all alone--nurse Aubrey and attend to papa.  Say that I may
+come back.'
+
+Well, Mary, I think you might,' said Ethel, after a moment's thought.
+'If it were only Aubrey, I could manage for him; but I am more
+anxious about papa.'
+
+'You don't think he is going to have it?'
+
+'Oh no, no,' said Ethel, 'he is what he calls himself, a seasoned
+vessel; but he will be terribly overworked, and unhappy, and he must
+not come home and find no one to talk to or to look cheerful.  So,
+Mary, unless he gives any fresh orders, or Richard thinks it will
+only make things worse, I shall be very glad of you.'
+
+Mary had never clung to her so gratefully, nor felt so much honoured.
+'Do you think he will have it badly?' she asked timidly.
+
+'I don't think at all about it,' said Ethel, something in her
+father's manner.  'If we are to get through all this, Mary, it must
+not be by riding out on perhapses.  Now let us put Daisy's things
+together, for she must have as little communication with home as
+possible.'
+
+Ethel silently and rapidly moved about, dreading to give an interval
+for tremblings of heart.  Five years of family prosperity had passed,
+and there had been that insensible feeling of peace and immunity from
+care which is strange to look back upon when one hour has drifted
+from smooth water to turbid currents.  There was a sort of awe in
+seeing the mysterious gates of sorrow again unclosed; yet, darling of
+her own as Aubrey was, Ethel's first thoughts and fears were
+primarily for her father.  Grief and alarm seemed chiefly to touch
+her through him, and she found herself praying above all that he
+might be shielded from suffering, and might be spared a renewal of
+the pangs that had before wrung his heart.
+
+By early morning every one was astir; and Gertrude, bewildered and
+distressed, yet rather enjoying the fun of staying with Richard, was
+walking off with Mary.
+
+Soon after, Dr. Spencer was standing by the bedside of his old
+patient, Aubrey, who had been always left to his management.
+
+'Ah, I see,' he said, with a certain tone of satisfaction, 'for once
+there will be a case properly treated.  Now, Ethel, you and I will
+show what intelligent nursing can do.'
+
+'I believe you are delighted,' growled Aubrey.
+
+'So should you be, at the valuable precedent you will afford.'
+
+'I've no notion of being experimented on to prove your theory,' said
+Aubrey, still ready for lazy mischief.
+
+For be it known that the roving-tempered Dr. Spencer had been on fire
+to volunteer to the Crimean hospitals, and had unwillingly sacrificed
+the project, not to Dr. May's conviction that it would be fatal in
+his present state of health, but to Ethel's private entreaty that he
+would not add to her father's distress in the freshness of Margaret's
+death, and the parting with Norman.  He had never ceased to mourn
+over the lost opportunity, and to cast up to his friend the
+discoveries he might have made; while Dr. May declared that if by any
+strange chance he had come back at all, he would have been so rabid
+on improved nursing and sanatory measures, that there would have been
+no living with him.
+
+It must be owned that Dr. May was not very sensible to what his
+friend called Stoneborough stinks.  The place was fairly healthy, and
+his 'town councillor's conservatism,' and hatred of change, as well
+as the amusement of skirmishing, had always made him the champion of
+things as they were; and in the present emergency the battle whether
+the enemy had travelled by infection, or was the product of the Pond
+Buildings' miasma, was the favourite enlivenment of the disagreeing
+doctors, in their brief intervals of repose in the stern conflict
+which they were waging with the fever--a conflict in which they had
+soon to strive by themselves, for the disease not only seized on
+young Ward, but on his father; and till medical assistance was sent
+from London, they had the whole town on their hands, and for nearly a
+week lived without a night's rest.
+
+The care of the sick was a still greater difficulty.  Though Aubrey
+was never in danger, and Dr. Spencer's promise of the effects of
+'intelligent nursing' was fully realized, Ethel and Mary were so
+occupied by him, that it was a fearful thing to guess how it must
+fare with those households where the greater number were laid low,
+and in want of all the comforts that could do little.
+
+The clergy worked to the utmost; and a letter of Mr. Wilmot's
+obtained the assistance of two ladies from a nursing sisterhood, who
+not only worked incredible wonders with their own hands among the
+poor, but made efficient nurses of rough girls and stupid old women.
+Dr. May, who had at first, in his distrust of innovation, been averse
+to the importation--as likely to have no effect but putting nonsense
+into girls' heads, and worrying the sick poor--was so entirely
+conquered, that he took off his hat to them across the street,
+importuned them to drink tea with his daughters, and never came home
+without dilating on their merits for the few minutes that intervened
+between his satisfying himself about Aubrey and dropping asleep in
+his chair.  The only counter demonstration he reserved to himself was
+that he always called them 'Miss What-d'ye-call-her,' and 'Those gems
+of women,' instead of Sister Katherine and Sister Frances.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+
+Good words are silver, but good deeds are gold.
+                                          Cecil and Mary
+
+
+'It has been a very good day, papa; he has enjoyed all his meals,
+indeed was quite ravenous.  He is asleep now, and looks as
+comfortable as possible,' said Ethel, five weeks after Aubrey's
+illness had begun.
+
+'Thank God for that, and all His mercy to us, Ethel;' and the long
+sigh, the kiss, and dewy eyes, would have told her that there had
+been more to exhaust him than his twelve hours' toil, even had she
+not partly known what weighed him down.
+
+'Poor things!' she said.
+
+'Both gone, Ethel, both! both!' and as he entered the drawing-room,
+he threw himself back in his chair, and gasped with the long-
+restrained feeling.
+
+'Both!' she exclaimed.  'You don't mean that Leonard--'
+
+'No, Ethel, his mother!  Poor children, poor children!'
+
+'Mrs. Ward!  I thought she had only been taken ill yesterday
+evening.'
+
+'She only then gave way--but she never had any constitution--she was
+done up with nursing--nothing to fall back on--sudden collapse and
+prostration--and that poor girl, called every way at once, fancied
+her asleep, and took no alarm till I came in this morning and found
+her pulse all but gone.  We have been pouring down stimulants all
+day, but there was no rousing her, and she was gone the first.'
+
+'And Mr. Ward--did he know it?'
+
+'I thought so from the way he looked at me; but speech had long been
+lost, and that throat was dreadful suffering.  Well, "In their death
+they were not divided."'
+
+He shaded his eyes with his hand; and Ethel, leaning against his
+chair, could not hinder herself from a shudder at the longing those
+words seemed to convey.  He felt her movement, and put his arm round
+her, saying, 'No, Ethel, do not think I envy them.  I might have done
+so once--I had not then learnt the meaning of the discipline of being
+without her--no, nor what you could do for me, my child, my
+children.'
+
+Ethel's thrill of bliss was so intense, that it gave her a sense of
+selfishness in indulging personal joy at such a moment; and indeed it
+was true that her father had over-lived the first pangs of change and
+separation, had formed new and congenial habits, saw the future hope
+before him; and since poor Margaret had been at rest, had been
+without present anxiety, or the sight of decay and disappointment.
+Her only answer was a mute smoothing of his bowed shoulders, as she
+said, 'If I could be of any use or comfort to poor Averil Ward, I
+could go to-night.  Mary is enough for Aubrey.'
+
+'Not now, my dear.  She can't stir from the boy, they are giving him
+champagne every ten minutes; she has the nurse, and Spencer is
+backwards and forwards; I think they will pull him through, but it is
+a near, a very near touch.  Good, patient, unselfish boy he is too.'
+
+'He always was a very nice boy,' said Ethel; 'I do hope he will get
+well.  It would be a terrible grief to Aubrey.'
+
+'Yes, I got Leonard to open his lips to-day by telling him that
+Aubrey had sent him the grapes.  I think he will get through.  I hope
+he will.  He is a good friend for Aubrey.  So touching it was this
+morning to hear him trying to ask pardon for all his faults, poor
+fellow--fits of temper, and the like.'
+
+'That is his fault, I believe,' said Ethel, 'and I always think it a
+wholesome one, because it is so visible and unjustifiable, that
+people strive against it.  And the rest?  Was Henry able to see his
+father or mother?'
+
+'No, he can scarcely sit up in bed.  It was piteous to see him lying
+with his door open, listening.  He is full of warm sound feeling,
+poor fellow.  You would like to have heard the fervour with which he
+begged me to tell his father to have no fears for the younger ones,
+for it should be the most precious task of his life to do a parent's
+part by them.'
+
+'Let me see, he is just of Harry's age,' said Ethel, thoughtfully, as
+if she had not the strongest faith in Harry's power of supplying a
+parent's place.
+
+'Well,' said her father, 'remember, a medical student is an older man
+than a lieutenant in the navy.  One sees as much of the interior as
+the other does of the surface.  We must take this young Ward by the
+hand, and mind he does not lose his father's practice.  Burdon, that
+young prig that Spencer got down from London, met me at Gavin's, when
+I looked in there on my way home, and came the length of Minster
+Street with me, asking what I thought of an opening for a medical
+man--partnership with young Ward, &c.  I snubbed him so short, that I
+fancy I left him thinking whether his nose was on or off his face.'
+
+'He was rather premature.'
+
+'I've settled him any way.  I shall do my best to keep the town clear
+for that lad; there's not much more for him, as things are now, and
+it will be only looking close after him for a few years, which
+Spencer and I can very well manage.'
+
+'If he will let you.'
+
+'There! that's the spitefulness of women!  Must you be casting up
+that little natural spirit of independence against him after the
+lesson he has had?  I tell you, he has been promising me to look on
+me as a father!  Poor old Ward! he was a good friend and fellow-
+worker.  I owe a great deal to him.'
+
+Ethel wondered if he forgot how much of the unserviceableness of his
+maimed arm had once been attributed to Mr. Ward's dulness, or how
+many times he had come home boiling with annoyance at having been
+called in too late to remedy the respectable apothecary's half
+measures.  She believed that the son had been much better educated
+than the father, and after the fearful lesson he had received,
+thought he might realize Dr. May's hopes, and appreciate his
+kindness.  They discussed the relations.
+
+'Ward came as assistant to old Axworthy, and married his daughter; he
+had no relations that his son knows of, except the old aunt who left
+Averil her L2000.'
+
+'There are some Axworthys still,' said Ethel, 'but not very
+creditable people.'
+
+'You may say that,' said Dr. May emphatically.  'There was a
+scapegrace brother that ran away, and was heard of no more till he
+turned up, a wealthy man, ten or fifteen years ago, and bought what
+they call the Vintry Mill, some way on this side of Whitford.  He has
+a business on a large scale; but Ward had as little intercourse with
+him as possible.  A terrible old heathen.'
+
+'And the boy that was expelled for bullying Tom is in the business.'
+
+'I hate the thought of that,' said the Doctor.  'If he had stayed on,
+who knows but he might have turned out as well as Ned Anderson.'
+
+'Has not he?'
+
+'I'm sure I have no right to say he has not, but he is a flashy slang
+style of youth, and I hope the young Wards will keep out of his way.'
+
+'What will become of them?  Is there likely to be any provision for
+them?'
+
+'Not much, I should guess.  Poor Ward did as we are all tempted to do
+when money goes through our hands, and spent more freely than I was
+ever allowed to do.  Costly house, garden, greenhouses--he'd better
+have stuck to old Axworthy's place in Minster Street--daughter at
+that grand school, where she cost more than the whole half-dozen of
+you put together.'
+
+'She was more worth it,' said Ethel; 'her music and drawing are
+first-rate.  Harry was frantic about her singing last time he was at
+home--one evening when Mrs. Anderson abused his good-nature and got
+him to a tea-party--I began to be afraid of the consequences.'
+
+'Pish!' said the Doctor.
+
+'And really they kept her there to enable her to educate her
+sisters,' said Ethel.  'The last time I called on poor Mrs. Ward, she
+told me all about it, apologizing in the pretty way mothers do,
+saying she was looking forward to Averil's coming home, but that
+while she profited so much, they felt it due to her to give her every
+advantage; and did not I think--with my experience--that it was all
+so much for the little ones' benefit?  I assured her, from my
+personal experience, that ignorance is a terrible thing in
+governessing one's sisters.  Poor thing!  And Averil had only come
+home this very Easter.'
+
+'And with everything to learn, in such a scene as that!  The first
+day, when only the boys were ill, there sat the girl, dabbling with
+her water-colours, and her petticoats reaching half across the room,
+looking like a milliner's doll, and neither she nor her poor mother
+dreaming of her doing a useful matter.'
+
+'Who is spiteful now, papa?  That's all envy at not having such an
+accomplished daughter.  When she came out in time of need so grandly,
+and showed all a woman's instinct--'
+
+'Woman's nonsense!  Instinct is for irrational brutes, and the more
+you cultivate a woman, the less she has of it, unless you work up her
+practical common sense too.'
+
+'Some one said she made a wonderful nurse.'
+
+'Wonderful?  Perhaps so, considering her opportunities, and she does
+better with Spencer than with me; I may have called her to order
+impatiently, for she is nervous with me, loses her head, and knocks
+everything down with her petticoats.  Then--not a word to any one,
+Ethel--but imagine her perfect blindness to her poor mother's state
+all yesterday, and last night, not even calling Burdon to look at
+her; why, those ten hours may have made all the difference!'
+
+'Poor thing, how is she getting on now?'
+
+'Concentrated upon Leonard, too much stunned to admit another idea--
+no tears--hardly full comprehension.  One can't take her away, and
+she can't bear not to do everything, and yet one can't trust her any
+more than a child.'
+
+'As she is,' said Ethel, 'but as she won't be any longer.  And the
+two little ones?'
+
+'It breaks one's heart to see them, just able to sit by their nursery
+fire, murmuring in that weary, resigned, sick child's voice, 'I wish
+nurse would come.'  'I wish sister would come.'  'I wish mamma would
+come.'  I went up to them the last thing, and told them how it was,
+and let them cry themselves to sleep.  That was the worst business of
+all.  Ethel, are they too big for Mary to dress some dolls for them?'
+
+'I will try to find out their tastes the first thing to-morrow,' said
+Ethel; 'at any rate we can help them, if not poor Averil.'
+
+Ethel, however, was detained at home to await Dr. Spencer's visit,
+and Mary, whose dreams had all night been haunted by the thought of
+the two little nursery prisoners, entreated to go with her father,
+and see what could be done for them.
+
+Off they set together, Mary with a basket in her hand, which was
+replenished at the toy-shop in Minster Street with two china-faced
+dolls, and, a little farther on, parted with a couple of rolls,
+interspersed with strata of cold beef and butter, to a household of
+convalescents in the stage for kitchen physic.
+
+Passing the school, still taking its enforced holiday, the father and
+daughter traversed the bridge and entered the growing suburb known as
+Bankside, where wretched cottages belonging to needy, grasping
+proprietors, formed an uncomfortable contrast to the villa residences
+interspersed among them.
+
+One of these, with a well-kept lawn, daintily adorned with the newest
+pines and ornamental shrubs, and with sheets of glass glaring in the
+sun from the gardens at the back, was the house that poor Mr. and
+Mrs. Ward had bought and beautified; 'because it was so much better
+for the children to be out of the town.'  The tears sprang into
+Mary's eyes at the veiled windows, and the unfeeling contrast of the
+spring glow of flowering thorn, lilac, laburnum, and, above all, the
+hard, flashing brightness of the glass; but tears were so unlike
+Ethel that Mary always was ashamed of them, and disposed of them
+quietly.
+
+They rang, but in vain.  Two of the servants were ill, and all in
+confusion; and after waiting a few moments among the azaleas in the
+glass porch, Dr. May admitted himself, and led the way up-stairs with
+silent footfalls, Mary following with breath held back.  A voice from
+an open door called, 'Is that Dr. May?' and he paused to look in and
+say, 'I'll be with you in one minute, Henry; how is Leonard?'
+
+'No worse, they tell me; I say, Dr. May--'
+
+'One moment;' and turning back to Mary, he pointed along a dark
+passage.  'Up there, first door to the right.  You can't mistake;'
+then disappeared, drawing the door after him.
+
+Much discomfited, Mary nevertheless plunged bravely on, concluding
+'there' to be up a narrow, uncarpeted stair, with a nursery wicket at
+the top, in undoing which, she was relieved of all doubts and
+scruples by a melancholy little duet from within.  'Mary, Mary, we
+want our breakfast!  We want to get up!  Mary, Mary, do come! please
+come!'
+
+She was instantly in what might ordinarily have been a light,
+cheerful room, but which was in all the dreariness of gray cinders,
+exhausted night-light, curtained windows, and fragments of the last
+meal.  In each of two cane cribs was sitting up a forlorn child, with
+loose locks of dishevelled hair, pale thin cheeks glazed with tears,
+staring eyes, and mouths rounded with amaze at the apparition.  One
+dropped down and hid under the bed-clothes; the other remained
+transfixed, as her visitor advanced, saying, 'Well, my dear, you
+called Mary, and here I am.'
+
+'Not our own Mary,' said the child, distrustfully.
+
+'See if I can't be your own Mary.'
+
+'You can't.  You can't give us our breakfast.'
+
+'Oh, I am so hungry!' from the other crib; and both burst into the
+feeble sobs of exhaustion.  Recovering from fever, and still fasting
+at half-past nine!  Mary was aghast, and promised an instant supply.
+
+'Don't go;' and a bird-like little hand seized her on either side.
+'Mary never came to bed, and nobody has been here all the morning,
+and we can't bear to be alone.'
+
+'I was only looking for the bell.'
+
+'It is of no use; Minna did jump out and ring, but nobody will come.'
+
+Mary made an ineffectual experiment, and then persuaded the children
+to let her go by assurances of a speedy return.  She sped down,
+brimming over with pity and indignation, to communicate to her father
+this cruel neglect, and as she passed Henry Ward's door, and heard
+several voices, she ventured on a timid summons of 'papa,' but,
+finding it unheard, she perceived that she must act for herself.
+Going down-stairs, she tried the sitting-room doors, hoping that
+breakfast might be laid out there, but all were locked; and at last
+she found her way to the lower regions, guided by voices in eager
+tones of subdued gossip.
+
+There, in the glow of the huge red fire, stood a well-covered table,
+surrounded by cook, charwoman, and their cavaliers, discussing a pile
+of hot-buttered toast, to which the little kitchen-maid was
+contributing large rounds, toasted at the fire.
+
+Mary's eyes absolutely flashed, as she said, 'The children have had
+no breakfast.'
+
+'I beg your pardon, ma'am,' and the cook rose, 'but it is the nurse-
+maid that takes up the young ladies' meals.'
+
+Mary did not listen to the rest; she was desperate, and pouncing on
+the bread with one hand, and the butter with the other, ran away with
+them to the nursery, set them down, and rushed off for another raid.
+She found that the commotion she had excited was resulting in the
+preparation of a tray.
+
+'I am sure, ma'am, I am very sorry,' said the cook, insisting on
+carrying the kettle, 'but we are in such confusion; and the nurse-
+maid, whose place it is, has been up most of the night with Mr.
+Leonard, and must have just dropped asleep somewhere, and I was just
+giving their breakfast to the undertaker's young men, but I'll call
+her directly, ma'am.'
+
+'Oh, no, on no account.  I am sure she ought to sleep,' said Mary.
+'It was only because I found the little girls quite starving that I
+came down.  I will take care of them now.  Don't wake her, pray.
+Only I hope,' and Mary looked beseechingly, 'that they will have
+something good for their dinner, poor little things.'
+
+Cook was entirely pacified, and talked about roast chicken, and
+presently the little sisters were sitting up in their beds, each in
+her wrapper, being fed by turns with delicately-buttered slices, Mary
+standing between like a mother-bird feeding her young, and pleased to
+find the eyes grow brighter and less hollow, the cheeks less wan, the
+voices less thin and pipy, and a little laugh breaking out when she
+mistook Minna for Ella.
+
+While tidying the room, she was assailed with entreaties to call
+their Mary, and let them get up, they were so tired of bed.  She
+undertook to be still their Mary, and made them direct her to the
+house-maid's stores, went down on her knees at the embers, and so
+dealt with matches, chips, and coal, that to her own surprise and
+pride a fire was evoked.
+
+'But,' said Ella, 'I thought you were a Miss May.'
+
+'So I am, my dear.'
+
+'But ladies don't light fires,' said Minna, in open-eyed perplexity.
+
+'Oh,' exclaimed the younger sister, 'you know Henry said he did not
+think any of the Miss Mays were first-rate, and that our Ave beat
+them all to nothing.'
+
+The elder, Minna, began hushing; and it must be confessed that honest
+Mary was not superior to a certain crimson flush of indignation, as
+she held her head into the grate, and thought of Ethel, Flora, and
+Blanche, criticized by Mr. Henry Ward.  Little ungrateful chit!  No,
+it was not a matter of laughing, but of forgiveness; and the
+assertion of the dignity of usefulness was speedily forgotten in the
+toilette of the small light skin-and-bone frames, in the course of
+which she received sundry compliments--'her hands were so nice and
+soft,' 'she did not pull their hair like their own Mary,' 'they
+wished she always dressed them.'
+
+The trying moment was when they asked if they might kneel at her lap
+for their prayers.  To Mary, the twelve years seemed as nothing since
+her first prayers after the day of terror and bereavement, and her
+eyes swam with tears as the younger girl unthinkingly rehearsed her
+wonted formula, and the elder, clinging to her, whispered gravely,
+'Please, what shall I say?'
+
+With full heart, and voice almost unmanageable, Mary prompted the few
+simple words that had come to her in that hour of sorrow.  She looked
+up, from stooping to the child's ear, to see her father at the door,
+gazing at them with face greatly moved.  The children greeted him
+fondly, and he sat down with one on each knee, and caressed them as
+he looked them well over, drawing out their narration of the
+wonderful things 'she' had done, the fingers pointing to designate
+who she was.  His look at her over his spectacles made Mary's heart
+bound and feel compensated for whatever Mr. Henry Ward might say of
+her.  When the children had finished their story, he beckoned her out
+of the room, promising them that he would not keep her long.
+
+'Well done, Molly,' he said smiling, 'it is well to have daughters
+good for something.  You had better stay with them till that poor
+maid has had her sleep out, and can come to them.'
+
+'I should like to stay with them all day, only that Ethel must want
+me.'
+
+'You had better go home by dinner-time, that Ethel may get some air.
+Perhaps I shall want one of you in the evening to be with them at the
+time of the funeral.'
+
+'So soon!'
+
+'Yes, it must be.  Better for all, and Henry is glad it should be so.
+He is out on the sofa to-day, but he is terribly cut up.'
+
+'And Leonard?'
+
+'I see some improvement--Burdon does not--but I think with Heaven's
+good mercy we may drag him through; the pulse is rather better.  Now
+I must go.  You'll not wait dinner for me.'
+
+Mary spent the next hour in amusing the children by the fabrication
+of the dolls' wardrobe, and had made them exceedingly fond of her, so
+that there was a very poor welcome when their own Mary at length
+appeared, much shocked at the duration of her own slumbers, and
+greatly obliged to Miss May.  The little girls would scarcely let
+Mary go, though she pacified them by an assurance that she or her
+sister would come in the evening.
+
+'Don't let it be your sister.  You come, and finish our dolls'
+frocks!' and they hung about her, kissing her, and trying to extract
+a promise.
+
+After sharing the burthen of depression, it was strange to return
+home to so different a tone of spirits when she found Aubrey
+installed in Ethel's room as his parlour, very white and weak, but
+overflowing with languid fun.  There was grief and sympathy for the
+poor Wards, and anxious inquiries for Leonard; but it was not sorrow
+brought visibly before him, and after the decorous space of
+commiseration, the smiles were bright again, and Mary heard how her
+father had popped in to boast of his daughter being 'as good as a
+house-maid, or as Miss What's-her-name;' and her foray in the kitchen
+was more diverting to Aubrey than she was as yet prepared to
+understand.  'Running away with the buttered toast from under the
+nose of a charwoman! let Harry never talk of taking a Chinese battery
+after that!' her incapacity of perceiving that the deed was either
+valiant or ludicrous, entertaining him particularly.  'It had
+evidently hit the medium between the sublime and ridiculous.'
+
+When evening came, Mary thought it Ethel's privilege to go, as the
+most efficient friend and comforter; but Ethel saw that her sister's
+soul was with the Wards, and insisted that she should go on as she
+had begun.
+
+'0, Ethel, that was only with the little ones.  Now you would be of
+use to poor Averil.'
+
+'And why should not you? and of more use?'
+
+'You know I am only good for small children; but if you tell me--'
+
+'You provoking girl,' said Ethel.  'All I tell you is, that you are
+twenty-three years old, and I won't tell you anything, nor assist
+your unwholesome desire to be second fiddle.'
+
+'I don't know what you mean, Ethel; of course you always tell me what
+to do, and how to do it.'
+
+Ethel quite laughed now, but gave up the contest, only saying, as she
+fondly smoothed back a little refractory lock on Mary's smooth open
+brow,  'Very well then, go and do whatever comes to hand at Bankside,
+my dear.  I do really want to stay at home, both on Aubrey's account,
+and because papa says Dr. Spencer is done up, and that I must catch
+him and keep him quiet this evening.'
+
+Mary was satisfied in her obedience, and set off with her father.
+Just as they reached Bankside, a gig drove up containing the fattest
+old man she had ever beheld; her father whispered that it was old Mr.
+Axworthy, and sent her at once to the nursery, where she was welcomed
+with a little shriek of delight, each child bounding in her small
+arm-chair, and pulling her down between them on the floor for
+convenience of double hugging, after which she was required to go on
+with the doll-dressing.
+
+Mary could not bear to do this while the knell was vibrating on her
+ear, and the two coffins being borne across the threshold; so she
+gathered the orphans within her embrace as she sat on the floor, and
+endeavoured to find out how much they understood of what was passing,
+and whether they had any of the right thoughts.  It was rather
+disappointing.  The little sisters had evidently been well and
+religiously taught, but they were too childish to dwell on thoughts
+of awe or grief, and the small minds were chiefly fixed upon the
+dolls, as the one bright spot in the dreary day.  Mary yielded, and
+worked and answered their chatter till twilight came on, and the
+rival Mary came up to put them to bed, an operation in which she gave
+her assistance, almost questioning if she were not forgotten, but she
+learnt that her father was still in the house, the nurse believed
+looking at papers in Mr. Henry's room with the other gentlemen.
+
+'And you will sit by us while we go to sleep.  Oh! don't go away!'
+
+The nurse was thankful to her for so doing, and a somewhat graver
+mood had come over Minna as she laid her head on her pillow, for she
+asked the difficult question, 'Can mamma see us now?' which Mary
+could only answer with a tender 'Perhaps,' and an attempt to direct
+the child to the thought of the Heavenly Father; and then Minna
+asked, 'Who will take care of us now?'
+
+'Oh, will you?' cried Ella, sitting up; and both little maids,
+holding out their arms, made a proffer of themselves to be her little
+children.  They would be so good if she would let them be--
+
+Mary could only fondle and smile it off, and put them in mind that
+they belonged to their brother and sister; but the answer was, 'Ave
+is not so nice as you.  Oh, do let us--'
+
+'But I can't, my dears.  I am Dr. May's child, you know.  What could
+I say to him?'
+
+'Oh! but Dr. May wouldn't mind!  I know he wouldn't mind!  Mamma says
+there was never any one so fond of little children, and he is such a
+dear good old gentleman.'
+
+Mary had not recognized him as an old gentleman at fifty-eight, and
+did not like it at all.  She argued on the impracticability of taking
+them from their natural protectors, and again tried to lead them
+upwards, finally betaking herself to the repetition of hymns, which
+put them to sleep.  She had spent some time in sitting between them
+in the summer darkness, when there was a low tap, and opening the
+door, she saw her father.  Indicating that they slept, she followed
+him out, and a whispered conference took place as he stood below her
+on the stairs, their heads on a level.
+
+'Tired, Mary?  I have only just got rid of old Axworthy.'
+
+'The nurse said you were busy with papers in Henry's room.'
+
+'Ay--the Will.  Henry behaves very well; and is full of right
+feeling, poor fellow!'
+
+'What becomes of those dear little girls?  They want to make
+themselves a present to me, and say they know you would like it.'
+
+'So I should, the darlings!  Well, as things are left, it all goes to
+Henry, except the L10,000 Ward had insured his life for, which
+divides between the five.  He undertakes, most properly, to make them
+a home--whether in this house or not is another thing; he and Averil
+will look after them; and he made a most right answer when Mr.
+Axworthy offered to take Leonard into his office,' proceeded the
+communicative Doctor, unable to help pouring himself out, in spite of
+time and place, as soon as he had a daughter to himself.  'Settle
+nothing now--education not finished; but privately he tells me he
+believes his mother would as soon have sent Leonard to the hulks as
+to that old rascal, and the scamp, his grand-nephew.'
+
+Mary's answer to this, as his tones became incautiously emphatic, was
+a glance round all the attic doors, lest they should have ears.
+
+'Now then, do you want to get home?' said the Doctor, a little
+rebuked.
+
+'Oh no, not if there is anything I can do.'
+
+'I want to get this girl away from Leonard.  He is just come to the
+state when it all turns on getting him off to sleep quietly, and not
+disturbing him, and she is too excited and restless to do anything
+with her; she has startled him twice already, and then gets upset--
+tired out, poor thing! and will end in being hysterical if she does
+not get fed and rested, and then we shall be done for!  Now I want
+you to take charge of her.  See, here's her room, and I have ordered
+up some tea for her.  You must get her quieted down, make her have a
+tolerable meal, and when she has worked off her excitement, put her
+to bed--undressed, mind--and you might lie down by her.  If you can't
+manage her, call me.  That's Leonard's door, and I shall be there all
+night; but don't if you can help it.  Can you do this, or must I get
+Miss "What-d'ye-call-her" the elder one, if she can leave the Greens
+in Randall's Alley?
+
+Well was it that Mary's heart was stout as well as tender; and
+instead of mentally magnifying the task, and diminishing her own
+capabilities, she simply felt that she had received a command, and
+merely asked that Ethel should be informed.
+
+'I am going to send up to her.'
+
+'And shall I give Averil anything to take?'
+
+'Mutton-chops, if you can.'
+
+'I meant sal-volatile, or anything to put her to sleep.'
+
+'Nonsense!  I hate healthy girls drugging themselves.  You don't do
+that at home, Mary!'
+
+Mary showed her white teeth in a silent laugh at the improbability,
+there being nothing Ethel more detested than what she rather rudely
+called nervous quackeries.  Her father gave her a kiss of grateful
+approbation, and was gone.
+
+There was a light on the table, and preparations for tea; and Mary
+looked round the pretty room, where the ornamental paper, the flowery
+chintz furniture, the shining brass of the bedstead, the frilled
+muslin toilet, and et ceteras, were more luxurious than what she ever
+saw, except when visiting with Flora, and so new as to tell a tale of
+the mother's fond preparation for the return of the daughter from
+school.  In a few moments she heard her father saying, in a voice as
+if speaking to a sick child, 'Yes, I promise you, my dear.  Be good,
+be reasonable, and you shall come back in the morning.  No, you can't
+go there.  Henry is going to bed.  Here is a friend for you.  Now,
+Mary, don't let me see her till she has slept.'
+
+Mary took the other hand, and between them they placed her in an arm-
+chair, whose shining fresh white ground and gay rose-pattern
+contrasted with her heated, rumpled, over-watched appearance, as she
+sank her head on her hand, not noticing either Mary's presence or the
+Doctor's departure.  Mary stood doubtful for a few seconds, full of
+pity and embarrassment, trying to take in the needs of the case.
+
+Averil Ward was naturally a plump, well-looking girl of eighteen,
+with clearly-cut features, healthy highly-coloured complexion, and
+large bright hazel eyes, much darker than her profuse and glossy
+hair, which was always dressed in the newest and most stylish
+fashion, which, as well as the whole air of her dress and person,
+was, though perfectly lady like, always regarded by the Stoneborough
+world as something on the borders of presumption on the part of the
+entire Ward family.
+
+To Mary's surprise, the five weeks' terrible visitation, and these
+last fearful five days of sleepless exertion and bereavement, had not
+faded the bright red of the cheek, nor were there signs of tears,
+though the eyes looked bloodshot.  Indeed, there was a purple tint
+about the eyelids and lips, a dried-up appearance, and a heated
+oppressed air, as if the faculties were deadened and burnt up, though
+her hand was cold and trembling.  Her hair, still in its elaborate
+arrangement, hung loose, untidy, untouched; her collar and sleeves
+were soiled and tumbled; her dress, with its inconvenient machinery
+of inflation, looked wretched from its incongruity, and the stains on
+the huge hanging sleeves.  Not a moment could have been given to the
+care of her own person, since the sole burthen of nursing had so
+grievously and suddenly descended on her.
+
+Mary's first instinct was to pour out some warm water, and bringing
+it with a sponge, to say, 'Would not this refresh you?'
+
+Averil moved petulantly; but the soft warm stream was so grateful to
+her burning brow, that she could not resist; she put her head back,
+and submitted like a child to have her face bathed, saying, 'Thank
+you.'
+
+Mary then begged to remove her tight heavy dress, and make her
+comfortable in her dressing-gown.
+
+'Oh, I can't!  Then I could not go back.'
+
+'Yes, you could; this is quite a dress; besides, one can move so much
+more quietly without crinoline.'
+
+'I didn't think of that;' and she stood up, and unfastened her hooks.
+'Perhaps Dr. May would let me go back now!' as a mountain of mohair
+and scarlet petticoat remained on the floor, upborne by an over-grown
+steel mouse-trap.
+
+'Perhaps he will by and by; but he said you must sleep first.'
+
+'Sleep--I can't sleep.  There's no one but me.  I couldn't sleep.'
+
+'Then at least let me try to freshen you up.  There.  You don't know
+what good it used to do my sister Blanche, for me to brush her hair.
+I like it.'
+
+And Mary obtained a dreamy soothed submission, so that she almost
+thought she was brushing her victim to sleep in her chair, before the
+maid came up with the viands that Dr. May had ordered.
+
+'I can't eat that,' said Averil, with almost disgust.  'Take it
+away.'
+
+'Please don't,' said Mary.  'Is that the way you use me, Miss Ward,
+when I come to drink tea with you?'
+
+'Oh, I beg your pardon,' was the mechanical answer.
+
+Mary having made the long hair glossy once more, into a huge braid,
+and knotted it up, came forth, and insisted that they were to be
+comfortable over their grilled chickens' legs.  She was obliged to
+make her own welcome, and entertain her hostess; and strenuously she
+worked, letting the dry lips imbibe a cup of tea, before she
+attempted the solids; then coaxing and commanding, she gained her
+point, and succeeded in causing a fair amount of provisions to be
+swallowed; after which Averil seemed more inclined to linger in
+enjoyment of the liquids, as though the feverish restlessness were
+giving place to a sense of fatigue and need of repose.
+
+'This is all wrong,' said she, with a faint bewildered smile, as Mary
+filled up her cup for her.  'I ought to be treating you as guest,
+Miss May.'
+
+'Oh, don't call me Miss May!  Call me Mary.  Think me a sister.  You
+know I have known something of like trouble, only I was younger, and
+I had my sisters.'
+
+'I do not seem to have felt anything yet,' said Averil, passing her
+hands over her face.  'I seem to be made of stone.'
+
+'You have done: and that is better than feeling.'
+
+'Done! and how miserably!  Oh, the difference it might have made, if
+I had been a better nurse!'
+
+'Papa and Dr. Spencer both say you have been a wonderful nurse,
+considering--' the last word came out before Mary was aware.
+
+'Oh, Dr. May has been so kind and so patient with me, I shall never
+forget it.  Even when I scalded his fingers with bringing him that
+boiling water--but I always do wrong when he is there--and now he
+won't let me go back to Leonard.'
+
+'But, Averil, the best nurse in the world can't hold out for ever.
+People must sleep, and make themselves fit to go on.'
+
+'Not when there is only one:' and she gasped.
+
+'All the more reason, when there is but one.  Perhaps it is because
+you are tired out that you get nervous and agitated.  You will be
+quite different after a rest.'
+
+'Are you sure?' whispered Averil, with her eyes rounded, 'are you
+sure that is all the reason?'
+
+'What do you mean?' said Mary.
+
+Averil drew in her breath, and squeezed both hands tight on her
+chest, as she spoke very low: 'They sent me away from mamma--they
+told me papa wanted me: then they sent me from him; they said I was
+better with Leonard; and--and I said to myself, nothing should make
+me leave Leonard.'
+
+'It was not papa--my father--that sent you without telling you,' said
+Mary, confidently.
+
+'No,' said Averil.
+
+'No; I have heard him say that he would take all risks, rather than
+deceive anybody,' said Mary, eagerly.  'I have heard him and Dr.
+Spencer argue about what they called pious frauds, and he always said
+they were want of faith.  You may trust him.  He told me Leonard was
+in the state when calm sleep was chiefly wanted.  I know he would
+think it cruel not to call you if there were need; and I do not
+believe there will be need.'
+
+Something like this was reiterated in different forms; and though
+Averil never regularly yielded, yet as they sat on, there came pauses
+in the conversation, when Mary saw her nodding, and after one or two
+vibrations in her chair, she looked up with lustreless glassy eyes.
+Mary took one of these semi-wakened moments, and in the tone of
+caressing authority that had been already found effectual, said she
+must sleep in bed; took no notice of the murmur of refusal, but
+completed the undressing, and fairly deposited her in her bed.
+
+Mary's scrupulous conscience was distressed at having thus led to the
+omission of all evening orisons; but if her own simple-hearted loving
+supplications at the orphan's bedside could compensate for their
+absence, she did her utmost.  Then, as both the room-door and that of
+the sick-chamber had been left open, she stole into the passage,
+where she could see her father, seated at the table, and telegraphed
+to him a sign of her success.  He durst not move, but he smiled and
+nodded satisfaction; and Mary, after tidying the room, and
+considering with herself, took off her more cumbrous garments,
+wrapped herself in a cloak, and lay down beside Averil, not expecting
+to sleep, but passing to thoughts of Harry, and of that 23rd Psalm,
+which they had agreed to say at the same hour every night.  By how
+many hours was Harry beforehand with her?  That was a calculation
+that to Mary was always like the beads of the chaplain of Norham
+Castle.  Certain it is, that after she had seen Harry lighting a fire
+to broil chickens' legs in a Chinese temple, under the willow-pattern
+cannon-ball tree, and heard Henry Ward saying it was not like a
+lieutenant in the navy, she found herself replying, 'Use before
+gentility;' and in the enunciation of this--her first moral
+sentiment--discovered that it was broad daylight.
+
+What o'clock it was she could not guess.  Averil was sound asleep,
+breathing deeply and regularly, so that it was; a pleasure to listen
+to her; and Mary did not fear wakening her by a shoeless voyage of
+discovery to the place whence Dr. May was visible.
+
+He turned at once, and with his noiseless tread came to her.  'Asleep
+still?  So is he.  All right.  Here, waken me the moment he stirs.'
+
+And rather by sign than word, he took Mary into the sickroom,
+indicated a chair, and laid himself on a sofa, where he was
+instantaneously sound asleep, before his startled daughter had quite
+taken everything in; but she had only to glance at his haggard
+wearied face, to be glad to be there, so as to afford him even a few
+moments of vigorous slumber with all his might.
+
+In some awe, she looked round, not venturing to stir hand or foot.
+Her chair was in the full draught of the dewy morning breeze, so
+chilly, that she drew her shawl tightly about her; but she knew that
+this had been an instance of her father's care, and if she wished to
+make the slightest move, it was only to secure a fuller view of the
+patient, from whom she was half cut off by a curtain at the foot of
+the bed.  A sort of dread, however, made Mary gaze at everything
+around her before she brought her eyes upon him--her father's watch
+on the table, indicating ten minutes to four, the Minster Tower in
+the rising sunlight--nay, the very furniture of the room, and Dr.
+May's position, before she durst familiarize herself with Leonard's
+appearance--he whom she had last seen as a sturdy, ruddy, healthful
+boy, looking able to outweigh two of his friend Aubrey.
+
+The original disease had long since passed into typhus, and the
+scarlet eruption was gone, so that she only saw a yellow whiteness,
+that, marked by the blue veins of the bared temples, was to her mind
+death-like.  Mary had not been sheltered from taking part in scenes
+of suffering; she had seen sickness and death in cottages, as well as
+in her own home, and she had none of the fanciful alarms, either of
+novelty or imagination, to startle her in the strange watch that had
+so suddenly been thrust on her but what did fill her with a certain
+apprehension, was the new and lofty beauty of expression that sat on
+that sleeping countenance.  'A nice boy,' 'rather a handsome lad,' 'a
+boy of ingenuous face,' they had always called Leonard Ward, when
+animated with health and spirits; and the friendship between him and
+Aubrey had been encouraged, but without thinking of him as more than
+an ordinary lad of good style.  Now, however, to Mary's mind, the
+broad brow and wasted features in their rest had assumed a calm
+nobility that was like those of Ethel's favourite champions--those
+who conquered by 'suffering and being strong.'  She looked and
+listened for the low regular breath, almost doubting at one moment
+whether it still were drawn, then only reassured by its freedom and
+absence from effort, that it was not soon to pass away.  There was
+something in that look as if death must set his seal on it, rather
+than as if it could return to the flush of health, and the struggle
+and strife of school-boy life and of manhood.
+
+More than an hour had passed, and all within the house was as still
+as ever; and through the window there only came such sounds as seem
+like audible silence--the twittering of birds, the humming of bees,
+the calls of boys in distant fields, the far-away sound of waggon-
+wheels--when there was a slight move, and Mary, in the tension of all
+her faculties, had well-nigh started, but restrained herself; and as
+she saw the half-closed fingers stretch, and the head turn, she leant
+forward, and touched her father's hand.
+
+Dr. May was on his feet even before those brown eyes of Leonard's had
+had time to unclose; and as Mary was silently moving to the door, he
+made a sign to her to wait.
+
+She stood behind the curtain.  'You are better for your sleep.'
+
+'Yes, thank you--much better.'
+
+The Doctor signed towards a tray, which stood by a spirit-lamp, on a
+table in the further corner.  Mary silently brought it, and as
+quietly obeyed the finger that directed her to cordial and spoon--
+well knowing the need--since that unserviceable right arm always made
+these operations troublesome to her father.
+
+'Have you been here all night, Dr. May?'
+
+'Yes; and very glad to see you sleeping so well.'
+
+'Thank you.'  And there was something that made Mary's eyes dazzle
+with tears in the tone of that 'Thank you.'  The Doctor held out his
+hand for the spoon she had prepared, and there was another 'Thank
+you;' then, 'Is Ave there?'
+
+'No, I made her go to bed.  She is quite well; but she wanted sleep
+sorely.'
+
+'Thank you,' again said the boy; then with a moment's pause, 'Dr.
+May, tell me now.'
+
+Mary would have fled as breaking treacherously in upon such tidings;
+but a constraining gesture of her father obliged her to remain, and
+keep the cordial ready for immediate administration.
+
+'My dear, I believe you know,' said Dr. May, bending over him--and
+Mary well knew what the face must be saying.
+
+'Both?' the faint tones asked.
+
+'Recollect the sorrow that they have been spared,' said Dr. May in
+his lowest, tenderest tones, putting his hand out behind him, and
+signing to Mary for the cordial.
+
+'She could not have borne it;' and the feebleness of those words made
+Mary eager to put the spoon once more into her father's hands.
+
+'That is right, my boy.  Think of their being together;' and Mary
+heard tears in her father's voice.
+
+'Thank you,' again showed that the cordial was swallowed; then a
+pause, and in a quiet, sad, low tone, 'Poor Ave!'
+
+'Your mending is the best thing for her.'
+
+Then came a long sigh; and then, after a pause, the Doctor knelt
+down, and said the Lord's Prayer--the orphan's prayer, as so many
+have felt it in the hour of bereavement.
+
+All was quite still, and both he and Mary knelt on for some short
+space; then he arose in guarded stillness, hastily wiped away the
+tears that were streaming over his face, and holding back the
+curtain, showed Mary the boy, again sunk into that sweet refreshing
+sleep.  'That is well over,' he said, with a deep sigh of relief,
+when they had moved to a safe distance.  'Poor fellow! he had better
+become used to the idea while he is too weak to think.'
+
+'He is better?' asked Mary, repressing her agitation with difficulty.
+
+'I believe the danger is over; and you may tell his sister so when
+she wakes.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+
+And a heart at leisure from itself
+To soothe and sympathize.--Miss Waring
+
+
+Recovery had fairly set in, and 'better' was the universal bulletin,
+eating and drinking the prevailing remedy.
+
+Henry Ward had quickly thrown off his illness.  The sense that all
+depended on him, acted as a stimulus to his energies; he was anxious
+to be up and doing, and in a few days was down-stairs, looking over
+his father's papers, and making arrangements.  He was eager and
+confident, declaring that his sisters should never want a home while
+he lived; and, when he first entered his brother's room, his effusion
+of affection overwhelmed Leonard in his exceeding weakness, and the
+thought of which during the rest of the day often brought tears to
+his eyes.
+
+Very grateful to Dr. May, Henry declared himself anxious to abide by
+his advice; and discussed with him all his plans.  There had been no
+will, but the house and land of course were Henry's.  The other
+property gave about L2000 to each of the family; and Averil had about
+as much again from the old aunt, from whom she had taken her peculiar
+name.  The home of all should, of course, still be their present one;
+Averil would teach her sisters, and superintend the house, and
+Leonard continue at the school, where he had a fair chance of
+obtaining the Randall scholarship in the course of a year or two.
+'And if not,' said Henry, 'he may still not lose his University
+education.  My father was proud of Leonard; and if he would have sent
+him there, why should not I?'
+
+And when Dr. May thought how his own elder sons had insisted on
+greater advantages of education for their juniors than they had
+themselves enjoyed, he felt especially fatherly towards the young
+surgeon.  On only one point was he dissatisfied, and that he could
+not press.  He thought the establishment at Bankside too expensive,
+and counselled Henry to remove into the town, and let the house; but
+this was rejected on the argument of the uncertainty of finding a
+tenant, and the inexpediency of appearing less prosperous; and
+considering that Mr. and Mrs. Ward had themselves made the place, Dr.
+May thought his proposal hard-hearted.  He went about impressing
+every one with his confidence in Henry Ward, and fought successfully
+at the Board of Guardians to have him considered as a continuation of
+his father, instead of appointing a new union doctor; and he watched
+with paternal solicitude that the young man's first return to his
+practice should be neither too soon for his own health or his
+patients' fears; giving him no exhortation more earnest, nor more
+thankfully accepted, than that he was to let no scruple prevent his
+applying to himself in the slightest difficulty; calling him in to
+pauper patients, and privately consulting in cases which could not be
+visited gratis.  The patronage of Henry Ward was one of the hobbies
+that Dr. May specially loved, and he cantered off upon it with
+vehemence such as he had hardly displayed for years.
+
+Aubrey recovered with the tardiness of a weakly constitution, and was
+long in even arriving at a drive in the brougham; for Dr. May had set
+up a brougham.  As long as Hector Ernescliffe's home was at
+Stoneborough, driving the Doctor had been his privilege, and the old
+gig had been held together by diligent repairs; but when Maplewood
+claimed him, and Adams was laid aside by rheumatism, Flora would no
+longer be silenced, and preached respectability and necessity.  Dr.
+May did not admit the plea, unless Adams were to sit inside and drive
+out of window; but then he was told of the impropriety of his
+daughters going out to dinner in gigs, and the expense of flies.
+When Flora talked of propriety in that voice, the family might
+protest and grumble, but were always reduced to obedience; and thus
+Blanche's wedding had been the occasion of Ethel being put into a
+hoop, and the Doctor into a brougham.  He was better off under the
+tyranny than she was, in spite of the solitude he had bewailed.
+Young Adams was not the companion his father had been, and was no
+loss; and he owned that he now got through a great deal of reading,
+and at times a great deal of sleep; and mourned for nothing but his
+moon and stars--so romantic a regret, that Dr. Spencer advised him
+not to mention it.
+
+After Aubrey's first drives, Dr. Spencer declared that the best way
+of invigorating him would be to send him for a month to the sea-side,
+while the house could be thoroughly purified before Gertrude's
+return.  Dr. Spencer and Mary would take care of Dr. May; and Ethel
+had begun to look forward to a tete-a-tete with Aubrey by the sea,
+which they had neither of them ever seen, when her anticipations were
+somewhat dashed by her father's exclaiming, that it would be the best
+thing for Leonard Ward to go with them.  She said something about his
+not being well enough to travel so soon.
+
+'Oh, yes, he will,' said Dr. May; 'he only wants stimulus to get on
+fast enough.  I declare I'll ask Henry about it; I'm just going to
+meet him at the hospital.'
+
+And before another word could be said, he let himself out at the back
+door of the garden, in which they had been meeting Richard, who was
+now allowed to come thus far, though both for Daisy's sake and his
+flock's, he had hitherto submitted to a rigorous quarantine; and the
+entire immunity of Cocksmoor from the malady was constantly adduced
+by each doctor as a convincing proof of his own theory.
+
+'Well, I do hope that will go off!' exclaimed Ethel, as soon as her
+father was out of hearing.  'It will be a terrible upset to all one's
+peace and comfort with Aubrey!'
+
+'Indeed--what harm will the poor boy do?' asked Richard.
+
+'Make Aubrey into the mere shame-faced, sister-hating, commonplace
+creature that the collective boy thinks it due to himself to be in
+society,' said Ethel, 'and me from an enjoying sister, into an
+elderly, care-taking, despised spinster--a burden to myself and the
+boys.'
+
+'But why, Ethel, can't you enjoy yourself!'
+
+'My dear Richard, just imagine turning loose a lot of boys and girls,
+with no keeper, to enjoy themselves in some wild sea place!  No, no:
+the only way to give the arrangement any shade of propriety, will be
+to be elderly, infuse as much vinegar as possible into my
+countenance, wear my spectacles, and walk at a staid pace up and down
+the parade, while my two sons disport themselves on the rocks.'
+
+'If you really think it would not be proper,' said Richard, rather
+alarmed, 'I could run after my father.'
+
+'Stuff, Richard; papa must have his way; and if it is to do the boy
+good, I can sacrifice a crab--I mean myself--not a crustacean.  I am
+not going to be such a selfish wretch as to make objections.'
+
+'But if it would not be the correct thing?  Or could not you get some
+one to stay with you?'
+
+'I can make it the correct thing.  It is only to abstain from the fun
+I had hoped for.  I meant to have been a girl, and now I must be a
+woman, that's all; and I dare say Aubrey will be the happier for it--
+boys always are.'
+
+'If you don't like it, I wish you would let me speak to papa.'
+
+'Richard, have you these five years been the safety-valve for my
+murmurs without knowing what they amount to?'
+
+'I thought no one complained unless to get a thing remedied.'
+
+'Exactly so.  That is man!  And experience never shows man that
+woman's growls relieve her soul, and that she dreads nothing more
+than their being acted on!  All I wish is, that this scheme may die a
+natural death; but I should be miserable, and deserved to be so, if I
+raised a finger to hinder it.  What, must you go?  Rule Daisy's lines
+if she writes to Meta, please.'
+
+'I did so.  I have been trying to make her write straighter.'
+
+'Of course you have.  I expect I shall find her organ of order grown
+to a huge bump when she comes home.  Oh! when will our poor remnants
+be once more a united family? and when shall I get into Cocksmoor
+school again?'
+
+When Dr. May came home, his plan was in full bloom.  Henry had
+gratefully accepted it, and answered for his brother being able to
+travel by the next Monday; and Dr. May wanted Ethel to walk with him
+to Bankside, and propose it there--talking it over with the sister,
+and making it her own invitation.  Ethel saw her fate, and complied,
+her father talking eagerly all the way.
+
+'You see, Ethel, it is quite as much for his spirits as his health
+that I wish it.  He is just the age that our Norman was.'
+
+That was the key to a great deal.  Ethel knew that her father had
+never admitted any of the many excuses for the neglect of Norman's
+suffering for the three months after his mother's death; but though
+it thrilled her all over, she was not prepared to believe that any
+one, far less any Ward, could be of the same sensitive materials as
+Norman.  To avoid answering, she went more than half-way, by saying,
+'Don't you think I might ask those poor girls to come with him?'
+
+'By no manner of means,' said the Doctor, stopping short.  'It is
+just what I want, to get him away from his sister.  She minds nothing
+else; and if it were not for Mary, I don't know what the little ones
+would do; and as to Henry, he is very good and patient; but it is the
+way to prevent him from forming domestic tastes to have no mistress
+to his house.  He will get into mischief, or marry, if she does not
+mind what she is about.'
+
+'That must come to an end when Leonard is well, and goes back to
+school.'
+
+'And that won't be till after the holidays.  No, some break there
+must be.  When he is gone, Mary can put her into the way of doing
+things; she is anxious to do right; and we shall see them do very
+well.  But this poor boy--you know he has been always living at home,
+while the others were away; he was very fond of his mother, and the
+first coming out of his room was more than he could bear.  I must
+have him taken from home till he is well again, and able to turn to
+other things.'
+
+And before Ethel's eyes came a vision of poor Mrs. Ward leaning on
+her son's arm, on Saturday afternoon walks, each looking fond and
+proud of the other.  She felt her own hardness of heart, and warmed
+to the desire of giving comfort.
+
+Bankside was basking in summer sunshine, with small patches of shade
+round its young shrubs and trees, and a baking heat on the little
+porch.
+
+The maid believed Miss Ward was in the garden.  Mr. Leonard had been
+taken out to-day; and the Doctor moving on, they found themselves in
+the cool pretty drawing-room, rather overcrowded with furniture and
+decoration, fresh and tasteful, but too much of it, and a contrast to
+the Mays' mixture of the shabby and the curious, in the room that was
+so decidedly for use, and not for show.
+
+What arrested the attention was, however, the very sweetest singing
+Ethel had ever heard.  The song was low and sad, but so intensely
+sweet, that Dr. May held up his hand to silence all sound, and stood
+with restrained breath and moistened eyes.  Ethel, far less sensitive
+to music, was nevertheless touched as she had never before been by
+sound; and the more, as she looked through the window and saw in the
+shade of a walnut-tree, a sofa, at the foot of which sat Averil Ward
+in her deep mourning, her back to the window, so that only her young
+figure and the braids of her fair hair were to be seen; and beyond,
+something prostrate, covered with wrappers.  The sweet notes ended,
+Dr. May drew a deep sigh, wiped his spectacles, and went on; Ethel
+hung back, not to startle the invalid by the sight of a stranger; but
+as Averil rose, she saw him raising himself, with a brightening smile
+on his pale face, to hold out his hand to the Doctor.  In another
+minute Averil had come to her, shaken hands, and seated herself where
+she could best command a view of her brother.
+
+'I am glad to see him out of doors,' said Ethel.
+
+'Henry was bent on it; but I think the air and the glare of
+everything is too much for him; he is so tired and oppressed.'
+
+'I am sure he must like your, singing,' said Ethel.
+
+'It is almost the only thing that answers,' said Averil, her eyes
+wistfully turning to the sofa; 'he can't read, and doesn't like being
+read to.'
+
+'It is very difficult to manage a boy's recovery,' said Ethel.  'They
+don't know how to be ill.'
+
+'It is not that,' replied the sister, as if she fancied censure
+implied, 'but his spirits.  Every new room he goes into seems to beat
+him down; and he lies and broods.  If he could only talk!'
+
+'I know that so well!' said Ethel.  But to Averil the May troubles
+were of old date, involved in the mists of childhood.  And Ethel
+seeing that her words were not taken as sympathy, continued, 'Do not
+the little girls amuse him?'
+
+'Oh no! they are too much for him; and I am obliged to keep them in
+the nursery.  Poor little things!  I don't know what we should do if
+your sister Mary were not so kind.'
+
+'Mary is very glad,' began Ethel, confusedly.  Then rushing into her
+subject: 'Next week, I am to take Aubrey to the seaside; and we
+thought if Leonard would join us, the change might be good for him.'
+
+'Thank you,' Averil answered, playing with her heavy jet watch-guard.
+'You are very good; but I am sure he could not move so soon.'
+
+'Ave,' called Leonard at that moment; and Ethel, perceiving that she
+likewise was to advance, came forth in time to hear, '0, Ave! I am to
+go to the sea next week, with Aubrey May and his sister.  Won't it--'
+
+Then becoming aware of the visitor, he stopped short, threw his feet
+off the sofa, and stood up to receive her.
+
+'I can't let you come if you do like that,' she said, shaking his
+long thin hand; and he let himself down again, not, however, resuming
+his recumbent posture, and giving a slight but effective frown to
+silence his sister's entreaties that he would do so.  He sat, leaning
+back as though exceedingly feeble, scarcely speaking, but his eyes
+eloquent with eagerness.  And very fine eyes they were!  Ethel
+remembered her own weariness, some twelve or fourteen years back, of
+the raptures of her baby-loving sisters about those eyes; and now in
+the absence of the florid colouring of health, she was the more
+struck by the beauty of the deep liquid brown, of the blue tinge of
+the white, and of the lustrous light that resided in them, but far
+more by their power of expression, sometimes so soft and melancholy,
+at other moments earnest, pleading, and almost flashing with
+eagerness.  It was a good mouth too, perhaps a little inclined to
+sternness of mould about the jaw and chin; but that might have been
+partly from the absence of all softening roundness, aging the
+countenance for the time, just as illness had shrunk the usually
+sturdy figure.
+
+'Has Ethel told you of our plan?' asked Dr. May of the sister.
+
+'Yes,' she hesitated, in evident confusion and distress.  'You are
+all very kind, but we must see what Henry says.'
+
+'I have spoken to Henry!  He answers for our patching Leonard up for
+next week; and I have great faith in Dr. Neptune.'
+
+Leonard's looks were as bright as Averil's were disturbed.
+
+'Thank you, thank you very much! but can he possibly be well enough
+for the journey?'
+
+Leonard's eyes said 'I shall.'
+
+'A week will do great things,' said Dr. May, 'and it is a very easy
+journey--only four hours' railway, and a ten miles' drive.'
+
+Averil's face was full of consternation; and Leonard leant forward
+with hope dancing in his eyes.
+
+'You know the place,' continued Dr. May, 'Coombe Hole.  Quite fresh,
+and unhackneyed.  It is just where Devon and Dorset meet.  I am not
+sure in which county; but there's a fine beach, and beautiful
+country.  The Riverses found it out, and have been there every
+autumn; besides sending their poor little girl and her governess down
+when London gets too hot.  Flora has written to the woman of the
+lodgings she always has, and will lend them the maid she sends with
+little Margaret; so they will be in clover.'
+
+'Is it not a very long way!' said Averil, thinking how long those ten
+yards of lawn had seemed.
+
+'Not as things go,' said Dr. May.  'You want Dr. Spencer to reproach
+you with being a Stoneborough fungus.  There are places in Wales
+nearer by the map, but without railway privilege; and as to a great
+gay place, they would all be sick of it.'
+
+'Do you feel equal to it? as if you should like it, Leonard?' asked
+his sister, in a trembling would-be grateful voice.
+
+'Of all things,' was the answer.
+
+Ethel thought the poor girl had suffered constraint enough, and that
+it was time to release the boy from his polite durance, so she rose
+to take leave, and again Leonard pulled himself upright to shake
+hands.
+
+'Indeed,' said Ethel, when Averil had followed them into the drawing-
+room, 'I am sorry for you.  It would go very hard with me to make
+Aubrey over to any one! but if you do trust him with me, I must come
+and hear all you wish me to do for him.'
+
+'I cannot think that he will be able or glad to go when it comes to
+the point,' said Averil, with a shaken tone.
+
+Dr. May was nearer than she thought, and spoke peremptorily.  'Take
+care what you are about!  You are not to worry him with discussions.
+If he can go, he will; if not, he will stay at home; but pros and
+cons are prohibited.  Do you hear, Averil!'
+
+'Yes; very well.'
+
+'Papa you really are very cruel to that poor girl,' were Ethel's
+first words outside.
+
+'Am I?  I wouldn't be for worlds, Ethel.  But somehow she always puts
+me in a rage.  I wish I knew she was not worrying her brother at this
+moment!'
+
+No, Averil was on the staircase, struggling, choking with the first
+tears she had shed.  All this fortnight of unceasing vigilance and
+exertion, her eyes had been dry, for want of time to realize, for
+want of time to weep, and now she was ashamed that hurt feeling
+rather than grief had opened the fountain.  She could not believe
+that it was not a cruel act of kindness, to carry one so weak as
+Leonard away from home to the care of a stranger.  She apprehended
+all manner of ill consequences; and then nursing him, and regarding
+his progress as her own work, had been the sedative to her grief,
+which would come on her 'like an armed man,' in the dreariness of his
+absence.  Above all, she felt herself ill requited by his manifest
+eagerness to leave her who had nursed him so devotedly--her, his own
+sister--for the stiff, plain Miss May whom he hardly knew.  The blow
+from the favourite companion brother, so passionately watched and
+tended, seemed to knock her down; and Dr. May, with medical
+harshness, forbidding her the one last hope of persuading him out of
+the wild fancy, filled up the measure.
+
+Oh, those tears!  How they would swell up at each throb of the
+wounded heart, at each dismal foreboding of the desponding spirit.
+But she had no time for them!  Leonard must not be left alone, with
+no one to cover him up with his wrappers.
+
+The tears were strangled, the eyes indignantly dried.  She ran out at
+the garden door.  The sofa was empty!  Had Henry come home and helped
+him in?  She hurried on to the window; Leonard was alone in the
+drawing-room, resting breathlessly on an ottoman within the window.
+
+'Dear Leonard!  Why didn't you wait for me!'
+
+'I thought I'd try what I could do.  You see I am much stronger than
+we thought.'  And he smiled cheerfully, as he helped himself by the
+furniture to another sofa.  'I say, Ave, do just give me the map--the
+one in Bradshaw will do.  I want to find this place.'
+
+'I don't think there is a Bradshaw,' said Averil, reluctantly.
+
+'Oh yes, there is--behind the candlestick, on the study chimney-
+piece.'
+
+'Very well--' There were more tears to be gulped down--and perhaps
+they kept her from finding the book.
+
+'Where's the Bradshaw?'
+
+'I didn't see it.'
+
+'I tell you I know it was there.  The left-hand candlestick, close to
+the letter-weight.  I'll get it myself.'
+
+He was heaving himself up, when Averil prevented him by hastening to
+a more real search, which speedily produced the book.
+
+Eagerly Leonard unfolded the map, making her steady it for his
+shaking hand, and tracing the black toothed lines.
+
+'There's Bridport--ten miles from there.  Can you see the name, Ave?'
+
+'No, it is not marked.'
+
+'Never mind.  I see where it is; and I can see it is a capital place;
+just in that little jag, with famous bathing.  I wonder if they will
+stay long enough for me to learn to swim?'
+
+'You are a good way from that as yet,' said poor Averil, her heart
+sinking lower and lower.
+
+'Oh, I shall be well at once when I get away from here!'
+
+'I hope so.'
+
+'Why, Ave!' he cried, now first struck with her tone, 'don't you know
+I shall?'
+
+'I don't know,' she said, from the soreness of her heart; 'but I
+can't tell how to trust you with strangers.'
+
+'Strangers!  You ungrateful child!' exclaimed Leonard, indignantly.
+'Why, what have they been doing for you all this time?'
+
+'I am sure Miss May, at least, never came near us till to-day.'
+
+'I'm very glad of it!  I'm sick of everything and everybody I have
+seen!'
+
+Everybody!  That was the climax!  Averil just held her tongue; but
+she rushed to her own room, and wept bitterly and angrily.  Sick of
+her after all her devotion!  Leonard, the being she loved best in the
+world!
+
+And Leonard, distressed and hurt at the reception of his natural
+expression of the weariness of seven weeks' sickness and sorrow, felt
+above all the want of his mother's ever-ready sympathy and soothing,
+and as if the whole world, here, there, and everywhere, would be an
+equally dreary waste.  His moment of bright anticipation passed into
+heavy despondency, and turning his head from the light, he dropped
+asleep with a tear on his cheek.
+
+When he awoke it was at the sound of movements in the room, slow and
+cautious, out of regard to his slumbers--and voices, likewise low--at
+least one was low, the other that whisper of the inaudibility of
+which Averil could not be disabused.  He lay looking for a few
+moments through his eyelashes, before exerting himself to move.
+Averil, her face still showing signs of recent tears, sat in a low
+chair, a book in her lap, talking to her brother Henry.
+
+Henry was of less robust frame than Leonard promised to be, and
+though on a smaller scale, was more symmetrically made, and had more
+regular features than either his brother or sister, but his eyes were
+merely quick lively black beads, without anything of the clear depths
+possessed by the others.  His hair too was jet black, whereas theirs
+was a pale nut brown; and his whiskers, long and curling, so nearly
+met under his chin, as to betray a strong desire that the hirsute
+movement should extend to the medical profession.  Always point-
+device in apparel, the dust on his boot did not prevent its perfect
+make from being apparent; and the entire sit of his black suit would
+have enabled a cursory glance to decide that it never came out of the
+same shop as Dr. May's.
+
+'0, Henry!' were the words that he first heard distinctly.
+
+'It will be much better for every one--himself and you included.'
+
+'Yes, if--'
+
+'If--nonsense.  I tell you he will be quite well enough.  See how
+well I am now, how fast I got on as soon as I took to tonics. --Ha,
+Leonard, old fellow! what, awake?  What do you say to this plan of
+old May's?'
+
+'It is very kind of him; and I should be very glad if I am well
+enough; but next week is very soon,' said Leonard, waking in the
+depression in which he had gone to sleep.
+
+'Oh, next week!  That is as good as next year in a matter like this,
+as May agreed with me, here, let us have your pulse.  You have let
+him get low, Averil.  A basin of good soup will put more heart into
+you, and you will feel ready for anything.'
+
+'I have got on to-day, said Leonard, briskly raising himself, as
+though the cheerful voice had been cordial in itself.
+
+'Of course you have, now that you have something to look forward to;
+and you will be in excellent hands; the very thing I wanted for you,
+though I could not see how to manage it.  I am going to dress.  I
+shall tell them to send in dinner; and if I am not down, I shall be
+in the nursery.  You won't come in to dinner, Leonard?'
+
+'No, said Leonard, with a shudder.
+
+'I shall send you in some gravy soup, that you may thank me for.  Ave
+never would order anything but boiled chickens for you, and forgets
+that other people ever want to eat.  There will be a chance of making
+a housekeeper of her now.'
+
+How selfish, thought Averil, to want to get rid of poor Leonard, that
+I may attend to his dinners.  Yet Henry had spoken in perfect good-
+humour.
+
+Henry came down with a little sister in each hand. They were his
+especial darlings; and with a touch of fatherly fondness, he tried to
+compensate to them for their sequestration from the
+drawing-room, the consequence of Averil not having established her
+authority enough to keep their spirits from growing too riotous for
+Leonard's weakness.  Indeed, their chatter was Henry's sole
+enlivenment, for Averil was constantly making excursions to ask what
+her patient would eat, and watch its success; and but for his
+pleasure in the little girls popping about him, he would have had a
+meal as dull as it was unsettled.  As soon as the strawberries were
+eaten, he walked out through the window with them clinging to him,
+and Averil returned to her post.
+
+'Some music, Ave,' said Leonard, with an instinctive dread of her
+conversation.
+
+She knew her voice was past singing, and began one of her most
+renowned instrumental pieces, which she could play as mechanically as
+a musical-box.
+
+'Not that jingling airified thing!' cried Leonard, 'I want something
+quiet and refreshing.  There's an evening hymn that the Mays have.'
+
+'The Mays know nothing of music,' said Averil.
+
+'Stay, this is it:' and he whistled a few bars.
+
+'That old thing!  Of course I know that.  We had it every Sunday at
+Brighton.'
+
+She began it, but her eyes were full of tears, partly because she
+hated herself for the irritation she had betrayed.  She was a sound,
+good, honest-hearted girl; but among all the good things she had
+learned at Brighton, had not been numbered the art of ruling her own
+spirit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+
+Griefs hidden in the mind like treasures,
+Will turn with time to solemn pleasures.
+
+
+On the Monday morning, the two convalescents shook hands in the
+waiting-room at the station, surveying each other rather curiously;
+while Ethel, trying to conquer her trepidation, gave manifold
+promises to Averil of care and correspondence.
+
+Dr. Spencer acted escort, being far more serviceable on the railway
+than his untravelled friend, whose lame arm, heedless head, and
+aptitude for missing trains and mistaking luggage, made him a charge
+rather than an assistant.  He was always happiest among his patients
+at home; and the world was still ill enough to employ him so fully,
+that Ethel hoped to be less missed than usual.  Indeed, she believed
+that her absence would be good in teaching him Mary's full-grown
+worth, and Mary would be in the full glory of notability in the
+purification of the house.
+
+The change was likewise for Dr. Spencer's good.  He had almost broken
+down in the height of the labour, and still looked older and thinner
+for it; and after one night at Coombe, he was going to refresh
+himself by one of his discursive tours.
+
+He was in high spirits, and the pink of courtesy; extremely flattered
+by the charge of Ethel, and making her the ostensible object of his
+attention, to the relief of the boys, who were glad to be spared the
+sense of prominent invalidism.  The change was delightful to them.
+Aubrey was full of life and talk, and sat gazing from the window, as
+if the line from Stoneborough to Whitford presented a succession of
+novelties.
+
+'What's that old place on the river there, with crow-stepped gables
+and steep roofs, like a Flemish picture?'
+
+'Don't you know?' said Leonard, 'it is the Vintry mill, where my
+relative lives, that wants to make a dusty miller of me.'
+
+'No fear of that, old fellow,' said Aubrey, regarding him in some
+dismay, 'you've got better things to grind at.'
+
+'Ay, even if I don't get the Randall next time, I shall be sure of it
+another.'
+
+'You'll have it next.'
+
+'I don't know; here is a quarter clean gone, and the other fellows
+will have got before me.'
+
+'0h, but most of them have had a spell of fever!'
+
+'Yes, but they have not had it so thoroughly,' said Leonard.  'My
+memory is not properly come back yet; and your father says I must not
+try it too soon.'
+
+'That's always his way,' said Aubrey.  'He would not let Ethel so
+much as pack up my little Homer.'
+
+Leonard's quick, furtive glance at Ethel was as if he suspected her
+of having been barely prevented from torturing him.
+
+'Oh, it was not her doing,' said Aubrey, 'it was I!  I thought Tom
+would find me gone back; and, you know, we must keep up together,
+Leonard, and be entered at St. John's at the same time.'
+
+For Aubrey devoutly believed in Tom's college at Cambridge, which had
+recovered all Dr. May's allegiance.
+
+The extra brightness was not of long duration.  It was a very hot
+day, such as exactly suited the salamander nature of Dr. Spencer; but
+the carriage became like an oven.  Aubrey curled himself up in a
+corner and went to sleep, but Leonard's look of oppressed resignation
+grieved Ethel, and the blue blinds made him look so livid, that she
+was always fancying him fainting, and then his shyness was dreadful--
+it was impossible to elicit from him anything but 'No, thank you.'
+
+He did nearly faint when they left the train; and while Aubrey was
+eagerly devouring the produce of the refreshment room, had to lie on
+a bench under Dr. Spencer's charge, for Ethel's approach only brought
+on a dangerous spasm of politeness.  How she should get on with him
+for a month, passed her imagination.
+
+There was a fresher breeze when they drove out of the station, up a
+Dorset ridge of hill, steep, high, terraced and bleak; but it was
+slow climbing up, and every one was baked and wearied before the
+summit was gained, and the descent commenced.  Even then, Ethel,
+sitting backwards, could only see height develop above height, all
+green, and scattered with sheep, or here and there an unfenced
+turnip-field, the road stretching behind like a long white ribbon,
+and now and then descending between steep chalk cuttings in slopes,
+down which the carriage slowly scrooped on its drag, leaving a broad
+blue-flecked trail.  Dr. Spencer was asleep, hat off, and the wind
+lifting his snowy locks, and she wished the others were; but Aubrey
+lamented on the heat and the length, and Leonard leant back in his
+corner, past lamentation.
+
+Down, down!  The cuttings were becoming precipitous cliffs, the drag
+made dismal groans; Aubrey, after a great slip forward, looking
+injured, anchored himself, with his feet against the seat, by Ethel;
+and Dr. Spencer was effectually wakened by an involuntary forward
+plunge of his opposite neighbour.  'Can this be safe?' quoth Ethel;
+'should not some of us get out?'
+
+'Much you know of hills, you level landers!' was the answer; and just
+then they were met and passed by four horses dragging up a stage
+coach, after the fashion of a fly on a window-pane--a stage coach!
+delightful to the old-world eyes of Dr. Spencer, recalling a faint
+memory to Ethel, and presenting a perfect novelty to Aubrey.
+
+Then came a sudden turn upon flat ground, and a short cry of wonder
+broke from Aubrey.  Ethel was sensible of a strange salt weedy smell,
+new to her nostrils, but only saw the white-plastered, gray-roofed
+houses through which they were driving; but, with another turn, the
+buildings were only on one side--on the other there was a wondrous
+sense of openness, vastness, freshness--something level, gray, but
+dazzling; and before she could look again, the horses stopped, and
+close to her, under the beetling, weather-stained white cliff, was a
+low fence, and within it a verandah and a door, where stood Flora's
+maid, Barbara, in all her respectability.
+
+Much wit had been expended by Aubrey on being left to the tender
+mercy of cruel Barbara Allen, in whom Ethel herself anticipated a
+tyrant; but at the moment she was invaluable.  Every room was ready
+and inviting, and nothing but the low staircase between Leonard and
+the white bed, which was the only place fit for him; while for the
+rest, the table was speedily covered with tea and chickens;
+Abbotstoke eggs, inscribed with yesterday's date; and red mail-clad
+prawns, to prove to touch and taste that this was truly sea-side.
+The other senses knew it well: the open window let in the
+indescribable salt, fresh odour, and the entire view from it was
+shore and sea, there seemed nothing to hinder the tide from coming up
+the ridge of shingle, and rushing straight into the cottage; and the
+ear was constantly struck by the regular roll and dash of the waves.
+Aubrey, though with the appetite of recovery and sea-air combined,
+could not help pausing to listen. and, when his meal was over, leant
+back in his chair, listened again, and gave a sigh of content.  'It
+is one constant hush, hushaby,' he said; 'it would make one sleep
+pleasantly.'
+
+His companions combined their advice to him so to use it; and in less
+than half an hour Ethel went to bid him good night, in the whitest of
+beds and cleanest of tiny chambers, where he looked the picture of
+sleepy satisfaction, when she opened his window, and admitted the
+swell and dash that fascinated his weary senses.
+
+'My child is all right,' said Ethel, returning to Dr. Spencer; 'can
+you say the same of yours?'
+
+'He must rest himself into the power of sleeping.  I must say it was
+a bold experiment; but it will do very well, when he has got over the
+journey.  He was doing no good at home.'
+
+'I hope he will here.'
+
+'Depend on it he will.  And now what are you intending?'
+
+'I am thirsting to see those waves near.  Would it be against the
+manners and customs of sea-places for me to run down to them so
+late?'
+
+'Sea-places have no manners and customs.'
+
+Ethel tossed on her hat with a feeling of delight and freedom.  'Oh,
+are you coming, Dr. Spencer?   I did not mean to drag you out.  You
+had rather rest, and smoke.'
+
+'This is rest,' he answered.
+
+The next moment, the ridge of the shingle was passed, and Ethel's
+feet were sinking in the depth of pebbles, her cheeks freshened by
+the breeze, her lips salted by the spray tossed in by the wind from
+the wave crests.  At the edge of the water she stood--as all others
+stand there--watching the heaving from far away come nearer, nearer,
+curl over in its pride of green glassy beauty, fall into foam, and
+draw back, making the pebbles crash their accompanying 'frsch.'  The
+repetition, the peaceful majesty, the blue expanse, the straight
+horizon, so impressed her spirit as to rivet her eyes and chain her
+lips; and she receded step by step before the tide, unheeding
+anything else, not even perceiving her companion's eyes fixed on her,
+half curiously, half sadly.
+
+'Well, Ethel,' at last he said.
+
+'I never guessed it!' she said, with a gasp.  'No wonder Harry cannot
+bear to be away from it.  Must we leave it?' as he moved back.
+
+'Only to smooth ground,' said Dr. Spencer; 'it is too dark to stay
+here among the stones and crab-pots.'
+
+The summer twilight was closing in; lights shining in the village
+under the cliffs, and looking mysterious on distant points of the
+coast; stars were shining forth in the pale blue sky, and the young
+moon shedding a silver rippled beam on the water.
+
+'If papa were but here!' said Ethel, wakening from another gaze, and
+recollecting that she was not making herself agreeable.
+
+'So you like the expedition?'
+
+'The fit answer to that would be, "It is very pretty," as the Cockney
+said to Coleridge at Lodore.'
+
+'So I have converted a Stoneborough fungus!'
+
+'What! to say the sea is glorious?  A grand conversion!'
+
+'To find anything superior to Minster Street.'
+
+'Ah, you are but half reclaimed!  You are a living instance that
+there is no content unless one has begun life as a fungus.'
+
+She was startled by his change of tone.  'True, Ethel.  Content might
+have been won, if there had been resolution to begin without it.'
+
+'I beg your pardon,' she faltered, 'I ought not to have said it.  I
+forgot there was such a cause.'
+
+'Cause--you know nothing about it.'
+
+She was silent, distressed, dismayed, fearing that she had spoken
+wrongly, and had either mistaken or been misunderstood.
+
+'Tell me, Ethel,' he presently said, 'what can you know of what made
+me a wanderer?'
+
+'Only what papa told me.'
+
+'He--he was the last person to know.'
+
+'He told me,' said Ethel, hurrying it out in a fright, 'that you went
+away--out of generosity--not to interfere with his happiness.'
+
+Then she felt as if she had done a shocking thing, and waited
+anxiously, while Dr. Spencer deliberately made a deep hole in the
+shingle with his stick.  'Well,' at last he said, 'I thought that
+matter was unknown to all men--above all to Dick!'
+
+'It was only after you were gone, that he put things together and
+made it out.'
+
+'Did--she--know?' said Dr. Spencer, with a long breath.
+
+'I cannot tell,' said Ethel.
+
+'And how or why did he tell you?' (rather hurt.)
+
+'It was when first you came.  I am sure no one else knows it.  But he
+told me because he could not help it; he was so sorry for you.'
+
+They walked the whole length of the parade, and had turned before Dr.
+Spencer spoke again; and then he said, 'It is strange!  My one vision
+was of walking on the sea-shore with her; and that just doing so with
+you should have brought up the whole as fresh as five-and-thirty
+years ago!'
+
+'I wish I was more like her,' said Ethel.
+
+No more was wanting to make him launch into the descriptions, dear to
+a daughter's heart, of her mother in her sweet serious bloom of young
+womanhood, giving new embellishments to the character already so
+closely enshrined in his hearer's heart, the more valuable that the
+stream of treasured recollection flowed on in partial oblivion of the
+person to whom it was addressed, or, at least, that she was the child
+of his rival; for, from the portrait of the quiet bright maiden, he
+passed to the sufferings that his own reserved nature had undergone
+from his friend's outspoken enthusiasm.  The professor's visible
+preference for the youth of secure prospects, had not so much
+discouraged as stung him; and in a moment of irritation at the
+professor's treatment, and the exulting hopes of his unconscious
+friend, he had sworn to himself, that the first involuntary token of
+regard from the young lady towards one or the other, should decide
+him whether to win name and position for her sake, or to carry his
+slighted passion to the utmost parts of the earth, and never again
+see her face.
+
+'Ethel,' he said, stopping short, 'never threaten Providence--above
+all, never keep the threat.'
+
+Ethel scarcely durst speak, in her anxiety to know what cast the die,
+though with all Dr. Spencer's charms, she could not but pity the
+delusion that could have made him hope to be preferred to her father-
+-above all, by her mother.  Nor could she clearly understand from him
+what had dispelled his hopes.  Something it was that took place at
+the picnic on Arthur's Seat, of which she had previously heard as a
+period of untold bliss.  That something, still left in vague mystery,
+had sealed the fate of the two friends.
+
+'And so,' said Dr. Spencer, 'I took the first foreign appointment
+that offered.  And my poor father, who had spent his utmost on me,
+and had been disappointed in all his sons, was most of all
+disappointed in me.  I held myself bound to abide by my rash vow;
+loathed tame English life without her, and I left him to neglect in
+his age.'
+
+'You could not have known or expected!' exclaimed Ethel.
+
+'What right had I to expect anything else?  It was only myself that I
+thought of.  I pacified him by talk of travelling, and extending my
+experience, and silenced my conscience by intending to return when
+ordinary life should have become tolerable to me--a time that never
+has come.  At last, in the height of that pestilential season in
+India, came a letter, warning me that my brother's widow had got the
+mastery over my poor father, and was cruelly abusing it, so that only
+my return could deliver him.  It was when hundreds were perishing,
+and I the only medical man near; when to have left my post would have
+been both disgraceful and murderous.  Then I was laid low myself; and
+while I was conquering the effects of cholera, came tidings that made
+it nothing to me whether they or I conquered.  This,' and he touched
+one of his white curling locks, 'was not done by mere bodily exertion
+or ailment.'
+
+'You would have been too late any way,' said Ethel.
+
+'No, not if I had gone immediately.  I might have got him out of that
+woman's hands, and made his life happy for years.  There was the
+sting, but the crime had been long before.  You know the rest.  I had
+no health to remain, no heart to come home; and then came vagrancy
+indeed.  I drifted wherever restlessness or impulse took me, till all
+my working years were over, and till the day when the sight of your
+father's wedding-ring showed me that I should not break my mad word
+by accepting the only welcome that any creature gave me.'
+
+'And, oh! surely you have been comforted by him?'
+
+'Comforted!  Cut to the heart would be truer.  One moment, I could
+only look at him as having borne off my treasure to destroy it; but
+then there rose on me his loving, patient, heartbroken humility and
+cheerfulness; and I saw such a character, such a course, as showed me
+how much better he had deserved her, and filled me with shame at
+having ever less esteemed him.  And through all, there was the same
+dear Dick May, that never, since the day we first met at the pump in
+the school court, had I been able to help loving with all my heart--
+the only being that was glad to see me again.  When he begged me to
+stay and watch over your sister, what could I do but remain while she
+lived?'
+
+'So he bound you down!  Oh, you know how we thank you! no, you can't,
+nor what you have been to him, and to all of us, through the worst of
+our sad days.  And though it was a sacrifice, I do not think it was
+bad for you.'
+
+'No, Ethel.  When you implored me to give up my Crimean notion, to
+spare your father pain, I did feel for once that you at least thought
+me of value to some one.'
+
+'I cannot bear you to speak so,' cried Ethel.  'You to talk of having
+been of no use!'
+
+'No honest man of principle and education can be utterly useless; but
+when, three days ago, I recollected that it was my sixtieth birthday,
+I looked back, and saw nothing but desultory broken efforts, and
+restless changes.  Your father told me, when I thought him unaware of
+the meaning of his words, that if I had missed many joys, I had
+missed many sorrows; but I had taken the way to make my one sorrow a
+greater burden than his many.'
+
+'But you do not grieve for my mother still?' said Ethel, anxiously.
+'Even his grief is a grave joy to him now; and one is always told
+that such things, as it was with you, are but a very small part of a
+man's life.'
+
+'I am not one of the five hundred men, whom any one of five hundred
+women might have equally pleased,' said Dr. Spencer; 'but it is so
+far true, that the positive pain and envy wore out, and would not
+have interfered with my after life, but for my own folly.  No, Ethel;
+it was not the loss of her that embittered and threw away my
+existence; it was my own rash vow, and its headstrong fulfilment,
+which has left me no right to your father's peaceful spirit.'
+
+'How little we guessed!' said Ethel.  'So cheerful and ready as you
+always are.'
+
+'I never trouble others, he said abruptly.  'Neither man nor woman
+ever heard a word of all this; and you would not have heard it now,
+but for that sea; and you have got your mother's voice, and some of
+her ways, since you have grown older and more sedate.'
+
+'Oh, I am so glad!' said Ethel, who had been led to view her likeness
+to her father as natural, that to her mother as acquired.
+
+Those were the last words of the conversation; but Ethel, leaning
+from her window to listen to the plash of the waves, suspected that
+the slowly moving meteor she beheld, denoted that a cigar was
+soothing the emotions excited by their dialogue.  She mused long over
+that revelation of the motives of the life that had always been noble
+and generous in the midst of much that was eccentric and wayward, and
+constantly the beat of the waves repeated to her the half-
+comprehended words, 'Never threaten Providence.'
+
+After superintending Aubrey's first bath, and duly installing the
+vice-M. D. and her charges, Dr. Spencer departed; and Ethel was
+launched on an unknown ocean, as pilot to an untried crew.  She had
+been told to regard Leonard's bashfulness as a rare grace; but it was
+very inconvenient to have the boy wretchedly drooping, and owning
+nothing amiss, apparently unacquainted with any English words, except
+'Thank you' and 'No, thank you.'  Indeed, she doubted whether the
+shyness were genuine, for stories were afloat of behaviour at
+Stoneborough parties which savoured of audacity, and she vainly
+consulted Aubrey whether the cause of his discomfiture were her age
+or her youth, her tutorship or her plain face.  Even Aubrey could not
+elicit any like or dislike, wish or complaint; and shrugging up his
+shoulders, decided that it was of no use to bother about it; Leonard
+would come to his senses in time.  He was passive when taken out
+walking, submissive when planted on a three-cornered camp-stool that
+expanded from a gouty walking-stick, but seemed so inadequately
+perched, and made so forlorn a spectacle, that they were forced to
+put him indoors out of the glare of sea and sky, and hoping that he
+would condescend to the sofa when Ethel was out of sight.
+
+Punctilio broke down the next morning; and in the midst of breakfast,
+he was forced to lie down, and allow Ethel to bathe his face with
+vinegar and water; while she repented of the 'make-the-best-of-it'
+letter of the yesterday, and sent Aubrey out on a secret commission
+of inquiry about medical men, in case of need.  Aubrey was perfectly
+well, and in such a state of desultory enjoyment and sea-side active
+idleness, that he was quite off her mind, only enlivening her morning
+of nursing by his exits and entrances, to tell of fresh discoveries,
+or incidents wonderful to the inland mind.
+
+After dinner, which had driven Leonard to lie on his bed, Aubrey
+persuaded his sister to come to see his greatest prize; a quaint old
+local naturalist, a seafaring man, with a cottage crammed with pans
+of live wonders of the deep in water, and shelves of extinct ones,
+'done up in stane pies,' not a creature, by sea or land, that had
+haunted Coombe for a few million of ages, seemed to have escaped him.
+Such sea-side sojourns as the present, are the prime moments for
+coquetries with the lighter branches of natural science, and the
+brother and sister had agreed to avail themselves of the geological
+facilities of their position, the fascinations of Hugh Miller's
+autobiography having entirely gained them during Aubrey's
+convalescence.  Ethel tore herself away from the discussion of
+localities with the old man, who was guide as well as philosopher,
+boatman as well as naturalist, and returned to her patient, whom she
+found less feverish, though sadly low and languid.
+
+'I wish I knew what to do for you,' she said, sitting down by him.
+'What would your sister do for you?'
+
+'Nothing,' he wearily said, 'I mean, a great deal too much.'  The
+tone so recalled Norman's dejected hopelessness, that she could not
+help tenderly laying her cold hands on the hot brow, and saying,
+'Yes, I know how little one can do as a sister--and the mockery it is
+to think that one place can ever be taken!'
+
+The brown eyes looked at her with moist earnestness that she could
+hardly bear, but closed with a look of relief and soothing, as she
+held her hand on his forehead.  Presently, however, he said, 'Don't
+let me keep you in.'
+
+'I have been out, thank you.  I am so glad to try to do anything for
+you.'
+
+'Thank you.  What o'clock is it, please?  Ah, then I ought to take
+that draught!  I forgot it in the morning.'
+
+He permitted her to fetch it and pour it out, but as she recognized a
+powerful tonic, she exclaimed, 'Is this what you are taking?  May it
+not make you feverish?'
+
+'No doubt it does,' he said, lying down again; 'it was only Henry--'
+
+'What! did not my father know of it?'
+
+'Of course he does not, as it seems to be poison.'
+
+'Not exactly that,' said Ethel; 'but I was surprised, for it was
+talked of for Aubrey; but they said it wanted watching.'
+
+'Just like Henry,' observed Leonard.
+
+'Well,' said Ethel, repressing her indignation, 'I am glad, at least,
+to find a possible cause for your bad night.  We shall see you
+refreshed to-morrow, and not wishing yourself at home.'
+
+'Don't think that I wish that.  Home is gone for ever.'
+
+'Home may be gone higher--up to the real Home,' said Ethel, blushing
+with the effort at the hint, and coming down to earthlier
+consolations, 'but even the fragments will grow into home again here,
+and you will feel very differently.'
+
+Leonard did not answer; but after a pause said, 'Miss May, is not it
+a horrid pity girls should go to school?'
+
+'I am no judge, Leonard.'
+
+'You see,' said the boy, 'after the little girls were born, my mother
+had no time for Ave, and sent her to Brighton, and there she begged
+to stay on one half after another, learning all sorts of things; but
+only coming home for short holidays, like company, for us to wonder
+at her and show her about, thinking herself ever so much in advance
+of my poor mother, and now she knows just nothing at all of her!'
+
+'You cannot tell, Leonard, and I am sure she has been devoted to
+you.'
+
+'If she had stayed at home like you, she might have known how to let
+one alone.  Oh, you can't think what peace it was yesterday!'
+
+'Was it peace?  I feared it was desertion.'
+
+'It is much better to be by oneself, than always worried.  To have
+them always at me to get up my spirits when the house is miserable--'
+
+'Ah,' said Ethel, 'I remember your mother rejoicing that she had not
+to send you from home, and saying you were always so kind and gentle
+to her.'
+
+'Did she!' cried the boy, eagerly.  'Oh, but she forgot--' and he hid
+his face, the features working with anguish.
+
+'So pleased and proud she used to look, walking with you on Saturday
+afternoons.'
+
+'Those Saturdays!  They were the only walks she ever would take; but
+she would always come with me.'
+
+More followed in the same strain, and Ethel began to gather more
+distinct impressions of the Ward family.  She saw that her present
+charge was warm and sound-hearted, and that the strength of his
+affections had been chiefly absorbed by the homely housewifely
+mother, comparatively little esteemed by the modernized brother and
+sister.  Of the loss of his father he seemed to think less; it
+seemed, indeed, rather to reconcile him to that of his mother, by the
+grief it spared her; and it confirmed Ethel's notion, that Mr. Ward,
+a busy and dull man, paid no great attention to his children between
+the plaything period and that of full development.  The mother was
+the home; and Averil, though Leonard showed both love for and pride
+in her, had hitherto been a poor substitute, while as to Henry, there
+was something in each mention of him which gave Ethel an undefined
+dread of the future of the young household, and a doubt of the result
+of her father's kind schemes of patronage.
+
+At any rate, this conversation had the happy effect of banishing
+constraint, and satisfying Ethel that the let-alone system was
+kindness, not neglect.  She was at ease in discussing fossils, though
+he contributed no word, and she let him sleep or wake as he best
+liked; whilst Aubrey read to her the 'Cruise of the Betsey.'
+
+Henry's prescription was sent to invigorate the fishes, when its
+cessation was found to be followed by the recovery of sleep and
+appetite, and in the cool of the evening, by a disposition to stroll
+on the beach, and lie under the lee of a rock upon a railway rug,
+which Ethel had substituted for the 'three-legged delusion.'
+
+There he was left, while his companions went fossil-hunting, and
+stayed so long as to excite their compunction, and quicken their
+steps when they at length detached themselves from the enticing blue
+lias.
+
+'What has he got there?' cried Aubrey.  'Hillo, old fellow! have you
+fallen a prey to a black cat?'
+
+'Cat!' returned Leonard, indignantly; 'don't you see it is the
+jolliest little dog in the world?'
+
+'You call that a dog?' said the other boy with redoubled contempt;
+'it is just big enough for little Margaret's Noah's Ark!'
+
+'It really is a beauty!' said Ethel.  'I have known one of Flora's
+guests bring a bigger one in her muff '
+
+'It is the most sensible little brute,' added Leonard.  'See; beg, my
+man, beg!'
+
+And the beauteous little black-coated King Charles erected itself on
+its hind legs, displaying its rich ruddy tan waistcoat and sleeves,
+and beseeching with its black diamond eyes for the biscuit, dropped
+and caught in mid-air.  It was the first time Leonard had looked
+bright.
+
+'So you expect us to sanction your private dog stealing?' said
+Aubrey.
+
+'I have been watching for his mistress to come back,' said Leonard;
+'but she must have passed an hour ago, and she does not deserve to
+have him, for she never looked back for him; and he had run up to me,
+frisking and making much of me, as if he had found an old friend.'
+
+'Perhaps it will run home when we move.'
+
+No such thing; it trotted close at Leonard's heels, and entered the
+house with them.  Barbara was consulted, and on Leonard's deposition
+that the dog's mistress was in deep mourning, opined that she could
+be no other than the widow of an officer, who during his lingering
+illness had been often laid upon the beach, and had there played with
+his little dogs.  This one, evidently very young, had probably, in
+the confusion of its puppy memory, taken the invalid for its lost
+master.
+
+'Stupid little thing,' said Aubrey; 'just like an undersized lady's
+toy.'
+
+'It knows its friends.  These little things have twice the sense of
+overgrown dogs as big and as stupid as jackasses.'
+
+A retort from Leonard was welcome in Ethel's ears, and she quite
+developed his conversational powers, in an argument on the sagacity
+of all canine varieties.  It was too late to send the little animal
+home; and he fondled and played with it till bed-time, when he lodged
+it in his own room; and the attachment was so strong, that it was
+with a deep sigh, that at breakfast he accepted Aubrey's offer of
+conveying it home.
+
+'There she is! he exclaimed in the midst, gazing from the window.
+
+'And see the perfection of the animal!' added Aubrey, pointing to a
+broad-backed waddling caricature of the little black fairy.
+
+'Restitution must be made, little as she deserves you, you little
+jewel,' said Leonard, picking up the object of his admiration.  'I'll
+take you out.'
+
+'No, no; I am not so infectious,' said Ethel, tying on her hat; 'I
+had better do it.'
+
+And after Leonard's parting embrace to his favourite, she received
+it; and quickly overtaking the pensive steps of the lady, arrested
+her progress with, 'I beg your pardon, but I think this is your dog.'
+
+'Poor little Mab! as the dog struggled to get to her, and danced
+gladly round her.  'I missed her last night, and was coming to look
+for her.'
+
+'She joined one of our party,' said Ethel; 'and he was not strong
+enough to follow you.  Indeed, he has had scarlet fever, so perhaps
+it was better not.  But he has taken great care of the little dog,
+and hopes it is not the worse.'
+
+'Thank you.  I wish poor Mab may always meet such kind friends,' said
+the lady, sadly.
+
+'She secured her welcome,' said Ethel.  'We were very grateful to
+her, for it was the first thing that has seemed to interest him since
+his illness; and he has just lost both his parents.'
+
+'Ah!  Thank you.'
+
+Ethel wondered at herself for having been so communicative; but the
+sweet sad face and look of interest had drawn her words out; and on
+her return she made such a touching history of the adventure, that
+Leonard listened earnestly, and Aubrey looked subdued.
+
+When they went out Leonard refused to spread his rug in that only bed
+of pulverized shingle; and Ethel respected his avoidance of it as
+delicacy to her whose husband had no doubt often occupied that spot.
+
+'He is a thorough gentleman,' said she, as she walked away with
+Aubrey.
+
+'He might be an Eton fellow,' was the significant reply.
+
+'I wonder what made him so!' said Ethel, musingly.
+
+'Looking at Tom,' returned Aubrey, not in jest.
+
+'Even with that advantage, I don't quite see where he learnt that
+refined consideration.'
+
+'Pshaw, Ethel!  The light of nature would show that to any one but a
+stupex.'
+
+Ethel was not sorry that such were Aubrey's views of courtesy, but
+all thought of that subject was soon lost in the pursuit of
+ammonites.
+
+'I wonder what Leonard will have picked up now?' they speculated, as
+they turned homewards with their weighty baskets, but what was their
+amazement, when Leonard waved his hand, pointing to the little black
+dog again at his feet!
+
+'She is mine!' he exclaimed, 'my own!  Mrs. Gisborne has given her to
+me; and she is to be the happiest little mite going!'
+
+'Given!'
+
+'Yes.  She came as soon as you were gone, and sat by me, and talked
+for an hour, but she goes to-morrow to live with an old hag of an
+aunt.'
+
+'Really, you seem to have been on confidential terms.'
+
+'I mean that she must be a nuisance, because she doesn't like dogs;
+so that Mrs. Gisborne can only take the old one, which she could
+never part with.  So she wanted to give Mab to some one who would be
+kind to her; and she has come to the right shop; hasn't she, my
+little queen?'
+
+'I thought she almost wished it this morning,' said Ethel, 'when she
+heard how you and Mab had taken to each other: but it is a very
+choice present; the creature looks to me to be of a very fine sort.'
+
+'Now, Miss May, how could you know that?'
+
+'Why, by her own deportment!  Don't you know the aristocratic look
+that all high-bred animals have--even bantams?'
+
+Leonard looked as if this were the most convincing proof of Ethel's
+wisdom, and proceeded.  'Well, she is descended from a real King
+Charles, that Charles II. brought from France, and gave to Mrs. Jane
+Lane; and they have kept up the breed ever since.'
+
+'So that Mab will have the longest pedigree in Stoneborough; and we
+must all respect her!' said Ethel, stroking the black head.
+
+'I am only surprised at Leonard's forgetting his place,' said Aubrey.
+'Walking before her majesty, indeed!'
+
+'0h, attendants do come first sometimes.'
+
+'Then it should be backwards!  I have a mind to try lying on the
+beach to-morrow, looking interesting, to see what will descend upon
+me!'
+
+'A great yellow mongrel,' said Ethel, 'as always befalls imitators in
+the path of the hero.'
+
+'What?  You mean that it was all the work of Leonard's beaux yeux?'
+
+Leonard gave a sort of growl, intimating that Aubrey was exciting his
+displeasure; and Ethel was glad to be at home, and break off the
+conversation; but in a few minutes Aubrey knocked at her door, and
+edging himself in, mysteriously said,  'Such fun!  So it was your
+beaux yeux, not Leonard's, that made the conquest!'
+
+'I suppose she was touched with what I said of poor Leonard's
+circumstances, and the pleasure the creature gave him.'
+
+'That is as prosy as Mary, Ethel.  At any rate, the woman told
+Leonard yours was the most irresistibly attractive countenance she
+ever saw, short of beauty; and that's not the best of it, for he is
+absolutely angry.
+
+'No wonder,' laughed Ethel.
+
+'No, but it's about the beauty!  He can't conceive a face more
+beautiful than yours.'
+
+'Except the gargoyle on the church tower,' said Ethel, gaping into as
+complete a model of that worthy as flesh and blood could perpetrate.
+
+'But he means it,' persisted Aubrey, fixing his eyes critically on
+his sister's features, but disturbed by the contortions into which
+she threw them.  'Now don't, don't.  I never saw any fellow with a
+hundredth part of your gift for making faces,' he added, between the
+unwilling paroxysms of mirth at each fresh grimace; but I want to
+judge of you; and--oh! that solemn one is worse than all; it is like
+Julius Caesar, if he had ever been photographed!--but really, when
+one comes to think about it, you are not so very ugly after all; and
+are much better looking than Flora, whom we were taught to believe
+in.'
+
+'Poor Flora!  You were no judge in her blooming days, before wear and
+tear came.'
+
+'And made her like our Scotch grandfather.'
+
+'But Blanche! your own Blanche, Aubrey?  She might have extended
+Leonard's ideas of beauty.'
+
+'Blanche has a pretty little visage of her own; but it's not so well
+worth looking at as yours,' said Aubrey.  'One has seen to the end of
+it at once; and it won't light up.  Hers is just the May blossom; and
+yours the--the--I know--the orchis!  I have read of a woman with an
+orchidaceous face!'
+
+Teeth, tongue, lips, eyes, and nose were at once made to serve in
+hitting off an indescribable likeness to an orchis blossom, which was
+rapturously applauded, till Ethel, relaxing the strain and permitting
+herself to laugh triumphantly at her own achievement, said,  'There!
+I do pride myself on being of a high order of the grotesque.'
+
+'It is not the grotesque that he means.' said Aubrey, 'he is very
+cracked indeed.  He declares that when you came and sat by him the
+day before yesterday, you were perfectly lovely.'
+
+'Oh, then I understand, and it is no matter,' said Ethel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+
+They stwons, they stwons, they stwons, they stwons.
+                                Scouring of the White Horse
+
+
+'So' (wrote Ethel in her daily letter to her father) 'mine is at
+present a maternal mission to Leonard, and it is highly gratifying.
+I subscribe to all your praise of him, and repent of my ungracious
+murmurs at his society.  You had the virtue, and I have the reward
+(the usual course of this world), for his revival is a very fresh and
+pleasant spectacle, burning hot with enthusiasm.  Whatever we do, he
+overdoes, till I recollect how Wilkes said he had never been a
+Wilkite.  Three days ago, a portentous-looking ammonite attracted his
+attention; and whereas he started from the notion that earth was
+dirt, and stones were stones, the same all over the world, he has
+since so far outstripped his instructors, that as I write this he is
+drawing a plan of the strata, with the inhabitants dramatically
+arranged, Aubrey suggesting tragic scenes and uncomplimentary
+likenesses.  His talent for drawing shows that Averil's was worth
+culture.  If our geology alarm Richard, tell him that I think it
+safer to get it over young, and to face apparent discrepancies with
+revelation, rather than leave them to be discovered afterwards as if
+they had been timidly kept out of sight.  And whether Hugh Miller's
+theory be right or wrong, his grand fervid language leaves the
+conviction that undoubting confidence in revelation consists with the
+clearest and most scientific mind.'
+
+         *         *         *         *         *         *
+
+'June 30th.--I consider my boys as returned to their normal
+relations.  I descended on them as they were sparring like lion-cubs
+at play, Leonard desisted in confusion at my beholding such savage
+doings, but cool and easy, not having turned a hair; Aubrey, panting,
+done up, railing at him as first cousin to Hercules, all as a
+delicate boast to me of his friend's recovered strength.  Aubrey's
+forte is certainly veneration.  His first class of human beings is a
+large one, though quizzing is his ordinary form of adoration.  For
+instance, he teases Mab and her devoted slave some degrees more than
+the victim can bear, and then relieves his feelings in my room by
+asseverations that the friendship with Leonard will be on the May and
+Spencer pattern.  The sea is the elixir of life to both; Leonard
+looks quite himself again, "only more so," and Aubrey has a glow
+never seen since his full moon visage waned, and not all tan, though
+we are on the high road to be coffee-berries.  Aubrey daily
+entertains me with heroic tales of diving and floating, till I tell
+them they will become enamoured of some "lady of honour who lives in
+the sea," grow fishes' tails, and come home no more.  And really, as
+the time wanes, I feel that such a coast is Elysium--above all, the
+boating.  The lazy charm, the fresh purity of air, the sights and
+sounds, the soft summer wave when one holds one's hand over the tide,
+the excitement of sea-weed catching, and the nonsense we all talk,
+are so delicious and such new sensations, (except the nonsense, which
+loses by your absence, 0 learned doctor!) that I fully perceive how
+pleasures untried cannot even be conceived.  But ere the lotos food
+has entirely depraved my memory, I give you warning to come and fetch
+us home, now that the boys are in full repair.  Come yourself, and be
+feasted on shrimps and mackerel, and take one sail to the mouth of
+the bay.  I won't say who shall bring you; it would be fun to have
+Daisy, and Mary ought to have a holiday, but then Richard would take
+better care of you, and Tom would keep you in the best order.  Could
+you not all come? only if you don't yourself, I won't promise not to
+take up with a merman.'
+
+         *         *         *         *         *         *
+
+'July 4th.--Very well.  If this is to make a strong man of Aubrey,
+tant mieux, and even home and Cocksmoor yearnings concern me little
+in this Castle of Indolence, so don't flatter yourself that I shall
+grumble at having had to take our house on again.  Let us keep
+Leonard; we should both miss him extremely, and Aubrey would lose
+half the good without some one to swim, scramble, and fight with.
+Indeed, for the poor fellow's own sake, he should stay, for though he
+is physically as strong as a young megalosaur, and in the water or on
+the rocks all day, I don't think his head is come to application, nor
+his health to bearing depression; and I see he dreads the return, so
+that he had better stay away till school begins again.'
+
+         *         *         *         *         *         *
+
+'July 7th.--Oh! you weak-minded folks!  Now I know why you wanted to
+keep me away--that you might yield yourselves a prey to Flora.  Paper
+and chintz forsooth!  All I have to say is this, Miss Mary--as to my
+room, touch it if you dare!  I leave papa to protect his own study,
+but for the rest, think, Mary, what your feelings would be if Harry
+were to come home, and not know what room he was in!  If I am to
+choose between the patterns of chintz, I prefer the sea-weed variety,
+as in character with things in general, and with the present
+occasion; and as to the carpet, I hope that Flora, touched with our
+submission, will not send us anything distressing.'
+
+         *         *         *         *         *         *
+
+'July 17th.--Can you send me any more of the New Zealand letters?  I
+have copied out the whole provision I brought with me for the blank
+book, and by the way have inoculated Leonard with such a missionary
+fever as frightens me.  To be sure, he is cut out for such work.  He
+is intended for a clergyman (on grounds of gentility, I fear), and is
+too full of physical energy and enterprise to take readily to sober
+parochial life.  His ardour is a gallant thing, and his home ties not
+binding; but it is not fair to take advantage of his present
+inflammable state of enthusiasm, and the little we have said has been
+taken up so fervently, that I have resolved on caution for the
+future.  It is foolish to make so much of a boy's eagerness,
+especially when circumstances have brought him into an unnatural
+dreamy mood; and probably these aspirations will pass away with the
+sound of the waves, but they are pretty and endearing while they last
+in their force and sincerity.
+
+
+             "Just at the age 'twixt boy and youth,
+              When thought is speech, and speech is truth;"
+
+
+and one's heart beats at the thought of what is possible to creatures
+of that age.'
+
+         *         *         *         *         *         *
+
+'July 21st.--You, who taught us to love our Walter Scott next to our
+"Christian Year," and who gave us half-crowns for rehearsing him when
+other children were learning the Robin's Petition, what think you of
+this poor boy Leonard knowing few of the novels and none of the
+poems?  No wonder the taste of the day is grovelling lower and lower,
+when people do not begin with the pure high air of his world!  To
+take up one of his works after any of our present school of fiction
+is like getting up a mountain side after a feverish drawing-room or
+an offensive street.  If it were possible to know the right moment
+for a book to be really tasted--not thrust aside because crammed
+down--no, it would not be desirable, as I was going to say, we should
+only do double mischief.  We are not sent into the world to mould
+people, but to let them mould themselves; and the internal elasticity
+will soon unmake all the shapes that just now seem to form under my
+fingers like clay.
+
+'At any rate, the introduction of such a congenial spirit to Sir
+Walter was a real treat; Leonard has the very nature to be fired by
+him, and Aubrey being excessively scandalized at his ignorance,
+routed a cheap "Marmion" out of the little bookshop, and we beguiled
+a wet afternoon with it; Aubrey snatching it from me at all the
+critical passages, for fear I should not do them justice, and
+thundering out the battle, which stirred the other boy like a trumpet
+sound.  Indeed, Leonard got Mab into a corner, and had a very bad
+cold in the head when De Wilton was re-knighted; and when "the hand
+of Douglas was his own," he jumped up and shouted out, "Well done,
+old fellow!"  Then he took it to himself and read it all over again,
+introductions and all, and has raved ever since.  I wish you could
+see Aubrey singing out some profane couplet of "midnight and not a
+nose," or some more horrible original parody, and then dodging
+apparently in the extremity of terror, just as Leonard furiously
+charges him.
+
+'But you would have been struck with their discussions over it.  Last
+night, at tea, they began upon the woeful result of the Wager of
+Battle, which seemed to oppress them as if it had really happened.
+Did I believe in it?  Was I of the Lady Abbess's opinion, that
+
+
+             "Perchance some form was unobserved,
+              Perchance in prayer or faith he swerved"?
+
+
+This from Aubrey, while Leonard rejoined that even if De Wilton had
+so done, it was still injustice that he should be so cruelly ruined,
+and Marmion's baseness succeed.  It would be like a king wilfully
+giving wrong judgment because the right side failed in some
+respectful observance.  He was sure such a thing could never be.  Did
+I ever know of a real case where Heaven did not show the right?  It
+was confusing and alarming, for both those boys sat staring at me as
+if I could answer them; and those wonderful searching eyes of
+Leonard's were fixed, as if his whole acquiescence in the dealings of
+Providence were going to depend on the reply, that could but be
+unsatisfactory.  I could only try plunging deep.  I said it was Job's
+difficulty, and it was a new light to Leonard that Job was about
+anything but patience.  He has been reading the Book all this Sunday
+evening; and is not De Wilton a curious introduction to it?  But
+Aubrey knew that I meant the bewilderment of having yet to discover
+that Divine Justice is longer-sighted than human justice, and he
+cited the perplexities of high-minded heathen.  Thence we came to the
+Christian certainty that "to do well and suffer for it is
+thankworthy;" and that though no mortal man can be so innocent as to
+feel any infliction wholly unmerited and disproportioned, yet human
+injustice at its worst may be working for the sufferer an exceeding
+weight of glory, or preparing him for some high commission below.
+Was not Ralph de Wilton far nobler and purer as the poor palmer, than
+as Henry the Eighth's courtier!  And if you could but have heard our
+sequel, arranging his orthodoxy, his Scripture reading, and his
+guardianship of distressed monks and nuns, you would have thought he
+had travelled to some purpose, only he would certainly have been
+burnt by one party, and beheaded by the other.  On the whole, I think
+Leonard was a little comforted, and I cannot help hoping that the
+first apparently cruel wrong that comes before him may be the less
+terrible shock to his faith from his having been set to think out the
+question by "but half a robber and but half a knight."
+
+         *         *         *         *         *         *
+
+'August 1st.--Yesterday afternoon we three were in our private
+geological treasury, Leonard making a spread-eagle of himself in an
+impossible place on the cliff side, trying to disinter what hope,
+springing eternal in the human breast, pronounced to be the paddle of
+a saurian; Aubrey, climbing as high as he durst, directing operations
+and making discoveries; I, upon a ledge half-way up, guarding Mab and
+poking in the debris, when one of the bridal pairs, with whom the
+place is infested, was seen questing about as if disposed to invade
+our premises.  Aubrey, reconnoitring in high dudgeon, sarcastically
+observed that all red-haired men are so much alike, that he should
+have said yonder was Hec--.  The rest ended in a view halloo from
+above and below, and three bounds to the beach, whereon I levelled my
+glass, and perceived that in very deed it was Mr. and Mrs.
+Ernescliffe who were hopping over the shingle.  Descending, I was
+swung off the last rock in a huge embrace, and Hector's fiery
+moustache was scrubbing both my cheeks before my feet touched the
+ground, and Blanche with both arms round my waist.  They were ready
+to devour us alive in their famine for a Stoneborough face; and as
+Flora and Mary are keeping home uninhabitable, found themselves
+obliged to rush away from Maplewood in the middle of their county
+welcomes for a little snatch of us, and to join us in vituperating
+the new furniture.  If Mary could only hear Hector talk of a new sofa
+that he can't put his boots upon--he says it is bad enough at
+Maplewood, but that he did hope to be still comfortable at home.
+They have to get back to dine out to-morrow, but meantime the fun is
+more fast and furious than ever, and as soon as the tide serves, we
+are to fulfil our long-cherished desire of boating round to Lyme.  I
+won't answer for the quantity of discretion added to our freight, but
+at least there is six feet more of valour, and Mrs. Blanche for my
+chaperon.  Bonnie Blanche is little changed by her four months'
+matrimony, and only looks prettier and more stylish, but she is
+painfully meek and younger-sisterish, asking my leave instead of her
+husband's, and distressed at her smartness in her pretty shady hat
+and undyed silk, because I was in trim for lias-grubbing.  Her
+appearance ought to be an example to all the brides in the place with
+skirts in the water, and nothing on to keep off eyes, sun, or wind
+from their faces.  I give Flora infinite credit for it.  Blanche and
+Aubrey walk arm in arm in unceasing talk, and that good fellow,
+Hector, has included Leonard in the general fraternity.  They are
+highly complimentary, saying they should have taken Aubrey for Harry,
+he is so much stouter and rosier, and that Leonard is hugely grown.
+Here come these three boys shouting that the boat is ready; I really
+think Hector is more boyish and noisy than ever.
+
+
+             "Five precious souls, and all agog
+              To dash through thick or thin."
+
+
+I'll take the best care of them in my power.  Good-bye.'
+
+         *         *         *         *         *         *
+
+'August 2nd.--Safe back, without adventure, only a great deal of
+enjoyment, for which I am doubly thankful, as I almost fancied we
+were fey, one of the many presentiments that come to nothing, but
+perhaps do us rather good than harm for all that.  I hope I did not
+show it in my letter, and communicate it to you.  Even when safe
+landed, I could not but think of the Cobb and Louisa Musgrove, as I
+suppose every one does.  We slept at the inn; drove with the
+Ernescliffes to the station this morning, and came back to this place
+an hour ago, after having been steeped in pleasure.  I shall send the
+description of Lyme to Daisy to-morrow, having no time for it now, as
+I want an answer from you about our going to Maplewood.  The "married
+babies " are bent upon it, and Hector tries to demonstrate that it is
+the shortest way home, to which I can't agree; but as it may save
+another journey, and it will be nice to see them in their glory, I
+told them that if you could spare us, we would go from the 29th to
+the 4th of September.  This will bring Leonard home four days before
+the end of the holidays, for he has been most warmly invited, Hector
+adopting him into the brotherhood of papa's pets.  I am glad he is
+not left out; and Mary had better prove to Averil that he will be
+much happier for having no time at home before the half year begins.
+He still shrinks from the very name being brought before him.  Let me
+know, if you please, whether this arrangement will suit, as I am to
+write to Blanche.  Dear little woman, I hope Hector won't make a
+spoilt child of her, they are so very young, and their means seem so
+unlimited to them both, Hector wanting to make her and us presents of
+whatever we admired, and when she civilly praised Mab, vehemently
+declaring that she should have just such another if money could
+purchase, or if not, he would find a way.  "Thank you, Hector dear, I
+had rather not," placidly responds Blanche, making his vehemence fall
+so flat, and Leonard's almost exulting alarm glide into such semi-
+mortification, that I could have laughed, though I remain in hopes
+that her "rather not" may always be as prudent, for I believe it is
+the only limit to Hector's gifts.'
+
+         *         *         *         *         *         *
+
+'29th, 8 A. M.--Farewell to the Coombe of Coombes.  I write while
+waiting for the fly, and shall post this at Weymouth, where we are to
+be met.  We have been so happy here, that I could be sentimental, if
+Leonard were not tete-a-tete with me, and on the verge of that
+predicament.  "Never so happy in his life," quoth he, "and never will
+be again--wonders when he shall gee this white cliff again."  But,
+happily, in tumbles Aubrey with the big claw of a crab, which he
+insists on Leonard's wearing next his heart as a souvenir of Mrs.
+Gisborne; he is requited with an attempt to pinch his nose therewith,
+and--
+2.30. P. M. Weymouth.--The result was the upset of my ink, whereof
+you see the remains; and our last moments were spent in reparations
+and apologies.  My two squires are in different plight from what they
+were ten weeks ago, racing up hills that it then half killed them to
+come down, and lingering wistfully on the top for last glimpses of
+our bay.  I am overwhelmed with their courtesies, and though each is
+lugging about twenty pounds weight of stones, and Mab besides in
+Leonard's pocket, I am seldom allowed to carry my own travelling bag.
+Hector has been walking us about while his horses are resting after
+their twenty miles, but we think the parade and pier soon seen, and
+are tantalized by having no time for Portland Island, only contenting
+ourselves with an inspection of shop fossils, which in company with
+Hector is a sort of land of the "Three Wishes," or worse; for on my
+chancing to praise a beautiful lump of Purbeck stone, stuck as full
+of paludinae as a pudding with plums, but as big as my head and much
+heavier, he brought out his purse at once; and when I told him he
+must either enchant it on to my nose, or give me a negro slave as a
+means of transport, Leonard so earnestly volunteered to be the
+bearer, that I was thankful for my old rule against collecting
+curiosities that I do not find and carry myself.
+'August 30th. Maplewood.--I wonder whether these good children can be
+happier, unless it may be when they receive you!  How much they do
+make of us! and what a goodly sight at their own table they are!
+They are capable in themselves of making any place charming, though
+the man must have been enterprising who sat down five-and-twenty
+years ago to reclaim this park from irreclaimable down.  I asked
+where were the maples? and where was the wood? and was shown five
+stunted ones in a cage to defend them from the sheep, the only things
+that thrive here, except little white snails, with purple lines round
+their shells.  "There now, isn't it awfully bleak?" says Hector, with
+a certain comical exultation.  "How was a man ever to live here
+without her?"  And the best of it is, that Blanche thinks it
+beautiful--delicious free air, open space, view over five counties,
+&c. Inside, one traces Flora's presiding genius, Hector would never
+have made the concern so perfect without her help; and Blanche is no
+child in her own house, but is older and more at home than Hector, so
+that one would take her for the heiress, making him welcome and at
+ease.  Not that it is like the Grange, Blanche is furious if I remark
+any little unconscious imitation or similarity--"As if we could be
+like Flora and George indeed!"  Nor will they.  If Blanche rules, it
+will be unawares to herself.  And where Hector is, there will always
+be a genial house, overflowing with good-humour and good-nature.  He
+has actually kept the 1st of September clear of shooting parties that
+he may take these two boys out, and give them a thorough day's sport
+in his turnip-fields.  "License?  Nonsense, he thought of that
+before, and now Aubrey may get some shooting out of George Rivers."
+After such good-nature my mouth is shut, though, ay di me, all the
+world and his wife are coming here on Monday evening, and unless I
+borrow of Blanche, Mrs. Ernescliffe's sister will "look like ane
+scrub."'
+
+         *         *         *         *         *         *
+
+'September 2nd.--Train at Stoneborough, 6.30.  That's the best news I
+have to give.  Oh, it has been a weary while to be out of sight of
+you all, though it has been pleasant enough, and the finale is
+perfectly brilliant.  Blanche, as lady of the house, is a sight to
+make a sister proud; she looks as if she were born to nothing else,
+and is a model of prettiness and elegance.  Hector kept coming up to
+me at every opportunity to admire her.  "Now, old Ethel, look at her?
+Doesn't she look like a picture?  I chose that gown, you know;" then
+again after dinner, "Well, old Ethel, didn't it go off well?  Did you
+ever see anything like her?  There, just watch her among the old
+ladies.  I can't think where she learnt it all, can you?"  And it
+certainly was too perfect to have been learnt.  It was not the
+oppression that poor dear Flora gives one by doing everything so
+well, as if she had perfectly balanced what was due to herself and
+everybody else; it was just Blanche, simple and ready, pleasing
+herself by doing what people liked, and seeing what they did like.
+It was particularly pretty to see how careful both she and Hector
+were not to put Leonard aside--indeed, they make more of him than of
+Aubrey, who is quite able to find his own level.  Even his tender
+feelings as to Mab are respected, and Blanche always takes care to
+invite her to a safe seat on a fat scarlet cushion on the sofa (Mrs.
+Ledwich's wedding present), when the footmen with the tea might be in
+danger of demolishing her.  Leonard, and his fine eyes, and his dog,
+were rather in fashion yesterday evening.  Blanche put out his Coombe
+sketches for a company trap, and people talked to him about them, and
+he was set to sing with Blanche, and then with some of the young
+ladies.  He seemed to enjoy it, and his nice, modest, gentlemanlike
+manner told.  The party was not at all amiss in itself.  I had a very
+nice clerical neighbour, and it is a very different thing to see and
+hear Hector at the bottom of the table from having poor dear George
+there.  But oh! only one dinner more before we see our own table
+again, and Tom at the bottom of it.  Hurrah!  I trust this is the
+last letter you will have for many a day, from
+
+                        'Your loving and dutiful daughter,
+                                                  'ETHELDRED MAY.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+
+The XII statute remember to observe
+For all the paine thou hast for love and wo
+All is too lite her mercie to deserve
+Thou musten then thinke wher er thou ride or go
+And mortale wounds suffre thou also
+All for her sake, and thinke it well besette
+Upon thy love, for it maie not be bette.
+                              Chaucer's 'Court of Love'
+
+
+'Good-bye, Leonard,' said Ethel, as the two families, after mustering
+strong at the station, parted at the head of Minster Street; and as
+she felt the quivering lingering pressure of his hand, she added with
+a smile, 'Remember, any Saturday afternoon.  And you will come for
+the books.'
+
+Glad as she was to be anchored on her father's arm, and clustered
+round with rejoicing brothers and sisters, she could not be devoid of
+a shade of regret for the cessation of the intimate intercourse of
+the last nine weeks, and a certain desire for the continuance of the
+confidential terms that had arisen.  The moment's pang was lost in
+the eager interchange of tidings too minute for correspondence, and
+in approval of the renovation of the drawing-room, which was so
+skilful that her first glance would have detected no alteration in
+the subdued tones of paper, carpet, and chintz, so complete was their
+loyalty to the spirit of perpetuity.  Flora told no one of the pains
+that, among her many cares, she had spent upon those tints, not so
+much to gratify Ethel, as because her own wearied spirit craved the
+repose of home sameness, nor how she had finally sent to Paris for
+the paper that looked so quiet, but was so exquisitely finished, that
+the whole room had a new air of refinement.
+
+The most notable novelty was a water-coloured sketch, a labour of
+love from the busy hands in New Zealand, which had stolen a few hours
+from their many tasks to send Dr. May the presentment of his namesake
+grandson.  Little Dickie stood before them, a true son of the
+humming-bird sprite, delicately limbed and featured, and with elastic
+springiness, visible even in the pencilled outline.  The dancing dark
+eyes were all Meta's, though the sturdy clasp of the hands, and the
+curl that hung over the brow, brought back the reflection of Harry's
+baby days.
+
+It would have been a charming picture, even if it had not been by
+Meta's pencil, and of Norman's child, and it chained Ethel for more
+than one interval of longing loving study.
+
+Tom interrupted her in one of these contemplations.  'Poor Flora,' he
+said, with more feeling than he usually allowed to affect his voice,
+'that picture is a hard trial to her.  I caught her looking at it for
+full ten minutes, and at last she turned away with her eyes full of
+tears.'
+
+'I do not wonder,' said Ethel.  'There is a certain likeness to that
+poor little Leonora, and I think Flora misses her more every year.'
+
+'Such a child as Margaret is just the thing to cause the other to be
+missed.'
+
+'What do you think of Margaret this time?' said Ethel, for Tom alone
+ever durst seriously touch on the undefined impression that all
+entertained of Flora's only child.
+
+'If Flora were only silly about her,' said Tom, 'one might have some
+hope; but unluckily she is as judicious there as in everything else,
+and the child gets more deplorable every year.  She has got the look
+of deformity, and yet she is not deformed; and the queer sullen ways
+of deficiency, but she has more wit than her father already, and more
+cunning.'
+
+'As long as there is a mind to work on, one hopes' said Ethel.
+
+'I could stand her better if she were foolish!' exclaimed Tom, 'but I
+can't endure to see her come into the room to be courted by every
+one, and be as cross as she dares before her mother.  Behind Flora's
+back, I don't know which she uses worst, her father or her
+grandfather.  I came down upon little Miss at last for her treatment
+of the Doctor, and neither he nor Rivers have forgiven me.'
+
+'Poor child!  I don't believe she has ever known a moment's thorough
+health or comfort!  I always hope that with Flora's patience and
+management she may improve.'
+
+'Pshaw, Ethel! she will always be a misfortune to herself and
+everybody else.'
+
+'I have faith in good coming out of misfortunes.'
+
+'Illustrated, I suppose, by ravings about your young Ward.  Mary is
+crazy about his sister, and the Doctor lunatic as to the brother, who
+will soon kick at him for his pains.'
+
+'I own to thinking Leonard capable of great things.'
+
+Tom made a grimace equal to what Ethel could do in that way, thrust
+his hands deep into his pockets, and philosophically observed,
+'Behold the effects of patronage!  Blind Cupid is nothing to him.'
+
+Ethel let it pass, caring too much for Leonard to set him up as a
+mark for Tom's satire, which was as different from Aubrey's as
+quinine from orange-peel, though properly used, it was a bracing
+tonic, such as she often found wholesome.  A cynical younger brother
+is a most valuable possession to a woman who has taken a certain
+position in her own world.
+
+Tom was a sterling character, highly and deeply principled, though
+not demonstrative, and showing his Scots descent.  None of the
+brothers had been extravagant, but Tom, with the income of his lately
+achieved fellowship, performed feats of economy, such as attaining to
+the purchase of an ultra perfect microscope, and he was consistently
+industrious, so exactly measuring his own powers that to undertake
+was with him to succeed, and no one suffered anxiety on his account.
+As Dr. Spencer said, he was as sure to fall on his legs as a sandy
+cat, and so nobody cared for him.  At home he was sufficient to
+himself, properly behaved to his father, civil to Richard, unmerciful
+in ridicule, but merciful in dominion over the rest, except Ethel,
+whom he treated as an equal, able to retort in kind, reserving for
+her his most highly-flavoured sallies, and his few and distant
+approaches to such confidence as showed her how little she knew him.
+His father esteemed but did not 'get on with' him, and his chief and
+devoted adherent was Aubrey, to whom he was always kind and helpful.
+In person Tom was tall and well-made, of intelligent face, of which
+his spectacles seemed a natural feature, well-moulded fine-grained
+hand, and dress the perfection of correctness, though the precision,
+and dandyism had been pruned away.
+
+Ethel would have preferred that Leonard and Averil should not have
+walked in on the Saturday after her return, just when Tom had spread
+his microscope apparatus over the table, and claimed Mary's
+assistance in setting up objects; and she avoided his eye when Mary
+and Averil did what he poetically called rushing into each other's
+arms, whilst she bestowed her greetings on Leonard and Mab.
+
+'Then she may come in?' said Leonard.  'Henry has banished her from
+the drawing-room, and we had much ado to get her allowed even in the
+schoolroom.'
+
+'It is so tiresome,' said his sister, 'just one of Henry's fancies.'
+Ethel, thinking this disloyal, remarked that those who disliked dogs
+in the house could not bear them, and did not wonder that Tom
+muttered 'Original.'
+
+'But such a little darling as this!' cried Averil, 'and after Mrs.
+Ernescliffe had been so kind.  Mary, you must see how clever she is.
+Leonard is teaching her to play on the piano.'
+
+'I congratulate you,' quietly said Tom; and somehow Ethel felt that
+those three words were a satire on her 'capable of great things;'
+while Leonard drew up, and Averil coloured, deferring the exhibition
+of Mab's accomplishments till 'another time,' evidently meaning out
+of Tom's presence.
+
+'Aubrey is gone to the Grange with papa,' Ethel said, glad to lead
+away from Mab.
+
+'He told me he was going ' said Leonard, 'but he said you would be at
+home.'
+
+Ethel knew that the intonation of that 'you' had curled Tom's lip
+with mischief, and dreading that Leonard should discover and resent
+his mood, she said, 'We think one of your sea eggs has got among
+ours; will you come to the schoolroom and see?'
+
+And leaving Tom to tease and be bored by the young ladies, she led
+the way to the schoolroom, where Aubrey's fossils, each in its
+private twist of paper, lay in confusion on the floor, whence they
+were in course of being transferred to the shelf of a cupboard.
+
+Leonard looked at the disorder with astonished admiration.
+
+'Yes,' said Ethel, 'it is a great mess, but they are to have a
+regular cabinet, when Richard has time, or Aubrey has money, two
+equally unlikely chances.'
+
+'How much does a cabinet cost?'
+
+'Jones would make a plain deal one for about five-and-twenty
+shillings.'
+
+'I can't unpack mine properly,' said Leonard, disconsolately.  'Ave
+is going to make a place for them, but Henry votes them rubbish.'
+
+'They are dreadful rubbish,' said Ethel.  'It goes against my
+conscience to guard them from the house-maid, and if my sister Flora
+came in here, I should be annihilated.'
+
+'Of course one expects that in women.'
+
+'Oh, Richard would be as much distracted!  It is a provision of
+Nature that there should be some tidy ones, or what would the world
+come to?'
+
+'It would be a great deal less of a bore.'
+
+'Not at all; we should stifle ourselves at last if we had our own
+way.  Never mind, Leonard, we make them go through quite as much as
+they make us.'
+
+'I am sure I hope so.'
+
+'No, no, Leonard,' she said, becoming less playful, 'we must not do
+it on purpose.  Even unconsciously, we plague the spirits of order
+quite enough, and they have the right on their side after all.'
+
+'I think a lady is the person to say what one may do or not in the
+drawing-room; don't you?' said Leonard.
+
+'That depends.'
+
+'And you let your brother spread his things all over yours!'
+
+'So I do; but I would not if papa minded it, or even if this were
+Richard's house, and he did not like it.  Don't begin with worries
+about trifles, pray, Leonard.'
+
+'It is not I that care about trifles,' returned the boy.  'How was
+one to reckon on a man setting up a monomania about dogs' paws in the
+hall?'
+
+'I have feared we were rather foolish; I ought to have reminded you
+to ask whether Mab would be welcome.'
+
+'I was not going to ask leave, I have no one whose leave to ask,'
+said Leonard, in tones at first proud, then sad.
+
+'That's a bad beginning,' returned Ethel.  'As master of the house,
+your brother has a right to your compliance, and if you do not all
+give way to each other, you will have nothing but dissension and
+misery.'
+
+'All to each other; yes, that is fair.'
+
+'He must have given way to you in letting you keep the dog at all in
+the house' said Ethel.  'It is a real instance of kindness, and you
+are bound to let her be as little in his way as possible.'
+
+'He does mean well, I suppose,' said Leonard; 'but he is an awful
+bother, and poor Ave gets the worst of it.  One has no patience with
+finikin ways in a man.'
+
+'There's no telling how much I owe to my finikin brother Richard,'
+said Ethel; 'and if you teach Ave to be loyal to the head of your
+family, you will do her as much good as you will do harm by chafing
+against his ordinances.'
+
+'Don't you hate such nonsense, Miss May?'
+
+'I can't love order as much as I honour it.  Set tastes aside.  The
+point is, that if you are to hold together, Leonard, it must be by
+bearing and forbearing, and above all, to your elder brother.'
+
+'Well, it is a blessing that I shall be in school on Monday.'
+
+'So it is,' said Ethel; 'but, barring these fidgets, Leonard, tell
+me,' and she looked kindly at him, 'how is it at home?  Better than
+you expected, I hope.'
+
+'Blank enough' said Leonard; 'I didn't think I should have minded the
+sound of the surgery door so much.'
+
+'You will have Sunday to help you.'
+
+'Yes, Ave and I have been down to the churchyard; Ave does care, poor
+girl.  She knows better what it is now, and she was glad to have me
+to talk to again, though Miss Mary has been so kind to her.'
+
+'Oh, nobody can be so much to her as you.'
+
+'Poor Ave!' said Leonard, tenderly.  'And look here, this is my
+father's watch, and she made me this chain of my mother's hair.  And
+they have given me a photograph of my mother's picture; Henry had it
+done long ago, but thought it would upset me to give it before I went
+away.  If he could but have guessed how I lay and wished for one!'
+
+'Those are the things one never can guess, even when one would give
+worlds to do so.'
+
+'You--0, Miss May, you always know the thing that is comfortable.'
+
+'Well,' said Ethel, 'what will be comfortable now is that you should
+be the man above being affronted by other people's nonsense--the only
+way to show we did not all spoil each other at Coombe.  Now, here is
+Woodstock for you, and tell me if this be not your Cidaris.  Oh, and
+we have found out the name of your funny spiked shell.'
+
+Ten minutes of palaeontology ensued; and she was leading the way back
+to the drawing-room, when he exclaimed, 'Have you heard about the
+match, Miss May?'
+
+'Match?  Oh, the cricket match?'
+
+'Stoneborough against All England, on St. Matthew's Day, so I shall
+have got my hand in.'
+
+'All England meaning every one that can be scraped up that is not
+Stoneborough,' returned Ethel.  'George Larkins has been over here
+canvassing Tom and Aubrey.  But you can't be going to play, Leonard;
+papa does not half like it for Aubrey.'
+
+'Perhaps not for Aubrey,' said Leonard; 'but I am as well as ever,
+and luckily they can't make up a decent eleven without me.  You will
+come and see us, Miss May?  I'll find you the jolliest place between
+the old lime and the cloister door.'
+
+'As if I had not known the meads ages before your time!' said Ethel.
+
+'I thought you never came to the matches?'
+
+'Ah! you don't remember my brothers' Stoneborough days, when Norman
+was cricket mad, and Harry after him, and my father was the best
+cricketer in Stoneborough till his accident.
+
+'Yes, Dr. May always comes to see the matches,' said Leonard.  'You
+will, won't you now, Miss May?  I didn't think you knew anything
+about cricket, but it will be all the better now.'
+
+Ethel laughed, and half promised.
+
+Cocksmoor existed without Ethel on that holiday; and indeed she was
+self-reproachful, though pleased, at finding her presence so great a
+treat to her father.  Leonard might do the honours of the lime-tree
+nook, but she spent but little time there, for Dr. May made her walk
+about with him as he exchanged greetings with each and all, while
+Gertrude led Richard about at her will, and Mary consorted with the
+Ward girls.  With no one on her mind, Ethel could give free attention
+to the smoothly-shaven battle-field, where, within the gray walls
+shaded by the overhanging elms, the young champions were throwing all
+the ardour and even the chivalry of their nature into the contest.
+
+The annual game had been delayed by the illness in the spring, and
+the school had lost several good players at the end of the half year;
+but, on the other hand, the holidays being over, George Larkins had
+been unable to collect an eleven either in full practice or with
+public school training; and the veteran spectators were mourning the
+decay of cricket, and talking of past triumphs.  The school had the
+first innings, which resulted in the discomfiture of Fielder, one of
+their crack champions, and with no great honour to any one except
+Folliot, the Dux, and Leonard Ward, who both acquitted themselves so
+creditably, that it was allowed that if others had done as well,
+Stoneborough might have had a chance.
+
+But when 'All England' went in, the game seemed to be more equally
+balanced.  Aubrey May, in spite of devoted practice under Tom's
+instructions, was, from nervous eagerness, out almost as soon as in,
+and in his misery of shame and despair felt like the betrayer of his
+cause.  But in due time, with the sun declining, and the score still
+low, Tom May came forward, as the last hope of 'All England,' lissom,
+active, and skilled, walking up to his wicket with the easy
+confidence of one not greatly caring, but willing to show the natives
+what play might be.
+
+And his play was admirable; the fortunes of the day began to tremble
+in the balance; every one, spectators and all, were in a state of
+eager excitement; and Aubrey, out of tone and unable to watch for the
+crisis, fairly fled from the sight, rushed through the cloister door,
+and threw himself with his face down upon the grass, shivering with
+suspense.  There he lay till a sudden burst of voices and cheers
+showed that the battle was over.
+
+The result?  He could not believe eyes or ears as he opened the door,
+to behold the triumphant gestures of Stoneborough, and the
+crestfallen air of his own side, and heard the words, 'Folliot missed
+two chances of long-leg--Ward--tremendous rush--caught him out--with
+only one run to tie.'
+
+Dr. May was shaking hands with Leonard in congratulation, not solely
+generous, for let his sons be where they would, Stoneborough triumphs
+were always the Doctor's, and he was not devoid of gratitude to any
+one who would defeat Tom.  Noting, however, the flitting colour,
+fluttering breath, and trembling limbs, that showed the effect of the
+day's fatigue and of the final exertion, he signed back the boys, and
+thrust Leonard within the cloister door, bidding Aubrey fetch his
+coat, and Ethel keep guard over him, and when he was rested and
+cooled, to take him home to the High Street, where his sisters would
+meet him.
+
+'But--sir--the--supper!' gasped Leonard, leaning against the door-
+post, unable to stand alone.
+
+'I dare say.  Keep him safe, Ethel.'
+
+And the Doctor shut the door, and offered himself to appease the lads
+who were clamouring for the hero of their cause; while Leonard sank
+back on the bench, past words or looks for some moments.
+
+'You have redeemed your pennon with your last gasp,' said Ethel, half
+reproachfully.
+
+'I was determined,' panted the boy.  'I don't know how I did it.  I
+couldn't fail with you looking on.  You did it by coming.'
+
+Reply was spared by Aubrey's return, with the coat in one hand, and a
+glass of ale in the other.  'You are to go home with Ethel at once,'
+he pronounced with the utmost zest, 'that is, as soon as you are
+rested.  My father says you must not think of the supper, unless you
+particularly wish to be in bed for a week; but we'll all drink your
+health, and I'll return thanks--the worst player for the best.'
+
+This was the first time Aubrey had been considered in condition for
+such festivities, and the gratification of being superior to somebody
+might account for his glee in invaliding his friend.
+
+Cricket suppers were no novelties to Leonard; and either this or his
+exhaustion must have made him resign himself to his fate, and walk
+back with Ethel as happily as at Coombe.
+
+The sisters soon followed, and were detained to drink tea.  The
+cricketers' mirth must have been fast and furious if it exceeded that
+at home, for the Doctor thought himself bound to make up for the loss
+to Leonard, put forth all his powers of entertainment, and was
+comically confidential about 'these Etonians that think so much of
+themselves.'
+
+Averil was lively and at ease, showing herself the pleasant well-
+informed girl whom Ethel had hitherto only taken on trust, and acting
+in a pretty motherly way towards the little sisters.  She was more
+visibly triumphant than was Leonard, and had been much gratified by a
+request from the Bankside curate that she would entirely undertake
+the harmonium at the chapel.  She had been playing on it during the
+absence of the schoolmaster, and with so much better effect than he
+could produce, that it had been agreed that he would be best in his
+place among the boys.
+
+'Ah!' said the Doctor, 'two things in one are apt to be like Aubrey's
+compromise between walking-stick and camp-stool--a little of
+neither.'
+
+'I don't mean it to be a little of neither with me, Dr. May,' said
+Averil.  'I shall have nothing to do with my choir on week-days, till
+I have sent these pupils of mine to bed.'
+
+'Are you going to train the choir too?' asked Leonard.
+
+'I must practise with them, or we shall not understand one another;
+besides, they have such a horrid set of tunes, Mr. Scudamour gave me
+leave to change them.  He is going to have hymnals, and get rid of
+Tate and Brady at once.'
+
+'Ah! poor Nahum!' sighed the Doctor with such a genuine sigh, that
+Averil turned round on him in amazement.
+
+'Yes,' said Ethel, 'I'm the only one conservative enough to
+sympathize with you, papa.'
+
+'But does any one approve of the New Version?' cried Averil,
+recovering from her speechless wonder.
+
+'Don't come down on me,' said the Doctor, holding up his hands.  'I
+know it all; but the singing psalms are the singing psalms to me--and
+I can't help my bad taste--I'm too old to change.'
+
+'Oh! but, papa, you do like those beautiful hymns that we have now?'
+cried Gertrude.
+
+'Oh! yes, yes, Gertrude, I acquiesce.  They are a great improvement;
+but then, wasn't it a treat when I got over to Woodside Church the
+other day, and found them singing, "No change of times shall ever
+shock"!' and he began to hum it.
+
+'That is the Sicilian Mariners' hymn,' said Averil.  'I can sing you
+that whenever you please.'
+
+'Thank you; on condition you sing the old Tate and Brady, not your "0
+Sanctissma, 0 Purissima,"' said the Doctor, a little mischievously.
+
+'Which is eldest, I wonder?' said Ave, smiling, pleased to comply
+with any whim of his; though too young to understand the associations
+that entwine closely around all that has assisted or embodied
+devotion.
+
+The music went from the sacred to the secular; and Ethel owned that
+the perfectly pronounced words and admirable taste made her singing
+very different from that which adorned most dinner-parties.  Dr. May
+intensely enjoyed, and was between tears and bravos at the charge of
+the Six Hundred, when the two brothers entered, and stood silently
+listening.
+
+That return brought a change.  Aubrey was indeed open and bright,
+bursting out with eager communications the moment the song ceased,
+then turning round with winning apologies, and hopes that he was not
+interrupting; but Tom looked so stiff and polite as to chill every
+one, and Averil began to talk of the children's bed-time.
+
+The Doctor and Aubrey pressed for another song so earnestly that she
+consented; but the spirit and animation were gone, and she had no
+sooner finished than she made a decided move to depart, and Dr. May
+accompanied the party home.
+
+'Is my father going to put that fellow to bed?' said Tom, yawning, as
+if injured by the delay of bed-time thus occasioned.
+
+'Your courtesy does not equal his,' said Ethel.
+
+'Nor ever will,' said Tom.
+
+'Never,' said Ethel, so emphatically that she nettled him into
+adding,
+
+'He is a standing warning against spoiling one's patients.  I
+wouldn't have them and their whole tag-rag and bobtail about my house
+for something!'
+
+'0, Tom, for shame!' cried Mary, bursting out in the wrath he had
+intended to excite.
+
+'Ask him which is tag, which rag, and which bobtail,' suggested
+Ethel.
+
+'Mab, I suppose,' said Gertrude, happily closing the discussion, but
+it was re-animated by her father s arrival.
+
+'That's a nice girl,' he said, 'very nice; but we must not have her
+too often in the evening, Mary, without Henry.  It is not fair to
+break up people's home party.'
+
+'Bobber than bobtail,' murmured Tom, with a gesture only meant for
+Ethel.
+
+'Ave said he would be out till quite late, papa,' said Mary, in self-
+defence.
+
+'She ought to have been back before him,' said Dr. May.  'He didn't
+seem best pleased to have found her away, and let me tell you, young
+woman, it is hard on a man who has been at work all day to come home
+and find a dark house and nobody to speak to.'
+
+Mary looked melancholy at this approach to reproof, and Tom observed
+in an undertone,
+
+'Never mind, Mary, it is only to give papa the opportunity of
+improving his pupil, while you exchange confidence with your bosom
+friend.  I shall be gone in another month, and there will be nothing
+to prevent the perfect fusion of families.'
+
+No one was sorry that the evening here came to an end.
+
+'I hope,' said Dr. May at the Sunday's dinner, 'that the cricket
+match has not done for that boy; I did not see him among the boys.'
+
+'No,' said Mary, 'but he has met with some accident, and has the most
+terrible bruised face.  Ave can't make out how he did it.  Do you
+know, Aubrey?'
+
+The Doctor and his two sons burst out laughing.
+
+'I thought,' said Ethel, rather grieved, 'that those things had gone
+out of fashion.'
+
+'So Ethel's protege, or prodigy, which is it?' said Tom, 'is turning
+out a muscular Christian on her hands.'
+
+'Is a muscular Christian one who has muscles, or one who trusts in
+muscles?' asked Ethel.
+
+'Or a better cricketer than an Etonian?' added the Doctor.
+
+Tom and Aubrey returned demonstrations that Eton's glory was
+untarnished, and the defeat solely owing to 'such a set of sticks.'
+
+'Aubrey,' said Ethel, in their first private moment, 'was this a
+fight in a good cause? for if so, I will come down with you and see
+him.'
+
+Aubrey made a face of dissuasion, ending in a whistle.
+
+'Do at least tell me it is nothing I should be sorry for,' she said
+anxiously.
+
+He screwed his face into an intended likeness of Ethel's imitation of
+an orchis, winked one eye, and looked comical.
+
+'I see it can't be really bad,' said Ethel, 'so I will rest on your
+assurance, and ask no indiscreet questions.'
+
+'You didn't see, then?' said Aubrey, aggrieved at the failure of his
+imitation.  'You don't remember the beauty he met at Coombe?'
+
+'Beauty!  None but Mab.'
+
+'Well, they found it out and chaffed him.  Fielder said he would cut
+out as good a face out of an old knob of apple wood, and the doctor
+in petticoats came up again; he got into one of his rages, and they
+had no end of a shindy, better than any, they say, since Lake and
+Benson fifteen years ago; but Ward was in too great a passion, or he
+would have done for Fielder long before old Hoxton was seen mooning
+that way.  So you see, if any of the fellows should be about, it
+would never do for you to be seen going to bind up his wounds, but I
+can tell him you are much obliged, and all that.'
+
+'Obliged, indeed!' said Ethel.  'What, for making me the laughing-
+stock of the school?'
+
+'No, indeed,' cried Aubrey, distressed.  'He said not a word--they
+only found it out--because he found that seat for you, and papa sent
+him away with you.  They only meant to poke fun, and it was his
+caring that made it come home to him.  I wonder you don't like to
+find that such a fellow stood up for you.'
+
+'I don't like to be made ridiculous.'
+
+'Tom does not know it, and shall not,' eagerly interposed Aubrey.
+
+'Thank you,' said she, with all her heart.
+
+'Then don't be savage.  You know he can't help it if he does think
+you so handsome, and it is very hard that you should be affronted
+with him, just when he can't see out of one of his eyes.'
+
+'For that matter,' said Ethel, her voice trembling, 'one likes
+generosity in any sort of a cause; but as to this, the only way is to
+laugh at it.'
+
+Aubrey thought this 'only way' hardly taken by the cachinnation with
+which she left him, for he was sure that her eyes were full of tears;
+and after mature consideration he decided that he should only get
+into a fresh scrape by letting Leonard know that she was aware of the
+combat and its motive.
+
+'If I were ten years younger, this might be serious,' meditated
+Ethel.  'Happily, it is only a droll adventure for me in my old age,
+and I have heard say that a little raving for a grown-up woman is a
+wholesome sort of delusion, at his time of life.  So I need not worry
+about it, and it is pretty and touching while it lasts, good fellow!'
+
+Ethel had, in fact, little occasion to worry herself; for all special
+manifestations of Leonard's devotion ceased.  Whether it were that
+Tom with his grave satirical manner contrived to render the house
+disagreeable to both brother and sister, or whether Leonard's boyish
+bashfulness had taken alarm, and his admiration expended itself in
+the battle for her charms, there was no knowing.  All that was
+certain was, that the Wards seldom appeared at Dr. May's, although
+elsewhere Mary and Aubrey saw a great deal of their respective
+friends, and through both, Ethel heard from time to time of Leonard,
+chiefly as working hard at school, but finding that his illness had
+cost him not only the last half year's learning, but some memory and
+power of application.  He was merging into the ordinary schoolboy--a
+very good thing for him no doubt, though less beautiful than those
+Coombe fancies.  And what were they worth?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+
+Little specks of daily trouble--
+Petty grievance, petty strife--
+Filling up with drops incessant
+To the brim the cup of life.
+
+Deeper import have these trifles
+Than we think or care to know:
+In the air a feather floating,
+Tells from whence the breezes blow.--REV. G. MONSELL
+
+
+The first brightening of the orphaned house of Bankside had been in
+Leonard's return.  The weeks of his absence had been very sore ones
+to Averil, while she commenced the round of duties that were a heavy
+burthen for one so young, and became, instead of the petted
+favourite, the responsible head of the house.
+
+She was willing and glad to accept the care of her little sisters--
+docile bright children--who were pleased to return to the orderly
+habits so long interrupted, and were so intelligent, that her task of
+teaching was a pleasant one; and almost motherly love towards them
+grew up as she felt their dependence on her, and enjoyed their
+caresses.
+
+With Henry she had less in common.  He expected of her what she had
+not learnt, and was not willing to acquire.  A man interfering in the
+woman's province meets little toleration; and Henry was extremely
+precise in his requirements of exact order, punctuality, and
+excellence, in all the arrangements of his house.  While breaking her
+in to housekeeping, he made himself appear almost in the light of a
+task-master--and what was worse, of a despised task-master.  Averil
+thought she could not respect a brother whose displeasure was
+manifested by petulance, not sternness, and who cared not only about
+his dinner, but about the tidy appearance of the drawing-room--nay,
+who called that tasty which she thought vulgar, made things stiff
+where she meant them to be easy and elegant, and prepared the place
+to be the butt of Tom May's satire.
+
+Henry was not a companion to her.  His intellect was lower, his
+education had not been of the same order, and he had not the manly
+force of character that makes up for everything in a woman's eyes.
+Where she had talents, he had pretensions--just enough to make his
+judgments both conceited and irritating; and where her deeper
+thoughts and higher aspirations were concerned, she met either a
+blank or a growing jealousy of the influence of the clergy and of the
+May family.
+
+Yet Henry Ward was really a good brother, sacrificing much to his
+orphan sisters, and living a moral and religious life--such as gained
+for him much credit, and made Mrs. Ledwich congratulate Averil on the
+great excellence and kindness of her incomparable brother.
+
+Averil assented, and felt it a dreary thing to have an incomparable
+brother.
+
+But when Leonard came home, the face of the house was changed.  Now
+she had something to look forward to.  Now there was something to
+hear that stirred her deeper feelings--some one who would understand
+and respond--some one to make common cause with.  Little as she saw
+of the schoolboy, there was life in her day, for sympathy and
+comprehension had come home with him.
+
+After all, there were recesses in Leonard's confidence to which Ave
+did not penetrate; but there was quite enough to be very happy upon,
+especially those visions that had been built on the Melanesian
+letters.  They were not near enough to terrify her with the thought
+of separation, and she was sufficiently imbued with Mary May's
+sentiments to regard mission-work as the highest ambition.  Leonard's
+strong will and manly disposition would have obtained her homage and
+affection, even without the lofty sentiments and the lesser graces
+that made the brother and sister thoroughly suited to one another;
+and the bond of union was unfortunately cemented by equal annoyance
+at Henry's peculiarities.
+
+It certainly was rather hard on a young head of a family to have a
+younger brother his superior in every respect, and with an
+inseparable sister.  That Henry had not found out Leonard's
+superiority was no reason that it should not gall him; and his self-
+assertions were apt to be extremely irritating.  Even in the first
+flush of welcome, he had made it plain that he meant to be felt as
+master of the house, and to enforce those petty regulations of exact
+order that might be easily borne from a mother, or played with in a
+sister--would be obeyed grudgingly from a father, but could be
+intolerable in a brother.
+
+The reception of Mab and the ammonites was but an earnest of similar
+ungracious acts on the one hand, and aggressions on the other, often
+unintentional.  Averil did, indeed, smooth matters, but she shared
+Leonard's resentment, and outward submission was compensated by
+murmur and mockery in private.
+
+Still the household worked on fairly; and Mrs. Ledwich was heard to
+declare, with tears in her eyes, that it was beautiful to see such a
+happy family of love as those dear young Wards!
+
+'The happy family--in Trafalgar Square!' muttered Dr. Spencer.
+
+The confidence of the happy family was on this wise.  When Leonard
+came home with his unpresentable face, he baffled all Ave's anxious
+questions, and she was only enlightened by Henry's lamentations, in
+his absence, over the hopelessness of a brother who was so low and
+vulgar as to box!  Her defence being met by a sneer, she flew to tell
+Leonard of the calumny, and was laughed at for her innocence, but
+extorted that he had fought with a fellow that talked impudently of
+some of the Mays--cause fully sufficient in her eyes; nor did Henry
+utter any open reproof, though he contrived to exasperate his brother
+into fierce retort and angry gesture by an unnecessary injunction not
+to show that ungentlemanly face.
+
+Full consciousness of the difficulties presented by the characters of
+the two brothers would have been far too oppressive; and perhaps it
+was better for Averil that she had it not, but had her own engrossing
+interests and employments drawing off her attention and enlivening
+her spirits.  Her church music was her object in life--the dedication
+of the talent that had been cultivated at so much time and cost, and
+the greatest honour and enjoyment she could imagine, and she had full
+participation from Leonard, who had a hearty love for sacred music,
+readily threw himself into her plans, and offered voice and taste to
+assist her experiments.  Nor had her elder brother any objection to
+her being thus brought forward: he was proud of her performance, and
+gratified with the compliments it elicited; and all went well till
+the new hymnals arrived, and books upon books, full of new tunes,
+anthems, and chants, were accumulating on the music-stand.
+
+'What are you about there all the evening, not opening your lips?'
+
+'Leonard is writing out his verses, and I am copying music.'
+
+'I wonder you neither of you will remember that that table was never
+meant to be littered over with all sorts of rubbish!'
+
+'I thought tables were to put things on,' returned Leonard coolly.
+
+'Drawing-room tables were not made to be inked!  That cover will be
+ruined in a day or two!'
+
+'Very well--then we'll pay for it!' said Leonard, in the same
+aggravating tone.
+
+'Here are newspapers spread between it and the ink,' said Averil,
+displaying them with an air of injured innocence that made Henry
+subside; but he presently exclaimed:
+
+'Is that copying to go on all night?  Can't you speak, nor play
+anything, to send one off to sleep?'
+
+With a martyr look, yet a satirical glance, Averil opened the piano;
+and Henry settled himself in the master's arm-chair, as one about to
+enjoy well-earned rest and entertainment after a hard day's work.
+
+'I say, what doleful drone have you there!'
+
+'I am trying a new chant for the "Nunc Dimittis".'
+
+'Nothing but that day and night!  Give us something worth hearing.'
+
+'I thought you only wanted to go to sleep.'
+
+'I don't want to dream myself into church, listening to Scudamour's
+proses: I've quite enough of that on Sunday.'
+
+Ave began to play one of her school waltzes; and the touch of her
+fingers on the keys had so sharp-edged and petulant a tone, that
+Leonard smiled to himself as he ran his fingers through his hair over
+his books.  Nor was it soothing to Henry, who, instead of going to
+sleep, began to survey the room, and get food for annoyance.
+
+'I say,' said he, looking across at a little brass-barred bookcase of
+ornamental volumes on the opposite chiffonniere, 'what book is out
+there?'
+
+'Scott's "Lay",' said Leonard; 'it is up in my room.'
+
+'I told you, Ave, not to let the drawing-room books be carried about
+the house to be spoilt!' said Henry, who seldom reproved his brother
+direct, but generally through Ave.
+
+'You'd better get some made of wood then,' said Leonard.
+
+'Remember then, Ave, I say I will not have my books taken out, and
+left about over the house.'
+
+Leonard dashed out of the room passionately, and presently came
+thundering down again, every step audible the whole way, and threw
+the book on the table, bringing in a whirlwind, and a flaring sloping
+candle dropping upon the precious cloth.  Henry started up and
+pointed.
+
+'I'm glad of it!' exclaimed Leonard; 'it will be a little amusement
+for you.  Good night, Ave!  I'm going to finish up-stairs, since one
+can't read, write, or touch a book without your being rowed!'
+
+He was gone, and Averil, though rather frightened, gave him infinite
+credit for keeping his temper; and perhaps he deserved it,
+considering the annoyance and the nature of the provocation; but she
+did not reflect how much might have been prevented by more
+forethought and less pre-occupation.  She said not a word, but
+quietly returned to her copying; and when Henry came with paper and
+poker to remove the damage, she only shoved back her chair, and sat
+waiting, pen in hand, resigned and ironical.
+
+'I declare,' grumbled Henry, as he examined the remaining amount of
+damage, 'these day-schools are a great inconvenience; there's no
+keeping a place fit to be seen with a great uncivilized lad always
+hanging about!'
+
+'Leonard is considered particularly gentlemanlike,' said Ave, with
+lips compressed, to keep back something about old bachelors.
+
+'Now, I should have thought a lady would have some regard to her own
+drawing-room, and object to slovenliness--elbows on table, feet
+everywhere!'
+
+'Nothing is in worse taste than constraint,' said Ave from the
+corners of her mouth--'at least for those that can trust their
+manners without it.'
+
+'I tell you, Ave, you are spoiling the boy.  He is more conceited
+than ever since the Mays noticed him.'
+
+'Leonard conceited!'
+
+'Yes; he is getting as stuck up as Tom May himself--your model I
+believe!'
+
+'I thought he was yours!'
+
+'Mine?'
+
+'Yes; you always seem to aim at a poor imitation of him.'
+
+There was a blushing angry stammer in reply; and she suppressed her
+smile, but felt triumphant in having hit the mark.  Unready at
+retort, he gathered himself up, and said: 'Well, Ave, I have only
+this to say, that if you choose to support that boy in his
+impertinences, there will be no bearing it; and I shall see what I
+shall do.'
+
+Seeing what shall be done is a threat stimulating to some, but
+appalling to others; and Averil was of the latter class, with no
+desire for such a spectacle, be it what it might.  She did not
+apologize for the trifle--possible ink, a spot of wax, a borrowed
+book, were far beneath an apology; but she made up her mind to humour
+Henry's follies magnanimously, and avoid collisions, like an
+admirable peace-maker.  As soon as bed-time came, she repaired to
+Leonard's room; and Henry, as he went along the passage, heard the
+two young voices ringing with laughter!  Her retort had been
+particularly delightful to Leonard.  'That's right, Ave!  I'm glad
+you set him down, for I thought afterwards whether I ought not to
+have stood by you, only his way of pitching into me through you puts
+me into such a rage: I shall do something desperate some day!'
+
+'Never mind it, Leonard; it does not hurt me; and if it did, I should
+like to bear a great deal for you.'
+
+'That's all the wrong way,' said Leonard, smiling affectionately.
+
+'No; men do and women suffer.'
+
+'That's trite!' said Leonard, patting her fondly.  'I like you to do-
+-as you call it--Miss May does, and every one that is worth anything.
+I say, Ave, when I go out to the islands, you are coming too?'
+
+'Oh yes!  I know I could do a great deal.  If nothing else, I could
+sing; and they have a great aptitude for singing, Mary was telling
+me.  But that reminds me I must finish copying the hymn for next
+Sunday; Henry hindered me, and I have six copies more to do.'
+
+'I'll do some of them,' said Leonard.  'Let us go down now the coast
+is clear, if the fire is not out.'
+
+They went down softly, Mab and all, nursed up the fire that Henry had
+raked out; and if Saturnalia could be held over the writing out of a
+hymn tune, they did it!  At any rate, it had the charm of an
+assertion of independence; and to Averil it was something like a
+midnight meeting of persecuted Christians--to Leonard it was 'great
+fun.'
+
+That evening was not a solitary specimen.
+
+Averil and Leonard intended to obviate causes of offence; but they
+were young and heedless, and did not feel bound to obedience.  A very
+little temptation made them forget or defy Henry's fancies; and
+Leonard was easily lashed into answers really unbecoming and violent,
+for which he could not bring himself to be sorry, when he thought
+over the petty interference and annoyance that had caused them.
+
+These small tyrannies and frets made Averil the more devoted to the
+music, which was her rest, her delight, and not only exalted her
+above cares, but sanctioned her oblivion of them.  The occupation
+grew upon her, never ending, still beginning, with fresh occasions
+for practice and new lessons, but though Bankside boys were willing
+to be taught, yet it was chiefly in hope of preferment as choristers
+at the Minster; and she soon found that a scholar no sooner proved
+his voice good for anything. than he went off to be trained for the
+choir on the foundation, which fed, clothed, and apprenticed its
+young singers.  She found she must betake herself to an elder race if
+she wanted a reliable staff of voices; and some young men and women
+showing themselves willing, a practice, with Mr. Scudamour to keep
+order, was organized for late evenings, twice in the week.  This was
+rather much!  Henry opposed at first, on the ground that the evening
+would be broken up; to which she answered that for such a purpose
+they ought to be willing to sacrifice a little domestic comfort; and
+when he muttered a petulant 'Pshaw,' looked at him in reproof for
+sacrilege.  She was not going to be one of the womankind sitting up
+in a row till their lords and masters should be pleased to want them!
+
+Next, he insisted that he would not have her going about the place
+after dark, but she was fortified by the curate's promise to escort
+her safely, and reduced him to a semi-imprecation which she again
+viewed as extremely wicked.  The existence of that meek little
+helpless Mrs. Scudamour, always shut up in a warm room with her
+delicate baby, cut off Henry from any other possible objection, and
+he was obliged to submit.
+
+Leonard would gladly have been his sister's companion on her
+expeditions, but he must remain at home and prepare for the morrow's
+school-work, and endure the first hour of dreariness unenlivened by
+her smile and greeting, and, what was worse, without the scanty
+infusion of peace produced by her presence.  Her rapid departure
+after dinner always discomposed Henry; and the usual vent for his
+ill-humour was either a murmur against the clergy and all their
+measures, or the discovery of some of Leonard's transgressions of his
+code.  Fretted and irritable at the destruction of evening comfort,
+he in his turn teased the fiery temper of his brother.  If there were
+nothing worse, his grumbling remarks interrupted, and too often they
+were that sort of censure that is expressively called nagging.
+Leonard would reply angrily, and the flashes of his passion generally
+produced silence.  Neither brother spoke to Averil of these evening
+interludes, which were becoming almost habitual, but they kept
+Leonard in a constant sore sense of injury, yet of uneasy conscience.
+He looked to the Randall scholarship as his best hope of leaving home
+and its torments, but his illness had thrown him back: he had not
+only lost the last quarter, but the acquirements of the one before it
+were obscured; and the vexations themselves so harassed and
+interrupted his evening studies, that he knew it was unreasonable to
+hope for it at the next examination, which, from various causes, was
+to come after the Christmas holidays; and it would be well if he
+could even succeed in the summer.
+
+Innocent as the Mays were of the harmonium business, Henry included
+them in the annoyance it gave.  It was the work of the curate--and
+was not Dr. May one in everything with the clergy? had he not been
+instrumental in building the chapel? was it not the Mays and the
+clergy who had made Ave inconveniently religious and opinionative, to
+say nothing of Leonard? The whole town was priest--led and bigoted;
+and Dr. May was the despot to whom all bowed down.
+
+This was an opinion Henry would hardly have originated: it was the
+shaft of an abler man than he--no other than Harvey Anderson, who had
+lately become known to the world by a book proving King John to have
+been the most enlightened and patriotic of English sovereigns,
+enduring the Interdict on a pure principle of national independence,
+and devising Magna Charta from his own generous brain--in fact,
+presenting a magnificent and misunderstood anticipation of the most
+advanced theories of the nineteenth century.  The book had made so
+much noise in the world, that the author had been induced to quit his
+college tutorship, and become editor of a popular magazine.  He lived
+in London, but often came down to spend Sunday with his mother, and
+had begun to be looked on as rather the lion of the place.  Henry
+took in his magazine, and courted his notice, often bringing him into
+Averil's way that she might hear her heroes treated with irony more
+effectual than home-made satire; but Ave was staunch.  She hated the
+sight of Mr. Anderson; never cut the leaves of his magazine; and if
+driven to sing to him, took as little pains as her musical nature
+would let her do.  But the very strength of her dislike gave it an
+air of prejudice, and it was set down less to principle than to party
+spirit and May influence.
+
+There was another cause for Henry's being soured.  He was not of the
+nature to be filial with Dr. May; and therefore gratitude oppressed,
+and patronage embittered him.  The first months of warm feeling at an
+end, the old spirit of independence revived, and he avoided
+consulting the physician as much as possible.  More than once his
+management of a case was not approved by Dr. May; and the strong and
+hasty language, and the sharp reproofs that ensued, were not taken as
+the signs of the warm heart and friendly interest, but as the
+greatest offences--sullenly, but not the less bitterly endured.
+
+Moreover, one of the Whitford surgeons had been called in by a few of
+the out-lying families who had hitherto been patients of the Wards;
+and worse than all, Mrs. Rivers took her child up to London for three
+days in November, and it became known--through a chain of tongues--
+that it was for the enlargement of tonsils, on which Mr. Ward had
+operated a year before.
+
+'Old May was playing him false!' was Henry's cry.  'His professions
+were humbug.  He would endure no one who did not submit to his
+dictation; and he would bring in a stranger to ruin them all!'
+
+Little did Henry know of Dr. May's near approach to untruth in
+denying that he had a house to let to the opposition surgeon--of his
+attestations to his daughter that young Ward was a skilful operator--
+or of his vexation when she professed herself ready to undergo
+anything for his pleasure, but said that little Margaret's health was
+another thing.
+
+Yet even this might have been forgiven, but for that worst rub of
+all--Tom May's manners.  His politeness was intense--most punctilious
+and condescending in form--and yet provoking beyond measure to
+persons who, like Henry and Averil, had not playfulness enough to
+detect with certainty whether they were being made game of or not,
+nor whether his smoothly-uttered compliments were not innuendoes.
+Henry was certain of being despised, and naturally chafed against the
+prospect of the future connection between the two medical men of the
+town; and though Tom was gone back to Cambridge, it was the rankling
+remembrance of his supercilious looks that, more than any present
+offence or independence of spirit, made the young surgeon kick
+against direction from the physician.  Here, too, Averil was of the
+same mind.  She had heard Tom May observe that his sister Gertrude
+would play quite well enough for a lady; for the mission of a lady's
+music was to put one to sleep at home, and cover conversation at a
+party; as to the rest--unprofessionals were a mistake!
+
+After that, the civil speeches with which Tom would approach the
+piano only added insult to injury.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+
+Ne'er readier at alarm-bell's call,
+Thy burghers rose to man thy wall,
+Than now in danger shall be thine,
+Thy dauntless voluntary line.--Marmion
+
+
+'Drive fast, Will,' said Dr. May, hastily stepping into his carriage
+in the early darkness of a December evening.  'Five already, and he
+is to be there by 5.25.'
+
+'He' was no other than Harry May, and 'there' was the station.  With
+the tidings of the terrible fight of Peiho had come a letter from a
+messmate of Harry's with an account of his serious wound in the
+chest, describing it as just short of immediately dangerous.  Another
+letter had notified his amendment, and that he was invalided home, a
+few cheery words from Harry himself scrawled at the end showing that
+his power was far less than his good-will: and after two months'
+waiting and suspense, a telegram had come from Plymouth, with the
+words, 'Stoneborough, 5.25.'
+
+In ignorance as to the state of the traveller, and expecting to find
+him in a condition requiring great care and watching, Dr. May had
+laid his injunctions on the eager family not to rush up to the
+station en masse to excite and overwhelm, but to leave the meeting
+there entirely to himself and his brougham.  He had, therefore, been
+exceedingly annoyed that one of Henry Ward's pieces of self-assertion
+had delayed him unnecessarily at a consultation; and when at last he
+had escaped, he spent most of his journey with his body half out of
+the window, hurrying Will Adams, and making noises of encouragement
+to the horse; or else in a strange tumult of sensation between hope
+and fear, pain and pleasure, suspense and thankfulness, the
+predominant feeling being vexation at not having provided against
+this contingency by sending Richard to the station.
+
+After all the best efforts of the stout old chestnut, he and the
+train were simultaneously at the station, and the passengers were
+getting out on the opposite platform.  The Doctor made a dash to
+cross in the rear of the train, but was caught and held fast by a
+porter with the angry exclamation, 'She's backing, sir;' and there he
+stood in an agony, feeling all Harry's blank disappointment, and the
+guilt of it besides, and straining his eyes through the narrow gaps
+between the blocks of carriages.
+
+The train rushed on, and he was across the line the same instant, but
+the blank was his.  Up and down the gas-lighted platform he looked in
+vain among the crowd, only his eye suddenly lit on a black case close
+to his feet, with the three letters MAY, and the next moment a huge
+chest appeared out of the darkness, bearing the same letters, and
+lifted on a truck by the joint strength of a green porter, and a pair
+of broad blue shoulders.  Too ill to come on--telegraph, mail train--
+rushed through the poor Doctor's brain as he stepped forward as if to
+interrogate the chest.  The blue shoulders turned, a ruddy sun-burnt
+face lighted up, and the inarticulate exclamation on either side was
+of the most intense relief and satisfaction.
+
+'Where are the rest?' said Harry, holding his father's hand in no
+sick man's grasp.
+
+'At home, I told them not to come up; I thought--'
+
+'Well, we'll walk down together!  I've got you all to myself.  I
+thought you had missed my telegram.  Hollo, Will, how d'ye do? what,
+this thing to drive down in?'
+
+'I thought you were an invalid, Harry,' said Dr. May, with a laughing
+yet tearful ring in his agitated tone, as he packed himself and his
+son in.
+
+'Ay!  I wished I could have let you know sooner how well I had got
+over it,' said Harry, in the deep full voice of strong healthy
+manhood.  'I am afraid you have been very anxious.'
+
+'We are used to it, my boy,' said the Doctor huskily, stroking the
+great firm fingers that were lying lovingly on his knee, 'and if it
+always ends in this way, it ought to do us more good than harm.'
+
+'It has not done harm, I hope,' said Harry, catching him up quick.
+'Not to old Mary?'
+
+'No, Mary works things off, good girl.  I flatter myself you will
+find us all in high preservation.'
+
+'All--all at home!  That's right.'
+
+'Yes, those infants from Maplewood and all.  You are sure you are all
+right, Harry?'
+
+'As sure as my own feelings can make me, and the surgeon of the
+Dexter to back them,' said Harry.  'I don't believe my lungs were
+touched after all, but you shall all sit upon me when you like--Tom
+and all.  It was a greater escape than I looked for,' he added, in a
+lower voice.  'I did not think to have had another Christmas here.'
+
+The silence lasted for the few moments till the carriage drew up
+behind the limes; the doors were thrown open, and the Doctor shouted
+to the timid anxious figure that alone was allowed to appear in the
+hall, 'Come and lift him out, Mary.'
+
+The drawing-room was a goodly sight that evening; and the Doctor, as
+he sat leaning back in weary happiness, might be well satisfied with
+the bright garland that still clustered round his hearth, though the
+age of almost all forbade their old title of Daisies.  The only one
+who still asserted her right to that name was perched on the sailor's
+knee, insisting on establishing that there was as much room for her
+there as there had been three years ago; though, as he had seated
+himself on a low foot-stool, her feet were sometimes on the ground,
+and moreover her throne was subject to sudden earthquakes, which made
+her, nothing loth, cling to his neck, draw his arm closer round her,
+and lean on his broad breast, proud that universal consent declared
+her his likeness in the family; and the two presenting a pleasant
+contrasting similarity--the open honest features, blue eyes, and
+smile, expressive of hearty good-will and simple happiness, were so
+entirely of the same mould in the plump, white-skinned, rosy-cheeked,
+golden-haired girl, and in the large, powerful, bronzed, ruddy
+sailor, with the thick mass of curls, at which Tom looked with
+hostility as fixed, though less declared, than that of his Eton days.
+
+Those were the idle members upon the hearth-rug.  On the sofa, with a
+small table to herself, and a tall embroidery frame before her,
+nearly hiding her slight person, sat Mrs. Ernescliffe, her pretty
+head occasionally looking out over the top of her work to smile an
+answer, and her artistically arranged hair and the crispness of her
+white dress and broad blue ribbons marking that there was a step in
+life between her and her sisters; her husband sat beside her on the
+sofa, with a red volume in his hand, with 'Orders,' the only word
+visible above the fingers, one of which was keeping his place.
+Hector looked very happy and spirited, though his visage was not
+greatly ornamented by a moustache, sandier even than his hair, giving
+effect to every freckle on his honest face.  A little behind was
+Mary, winding one of Blanche's silks over the back of a chair, and so
+often looking up to revel in the contemplation of Harry's face, that
+her skein was in a wild tangle, which she studiously concealed lest
+the sight should compel Richard to come and unravel it with those
+wonderful fingers of his.
+
+Richard and Ethel were arranging the 'sick albums' which they had
+constructed--one of cheap religious prints, with texts and hymns, to
+be lent in cases of lingering illness; the other, commonly called the
+'profane,' of such scraps as might please a sick child, pictures from
+worn-out books or advertisements, which Ethel was colouring--Aubrey
+volunteering aid that was received rather distrustfully, as his love
+of effect caused him to array the model school-children in colours
+gaudy enough, as Gertrude complained, 'to corrupt a saint.'  Nor was
+his dilettante help more appreciated at a small stand, well provided
+with tiny drawers, and holding a shaded lamp, according to Gertrude,
+'burning something horrible ending in gen, that would kill anybody
+but Tom, who managed it,' but which threw a beautiful light upon the
+various glass dishes, tubes, and slides, and the tall brass
+microscope that Tom was said to love better than all his kith and
+kin, and which afforded him occupation for his leisure moments.
+
+'I say, Harry,' he asked, 'did you get my letter?'
+
+'Your letter--of what date?  I got none since Mary's of the second of
+May, when every one was down in the fever.  Poor old Ward, I never
+was more shocked; what is become of the young ones?'
+
+'Oh! you must ask Mary, Miss Ward is a bosom friend of hers.'
+
+'What! the girl that sang like the lark?  I must hear her again.  But
+she won't be in tune for singing now, poor thing!  What are they
+doing? Henry Ward taken to the practice?  He used to be the dirtiest
+little sneak going, but I hope he is mended now.'
+
+'Ask my father,' said mischievous Tom; and Dr. May answered not, nor
+revealed his day's annoyance with Henry.
+
+'He is doing his best to make a home for his brother and sisters,'
+said Richard.
+
+'My letter,' said Tom, 'was written in Whitsun week; I wish you had
+had it.'
+
+'Ay, it would have been precious from its rarity,' said Harry.  'What
+commission did it contain, may I ask?'
+
+'You have not by good luck brought me home a Chinese flea?'
+
+'He has all the fleas in creation,' said Daisy confidentially, 'cats'
+and dogs', and hedgehogs', and human; and you would have been twice
+as welcome if you had brought one.'
+
+'I've brought no present to nobody.  I'd got my eye on a splendid
+ivory junk, for Blanche's wedding present, at Canton, but I couldn't
+even speak to send any one after it.  You have uncommon bad luck for
+a sailor's relatives.'
+
+'As long as you bring yourself home we don't care,' said Blanche,
+treating the loss of the junk with far more resignation than did Tom
+that of the flea.
+
+'If you only had a morsel of river mud sticking anywhere,' added Tom,
+'you don't know the value the infusoria might be.'
+
+'I had a good deal more than a morsel sticking to me once,' said
+Harry; 'it was owing to my boat's crew that I am not ever so many
+feet deep in it now, like many better men.  They never lost sight of
+me, and somehow hauled me out.'
+
+Gertrude gave him a hug, and Mary's eyes got so misty, that her skein
+fell into worse entanglements than ever.
+
+'Were you conscious?' asked Ethel.
+
+'I can't say.  I'm clear of nothing but choking and gasping then, and
+a good while after.  It was a treacherous, unlucky affair, and I'm
+afraid I shall miss the licking of rascally John Chinaman.  If all I
+heard at Plymouth is true, we may have work handy to home.'
+
+'At home you may say,' said his father, 'Dulce et, &c. is our motto.
+Didn't you know what a nest of heroes we have here to receive you?
+Let me introduce you to Captain Ernescliffe, of the Dorset Volunteer
+Rifle Corps; Private Thomas May, of the Cambridge University Corps;
+and Mr. Aubrey Spencer May, for whom I have found a rifle, and am
+expected to find a uniform as soon as the wise heads have settled
+what colour will be most becoming.'
+
+'Becoming!  No, papa!' indignantly shouted Aubrey: 'it is the colour
+that will be most invisible in skirmishing.'
+
+'Gray, faced with scarlet,' said Hector, decidedly.
+
+'Yes, that is the colour of the invincible Dorsets,' said Dr. May.
+'There you see our great authority with his military instructions in
+his hand.'
+
+'No, sir,' replied Hector, 'it's not military instructions, it is
+Crauford's General Orders.'
+
+'And,' added the Doctor, 'there's his bride working the colours, and
+Mary wanting to emulate her.'
+
+'I don't think George will ever permit us to have colours,' said
+Ethel; 'he says that Rifles have no business with them, for that they
+are of no use to skirmishers.'
+
+'The matter has been taken out of George's hands,' said Aubrey;
+'there would not have been a volunteer in the country if he had his
+way.'
+
+'Yes,' explained Ethel, 'the real soldier can't believe in
+volunteers, nor cavalry in infantry; but he is thoroughly in for it
+now.'
+
+'Owing to his Roman matron' quoth Tom.  'It was a wonderful opening
+for public spirit when Lady Walkinghame insisted on Sir Henry
+refusing the use of the park for practice, for fear we should make
+targets of the children.  So the Spartan mother at Abbotstoke,
+gallantly setting Margaret aside, sent for the committee at once to
+choose the very best place in the park.'
+
+'Papa is chairman of the committee,' added Aubrey, 'he is mayor this
+year, so we must encourage it.'
+
+'And Aubrey hit four times at a hundred yards,' triumphantly declared
+Gertrude, 'when Edward Anderson and Henry Ward only got a ball in by
+accident.'
+
+'Henry Ward ought to be shot at himself,' was Aubrey's sentiment,
+'for not letting Leonard be in the corps.'
+
+'The fellow that you brought to Maplewood?' asked Hector.  'I thought
+he was at school.'
+
+'Didn't you know that old Hoxton has given leave to any of the sixth
+form to drill and practise? and that trumpery fellow, Henry, says he
+can't afford the outfit, though his sister would have given the
+uniform.'
+
+'Let me tell you, young folks,' said the Doctor, 'that you are not to
+suppose it always hails crack rifles on all sorts of improved
+systems, as it does when Captain Hector is in the house.'
+
+'They are only on trial, sir,' apologized Hector.
+
+'Very odd then that they all have an eagle and H. E. on them,'
+observed the Doctor dryly.
+
+'Oh! they'll take them again, or I shall find a use for them,' said
+Hector.
+
+'Well, if Henry can't afford two,' said Aubrey, holding to his point,
+'he ought to give up to his brother; he knows no more how to handle a
+rifle--'
+
+'That's the very reason,' muttered Tom.
+
+'And Flora is going to give a great party,' proceeded Gertrude, 'as
+soon as the uniform is settled, and they are enrolled.  Blanche and
+Hector are to stay for it, and you'll have to wear your lieutenant's
+uniform, Harry.'
+
+'I can't be going to balls till I've been up to report myself fit for
+service,' said Harry.
+
+'It is not to be a ball,' said Blanche's soft, serious voice over her
+green silk banner; 'it is to be a breakfast and concert, ending in a
+dance, such as we had at Maplewood.'
+
+'Hollo!' said Harry, starting, 'now I begin to believe in Mrs.
+Ernescliffe, when I hear her drawing down herself as an example to
+Flora.'
+
+'Only a precedent,' said Blanche, blushing a little, but still grave.
+'We have had some experience, you know.  Our corps was one of the
+earliest enrolled, and Hector managed it almost entirely.  It was the
+reason we have not been able to come here sooner, but we thought it
+right to be foremost, as the enemy are sure to attempt our coast
+first.'
+
+'I believe the enemy are expected on every coast at first,' was
+Ethel's aside, but it was not heard; for Harry was declaring,
+
+'Your coast! they will never get the length of that.  I was talking
+to an old messmate of mine in the train, who was telling me how we
+could burn their whole fleet before it could get out of Cherbourg.'
+
+'If they should slip by,' began Hector.
+
+'Slip by!' and Harry had well-nigh dislodged Daisy by his vehemence
+in demonstrating that they were welcome to volunteer, but that the
+Channel Fleet would prevent the rifles from being seriously put to
+the proof--a declaration highly satisfactory to the ladies, and
+heartily backed up by the Doctor, though Blanche looked rather
+discomfited, and Hector argued loud for the probability of active
+service.
+
+'I say, Aubrey,' said Tom, rather tired of the land and sea debate,
+'do just reach me a card, to take up some of this sand upon.'
+
+Aubrey obeyed, and reading the black-edged card as he handed it,
+said, 'Mrs. Pug.  What?  Pug ought to have been calling upon Mab.'
+
+'Maybe she will, in good earnest,' observed Tom again in Ethel's ear;
+while the whole room rang with the laughter that always befalls the
+unlucky wight guilty of a blunder in a name.
+
+'You don't mean that you don't know who she is, Aubrey!' was the cry.
+
+'I--how should I?'
+
+'What, not Mrs. Pugh?' exclaimed Daisy.
+
+'Pew or Pug--I know nothing of either.  Is this edge as mourning for
+all the old pews that have been demolished in the church?'
+
+'For shame, Aubrey,' said Mary seriously.  'You must know it is for
+her husband.'
+
+Aubrey set up his eyebrows in utter ignorance.
+
+'How true it is that one half the world knows nothing of the other!'
+exclaimed Ethel.  'Do you really mean you have never found out the
+great Mrs. Pugh, Mrs. Ledwich's dear suffering Matilda?'
+
+'I've seen a black lady sitting with Mrs. Ledwich in church.'
+
+'Such is life,' said Ethel.  'How little she thought herself living
+in such an unimpressible world!'
+
+'She is a pretty woman enough,' observed Tom.
+
+'And very desirous of being useful,' added Richard.  'She and Mrs.
+Ledwich came over to Cocksmoor this morning, and offered any kind of
+assistance.'
+
+'At Cocksmoor!' cried Ethel, much as if it had been the French.
+
+'Every district is filled up here, you know,' said Richard, 'and Mrs.
+Ledwich begged me as a personal favour to give her some occupation
+that would interest her and cheer her spirits, so I asked her to look
+after those new cottages at Gould's End, quite out of your beat,
+Ethel, and she seemed to be going about energetically.'
+
+Tom looked unutterable things at Ethel, who replied with a glance
+between diversion and dismay.
+
+'Who is the lady?' said Blanche.  'She assaulted me in the street
+with inquiries and congratulations about Harry, declaring she had
+known me as a child, a thing I particularly dislike:' and Mrs.
+Ernescliffe looked like a ruffled goldfinch.
+
+'Forgetting her has not been easy to the payers of duty calls,' said
+Ethel.  'She was the daughter of Mrs. Ledwich's brother, the Colonel
+of Marines, and used in old times to be with her aunt; there used to
+be urgent invitations to Flora and me to drink tea there because she
+was of our age.  She married quite young, something very prosperous
+and rather aged, and the glories of dear Matilda's villa at Bristol
+have been our staple subject, but Mr. Pugh died in the spring,
+leaving his lady five hundred a year absolutely her own, and she is
+come to stay with her aunt, and look for a house.'
+
+'Et cetera,' added Tom.
+
+'What, in the buxom widow line?' asked Harry.
+
+'No, no!' said Richard, rather indignantly.
+
+'No, in the pathetic line,' said Ethel; 'but that requires some self-
+denial.'
+
+'Our tongues don't lose their venom, you see, Harry,' put in the
+Doctor.
+
+'No indeed, papa,' said Ethel, really anxious to guard her brothers.
+'I was very sorry for her at first, and perhaps I pity her more now
+than even then.  I was taken with her pale face and dark eyes, and I
+believe she was a good wife, and really concerned for her husband;
+but I can't help seeing that she knows her grief is an attraction.'
+
+'To simple parsons,' muttered Tom along the tube of his microscope.
+
+'The sound of her voice showed her to be full of pretension,' said
+Blanche.  'Besides, Mrs. Ledwich's trumpeting would fix my opinion in
+a moment.'
+
+'Just so,' observed the Doctor.
+
+'No, papa,' said Ethel, 'I was really pleased and touched in spite of
+Mrs. Ledwich's devotion to her, till I found out a certain
+manoeuvring to put herself in the foreground, and not let her sorrow
+hinder her from any enjoyment or display.'
+
+'She can't bear any one to do what she does not.'
+
+'What!  Mary's mouth open against her too?' cried Dr. May.
+
+'Well, papa,' insisted Mary, 'nobody wanted her to insist on taking
+the harmonium at Bankside last Sunday, just because Averil had a cold
+in her head; and she played so fast, that every one was put out, and
+then said she would come to the practice that they might understand
+one another.  She is not even in the Bankside district, so it is no
+business of hers.'
+
+'There, Richard, her favours are equally distributed,' said Aubrey,
+'but if she would take that harmonium altogether, one would not mind-
+-it makes Henry Ward as sulky as a bear to have his sister going out
+all the evening, and he visits it on Leonard.  I dare say if she
+stayed at home he would not have been such a brute about the rifle.'
+
+'I should not wonder,' said Dr. May.  'I sometimes doubt if home is
+sweetened to my friend Henry.'
+
+'0, papa!' cried Mary, bristling up, 'Ave is very hard worked, and
+she gives up everything in the world but her church music, and that
+is her great duty and delight.'
+
+'Miss Ward's music must be a sore trial to the Pug,' said Tom, 'will
+it be at this affair at Abbotstoke?'
+
+'That's the question,' said Ethel.  'It never goes out, yet is to be
+met everywhere, just over-persuaded at the last moment.  Now Flora,
+you will see, will think it absolutely improper to ask her; and she
+will be greatly disappointed not to have the chance of refusing, and
+then yielding at the last minute.'
+
+'Flora must have her,' said Harry.
+
+'I trust not,' said Blanche, shrinking.
+
+'Flora will not ask her,' said Tom, 'but she will be there.'
+
+'And will dance with me,' said Harry.
+
+'No, with Richard,' said Tom.
+
+'What!' said Richard, looking up at the sound of his name.  All
+laughed, but were ashamed to explain, and were relieved that their
+father rang the bell.
+
+'At that unhappy skein still, Mary?' said Mrs. Ernescliffe, as the
+good nights were passing. 'What a horrid state it is in!'
+
+'I shall do it in time,' said Mary, 'when there is nothing to
+distract my attention.  I only hope I shall not hurt it for you.'
+
+'Chuck it into the fire at once; it is not worth the trouble,' said
+Hector.
+
+Each had a word of advice, but Mary held her purpose, and persevered
+till all had left the room except Richard, who quietly took the
+crimson tangle on his wrists, turned and twisted, opened passages for
+the winder, and by the magic of his dexterous hands, had found the
+clue to the maze, so that all was proceeding well, though slowly,
+when the study door opened, and Harry's voice was heard in a last
+good night to his father.  Mary's eyes looked wistful, and one
+misdirection of her winder tightened an obdurate loop once more.
+
+'Run after Harry,' said Richard, taking possession of the ivory.
+'Good night; I can always do these things best alone.  I had rather--
+yes, really--good night:' and his kiss had the elder brother's
+authority of dismissal.
+
+His Maimouna was too glad and grateful for more than a summary 'Thank
+you,' and flew up-stairs in time to find Harry turning, baffled, from
+her empty room.  'What, only just done that interminable yarn?' he
+said.
+
+'Richard is doing it.  I could not help letting him, this first
+evening of you.'
+
+'Good old Richard! he is not a bit altered since I first went to sea,
+when I was so proud of that,' said Harry, taking up his midshipman's
+dirk, which formed a trophy on Mary's mantelshelf.
+
+'Are we altered since you went last?' said Mary.
+
+'The younger ones, of course.  I was in hopes that Aubrey would have
+been more like old June, but he'll never be so much of a fellow.'
+
+'He is a very dear good boy,' said Mary, warmly.
+
+'Of course he is,' said Harry, 'but, somehow, he will always have a
+woman-bred way about him.  Can't be helped, of course; but what a
+pair of swells Tom and Blanche are come out!' and he laughed good-
+naturedly.
+
+'Is not Blanche a beautiful dear darling?' cried Mary, eagerly.  'It
+is so nice to have her.  They could not come at first because of the
+infection, and then because of the rifle corps, and now it is
+delicious to have all at home.'
+
+'Well, Molly, I'm glad it wasn't you that have married.  Mind, you
+mustn't marry till I do.'
+
+And Harry was really glad that Mary's laugh was perfectly 'fancy
+free,' as she answered, 'I'm sure I hope not, but I won't promise,
+because that might be unreasonable, you know.'
+
+'Oh, you prudent, provident Polly!  But,' added Harry, recalled to a
+sense of time by a clock striking eleven, 'I came to bring you
+something, Mary.  You shall have it, if you will give me another.'
+
+Mary recognized, with some difficulty, a Prayer-Book with limp covers
+that Margaret had given him after his first voyage.  Not only was it
+worn by seven years' use, but it was soiled and stained with dark
+brownish red, and a straight round hole perforated it from cover to
+cover.
+
+'Is it too bad to keep?' said Harry.  'Let me just cut out my name in
+Margaret's hand, and the verse of the 107th Psalm; luckily the ball
+missed that.'
+
+'The ball?' said Mary, beginning to understand.
+
+'Yes.  Every one of those circles that you see cut out there, was in
+here,' said Harry, laying his hand over his chest, 'before the ball,
+which I have given to my father.'
+
+'0, Harry!' was all Mary could say, pointing to her own name in a
+pencil scrawl on the fly-leaf.
+
+'Yes, I set that down because I could not speak to tell what was to
+be done with it, when we didn't know that that book had really been
+the saving of my life.  That hair's-breadth deviation of the bullet
+made all the difference.'
+
+Mary was kissing the blood-stained book, and sobbing.
+
+'Why, Mary, what is there to cry for?  It is all over now, I tell
+you.  I am as well as man would wish, and there's no more about it
+but to thank God, and try to deserve His goodness.'
+
+'Yes, yes, I know, Harry; but to think how little we knew, or
+thought, or felt--going on in our own way when you were in such
+danger and suffering!'
+
+'Wasn't I very glad you were going on in your own way!' said Harry.
+'Why, Mary, it was that which did it--it has been always that thought
+of you at the Minster every day, that kept me to reading the Psalms,
+and so having the book about me.  And did not it do one good to lie
+and think of the snug room, and my father's spectacles, and all as
+usual?  When they used to lay me on the deck of the Dexter at night,
+because I could not breathe below, I used to watch old Orion, who was
+my great friend in the Loyalty Isles, and wish the heathen name had
+not stuck to the old fellow, he always seemed so like the Christian
+warrior, climbing up with his shield before him and his.  A home like
+this is a shield to a man in more ways than one, Mary.  Hollo, was
+that the street door?'
+
+'Yes; Ritchie going home.  Fancy his being at the silk all this time!
+I am so sorry!'
+
+Maugre her sorrow, there were few happier maidens in England than
+Mary May, even though her service was distracted by the claims of
+three slave-owners at once, bound as she was, to Ethel, by habitual
+fidelity, to Harry, by eager adoration, to Blanche, by willing
+submission.  Luckily, their requisitions (for the most part
+unconscious) seldom clashed, or, if they did, the two elders gave
+way, and the bride asserted her supremacy in the plenitude of her
+youthful importance and prosperity.
+
+Thus she carried off Mary in her barouche to support her in the
+return of bridal calls, while the others were organizing a walk to
+visit Flora and the rifle target.  Gertrude's enthusiasm was not
+equal to walking with a weapon that might be loaded, nor to being
+ordered out to admire the practice, so she accompanied the sisters;
+Tom was reading hard; and Ethel found herself, Aubrey, and the
+sailor, the only ones ready to start.
+
+This was a decided treat, for Aubrey and she were so nearly one, that
+it was almost a tete-a-tete with Harry, though it was not his way to
+enter by daylight, and without strong impulse, on what regarded
+himself, and there were no such confidences as those to Mary on the
+previous night; but in talking over home details, it was easier to
+speak without Tom's ironical ears and caustic tongue.
+
+Among other details, the story of the summer that Ethel and Aubrey
+had spent at Coombe was narrated, and Aubrey indulged himself by
+describing what he called Ethel's conquest.
+
+'It is more a conquest of Norman's, and of Melanesia,' said Ethel.
+'If it were not nonsense to build upon people's generous visions at
+seventeen, I should sometimes hope a spark had been lit that would
+shine some day in your islands, Harry.'
+
+Going up that hill was not the place for Etheldred May to talk of the
+futility of youthful aspirations, but it did not so strike either of
+the brothers, to whom Cocksmoor had long been a familiar fact.  Harry
+laughed to hear the old Ethel so like herself; and Aubrey said, 'By
+the bye, what did you do, the day you walked him to Cocksmoor? he was
+fuller of those islands than ever after it.'
+
+'I did not mean it,' said Ethel; 'but the first day of the holidays I
+came on him disconsolate in the street, with nothing to do, and very
+sore about Henry's refusal to let him volunteer; he walked on with me
+till we found ourselves close to Cocksmoor, and I found he had never
+seen the church, and would like to stay for evening service, so I put
+him into the parsonage while I was busy, and told him to take a
+book.'
+
+'I know,' said Aubrey; 'the liveliest literature you can get in
+Richard's parlour are the Missionary Reports.'
+
+'Exactly so; and he got quite saturated with them; and when we walked
+home, I was so thankful that the rifle grievance should be a little
+displaced, that I led him on to talk and build castles rather more
+than according to my resolutions.'
+
+'Hollo, Ethel!' said Harry.
+
+'Yes, I think spontaneous castles are admirable, but I mistrust all
+timber from other people's woods.'
+
+'But isn't this a horrid shame of Henry?' said Aubrey.  'Such a
+little prig as he is, to take the place of such a fellow as Leonard,
+a capital shot already.'
+
+'I wish Henry had been magnanimous,' said Ethel.
+
+'I'd as soon talk of a magnanimous weasel, from what I recollect,'
+said Harry.
+
+'And he is worse now, Harry,' continued Aubrey.  'So spruce and silky
+out of doors, and such a regular old tyrannical bachelor indoors.  He
+is jealous of Leonard, any one can see, and that's the reason he
+won't give him his due.'
+
+'You observe,' said Ethel, 'that this boy thinks the youngest
+brother's due is always to come first.'
+
+'So it is, in this family,' said Harry.  'No one comes so last as old
+Ritchie.'
+
+'But of course,' said Aubrey, rather taken aback, 'if I were not
+youngest, I should have to knock under to some one.'
+
+Ethel and Harry both laughed heartily; one congratulating him on not
+having carried the principle into the cockpit, the other adding,
+'Don't indoctrinate Leonard with it; there is enough already to breed
+bitterness between those brothers!  Leonard ought to be kept in mind
+that Henry has so much to harass him, that his temper should be borne
+patiently with.'
+
+'He!'
+
+'I don't think papa's best endeavours have kept all his father's
+practice for him, and I am sure their rate of living must make him
+feel pinched this Christmas.'
+
+'Whew!  He will be in a sweeter humour than ever!'
+
+'I have been trying to show Leonard that there's room for magnanimity
+on his side at least; and don't you go and upset it all by common-
+place abuse of tutors and governors.'
+
+'I upset it!' cried Aubrey: 'I might as well try to upset the Minster
+as a word from you to Leonard.'
+
+'Nonsense!  What's that?'  For they were hailed from behind, and
+looking round saw two tall figures, weapon in hand, in pursuit.  They
+proved to be Hector Ernescliffe and Leonard Ward, each bearing one of
+what Dr. May called the H. E. rifles; but Leonard looked half shy,
+half grim, and so decidedly growled off all Aubrey's attempts at
+inquiry or congratulation, that Ethel hazarded none, and Aubrey
+looked discomfited, wearing an expression which Harry took to mean
+that the weight of his rifle fatigued him, and insisted on carrying
+it for him, in, spite of his rather insulted protests and
+declarations that the sailor was an invalid; Ethel had walked
+forwards, and found Leonard at her side, with a darkening brow as he
+glanced back at the friendly contest.
+
+'Harry spoils Aubrey as much as all the others do,' said Ethel
+lightly, deeming it best to draw out the sting of the rankling
+thought.
+
+'Ay!  None of them would leave him to be pitied and offered favours
+by some chance person,' said Leonard.
+
+'You don't call my brother Hector a chance person?'
+
+'Did you say anything to him, Miss May?' said Leonard, turning on her
+a flushed face, as if he could almost have been angered with her.
+
+'I said not one word.'
+
+'Nor Aubrey?'
+
+'The volunteer politics were discussed last night, and Henry got
+abused among us; but papa defended him, and said it did not rain
+rifles.  That's all--whatever Hector may have done was without a word
+to either of us--very likely on the moment's impulse.  Did he go to
+Bankside after you?'
+
+'No.  I was looking in at Shearman's window,' said Leonard, rather
+sheepishly, 'at the locks of the new lot he has got in, and he came
+and asked if I were going to choose one, for he had got a couple down
+from London, and the man had stupidly put his cipher on both, so he
+would be glad if I would take one off his hands.  I didn't accept--I
+made that clear--but then he begged, as if it was to oblige him, that
+I would come out to Abbotstoke and help him try the two, for he
+didn't know which he should keep.'
+
+'Very ingenious of him,' said Ethel laughing.
+
+'Now, Miss May, do tell me what I ought to do.  It is such a beauty,
+better than any Shearman ever dreamt of; just look: at the finish of
+the lock.'
+
+'By the time you have shot with it--'
+
+'Now don't, pray,' said Leonard, 'I haven't any one to trust for
+advice but you.'
+
+'Indeed, Leonard, I can see no objection.  It is a great boon to you,
+and no loss to Hector, and he is quite enough my father's son for you
+to look on him as a friend.  I can't but be very glad, for the
+removal of this vexation ought to make you get on all the better with
+your brother.'
+
+'Ave would be delighted,' said Leonard; 'but somehow--'
+
+'Somehow' was silenced by a coalescing of the party at a gate; and
+Hector and Harry were found deep in an argument in which the
+lieutenant's Indian reminiscences of the Naval Brigade were at issue
+with the captain's Southdown practice, and the experiences of the one
+meeting the technicalities of the other were so diverting, that
+Leonard forgot his scruples till at the entrance of the park he
+turned off towards the target with Hector and Aubrey, while the other
+two walked up to the house.
+
+The Grange atmosphere always had a strange weight of tedium in it,
+such as was specially perceptible after the joyous ease of the house
+in the High Street.  No one was in the drawing-room, and Harry gazed
+round at the stiff, almost petrified, aspect of the correct and
+tasteful arrangement of the tables and furniture, put his hands in
+his pockets, and yawned twice, asking Ethel why she did not go in
+search of Flora.  Ethel shook her head; and in another moment Flora
+appeared in eager welcome; she had been dressing for a drive to
+Stoneborough to see her brother, little expecting him to be in a
+state for walking to her.  With her came her little girl, a child
+whose aspect was always a shock to those who connected her with the
+two Margarets whose name she bore.  She had inherited her father's
+heavy mould of feature and dark complexion, and the black eyes had
+neither sparkle in themselves nor relief from the colour of the
+sallow cheek; the pouting lips were fretful, the whole appearance
+unhealthy, and the dark bullet-shaped head seemed too large for the
+thin bony little figure.  Worn, fagged, and aged as Flora looked, she
+had still so much beauty, and far more of refinement and elegance, as
+to be a painful foil and contrast to the child that clung to her,
+waywardly refusing all response to her uncle's advances.
+
+Flora made a sign to him to discontinue them, and talked of her
+husband, who was hunting, and heard the history of Harry's return and
+recovery.  In the midst, little Margaret took heart of grace, crossed
+the room, and stood by the sailor, and holding up a great India-
+rubber ball as large as her own head, asked, 'Uncle Harry, were you
+shot with a cannon-ball as big as this?'
+
+Thereupon she was on his knee, and as he had all his father's
+fascination for children, he absolutely beguiled her into ten minutes
+of genuine childish mirth, a sight so rare and precious to her
+mother, that she could not keep up her feint of talking to Ethel.
+The elderly dame, part nurse, part nursery governess, presently came
+to take Miss Rivers out, but Miss Rivers, with a whine in her voice,
+insisted on going nowhere but to see the shooting, and Uncle Harry
+must come with her; and come he did, the little bony fingers clasping
+tight hold of one of his large ones.
+
+'Dear Harry!' said Flora, 'he wins every one!  It is like a cool
+refreshing wind from the sea when he comes in.'
+
+In Flora's whole air, voice, and manner, there was apparent a
+relaxation and absence of constraint such as she never allowed
+herself except when alone with Ethel.  Then only did she relieve the
+constant strain, then only did the veritable woman show herself, and
+the effort, the toil, the weariness, the heart-ache of her life
+become visible; but close together as the sisters lived, such tete-a-
+tetes were rare, and perhaps were rather shunned than sought, as
+perilous and doubtful indulgences.  Even now, Flora at once fixed a
+limit by ordering the carriage to meet her in a quarter of an hour at
+the nearest point to the rifle-ground, saying she would walk there,
+and then take home Ethel and any brother who might be tired.
+
+'And see that Margaret does not come to harm,' said Ethel.
+
+'I am not afraid of that,' said Flora, something in her eye belying
+her; 'but she might be troublesome to Harry, and I had rather he did
+not see one of her fights with Miss Morton.'
+
+'How has she been?  I thought her looking clearer and better to-day,'
+said Ethel, kindly.
+
+'Yes, she is pretty well just now,' said Flora, allowing herself in
+one of her long deep sighs, before descending into the particulars of
+the child's anxiously-watched health.  If she had been describing
+them to her father, there would have been the same minuteness, but
+the tone would have implied cheerful hope; whereas to Ethel she took
+no pains to mask her dejection.  One of the points of anxiety was
+whether one shoulder were not outgrowing the other, but it was not
+easy to discover whether the appearance were not merely owing to the
+child's feeble and ungainly carriage.  'I cannot torment her about
+that,' said Flora.  'There are enough miseries for her already
+without making more, and as long as it does not affect her health, it
+matters little.'
+
+'No, certainly not,' said Ethel, who had hardly expected this from
+Flora.
+
+Perhaps her sister guessed her thought, for she said, 'Things are
+best as they are, Ethel; I am not fit to have a beautiful admired
+daughter.  All the past would too easily come over again, and my poor
+Margaret's troubles may be the best balance for her.'
+
+'Yes,' said Ethel, 'it is bad enough to be an heiress, but a
+beautiful heiress is in a worse predicament.'
+
+'Health would improve her looks,' began the maternal instinct of
+defence, but then breaking off.  'We met Lord H-- yesterday, and the
+uniform is to be like the northern division.  Papa will hear it
+officially to-morrow.'
+
+'The northern has gray, and green facings.'
+
+'You are more up in it than I.  All we begged for was, that it might
+be inexpensive, for the sake of the townspeople.'
+
+'I hear of little else,' said Ethel, laughing; 'Dr. Spencer is as hot
+on it as all the boys.  Now, I suppose, your party is to come off!'
+
+'Yes, it ought,' said Flora, languidly, 'I waited to see how Harry
+was, he is a great element towards making it go off well.  I will
+talk it over with Blanche, it will give somebody pleasure if she
+thinks she manages it.'
+
+'Will it give George no pleasure?'
+
+'I don't know; he calls it a great nuisance, but he would not like
+not to come forward, and it is quite right that he should.'
+
+'Quite right,' said Ethel; 'it is every one's duty to try to keep it
+up.'
+
+With these words the sisters came within sight of the targets, and
+found Margaret under Harry's charge, much interested, and
+considerably in the way.  The tidings of the colour of the uniform
+were highly appreciated; Aubrey observed that it would choke off the
+snobs who only wanted to be like the rifle brigade, and Leonard
+treated its inexpensiveness as a personal matter, having apparently
+cast off his doubts, under Hector's complimentary tuition.  Indeed,
+before it grew too dark for taking aim, he and the weapon were so
+thoroughly united, that no further difficulty remained but of getting
+out his thanks to Mr. Ernescliffe.
+
+Averil was sitting alone over the fire in the twilight, in a somewhat
+forlorn mood, when the door was pushed ajar, and the muzzle of a gun
+entered, causing her to start up in alarm, scarcely diminished by the
+sight of an exultant visage, though the words were, 'Your money or
+your life.'
+
+'Leonard, don't play with it, pray!'
+
+'It's not loaded.'
+
+'Oh! but one never can tell:' then, half ashamed of her terror, 'Pray
+put it back, or we shall have an uproar with Henry.'
+
+'This is none of Henry's.  He will never own such a beauty as this.'
+
+'Whose is it?  Not yours?  Is it really a rifle!  H. E.?  What's
+that?'
+
+'Hector Ernescliffe!  Didn't I tell you he was a princely fellow?'
+
+'Given it to you?  Leonard, dear, I am so happy!  Now I don't care
+for anything!  What a gallant volunteer you will make!' and she
+kissed him fondly.  We will order the uniform as soon as ever it is
+settled, and I hope it will be a very handsome one.'
+
+'It will be a cheap one, which is more to the purpose.  I could get
+part myself, only there's the tax for Mab, and the subscription to
+the cricket club.'
+
+'I would not have you get any of it!  You are my volunteer, and I'll
+not give up my right to any one, except that Minna and Ella want to
+give your belt.'
+
+'Where are those children?' he asked.
+
+'Henry has taken them to Laburnum Grove, where I am afraid they are
+being crammed with cake and all sorts of nonsense.'
+
+'What could have made him take them there?'
+
+'Oh! some wish of Mrs. Pugh's to see the poor little dears,' said
+Averil, the cloud returning that had been for a moment dispelled.
+
+'What's the row?' asked Leonard, kindly.  'Has he been bothering
+you?'
+
+'He wants me to sound Mary May about an invitation for Mrs. Pugh to
+Mrs. Rivers's volunteer entertainment.  I am glad I did not say no
+one in mourning ought to go, for I must go now you are a volunteer.'
+
+'But you didn't consent to mention her?'
+
+'No, indeed!  I knew very well you would say it was a most improper
+use to make of the Mays' kindness, and I can't see what business she
+has there!  Then he said, no, she was certain not to go, but the
+attention would be gratifying and proper.'
+
+'That is Mrs. Rivers's look-out.'
+
+'So I said, but Henry never will hear reason.  I did not tell you of
+our scene yesterday over the accounts; he says that we must contract
+our expenses, or he shall be ruined; so I told him I was ready to
+give up the hot-house, or the footman, or the other horse, or
+anything he would specify; but he would not hear of it--he says it
+would be fatal to alter our style of living, and that it is all my
+fault for not being economical!  0, Leonard, it is very hard to give
+up all one cared for to this housekeeping, and then never to please!'
+
+Leonard felt his brother a tyrant.  'Never mind, Ave dear,' said he,
+'go on doing right, and then you need not care for his
+unreasonableness.  You are a dear good girl, and I can't think how he
+can have the heart to vex you.'
+
+'I don't care while I have you, Leonard,' she said, clinging to him.
+
+At that moment the others were heard returning, and an ironical look
+passed between the brother and sister at certain injunctions that
+were heard passing about the little India-rubber goloshes; but Henry
+had returned in high good-humour, was pleased to hear of his
+brother's good fortune, pronounced it very handsome in Mr.
+Ernescliffe, and even offered to provide the rest of the equipment;
+but this was proudly rejected by Averil, with some of the
+manifestations of exclusive partiality that naturally wounded the
+elder brother.  He then announced an engagement that he had made with
+Mrs. Ledwich for a musical evening the next week.  Averil had her
+harmonium at her tongue's end, but the evening was a free one, chosen
+on purpose to accommodate her; she had no excuse, and must submit.
+
+'And practise some of your best pieces, Ave,' said Henry.  'Mrs. Pugh
+was kind enough to offer to come and get up some duets with yon.'
+
+'I am greatly obliged,' said Averil, dryly, 'but I do not play
+duets.'
+
+'You would do wisely to accept her kindness, argued Henry.  'It would
+be a great advantage to you to be intimate with a lady of her
+opportunities.'
+
+'I do not like patronage,' said Averil.
+
+'Ave!  Ave!' cried the children, who had been trying to attract her
+attention, 'if you will let us go to Laburnum Grove by twelve o'clock
+to-morrow, Mis. Pugh will show us her book of the pretty devices of
+letters, and teach us to make one.'
+
+'You will have not finished lessons by twelve.'
+
+'But if we have?'
+
+'No, certainly not, I can't have you bothering every one about that
+nonsensical fashion.'
+
+'You shall go, my dears,' said Henry.  'I can't think why your sister
+should be so ill-natured.'
+
+Averil felt that this was the way to destroy her authority, and
+though she kept silence, the tears were in her eyes, and her champion
+broke forth, 'How can you be such a brute, Henry?'
+
+'Come away, my dears,' said Averil, rising, and holding out her hands
+to her sisters, as she recollected how bad the scene was for them,
+but it was only Minna who obeyed the call, Ella hung about Henry,
+declaring that Leonard was naughty, and Ave was cross.
+
+'Well,' shouted Leonard, 'I shan't stay to see that child set against
+her sister!  I wonder what you mean her to come to, Henry!'
+
+It was no wonder that Minna and Ella squabbled together as to which
+was cross, Henry or Averil, and the spirit of party took up its fatal
+abode in the house of Bankside.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+
+Too oft my anxious eye has spied
+That secret grief thou fain wouldst hide--
+The passing pang of humbled pride.--SCOTT
+
+
+The winter was gay, between musical evenings, children's parties,
+clerical feastings of district visitors, soirees for Sunday-school
+teachers, and Christmas-trees for their scholars.  Such a universal
+favourite as Harry, with so keen a relish for amusement, was sure to
+fall an easy prey to invitations; but the rest of the family stood
+amazed to see him accompanied everywhere by Tom, to whom the secular
+and the religious dissipations of Stoneborough had always hitherto
+been equally distasteful.  Yet be submitted to a Christmas course of
+music, carpet-dances, and jeux de societe on the one hand, and on the
+other conferred inestimable obligations on the ecclesiastical staff
+by exhibitions of his microscope and of some of the ornamental sports
+of chemistry.
+
+'The truth is,' was the explanation privately dropped out to Ethel,
+'that some one really must see that those two don't make fools of
+themselves.'
+
+Ethel stared; then, coming to the perception who 'those two' meant,
+burst out laughing, and said, 'My dear Tom, I beg your pardon, but,
+on the whole, I think that is more likely to befall some one else.'
+
+Tom held his head loftily, and would not condescend to understand
+anything so foolish.
+
+He considered Bankside as the most dangerous quarter, for Harry was
+enraptured with Miss Ward's music, extolled her dark eyes, and openly
+avowed her attraction; but there were far more subtle perils at
+Laburnum Grove.  The fair widow was really pretty, almost elegant,
+her weeds becoming; and her disposition so good, so religious, so
+charitable, that, with her activity, intelligence, and curate-
+worship, she was a dangerous snare to such of mankind as were not
+sensible of her touch of pretension.  As to womankind, it needed a
+great deal of submissiveness to endure her at all; and this was not
+Averil Ward's leading characteristic.
+
+In fact, the ubiquity of Mrs. Pugh was a sore trial to that young
+lady, just so superior herself as to detect the flimsiness of the
+widow's attainments.  It was vexatious to find that by means of age,
+assumption, and position, these shallow accomplishments made a
+prodigious show in the world, while her own were entirely overlooked.
+She thought she despised the admiration of the second-rate world of
+Stoneborough, but it nettled her to see it thus misplaced; and there
+was something provoking in the species of semi-homage paid in that
+quarter by the youths of the May family.
+
+As to the sailor, Averil frankly liked him very much; he was the
+pleasantest young man, of the most open and agreeable manners, who
+had ever fallen in her way.  He was worthy to be Mary's brother, for
+he was friendly to Leonard, and to herself had a truthfully
+flattering way that was delightful.  Without any sentiment in the
+case, she always felt disappointed and defrauded if she were
+prevented from having a conversation with him; and when this
+happened, it was generally either from his being seized upon by Mrs.
+Pugh, or from her being baited by his brother Tom.
+
+Averil was hard to please, for she was as much annoyed by seeing Tom
+May sitting courteous and deferential by the side of Mrs. Pugh, as by
+his attentions to herself.  She knew that he was playing the widow
+off, and that, when most smooth and bland in look and tone, he was
+inwardly chuckling; and to find the identical politeness transferred
+to herself, made her feel not only affronted but insulted by being
+placed on the same level.  Thus, when, at a 'reunion' at Laburnum
+Grove, she had been looking on with intense disgust while Tom was
+admiring Mrs. Pugh s famous book of devices from letters, translating
+the mottoes, and promising contributions, the offence was greatly
+increased by his coming up to her (and that too just as Harry was
+released by the button-holding Mr. Grey) and saying,
+
+'Of course you are a collector too, Miss Ward; I can secure some
+duplicates for you.'
+
+She hoard such fooleries?  She have Mrs. Pugh's duplicates?  No
+wonder she coldly answered, 'My little sister has been slightly
+infected, thank you, but I do not care for such things.'
+
+'Indeed!  Well, I always preserve as many as I can, as passports to a
+lady's favour.'
+
+'That depends on how much sense the lady has,' said Averil, trusting
+that this was a spirited set down.
+
+'You do not consider.  Philosophically treated, they become a perfect
+school in historical heraldry, nay, in languages, in mathematical
+drawing, in illumination, said Tom, looking across to the album in
+which Mrs. Pugh's collection was enshrined, each device appropriately
+framed in bright colours.  His gravity was intolerable.  Was this
+mockery or not?  However, as answer she must, she said,
+
+'A very poor purpose for which to learn such things, and a poor way
+of learning them.'
+
+'True,' said Tom, 'one pastime is as good as another; and the less it
+pretends to, the better.  On the whole, it may be a beneficial outlet
+for the revival of illumination.'
+
+Did this intolerable person know that there was an 'illuminator's
+guide' at home, and a great deal of red, blue, and gold paint, with
+grand designs for the ornamentation of Bankside chapel?  Whether he
+knew it or not, she could not help answering, 'Illumination is
+desecrated by being used on such subjects.'
+
+'And is not that better than the subjects being desecrated by
+illumination?'
+
+Mrs. Pugh came to insist on that 'sweet thing of Mendelssohn's' from
+her dear Miss Ward; and Averil obeyed, not so glad to escape as
+inflamed by vexation at being prevented from fighting it out, and
+learning what he really meant; though she was so far used to the
+slippery nature of his arguments as to know that it was highly
+improbable that she should get at anything in earnest.
+
+'If his sisters were silly, I should not mind,' said she to Leonard;
+'then he might hold all women cheap from knowing no better; but when
+they like sensible things, why is every one else to be treated like
+an ape?'
+
+'Never mind,' said Leonard, 'he sneers at everybody all alike!  I
+can't think how Dr. May came to have such a son, or how Aubrey can
+run after him so.'
+
+'I should like to know whether they really think it irreverent to do
+illuminations.'
+
+'Nonsense, Ave; why should you trouble yourself about what he says to
+tease you? bad luck to him!'
+
+Nevertheless, Averil was not at ease till she had asked Mary's
+opinion of illumination, and Mary had referred to Ethel, and brought
+back word that all depended on the spirit of the work; that it was a
+dangerous thing, for mere fashion, to make playthings of texts of
+Scripture; but that no one could tell the blessing there might be in
+dwelling on them with loving decoration, or having them placed where
+the eye and thought might be won by them.  In fact, Ethel always
+hated fashion, but feared prejudice.
+
+The crown of the whole carnival was to be the Abbotstoke
+entertainment on the enrolment of the volunteers.  Preparations went
+on with great spirit, and the drill sergeant had unremitting work,
+the target little peace, and Aubrey and Leonard were justly accused
+of making fetishes of their rifles.  The town was frantic, no clothes
+but uniforms could be had, and the tradesmen forgot their customers
+in the excitement of electing officers.
+
+Averil thought it very officious of Mrs. Pugh to collect a romantic
+party of banner-working young ladies before the member's wife or the
+mayor's family had authorized it; and she refused to join, both on
+the plea of want of time, and because she heard that Mr. Elvers, a
+real dragoon, declared colours to be inappropriate to riflemen.  And
+so he did; but his wife said the point was not martial correctness,
+but popular feeling; so Mary gratified the party by bringing her
+needle, Dr. Spencer took care the blazonry of the arms of the old
+abbey was correct, and Flora asked the great lady of the county to
+present the banner, and gave the invitation to Mrs. Pugh, who sighed,
+shook her head, dried her eyes, and said something about goodness and
+spirits; and Mrs. Rivers professed to understand, and hope Mrs. Pugh
+would do exactly as best suited her.
+
+Was this manoeuvring, or only living in the present?
+
+Mary accompanied Harry for a long day of shopping in London when he
+went to report himself, starting and returning in the clouds of
+night, and transacting a prodigious amount of business with intense
+delight and no fatigue; and she was considered to have fitted out the
+mayor's daughters suitably with his municipal dignity, of which Ethel
+piqued herself on being proud.
+
+The entertainment was not easy to arrange at such a season, and
+Blanche's 'experience,' being of early autumn, was at fault; but
+Flora sent for all that could embellish her conservatories, and by
+one of the charities by which she loved to kill two birds with one
+stone, imported a young lady who gained her livelihood by singing at
+private concerts, and with her for a star, supported by the Minster
+and Cathedral choirs, hoped to get up sufficient music to occupy
+people till it should be late enough to dance.  She still had some
+diplomacy to exercise, for Mrs. Ledwich suggested asking dear Ave
+Ward to sing, her own dearest Matilda would not object on such an
+occasion to assist the sweet girl; and Mrs. Rivers, after her usual
+prudent fashion, giving neither denial nor assent, Mrs. Ledwich
+trotted off, and put Averil into an agony that raised a needless
+storm in the Bankside house; Leonard declaring the request an insult,
+and Henry insisting that Ave ought to have no scruples in doing
+anything Mrs. Pugh thought proper to be done.  And finally, when Ave
+rushed with her despair to Mary May, it was to be relieved at finding
+that Mrs. Rivers had never dreamt of exposing her to such an ordeal.
+
+Though it was the year 1860, the sun shone on the great day, and
+there were exhilarating tokens of spring, singing birds, opening
+buds, sparkling drops, and a general sense of festivity; as the gray
+and green began to flit about the streets, and while Mr. Mayor
+repaired to the Town Hall to administer the oaths to the corps, his
+unmartial sons and his daughters started for the Grange to assist
+Flora in the reception of her guests.
+
+The Lord Lieutenant's wife and daughters, as well as the
+Ernescliffes, had slept there, and Ethel found them all with Flora in
+the great hall, which looked like a winter garden, interspersed with
+tables covered with plate and glass, where eating and drinking might
+go on all day long.  But Ethel's heart sank within her at the sight
+of Flora's haggard face and sunken eyes.  'What is the matter?' she
+asked Blanche, an image of contented beauty.
+
+'Matter?  Oh, they have been stupid in marking the ground, and Hector
+is gone to see about it.  That's all.  He is not at all tired.'
+
+'I never supposed he was,' said Ethel, 'but what makes Flora look so
+ill?'
+
+'Oh, that tiresome child has got another cold, and fretted half the
+night.  It is all their fault for giving way to her; and she has done
+nothing but whine this whole morning because she is not well enough
+to go out and see the practice!  I am sure it is no misfortune that
+she is not to come down and be looked at.'
+
+Ethel crossed over to Flora, and asked whether she should go up and
+see little Margaret.
+
+'I should be so thankful,' said poor Flora; 'but don't excite her.
+She is not at all well, and has had very little sleep.'
+
+Ethel ran up-stairs, and found herself in the midst of a fight
+between the governess and Margaret, who wanted to go to the draughty
+passage window, which she fancied had a better view than that of her
+nursery.  Luckily, Aunt Ethel was almost the only person whom
+Margaret did not like to see her naughty; and she subsided into a
+much less objectionable lamentation after Uncle Harry and his anchor
+buttons.  Ethel promised to try whether he could be found, and
+confident in his good-nature, ran down, and boldly captured him as he
+was setting out to see Hector's operations.  He came with a ready
+smile, and the child was happy throughout his stay.  Flora presently
+stole a moment's visit, intending her sister's release as well as
+his; but Ethel, in pity to governess as well as pupil, declared the
+nursery window to be a prime post of observation, and begged to be
+there left.
+
+Margaret began to believe that they were very snug there, and by the
+time the bugles were heard, had forgotten her troubles in watching
+the arrivals.
+
+Up came the gray files, and Ethel's heart throbbed and her eye
+glistened at their regular tread and military bearing.  Quickly
+Margaret made out papa; but he was too real a soldier to evince
+consciousness of being at his own door, before the eyes of his wife
+and daughter; and Aubrey's young face was made up in imitation of his
+impassiveness.  Other eyes were less under control, and of these were
+a brown pair that wandered restlessly, till they were raised to the
+nursery window, and there found satisfaction.
+
+The aunt and niece were too immediately above the terrace to see what
+passed upon it, nor could they hear the words; so they only beheld
+the approach of the Ensign, and after a brief interval, his return
+with the tall green silk colours, with the arms of the old abbey
+embroidered in the corner, and heard the enthusiastic cheer that rang
+out from all the corps.
+
+Then the colours led the way to the ground for practice, for
+manoeuvres were as yet not ready for exhibition.  Almost all the
+gentlemen followed; and such ladies as did not object to gunpowder or
+damp grass, thither betook themselves, guided by the ardent Mrs.
+Ernescliffe.  Having disposed of the others in the drawing-rooms and
+gardens, Flora and her father came to the nursery, and Ethel was set
+at liberty to witness the prowess of her young champions, being
+assured by Flora that she would be of more use there in keeping the
+youthful population out of danger than in entertaining the more timid
+in the house.
+
+She slipped out and hurried down a narrow path towards the scene of
+action, presently becoming aware of four figures before her, which
+her glass resolved into Harry and Tom, a lady in black, and a child.
+Evidently the devoted Tom was keeping guard over one of the
+enchantresses, for the figure was that of Averil Ward, though, as
+Ethel said, shaking hands, she was hardly to be known with only one
+sister.
+
+'We have been delayed,' said Averil; 'poor little Ella was in an
+agony about the firing, and we could not leave her till your
+brother'--indicating Harry--'was so kind as to take her to Gertrude.'
+
+'True to the Englishwoman's boast of never having seen the smoke of
+an engagement,' said Tom.
+
+'A practising is not an engagement,' said Ethel.
+
+'There may be quite as many casualties,' quoth Tom, indulging in some
+of the current ready-made wit on the dangers of volunteering, for the
+pure purpose of teasing; but he was vigorously fallen upon by Harry
+and Ethel, and Averil brightened as she heard him put to the rout.
+The shots were already heard, when two more black figures were seen
+in the distance, going towards the gate.
+
+'Is that Richard?' exclaimed Tom.
+
+'Ay, and I do believe, the widow!' rejoined Harry.
+
+'Oh, yes,' said Averil.  'I heard her talking about Abbotstoke
+Church, and saying how much she wished to see it.  She must have got
+Mr. May to show it to her.'
+
+Ethel, who had no real fears for Richard herself, looked on amused to
+watch how the guardian spirit was going to act.  He exclaimed, 'By
+the bye, Miss Ward, would you not like to see it?  They have a very
+nice brass to old Mr. Rivers, and have been doing up the chancel.'
+
+'Thank you, said Ave, 'I should prefer going to see how Leonard is
+getting on.'
+
+'Right, Miss Ward. said Harry; 'the church won't run away.'
+
+'Well, then,' said Tom, after a moment's hesitation, 'I think I shall
+just run down, as the church is open, and see what sort of work they
+have made of the chancel.'
+
+Ethel had the strongest fancy to try what he would do if she were to
+be seized with a desire to inspect the chancel; but she did not wish
+to let Harry and Averil appear on the ground under no escort but
+Minna's, and so permitted Tom to leave them to her keeping, and
+watched him hasten to break up the tete-a-tete.
+
+Coming among the spectators, who, chiefly drawn up on the carriage
+drive, were watching from a safe distance the gray figures in turn
+take aim and emit from their rifles the flash and cotton-wool-like
+tuft of smoke, Ethel's interest was somewhat diminished by hearing
+that all the other marksmen had been distanced by the head keepers of
+Abbotstoke and Drydale, between whom the contest really lay.
+
+'The rest is a study of character,' said Dr. Spencer, taking a turn
+up and down the road with her.  'I have been watching the various
+pairs of brothers; and I doubt if any stand the test as well as the
+house of May.'
+
+'There's only one in the field to-day.'
+
+'Yes, but I've seen them together before now, and I will say for even
+Tom that he has no black looks when his junior shoots better than he
+does.'
+
+'Oh, yes!  But then it is Aubrey.'
+
+Dr. Spencer laughed.  'Lucky household where that "it is" accounts
+for all favours to the youngest, instead of for the countenance
+falling at his successes.'
+
+'I am afraid I know whom you mean.  But he has no generosity in him.'
+
+'And his sister helps to make him jealous.'
+
+'I am afraid she does; but though it is very sad, one can't wonder at
+her preference of the great to the small.'
+
+'Poor girl, I wonder how she will get on when there is a new inmate
+in the happy family.'
+
+'Ha! you shocking old gossip, what have you found out now?'
+
+'Negotiation for the introduction of a Pug dog from the best circles-
+-eh?'
+
+'Well, if he were alone in the world, it would be a capital match.'
+
+'So she thinks, I fancy; but L600 a year might do better than
+purchase so many incumbrances.  Depend upon it, the late lamented
+will remain in the ascendant till there are no breakers ahead.'
+
+In process of time, ladies, volunteers, and all, were assembled in
+the great music-room for the concert; and Ethel, having worked hard
+in the service of the company, thought her present duty lay with the
+sick child, and quietly crept away, taking, however, one full view of
+the entire scene, partly for her own satisfaction, partly in case
+Margaret should be inclined to question her on what every one was
+doing.
+
+There was the orchestra, whose erection Richard had superintended;
+there was the conductor in his station, and the broad back of the
+Cathedral organist at the piano, the jolly red visages of the singing
+men in their ranks, the fresh faces of the choristers full of
+elation, the star from London, looking quiet and ladylike,
+courteously led to her place by George Rivers himself.  But, for all
+his civility, how bored and sullen he looked! and how weary were poor
+Flora's smiles, though her manner was so engaging, and her universal
+attention so unremitting!  What a contrast to the serene, self-
+enfolded look of happiness and prosperity on the pretty youthful face
+of Blanche, her rich delicate silk spreading far beyond the sofa
+where she sat among the great ladies; and her tall yellow-haired
+husband leaning against the wall behind her, in wondering
+contemplation of his Blanche taking her place in her own county.
+
+Farther back, among the more ordinary herd, Ethel perceived Mrs.
+Pugh, bridling demurely, with Tom on guard over her on one side, and
+Henry Ward looking sulky on the other, with his youngest sister in
+his charge.  The other was looking very happy upon Leonard's knee,
+close to Averil and Mary, who were evidently highly satisfied to have
+coalesced.  Averil was looking strikingly pretty--the light fell
+favourably on her profuse glossy hair, straight features, and
+brilliant colouring; her dark eyes were full of animation, and her
+lips were apart with a smile as she listened to Leonard's eager
+narration; and Ethel glanced towards Harry to see whether he were
+admiring.  No; Harry was bringing in a hall arm-chair in the
+background, for a vary large, heavy, vulgar-looking old man, who
+seemed too ponderous and infirm for a place on the benches.  Richard
+made one of a black mass of clergy, and Aubrey and Gertrude had
+asserted their independence by perching themselves on a window-seat,
+as far as possible from all relations, whence they nodded a merry
+saucy greeting to Ethel, and she smiled back again, thinking her tall
+boy in his gray tunic and black belt, and her plump girl in white
+with green ribbons, were as goodly a pair as the room contained.
+
+But where was the Doctor?
+
+Ethel had a shrewd suspicion where she should find him; and in the
+nursery he was, playing at spillekens with his left hand.
+
+It was not easy to persuade him that the music would be wasted on
+her, and that he ought to go down that it might receive justice; but
+Margaret settled the question. 'You may go, grandpapa.  Aunt Ethel is
+best to play at spillekens, for she has not got a left hand.'
+
+'There's honour for me, who used to have two!' and therewith Ethel
+turned him out in time for the overture.
+
+Margaret respected her aunt sufficiently not to be extra wayward with
+her, and between the spillekens, and a long story about Cousin Dickie
+in New Zealand, all went well till bed-time.  There was something in
+the child's nervous temperament that made the first hours of the
+night peculiarly painful to her, and the sounds of the distant
+festivity added to her excitability.  She fretted and tossed, moaned
+and wailed, sat up in bed and cried, snapped off attempts at hymns,
+would not listen to stories, and received Ethel's attempts at calm
+grave commands with bursts of crying, and calls for mamma and papa.
+The music had ceased, tuning of violins was heard, and Ethel dreaded
+the cries being heard down-stairs.  She was at her wits' end, and was
+thinking who would most avail, and could be fetched with least
+sensation, when there was a soft knock at the door, and Harry's voice
+said, 'Hollo, what's the matter here?'  In he came with his white
+glove half on, and perceiving the state of the case said, 'Can't go
+to sleep?'
+
+'Oh, Uncle Harry, take me;' and the arms were stretched out, and the
+tear-stained face raised up.
+
+'We'll put you to sleep as sound as if you were in a hammock just off
+middle watch,' said Harry; and the next moment he had her rolled up
+in her little blue dressing-gown, nestling on his broad shoulder,
+while he walked up and down the room, crooning out a nautical song,
+not in first-rate style, but the effect was perfect; the struggles
+and sobs were over, and when at the end of a quarter of an hour Harry
+paused and looked at the little thin sharp face, it was softened by
+peaceful sleep.
+
+Ethel pointed to the door.  There stood Flora, her eyes full of
+tears.
+
+Harry laid the little sleeper on her bed, and covered her up.  Flora
+laid her arm on his shoulder and gave him such a kiss as she had not
+given even when he had come back as from the dead.  Then she signed
+to them to come, but sped away before them, not trusting herself to
+speak.  Ethel tarried with Harry, who was in difficulties with gloves
+too small for his broad hand, and was pshawing at himself at having
+let Tom get them for him at Whitford.
+
+'0, Harry,' said Ethel, 'you are the most really like papa of us all!
+How did you come to think of it!'
+
+'I'd have given a good deal if any one would have walked quarter-deck
+with me some nights last summer,' said Harry, still intent on the
+glove.  'What is to be done, Ethel! that rogue Tom always snaps up
+all the beauty.  I dare say he has engaged Miss Ward and the widow
+both.'
+
+It was no time for sentiment; so Ethel suggested getting half into
+one glove, and carrying the other.
+
+'You'll be quite irresistible enough, Harry!  And if all the beauty
+is engaged, I'll dance with you myself.'
+
+'Will you?' cried the lieutenant, with sparkling eyes, 'then you are
+a jolly old Ethel!  Come along, then;' and he took her on his arm,
+ran down-stairs with her, and before she well knew where she was, or
+what was going on, she found herself in his great grasp passive as a
+doll, dragged off into the midst of a vehement polka that took her
+breath away.  She trusted to him, and remained in a passive, half-
+frightened state, glad he was so happy; but in the first pause
+heartily wishing he would let her go, instead of which she only
+heard, 'Well done, old Ethel, you'll be a prime dancer yet! you're as
+light as a feather;' and before she had recovered her breath, off he
+led her with 'Go it again!'
+
+When at length, panting and bewildered, she was safely placed on a
+seat, with 'You've had enough, have you? mind, I shan't let you off
+another time,' she found that her aberration had excited a good deal
+of sensation in her own family.  Blanche and Gertrude could not
+repress their amusement; and Dr. May, with merry eyes, declared that
+she was coming out in a new light.  She had only time to confide to
+him the reason that she had let Harry do what he pleased with her,
+before two volunteers were at her side.
+
+'Miss May, I did not think you ever danced!'
+
+'Nor I,' said Ethel; 'but you see what sailors can do with one.'
+
+'Now, Ethel' said the other over his shoulder, 'now you have danced
+with Harry, you must have this waltz with me.'
+
+'A dangerous precedent, Ethel,' said the Doctor, laughing.
+
+'I couldn't waltz to save my life, Aubrey,' said Ethel; 'but if you
+can bear me through a polka as well as Harry did, you may try the
+next.'
+
+'And won't you--will you--for once dance with me? said his companion
+imploringly.
+
+'Very well, Leonard, if I can get through a quadrille;' and therewith
+Ethel was seized upon by both boys to hear the story of every hit and
+miss, and of each of the difficulties that their unpractised corps
+had encountered in getting round the corners between Stoneborough and
+the Grange.  Then came Leonard's quadrille, which it might be hoped
+was gratifying to him; but which he executed with as much solemn
+deference as if he had been treading a minuet with a princess,
+plainly regarding it as the great event of the day.  In due time, he
+resigned her to Aubrey; but poor Aubrey had been deluded by the
+facility with which the strong and practised sailor had swept his
+victim along; and Ethel grew terrified at the danger of collisions,
+and released herself and pulled him aside by force, just in time to
+avoid being borne down by the ponderous weight of Miss Boulder and
+her partner.
+
+'You did not come to grief with Harry!' muttered the discomfited
+boy.
+
+'No more did the lamb damage the eagle; but remember the fate of the
+jackdaw, Mr. Gray-coat!  I deserve some ice for my exertions, so come
+into the hall and get some, and tell me if you have had better luck
+elsewhere.'
+
+'I have had no partner but Minna Ward, and she trips as if one was a
+dancing-master.'
+
+'And how has Tom been managing?'
+
+'Stunningly civil!  He began with Ave Ward, in the Lancers, and it
+was such fun--he chaffed her in his solemn way, about music I believe
+it was, and her harmonium.  I could not quite hear, but I could see
+she was in a tremendous taking, and she won't recover it all the
+evening.'
+
+'What a shame it is of Tom!'
+
+'Oh! but it is such fun!  And since that he has been parading with
+Pug.'
+
+'She has not danced!'
+
+'Oh no!  She got an audience into Meta's little sitting-room--Henry
+Ward, Harvey Anderson, and some of the curates; they shut the door,
+and had some music on their own hook.'
+
+'Was Richard there!'
+
+'At first; but either he could not bear to see Meta's piano profaned,
+or he thought it too strong when they got to the sacred line, for he
+bolted, and is gone home.'
+
+'There's Harry dancing with Fanny Anderson.  He has not got Miss Ward
+all this time.'
+
+'Nor will,' said Aubrey.  'Tom had put her in such a rage that she
+did not choose to dance with that cousin of hers, Sam Axworthy, so
+she was obliged to refuse every one else; and I had to put up with
+that child!'
+
+'Sam Axworthy!  He does not belong to our corps.  How does he come
+here?'
+
+'Oh! the old man has some houses in the borough, and an omnium
+gatherum like this was a good time to do the civil thing to him.
+There he is; peep into the card-room, and you'll see his great
+porpoise back, the same old man that Harry in his benevolence
+assisted to a chair.  He shook hands with Leonard, and told him there
+was a snug desk at the Vintry Mill for him.'
+
+'I dare say!'
+
+'And when Leonard thanked him, and said he hoped to get off to
+Cambridge, he laughed that horrid fat laugh, and told him learning
+would never put him in good case.  Where shall I find you a place to
+sit down?  Pug and her tail have taken up all the room,' whispered
+Aubrey, as by the chief of the glittering tables in the hall, he saw
+Mrs. Pugh, drinking tea, surrounded by her attendant gentlemen, and
+with her aunt and Ella Ward, like satellites, a little way from her.
+
+'Here is a coign of vantage,' said Ethel, seating herself on a step a
+little way up the staircase.  'How those people have taken possession
+of that child all day!'
+
+'I fancy Leonard is come to reclaim her,' said Aubrey, 'don't you see
+him trying to work through and get at her! and Miss Ward told me she
+was going home early, to put the children to bed.  Ha! what's the
+row?  There's Leonard flaring up in a regular rage!  Only look at his
+eyes--and Henry just like Gertrude's Java sparrow in a taking--'
+
+'It must not be,' cried Ethel, starting up to attempt she knew not
+what, as she heard Leonard's words, 'Say it was a mistake, Henry!
+You cannot be so base as to persist!'
+
+There it became evident that Ethel and Aubrey were seen over the
+balusters; Leonard's colour deepened, but his eye did not flinch;
+though Henry quailed and backed, and the widow gave a disconcerted
+laugh; then Leonard pounced on his little sister and carried her off
+to the cloak-room.  'What treason could it have been?' muttered
+Aubrey; 'we shall get it all from Ward;' but when Leonard re-appeared
+it was with his sister cloaked and bonneted on his arm, each leading
+a little one; he took them to the entrance and was seen no more.
+
+Nor was the true history of that explosion ever revealed in the May
+family, though it had grave consequences at Bankside.
+
+Rumour had long declared at Stoneborough that the member's little
+daughter was carefully secluded on account of some deformity, and
+Mrs. Pugh had been one of many ladies who had hoped to satisfy their
+curiosity on this head upon the present occasion.  She had asked
+Henry Ward whether it were so, and he had replied with pique that he
+had no means of judging, he had never been called in at the Grange.
+By way of salve to his feelings, the sympathizing lady had suggested
+that the preference for London advice might be from the desire of
+secrecy, and improbable as he knew this to be, his vanity had
+forbidden him to argue against it.  When no little Miss Rivers
+appeared, the notion of her affliction gained ground, and Leonard,
+whose gray back was undistinguishable from other gray backs, heard
+Mrs. Pugh citing his brother as an authority for the misfortune which
+Mr. and Mrs. Rivers so carefully concealed as to employ no surgeon
+from their own neighbourhood.
+
+Falsehood, slander, cruelty, ingratitude, breach of hospitality, were
+the imputations that fired the hot brain of Leonard, and writhed his
+lips, as he started round, confronted the lady, and assured her it
+was a--a--a gross mistake.  His father had always attended the child,
+and she must have misunderstood his brother.  Then, seeing Henry at a
+little distance, Leonard summoned him to contradict the allegation;
+but at that moment the sudden appearance of the two Mays put the
+whole conclave to silence.
+
+Not aware that Mrs. Pugh had confounded together his intelligence and
+her surmise, and made him responsible for both, Henry was shocked and
+grieved at his brother's insulting and violent demeanour, and
+exhausted himself in apologies and denunciations; while the kind-
+hearted lady interceded, for the boy, declaring that she doted on his
+generous spirit, but not confessing the piece of female embroidery
+which had embroiled the matter; probably not even aware of it, though
+sincerely and kindly desirous to avert the brother's anger.  Her
+amiability, therefore, only strengthened Henry's sense of his
+brothers outrage, and his resolve to call him to account.
+
+It was impossible that night, for Leonard had gone home with the
+sisters, and was in bed long before his brother returned.  But at
+breakfast Henry found the forces drawn up against him, and his first
+attempt to remonstrate was retorted by the demand what he could mean
+by spreading such an abominable report--cruel--unfounded--ungrateful-
+-spiteful--
+
+Averil indeed divined that it was Mrs. Pugh's invention; but Henry
+was not inclined to give up Mrs. Pugh, and continued in the belief
+that Leonard's fiery imagination had fabricated the sentence, and
+then most improperly charged it on the lady, and on himself.  Had it
+been as Leonard stated, said Henry, his conduct was shameful and
+required an apology, whereupon Leonard burst out in passion at being
+disbelieved, and Averil was no less indignant.  The storm raged till
+the business of the day interrupted it; and in Henry's absence,
+Averil and her brother worked up their wrath again, at the atrocity
+of the assertion regarding the child of their entertainers, the
+granddaughter of their truest, kindest friend.
+
+Averil would have rushed to Mary with the whole story, but for
+Leonard's solemn asseveration that if ever it came to the ears of any
+one of the Mays, he should send back his rifle to Mr. Ernescliffe,
+and work his way out to one of the colonies rather than again look
+any of the family in the face.
+
+Henry divided his opponents next time, asking Leonard, in his
+sister's absence, whether he had come to his senses and would
+apologize?  Leonard hoped Henry had come to his!  On the whole, the
+dispute had lost some asperity by the absence of Averil, and though
+Leonard held his ground, and maintained that he had every right to
+deny the statement, and that it was Henry's duty to make Mrs. Pugh
+contradict it everywhere, yet the two approached nearer together, and
+there was less misunderstanding, fewer personalities.
+
+But Averil could not forget or forgive.  She persisted in manifesting
+her displeasure, and recurred to the subject till her pertinacity
+wore out Leonard himself.
+
+'Nonsense, Ave,' he said at last, 'it was a foolish woman's gossip
+that Henry ought to have quashed; but that is no reason you should
+treat them like toads.'
+
+'Would you have me sanction vile slander?'
+
+'As if you were sanctioning slander by being decently civil!  Is not
+it an intolerable thing that we three should never sit down to a meal
+in peace together?'
+
+'0, Leonard, don't you think I feel the misery?'
+
+Put an end to it then, and don't pit those poor children one against
+the other.  Just fancy Minna's saying to me, "I love you and sister,
+but Ella loves Mrs. Pugh and Henry."'
+
+'Yes, they have set Ella against me.  She always appeals to Henry,
+and I can do nothing with her.'
+
+Leonard looked out of the window and whistled, then said, as if he
+had made a discovery, 'I'll tell you what, Ave, something must be
+done to set things to rights between us, and I believe the best thing
+will be to call on Mrs. Pugh.'
+
+'Not to apologize!  0, Leonard!'
+
+'Stuff and nonsense!  Only to show we don't bear malice.  Henry had
+been at you to call ever so long before this, had he not?'
+
+'I can't see any reason for intimacy.'
+
+'I declare, Ave, you are too bad!  I only want you just to keep the
+peace with your own brother.  You have led him the life of a dog
+these three days, and now when I want you to be a little obliging,
+you talk of intimacy!'
+
+'Only because I know how it will be.  If I give that woman an inch,
+she will take an ell.'
+
+'Let her then.  It would be much better than always living at
+daggers-drawn with one's brother.'  Then, after waiting for her to
+say something, he added, 'If you won't go with me, I shall go alone.'
+
+Averil rose, subdued but not convinced, reverencing her brother, but
+afraid of his concessions.
+
+However, the call turned out well.  Mrs. Pugh had a talent for making
+herself agreeable, and probably had liked the boy for his outburst.
+She would not let Mab be excluded, loaded her with admiration, and
+was extremely interested in the volunteer practice, so that both the
+young people were subjugated for the time by her pleasant manners,
+and went away ashamed of their own rancour against one so friendly
+and good-natured, and considerably relieved of their burden of
+animosity.
+
+Their greeting to their brother was so cordial that he perceived
+their good-will, and was sorry that the dread of an evening of
+warfare had induced him to accept an invitation to dine at the Swan
+with Sam Axworthy and a party of his friends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+
+This night is my departing night,
+  For here nae longer must I stay;
+There's neither friend nor foe of mine
+  But wishes me away.
+What I have done through lack of wit,
+  I never, never can recall:
+I hope ye're all my friends as yet.
+  Good night, and joy be with you all.
+                               Armstrong's Good Night
+
+
+The storm had blown over, but heavy flakes of cloud still cumbered
+the air, and gusts of wind portended that it might gather again.
+
+Henry Ward took this opportunity of giving his first dinner party.
+He said it was a necessary return for the civilities they had
+received; and to Averil's representation that it transgressed the
+system of rigid economy that so much tormented her, he replied by
+referring her to Mrs. Pugh for lessons in the combination of style
+and inexpensiveness.
+
+Averil had almost refused, but the lady herself proffered her
+instructions, and reluctance was of no avail; nothing but
+demonstrations from which her conscience shrank, could have served to
+defend her from the officious interference so eagerly and thankfully
+encouraged by the master of the house.  Vainly did she protest
+against pretension, and quote the example of the Grange; she found
+herself compelled to sacrifice the children's lessons to learn of
+Mrs. Pugh to make the paper flowers that, with bonbons and
+sweetmeats, were to save the expense of good food on the dinner-
+table, and which she feared would be despised by Miss May, nay,
+perhaps laughed over with 'Mr. Tom!'
+
+She hated the whole concern, even the invitation to Dr. and Miss May,
+knowing that it was sent in formal vanity, accepted in pure good-
+nature, would bring them into society they did not like, and expose
+her brother's bad taste.  Only one thing could have added to her
+dislike, namely--that which all Stoneborough perceived excepting
+herself and Leonard--that this dinner was intended as a step in
+Henry's courtship, and possibly as an encouragement of Harvey
+Anderson's liking for herself.  Averil held her head so high, and was
+so little popular, that no one of less assurance than Mrs. Ledwich
+herself would have dared approach her with personal gossip; and even
+Mrs. Ledwich was silent here; so that Averil, too young and innocent
+to connect second marriages with recent widowhood, drew no
+conclusions from Henry's restless eagerness that his household should
+present the most imposing appearance.
+
+While the bill of fare was worrying Averil, Leonard was told by
+Aubrey, that his father had brought home a fossil Tower of Babel, dug
+up with some earth out of a new well, three miles off, with tidings
+of other unheard-of treasures, and a walk was projected in quest of
+them, in which Leonard was invited to join.  He gladly came to the
+early dinner, where he met reduced numbers--the Ernescliffes being at
+Maplewood, Tom at Cambridge, and Harry in the Channel fleet; and as
+usual, he felt the difference between the perfect understanding and
+friendship in the one home, and the dread of dangerous subjects in
+the other.  The expedition had all the charms of the Coombe times;
+and the geological discoveries were so numerous and precious, that
+the load became sufficient to break down the finders, and Ethel
+engaged a market-woman to bring the baskets in her cart the next
+morning.
+
+That morning a note from Richard begged Ethel to come early to
+Cocksmoor to see Granny Hall, who was dying.  Thus left to their own
+devices, Aubrey and Gertrude conscientiously vent through some of
+their studies; then proceeded to unpack their treasury of fossils,
+and endeavour to sort out Leonard's share, as to which doubts arose.
+Daisy proposed to carry the specimens at once to Bankside, where she
+wanted to see Leonard's prime echinus; and Aubrey readily agreed,
+neither of the young heads having learnt the undesirableness of a
+morning visit in a house preparing for a dinner-party too big for it.
+
+However, Leonard made them extremely welcome.  It was too foggy a day
+for rifle practice, and all the best plate and china were in the
+school-room, his only place of refuge; Ave was fluttering about in
+hopes of getting everything done before Mrs. Pugh could take it out
+of her hands, and the energies of the household were spent on laying
+out the dining-table.  It was clearly impossible to take Gertrude
+anywhere but into the drawing-room, which was in demi-toilette state,
+the lustres released from their veils, the gayer cushions taken out
+of their hiding-places, and the brown holland covers half off.  This
+was the only tranquil spot, and so poor little Mab thought, forbidden
+ground though it was.  Even in her own home, the school-room, a
+strange man had twice trod upon her toes; so no wonder, when she saw
+her own master and his friends in the drawing-room, that she ventured
+in, and leaping on a velvet cushion she had never seen before, and
+had never been ordered off, she there curled herself up and went to
+sleep, unseen by Leonard, who was in eager controversy upon the
+specimens, which Gertrude, as she unpacked, set down on floor, chair,
+or ottoman, unaware of the offence she was committing.  So,
+unmolested, the young geologists talked, named, and sorted the
+specimens, till the clock striking the half-hour, warned the Mays
+that they must return; and Leonard let them out at the window, and
+crossed the lawn to the side gate with them to save the distance.
+
+He had just returned, and was kneeling on the floor hastily
+collecting the fossils, when the door opened, and Henry Ward, coming
+home to inspect the preparations, beheld the drawing-room bestrewn
+with the rough stones that he had proscribed, and Mab, not only in
+the room, but reposing in the centre of the most magnificent cushion
+in the house!
+
+His first movement of indignation was to seize the dog with no gentle
+hand.  She whined loudly; and Leonard, whom he had not seen, shouted
+angrily, 'Let her alone;' then, at another cry from her, finding his
+advance to her rescue impeded by a barricade of the crowded and
+disarranged furniture, he grew mad with passion, and launched the
+stone in his hand, a long sharp-pointed belemnite.  It did not strike
+Henry, but a sound proclaimed the mischief, as it fell back from the
+surface of the mirror, making a huge star of cracks, unmarked by
+Leonard, who, pushing sofa and ottoman to the right and left,
+thundered up to his brother, and with uplifted hand demanded what he
+meant by his cruelty.
+
+'Is--is this defiance?' stammered Henry, pointing to the disordered
+room.
+
+'Look here, Averil,' as she appeared at the sounds, 'do you defend
+this boy now he has very nearly killed me?'
+
+'Killed you!' and Leonard laughed angrily; but when Henry held up the
+elf-bolt, and he saw its sharp point, he was shocked, and he saw
+horror in Averil's face.
+
+'I see,' he said gravely.  'It was a mercy I did not!' and he paused.
+'I did not know what I was about when you were misusing my dog,
+Henry.  Shake hands; I am sorry for it.'
+
+But Henry had been very much frightened as well as angered, and
+thought, perhaps, it was a moment to pursue his advantage.
+
+'You treat things lightly,' he said, not accepting the hand.
+
+'See what you have done.'
+
+'I am glad it was not your head,' said Leonard.  'What does it cost?
+I'll pay.'
+
+'More than your keep for a year,' moaned Henry, as he sighed over the
+long limbs of the starfish-like fracture.
+
+'Well, I will give up anything you like, if you will only not be
+sulky about it, Henry.  It was unlucky, and I'm sorry for it; I can't
+say more!'
+
+'But I can,' said Henry with angry dignity, re-inforced by the sight
+of the seamed reflection of his visage in the shivered glass.  'I
+tell you, Leonard, there's no having you in the house; you defy my
+authority, you insult my friends, you waste and destroy more than you
+are worth, and you are absolutely dangerous.  I would as soon have a
+wild beast about the place.  If you don't get the Randall next week,
+and get off to the University, to old Axworthy's office you go at
+once.'
+
+'Very well, I will,' said Leonard, turning to collect the fossils, as
+if he had done with the subject.
+
+'Henry, Henry, what are you saying?' cried the sister.
+
+'Not a word, Ave,' said Leonard.  'I had rather break stones on the
+road than live where my keep is grudged, and there's not spirit
+enough to get over a moment's fright.'
+
+'It is not any one individual thing,' began Henry, in a tone of
+annoyance, 'but your whole course--'
+
+There he paused, perceiving that Leonard paid no attention to his
+words, continuing quietly to replace the furniture and collect the
+fossils, as it no one else were in the room, after which he carried
+the basket up-stairs.
+
+Averil hurried after him.  'Leonard! oh, why don't you explain?  Why
+don't you tell him how the stones came there?'
+
+Leonard shook his head sternly.
+
+'Don't you mean to do anything?'
+
+'Nothing.'
+
+'But you wanted another year before trying for the scholarship.'
+
+'Yes; I have no chance there.'
+
+'He will not do it!  He cannot mean it!'
+
+'I do then.  I will get my own living, and not be a burthen, where my
+brother cannot forgive a broken glass or a moment's fright,' said
+Leonard; and she felt that his calm resentment was worse than his
+violence.
+
+'He will be cooler, and then--'
+
+'I will have no more said to him.  It is plain that we cannot live
+together, and there's an end of it.  Don't cry, or you won't be fit
+to be seen.'
+
+'I won't come down to dinner.'
+
+'Yes, you will.  Let us have no more about it.  Some one wants you.'
+
+'Please, ma'am, the fish is come.'
+
+'Sister, sister, come and see how I have done up the macaroons in
+green leaves.'
+
+'Sister, sister, do come and reach me down some calycanthus out of
+the greenhouse!'
+
+'I will,' said Leonard, descending; and for the rest of the day he
+was an efficient assistant in the decorations, and the past adventure
+was only apparent in the shattered glass, and the stern ceremonious
+courtesy of the younger brother towards the elder.
+
+Averil hurried about, devoid of all her former interest in so doing
+things for herself as to save interference; and when Mrs. Ledwich and
+Mrs. Pugh walked in, overflowing with suggestions, she let them have
+their way, and toiled under them with the sensation of being like
+'dumb driven cattle.'  If Leonard were to be an exile, what mattered
+it to her who ruled, or what appearance things made?
+
+Only when she went to her own room to dress, had she a moment to
+realize the catastrophe, its consequences, and the means of averting
+them.  So appalled was she, that she sat with her hair on her
+shoulders as if spell-bound, till the first ring at the door aroused
+her to speed and consternation, perhaps a little lessened by one of
+her sisters rushing in to say that it was Mrs. Ledwich and Mrs. Pugh,
+and that Henry was still in the cellar, decanting the wine.
+
+Long before the hosts were ready, Dr. May and Ethel had likewise
+arrived, and became cognizant of the fracture of the mirror, for,
+though the nucleus was concealed by a large photograph stuck into the
+frame, one long crack extended even to the opposite corner.  The two
+ladies were not slow to relate all that they knew; and while the aunt
+dismayed Ethel by her story, the niece, with much anxiety, asked Dr.
+May how it was that these dear, nice, superior young people should
+have such unfortunate tempers--was it from any error in management?
+So earnest was her manner, so inquiring her look, that Dr. May
+suspected that she was feeling for his opinion on personal grounds,
+and tried to avert the danger by talking of the excellence of the
+parents, but he was recalled from his eulogium on poor Mrs. Ward.
+
+'Oh yes! one felt for them so very much, and they are so religious,
+so well principled, and all that one could wish; but family
+dissension is so dreadful.  I am very little used to young men or
+boys, and I never knew anything like this.'
+
+'The lads are too nearly of an age,' said the Doctor.
+
+'And would such things be likely to happen among any brothers?'
+
+'I should trust not!' said the Doctor emphatically.
+
+'I should so like to know in confidence which you think likely to be
+most to blame.'
+
+Never was the Doctor more glad that Averil made her appearance!  He
+carefully avoided getting near Mrs. Pugh for the rest of the evening,
+but he could not help observing that she was less gracious than usual
+to the master of the house; while she summoned Leonard to her side to
+ask about the volunteer proceedings, and formed her immediate court
+of Harvey Anderson and Mr. Scudamour.
+
+The dinner went on fairly, though heavily.  Averil, in her one great
+trouble, lost the sense of the minor offences that would have
+distressed her pride and her taste had she been able to attend to
+them, and forgot the dulness of the scene in her anxiety to seek
+sympathy and counsel in the only quarter where she cared for it.  She
+went mechanically through her duties as lady of the house, talking
+commonplace subjects dreamily to Dr. May, and scarcely even giving
+herself the trouble to be brief with Mr. Anderson, who was on her
+other side at dinner.
+
+In the drawing-room, she left the other ladies to their own devices
+in her eagerness to secure a few minutes with Ethel May, and disabuse
+her of whatever Mrs. Ledwich or Mrs. Pugh might have said.  Ethel had
+been more hopeful before she heard the true version; she had hitherto
+allowed much for Mrs. Ledwich's embellishments; and she was shocked
+and took shame to her own guiltless head for Gertrude's
+thoughtlessness.
+
+'Oh no!' said Averil, 'there was nothing that any one need have
+minded, if Henry had waited for explanation!  And now, will you get
+Dr. May to speak to him?  If he only knew how people would think of
+his treating Leonard so, I am sure he would not do it.'
+
+
+'He cannot!' said Ethel.  'Don't you know what he thinks of it
+himself?  He said to papa last year that your father would as soon
+have sent Leonard to the hulks as to the Vintry Mill.'
+
+'Oh, I am so glad some one heard him.  He would care about having
+that cast up against him, if he cared for nothing else.'
+
+'It must have been a mere threat.  Leonard surely has only to ask his
+pardon.'
+
+'No, indeed, not again, Miss May!' said Averil.  'Leonard asked once,
+and was refused, and cannot ask again.  No, the only difficulty is
+whether he ought not to keep to his word, and go to the mill if he
+does not get the Randall.'
+
+'Did he say he would?'
+
+'Of course he did, when Henry threatened him with it, and talked of
+the burden of his maintenance!  He said, "Very well, I will," and he
+means it!'
+
+'He will not mean it when the spirit of repentance has had time to
+waken.'
+
+'He will take nothing that is grudged him,' said Averil.  'Oh! is it
+not hard that I cannot get at my own money, and send him at once to
+Cambridge, and never ask Henry for another farthing?'
+
+'Nay, Averil; I think you can do a better part by trying to make them
+forgive one another.'
+
+Averil had no notion of Leonard's again abasing himself, and though
+she might try to bring Henry to reason by reproaches, she would not
+persuade.  She wished her guest had been the sympathizing Mary rather
+than Miss May, who was sure to take the part of the elder and the
+authority.  Repentance!  Forgiveness!  If Miss May should work on
+Leonard to sue for pardon and toleration, and Mrs. Pugh should
+intercede with Henry to take him into favour, she had rather he were
+at the Vintry Mill at once in his dignity, and Henry be left to his
+disgrace.
+
+Ethel thought of Dr. Spencer's words on the beach at Coombe, 'Never
+threaten Providence!'  She longed to repeat them to Leonard, as she
+watched his stern determined face, and the elaborately quiet motions
+that spoke of a fixed resentful purpose; but to her disappointment
+and misgiving, he gave her no opportunity, and for the first time
+since their sea-side intercourse, held aloof from her.
+
+Nor did she see him again during the week that intervened before the
+decision of the scholarship, though three days of it were holidays.
+Aubrey, whom she desired to bring him in after the rifle drill,
+reported that he pronounced himself sorry to refuse, but too busy to
+come in, and he seemed to be cramming with fiery vehemence for the
+mere chance of success.
+
+The chance was small.  The only hope lay in the possibility of some
+hindrance preventing the return of either Forder or Folliot; and in
+the meantime the Mays anxiously thought over Leonard's prospects.
+His remaining at home was evidently too great a trial for both
+brothers, and without a scholarship he could not go to the
+University.  The evils of the alternative offered by his brother were
+duly weighed by the Doctor and Ethel with an attempt to be impartial.
+
+Mr. Axworthy, though the mill was the centre of his business, was in
+fact a corn merchant of considerable wealth, and with opportunities
+of extending his connection much farther.  Had his personal character
+been otherwise, Dr. May thought a young man could not have a better
+opening than a seat in his office, and the future power of taking
+shares in his trade; there need be no loss of position, and there was
+great likelihood both of prosperity and the means of extensive
+usefulness.
+
+Ethel sighed at the thought of the higher aspirations that she had
+fostered till her own mind was set on them.
+
+'Nay,' said the Doctor, 'depend upon it, the desk is admirable
+training for good soldiers of the Church.  See the fearful evil that
+befalls great schemes intrusted to people who cannot deal with money
+matters; and see, on the other hand, what our merchants and men of
+business have done for the Church, and do not scorn "the receipt of
+custom."'
+
+'But the man, papa!'
+
+'Yes, there lies the hitch!  If Leonard fails, I can lay things
+before Henry, such as perhaps he may be too young to know, and which
+must change his purpose.'
+
+Mr. Axworthy's career during his youth and early manhood was guessed
+at rather than known, but even since his return and occupation of the
+Vintry Mill, his vicious habits had scandalized the neighbourhood,
+and though the more flagrant of these had been discontinued as he
+advanced in age, there was no reason to hope that he had so much
+'left off his sins, as that his sins had left him off.'  His great-
+nephew, who lived with him and assisted in his business, was a
+dashing sporting young man of no good character, known to be often
+intoxicated, and concerned in much low dissipation, and as dangerous
+an associate as could be conceived for a high-spirited lad like
+Leonard.  Dr. May could not believe that any provocation of temper,
+any motive of economy, any desire to be rid of encumbrances to his
+courtship, could induce a man with so much good in him, as there
+certainly was in Henry Ward, to expose his orphan brother to such
+temptations; and he only reserved his remonstrance in the trust that
+it would not be needed, and the desire to offer some better
+alternative of present relief.
+
+One of the examiners was Norman's old school and college friend,
+Charles Cheviot, now a clergyman and an under-master at one of the
+great schools recently opened for the middle classes, where he was
+meeting with great success, and was considered a capital judge of
+boys' characters.  He was the guest of the Mays during the
+examination; and though his shy formal manner, and convulsive efforts
+at young lady talk, greatly affronted Gertrude, the brothers liked
+him.
+
+He was in consternation at the decline of Stoneborough school since
+Mr. Wilmot had ceased to be an under-master; the whole tone of the
+school had degenerated, and it was no wonder that the Government
+inquiries were ominously directed in that quarter.  Scholarship was
+at a low ebb, Dr. Hoxton seemed to have lost what power of teaching
+he had ever possessed, and as Dr. May observed, the poor old school
+was going to the dogs.  But even in the present state of things,
+Leonard had no chance of excelling his competitors.  His study, like
+theirs, had been mere task-work, and though he showed more native
+power than the rest, yet perhaps this had made the mere learning by
+rote even more difficult to an active mind full of inquiry.  He was a
+whole year younger than any other who touched the foremost ranks, two
+years younger than several; and though he now and then showed a
+feverish spark of genius, reminding Mr. Cheviot of Norman in his
+famous examination, it was not sustained--there were will and force,
+but not scholarship--and besides, there was a wide blurred spot in
+his memory, as though all the brain-work of the quarter before his
+illness had been confused, and had not yet become clear.  There was
+every likelihood that a few years would make him superior to the
+chosen Randall scholar, but at present his utmost efforts did not
+even place him among the seven whose names appeared honourably in the
+newspaper.  It was a failure; but Mr. Cheviot had become much
+interested in the boy for his own sake, as well as from what he heard
+from the Mays, and he strongly advised that Leonard should at Easter
+obtain employment for a couple of years at the school in which he
+himself was concerned.  He would thus be maintaining himself, and
+pursuing his own studies under good direction, so as to have every
+probability of success in getting an open scholarship at one of the
+Universities.
+
+Nothing could be better, and there was a perfect jubilee among the
+Mays at the proposal.  Aubrey was despatched as soon as breakfast was
+over to bring Leonard to talk it over, and Dr. May undertook to
+propound it to Henry on meeting him at the hospital; but Aubrey came
+back looking very blank--Leonard had started of his own accord that
+morning to announce to his uncle his acceptance of a clerk's desk at
+the Vintry Mill!
+
+Averil followed upon Aubrey's footsteps, and arrived while the
+schoolroom was ringing with notes of vexation and consternation.  She
+was all upon the defensive.  She said that not a word had passed on
+the subject since the dinner-party, and there had not been a shadow
+of a dispute between the brothers; in fact, she evidently was
+delighted with Leonard's dignified position and strength of
+determination, and thought this expedition to the Vintry Mill a
+signal victory.
+
+When she heard what the Mays had to propose, she was enchanted, she
+had no doubt of Henry's willing consent, and felt that Leonard's
+triumph and independence were secured without the sacrifice of
+prospects, which she had begun to regard as a considerable price for
+his dignity.
+
+But Dr. May was not so successful with Henry Ward.  He did not want
+to disoblige his uncle, who had taken a fancy to Leonard, and might
+do much for the family; he thought his father would have changed his
+views of the uncle and nephew had he known them better, he would not
+accept the opinion of a stranger against people of his own family,
+and he had always understood the position of an usher to be most
+wretched, nor would he perceive the vast difference between the staff
+of the middle school and of the private commercial academy.  He
+evidently was pleased to stand upon his rights, to disappoint Dr.
+May, and perhaps to gratify his jealousy by denying his brother a
+superior education.
+
+Yet in spite of this ebullition, which had greatly exasperated Dr.
+May, there was every probability that Henry's consent might be wrung
+out or dispensed with, and plans of attack
+were being arranged at the tea-table, when a new obstacle in the
+shape of a note from Leonard himself.
+
+
+'My Dear Aubrey,
+
+'I am very much obliged to Dr. May and Mr. Cheviot for their kind
+intentions; but I have quite settled with Mr. Axworthy, and I enter
+on my new duties next week.  I am sorry to leave our corps, but it is
+too far off, and I must enter the Whitford one.
+
+                                      'Yours,
+                                          'L. A. Ward.'
+
+
+'The boy is mad with pride and temper,' said the Doctor.
+
+'And his sister has made him so,' added Ethel.
+
+'Shall I run down to Bankside and tell him it is all bosh?' said
+Aubrey, jumping up.
+
+'I don't think that is quite possible under Henry's very nose,' said
+Ethel.  'Perhaps they will all be tamer by to-morrow, now they have
+blown their trumpets; but I am very much vexed.'
+
+'And really,' added Mr. Cheviot, 'if he is so wrong-headed, I begin
+to doubt if I could recommend him.'
+
+'You do not know how he has been galled and irritated,' said the
+general voice.
+
+'I wonder what Mrs. Pugh thinks of it,' presently observed the
+Doctor.
+
+'Ah!' said Ethel, 'Mrs. Pugh is reading "John of Anjou".'
+
+'Indeed!' said the Doctor; 'I suspected the wind was getting into
+that quarter.  Master Henry does not know his own interest: she was
+sure to take part with a handsome lad.'
+
+'Why have you never got Mrs. Pugh to speak for him?' said Mary.  'I
+am sure she would.'
+
+'0, Mary! simple Mary, you to be Ave's friend, and not know that her
+interposition is the only thing wanting to complete the frenzy of the
+other two!'
+
+Ethel said little more that evening, she was too much grieved and too
+anxious.  She was extremely disappointed in Leonard, and almost
+hopeless as to his future.  She saw but one chance of preventing his
+seeking this place of temptation, and that was in the exertion of her
+personal influence.  His avoidance of her showed that he dreaded it,
+but one attempt must be made.  All night was spent in broken dreams
+of just failing to meet him, or of being unable to utter what was on
+her tongue; and in her waking moments she almost reproached herself
+for the discovery how near her heart he was, and how much pleasure
+his devotion had given her.
+
+Nothing but resolution on her own part could bring about a meeting,
+and she was resolute.  She stormed the castle in person, and told
+Averil she must speak to Leonard.  Ave was on her side now, and
+answered with tears in her eyes that she should be most grateful to
+have Leonard persuaded out of this dreadful plan, and put in the way
+of excelling as he ought to do; she never thought it would come to
+this.
+
+'No,' thought Ethel; 'people blow sparks without thinking they may
+burn a house down.'
+
+Ave conducted her to the summer-house, where Leonard was packing up
+his fossils.  He met them with a face resolutely bent on brightness.
+'I am to take all my household gods,' he said, as he shook hands with
+Ethel.
+
+'I see,' said Ethel, gravely; and as Averil was already falling out
+of hearing, she added, 'I thought you were entirely breaking with
+your old life.'
+
+'No, indeed,' said Leonard, turning to walk with her in the paths; 'I
+am leaving the place where it is most impossible to live in.'
+
+'This has been a place of great, over-great trial, I know,' said
+Ethel, 'but I do not ask you to stay in it.'
+
+'My word is my word,' said Leonard, snapping little boughs off the
+laurels as he walked.
+
+'A hasty word ought not to be kept.'
+
+His face looked rigid, and he answered not.
+
+'Leonard,' she said, 'I have been very unhappy about you, for I see
+you doing wilfully wrong, and entering a place of temptation in a
+dangerous spirit.'
+
+'I have given my word,' repeated Leonard.
+
+'0, Leonard, it is pride that is speaking, not the love of truth and
+constancy.'
+
+'I never defend myself,' said Leonard.
+
+Ethel felt deeply the obduracy and pride of these answers; her eyes
+filled with tears, and her hopes failed.
+
+Perhaps Leonard saw the pain he was giving, for he softened, and
+said, 'Miss May, I have thought it over, and I cannot go back.  I
+know I was carried away by passion at the first moment, and I was
+willing to make amends.  I was rejected, as you know.  Was it fit
+that we should go on living together?'
+
+'I do not ask you to live together.'
+
+'When he reproached me with the cost of my maintenance, and
+threatened me with the mill if I lost the scholarship, which he knew
+I could not get, I said I would abide by those words.  I do abide by
+them.'
+
+'There is no reason that you should.  Why should you give up all your
+best and highest hopes, because you cannot forgive your brother?'
+
+'Miss May, if I lived with you and the Doctor, I could have such
+aims.  Henry has taken care to make them sacrilege for me.  I shall
+never be fit now, and there's an end of it.'
+
+'You might--'
+
+'No, no, no!  A school, indeed!  I should be dismissed for licking
+the boys before a week was out!  Besides, I want the readiest way to
+get on in the world; I must take care of my sisters; I don't trust
+one moment to Henry's affection for any of them.  This is no home for
+me, and it soon may be no home for them!' and the boy's eyes were
+full of tears, though his voice struggled for firmness and
+indifference.
+
+'I am very sorry for you, Leonard,' said Ethel, much more
+affectionately, as she felt herself nearer her friend of Coombe.
+'I am glad you have some better motives, but I do not see how you
+will be more able to help them in this way.'
+
+'I shall be near them,' said Leonard; 'I can watch over them.  And
+if--if--it is true what they say about Henry and Mrs. Pugh--then they
+could have a cottage near the mill, and I could live with them.
+Don't you see, Miss May?'
+
+'Yes; but I question whether, on further acquaintance, you will wish
+for your sisters to be with their relations there.  The other course
+would put you in the way of a better atmosphere for them.'
+
+'But not for six years,' said Leonard.  'No, Miss May; to show you it
+is not what you think in me, I will tell you that I had resolved the
+last thing to ask Henry's pardon for my share in this unhappy half-
+year; but this is the only resource for me or my sisters, and my mind
+is made up.'
+
+'0, Leonard, are you not deceiving yourself?  Are the grapes ever so
+sour, or the nightshade below so sweet, as when the fox has leapt too
+short, and is too proud to climb?'
+
+'Nightshade!  Why, pray?'
+
+'My father would tell you; I know he thinks your cousin no safe
+companion.'
+
+'I know that already, but I can keep out of his way.'
+
+'Then this is the end of it,' said Ethel, feeling only half justified
+in going so far, 'the end of all we thought and talked of at Coombe!'
+
+There was a struggle in the boy's face, and she did not know whether
+she had touched or angered him.  'I can't help it,' he said, as if he
+would have recalled his former hardness; but then softening, 'No,
+Miss May, why should it be?  A man can do his duty in any state of
+life.'
+
+'In any state of life where God has placed him; but how when it is
+his own self-will?'
+
+'There are times when one must judge for one's self.'
+
+'Very well, then, I have done, Leonard.  If you can conscientiously
+feel that you are acting for the best, and not to gratify your pride,
+then I can only say I hope you will be helped through the course you
+have chosen.  Good-bye.'
+
+'But--Miss May--though I cannot take your advice--' he hesitated,
+'this is not giving me up?'
+
+'Never, while you let me esteem you.'
+
+'Thank you,' he said, brightening, 'that is something to keep my head
+above water, even if this place were all you think it.'
+
+'My father thinks,' said Ethel.
+
+'I am engaged now; I cannot go back,' said Leonard.  'Thank you. Miss
+May.'
+
+'Thank you for listening patiently,' said Ethel.  'Good-bye.'
+
+'And--and,' he added earnestly, following her back to the house, 'you
+do not think the Coombe days cancelled?'
+
+'If you mean my hopes of you,' said Ethel, with a swelling heart, 'as
+long as you do your duty--for--for the highest reason, they will only
+take another course, and I will try to think it the right one.'
+
+Ethel had mentally made this interview the test of her regard for
+Leonard.  She had failed, and so had her test; her influence had not
+succeeded, but it had not snapped; the boy, in all his wilfulness,
+had been too much for her, and she could no longer condemn and throw
+him off!
+
+Oh! why will not the rights and wrongs of this world be more clearly
+divided!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+
+The stream was deeper than I thought
+  When first I ventured here,
+I stood upon its sloping edge
+  Without a rising fear.--H. BONAR
+
+
+It was a comfort to find that the brothers parted on good terms.  The
+elder was beholden to the younger for the acquiescence that removed
+the odium of tyranny from the expulsion, and when the one great
+disturbance had silenced the ephemeral dissensions that had kept both
+minds in a constant state of irritation, Henry wanted, by kindness
+and consideration, to prove to himself and the world that Leonard's
+real interests were his sole object; and Leonard rejoiced in being at
+peace, so long as his pride and resolution were not sacrificed.  He
+went off as though his employment had been the unanimous choice of
+the family, carrying with him his dog, his rifle, his fishing-rod,
+his fossils, and all his other possessions, but with the
+understanding that his Sundays were to be passed at home, by way of
+safeguard to his religion and morals, bespeaking the care and
+consideration of his senior, as Henry assured himself and Mrs. Pugh,
+and tried to persuade his sister and Dr. May.
+
+But Dr. May was more implacable than all the rest.  He called Henry's
+action the deed of Joseph's brethren, and viewed the matter as the
+responsible head of a family; he had a more vivid contemporaneous
+knowledge of the Axworthy antecedents, and he had been a witness to
+Henry's original indignant repudiation of such a destiny for his
+brother.  He was in the mood of a man whose charity had endured long,
+and refused to condemn, but whose condemnation, when forced from him,
+was therefore doubly strong.  The displeasure of a loving charitable
+man is indeed a grave misfortune.
+
+Never had he known a more selfish and unprincipled measure,
+deliberately flying in the face of his parents' known wishes before
+they had been a year in their graves, exposing his brother to ruinous
+temptation with his eyes open.  The lad was destroyed body and soul,
+as much as if he had been set down in Satan's own clutches; and if
+they did not mind what they were about, he would drag Aubrey after
+him!  As sure as his name was Dick May, he would sooner have cut his
+hand off than have sent the boys to Coombe together, could he have
+guessed that this was to be the result.
+
+Such discourses did not tend to make Ethel comfortable.  If she had
+been silly enough to indulge in a dream of her influence availing to
+strengthen Leonard against temptation, she must still have refrained
+from exerting it through her wonted medium, since it was her father's
+express desire that Aubrey, for his own sake, should be detached from
+his friend as much as possible.
+
+Aubrey was the greatest present difficulty.  Long before their
+illness the boys had been the resource of each other's leisure, and
+Coombe had made their intimacy a friendship of the warmest nature.
+Aubrey was at an age peculiarly dependent on equal companionship, and
+in the absence of his brothers, the loss of his daily intercourse
+with Leonard took away all the zest of life.  Even the volunteer
+practice lost its charm without the rival with whom he chiefly
+contended, yet whose success against others was hotter to him than
+his own; his other occupations all wanted partnership, and for the
+first time in his life he showed weariness and contempt of his
+sisters' society and pursuits.  He rushed off on Sunday evenings for
+a walk with Leonard; and though Dr. May did not interfere, the
+daughters saw that the abstinence was an effort of prudence, and were
+proportionately disturbed when one day at dinner, in his father's
+absence, Aubrey, who had been overlooking his fishing-flies with some
+reviving interest, refused all his sisters' proposals for the
+afternoon, and when they represented that it was not a good fishing-
+day, owned that it was not, but that he was going over to consult
+Leonard Ward about some gray hackles.
+
+'But you mustn't, Aubrey,' cried Gertrude, aghast.
+
+Aubrey made her a low mocking bow.
+
+'I am sure papa would be very much vexed,' added she, conclusively.
+
+'I believe it was luckless Hal that the mill-wheel tore in your
+nursery rhymes, eh, Daisy,' said Aubrey.
+
+'Nursery rhymes, indeed!' returned the offended young lady; 'you know
+it is a very wicked place, and papa would be very angry at your going
+there.'  She looked at Ethel, extremely shocked at her not having
+interfered, and disregarding all signs to keep silence.
+
+'Axworthy--worthy of the axe,' said Aubrey, well pleased to retort a
+little teasing by the way; 'young Axworthy baiting the trap, and old
+Axworthy sitting up in his den to grind the unwary limb from limb!'
+
+'Ethel, why don't you tell him not?' exclaimed Gertrude.
+
+'Because he knows papa's wishes as well as I do,' said Ethel; 'and it
+is to them that he must attend, not to you or me.'
+
+Aubrey muttered something about his father having said nothing to
+him; and Ethel succeeded in preventing Daisy from resenting this
+answer.  She herself hoped to catch him in private, but he easily
+contrived to baffle this attempt, and was soon marching out of
+Stoneborough in a state of rampant independence, manhood, and
+resolute friendship, which nevertheless chose the way where he was
+least likely to encounter a little brown brougham.
+
+Otherwise he might have reckoned three and a half miles of ploughed
+field, soppy lane, and water meadow, as more than equivalent to five
+miles of good turnpike road.
+
+Be that as it might, he was extremely glad when, after forcing his
+way through a sticky clayey path through a hazel copse, his eye fell
+on a wide reach of meadow land, the railroad making a hard line
+across it at one end, and in the midst, about half a mile off, the
+river meandering like a blue ribbon lying loosely across the green
+flat, the handsome buildings of the Vintry Mill lying in its embrace.
+
+Aubrey knew the outward aspect of the place, for the foreman at the
+mill was a frequent patient of his father's, and he had often waited
+in the old gig at the cottage door at no great distance; but he
+looked with more critical eyes at the home of his friend.
+
+It was a place with much capacity, built, like the Grange, by the
+monks of the convent, which had been the germ of the cathedral, and
+showing the grand old monastic style in the solidity of its stone
+barns and storehouses, all arranged around a court, whereof the
+dwelling-house occupied one side, the lawn behind it with fine old
+trees, and sloping down to the water, which was full of bright
+ripples after its agitation around the great mill-wheel.  The house
+was of more recent date, having been built by a wealthy yeoman of
+Queen Anne's time, and had long ranges of square-headed sash windows,
+surmounted by a pediment, carved with emblems of Ceres and Bacchus,
+and a very tall front door, also with a pediment, and with stone
+stops leading up to it.  Of the same era appeared to be the great
+gateway, and the turret above it, containing a clock, the hands of
+which pointed to 3.40.
+
+Aubrey had rather it had been four, at which time the office closed.
+He looked round the court, which seemed very dean and rather empty--
+stables, barns, buildings, and dwelling-house not showing much sign
+of life, excepting the ceaseless hum and clack of the mill, and the
+dash of the water which propelled it.  The windows nearest to him
+were so large and low, that he could look in and see that the first
+two or three belonged to living rooms, and the next two showed him
+business fittings, and a back that he took to be Leonard's; but he
+paused in doubt how to present himself, and whether this were a
+welcome moment, and he was very glad to see in a doorway of the upper
+story of the mill buildings, the honest floury face of his father's
+old patient--the foreman.
+
+Greeting him in the open cordial way common to all Dr. May's
+children, Aubrey was at once recognized, and the old man came down a
+step-ladder in the interior to welcome him, and answer his question
+where he should find Mr. Ward.
+
+'He is in the office, sir, there, to the left hand as you go in at
+the front door, but--' and he looked up at the clock, 'maybe, you
+would not mind waiting a bit till it strikes four.  I don't know
+whether master might be best pleased at young gentlemen coming to see
+him in office hours.'
+
+'Thank you,' said Aubrey.  'I did not mean to be too soon, Hardy, but
+I did not know how long the walk would be.'
+
+Perhaps it would have been more true had he said that he had wanted
+to elude his sisters, but he was glad to accept a seat on a bundle of
+sacks tremulous with the motion of the mill, and to enter into a
+conversation with the old foreman, one of those good old peasants
+whose integrity and skill render them privileged persons, worth their
+weight in gold long after their bodily strength has given way.
+
+'Well, Hardy, do you mean to make a thorough good miller of Mr.
+Ward?'
+
+'Bless you, Master May, he'll never stay here long enough.'
+
+'Why not?'
+
+'No, nor his friends didn't ought to let him stay!' added Hardy.
+
+'Why?' said Aubrey.  'Do you think so badly of your own trade,
+Hardy?'
+
+But he could not get an answer from the oracle on this head.  Hardy
+continued, 'He's a nice young gentleman, but he'll never put up with
+it.'
+
+'Put up with what?' asked Aubrey, anxiously; but at that instant a
+carter appeared at the door with a question for Master Hardy, and
+Aubrey was left to his own devices, and the hum and clatter of the
+mill, till the clock had struck four; and beginning to think that
+Hardy had forgotten him, he was about to set out and reconnoitre,
+when to his great joy Leonard himself came hurrying up, and heartily
+shook him by the hand.
+
+'Hardy told me you were here,' he said.  'Well done, old fellow, I
+didn't think they would have let you come and see me.'
+
+'The girls did make a great row about it,' said Aubrey, triumphantly,
+'but I was not going to stand any nonsense.'
+
+Leonard looked a little doubtful; then said, 'Well, will you see the
+place, or come and sit in my room?  There is the parlour, but we
+shall not be so quiet there.'
+
+Aubrey decided for Leonard's room, and was taken through the front
+door into a vestibule paved with white stone, with black lozenges at
+the intersections.  'There,' said Leonard, 'the office is here, you
+see, and my uncle's rooms beyond, all on the ground floor, he is too
+infirm to go up-stairs.  This way is the dining-room, and Sam has got
+a sitting-room beyond, then there are the servants' rooms.  It is a
+great place, and horridly empty.'
+
+Aubrey thought so, as his footsteps echoed up the handsome but ill-
+kept stone staircase, with its fanciful balusters half choked with
+dust, and followed Leonard along a corridor, with deep windows
+overlooking the garden and river, and great panelled doors opposite,
+neither looking as if they were often either cleaned or opened, and
+the passage smelling very fusty.
+
+'Pah!' said Aubrey; 'it puts me in mind of the wings of houses in
+books that get shut up because somebody has been murdered!  Are you
+sure it is not haunted, Leonard?'
+
+'Only by the rats,' he answered, laughing; 'they make such an
+intolerable row, that poor little Mab is frightened out of her wits,
+and I don't know whether they would not eat her up if she did not
+creep up close to me.  I'm tired of going at them with the poker, and
+would poison every man Jack of them if it were not for the fear of
+her getting the dose by mistake.'
+
+'Is that what Hardy says you will never put up with?' asked Aubrey;
+but instead of answering, Leonard turned to one of the great windows,
+saying,
+
+'There now, would not this be a charming place if it were properly
+kept?' and Aubrey looked out at the great cedar, spreading out its
+straight limbs and flakes of dark foliage over the sloping lawn, one
+branch so near the window as to invite adventurous exits, and a
+little boat lying moored in the dancing water below.
+
+'Perfect!' said Aubrey.  'What fish there must lie in the mill tail!'
+
+'Ay, I mean to have a try at them some of these days, I should like
+you to come and help, but perhaps-- Ha, little Mab, do you wonder
+what I'm after so long?  Here's a friend for you: as the little dog
+danced delighted round him, and paid Aubrey her affectionate
+respects.  Her delicate drawing-room beauty did not match with the
+spacious but neglected-looking room whence she issued.  It had three
+great uncurtained windows looking into the court, with deep window-
+seats, olive-coloured painted walls, the worse for damp and wear, a
+small amount of old-fashioned solid furniture, and all Leonard's
+individual goods, chiefly disposed of in a cupboard in the wall, but
+Averil's beautiful water-coloured drawings hung over the chimney.  To
+Aubrey's petted home-bred notions it was very bare and dreary, and he
+could not help exclaiming, 'Well, they don't lodge you sumptuously!'
+
+'I don't fancy many clerks in her Majesty's dominions have so big and
+airy an apartment to boast of,' said Leonard.  'Let's see these flies
+of yours.'
+
+Their mysteries occupied the boys for some space; but Aubrey returned
+to the charge.  'What is it that Hardy says you'll never put up with,
+Leonard?'
+
+'What did the old fellow say?' asked Leonard, laughing; and as Aubrey
+repeated the conversation, ending with the oracular prediction, he
+laughed again, but said proudly, 'He'll see himself wrong then.  I'll
+put up with whatever I've undertaken.'
+
+'But what does he mean?'
+
+'Serving one's apprenticeship, I suppose,' said Leonard; 'they all
+think me a fine gentleman, and above the work, I know, though I've
+never stuck at anything yet.  If I take to the business, I suppose it
+is capable of being raised up to me--it need not pull me down to it,
+eh?'
+
+'There need be no down in the case,' said Aubrey.  'My father always
+says there is no down except in meanness and wrong.  But,' as if that
+mention brought a recollection to his mind, 'what o'clock is it?  I
+must not stay much longer.'
+
+'I'll walk a bit of the way home with you,' said Leonard, 'but I must
+be back by five for dinner.  I go to rifle practice two days in the
+week, and I don't like to miss the others, for Sam's often out, and
+the poor old man does not like being left alone at meals.'
+
+The two boys were at the room door, when Aubrey heard a step, felt
+the fustiness enlivened by the odour of a cigar, and saw a figure at
+the top of the stairs.
+
+'I say, Ward,' observed Mr. Sam, in a rude domineering voice,
+'Spelman's account must be all looked over to-night; he says that
+there is a blunder.  D'ye hear?'
+
+'Very well.'
+
+'Who have you got there?'
+
+'It is Aubrey May.'
+
+'Oh! good morning to you,' making a kind of salutation; 'have you
+been looking at the water?  We've got some fine fish there, if you
+like to throw a line any day. --Well, that account must be done to-
+night, and if you can't find the error, you'll only have to do it
+over again.'
+
+Leonard's colour had risen a good deal, but he said nothing, and his
+cousin ran down-stairs and drove off in his dog-cart.
+
+'Is it much of a business?' said Aubrey, feeling extremely indignant.
+
+'Look here,' said Leonard, leading the way down-stairs and into the
+office, where he pointed to two huge account books.  'Every page in
+that one must I turn over this blessed night; and if he had only told
+me three hours ago, I could have done the chief of it, instead of
+kicking my heels all the afternoon.'
+
+'Has he any right to order you about, out of office hours, and
+without a civil word either?  Why do you stand it?'
+
+'Because I can stand anything better than being returned on Henry's
+hands,' said Leonard, 'and he has spite enough for that.  The thing
+must be done, and if he won't do it, I must, that's all.  Come
+along.'
+
+As they went out the unwieldy figure of the elder Mr. Axworthy was
+seen, leaning out of his open window, smoking a clay pipe.  He spoke
+in a much more friendly tone, as he said, 'Going out, eh?  Mind the
+dinner-time.'
+
+'Yes, sir,' said Leonard, coming nearer, 'I'm not going far.'
+
+'Who have you got there?' was again asked.
+
+'One of the young Mays, sir.  I was going to walk part of the way
+back.'
+
+Aubrey thought the grunt not very civil; and as the boys and Mab
+passed under the gateway, Leonard continued, 'There's not much love
+lost between him and your father; he hates the very name.'
+
+'I should expect he would,' said Aubrey, as if his hatred were an
+honour.
+
+'I fancy there's some old grievance,' said Leonard, 'where he was
+wrong of course.  Not that that need hinder your coming over, Aubrey;
+I've a right to my own friends, but--'
+
+'And so have I to mine,' said Aubrey eagerly.
+
+'But you see,' added Leonard, 'I wouldn't have you do it--if--if it
+vexes your sister.  I can see you every Sunday, you know, and we can
+have some fun together on Saturdays when the evenings get longer.'
+
+Aubrey's face fell; he had a strong inclination for Leonard's
+company, and likewise for the trout in the mill tail, and he did not
+like his independence to be unappreciated.
+
+'You see,' said Leonard, laying his hand kindly on his shoulder, 'it
+is very jolly of you, but I know they would hate it in the High
+Street if you were often here, and it is not worth that.  Besides,
+Aubrey, to tell the plain truth, Sam's not fit company for any decent
+fellow.'
+
+'I can't think how he came to ask me to fish.'
+
+'Just to show he is master, because he knew the poor old man would
+not like it!  It is one reason he is so savage with me, because his
+uncle took me without his consent.'
+
+'But, Leonard, it must be worse than the living at home ever was.'
+
+Leonard laughed.  'It's different being jawed in the way of business
+and at one's own home.  I'd go through a good deal more than I do
+here in the week to have home what it is now on Sunday.  Why, Henry
+really seems glad to see me, and we have not had the shadow of a row
+since I came over here.  Don't you tell Ave all this, mind, and you
+may just as well not talk about it at home, you know, or they will
+think I'm going to cry off.'
+
+Aubrey was going to ask what he looked to; but Leonard saw, or
+thought he saw, a weasel in the hedge, and the consequent charge and
+pursuit finished the dialogue, the boys parted, and Aubrey walked
+home, his satisfaction in his expedition oozing away at every step,
+though his resolve to assert his liberty grew in proportion.
+
+Of course it had not been possible to conceal from Dr. May where
+Aubrey was gone, and his annoyance had burst out vehemently, the
+whole round of objurgations against the Wards, the Vintry Mill, and
+his own folly in fostering the friendship, were gone through, and
+Ethel had come in for more than she could easily bear, for not having
+prevented the escapade.  Gertrude had hardly ever seen her father so
+angry, and sat quaking for her brother; and Ethel meekly avoided
+answering again, with the happy trustfulness of experienced love.
+
+At last, as the tea was nearly over, Aubrey walked in, quite ready
+for self-defence.  Nobody spoke for a little while, except to supply
+him with food; but presently Dr. May said, not at all in the tone in
+which he had talked of his son's journey, 'You might as well have
+told me of your intentions, Aubrey.'
+
+'I didn't think they mattered to anybody,' said Aubrey; 'we generally
+go our own way in the afternoon.'
+
+'Oh!' said Dr. May.  'Interference with the liberty of the subject?'
+
+Aubrey coloured, and felt he had not quite spoken truth.  'I could
+not give him up, father,' he said, less defiantly.
+
+'No, certainly not; but I had rather you only saw him at home.  It
+will be more for our peace of mind.'
+
+'Well, father,' said Aubrey, 'I am not going there any more.  He told
+me not himself:' and then with laughing eyes he added, 'He said you
+would not like it, Ethel.'
+
+'Poor boy!' said Ethel, greatly touched.
+
+'Very right of him,' said Dr. May, well pleased.  'He is a fine lad,
+and full of proper feeling.  What sort of a berth has the old rogue
+given him, Aubrey?'
+
+Much relieved that matters had taken this course, Aubrey tried to
+tell only as much as his friend would approve, but the medium was not
+easily found, and pretty nearly the whole came out.  Dr. May was
+really delighted to hear how Sam treated him.
+
+'If that fellow takes the oppressive line, there may be some hope,'
+he said.  'His friendship is the worse danger than his enmity.'
+
+When the sisters had bidden good night, the Doctor detained Aubrey to
+say very kindly, 'My boy, I do not like to hear of your running
+counter to your sister.
+
+'I'm not going there again,' said Aubrey, willing to escape.
+
+'Wait a minute, Aubrey,' said Dr. May; 'I want to tell you that I
+feel for you in this matter more than my way of talking may have made
+it seem to you.  I have a great regard for your friend Leonard, and
+think he has been scandalously used, and I don't want to lessen your
+attachment to him.  Far be it from me to think lightly of a
+friendship, especially of one formed at your age.  Your very name, my
+boy, shows that I am not likely to do that!'
+
+Aubrey smiled frankly, his offended self-assertion entirely melted.
+
+'I know it is very hard on you, but you can understand that the very
+reasons that made me so averse to Leonard's taking this situation,
+would make me anxious to keep you away from his relations there, not
+necessarily from him.  As long as he is what he is now, I would not
+lift a finger to keep you from him.  Have I ever done so, Aubrey?'
+
+'No, papa.'
+
+'Nor will I, as long as he is what I see him now.  After this,
+Aubrey, is it too much to ask of you to keep out of the way of the
+persons with whom he is thrown?'
+
+'I will do so, papa.  He wishes it himself.'  Then with an effort, he
+added, 'I am sorry I went to-day; I ought not, but--' and he looked a
+little foolish.
+
+'You did not like taking orders from the girls?  No wonder, Aubrey; I
+have been very thankful to you for bearing it as you have done.  It
+is the worst of home education that these spirits of manliness
+generally have no vent but mischief.  But you are old enough now to
+be thankful for such a friend and adviser as Ethel, and I don't
+imagine that she orders you.'
+
+'No,' said Aubrey, smiling and mumbling; 'but Daisy--'
+
+'Oh, I can quite understand the aggravation of Daisy happening to be
+right; but you must really be man enough to mind your own conscience,
+even if Daisy is imprudent enough to enforce it.'
+
+'It was not only that,' said Aubrey, 'but I could not have Ward
+thinking I turned up my nose at his having got into business.'
+
+'No, Aubrey, he need never fancy it is the business that I object to,
+but the men.  Make that clear to him, and ask him to this house as
+much as you please.  The more "thorough" he is in his business, the
+more I shall respect him.'
+
+Aubrey smiled, and thanked his father with a cleared brow, wondering
+at himself for having gone without consulting him.
+
+'Good night, my boy.  May this friendship of yours be a lifelong stay
+and blessing to you both, even though it may cost you some pain and
+self-command, as all good things must, Aubrey.'
+
+That evening Ethel had been writing to Cambridge.  Tom had passed his
+examination with great credit, and taken an excellent degree, after
+which he projected a tour in Germany, for which he had for some time
+been economizing, as a well-earned holiday before commencing his
+course of hospitals and lectures.  Tom was no great correspondent,
+and had drilled his sisters into putting nothing but the essential
+into their letters, instead, as he said, of concealing it in
+flummery.  This is a specimen of the way Tom liked to be written to.
+
+
+                                           'Stoneborough, Feb. 20th.
+'My Dear Tom,
+
+'Dr. Spencer says nothing answers so well as a knapsack.  Get one at
+--.  The price is L. s. d.  Order extra fittings as required,
+including a knife and fork.  Letters from N. Z. of the 1st of
+November, all well.  I wish Aubrey was going with you; he misses
+Leonard Ward so sorely, as to be tempted to follow him to the Vintry
+Mill.  I suspect your words are coming true, and the days of
+petticoat government ending.  However, even if he would not be in
+your way, he could not afford to lose six months' study before going
+into residence.
+
+                                           'Your affectionate sister,
+                                                    'Etheldred May.'
+
+
+Tom wrote that he should spend a night in London and come home.  When
+he came, the family exclaimed that his microscope, whose handsome
+case he carried in his hand, was much grown.  'And improved too, I
+hope' said Tom, proceeding to show off various new acquisitions and
+exchanges in the way of eye-pieces, lenses, and other appliances of
+the most expensive order, till his father exclaimed,
+
+'Really, Tom, I wish I had the secret of your purse.'
+
+'The fact is,' said Tom, 'that I thought more would be gained by
+staying at home, so I turned my travels into a binocular tube,' &C.
+
+Aubrey and Gertrude shouted that Tom certainly did love the
+microscope better than any earthly thing; and he coolly accepted the
+inference.
+
+Somewhat later, he announced that he had decided that he should be
+better able to profit by the London lectures and hospitals, if he
+first studied for half a year at the one at Stoneborough, under the
+direction of his father and Dr. Spencer.
+
+Dr. May was extremely gratified, and really esteemed this one of the
+greatest compliments his science had ever received; Dr. Spencer could
+not help observing, 'I did not think it was in him to do such a wise
+thing.  I never can fathom the rogue.  I hope he was not bitten
+during his benevolent exertions last winter.'
+
+Meantime, Tom had observed that he had time to see that Aubrey was
+decently prepared for Cambridge, and further promoted the boy to be
+his out-of-door companion, removing all the tedium and perplexity of
+the last few weeks, though apparently merely indulging his own
+inclinations.  Ethel recognized the fruit of her letter, and could
+well forgive the extra care in housekeeping required for Tom's
+critical tastes, nay, the cool expulsion of herself and Gertrude from
+her twenty years' home, the schoolroom, and her final severance from
+Aubrey's studies, though at the cost of a pang that reminded her of
+her girlhood's sorrow at letting Norman shoot ahead of her.  She gave
+no hint; she knew that implicit reserve was the condition of his
+strange silent confidence in her, and that it would be utterly
+forfeited unless she allowed his fraternal sacrifice to pass for mere
+long-headed prudence.
+
+Aubrey's Saturday and Sunday meetings with his friend were not
+yielded, even to Tom, who endeavoured to interfere with them, and
+would fain have cut the connection with the entire family, treating
+Miss Ward with the most distant and supercilious bows on the
+unpleasantly numerous occasions of meeting her in the street, and
+contriving to be markedly scornful in his punctilious civility to
+Henry Ward when they met at the hospital.  His very look appeared a
+sarcasm, to the fancy of the Wards; and he had a fashion of kindly
+inquiring after Leonard, that seemed to both a deliberate reproach
+and insult.
+
+Disputes had become less frequent at Bankside since Leonard's
+departure, and few occasions of actual dissension arose; but the
+spirit of party was not extinguished, and the brother and sister had
+adopted lines that perhaps clashed less because they diverged more.
+
+Averil had, in reply to the constant exhortations to economize,
+resolved to decline all invitations, and this kept her constantly at
+home, or with her harmonium, whereas Henry made such constant
+engagements, that their dining together was the exception, not the
+rule.  After conscientiously teaching her sisters in the morning, she
+devoted the rest of her day to their walk, and to usefulness in the
+parish.  She liked her tasks, and would have been very happy in them,
+but for the constant anxiety that hung over her lest her home should
+soon cease to be her home.
+
+Henry's devotion to Mrs. Pugh could no longer be mistaken.  The
+conviction of his intentions grew upon his sister, first from a mere
+absurd notion, banished from her mind with derision, then from a
+misgiving angrily silenced, to a fixed expectation, confirmed by the
+evident opinion of all around her, and calling for decision and self-
+command on her own part.
+
+Perhaps her feelings were unnecessarily strong, and in some degree
+unjust to Mrs. Pugh; but she had the misfortune to be naturally proud
+and sensitive, as well as by breeding too refined in tone for most of
+those who surrounded her.  She had taken a personal dislike to Mrs.
+Pugh from the first; she regarded pretension as insincerity, and
+officiousness as deliberate insult, and she took the recoil of her
+taste for the judgment of principle.  To see such a woman ruling in
+her mother's, her own, home would be bad enough; but to be ruled by
+her, and resign to her the management of the children, would be
+intolerable beyond measure.  Too unhappy to speak of her
+anticipations even to Leonard or to Mary May, she merely endeavoured
+to throw them off from day to day, till one evening, when the days
+had grown so long that she could linger in the twilight in the garden
+before her singing practice, she was joined by Henry, with the long
+apprehended 'I want to speak to you, Ave.'
+
+Was it coming?  Her heart beat so fast, that she could hardly hear
+his kind commencement about her excellent endeavours, and the house's
+unhappy want of a mistress, the children's advantage, and so on.  She
+knew it could only tend to one point, and longed to have it reached
+and passed.  Of course she would be prepared to hear who was the
+object of his choice, and she could not but murmur 'Yes,' and 'Well.'
+
+'And, Ave, you will, I hope, be gratified to hear that I am not
+entirely rejected.  The fact is, that I spoke too soon.'  Averil
+could have jumped for joy, and was glad it was too dusk for her face
+to be seen.  'I do not believe that her late husband could have had
+any strong hold on her affections; but she has not recovered the
+shock of his loss, and entreated, as a favour granted to her
+sentiments of respect for his memory, not to hear the subject
+mentioned for at least another year.  I am permitted to visit at the
+house as usual, and no difference is to be made in the terms on which
+we stand.  Now, Ave, will you--may I ask of you, to do what you can
+to remove any impression that she might not be welcome in the
+family?'
+
+'I never meant--' faltered Averil, checked by sincerity.
+
+'You have always been--so--so cold and backward in cultivating her
+acquaintance, that I cannot wonder if she should think it
+disagreeable to you; but, Ave, when you consider my happiness, and
+the immense advantage to all of you, I am sure you will do what is in
+your power in my behalf.'  He spoke more affectionately and earnestly
+than he had done for months; and Averil was touched, and felt that to
+hang back would be unkind.
+
+'I will try,' she said.  'I do hope it may turn out for your
+happiness, Henry.'
+
+'For all our happiness,' said Henry, walking down to the gate and
+along the road with her, proving all the way that he was acting
+solely for the good of the others, and that Averil and the children
+would find their home infinitely happier.
+
+A whole year--a year's reprieve--was the one thought in Averil's
+head, that made her listen so graciously, and answer so amiably, that
+Henry parted with her full of kind, warm feeling.
+
+As the sage said, who was to be beheaded if he could not in a year
+teach the king's ass to speak--what might not happen in a year; the
+king might die, the ass might die, or he might die--any way there was
+so much gained: and Averil, for the time, felt as light-hearted as if
+Mrs. Pugh had vanished into empty air.  To be sure, her own life had,
+of late, been far from happy; but this extension of it was bailed
+with suppressed ecstasy--almost as an answer to her prayers.  Ah,
+Ave, little did you know what you wished in hoping for anything to
+prevent the marriage!
+
+She did obey her brother so far as to call upon Mrs. Pugh, whom she
+found in ordinary mourning, and capless--a sign that dismayed her;
+but, on the other hand, the lady, though very good-natured and
+patronizing, entertained her with the praises of King John, and
+showed her a copy of Magna Charta in process of illumination.  Also,
+during her call, Tom May walked in with a little book on drops of
+water; and Averil found the lady had become inspired with a
+microscopic furore, and was thinking of setting up a lens, and
+preparing objects for herself, under good tuition.
+
+Though Averil was very desirous that Mrs. Pugh should refuse her
+brother, yet this was the last service she wished the May family to
+render her.  She was sure Tom May must dislike and despise the widow
+as much as she did; and since the whole town was unluckily aware of
+Henry's intentions, any interference with them was base and
+malicious, if in the way of mere amusement and flirtation.  She was
+resolved to see what the game was, but only did see that her presence
+greatly disconcerted 'Mr. Thomas May.'
+
+Henry was wretched and irritable in the velvet paws of the widow, who
+encouraged him enough to give him hope, and then held him aloof, or
+was equally amiable to some one else.  Perhaps the real
+interpretation was, that she loved attention.  She was in all
+sincerity resolved to observe a proper period of widowhood, and not
+determined whether, when, or how, it should terminate: courtship
+amused her, and though attracted by Henry and his good house, the
+evidences of temper and harshness had made her unwilling to commit
+herself; besides that, she was afraid of Averil, and she was more
+flattered by the civilities of a lioncel like Harvey Anderson; or if
+she could be sure of what Mr. Thomas May's intentions were, she would
+have preferred an embryo physician to a full-grown surgeon--at any
+rate, it was right by her poor dear Mr. Pugh to wait.
+
+She need not have feared having Averil as an inmate.  Averil talked
+it over with Leonard, and determined that no power on earth should
+make her live with Mrs. Pugh.  If that were necessary to forward his
+suit, she would make it plain that she was ready to depart.
+
+'Oh, Leonard, if my uncle were but a nice sort of person, how
+pleasant it would be for me and the children to live there, and keep
+his house; and I could make him so comfortable, and nurse him!'
+
+'Never, Ave!' cried Leonard; 'don't let the thing be talked of.'
+
+'Oh no, I know it would not do with Samuel there; but should we be
+too young for your old scheme of having a cottage together near?'
+
+'I did not know what the Axworthys were like,' returned Leonard.
+
+'But need we see them much?'
+
+'I'll tell you what, Ave, I've heard them both--yes, the old man the
+worst of the two--say things about women that made my blood boil.'
+Leonard was quite red as he spoke.  'My father never let my mother
+see any of the concern, and now I know why.  I'll never let you do
+so.'
+
+'Then there is only one other thing to be done,' said Averil; 'and
+that is for me to go back to school as a parlour boarder, and take
+the children with me.  It would be very good for them, and dear Mrs.
+Wood would be very glad to have me.'
+
+'Yes,' said Leonard, 'that is the only right thing, Ave; and the Mays
+will say so, too.  Have you talked it over with them!'
+
+'No.  I hate talking of this thing.'
+
+'Well, you had better get their advice.  It is the best thing going!'
+said Leonard, with a sigh that sounded as if he wished he had taken
+it.
+
+But it was not to Averil that he said so.  To her he spoke brightly
+of serving the time for which he was bound to his uncle; then of
+making a fresh engagement, that would open a home to her; or, better
+still, suppose Sam did not wish to go on with the business, he might
+take it, and make the mill the lovely place it might be.  It was to
+Aubrey May that the boy's real feelings came out, as, on the Sunday
+evening, they slowly wandered along the bank of the river.  Aubrey
+had seen a specimen of his life at the mill, and had been kept up to
+the knowledge of its events, and he well knew that Leonard was
+heartily sick of it.  That the occupation was uncongenial and tedious
+in the extreme to a boy of good ability and superior education--nay,
+that the drudgery was made unnecessarily oppressive, was not the
+point he complained of, though it was more trying than he had
+expected, that was the bed that he had made, and that he must lie
+upon.  It was the suspicion of frauds and tricks of the trade, and,
+still worse, the company that he lived in.  Sam Axworthy hated and
+tyrannized over him too much to make dissipation alluring; and he was
+only disgusted by the foul language, coarse manners, and the remains
+of intemperance worked on in violent temper.
+
+The old man, though helpless and past active vice, was even more
+coarse in mind and conversation than his nephew; and yet his
+feebleness, and Sam's almost savage treatment of him, enlisted
+Leonard's pity on his side.  In general, the old man was kind to
+Leonard, but would abuse him roundly when the evidences of his better
+principles and training, or his allegiance to Dr. May, came forward,
+and Leonard, though greatly compassionating him, could not always
+bear his reproaches with patience, and was held back from more
+attention to him than common humanity required, by an unlucky
+suggestion that he was currying favour in the hope of supplanting
+Sam.
+
+'Old Hardy is the only honest man in the place, I do believe,' said
+Leonard.  'I'll tell you what, Aubrey, I have made up my mind, there
+is one thing I will not do.  If ever they want to make me a party to
+any of their cheatings, I'll be off.  That window and the cedar-tree
+stand very handy.  I've been out there to bathe in the early summer
+mornings, plenty of times already, so never you be surprised if some
+fine day you hear--non est inventus.'
+
+'And where would you go?'
+
+'Get up to London, and see if my quarter's salary would take me out
+in the steerage to some diggings or other.  What would your brother
+say to me if I turned up at the Grange--New Zealand?'
+
+'Say!  Mention Ethel, and see what he would not say.'
+
+And the two boys proceeded to arrange the details of the evasion in
+such vivid colouring, that they had nearly forgotten all present
+troubles, above all when Leonard proceeded to declare that New
+Zealand was too tame and too settled for him, he should certainly
+find something to do in the Feejee Isles, where the high spirit of
+the natives, their painted visages, and marvellous head-dresses, as
+depicted in Captain Erskine's voyage, had greatly fired his fancy,
+and they even settled how the gold fields should rebuild the Market
+Cross.
+
+'And when I'm gone, Aubrey, mind you see to Mab,' he said, laughing.
+
+'Oh!  I thought Mab was to act Whittington's cat.'
+
+'I'm afraid they would eat her up; besides, there's the voyage.  No,
+you must keep her till I come home, even if she is to end like Argus.
+Would you die of joy at seeing me, eh, little black neb?'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+
+                             Let us meet,
+And question this most bloody piece of work,
+To know it farther.                   Macbeth
+
+
+'If you please, sir, Master Hardy from the Vintry Mill wants to see
+you, said a voice at Dr. May's door early in the morning; and the
+Doctor completed his dressing in haste, muttering to himself
+exclamations of concern that the old man's malady should have
+returned.
+
+On entering the study, Hardy's appearance, whiter than even the
+proverbial hue of his trade, his agitation of feature, confused eye,
+and trembling lip, inspired fears that the case was more alarming
+than had been apprehended; but to cheer him, the Doctor began,
+'Frightened about yourself, Master Hardy, eh!  You've come out
+without breakfast, and that's enough to put any man out of heart.'
+
+'No, sir,' said the old man, 'it is nothing about myself; I wish it
+were no worse; but I've not got the heart to go to tell the poor
+young gentleman, and I thought--'
+
+'What--what has happened to the boy?' exclaimed Dr. May, sharply,
+standing as if ready to receive the rifle shot which he already
+believed had destroyed Leonard.
+
+'That's what we can't say, sir,' returned Hardy; 'but he is gone, no
+one knows where.  And, sir, my poor master was found at five o'clock
+this morning, in his chair in his sitting-room, stone dead from a
+blow on the head.'
+
+'Mind what you are saying!' shouted the Doctor passionately.  'You
+old scoundrel, you don't mean to tell me that you are accusing the
+lad!'
+
+'I accuse nobody, sir,' said the old man, standing his ground, and
+speaking steadily, but respectfully, 'I wouldn't say nothing to bring
+any one into trouble if I could help it, and I came to ask you what
+was to be done.'
+
+'Yes, yes; I beg your pardon, Hardy, but it sounded enough to overset
+one.  Your poor master murdered, you say!'
+
+Hardy nodded assent.
+
+'And young Ward missing?  Why, the burglars must have hurt the poor
+fellow in defending his uncle.  Have you searched the place?'
+
+'I never thought of that, sir,' said Hardy, his countenance much
+relieved; 'it would be more like such a young gentleman as Mr. Ward.'
+
+'Then we'll get over to the mill as fast as we can, and see what can
+be done,' said Dr. May, snatching up his hat and gloves. 'You come
+and walk with me to Bankside, and tell me by the way about this
+terrible business.  Good heavens! they'll have thrown the boy into
+the river!'
+
+And calling out that his carriage should follow to Bankside, the
+Doctor dashed up-stairs, and knocked at Ethel's door.  'My dear,' he
+said, 'there has been a robbery or something at the Vintry Mill.  I
+must go and see Henry Ward about it.  Poor old Axworthy is murdered,
+and I'm terribly afraid Leonard has met with some foul play.  You or
+Mary had better go and see about Ave presently, but don't believe a
+word of anything till you see me again.'
+
+And shutting the door, while Ethel felt as if the room were reeling
+round with her, Dr. May was in a few seconds more hastening along by
+Hardy's side, extracting from him the little he had to tell.  The old
+man had been unlocking the door of the mill at five o'clock, when he
+was summoned by loud shrieks from the window of Mr. Axworthy's
+sitting-room, and found that the little maid had been appalled by the
+sight of her master sunk forward from his gouty chair upon the table,
+his hair covered with blood.  Hardy had been the first to touch him,
+and to perceive that he had long been dead.  The housekeeper, the
+only other servant who slept in the house, had rushed in half-
+dressed; but neither nephew appeared.  Young Axworthy had gone the
+previous day to the county races, leaving the time of his return
+doubtful, and Leonard Ward did not answer when called.  It was then
+found that his room was empty, his bed untouched, and the passage
+window outside his door left open.  The terrified servants held
+confused consultation, and while the groom had hurried off to give
+the alarm at Whitford, and ride on in search of Sam Axworthy, Hardy
+had taken another horse and started to inform Henry Ward, but his
+heart failing him, he had come to beg the Doctor to break the
+intelligence to the family.
+
+Dr. May had few doubts that the robbers must have entered by the
+passage window, and meeting resistance from Leonard, must have
+dragged him out, and perhaps thrown him from it, then having gone on
+to their murderous work in the old man's sitting-room.  In that great
+rambling house, where the maids slept afar off, and the rats held
+nightly gambols, strange noises were not likely to be observed; and
+the thought of Leonard lying stunned and insensible on the grass,
+made the Doctor's pace almost a run, as if he were hastening to the
+rescue.
+
+When Mr. Ward sent down word that he was not up, Dr. May replied that
+he must see him in bed, and followed upon the very heels of the
+messenger, encountering no amiable face, for Henry had armed himself
+for defence against any possible reproaches for his treatment of any
+patient.  Even when Dr. May began, 'Henry, my poor fellow, I have
+frightful news for you,' his month was opening to reply, 'I knew we
+should lose that case,' let the patient be who he might, when the few
+simple words put to flight all petulant jealousy, and restored Henry
+Ward to what he had been when in his hour of sickness and affliction
+he had leant in full confidence on Dr. May's unfailing kindness.
+
+He was dressed by the time the brougham was at the door, and would
+have hurried off without telling his sister of the alarm; but Dr.
+May, knowing that the town must soon be ringing with the news, was
+sending him to Averil's room, when both rejoiced to see Mary enter
+the house.  Charging her to keep Averil quiet, and believe nothing
+but what came from themselves, they thrust on her the terrible
+commission and hastened away, dwelling on the hope that every moment
+might be important.
+
+Old Hardy had already mounted bis cart-horse, and for him farm roads
+so shortened the distance, that he received them at the entrance of
+the courtyard, which was crowded with excited gazers and important
+policemen.
+
+'Found him?' was the instantaneous question of both; but Hardy shook
+his head so sadly, that the Doctor hastily exclaimed, 'What then?'
+
+'Sir,' said Hardy very low, and with a deprecating look, 'he did go
+up by the mail train to London last night--got in at Blewer station
+at 12.15.  They have telegraphed up, sir.'
+
+'I'll lay my life it is all a mistake,' said Dr. May, grasping
+Henry's arm as if to give him support, and looking him in the face as
+though resolved that neither should be cast down.
+
+'That's not all, sir,' added Hardy, still addressing himself to the
+elder gentleman.  'There's his rifle, sir.'
+
+'Why, he was not shot!' sharply cried Dr. May.  'You told me so
+yourself.'
+
+'No, sir; but-- You'll see for yourself presently!  There's the blood
+and gray hairs on the stock, sir.'
+
+'Never fear, Henry; we shall see,' said Dr. May, pressing on, and
+adding as soon as they were out of hearing,  'Nothing those folks,
+even the best of them, like so well as laying on horrors thick
+enough.'
+
+A policeman stood at the house door to keep off idlers; but Dr. May's
+character and profession, as well as his municipal rank, caused way
+to be instantly made for them.  They found a superintendent within,
+and he at once began, 'Most unfortunate business, Mr. Mayor--very
+mysterious;' then, as a sign from the Doctor made him aware of Henry
+Ward's near concern, he added, 'Shall I inform young Mr. Axworthy
+that you are here?'
+
+'Is he come?'
+
+'Yes, sir.  He had only slept at the Three Goblets, not half a mile
+across the fields, you know, Mr. Mayor--came home too late to disturb
+the house here, slept there, and was on the spot at the first
+intelligence--before I was myself,' added the superintendent a little
+jealously.
+
+'Where is he?'
+
+'In his room, sir.  He was extremely overcome, and retired to his
+room as soon as the necessary steps had been taken.  Would you wish
+to see the room, sir?  We are keeping it locked till the inquest
+takes place; but--'
+
+Henry asked, 'When?' his first word since his arrival, and almost
+inarticulate.
+
+He was answered that it would probably be at two that afternoon; the
+Whitford coroner had intimated that he was ready, and the down train
+would be in by one.  A telegram had just arrived, reporting that the
+electric message had anticipated the mail train, and that young Mr.
+Ward would be brought down in time.
+
+'Never mind, never heed, Henry,' persisted Dr. May, pressing the
+young man's arm as they proceeded to the door of the sitting-room;
+'he must be intensely shocked, but he will explain the whole.  Nay,
+I've no doubt we shall clear him.  His rifle, indeed!  I could swear
+to his rifle anywhere.'
+
+The superintendent had by this time opened the door of the sitting-
+room, communicating on one side with the office, on the other with
+the old man's bed-room.
+
+Except that the body had been carried to the bed in the inner
+chamber, all remained as it had been found.  There were no signs of
+robbery--not even of a struggle.  The cushions of the easy-chair
+still bore the impress of the sitter's weight; the footstool was
+hardly pushed aside; the massive library table was undisturbed; the
+silver spoons and sugar-tongs beside the tumbler and plate on the
+supper tray; the yellow light of the lamp still burnt; not a paper
+was ruffled, not a drawer pulled out.  Only a rifle stood leaning
+against the window shutter, and towards it both friend and brother
+went at once, hoping and trusting that it would be a stranger to
+their eyes.
+
+Alas! alas! only too familiar were the rich brown mottlings of the
+stock, the steel mountings, the eagle crest, and twisted H. E.
+cipher! and in sickness of heart the Doctor could not hide from
+himself the dark clot of gore and the few white hairs adhering to the
+wood, and answering to the stain that dyed the leather of the desk.
+
+Henry could not repress an agonized groan, and averted his face; but
+his companion undaunted met the superintendent's eye and query, 'You
+know it, sir!'
+
+'I do.  It was my son-in-law's present to him.  I wonder where he
+kept it, for the ruffians to get hold of it.'
+
+The superintendent remained civil and impassive, and no one spoke to
+break the deathly hush of the silent room, filled with the appliances
+of ordinary business life, but tainted with the awful unexplained
+mark that there had been the foot of the shedder of blood in silence
+and at unawares.
+
+The man in authority at length continued his piteous exhibition.  Dr.
+Rankin of Whitford had arrived on the first alarm; but would not the
+gentlemen see the body?  And he led them on, Dr. May's eyes on the
+alert to seize on anything exculpatory, but detecting nothing, seeing
+only the unwieldy helpless form and aged feeble countenance of the
+deceased, and receiving fresh impressions of the brutality and
+cowardice of the hand that could have struck the blow.  He looked,
+examined, defined the injury, and explained that it must have caused
+instant death, thus hoping to divert attention from his pale horror-
+stricken companion, whose too apparent despondency almost provoked
+him.
+
+At the Doctor's request they were taken up the staircase into the
+corridor, and shown the window, which had been found nearly closed
+but not fastened, as though it had been partially shut down from the
+outside.  The cedar bough almost brushed the glass, and the slope of
+turf came so high up the wall, that an active youth could easily
+swing himself down to it; and the superintendent significantly
+remarked that the punt was on the farther side of the stream, whereas
+the evening before it had been on the nearer.  Dr. May leant out over
+the window-sill, still in the lingering hope of seeing--he knew not
+what, but he only became oppressed by the bright still summer beauty
+of the trees and grass and sparkling water, insensible of the horror
+that brooded over all.  He drew back his head; and as the door hard
+by was opened, Leonard's little dog sprang from her basket kennel,
+wagging her tail in hopes of her master, but in her disappointment
+greeting one whom dogs always hailed as a friend,
+
+'Poor little doggie! good little Mab!  If only you could tell us!'
+and the creature fondly responded to his gentle hand, though keeping
+aloof from Henry, in mindfulness of past passages between them, while
+Henry could evidently not bear to look at her.
+
+They gazed round the room, but it conveyed no elucidation of the
+mystery.  There were Leonard's books in their range on the drawers,
+his fossils in his cupboard, his mother's photograph on his mantel-
+piece, his sister's drawings on the wall.  His gray uniform lay on
+the bed as if recently taken off, his ordinary office coat was folded
+on a chair, and he seemed to have dressed and gone in his best
+clothes.  While anxiously seeking some note of explanation, they
+heard a step, and Sam Axworthy entered, speaking fast and low in
+apology for not having sooner appeared, but he had been thoroughly
+upset; as indeed he looked, his whole appearance betraying the
+disorder of the evening's dissipation, followed by the morning's
+shock.
+
+Most unfortunate, he said, that he had not returned earlier.  His
+friend Black--Tom Black, of Edsall Green--had driven him home in his
+dog-cart, set him down at the turn to cross the fields--moon as light
+as day--no notion, of the lateness till he got in sight of the great
+clock, and saw it was half-past twelve; so knowing the early habits
+of the place, he had thought it best to turn back, and get a bed at
+the Three Goblets.  If he had only come home, he might have prevented
+mischief!  There ensued a few commonplace words on the old man's
+infirm state, yet his independent habits, and reluctance to let any
+servant assist him, or even sleep near him.  Sam spoke as if in a
+dream, and was evidently so unwell, that Dr. May thought it
+charitable to follow the dictates of his own disgust at breaking
+bread in that house of horrors, and refuse offers of breakfast.  He
+said he must go home, but would return for the inquest, and asked
+whether Henry would remain to meet his brother.
+
+'No, no, thank you,' said Henry huskily, as with the driest of
+throats, and a perceptible shudder, he turned to go away; the Doctor
+pausing to caress little Mab, and say, 'I had better take home this
+poor little thing.  She may come to harm here, and may be a comfort
+to the sister.'
+
+No objection came from Sam, but Mab herself ran back to her house,
+and even snarled at the attempt to detach her from it.  'You are a
+faithful little beast,' he said, 'and your master will soon be here
+to set all straight, so I will leave you for the present;' and
+therewith he signed farewell, and breathed more freely as he gained
+the outer air.
+
+'I'll tell you what, Henry,' he said, as they drove out of the
+courtyard, 'we'll bring out Bramshaw to watch the case.  He will see
+through this horrible mystery, and throw the suspicion in the right
+quarter, whatever that may be, depend upon it.'
+
+Henry had thrown himself back in the carriage with averted face, and
+only answered by a groan.
+
+'Come, don't be so downcast,' said Dr. May; 'it is a frightful
+affair, no doubt, and Leonard has chosen a most unlucky moment for
+this escapade; but he will have a thorough warning against frolics.'
+
+'Frolics indeed!' said Henry, bitterly.
+
+'Well, I'll be bound that's all he has attempted, and it has got him
+into a horrid scrape; and ten to one but the police have got the real
+ruffians in their hands by this time.'
+
+'I have no hope,' said Henry.
+
+'More shame for you not to feel a certain confidence that He who sees
+all will show the right.'
+
+'If!' said Henry, breaking off with a sound and look of such intense
+misery as almost to stagger the Doctor himself, by reminding him of
+Leonard's violent temper, and the cause Henry had to remember his
+promptness of hand; but that Ethel's pupil, Aubrey's friend, the boy
+of ingenuous face, could under any provocation strike helpless old
+age, or, having struck, could abscond without calling aid, actuated
+by terror, not by pity or repentance, was more than Dr. May could
+believe, and after brief musing, he broke out in indignant
+refutation.
+
+'I should have thought so.  I wish I still could believe so' sighed
+Henry; 'but--' and there they lapsed into silence, till, as they came
+near the town, Dr. May offered to set him down at Bankside.
+
+'No! no, thank you,' he cried in entreaty.  'I cannot see her--Ave.'
+
+'Then come home with me.  You shall see no one, and you will look up
+when you are not faint and fasting.  You young men don't stand up
+against these things like us old stagers.'
+
+As the carriage stopped, several anxious faces were seen on the
+watch, but the Doctor signed them back till he had deposited Henry in
+his study, and then came among them.
+
+Gertrude was the first to speak.  '0, papa, papa, what is it!  Mrs.
+Pugh has been here to ask, and Ethel won't let me hear, though Tom
+and Aubrey know.'
+
+'I took refuge in your order to believe nothing till you came,' said
+Ethel, with hands tightly clasped together.
+
+'It is true, then?' asked Tom.
+
+'True that it looks as bad as bad can be,' said the Doctor, sighing
+heavily, and proceeding to state the aspect of the case.
+
+'It is a trick--a plot,' cried Aubrey passionately; 'I know it is!
+He always said he would run away if they tried to teach him
+dishonesty; and now they have done this and driven him away, and laid
+the blame on him.  Ethel, why don't you say you are sure of it?'
+
+'Leonard would be changed indeed if this were so,' said Ethel,
+trembling as she stood, and hardly able to speak articulately.
+
+Aubrey broke out with a furious 'If,' very different from Henry
+Ward's.
+
+'It would not be the Leonard we knew at Coombe,' said Ethel.  'He
+might be blind with rage, but he would never be cowardly.  No.
+Unless he own it, nothing shall ever make me believe it.'
+
+'Own it!  For shame, Ethel,' cried Aubrey. And even the Doctor
+exclaimed, 'You are as bad as poor Henry himself, who has not got
+soul enough to be capable of trusting his brother.'
+
+'I do trust,' said Ethel, looking up.  'I shall trust his own word,'
+and she sat down without speaking, and knitted fast, but her needles
+clattered.
+
+'And how about that poor girl at Bankside?' said the Doctor.
+
+'I went down there,' said Tom, 'just to caution the servants against
+bringing in stories.  She found out I was there, and I had to go in
+and make the best of it.'
+
+'And what sort of a best?' said the Doctor.
+
+'Why, she knew he used to get out in the morning to bathe, and was
+persuaded he had been drowned; so I told her I knew he was alive and
+well, and she would hear all about it when you came back.  I brought
+the youngest child away with me, and Gertrude has got her up-stairs;
+the other would not come.  Poor thing!  Mary says she is very good
+and patient; and I must say she was wonderfully reasonable when I
+talked to her.'
+
+'Thank you, Tom,' said his father with warmth, 'it was very kind of
+you.  I wonder if Ave knew anything of this runaway business; it
+might be the saving of him!'
+
+'I did,' said Aubrey eagerly; 'at least, I know he said he would not
+stay if they wanted to put him up to their dishonest tricks; and he
+talked of that very window!'
+
+'Yes, you imprudent fellow; and you were telling Mrs. Pugh so, if I
+hadn't stopped you,' said Tom.  'You'll be taken up for an accomplice
+next, if you don't hold your tongue.'
+
+'What did he say?' asked the Doctor, impatiently; and then declared
+that he must instantly go to Bankside, as soon as both he and Henry
+had taken some food; 'for,' he added, 'we are both too much shaken to
+deal rationally with her.'
+
+Ethel started up in shame and dismay at having neglected to order
+anything.  The Doctor was served in the study alone with Henry, and
+after the briefest meal, was on his way to Bankside.
+
+He found Averil with the crimson cheek and beseeching eye that he
+knew so well, as she laid her trembling hand on his, and mutely
+looked up like a dumb creature awaiting a blow.
+
+'Yes, my dear,' he said, tenderly, 'your brother needs prayer such as
+when we watched him last year, he is in peril of grave suspicion.'
+And as she stood waiting and watching for further explanation, he
+continued, 'My dear, he told you everything.  You do not know of any
+notion of his of going away, or going out without leave?'
+
+'Why is Leonard to be always suspected of such things?' cried Averil.
+'He never did them!'
+
+'Do you know?' persisted Dr. May.
+
+'But you are mayor!' cried Averil, indignantly, withdrawing her hand.
+'You want me to accuse him!'
+
+'My dear, if I were ten times mayor, it would make no difference.  My
+jurisdiction does not even cross the river here; and if it did, this
+is a graver case than I deal with.  I am come, as his friend, to beg
+you to help me to account for his unhappy absence in any harmless
+way.  Were it ever so foolish or wrong, it would be the best news
+that ever I heard.'
+
+'But--but I can't,' said Averil.  'I never knew he was going out!
+I know he used to get out at the passage window to bathe and fish
+before the house was astir--and--you know he is safe, Dr. May?'
+
+Dr. May would almost sooner have known that he was at the bottom of
+the deepest pool in the river, than where he was.  'He is safe, my
+poor child.  He is well, and I trust he will be able to prove his
+innocence; but he must so account for his absence as to clear
+himself.  Averil, there is a charge against him--of being concerned
+in your uncle's death.'
+
+Averil's eyes dilated, and she breathed short and fast, standing like
+a statue.  Little Minna, whom the Doctor had scarcely perceived,
+standing in a dark corner, sprang forward, exclaiming, '0, Ave, don't
+be afraid!  Nobody can hurt him for what he did not do!'
+
+The words roused Averil, and starting forward, she cried, 'Dr. May,
+Dr. May, you will save him!  He is fatherless and motherless, and his
+brother has always been harsh to him; but you will not forsake him;
+you said you would be a father to us!  Oh, save Leonard!'
+
+'My dear, as I would try to save my own son, I will do my utmost for
+him; but little or nothing depends on me or on any man.  By truth and
+justice he must stand or fall; and you must depend on the Father of
+the fatherless, who seeth the truth! as this dear child tells you,'
+with his hand on Minna's head, 'he cannot be really injured while he
+is innocent.'
+
+Awed into calm, Averil let him seat her beside him, and put her in
+possession of the main facts of the case, Minna standing by him, her
+hand in his, evidently understanding and feeling all that passed.
+
+Neither could throw light on anything.  Leonard had been less
+communicative to them than to Aubrey, and had kept his resolution of
+uncomplainingly drinking the brewst he had brewed for himself.  All
+Averil could tell was, that her uncle had once spoken to Henry in
+commendation of his steadiness and trustworthiness, though at the
+same time abusing him for airs and puppyism.
+
+'Henry would tell you.  Where is Henry?' she added.
+
+'In my study.  He could not bear to bring you these tidings.  You
+must be ready to comfort him, Ave.'
+
+'Don't let him come,' she cried.  'He never was kind to Leonard.  He
+drove him there.  I shall always feel that it was his doing.'
+
+'Averil,' said Dr. May gravely, 'do you forget how much that
+increases his suffering?  Nothing but mutual charity can help you
+through this fiery trial.  Do not let anger and recrimination take
+from you the last shreds of comfort, and poison your prayers.
+Promise me to be kind to Henry, for indeed he needs it.'
+
+'0, Dr. May,' said Minna, looking up with her eyes full of tears,
+'indeed I will.  I was cross to Henry because he was cross to
+Leonard, but I won't be so any more.'
+
+Ave drooped her head, as if it were almost impossible to her to
+speak.
+
+Dr. May patted Minna's dark head caressingly, and said to the elder
+sister, 'I will not urge you more.  Perhaps you may have Leonard
+back, and then joy will open your hearts; or if not, my poor Ave, the
+sight of Henry will do more than my words.'
+
+Mary looked greatly grieved, but said nothing, only following her
+father to take his last words and directions.  'Keep her as quiet as
+you can.  Do not worry her, but get out this root of bitterness if
+you can.  Poor, poor things!'
+
+'That little Minna is a dear child!' said Mary.  'She is grown so
+much older than Ella, or than she was last year.  She seems to
+understand and feel like a grown-up person.  I do think she may
+soften poor Ave more than I can; but, papa, there is excuse.  Mr.
+Ward must have made them more miserable than we guessed.'
+
+'The more reason she must forgive him.  0, Mary, I fear a grievous
+lesson is coming to them; but I must do all I can.  Good-bye, my
+dear; do the best you can for them;' and he set forth again with a
+bleeding heart.
+
+At the attorney's office, he found the principal from home, but the
+partner, Edward Anderson, on the qui vive for a summons to attend on
+behalf of his fellow-townsman, and confident that however bad were
+the present aspect of affairs, his professional eye would instantly
+find a clue.
+
+Aubrey was in an agony of excitement, but unable to endure the notion
+of approaching the scene of action; and his half-choked surly 'Don't'
+was sufficient to deter his brother Thomas, who had never shown
+himself so kind, considerate, and free from sneer or assumption.  In
+'hours of ease' he might seem selfish and exacting, but a crisis
+evoked the latent good in him, and drew him out of himself.
+
+Nor would Henry return to Bankside.  After many vacillations, the
+moment for starting found him in a fit of despair about the family
+disgrace, only able to beg that 'the unhappy boy' should be assured
+that no expense should be spared in his defence; or else, that if he
+were cleared and returned home, his welcome should be most joyful.
+But there Henry broke off, groaned, said they should never look up
+again, and must leave the place.
+
+Except for Averil's own sake, Dr. May would almost have regretted his
+exhortations in favour of her eldest brother.
+
+In due time the Doctor arrived at the mill, where the inquest was to
+take place, as the public-house was small, and inconveniently
+distant; and there was ample accommodation in the large rambling
+building.  So crowded was the court-yard, that the Doctor did not
+easily make his way to the steps of the hall door; but there, after
+one brief question to the policeman in charge, he waited, though
+several times invited in.
+
+Before long, all eyes turned one way, as a closed fly, with a
+policeman on the box, drove in at the gateway, stopped, and between
+the two men on guard appeared a tall young figure.
+
+The Doctor's first glance showed him a flushed and weary set of
+features, shocked and appalled; but the eyes, looking straight up in
+their anxiety, encountered his with an earnest grateful appeal for
+sympathy, answered at once by a step forward with outstretched hand.
+The grip of the fingers was heated, agitated, convulsive, but not
+tremulous; and there was feeling, not fear, in the low husky voice
+that said, 'Thank you. Is Henry here?'
+
+'No, he is too--too much overcome; but he hopes to see you at home
+to-night; and here is Edward Anderson, whom he has sent to watch the
+proceedings for you.'
+
+'Thank you,' said Leonard, acknowledging Edward's greeting.  'As far
+as I am concerned, I can explain all in a minute; but my poor uncle--
+I little thought--'
+
+There was no opportunity for further speech in private, for the
+coroner had already arrived, and the inquiry had been only deferred
+until Leonard should have come.  The jury had been viewing the body,
+and the proceedings were to take place in the large low dining-room,
+where the southern windows poured in a flood of light on the faces of
+the persons crowded together, and the reflections from the rippling
+water danced on the ceiling.  Dr. May had a chair given him near the
+coroner, and keenly watched the two nephews--one seated next to him,
+the other at some distance, nearly opposite.  Both young men looked
+haggard, shocked, and oppressed: the eye of Axworthy was unceasingly
+fixed on an inkstand upon the table, and never lifted, his expression
+never varied; and Leonard's glance flashed inquiringly from one
+speaker to another, and his countenance altered with every phase of
+the evidence.
+
+The first witness was Anne Ellis, the young maid-servant, who told of
+her coming down at ten minutes after five that morning, the 6th of
+July, and on going in to clean the rooms, finding her master sunk
+forward on the table.  Supposing him to have had a fit, she had run
+to the window and screamed for help, when Master Hardy, the foreman,
+and Mrs. Giles, the housekeeper, had come in.
+
+James Hardy deposed to having heard the girl's cry while he was
+unlocking the mill door.  Coming in by the low sash-window, which
+stood open, he had gone up to his master, and had seen the wound on
+the head, and found the body quite cold, Mrs. Giles coming in, they
+had carried it to the bed in the next room; and he had gone to call
+the young gentlemen, but neither was in his room.  He knew that it
+had been left uncertain whether Mr. Samuel would return to sleep at
+home between the two days of the county races, but he did not expect
+Mr. Ward to be out; and had then observed that his bed had not been
+slept in, and that the passage window outside his room was partly
+open.  He had then thought it best to go into Stoneborough to inform
+the family.
+
+Rebecca Giles, the housekeeper, an elderly woman, crying violently,
+repeated the evidence as to the discovery of the body.  The last time
+she had seen her master alive, was when she had carried in his supper
+at nine o'clock, when he had desired her to send Mr. Ward to him; and
+had seemed much vexed to hear that the young man had not returned
+from rifle practice, little thinking, poor old gentleman!--but here
+the housekeeper was recalled to her subject.  The window was then
+open, as it was a sultry night, but the blind down.  Her master was a
+good deal crippled by gout, and could not at that time move actively
+nor write, but could dress himself, and close a window.  He disliked
+being assisted; and the servants were not in the habit of seeing him
+from the time his supper was brought in till breakfast next morning.
+She had seen Mr. Ward come home at twenty minutes or half after nine,
+in uniform, carrying his rifle; she had given the message, and he had
+gone into the sitting-room without putting down the rifle.  She
+believed it to be the one on the table, but could not say so on oath;
+he never let any one touch it; and she never looked at such horrid
+murderous things.  And some remarks highly adverse to the volunteer
+movement were cut short.
+
+William Andrews, groom, had been called by Anne Ellis, had seen the
+wound, and the blood on the desk, and had gone to fetch a surgeon and
+the police from Whitford.  On his return, saw the rifle leaning
+against the shutter; believed it to be Mr. Ward's rifle.
+
+Charles Rankin, surgeon, had been called in to see Mr. Axworthy, and
+arrived at seven o'clock A. M.  Found him dead, from a fracture of
+the skull over the left temple, he should imagine, from a blow from a
+heavy blunt instrument, such as the stock of a gun.  Death must have
+been instantaneous, and had probably taken place seven or eight hours
+before he was called in.  The marks upon the rifle before him were
+probably blood; but he could not say so upon oath, till he had
+subjected them to microscopic examination.  The hair was human, and
+corresponded with that of the deceased.
+
+Samuel Axworthy had slept at the Three Goblets, in consequence of
+finding himself too late for admission at home.  He had been wakened
+at half-past five, and found all as had been stated by the previous
+witnesses; and he corroborated the housekeeper's account of his
+uncle's habits.  The rifle he believed to belong to his cousin,
+Leonard Ward.  He could not account for Leonard Ward's absence on
+that morning.  No permission, as far as he was aware, had been given
+him to leave home; and he had never known his uncle give him any
+commission at that hour.
+
+The different policemen gave their narrations of the state of things-
+-the open window, the position of the boat, &c.  And the ticket-clerk
+at the small Blewer Station stated that at about 12.15 at night, Mr.
+Ward had walked in without baggage, and asked for a second-class
+ticket to London.
+
+Leonard here interposed an inquiry whether he had not said a day
+ticket, and the clerk recollected that he had done so, and had spoken
+of returning by four o'clock; but the train, being reckoned as
+belonging to the previous day, no return tickets were issued for it,
+and he had therefore taken an ordinary one, and started by the mail
+train.
+
+The London policeman, who had come down with Leonard, stated that, in
+consequence of a telegraphic message, he had been at the Paddington
+Station at 6.30 that morning; had seen a young gentleman answering to
+the description sent to him, asked if his name were Leonard Ward, and
+receiving a reply in the affirmative, had informed him of the charge,
+and taken him into custody.  The bag that he placed on the table he
+had found on the young man's person.
+
+Every one was startled at this unexpected corroboration of the
+suspicion.  It was a heavy-looking bag, of reddish canvas, marked
+with a black circle, containing the letters F. A. Gold; the neck tied
+with a string; the contents were sovereigns, and a note or two.
+
+Dr. May looked piteously, despairingly, at Leonard; but the brow was
+still open and unclouded, the eye glanced back reassurance and
+confidence.
+
+The policeman added that he had cautioned the young man to take care
+what he said, but that he had declared at once that his uncle had
+sent him to lodge the sum in Drummond's Bank, and that he would show
+a receipt for it on his return.
+
+The coroner then proceeded to examine Leonard, but still as a
+witness.  Edward Anderson spoke to him in an undertone, advising him
+to be cautious, and not commit himself, but Leonard, rather
+impatiently thanking him, shook him off, and spoke with freedom and
+openness.
+
+'I have nothing to keep back,' he said.  'Of course I know nothing of
+this frightful murder, nor what villain could have got hold of the
+rifle, which, I am sorry to say, is really mine.  Last evening I used
+it at drill and practice on Blewer Heath, and came home when it grew
+dusk, getting in at about half-past nine.  I was then told by Mrs.
+Giles that my uncle wished to speak to me, and was displeased at my
+staying out so late.  I went into his room as I was, and put my rifle
+down in a corner by the window, when he desired me to sit down and
+listen to him.  He then told me that he wished to send me to town by
+the mail train, to take some cash to Drummond's Bank, and to return
+by to-day's four o'clock train.  He said he had reasons for wishing
+no one to be aware of his opening an account there, and he undertook
+to explain my absence.  He took the sum from the private drawer of
+his desk, and made me count it before him, L124 12s. in sovereigns
+and bank-notes.  The odd money he gave me for my expenses, the rest I
+put in the bag that I fetched out of the office.  He could not hold a
+pen, and could therefore give me no letter to Messrs. Drummond, but
+he made me write a receipt for the amount in his memorandum book.  I
+wished him good night, and left him still sitting in his easy-chair,
+with the window open and the blind down. I found that I had forgotten
+my rifle, but I did not go back for it, because he disliked the
+disturbance of opening and shutting doors.  While I was changing my
+dress, I saw from the window that some one was still about in the
+court, and knowing that my uncle wished me to avoid notice, I thought
+it best to let myself out by the passage window, as I had sometimes
+done in early mornings to bathe or fish, and go across the fields to
+Blewer Station.  I got down into the garden, crossed in the punt, and
+went slowly by Barnard's hatch; I believe I stopped a good many
+times, as it was too soon, and a beautiful moonlight night, but I
+came to Blewer soon after twelve, and took my ticket.  At Paddington
+I met this terrible news.'
+
+As the boy spoke, his bright eyes turned from one listener to
+another, as though expecting to read satisfaction on their faces; but
+as doubt and disbelief clouded all, his looks became almost
+constantly directed to Dr. May, and his voice unconsciously passed
+from a sound of justification to one of pleading.  When he ceased, he
+glanced round as if feeling his innocence established.
+
+'You gave a receipt, Mr. Ward,' said the coroner.  'Will you tell us
+where it is likely to be?'
+
+'It must be either on or in my uncle's desk, or in his pocket.  Will
+some one look for it?  I wrote it in his memorandum book--a curious
+old black shagreen book, with a silver clasp.  I left it open on the
+desk to dry.'
+
+A policeman went to search for it; and the coroner asked what the
+entry had been.
+
+'July 5th, 1860.  Received, L120.  L. A. Ward,' --was the answer.
+'You will find it about the middle of the book, or rather past it.'
+
+'At what time did this take place?'
+
+'It must have been towards ten.  I cannot tell exactly, but it was
+later than half-past nine when I came in, and he was a good while
+bringing out the money.'
+
+The policeman returned, saying he could not find the book; and
+Leonard begging to show where he had left it, the coroner and jury
+accompanied him to the room.  At the sight of the red stain on the
+desk, a shuddering came over the boy, and a whiteness on his heated
+brow, nor could he at once recover himself so as to proceed with the
+search, which was still in vain; though with a voice lowered by the
+sickness of horror, he pointed out the place where he had laid it,
+and the pen he had used; and desk, table, drawer, and the dead man's
+dress were carefully examined.
+
+'You must know it, Sam,' said Leonard.  'Don't you remember his
+putting in the cheque--old Bilson's cheque for his year's rent--
+twenty-five pounds?  I brought it in, and he put it away one day last
+week.  You were sitting there.'
+
+Sam stammered something of 'Yes, he did recollect something of it.'
+
+Inquiries were made of the other persons concerned with Mr. Axworthy.
+Hardy thought his master used such a book, but had never seen it
+near; Mrs. Giles altogether disbelieved its existence; and Sam could
+not be positive--his uncle never allowed any one to touch his private
+memorandums.
+
+As, with deepened anxiety, Dr. May returned to the dining-room, he
+caught a glimpse of Henry Ward's desponding face, but received a sign
+not to disclose his presence.  Edward Anderson wrote, and considered;
+and the coroner, looking at his notes again, recurred to Leonard's
+statement that he had seen some one in the yard.
+
+'I thought it was one of the men waiting to take my cousin Axworthy's
+horse.  I did not know whether he had ridden or gone by train; and I
+supposed that some one would be looking out for him.'
+
+Questions were asked whether any of the servants had been in the
+yard, but it was denied by all; and on a more particular description
+of the person being demanded, Leonard replied that the figure had
+been in the dark shade of the stables, and that he only knew that it
+was a young man--whether a stranger or not he did not know; he
+supposed now that it must have been the--the murderer, but at the
+time he had thought it one of the stable-men; and as his uncle had
+particularly wished that his journey should be a secret, the sight
+had only made him hasten to put out his light, and depart unseen.  It
+was most unfortunate that he had done so.
+
+Others ironically whispered, 'Most unfortunate.'
+
+The coroner asked Mr. Anderson whether he had anything to ask or
+observe, and on his reply in the negative, proceeded to sum up the
+evidence for the consideration of the jury.
+
+It seemed as if it were only here that Leonard perceived the real
+gist of the evidence.  His brow grew hotter, his eyes indignant, his
+hands clenched, as if he with difficulty restrained himself from
+breaking in on the coroner's speech; and when at length the question
+was put to the jury, he stood, the colour fading from his cheek, his
+eyes set and glassy, his lip fallen, the dew breaking out on his
+brow, every limb as it were petrified by the shock of what was thus
+first fully revealed to him.
+
+So he stood, while the jury deliberated in low gruff sorrowful
+murmurs, and after a few minutes, turned round to announce with much
+sadness that they could do no otherwise than return a verdict of
+wilful murder against Leonard Ward.
+
+'Mr. Leonard Ward,' said the coroner, a gentleman who had well known
+his father, and who spoke with scarcely concealed emotion, 'it
+becomes my painful duty to commit you to Whitford Gaol for trial at
+the next assizes.'
+
+Dr. May eagerly offered bail, rather as the readiest form of kindness
+than in the hope of its acceptance, and it was of course refused; but
+he made his way to the prisoner, and wrung his chill hand with all
+his might.  The pressure seemed to waken the poor lad from his frozen
+rigidity; the warmth came flowing back into his fingers as his friend
+held them; he raised his head, shut and re-opened his eyes, and
+pushed back his hair, as though trying to shake himself loose from a
+too horrible dream.  His face softened and quivered as he met the
+Doctor's kind eyes; but bracing himself again, he looked up, answered
+the coroner's question--that his Christian name was Leonard Axworthy,
+his age within a few weeks of eighteen; and asked permission to fetch
+what he should want from his room.
+
+The policeman, in whose charge he was, consented both to this, and to
+Dr. May being there alone with him for a short time.
+
+Then it was that the boy relaxed the strain on his features, and said
+in a low and strangled voice, '0, Dr. May, if you had only let me die
+with them last year!'
+
+'It was not I who saved you.  He who sent that ordeal, will bring you
+through--this,' said Dr. May, with a great sob in his throat that
+belied his words of cheer.
+
+'I thank Him at least for having taken her,' said Leonard, resting
+his head on the mantel-shelf beneath his mother's picture, while his
+little dog sat at his foot, looking up at him, cowed and wistful.
+
+Dr. May strove for words of comfort, but broke utterly down; and
+could only cover his face with his hands, and struggle with his
+emotion, unable to utter a word.
+
+Yet perhaps none would have been so comforting as his genuine
+sympathy, although it was in a voice of extreme distress that Leonard
+exclaimed, 'Dr. May, Dr. May, pray don't! you ought not to grieve for
+me!'
+
+'I'm a fool,' said Dr. May, after some space, fighting hard with
+himself.  'Nonsense! we shall see you out of this!  We have only to
+keep up a good heart, and we shall see it explained.'
+
+'I don't know; I can't understand,' said Leonard, passing his hand
+over his weary forehead.  'Why could they not believe when I told
+them just how it was?'
+
+At that moment the policeman opened the door, saying, 'Here, sir;'
+and Henry hurried in, pale and breathless, not looking in his
+brother's face, as he spoke fast and low.
+
+'Ned Anderson says there's nothing at all to be made of this defence
+of yours; it is of no use to try it.  The only thing is to own that
+he found fault with you, and in one of your rages--you know--'
+
+'You too, Henry!' said Leonard, in dejected reproach.
+
+'Why--why, it is impossible it could have been otherwise--open
+window, absconding, and all.  We all know you never meant it; but
+your story won't stand; and the only chance, Anderson says, is to go
+in for manslaughter.  If you could only tell anything that would give
+him a clue to pick up evidence while the people are on the spot.'
+
+Leonard's face was convulsed for a moment while his brother was
+speaking; but he recovered calmness of voice, as he mournfully
+answered, 'I have no right to wonder at your suspicion of me.'
+
+Henry for the first time really looked at him, and instinctively
+faltered, 'I beg your pardon.'
+
+'Indeed,' said Leonard, with the same subdued manner, 'I cannot
+believe that any provocation could make me strike a person like that
+old man; and here there was none at all.  Except that he was vexed at
+first at my being late, he had never been so near kindness.'
+
+'Then is this extraordinary story the truth?'
+
+'Why should I not tell the truth?' was the answer, too mournful for
+indignation.
+
+Henry again cast down his eyes, Leonard moved about making
+preparations, Dr. May leant against the wall--all too much oppressed
+for speech; till, as Leonard stooped, poor little Mab, thrusting her
+black head into his hand, drew from him the words, 'My doggie, what
+is to become of you?'
+
+A sort of hoarse explosion of 'Ave' from Henry was simultaneous with
+the Doctor's 'I tried to get her home with me in the morning, but she
+waited your orders.'
+
+'Miss May would not have her now.  After all, prussic acid would be
+the truest mercy' said Leonard, holding the little creature up to his
+face, and laying his cheek against her silken coat with almost
+passionate affection.
+
+'Not while there are those who trust your word, Leonard; as Ethel
+said this morning.'
+
+He raised the face which he had hidden against the dog, and looked
+earnestly at the Doctor as if hardly venturing to understand him;
+then a ray of real gladness and comfort darted into his eyes, which
+so enlivened Dr. May, that he was able to say cheerfully, 'We will
+take good care of her till you come for her.'
+
+'Then, Henry,' said Leonard, 'it is not unkindness, nor that I
+remember things, but indeed I think it will be better for you all,
+since Dr. May is so--so--' The word kind was so inadequate, that it
+stuck in his throat.  'Take this to Ave,' putting his mother's
+likeness in his hand, 'and tell her I will write,'
+
+'Poor Ave!'
+
+Leonard imploringly shook his head; the mention of his sister shook
+him more than he could bear; and he asked the time.
+
+'Nearly six.'
+
+'Only six!  What an endless day!  There, I am ready.  There is no use
+in delaying.  I suppose I must show what I am taking with me.'
+
+'Wait,' said his brother.  'Cannot you say anything to put us on the
+track of the man in the yard?'
+
+'I did not see him plain.'
+
+'You've no notion?' said Henry, with a movement of annoyance.
+
+'No.  I only looked for a moment; for I was much more anxious to get
+off quietly, than to make any one out.  If I had only waited ten
+minutes, it might have been the saving of his life, but my commission
+was so like fun, and so important too, that I thought of nothing
+else.  Can it be not twenty-four hours ago?'
+
+'And why don't you explain why he sent you?'
+
+'I cannot say it so certainly as to be of the slightest use,' said
+Leonard.
+
+'He never expressed it either; and I have no right to talk of my
+suspicions.'
+
+'Eh! was it to put it out of Sam's way?'
+
+'So I suppose.  Sam used to get all he chose out of the poor old man;
+and I believe he thought this the only chance of keeping anything for
+himself, but he never told me so.  Stay!  Bilson's cheque might be
+tracked.  I took it myself, and gave the receipt; you will find it
+entered in the books--paid on either the twenty-third or fourth.'
+
+'Then there's something to do, at any rate,' cried Henry,
+invigorated.  'Anderson shall hunt out the balance and Sam's draughts
+on it.  I'll spare no expense, Leonard, if it is to my last farthing;
+and you shall have the best counsel that can be retained.'
+
+Leonard signed thanks with some heartiness, and was going to the
+door, when Henry detained him.  'Tell me, Leonard, have you no
+suspicion?'
+
+'It must have been the person I saw in the court, and, like a fool,
+did not watch.  The window was open, and he could have easily got in
+and come out.  Can't they see that if it had been me, I should have
+made off at once that way?'
+
+'If you could only tell what the fellow was like!'
+
+'I told you he was in the dark,' said Leonard, and without giving
+time for more, he called in the man outside, showed the clothes and,
+books he had selected, put them into his bag, and declared himself
+ready, giving his hand to the Doctor, who drew him near and kissed
+his brow, as if he had been Harry setting forth on a voyage.
+
+'Good-bye, my dear fellow; God bless you; I'll soon come to see you.'
+
+'And I,' said Henry, 'will bring Bramshaw to see what is to be done.'
+
+Leonard wrung his brother's hand, murmuring something of love to his
+sisters; then put Mab into Dr. May's arms, with injunctions that the
+little creature understood and obeyed, for though trembling and
+whining under her breath, she was not resisting.
+
+It might be to shorten her distress as well as his own that Leonard
+passed quickly down-stairs, and entered the carriage that was to take
+him to the county gaol.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+
+Tears are not always fruitful; their hot drops
+  Sometimes but scorch the cheek and dim the eye;
+Despairing murmurs over blackened hopes,
+  Not the meek spirit's calm and chastened cry.
+Oh, better not to weep, than weep amiss!
+  For hard it is to learn to weep aright;
+To weep wise tears, the tears that heal and bless,
+  The tears which their own bitterness requite.--H. BONAR
+
+
+To one of the most tender-hearted of human beings had the office of
+conveying ill tidings been most often committed, and again Dr. May
+found himself compelled to precede Henry Ward into the sister's
+presence, and to break to her the result of the inquest.
+
+He was no believer in the efficacy of broken news, but he could not
+refuse when Henry in his wretchedness entreated not to be the first
+in the infliction of such agony; so he left the carriage outside, and
+walked up to the door; and there stood Averil, with Ethel a few steps
+behind her.  His presence was enough revelation.  Had things gone
+well, he would not have been the forerunner; and Averil, meaning
+perhaps to speak, gave a hoarse hysterical shriek, so frightful as to
+drive away other anxieties, and summon Henry in from his watch
+outside.
+
+All day the poor girl had kept up an unnatural strain on her powers,
+vehemently talking of other things, and, with burning cheeks and
+shining eyes, moving incessantly from one employment to another; now
+her needle, now her pencil--roaming round the garden gathering
+flowers, or playing rattling polkas that half stunned Ethel in her
+intense listening for tidings.  Ethel, who had relieved guard and
+sent Mary home in the afternoon, had vainly striven to make Ave rest
+or take food; the attempt had brought on such choking, that she could
+only desist, and wait for the crisis.  The attack was worse than any
+ordinary hysterics, almost amounting to convulsions; and all that
+could be done was to prevent her from hurting herself, and try to
+believe Dr. May's assurance that there was no real cause for alarm,
+and that the paroxysms would exhaust themselves.
+
+In time they were spent, and Ave lay on her bed half torpid, feebly
+moaning, but with an instinctive dread of being disturbed.  Henry
+anxiously watched over her, and Dr. May thought it best to leave the
+brother and sister to one another.  Absolute quiet was best for her,
+and he had skill and tenderness enough to deal with her, and was
+evidently somewhat relieved by the necessity of waiting on her.  It
+was the best means, perhaps, of uniting them, that they should be
+thus left together; and Dr. May would have taken home little pale
+frightened Minna, who had been very helpful all the time.
+
+'Oh, please not, Dr. May,' she said, earnestly.  'Indeed I will not
+be troublesome, and I can give Henry his tea, and carry Ave's cup.
+Please, Henry, don't send me:' and she took hold of his hand, and
+laid it against her cheek.  He bent down over her, and fondled her;
+and there were tears that he could not hide as he tried both to thank
+Dr. May, and tell her that she need not leave him.
+
+'No,' said Dr. May; 'it would be cruel to both of you.--Good-bye,
+little Minna; I never wanted to carry away a little comforter.'
+
+'I believe you are right, papa,' said Ethel, as she went out with him
+to the carriage; 'but I long to stay, it is like doing something for
+that boy.'
+
+'The best you did for him, poor dear boy! was the saying you trusted
+his word.  The moment I told him that, he took comfort and energy.'
+
+Ethel's lips moved into a strange half smile, and she took Mab on her
+lap, and fondled her.  'Yes,' she said, 'I believe I stand for a good
+deal in his imagination.  I was afraid he would have been wrecked
+upon that horrid place; but, after all, this may be the saving of
+him.'
+
+'Ah! if that story of his would only be more vraisemblable.'
+
+There was only time briefly to narrate it before coming home, where
+the first person they met was Aubrey, exceeding pale, and in great
+distress.  'Papa, I must tell you,' he said, drawing him into the
+study.  'I have done terrible harm, I am afraid.'  And he explained,
+that in the morning, when Mrs. Pugh had come down full of inquiries
+and conjectures, and had spoken of the possibility of Leonard's
+having been drowned while bathing, he had unguardedly answered that
+it could be no such thing; Leonard had always meant to run away, and
+by that very window, if the Axworthys grew too bad.
+
+Prudent Tom had silenced him at the time, but had since found that it
+had got abroad that the evasion had long been meditated with Aubrey's
+privity, and had been asked by one of the constabulary force if his
+brother would not be an important witness.  Tom had replied that he
+knew nothing about it; but Aubrey was in great misery, furious with
+Mrs. Pugh, and only wanting his father to set off at once to assure
+them it was all nonsense.
+
+'No, Aubrey, they neither would, nor ought to, take my word.'
+
+'Just hear, papa, and you would know the chaff it was.'
+
+'I cannot hear, Aubrey.  If we were to discuss it, we might give it
+an unconscious colouring.  You must calm your mind, and exactly
+recall what passed; but do not talk about it to me or to any one
+else.  You must do nothing to impair the power of perfect truth and
+accuracy, which is a thing to be prayed for.  If any one--even the
+lawyer who may have to get up the case against him--asks you about
+it, you must refuse to answer till the trial; and then--why, the
+issue is in the hands of Him that judgeth righteously.'
+
+'I shall never remember nor speak with his eyes on me, seeing me
+betray him!'
+
+'You will be no worse off than I, my boy, for I see I am in for
+identifying Hector's rifle; the Mill people can't swear to it, and my
+doing it will save his brother something.'
+
+'No, it is not like me.  0! I wish I had stayed at Eton, even if I
+had died of it!  Tom says it all comes of living with women that I
+can't keep my mouth shut; and Leonard will be so hurt that I--'
+
+'Nay, any tolerable counsel will make a capital defence out of the
+mere fact of his rodomontading.  What, is that no comfort to you?'
+
+'What! to be the means of making a fool of him before all the court--
+seeing him hear our talk by the river-side sifted by those horrid
+lawyers?'
+
+The Doctor looked even graver, and his eye fixed as on a thought far
+away, as the boy's grief brought to his mind the Great Assize, when
+all that is spoken in the ear shall indeed be proclaimed on the
+house-tops.
+
+There was something almost childish in this despair of Aubrey, for he
+had not become alarmed for the result of the trial.  His misery was
+chiefly shame at his supposed treason to friendship, and failure in
+manly reserve; and he could not hold up his head all the evening, but
+silently devoted himself to Mab, endeavouring to make her at home,
+and meeting with tolerable success.
+
+Tom was no less devoted to Ella Ward.  It was he who had brought her
+home, and he considered her therefore as his charge.  It was curious
+to see the difference that a year had made between her and Minna.
+They had the last summer been like one child, and had taken the
+stroke that had orphaned them in the same childish manner; but
+whether the year from eight to nine had been of especial growth to
+Minna, or whether there had been a stimulus in her constant
+association with Averil, the present sorrow fell on her as on one
+able to enter into it, think and feel, and assume her sweet mission
+of comfort; whilst Ella, though neither hard nor insensible, was
+still child enough to close her mind to what she dreaded, and flee
+willingly from the pain and tedium of affliction.  She had willingly
+accepted 'Mr. Tom's' invitation, and as willingly responded to his
+attentions.  Gertrude did not like people in the 'little girl' stage,
+and the elder sisters had their hands and hearts full, and could only
+care for her in essentials; but Tom undertook her amusement, treated
+her to an exhibition of his microscope, and played at French
+billiards with her the rest of the evening, till she was carried off
+to bed in Mary's room, when he pronounced her a very intelligent
+child.
+
+'I think her a very unfeeling little thing,' said Gertrude.  'Very
+unbecoming behaviour under the circumstances.'
+
+'What would you think becoming behaviour?' asked Tom.
+
+'I won't encourage it,' returned Daisy, with dignified decision, that
+gave her father his first approach to a laugh on that day; but nobody
+was in spirits to desire Miss Daisy to define from what her important
+sanction was withdrawn.
+
+Mary gave up her Sunday-school class to see how Averil was, and found
+Henry much perturbed.  He had seen her fast asleep at night, and in
+the morning Minna had carried up her breakfast, and he was about to
+follow it, as soon as his own was finished, when he found that she
+had slipped out of the house, leaving a message that she was gone to
+practise on the harmonium.
+
+He was of the mind that none of the family could or ought to be seen
+at church; and though Mary could not agree with him, she willingly
+consented to go to the chapel and try what she could do with his
+sister.  She met Mrs. Ledwich on the way, coming to inquire and see
+whether she or dear Matilda could do anything for the 'sweet
+sufferer.'  Even Mary could not help thinking that this was not the
+epithet most befitting poor Ave; and perhaps Mrs. Ledwich's
+companionship made her the less regret that Ave had locked herself
+in, so that there was no making her hear, though the solemn chants,
+played with great fervour, reached them as they waited in the porch.
+They had their own seats in the Minster, and therefore could not wait
+till the sexton should come to open the church.
+
+There was no time for another visit till after the second service,
+and then Dr. May and Mary, going to Bankside, found that instead of
+returning home, Ave had again locked herself up between the services,
+and that Minna, who had ventured on a mission of recall, had come
+home crying heartily both at the dreary disappointment of knocking in
+vain, and at the grand mournful sounds of funeral marches that had
+fallen on her ear.  Every one who had been at the chapel that day was
+speaking of the wonderful music, the force and the melody of the
+voluntary at the dismissal of the congregation; no one had believed
+that such power resided in the harmonium.  Mr. Scudamour had spoken
+to Miss Ward most kindly both before and after evening service, but
+his attempt to take her home had been unavailing; she had answered
+that she was going presently, and he was obliged to leave her.
+
+Evening was coming on, and she had not come, so the other keys were
+fetched from the sexton's, and Dr. May and his daughter set off to
+storm her fortress.  Like Minna, the Doctor was almost overpowered by
+the wonderful plaintive sweetness of the notes that were floating
+through the atmosphere, like a wailing voice of supplication.  They
+had almost unnerved him, as he waited while Mary unlocked the door.
+
+The sound of its opening hushed the music; Averil turned her head,
+and recognizing them, came to them, very pale, and with sunken eyes.
+'You are coming home, dear Ave,' said Mary; and she made no
+resistance or objection, only saying, 'Yes.  It has been so nice
+here!'
+
+'You must come now, though,' said the Doctor.  'Your brother is very
+much grieved at your leaving him.'
+
+'I did not mean to be unkind to him,' said Averil, in a low subdued
+voice; 'he was very good to me last night.  Only--this is peace--
+this,' pointing to her instrument, 'is such a soothing friend.  And
+surely this is the place to wait in!'
+
+'The place to wait in indeed, my poor child, if you are not
+increasing the distress of others by staying here.  Besides, you must
+not exhaust yourself, or how are you to go and cheer Leonard!'
+
+'Oh! there is no fear but that I shall go to-morrow,' said Averil; 'I
+mean to do it!' the last words being spoken in a resolute tone,
+unlike the weariness of her former replies.
+
+And with this purpose before her, she consented to be taken back by
+Mary to rest on the sofa, and even to try to eat and drink.  Her
+brother and sister hung over her, and waited on her with a tender
+assiduous attention that showed how they had missed her all day; and
+she received their kindness gratefully, as far as her broken wearied
+state permitted.
+
+Several inquiries had come throughout the day from the neighbours;
+and while Mary was still with Ave, a message was brought in to ask
+whether Miss Ward would like to see Mrs. Pugh.
+
+'Oh no, no, thank her, but indeed I cannot,' said Averil, shivering
+uncontrollably as she lay.
+
+Mary felt herself blushing, in the wonder what would be kindest to
+do, and her dread of seeing Henry's face.  She was sure that he too
+shrank, and she ventured to ask, 'Shall I go and speak to her?'
+
+'Oh, do, do,' said Averil, shuddering with eagerness.  'Thank you,
+Miss Mary,' said Henry slowly.  'She is most kind--but--under the
+circumstances--'
+
+Mary went, finding that he only hesitated.  She had little
+opportunity for saying anything; Mrs. Pugh was full of interest and
+eagerness, and poured out her sympathy and perfect understanding of
+dear Averil's feelings; and in the midst Henry came out of the room,
+with a stronger version of their gratitude, but in terrible
+confusion.  Mary would fain have retreated, but could not, and was
+witness to the lady's urgent entreaties to take Minna home, and
+Henry's thankfulness; but he feared--and retreated to ask the opinion
+of his sisters, while Mrs. Pugh told Mary that it was so very bad for
+the poor child to remain, and begged to have Ella if she were a
+moment's inconvenience to the May family.
+
+Henry came back with repeated thanks, but Minna could not bear to
+leave home; and in fact, he owned, with a half smile that gave
+sweetness to his face, she was too great a comfort to be parted with.
+So Mrs. Pugh departed, with doubled and trebled offers of service,
+and entreaties to be sent for at any hour of the day or night when
+she could be of use to Averil.
+
+Mary could not but be pleased with her, officious as she was.  It
+looked as if she had more genuine feeling for Henry than had been
+suspected, and the kindness was certain, though some of it might be
+the busy activity of a not very delicate nature, eager for the
+importance conferred by intimacy with the subjects of a great
+calamity.  Probably she would have been gratified by the eclat of
+being the beloved of the brother of the youth whose name was in every
+mouth, and her real goodness and benevolent heart would have
+committed her affections and interest beyond recall to the Ward
+family, had Averil leant upon her, or had Henry exerted himself to
+take advantage of her advances.
+
+But Henry's attachment had probably not been love, for it seemed
+utterly crushed out of him by his shame and despair.  Everything
+connected with his past life was hateful to him; he declared that he
+could never show his face at Stoneborough again, let the result be
+what it might--that he could never visit another patient, and that he
+should change his name and leave the country, beginning on that very
+Sunday afternoon to write a letter to his principal rival to
+negotiate the sale of his practice.
+
+In fact, his first impression had returned on him, and though he
+never disclaimed belief in Leonard's statement, the entire failure of
+all confirmation convinced him that the blow had been struck by his
+brother in sudden anger, and that, defend him as he might and would,
+the stain was on his house, and the guilt would be brought home.
+
+Resolved, however, to do his utmost, he went with Mr. Bramshaw for a
+consultation with Leonard on the Monday.  Averil could not go.  She
+rose and dressed, and remained resolute till nearly the last minute,
+when her feverish faint giddiness overpowered her, and she was forced
+to submit to lie on the sofa, under Minna's care; and there she lay,
+restless and wretched, till wise little Minna sent a message up to
+the High Street, which brought down Mary and Dr. Spencer.  They found
+her in a state of nervous fever, that sentenced her to her bed, where
+Mary deposited her and watched over her, till her brother's return,
+more desponding than ever.
+
+Dr. May, with all Henry's patients on his hands as well as his own,
+had been forced to devote this entire day to his profession; but on
+the next, leaving Henry to watch over Averil, who continued very
+feeble and feverish, he went to Whitford, almost infected by Henry's
+forebodings and Mr. Bramshaw's misgivings.  'It is a bad case,' the
+attorney had said to him, confidentially.  'But that there is always
+a great reluctance to convict upon circumstantial evidence, I should
+have very little hope, that story of his is so utterly impracticable;
+and yet he looks so innocent and earnest all the time, and sticks to
+it so consistently, that I don't know what to make of it.  I can't do
+anything with him, nor can his brother either; but perhaps you might
+make him understand that we could bring him clear off for
+manslaughter--youth, and character and all.  I should not doubt of a
+verdict for a moment!  It is awkward about the money, but the alarm
+would be considered in the sentence.'
+
+'You don't attend to his account of the person he saw in the court-
+yard?'
+
+'The less said about that the better,' returned Mr. Bramshaw.  'It
+would only go for an awkward attempt to shift off the suspicion,
+unless he would give any description; and that he can't, or won't do.
+Or even if he did, the case would be all the stronger against his
+story--setting off, and leaving a stranger to maraud about the place.
+No, Dr. May; the only thing for it is to persuade the lad to own to
+having struck the old man in a passion; every one knows old Axworthy
+could be intolerably abusive, and the boy always was passionate.
+Don't you remember his flying out at Mr. Rivers's, the night of the
+party, and that affair which was the means of his going to the mill
+at all?  I don't mind saying so to you in confidence, because I know
+you won't repeat it, and I see his brother thinks so too; but nothing
+is likely to turn out so well for him as that line of defence; as
+things stand now, the present one is good for nothing.'
+
+Dr. May was almost as much grieved at the notion of the youth's
+persistence in denying such a crime, as at the danger in which it
+involved him, and felt that if he were to be brought to confession,
+it should be from repentance, not expediency.
+
+In this mood he drove to Whitford Gaol, made application at the
+gates, and was conducted up the stairs to the cell.
+
+The three days of nearly entire solitude and of awful expectation had
+told like double the number of years; and there was a stamp of grave
+earnest collectedness on the young brow, and a calm resolution of
+aspect and movement, free from all excitement or embarrassment, as
+Leonard Ward stood up with a warm grateful greeting, so full of
+ingenuous reliance, that every doubt vanished at the same moment.
+
+His first question was for Averil; and Dr. May made the best of her
+state.  'She slept a little more last night, and her pulse is lower
+this morning; but we keep her in bed, half to hinder her from trying
+to come here before she is fit.  I believe this ailment is the best
+thing for her and Henry both,' added the Doctor, seeing how much pain
+his words were giving.  'Henry is a very good nurse; it occupies him,
+and it is good for her to feel his kindness!  Then Minna has come out
+in the prettiest way: she never fails in some sweet little tender
+word or caress just when it is wanted.'
+
+Leonard tried to smile, but only succeeded in keeping back a sob; and
+the Doctor discharged his memory of the messages of love of which he
+had been the depositary.  Leonard recovered his composure during
+these, and was able to return a smile on hearing of Ella's conquest
+of Tom, of their Bible prints on Sunday, and their unwearied French
+billiards in the week.  Then he asked after little Mab.
+
+'She is all a dog should be,' said Dr. May.  'Aubrey is her chief
+friend, except when she is lying at her ease on Ethel's dress.'
+
+The old test of dog-love perhaps occurred to Leonard, for his lips
+trembled, and his eyes were dewy, even while they beamed with
+gladness.
+
+'She is a great comfort to Aubrey,' the Doctor added.  'I must beg
+you to send that poor fellow your forgiveness, for he is exceedingly
+unhappy about something he repeated in the first unguarded moment.'
+
+'Mr. Bramshaw told me,' said Leonard, with brow contracted.
+
+'I cannot believe,' said Dr. May, 'that it can do you any real harm.
+I do not think the prosecution ought to take notice of it; but if
+they do, it will be easy to sift it, and make it tell rather in your
+favour.'
+
+'Maybe so,' said Leonard, still coldly.
+
+'Then you will cheer him with some kind message?'
+
+'To be sure.  It is the time for me to be forgiving every one,' he
+answered, with a long tightly-drawn breath.
+
+Much distressed, the Doctor paused, in uncertainty whether Leonard
+were actuated by dread of the disclosure or resentment at the breach
+of confidence; but ere he spoke, the struggle had been fought out,
+and a sweet sad face was turned round to him, with the words, 'Poor
+old Aubrey!  Tell him not to mind.  There will be worse to be told
+out than our romancings together, and he will feel it more than I
+shall!  Don't let him vex himself.'
+
+'Thank you,' said the father, warmly.  'I call that pardon.'
+
+'Not that there is anything to forgive,' said Leonard, 'only it is
+odd that one cares for it more than-- No, no, don't tell him that,
+but that I know it does not signify.  It must not come between us, if
+this is to be the end; and it will make no difference.  Nothing can
+do that but the finding my receipt.  I see that book night and day
+before my eyes, with the very blot that I made in the top of my L.'
+
+'You know they are searching the garden and fields, and advertising a
+reward, in case of its having been thrown away when rifled, or found
+to contain no valuables.'
+
+'Yes!' and he rested on the word as though much lay behind.
+
+'Do you think it contained anything worth keeping?'
+
+'Only by one person.'
+
+'Ha!' said the Doctor, with a start.
+
+Instead of answering, Leonard leant down on the narrow bed on which
+he was seated, and shut in his face between his hands.
+
+The Doctor waited, guessed, and grew impatient.  'You don't mean that
+fellow, Sam?  Do you think he has it?  I should like to throttle him,
+as sure as my name's Dick May!' (this in soliloquy between his
+teeth).  'Speak up, Leonard, if you have any suspicion.'
+
+The lad lifted himself with grave resolution that gave him dignity.
+'Dr. May,' he said, 'I know that what I say is safe with you, and it
+seems disrespectful to ask your word and honour beforehand, but I
+think it will be better for us both if you will give them not to make
+use of what I tell you.  It weighs on me so, that I shall be saying
+it to the wrong person, unless I have it out with you.  You promise
+me?'
+
+'To make no use of it without your consent,' repeated the Doctor,
+with rising hope, 'but this is no case for scruples--too much is at
+stake.'
+
+'You need not tell me that,' Leonard replied, with a shudder; 'but I
+have no proof.  I have thought again and again and again, but can
+find no possible witness.  He was always cautious, and drink made him
+savage, but not noisy.'
+
+'Then you believe--'  The silence told the rest.
+
+'If I did not see how easy people find it to believe the same of me
+on the mere evidence of circumstances, I should have no doubt,' said
+Leonard, deliberately.
+
+'Then it was he that you saw in the yard?'
+
+'Remember, all I saw was that a man was there.  I concluded it was
+Andrews, waiting to take the horse; and as he is a great hanger-on of
+Sam, I wished to avoid him, and not keep my candle alight to attract
+his attention.  That was the whole reason of my getting out of
+window, and starting so soon; as unlucky a thing as I could have
+done.'
+
+'You are sure it was not Andrews?'
+
+'Now I am.  You see, Sam had sent home his horse from the station,
+though I did not know it; and, if you remember, Andrews was shown to
+have been at his father's long before.  If he had been the man, he
+could speak to the time my light was put out.'
+
+'The putting out of your light must have been the signal for the deed
+to be done.'
+
+'My poor uncle!  Well might he stare round as if he thought the walls
+would betray him, and start at every chinking of that unhappy gold in
+his helpless hands!  If we had only known who was near--perhaps
+behind the blinds--' and Leonard gasped.
+
+'But this secrecy, Leonard, I cannot understand it.  Do you mean that
+the poor old man durst not do what he would with his own?'
+
+'Just so.  Whenever Sam knew that he had a sum of money, he laid
+hands on it.  Nothing was safe from him that Mr. Axworthy had in the
+Whitford Bank.'
+
+'That can be proved from the accounts?'
+
+'You recollect the little parlour between the office and my uncle's
+sitting-room?  There I used to sit in the evening, and to feel,
+rather than hear, the way Sam used to bully the poor old man.  Once--
+a fortnight ago, just after that talk with Aubrey--I knew he had been
+drinking, and watched, and came in upon them when there was no
+bearing it any longer.  I was sworn at for my pains, and almost
+kicked out again; but after that Mr. Axworthy made me sit in the
+room, as if I were a protection; and I made up my mind to bear it as
+long as he lived.'
+
+'Surely the servants would bear witness to this state of things?'
+
+'I think not.  Their rooms are too far off for overhearing, and my
+uncle saw as little of them as possible.  Mrs. Giles was Sam's nurse,
+and cares for him more than any other creature; she would not say a
+word against him even if she knew anything; and my uncle would never
+have complained.  He was fond of Sam to the last, proud of his
+steeple-chases and his cleverness, and desperately afraid of him; in
+a sort of bondage, entirely past daring to speak.'
+
+'I know,' said Dr. May, remembering how his own Tom had been fettered
+and tongue-tied by that same tyrant in boyhood.  'But he spoke to
+you?'
+
+'No,' said Leonard.  'After that scene much was implied between us,
+but nothing mentioned.  I cannot even tell whether he trusted me, or
+only made me serve as a protector.  I believe that row was about this
+money, which he had got together in secret, and that Sam suspected,
+and wanted to extort; but it was exactly as I said at the inquest, he
+gave no reason for sending me up to town with it.  He knew that I
+knew why, and so said no more than that it was to be private.  It was
+pitiful to see that man, so fierce and bold as they say he once was,
+trembling as if doing something by stealth, and the great hard knotty
+hands so crumpled and shaky, that he had to leave all to me.  And
+that they should fancy I could go and hurt him!' said Leonard,
+stretching his broad chest and shoulders in conscious strength.
+
+'Yes, considering who it was, I do not wonder that you feel the
+passion-theory as insulting as the accusation.'
+
+'I ought not,' said Leonard, reddening.  'Every one knows what my
+temper can do.  I do not think that a poor old feeble man like that
+could have provoked me to be so cowardly, but I see it is no wonder
+they think so.  Only they might suppose I would not have been a
+robber, and go on lying now, when they take good care to tell me that
+it is ruinous!'
+
+'It is an intolerable shame that they can look you in the face and
+imagine it for a moment,' said the Doctor, with all his native
+warmth.
+
+'After all,' said Leonard, recalled by his sympathy, 'it is my own
+fault from beginning to end that I am in this case.  I see now that
+it was only God's mercy that prevented my brother's blood being on
+me, and it was my unrepenting obstinacy that brought me to the mill;
+so there will be no real injustice in my dying, and I expect nothing
+else.'
+
+'Hush, Leonard, depend upon it, while there is Justice in Heaven, the
+true criminal cannot go free,' cried the Doctor, much agitated.
+
+Leonard shook his head.
+
+'Boyish hastiness is not murder,' added the Doctor.
+
+'So I thought.  But it might have been, and I never repented.  I
+brought all this on myself; and while I cannot feel guiltless in
+God's sight, I cannot expect it to turn out well.'
+
+'Turn out well,' repeated the Doctor.  'We want Ethel to tell us that
+this very repentance and owning of the sin, is turning out well--
+better than going on in it.'
+
+'I can see that,' said Leonard.  'I do hope that if--if I can take
+this patiently, it may show I am sorry for the real thing--and I may
+be forgiven.  Oh! I am glad prisoners are not cut off from church.'
+
+Dr. May pressed his hand in much emotion: and there was a silence
+before another question--whether there were nothing that could be of
+service.
+
+'One chance there is, that Sam might relent enough to put that
+receipt where it could be found without implicating him.  He must
+know what it would do for me.'
+
+'You are convinced that he has it?'
+
+'There must be papers in the book valuable to him; perhaps some that
+he had rather were not seen.  Most likely he secured it in the
+morning.  You remember he was there before the police.'
+
+'Ay! ay! ay! the scoundrel!  But, Leonard, what possessed you not to
+speak out at the inquest, when we might have searched every soul on
+the premises?'
+
+'I did not see it then.  I was stunned by the horror of the thing--
+the room where I had been so lately, and that blood on my own rifle
+too.  It was all I could do at one time not to faint, and I had no
+notion they would not take my explanation; then, when I found it
+rejected, and everything closing in on me, I was in a complete maze.
+It was not till yesterday, when I was alone again, after having gone
+over my defence with Mr. Bramshaw, and shown what I could prove, that
+I saw exactly how it must have been, as clear as a somnambulist.  I
+sometimes could fancy I had seen Sam listening at the window, and
+have to struggle not to think I knew him under the stable wall.'
+
+'And you are not such a--such a--so absurd as to sacrifice yourself
+to any scruple, and let the earth be cumbered with a rascal who, if
+he be withholding the receipt, is committing a second murder!  It is
+not generosity, it is suicide.'
+
+'It is not generosity,' said the boy, 'for if there were any hope,
+that would not stop me; but no one heard nor saw but myself, and I
+neither recognized him--no, I did not--nor heard anything definite
+from my uncle.  Even if I had, no one--no one but you, believes a
+word I speak; nay, even my own case shows what probabilities are
+worth, and that I may be doing him the same wrong that I am
+suffering.  I should only bring on myself the shame and disgrace of
+accusing another.'
+
+The steady low voice and unboyish language showed him to be speaking
+from reflection, not impulse.  The only tremulous moment was when he
+spoke of the one friend who trusted him, and whom his words were
+filling with a tumult of hope and alarm, admiration, indignation, and
+perplexity.
+
+'Well, well,' the Doctor said, almost stammering, 'I am glad you have
+been open with me.  It may be a clue.  Can there be any excuse for
+overhauling his papers?  Or can't we pick a hole in that alibi of
+his?  Now I recollect, he had it very pat, and unnecessarily
+prominent.  I'll find some way of going to work without compromising
+you.  Yes, you may trust me!  I'll watch, but say not a word without
+your leave.'
+
+'Thank you,' said Leonard.  'I am glad it is you--you who would never
+think a vague hope of saving me better than disgrace and dishonour.'
+
+'We will save you,' said the Doctor, becoming eager to escape to that
+favourite counsellor, the lining of his brougham, which had inspired
+him with the right theory of many a perplexing symptom, and he
+trusted would show him how to defend without betraying Leonard.  'I
+must go and see about it.  Is there anything I can do for you--books,
+or anything?'
+
+No, thank you--except--I suppose there would be no objection to my
+having a few finer steel pens.  'And to explain his wants, he took up
+his Prayer-Book, which his sister had decorated with several small
+devotional prints.  Copying these minutely line by line in pen and
+ink, was the solace of his prison hours; and though the work was
+hardly after drawing-masters' rules, the hand was not untaught, and
+there was talent and soul enough in the work to strike the Doctor.
+
+'It suits me best,' said Leonard.  'I should go distracted with
+nothing to do; and I can't read much--at least, not common books.
+And my sisters may like to have them.  Will you let me do one for
+you?'
+
+The speaking expression of those hazel eyes almost overcame the
+Doctor, and his answer was by bending head and grasping hand.
+Leonard turned to the Collects, and mutely opened at the print of the
+Son of Consolation, which he had already outlined, looked up at his
+friend, and turned away, only saying, 'Two or three of the sort with
+elastic nibs; they have them at the post-office.'
+
+'Yes, I'll take care,' said Dr. May, afraid to trust his self-command
+any longer.  'Good-bye, Leonard.  Tom says I adopt every one who gets
+through a bad enough fever, so what will you be to me after this
+second attack?'
+
+The result of the Doctor's consultation with his brougham was his
+stopping it at Mr. Bramshaw's door, to ascertain whether the search
+for the receipt had extended to young Axworthy's papers; but he found
+that they had been thoroughly examined, every facility having been
+given by their owner, who was his uncle's executor, and residuary
+legatee, by a will dated five years back, leaving a thousand pounds
+to the late Mrs. Ward, and a few other legacies, but the mass of the
+property to the nephew.
+
+Sam's 'facilities' not satisfying the Doctor, it was further
+explained that every endeavour was being made to discover what other
+documents were likely to have been kept in the missing memorandum-
+book, so as to lead to the detection of any person who might present
+any such at a bank; and it was made evident that everything was being
+done, short of the impracticability of searching an unaccused man,
+but he could not but perceive that Mr. Bramshaw's 'ifs' indicated
+great doubt of the existence of receipt and of pocket-book.  Throwing
+out a hint that the time of Sam's return should be investigated, he
+learnt that this had been Edward Anderson's first measure, and that
+it was clear, from the independent testimony of the ostler at
+Whitford, the friend who had driven Sam, and the landlord of the
+Three Goblets, that there was not more than time for the return
+exactly as described at the inquest; and though the horse was swift
+and powerful, and might probably have been driven at drunken speed,
+this was too entirely conjectural for anything to be founded on it.
+Nor had the cheque by Bilson on the Whitford Bank come in.
+
+'Something must assuredly happen to exonerate the guiltless, it would
+be profane to doubt,' said Dr. May continually to himself and to the
+Wards; but Leonard's secret was a painful burthen that he could
+scarcely have borne without sharing it with that daughter who was his
+other self, and well proved to be a safe repository.
+
+'That's my Leonard,' said Ethel.  'I know him much better now than
+any time since the elf-bolt affair!  They have not managed to ruin
+him among them.'
+
+'What do you call this?' said Dr. May, understanding her, indeed, but
+willing to hear her thought expressed.
+
+'Thankworthy,' she answered, with a twitching of the corners of her
+mouth.
+
+'You will suffer for this exaltation,' he said, sadly; 'you know you
+have a tender heart, for all your flights.'
+
+'And you know you have a soul as well as a heart,' said Ethel, as
+well as the swelling in her throat would allow.
+
+'To be sure, this world would be a poor place to live in, if
+admiration did not make pity bearable,' said the Doctor; 'but--but
+don't ask me, Ethel: you have not had that fine fellow in his manly
+patience before your eyes.  Talk of your knowing him!  You knew a
+boy!  I tell you, this has made him a man, and one of a thousand--so
+high-minded and so simple, so clearheaded and well-balanced, so
+entirely resigned and free from bitterness!  What could he not be?
+It would be grievous to see him cut off by a direct dispensation--
+sickness, accident, battle; but for him to come to such an end, for
+the sake of a double murderer--Ethel--it would almost stagger one's
+faith!'
+
+'Almost!' repeated Ethel, with the smile of a conqueror.
+
+'I know, I know,' said the Doctor.  'If it be so, it will be right;
+one will try to believe it good for him.  Nay, there's proof enough
+in what it has done for him already.  If you could only see him!'
+
+'I mean to see him, if it should go against him,' said Ethel, 'if you
+will let me.  I would go to him as I would if he were in a decline,
+and with more reverence.'
+
+'Don't talk of it,' cried her father.  'For truth's sake, for
+justice's sake, for the country's sake, I can not, will not, believe
+it will go wrong.  There is a Providence, after all, Ethel!'
+
+And the Doctor went away, afraid alike of hope and despondency, and
+Ethel thought of the bright young face, of De Wilton, of Job, and of
+the martyrs; and when she was not encouraging Aubrey, or soothing
+Averil, her heart would sink, and the tears that would not come would
+have been very comfortable.
+
+It was well for all that the assizes were so near that the suspense
+was not long protracted; for it told upon all concerned.  Leonard,
+when the Doctor saw him again, was of the same way of thinking, but
+his manner was more agitated; he could not sleep, or if he slept, the
+anticipations chased away in the day-time revenged themselves in his
+dreams; and he was very unhappy, also, about his sister, whose
+illness continued day after day.  She was not acutely ill, but in a
+constant state of low fever, every faculty in the most painful state
+of tension, convinced that she was quite able to get up and go to
+Leonard, and that her detention was mere cruelty; and then, on trying
+to rise, refused by fainting.  Her searching questions and ardent
+eyes made it impossible to keep any feature in the case from her
+knowledge.  Sleep was impossible to her; and once when Henry tried
+the effect of an anodyne, it produced a semi-delirium, which made him
+heartily repent of his independent measure.  At all times she was
+talking--nothing but the being left with a very stolid maid-servant
+ever closed her lips, and she so greatly resented being thus treated,
+that the measure was seldom possible.  Henry seldom left her.  He was
+convinced that Leonard's sentence would be hers likewise, and he
+watched over her with the utmost tenderness and patience with her
+fretfulness and waywardness, never quitting her except on their
+brother's behalf, when Ethel or Mary would take his place.  Little
+Minna was always to be found on her small chair by the bed-side, or
+moving about like a mouse, sometimes whispering her one note, 'They
+can't hurt him, if he has not done it,' and still quietly working at
+the pair of slippers that had been begun for his birthday present.
+Mary used to bring Ella, and take them out walking in the least-
+frequented path; but though the little sisters kissed eagerly, and
+went fondly hand in hand, they never were sorry to part:  Ella's
+spirits oppressed Minna, and Minna's depression vexed the more
+volatile sister; moreover, Minna always dreaded Mary's desire to
+carry her away--as, poor child, she looked paler, and her eyes
+heavier and darker, every day.
+
+No one else, except, of course, Dr. May, was admitted.  Henry would
+not let his sister see Mr. Scudamour or Mr. Wilmot, lest she should
+be excited; and Averil's 'No one' was vehement as a defence against
+Mrs. Pugh or Mrs. Ledwich, whom she suspected of wanting to see her,
+though she never heard of more than their daily inquiries.
+
+Mrs. Pugh was, in spite of her exclusion, the great authority with
+the neighbourhood for all the tidings of 'the poor Wards,' of whom
+she talked with the warmest commiseration, relating every touching
+detail of their previous and present history, and continually
+enduring the great shock of meeting people in shops or in the
+streets, whom she knew to be reporters or photographers.  In fact,
+the catastrophe had taken a strong hold on the public mind; and
+'Murder of an Uncle by his Nephew,' 'The Blewer Tragedy,' figured
+everywhere in the largest type; newsboys on the railway shouted, 'To-
+day's paper-account of inquest;' and the illustrated press sent down
+artists, whose three-legged cameras stared in all directions, from
+the Vintry Mill to Bankside, and who aimed at the school, the
+Minster, the volunteers, and Dr. Hoxton himself.  Tom advised Ethel
+to guard Mab carefully from appearing stuffed in the chamber of
+horrors at Madame Tussaud's; and the furniture at the mill would have
+commanded any price.  Nay, Mrs. Pugh was almost certain she had seen
+one of the 'horrid men' bargaining with the local photographer for
+her own portrait, in her weeds, and was resolved the interesting
+injury should never be forgiven!
+
+She really had the 'trying scenes' of two interviews with both Mr.
+Bramshaw and the attorney from Whitford who was getting up the
+prosecution, each having been told that she was in possession of
+important intelligence.  Mr. Bramshaw was not sanguine as to what he
+might obtain from her, but flattered her with the attempt, and ended
+by assuring her, like his opponent, that there was no need to expose
+her to the unpleasantness of appearing in court.
+
+Aubrey was not to have the same relief, but was, like his father,
+subpoenaed as a witness for the prosecution.  He had followed his
+father's advice, and took care not to disclose his evidence to the
+enemy, as he regarded the Whitford lawyer.  He was very miserable,
+and it was as much for his sake as that of the immediate family, that
+Ethel rejoiced that the suspense was to be short.  Counsel of high
+reputation had been retained; but as the day came nearer, without
+bringing any of the disclosures on which the Doctor had so securely
+reckoned, more and more stress was laid on the dislike to convict on
+circumstantial evidence, and on the saying that the English law had
+rather acquit ten criminals than condemn one innocent man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+
+Ah! I mind me now of thronging faces,
+  Mocking eyed, and eager, as for sport;
+Hundreds looking up, and in high places
+  Men arrayed for judgment and a court.
+
+And I heard, or seemed to hear, one seeking
+  Answer back from one he doomed to die,
+Pitifully, sadly, sternly speaking
+  Unto one--and oh! that one, twas I.--Rev. G. E. Monsell
+
+
+The 'Blewer Murder' was the case of the Assize week; and the court
+was so crowded that, but for the favour of the sheriff, Mr. and Mrs.
+Rivers, with Tom and Gertrude, could hardly have obtained seats.  No
+others of the family could endure to behold the scene, except from
+necessity; and indeed Ethel and Mary had taken charge of the sisters
+at home, for Henry could not remain at a distance from his brother,
+though unable to bear the sight of the proceedings; he remained in a
+house at hand.
+
+Nearly the whole population of Stoneborough, Whitford, and Blewer was
+striving to press into court, but before the day's work began, Edward
+Anderson had piloted Mrs. Pugh to a commodious place, under the
+escort of his brother Harvey, who was collecting materials for an
+article on criminal jurisprudence.
+
+Some of those who, like the widow and little Gertrude, had been wild
+to be present, felt their hearts fail them when the last previous
+case had been disposed of; and there was a brief pause of grave and
+solemn suspense and silent breathless expectation within the court,
+unbroken, except by increased sounds of crowding in all the avenues
+without.
+
+Every one, except the mere loungers, who craved nothing but
+excitement, looked awed and anxious; and the impression was deepened
+by the perception that the same feeling, though restrained, affected
+the judge himself, and was visible in the anxious attention with
+which he looked at the papers before him, and the stern sadness that
+had come over the features naturally full of kindness and
+benevolence.
+
+The prisoner appeared in the dock.  He had become paler, and perhaps
+thinner, for his square determined jaw, and the resolute mould of his
+lips, were more than usually remarkable, and were noted in the
+physiognomical brain of Harvey Anderson; as well as the keen light of
+his full dark hazel eye, the breadth of his brow, with his shining
+light brown hair brushed back from it; the strong build of his frame,
+and the determined force, apparent even in the perfect quiescence of
+his attitude.
+
+Leonard Axworthy Ward was arraigned for the wilful murder of Francis
+Axworthy, and asked whether he pleaded Guilty or Not Guilty.
+
+His voice was earnest, distinct, and firm, and his eyes were raised
+upwards, as though he were making the plea of 'Not Guilty' not to man
+alone, but to the Judge of all the earth.
+
+The officer of the court informed him of his right to challenge any
+of the jury, as they were called over by name; and as each came to be
+sworn, he looked full and steadily at each face, more than one of
+which was known to him by sight, as if he were committing his cause
+into their hands.  He declined to challenge; and then crossing his
+arms on his breast, cast down his eyes, and thus retained them
+through the greater part of the trial.
+
+The jurymen were then sworn in, and charged with the issue; and the
+counsel for the prosecution opened the case, speaking more as if in
+pity than indignation, as he sketched the history, which it was his
+painful duty to establish.  He described how Mr. Axworthy, having
+spent the more active years of his life in foreign trade, had finally
+returned to pass his old age among his relatives; and had taken to
+assist him in his business a great-nephew, and latterly another youth
+in the same degree of relation, the son of his late niece--the
+prisoner, who on leaving school had been taken into his uncle's
+office, lodged in the house, and became one of the family.  It would,
+however, be shown by witnesses that the situation had been extremely
+irksome to the young man; and that he had not been in it many months
+before he had expressed his intention of absconding, provided he
+could obtain the means of making his way in one of the colonies.
+Then followed a summary of the deductions resulting from the evidence
+about to be adduced, and which carried upon its face the inference
+that the absence of the cousin, the remoteness of the room, the sight
+of a large sum of money, and the helplessness of the old man, had
+proved temptations too strong for a fiery and impatient youth, long
+fretted by the restraints of his situation, and had conducted him to
+violence, robbery, and flight.  It was a case that could not be
+regarded without great regret and compassion; but the gentlemen of
+the jury must bear in mind in their investigation, that pity must not
+be permitted to distort the facts, which he feared were only too
+obvious.
+
+The speech was infinitely more telling from its fair and
+commiserating tone towards the prisoner; and the impression that it
+carried, not that he was to be persecuted by having the crime
+fastened on him, but that truth must be sought out at all hazards.
+
+'Even he is sorry for Leonard!  I don't hate him as I thought I
+should,' whispered Gertrude May, to her elder sister. The first
+witness was, as before, the young maid-servant, Anne Ellis, who
+described her first discovery of the body; and on farther
+interrogation, the situation of the room, distant from those of the
+servants, and out of hearing--also her master's ordinary condition of
+feebleness.  She had observed nothing in the room, or on the table,
+but knew the window was open, since she had run to it, and screamed
+for help, upon which Master Hardy had come to her aid.
+
+Leonard's counsel then elicited from her how low the window was, and
+how easily it could be entered from without.
+
+James Hardy corroborated all this, giving a more minute account of
+the state of the room; and telling of his going to call the young
+gentlemen, and finding the open passage window and empty bed-room.
+The passage window would naturally be closed at night; and there was
+no reason to suppose that Mr. Ward would be absent.  The bag shown to
+him was one that had originally been made for the keeping of cash,
+but latterly had been used for samples of grain, and he had last seen
+it in the office.
+
+The counsel for the prisoner inquired what had been on the table at
+Hardy's first entrance; but to this the witness could not swear,
+except that the lamp was burning, and that there were no signs of
+disorder, nor was the dress of the deceased disarranged.  He had seen
+his master put receipts, and make memorandums, in a large, black,
+silver-clasped pocket-book, but had never handled it, and could not
+swear to it; he had seen nothing like it since his master's death.
+He was further asked how long the prisoner had been at the mill, his
+duties there, and the amount of trust reposed in him; to which last
+the answer was, that about a month since, Mr. Axworthy had exclaimed
+that if ever he wanted a thing to be done, he must set Ward about it.
+Saving this speech, made in irritation at some omission on Sam's
+part, nothing was adduced to show that Leonard was likely to have
+been employed without his cousin's knowledge; though Hardy
+volunteered the addition that Mr. Ward was always respectful and
+attentive, and that his uncle had lately thought much more of him
+than at first.
+
+Rebekah Giles gave her account of the scene in the sitting-room.  She
+had been in the service of the deceased for the last four years, and
+before in that of his sister-in-law, Mr. Samuel's mother.  She had
+herself closed the passage window at seven o'clock in the evening, as
+usual.  She had several times previously found it partly open in the
+morning, after having thus shut it over-night; but never before, Mr.
+Ward's bed unslept in.  Her last interview with Mr. Axworthy was then
+narrated, with his words--an imprecation against rifle practice, as
+an excuse for idle young rascals to be always out of the way.  Then
+followed her communication to the prisoner at half-past nine, when
+she saw him go into the parlour, in his volunteer uniform, rifle in
+hand, heard him turn the lock of the sitting-room door, and then
+herself retired to bed.
+
+Cross-examination did not do much with her, only showing that, when
+she brought in the supper, one window had been open, and the blinds,
+common calico ones, drawn down, thus rendering it possible for a
+person to lurk unseen in the court, and enter by the window.  Her
+master had assigned no reason for sending for Mr. Ward.  She did not
+know whether Mr. Axworthy had any memorandum-book; she had seen none
+on the table, nor found any when she undressed the body, though his
+purse, watch, and seals were on his person.
+
+Mr. Rankin's medical evidence came next, both as to the cause of
+death, the probable instrument, and the nature of the stains on the
+desk and rifle.
+
+When cross-examined, he declared that he had looked at the volunteer
+uniform without finding any mark of blood, but from the nature of the
+injury it was not likely that there would be any.  He had attended
+Mr. Axworthy for several years, and had been visiting him
+professionally during a fit of the gout in the last fortnight of
+June, when he had observed that the prisoner was very attentive to
+his uncle.  Mr. Axworthy was always unwilling to be waited on, but
+was unusually tolerant of this nephew's exertions on his behalf, and
+had seemed of late to place much reliance on him.
+
+Doctor Richard May was the next witness called.  The sound of that
+name caused the first visible change in the prisoner's demeanour, if
+that could be called change, which was only a slight relaxation of
+the firm closing of the lips, and one sparkle of the dark eyes, ere
+they were again bent down as before, though not without a quiver of
+the lids.
+
+Dr. May had brought tone, look, and manner to the grave impartiality
+which even the most sensitive man is drilled into assuming in public;
+but he durst not cast one glance in the direction of the prisoner.
+
+In answer to the counsel for the prosecution, he stated that he was
+at the Vintry Mill at seven o'clock on the morning of the 6th of
+July, not professionally, but as taking interest in the Ward family.
+He had seen the body of the deceased, and considered death to have
+been occasioned by fracture of the skull, from a blow with a blunt
+heavy instrument.  The superintendent had shown him a rifle, which he
+considered, from the marks on it, as well as from the appearance of
+the body, to have produced the injury.  The rifle was the one shown
+to him; it was the property of Leonard Ward.  He recognized it by the
+crest and cipher H. E.  It had belonged to his son-in-law, Hector
+Ernescliffe, by whom it had been given to Leonard Ward.
+
+Poor Doctor!  That was a cruel piece of evidence; and his son and
+daughters opposite wondered how he could utter it in that steady
+matter-of-fact way; but they knew him to be sustained by hopes of the
+cross-examination; and he soon had the opportunity of declaring that
+he had known Leonard Ward from infancy, without being aware of any
+imputation against him; but had always seen him highly principled and
+trustworthy, truthful and honourable, kind-hearted and humane--the
+last person to injure the infirm or aged.
+
+Perhaps the good Doctor, less afraid of the sound of his own voice,
+and not so much in awe as some of the other witnesses, here in his
+eagerness overstepped the bounds of prudence.  His words indeed
+brought a tremulous flicker of grateful emotion over the prisoner's
+face; but by carrying the inquiry into the region of character and
+opinion, he opened the door to a dangerous re-examination by the
+Crown lawyer, who required the exact meaning of his unqualified
+commendation, especially in the matter of humanity, demanding whether
+he had never known of any act of violence on the prisoner's part.
+The colour flushed suddenly into Leonard's face, though he moved
+neither eye nor lip; but his counsel appealed to the judge, and the
+pursuit of this branch of the subject was quashed as irrelevant; but
+the Doctor went down in very low spirits, feeling that his evidence
+had been damaging, and his hopes of any ray of light becoming
+fainter.
+
+After this, the village policeman repeated the former statements, as
+to the state of the various rooms, the desk, locked and untouched,
+the rifle, boat, &c., further explaining that the distance from the
+mill to Blewer Station, by the road was an hour and half's walk, by
+the fields, not more than half an hour's.
+
+The station-master proved the prisoner's arrival at midnight, his
+demand of a day-ticket, his being without luggage, and in a black
+suit; and the London policeman proved the finding of the money on his
+person, and repeated his own explanation of it.
+
+The money was all in sovereigns, except one five and one ten-pound
+note, and Edward Hazlitt, the clerk of the Whitford Bank, was called
+to prove the having given the latter in change to Mr. Axworthy for a
+fifty-pound cheque, on the 10th of May last.
+
+This same clerk had been at the volunteer drill on the evening of the
+5th of July, had there seen the prisoner, had parted with him at
+dusk, towards nine o'clock, making an engagement with him to meet on
+Blewer Heath for some private practice at seven o'clock on Monday
+evening.  Thought Mr. Axworthy did sometimes employ young Ward on his
+commissions; Mr. Axworthy had once sent him into Whitford to pay in a
+large sum, and another time with an order to be cashed. The dates of
+these transactions were shown in the books; and Hazlitt added, on
+further interrogation, that Samuel Axworthy could not have been aware
+of the sum being sent to the bank, since he had shortly after come
+and desired to see the account, which had been laid before him as
+confidential manager, when he had shown surprise and annoyance at the
+recent deposit, asking through whom it had been made.  Not ten days
+subsequently, an order for nearly the entire amount had been cashed,
+signed by the deceased, but filled up in Samuel's handwriting.
+
+This had taken place in April; and another witness, a baker, proved
+the having paid the five-pound note to old Mr. Axworthy himself on
+the 2nd of May.
+
+Samuel Axworthy himself was next called.  His florid face wore
+something of the puffed, stupefied look it had had at the inquest,
+but his words were ready, and always to the point.  He identified the
+bag in which the money had been found, giving an account of it
+similar to Hardy's, and adding that he had last seen it lying by his
+cousin's desk.  His uncle had no account with any London bank, all
+transactions had of late passed through his own hands, and he had
+never known the prisoner employed in any business of importance--he
+could not have been kept in ignorance of it if it had previously been
+the case.  The deceased had a black shagreen pocket-book, with a
+silver clasp, which he occasionally used, but the witness had never
+known him give it out of his own hand, nor take a receipt in it.  Had
+not seen it on the morning of the 6th, nor subsequently. Could not
+account for the sum found on the person of the prisoner, whose salary
+was L50 per annum, and who had no private resources, except the
+interest of L2000, which, he being a minor, was not in his own hands.
+Deceased was fond of amassing sovereigns, and would often keep them
+for a longtime in the drawer of his desk, as much as from L50 to
+L100.  There was none there when the desk was opened on the 6th of
+July, though there had certainly been gold there two days previously.
+It was kept locked.  It had a small Bramah key, which his uncle wore
+on his watch-chain, in his waistcoat pocket.  The drawer was locked
+when he saw it on the morning of the 6th.
+
+The Doctor, who had joined his children, gave a deep respiration, and
+relaxed the clenching of his hand, as this witness went down.
+
+Then it came to the turn of Aubrey Spencer May.  The long waiting,
+after his nerves had been wound up, had been a severe ordeal, and his
+delicacy of constitution and home breeding had rendered him
+peculiarly susceptible.  With his resemblance to his father in form
+and expression, it was like seeing the Doctor denuded of that shell
+of endurance with which he had contrived to conceal his feelings.
+The boy was indeed braced to resolution, bat the resolution was
+equally visible with the agitation in the awe-stricken brow, varying
+colour, tightened breath, and involuntary shiver, as he took the
+oath.  Again Leonard looked up with one of his clear bright glances,
+and perhaps a shade of anxiety; but Aubrey, for his own comfort, was
+too short-sighted for meeting of eyes from that distance.
+
+Seeing his agitation, and reckoning on his evidence, the counsel gave
+him time, by minutely asking if his double Christian name were
+correctly given, his age, and if he were not the son of Dr. May.
+
+'You were the prisoner's school-fellow, I believe?'
+
+'No,' faltered Aubrey.
+
+'But you live near him?'
+
+'We are friends,' said Aubrey, with sudden firmness and precision;
+and from the utterance of that emphatic _are_, his spirit returned.
+
+'Did you often see him?'
+
+'On most Sundays, after church.'
+
+'Did you ever hear him say he had any thoughts of the means of
+leaving the mill privately?'
+
+'Something like it,' said Aubrey, turning very red.
+
+'Can you tell me the words?'
+
+'He said if things went on, that I was not to be surprised if I heard
+non est inventus,' said Aubrey, speaking as if rapidity would conceal
+the meaning of the words, but taken aback by being made to repeat and
+translate them to the jury.
+
+'And did he mention any way of escaping?'
+
+'He said the window and cedar-tree were made for it, and that he
+often went out that way to bathe,' said Aubrey.
+
+'When did this conversation take place?'
+
+'On Sunday, the 22nd of June,' said Aubrey, in despair, as the Crown
+lawyer thanked him, and sat down.
+
+He felt himself betrayed into having made their talk wear the air of
+deliberate purpose, and having said not one word of what Mr. Bramshaw
+had hailed as hopeful.  However, the defending barrister rose up to
+ask him what he meant by having answered 'Something like it.'
+
+'Because,' said Aubrey, promptly, 'though we did make the scheme, we
+were neither of us in earnest.'
+
+'How do you know the prisoner was not in earnest?'
+
+'We often made plans of what we should like to do.'
+
+'And had you any reason for thinking this one of such plans!'
+
+'Yes,' said Aubrey; 'for he talked of getting gold enough to build up
+the market-cross, or else of going to see the Feejee Islands.
+
+'Then you understood the prisoner not to express a deliberate
+purpose, so much as a vague design.'
+
+'Just so,' said Aubrey.  'A design that depended on how things went
+on at the mill.'  And being desired to explain his words, he added,
+that Leonard had said he could not bear the sight of Sam Axworthy's
+tyranny over the old man, and was resolved not to stay, if he were
+made a party to any of the dishonest tricks of the trade.
+
+'In that case, did he say where he would have gone?'
+
+'First to New Zealand, to my brother, the Reverend Norman May.'
+
+Leonard's counsel was satisfied with the colour the conversation had
+now assumed; but the perils of re-examination were not over yet, for
+the adverse lawyer requested to know whence the funds were to have
+come for this adventurous voyage.
+
+'We laughed a little about that, and he said he should have to try
+how far his quarter's salary would go towards a passage in the
+steerage.'
+
+'If your friend expressed so strong a distaste to his employers and
+their business, what induced him to enter it?'
+
+Leonard's counsel again objected to this inquiry, and it was not
+permitted.  Aubrey was dismissed, and, flushed and giddy, was met by
+his brother Tom, who almost took him in his arms as he emerged from
+the passage.
+
+'0, Tom! what have I done?'
+
+'Famously, provided there's no miller in the jury.  Come,' as he felt
+the weight on his arm, 'Flora says I am to take you down and make you
+take something.'
+
+'No, no, no, I can't!  I must go back.'
+
+'I tell you there's nothing going on.  Every one is breathing and
+baiting.'  And he got him safe to a pastrycook's, and administered
+brandy cherries, which Aubrey bolted whole like pills, only
+entreating to return, and wanting to know how he thought the case
+going.
+
+'Excellently.  Hazlitt's evidence and yours ought to carry him
+through.  And Anderson says they have made so much out of the
+witnesses for the prosecution, that they need call none for the
+defence; and so the enemy will be balked of their reply, and we shall
+have the last word.  I vow I have missed my vocation.  I know I was
+born for a barrister!'
+
+'Now may we come back?' said the boy, overwhelmed by his brother's
+cheeriness; and they squeezed into court again, Tom inserting Aubrey
+into his own former seat, and standing behind him on half a foot at
+the angle of the passage.  They were in time for the opening of the
+defence, and to hear Leonard described as a youth of spirit and
+promise, of a disposition that had won him general affection and
+esteem, and recommended to universal sympathy by the bereavement
+which was recent in the memory of his fellow-townsmen; and there was
+a glance at the mourning which the boy still wore.
+
+'They had heard indeed that he was quick-tempered and impulsive; but
+the gentlemen of the jury were some of them fathers, and he put it to
+them whether a ready and generous spirit of indignation in a lad were
+compatible with cowardly designs against helpless old age; whether
+one whose recreations were natural science and manly exercise, showed
+tokens of vicious tendencies; above all, whether a youth, whose
+friendship they had seen so touchingly claimed by a son of one of the
+most highly respected gentlemen in the county, were evincing the
+propensities that lead to the perpetration of deeds of darkness.'
+
+Tom patted Aubrey on the shoulder; and Aubrey, though muttering
+'humbug,' was by some degrees less wretched.
+
+'Men did not change their nature on a sudden,' the counsel continued;
+'and where was the probability that a youth of character entirely
+unblemished, and of a disposition particularly humane and generous,
+should at once rush into a crime of the deep and deadly description,
+to which a long course of dissipation, leading to perplexity,
+distress, and despair, would be the only inducement?'
+
+He then went on to speak of Leonard's position at the mill, as junior
+clerk.  He had been there for six months, without a flaw being
+detected, either in his integrity, his diligence, or his regularity;
+indeed, it was evident that he had been gradually acquiring a greater
+degree of esteem and confidence than he had at first enjoyed, and had
+been latterly more employed by his uncle.  That a young man of
+superior education should find the daily drudgery tedious and
+distasteful, and that one of sensitive honour should be startled at
+the ordinary, he might almost say proverbial, customs of the miller's
+trade, was surprising to no one; and that he should unbosom himself
+to a friend of his own age, and indulge together with him in romantic
+visions of adventure, was, to all who remembered their own boyhood,
+an illustration of the freshness and ingenuousness of the character
+that thus unfolded itself.  Where there were day-dreams, there was no
+room for plots of crime.
+
+Then ensued a species of apology for the necessity of entering into
+particulars that did not redound to the credit of a gentleman, who
+had appeared before the court under such distressing circumstances as
+Mr. Samuel Axworthy; but it was needful that the condition of the
+family should be well understood, in order to comprehend the unhappy
+train of events which had conducted the prisoner into his present
+situation.  He then went through what had been traceable through the
+evidence--that Samuel Axworthy was a man of expensive habits, and
+accustomed to drain his uncle's resources to supply his own needs;
+showing how the sum, which had been intrusted to the prisoner, to be
+paid into the local bank, had been drawn out by the elder nephew as
+soon as he became aware of the deposit; and how, shortly after, the
+prisoner had expressed to Aubrey May his indignation at the tyranny
+exercised on his uncle.
+
+'By and by, another sum is amassed,' continued Leonard's advocate.
+'How dispose of it?  The local bank is evidently no security from the
+rapacity of the elder nephew.  Once aware of its existence, he knows
+how to use means for compelling its surrender; and the feeble old man
+can no longer call his hard-earned gains his own except on
+sufferance.  The only means of guarding it is to lodge it secretly in
+a distant bank, without the suspicion of his nephew Samuel; but the
+invalid is too infirm to leave his apartment; his fingers, crippled
+by gout, refuse even to guide the pen.  He can only watch for an
+opportunity, and this is at length afforded by the absence of the
+elder nephew for two days at the county races.  This will afford time
+for a trustworthy and intelligent messenger to convey the sum to
+town, deposit it in Messrs, Drummond's bank, and return unobserved.
+When, therefore, supper is brought in, Mr. Axworthy sends for the lad
+on whom he has learnt to depend, and shows much disappointment at his
+absence.  Where is he?  Is he engaged with low companions in the
+haunts of vice, that are the declivity towards crime?  Is he gaming,
+or betting, or drinking?  No.  He has obeyed the summons of his
+country; he is a zealous volunteer, and is eagerly using a weapon
+presented to him by a highly respected gentleman of large fortune in
+a neighbouring county; nay, so far is he from any sinister purpose,
+that he is making an appointment with a fellow-rifleman for the
+ensuing Monday.  On his return at dark, he receives a pressing
+summons to his uncle's room, and hastens to obey it without pausing
+to lay aside his rifle.  The commission is explained, and well
+understanding the painfulness of the cause, he discreetly asks no
+questions, but prepares to execute it.  The sum of L124 12s. is taken
+from the drawer of the desk, the odd money assigned to travelling
+expenses, the L120 placed in a bag brought in from the office for the
+purpose, bearing the initials of the owner, and a receipt in a
+private pocket-book was signed by him for the amount, and left open
+on the table for the ink to dry.
+
+'Who that has ever been young, can doubt the zest and elevation of
+receiving for the first time a confidential mission?  Who can doubt
+that even the favourite weapon would be forgotten where it stood, and
+that it would only be accordant to accredited rules that the window
+should be preferable to the door?  Had it not already figured in the
+visions of adventure in the Sunday evening's walk? was it not a
+favourite mode of exit in the mornings, when bathing and fishing were
+more attractive than the pillow!  Moreover, the moonlight disclosed
+what appeared like a figure in the court-yard, and there was reason
+at the time to suppose it a person likely to observe and report upon
+the expedition.  The opening of the front door might likewise attract
+notice; and if the cousin should, as was possible, return that night,
+the direct road was the way to meet him.  The hour was too early for
+the train which was to be met, but a lighted candle would reveal the
+vigil, and moonlight on the meadows was attractive at eighteen.
+Gentlemen of soberer and maturer years might be incredulous, but
+surely it was not so strange or unusual for a lad, who indulged in
+visions of adventure, to find a moonlight walk by the river-side more
+inviting than a bed-room.
+
+'Shortly after, perhaps as soon as the light was extinguished, the
+murder must have been committed.  The very presence of that light had
+been guardianship to the helpless old man below.  When it was
+quenched, nothing remained astir, the way from without was open, the
+weapon stood only too ready to hand, the memorandum-book gave promise
+of booty and was secured, though nothing else was apparently touched.
+It was this very book that contained the signature that would have
+exonerated the prisoner, and to which he fearlessly appealed upon his
+arrest at the Paddington Station, before, for his additional
+misfortune, he had time to discharge himself of his commission, and
+establish his innocence by the deposit of the money at the bank.  He
+has thus for a while become the victim of a web of suspicious
+circumstances.  But look at these very circumstances more closely,
+and they will be found perfectly consistent with the prisoner's
+statement, never varying, be it remembered, from the explanation
+given to the policeman in first surprise and horror of the tidings of
+the crime.
+
+'It might have been perhaps thought that there was another
+alternative between entire innocence and a deliberate purpose of
+robbery and murder-namely, that reproof from the old man had provoked
+a blow, and that the means of flight had been hastily seized upon in
+the moment of confusion and alarm.  This might have been a plausible
+line of defence, and secure of a favourable hearing; but I beg to
+state that the prisoner has distinctly refused any such defence, and
+my instructions are to contend for his perfect innocence.  A nature
+such as we have already traced is, as we cannot but perceive,
+revolted by the bare idea of violence to the aged and infirm, and
+recoils as strongly from the one accusation as from the other.
+
+'The prisoner made his statement at the first moment, and has adhered
+to it in every detail, without confusion or self-contradiction.  It
+does not attempt to explain all the circumstances, but they all tally
+exactly with his story; he is unable to show by whom the crime could
+have been committed, nor is he bound in law or justice so to do; nay,
+his own story shows the absolute impossibility of his being able to
+explain what took place in his absence.  But mark how completely the
+established facts corroborate his narrative.  Observe first the
+position in which the body was found, the head on the desk, the stain
+of blood corresponding with the wound, the dress undisturbed, all
+manifestly untouched since the fatal stroke was dealt.  Could this
+have been the case, had the key of the drawer of gold been taken from
+the waistcoat pocket, the chain from about the neck of the deceased,
+and both replaced after the removal of the money and relocking the
+drawer!  Can any one doubt that the drawer was opened, the money
+taken out, and the lock secured, while Mr. Axworthy was alive and
+consenting?  Again, what robber would convey away the spoil in a bag
+bearing the initials of the owner, and that not caught up in haste,
+but fetched in for the purpose from the office?  Or would so tell-
+tale a weapon as the rifle have been left conspicuously close at
+hand?  There was no guilty precipitation, for the uniform had been
+taken off and folded up, and with a whole night before him, it would
+have been easy to reach a more distant station, where his person
+would not have been recognized.  Why, too, if this were the beginning
+of a flight and exile, should no preparation have been made for
+passing a single night from home? why should a day-ticket have been
+asked for?  No, the prisoner's own straightforward, unvarnished
+statement is the only consistent interpretation of the facts,
+otherwise conflicting and incomprehensible.
+
+'That a murder has been committed is unhappily too certain.  I make
+no attempt to unravel the mystery.  I confine myself to the far more
+grateful task of demonstrating, that to fasten the imputation on the
+accused, would be to overlook a complication of inconsistencies, all
+explained by his own account of himself, but utterly inexplicable on
+the hypothesis of his guilt.
+
+'Circumstantial evidence is universally acknowledged to be perilous
+ground for a conviction; and I never saw a case in which it was more
+manifestly delusive than in the present, bearing at first an imposing
+and formidable aspect, but on examination, confuted in every detail.
+Most assuredly,' continued the counsel, his voice becoming doubly
+earnest, 'while there is even the possibility of innocence, it
+becomes incumbent on you, gentlemen of the jury, to consider well the
+fearful consequences of a decision in a matter of life or death--a
+decision for which there can be no reversal.  The facts that have
+come to light are manifestly incomplete.  Another link in the chain
+has yet to be added; and when it shall come forth, how will it be if
+it should establish the guiltlessness of the prisoner too late?  Too
+late, when a young life of high promise, and linked by close family
+ties, and by bonds of ardent friendship with so many, has been
+quenched in shame and disgrace, for a crime to which he may be an
+utter stranger.
+
+'The extinction of the light in that upper window was the sign for
+darkness and horror to descend on the mill!  Here is the light of
+life still burning, but a breath of yours can extinguish it in utter
+gloom, and then who may rekindle it!  Nay, the revelation of events
+that would make the transactions of that fatal night clear as the
+noonday, would never avail to rekindle the lamp, that may yet, I
+trust, shine forth to the world--the clearer, it may be, from the
+unmerited imputations, which it has been my part to combat, and of
+which his entire life is a confutation.'
+
+Mrs. Pugh was sobbing under her veil; Gertrude felt the cause won.
+Tom noiselessly clapped the orator behind his brother's back, and
+nodded his approval to his father.  Even Leonard lifted up his face,
+and shot across a look, as if he felt deliverance near after the
+weary day, that seemed to have been a lifetime already, though the
+sunbeams were only beginning to fall high and yellow on the ceiling,
+through the heated stifling atmosphere, heavy with anxiety and
+suspense.  Doctor May was thinking of the meeting after the
+acquittal, of the telegram to Stoneborough, of the sister's revival,
+and of Ethel's greeting.
+
+Still the judge had to sum up; and all eyes turned on him, knowing
+that the fate of the accused would probably depend on the colouring
+that the facts adduced would assume in his hands.  Flora, who met him
+in society, was struck by the grave and melancholy bracing, as it
+were, of the countenance, that she had seen as kindly and bright as
+her father's; and the deep, full voice, sad rather than stern, the
+very tone of which conveyed to every mind how heavy was the
+responsibility of justice and impartiality.  In effect, the very
+force of the persuasions made for the defence, unanswered by the
+prosecution, rendered it needful for him to give full weight to the
+evidence for the other side; namely, the prisoner's evident
+impatience of his position, and premeditated flight, the coincidence
+of the times, the being the last person seen to enter the room, and
+with the very weapon that had been the instrument of the crime; the
+probability that the deceased had himself opened the drawer, the open
+window, the flight, and the missing sum being found on his person,
+the allegation that the receipt would be found in the pocket-book,
+unsupported by any testimony as to the practice of the deceased; the
+strangeness of leaving the premises so much too early for the train,
+and, by his own account, leaving a person prowling in the court,
+close to his uncle's window.  No opinion was given; but there was
+something that gave a sense that the judge felt it a crushing weight
+of evidence.  Yet so minutely was every point examined, so carefully
+was every indication weighed which could tend to establish the
+prisoner's innocence, that to those among his audience who believed
+that innocence indubitable, it seemed as if his arguments proved it,
+even more triumphantly than the pleading of the counsel, as,
+vibrating between hope and fear, anxiety and gratitude, they followed
+him from point to point of the unhappy incident, hanging upon every
+word, as though each were decisive.
+
+When at length he ceased, and the jury retired, the breathless
+stillness continued.  With some, indeed, there was the relaxation of
+long-strained attention, eyes unbent, and heads turned, but Flora had
+to pass her arm round her little sister, to steady the child's
+nervous trembling; Aubrey sat rigid and upright, the throbs of his
+heart well-nigh audible; and Dr. May leant forward, and covered his
+eyes with his hand; Tom, who alone dared glance to the dock, saw that
+Leonard too had retired.  Those were the most terrible minutes they
+had ever spent in their lives; but they were minutes of hope--of hope
+of relief from a burthen, becoming more intolerable with every
+second's delay ere the rebound.
+
+Long as it seemed to them, it was not in reality more than a quarter
+of an hour before the jury returned, and with slow grave movements,
+and serious countenances, resumed their places. Leonard was already
+in his; his cheek paler, his fingers locked together, and his eyes
+scanning each as they came forward, and one by one their names were
+called over.  His head was erect, and his bearing had something
+undaunted, though intensely anxious.
+
+The question was put by the clerk of the court, 'How find you?
+Guilty or Not guilty?'
+
+Firmly, though sadly, the foreman rose, and his answer was, 'We find
+the prisoner guilty; but we earnestly recommend him to mercy.'
+
+Whether Tom felt or not that Aubrey was in a dead faint, and rested
+against him as a senseless weight, he paid no visible attention to
+aught but one face, on which his eyes were riveted as though nothing
+would ever detach them--and that face was not the prisoner's.
+
+Others saw Leonard's face raised upwards, and a deep red flush spread
+over brow and cheek, though neither lip nor eye wavered.
+
+Then came the question whether the prisoner had anything to say,
+wherefore judgment should not be passed upon him.
+
+Leonard made a step forward, and his clear steady tone did not shake
+for a moment as he spoke.  'No.  I see that appearances are so much
+against me, that man can hardly decide otherwise.  I have known from
+the first that nothing could show my innocence but the finding of the
+receipt.  In the absence of that one testimony, I feel that I have
+had a fair trial, and that all has been done for me that could be
+done; and I thank you for it, my Lord, and you, Gentlemen,' as he
+bent his head; then added, 'I should like to say one thing more.  My
+Lord, you would not let the question be asked, how I brought all this
+upon myself.  I wish to say it myself, for it is that which makes my
+sentence just in the sight of God.  It is true that, though I never
+lifted my hand against my poor uncle, I did in a moment of passion
+fling a stone at my brother, which, but for God's mercy, might indeed
+have made me a murderer.  It was for this, and other like outbreaks,
+that I was sent to the mill; and it may be just that for it I should
+die--though indeed I never hurt my uncle.'
+
+Perhaps there was something in the tone of that one word, indeed,
+which, by recalling his extreme youth, touched all hearts more than
+even the manly tone of his answer, and his confession.  There was a
+universal weeping and sobbing throughout the court; Mrs. Pugh was on
+the verge of hysterics, and obliged to be supported away; and
+Gertrude was choking between the agony of contagious feeling and
+dread of Flora's displeasure; and all the time Leonard stood calm,
+with his brave head and lofty bearing, wound up for the awful moment
+of the sentence.
+
+The weeping was hushed, when the crier of the court made
+proclamation, commanding all persons on pain of imprisonment to be
+silent.  Then the judge placed on his head the black cap, and it was
+with trembling hands that he did so; the blood had entirely left his
+face, and his lips were purple with the struggle to contend with and
+suppress his emotion.  He paused, as though he were girding himself
+up to the most terrible of duties, and when he spoke his voice was
+hollow, as he began:
+
+'Leonard Axworthy Ward, you have been found guilty of a crime that
+would have appeared impossible in one removed from temptation by
+birth and education such as yours have been.  What the steps may have
+been that led to such guilt, must lie between your own conscience and
+that God whose justice you have acknowledged.  To Him you have
+evidently been taught to look; and may you use the short time that
+still remains to you, in seeking His forgiveness by sincere
+repentance.  I will forward the recommendation to mercy, but it is my
+duty to warn you that there are no such palliating circumstances in
+the evidence, as to warrant any expectation of a remission of the
+sentence.
+
+And therewith followed the customary form of sentence, ending with
+the solemn 'And may God Almighty have mercy on your soul!'
+
+Full and open, and never quailing, had the dark eyes been fixed upon
+the judge all the time; and at those last words, the head bent low,
+and the lips moved for 'Amen.'
+
+Then Tom, relieved to find instant occupation for his father, drew
+his attention to Aubrey's state; and the boy between Tom and George
+Rivers was, as best they could, carried through the narrow outlets,
+and laid down in a room, opened to them by the sheriff, where his
+father and Flora attended him, while Tom flew for remedies; and
+Gertrude sobbed and wept as she had never done in her life.
+
+It was some time before the swoon yielded, or Dr. May could leave his
+son, and then he was bent on at once going to the prisoner; but he
+was so shaken and tremulous, that Tom insisted on giving him his arm,
+and held an umbrella over him in the driving rain.
+
+'Father,' he said, as soon as they were in the street, 'I can swear
+who did it.'
+
+Dr. May just hindered himself from uttering the name, but Tom
+answered as if it had been spoken.
+
+'Yes.  I saw the face of fiendish barbarity that once was over me,
+when I was a miserable little school-boy!  He did it; and he has the
+receipt.'
+
+Dr. May squeezed his arm.  'I have not betrayed the secret, have I!'
+
+'You knew that he knew it!'
+
+'Not knew--suspected--generosity.'
+
+'I saw him!  I saw him cast those imploring earnest eyes of his on
+the scoundrel as he spoke of the receipt--and the villain try to make
+himself of stone.  Well, if I have one wish in life, it is to see
+that fellow come to the fate he deserves.  I'll never lose sight of
+him; I'll dog him like a bloodhound!'
+
+And what good will that do, when-- Tom, Tom, we must move Heaven and
+earth for petitions.  I'll take them up myself, and get George Rivers
+to take me to the Home Secretary.  Never fear, while there's justice
+in Heaven.'
+
+'Here's Henry!' exclaimed Tom, withholding his father, who had almost
+ran against the brother, as they encountered round a corner.
+
+He was pale and bewildered, and hardly seemed to hear the Doctor's
+hasty asseverations that he would get a reprieve.
+
+'He sent me to meet you,' said Henry.  'He wants you to go home--to
+Ave I mean.  He says that is what he wants most--for you to go to her
+now, and to come to him to-morrow, or when you can; and he wants to
+hear how Aubrey is,' continued Henry, as if dreamily repeating a
+lesson.
+
+'He saw then--?'
+
+'Yes, and that seems to trouble him most.'
+
+Dr. May was past speaking, and Tom was obliged to answer for him--
+that Aubrey was pretty well again, and had desired his dearest,
+dearest love; then asked how Leonard was.
+
+'Calm and firm as ever,' said Henry, half choked.  'Nothing seems to
+upset him, but speaking of--of you and Aubrey, Dr. May--and poor Ave.
+Butbut they'll be together before long.'
+
+'No such thing,' said Dr. May.  'You will see that certainty cures,
+when suspense kills; and for him, I'll never believe but that all
+will be right yet.  Are you going home?'
+
+'I shall try to be with--with the dear unhappy boy as long as I can,
+and then I'll come home.'
+
+Dr. May grasped Henry's hand, gave a promise of coming, and a message
+of love to the prisoner, tried to say something more, but broke down,
+and let Tom lead him away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+
+    Under the shroud
+    Of His thunder-cloud
+Lie we still when His voice is loud,
+    And our hearts shall feel
+    The love notes steal,
+As a bird sings after the thunder peal--C. F. A.
+
+
+Not till dusk could Dr. May get back to Stoneborough, and then, in an
+evening gleam of that stormy day, he was met at the gate of Bankside
+by Richard and Ethel.
+
+'You need not come in, papa,' said Ethel.  'She is asleep.  She
+knows.'
+
+Dr. May sighed with unspeakable relief.
+
+'Mr. Bramshaw telegraphed, and his clerk came down.  It was not so
+very bad!  She saw it in our faces, and she was so worn out with
+talking and watching, that--that the very turning her face to the
+wall with hope over, became sleep almost directly.'
+
+'That is well,' murmured the Doctor.  'And can you be spared, my
+dear?  If you could come I should be glad, for poor Aubrey is quite
+done up.'
+
+'I can come.  Mary is with her, and Richard will stay to meet Henry,
+if he is coming home, or to send up if they want you; but I think she
+will not wake for many hours; and then--oh! what can any one do!'
+
+So Richard turned back to the sorrowful house; and Dr. May, tenderly
+drawing Ethel's arm into his own, told her, as they walked back, the
+few incidents that she most wanted to hear, as best he could narrate
+them.  'You have had a heart-rending day, my dear,' he said; 'you and
+Mary, as well as the rest of us.'
+
+'There was one comfort!' said Ethel, 'and that was his own notes.
+Ave has all that he has written to her from Whitford under her
+pillow, and she kept spreading them out, and making us read them,
+and--oh! their braveness and cheeriness--they did quite seem to hold
+one up!  And then poor little Minna's constant little robin-chirp of
+faith, "God will not let them hurt him."  One could not bear to tell
+the child, that though indeed they cannot hurt him, it may not be in
+her sense!  Look here!  These are her slippers.  She has worked on
+all day to finish them, that they might be done and out of sight when
+he came home this evening.  The last stitch was done as Richard came
+in; and now I thought I could only take them out of every one's
+sight.'
+
+'Poor things! poor things!  And how was it with the child when she
+heard?'
+
+'The old sweet note,' said Ethel, less steadily than she had yet
+spoken, '"nothing could hurt him for what he had not done."  I don't
+know whether she knows what--what is in store.  At least she is not
+shaken yet, dear child.'
+
+'And Ave--how did you manage with her through all the day?'
+
+'Oh! we did as we could.  We tried reading the things Mr. Wilmot had
+marked, but she was too restless; her hands would wander off to the
+letters, caressing them, and she would go back to talk of him--all
+his ways from a baby upwards.  I hope there was no harm in letting
+her do it, for if there is anything to do one good, it is his noble
+spirit.'
+
+'If you had only seen his face to-day,' exclaimed the Doctor, half
+angrily, 'you would not feel much comfort in the cutting off such a
+fellow.  No, no, it won't be.  We'll petition--petition--petition--
+and save him, we will!  Minna will be right yet!  They shall not hurt
+him!'
+
+'Is there really hope in that way?' said Ethel, and a quiver of
+relief agitated her whole frame.
+
+'Every hope!  Every one I have seen, or Tom either, says so.  We have
+only to draw up a strong enough representation of the facts, his
+character, and all that; and there's his whole conduct before and
+since to speak for itself.  Why, when it was all over, George heard
+every one saying, either he was a consummate hypocrite, or he must be
+innocent.  Harvey Anderson declares the press will take it up.  We
+shall certainly get him off.'
+
+'You don't mean pardoned!'
+
+'Commutation of the penalty.  Come on,' said the Doctor, hurrying at
+his headlong pace, 'there's no time to be lost in getting it drawn
+up.'
+
+Ethel was dragged on so fast, that she could not speak; but it was
+with willing haste, for this was the sort of suspense in which motion
+and purpose were a great relief after the day's weary waiting.
+Gertrude, quite spent with excitement and tears, had wisely betaken
+herself to bed; and it would have been well had Aubrey followed her
+example, instead of wandering up and down the room in his misery,
+flushed though wan, impetuously talking treason against trial by
+jury, and abusing dignitaries.  They let him have it out, in all its
+fury and violence, till he had tired out his first vehemence, and
+could be persuaded to lie on the sofa while the rough draught of the
+petition was drawn up, Tom writing, and every one suggesting or
+discussing, till the Doctor, getting thorough mastery over the
+subject, dictated so fluently and admirably, that even Tom had not a
+word to gainsay, but observed to Ethel, when his father had gone up
+to bed, and carried Aubrey off, 'What an exceedingly able man my
+father is!'
+
+'Is this the first time you have found that out?' said Ethel.
+
+'Why, you know it is not his nature to make the most of himself!  But
+studying under him brings it out more; and there's a readiness about
+him that I wish was catching.  But I say, Ethel, what's this?  I no
+more doubt who did the deed, than I do who killed Abel; but I had
+once seen Cain's face, and I knew it again.  Is it true that the boy
+was aware, and told my father?'
+
+'Did he tell you so?'
+
+'Only asked if he had betrayed the secret.  If they both know it--
+why, if it be Leonard's taste, I suppose I must say nothing to the
+contrary, but he might as well consider his sister.'
+
+'What do you know, Tom?' said she, perplexed.
+
+'Only that there's some secret; and if it be as I am given to
+understand, then it is a frenzy that no lucid person should permit.'
+
+'No, Tom,' said Ethel, feeling that the whole must be told, 'it is no
+certainty--only unsupported suspicion, which he could not help
+telling papa after binding him on honour to make no use of it.
+Putting things together, he was sure who the man in the yard was; but
+it was not recognition, and he could not have proved it.'
+
+'What Quixotry moved my father not to put the lawyers on the scent?'
+
+Ethel explained; and for her pains Tom fell upon her for her folly in
+not having told him all, when he could have gone to Blewer and
+gathered information as no professional person could do; then
+lamented that he had let Aubrey keep him from the inquest, when the
+fellow's hang-dog look would have been sure to suggest to him to set
+Anderson to get him searched.  Even now he would go to the mill, and
+try to hunt up something.
+
+'Tom, remember papa's promise!'
+
+'Do you think a man can do nothing without committing himself, like
+poor Aubrey?  No, Ethel, the Doctor may be clever, but that's no use
+if a man is soft, and he is uncommonly soft; and you should not
+encourage him in it.'
+
+Ethel was prevented from expressing useless indignation by the
+arrival of Mary, asking where papa was.
+
+'Gone to bed.  He said he must go off at six to-morrow, there are so
+many patients to see.  Ave does not want him, I hope?'
+
+No, she is still asleep; I was only waiting for Richard, and he had
+dreadful work with that poor Henry.'
+
+'What kind of work?'
+
+'Oh, I believe it has all come on him now that it was his fault--
+driving Leonard to that place; and he was in such misery, that
+Richard could not leave him.'
+
+'I am glad he has the grace to feel it at last,' said Tom.
+
+'It must be very terrible!' said Mary.  'He says he cannot stay in
+that house, for every room reproaches him; and he groaned as if he
+was in tremendous bodily pain.'
+
+'What, you assisted at this scene?' said Tom, looking at her rather
+sharply.
+
+'No; but Richard told me; and I heard the groans as I sat on the
+stairs.'
+
+'Sat on the stairs?'
+
+'Yes.  I could not go back to Ave's room for fear of waking her.'
+
+'And how long?'
+
+'Towards an hour, I believe.  I did all that piece,' said Mary,
+displaying a couple of inches of a stocking leg, 'and I think it was
+pretty well in the dark.'
+
+'Sitting on the stairs for an hour in the dark,' said Tom, as he gave
+Mary the candle he had been lighting for her.  'That may be called
+unappreciated devotion.'
+
+'I never can tell what Tom means,' said Mary, as she went up-stairs
+with Ethel.  'It was a very comfortable rest.  I wish you had had the
+same, dear Ethel, you look so tired and worn out.  Let me stay and
+help you.  It has been such a sad long day; and oh! how terrible this
+is!  And you know him better than any of us, except Aubrey.'
+
+Mary stopped almost in dismay, for her sister, usually so firm, broke
+down entirely, and sitting down on a low chair, threw an arm round
+her, and resting her weary brow against her, gave way to long
+tearless sobs, or rather catches of breath.  'Oh! Mary! Mary!' she
+said, between her gasps, 'to think of last year--and Coombe--and the
+two bright boys--and the visions--and the light in those glorious
+eyes--and that this should be the end!'
+
+'Dear, dear Ethel,' said Mary, with fast-flowing tears and tender
+caresses, 'you have kept us all up; you have always shown us it was
+for the best.'
+
+'It is! it is!' cried Ethel.  'I do, I _will_ believe it!  If I had
+only seen his face as papa tells of it, I could keep hold of the
+glory of it and the martyr spirit.  Now I only see his earnest, shy,
+confiding look--and--and I don't know how to bear it.'  And Ethel's
+grasp of Mary in both arms was tightened, as if to support herself
+under her deep labouring sobs of anguish.  Ah! he was very fond of
+you.'
+
+'There never was any one beyond our own selves that loved me so well.
+I always knew it would not last--that it ought not; but oh! it was
+endearing; and I did think to have seen him a shining light!'
+
+'And don't you tell us he is a shining light now?' said Mary, among
+the tears that really almost seemed to be a relief, as if her sister
+herself had shed them; and as she knelt down, Ethel laid her head on
+her shoulder, and spoke more calmly.
+
+'He is,' she said, 'and I ought to be thankful for it!  I think I am
+generally--but now--it makes it the more piteous--the hopes--the
+spirit--the determination--all to be quenched, and so quenched--and
+to have nothing--nothing to do for him.
+
+'But, Ethel, papa says your messages do him more good than anything;
+and papa will let you go and see him, and that will comfort him.'
+
+Ethel's lips gave a strange sort of smile; she thought it was at
+simple Mary's trust in her power, but it would hardly have been there
+but for the species of hope thus excited, and the sense of sympathy.
+Mary was not one to place any misconstruction on what had passed; she
+well knew that Leonard had almost taken a brother's place in Ethel's
+heart, and she prized him at the rate of her sister's esteem.
+Perhaps her prominent thought was how cruel were those who fancied
+that Ethel's lofty faith was unfeeling, and how very good Leonard
+must be to be thus mourned.  At any rate, she was an excellent
+comforter, in the sympathy that was neither too acute nor too obtuse;
+and purely to oblige her, Ethel for the first time submitted to her
+favourite panacea of hair brushing, and found that in very truth
+those soft and steady manipulations were almost mesmeric in soothing
+away the hard oppressive excitement, and bringing on a gentle and
+slumberous resignation.
+
+The sisters were early astir next morning, to inflict on their father
+a cup of cocoa, which he rebelled against, but swallowed, and to
+receive his last orders, chiefly consisting of messages to Tom about
+taking the petition to be approved of by Dr. Spencer and others, and
+then having it properly drawn out.  Mary asked if women might sign
+it, and was answered with an impatient 'Pshaw!'
+
+'But ladies do have petitions of their own,' said Mary, with some
+diffidence.  'Could not we have one?'
+
+His lips were compressed for another 'Pshaw,' when he bethought
+himself.  'Well, I don't know--the more the better.  Only it won't do
+for you to set it going.  Flora must be the woman for that.'
+
+'Oh, then,' cried Mary, eagerly, 'might not I walk over to breakfast
+at the Grange, and talk to Flora?  Ethel, you would not mind going to
+Ave instead?  Or will you go to Flora?'
+
+'You had better,' said Ethel.  'I must stay on Aubrey's account; and
+this is your doing, Mary,' she added, looking at her warmly.
+
+'Then put on your hat, Mary, and take a biscuit,' said the Doctor,
+'and you shall have a lift as far as the cross roads.'
+
+Thus the morning began with action and with hope.  Mary found herself
+very welcome at the Grange, where there was much anxiety to hear of
+Aubrey, as well as the more immediate sufferers.  The Riverses had
+dined at Drydale, and had met the judges, as well as a good many of
+the county gentlemen who had been on the grand jury and attended on
+the trial.  They had found every one most deeply touched by the
+conduct of the prisoner.  The judge had talked to Flora about her
+young brother, and the friendship so bravely avouched; had asked the
+particulars of the action to which Leonard had alluded, and shown
+himself much interested in all that she related.
+
+She said that the universal impression was that the evidence was dead
+against Leonard, and taken apart, led to such conviction of his
+guilt, that no one could wonder at the verdict; but that his
+appearance and manner were such, that it was almost impossible, under
+their influence, not to credit his innocence.  She had reason to
+believe that petitions were already in hand both from the county and
+the assize town, and she eagerly caught at Mary's proposal of one
+from the ladies of Stoneborough.
+
+'I'll drive in at once before luncheon, and take you home, Mary,' she
+said.  'And, first of all, we will begin with the two widows, and
+half the battle will be won.'
+
+Nay, more than half the battle proved to be already gained in that
+quarter.  The writing-table was covered with sheets of foolscap, and
+Mrs. Pugh was hard at work copying the petition which Mr. Harvey
+Anderson had kindly assisted in composing, and which the aunt and
+niece had intended to have brought to the Grange for Mrs. Rivers's
+approval that very day.  Harvey Anderson had spent the evening at
+Mrs. Ledwich's in drawing it up, and giving his advice; and Flora,
+going over it word for word with Mrs. Pugh, felt that it could hardly
+have been better worded.
+
+'He is a very clever, a very rising young man, and so feeling, said
+Mrs. Ledwich to Mary while this was going on.  'In fact, he is a
+perfect knight-errant on this subject.  He is gone to London this
+morning to see what can be done by means of the press.  I tell
+Matilda it is quite a romance of modern life; and indeed, the sweet
+girl is very romantic still--very young, even after all she has gone
+through.'
+
+Not understanding this, Mary let it pass in calculations on the
+number of possible signatures, which the two ladies undertook to
+collect.
+
+'That is well,' said Flora, as they went away.  'It could not be in
+better hands.  It will thrive the better for our doing nothing but
+writing our names.'
+
+They met Tom on the like errand, but not very sanguine, for he said
+there had of late been an outcry against the number of reprieves
+granted, and the public had begun to think itself not sufficiently
+protected.  He thought the best chance was the discovery of some
+additional fact that might tell in favour of Leonard, and confident
+in his own sagacity, was going to make perquisitions at the mill.
+Every one had been visiting of late, and now that he knew more, if he
+and his microscope could detect one drop of human blood in an
+unexpected place, they would do better service to the prisoner than
+all the petitions that could be signed.
+
+Averil was somewhat better; the feverishness had been removed by her
+long sleep of despair, and her energy revived under the bodily
+relief, and the fixed purpose of recovering in time to see her
+brother again; but the improvement was not yet trusted by Henry, who
+feared her doing too much unless he was himself watching over her,
+and therefore only paid Leonard a short visit in the forenoon, going
+and returning by early trains.
+
+He reported that Leonard was very pale, and owned to want of sleep,
+adding, however, 'It does not matter.  Why should I wish to lose any
+time?'  Calm and brave as ever, he had conversed as cheerfully as
+Henry's misery would permit, inquiring into the plans of the family,
+which he knew were to depend on his fate, and acquiescing in his
+brother's intention of quitting the country; nay, even suggesting
+that it might be better for his sisters to be taken away before all
+was over, though he, as well as Henry, knew that to this Averil would
+never have consented.  He had always been a great reader of travels,
+and he became absolutely eager in planning their life in the wild, as
+if where they were he must be, till the casual mention of the word
+'rifle' brought him to sudden silence, and the consciousness of the
+condemned cell; but even then it was only to be urgent in consoling
+his brother, and crowding message on message for his sisters; begging
+Henry not to stay, not to consider him for a moment, but only
+whatever might be best for Ave.
+
+In this frame Henry had left him, and late in the afternoon, Dr. May
+had contrived to despatch his work and make his way to the jail,
+where, as he entered, he encountered the chaplain, Mr. Reeve, a very
+worthy, but not a very acute man.  Pausing to inquire for the
+prisoner, he was met by a look of oppression and perplexity.  The
+chaplain had been with young Ward yesterday evening, and was only
+just leaving him; but then, instead of the admiring words the Doctor
+expected, there only came a complaint of the difficulty of dealing
+with him; so well instructed, so respectful in manner, and yet there
+was a coldness, a hardness about him, amounting to sullenness,
+rejecting all attempts to gain his confidence, or bring him to
+confession.
+
+Dr. May had almost been angry, but he bethought himself in time that
+the chaplain was bound to believe the verdict of the court; and
+besides, the good man looked so grieved and pitiful, that it was
+impossible to be displeased with him, especially when he began to
+hope that the poor youth might be less reserved with a person who
+knew him better, and to consult Dr. May which of the Stoneborough
+clergy had better be written to as likely to be influential with him.
+Dr. May recommended Mr. Wilmot, as having visited the boy in his
+illness, as well as prepared him for Confirmation; and then, with a
+heavier load of sadness on his heart, followed the turnkey on his
+melancholy way.
+
+When the door was opened, he saw Leonard sitting listlessly on the
+side of his bed, resting his head on his hand, entirely unoccupied;
+but at the first perception who his visitor was, he sprang to his
+feet, and coming within the arms held out to him, rested his head on
+the kind shoulder.
+
+'My dear boy--my brave fellow,' said Dr. May, 'you got through
+yesterday nobly.'
+
+There was none either of the calmness or the reserve of which Dr. May
+had been told, in the hot hands that were wringing his own, nor in
+the choking struggling voice that tried to make the words clear--
+'Thank you for what you said-- And dear Aubrey--how is he?'
+
+'I came away at six, before he was awake,' said the Doctor; 'but he
+will not be the worse for it, never fear!  I hope his evidence was
+less trying than you and he expected.'
+
+Leonard half smiled.  'I had forgotten that,' he said, 'it was so
+long ago!  No, indeed--the dear fellow was--like a bright spot in
+that day--only--only it brought back all we were--all that is gone
+for ever.'
+
+The tenderness of one whom he did not feel bound to uphold like his
+brother had produced the outbreak that could not fail to come to so
+warm, open, and sensitive a nature, and at such an age.  He was bold
+and full of fortitude in the front of the ordeal, and solitude pent
+up his feelings, but the fatherly sympathy and perfect confidence
+drew forth expression, and a vent once opened, the rush of emotion
+and anguish long repressed was utterly overpowering.  His youthful
+manhood struggled hard, but the strangled sobs only shook his frame
+the more convulsively, and the tears burnt like drops of fire, as
+they fell among the fingers that he spread over his face in the agony
+of weeping for his young vigorous life, his blasted hopes, the
+wretchedness he caused, the disgrace of his name.
+
+'Don't, don't fight against it,' said Dr. May, affectionately drawing
+him to his seat on the bed, as, indeed, the violence of the paroxysm
+made him scarcely able to stand.  'Let it have its way; you will be
+all the better for it.  It ought to be so--it must.'
+
+And in tears himself, the Doctor turned his back, and went as far
+away as the cell would permit, turning towards the books that lay on
+a narrow ledge that served for a table.  'How long, 0 Lord, how
+long?' were the words that caught his eye in the open Psalms; and,
+startled as if at unauthorized prying, he looked up at the dull
+screened and spiked window above his head, till he knew by the sounds
+that the worst of the uncontrollable passion had spent itself, and
+then he came back with the towel dipped in water, and cooled the
+flushed heated face as a sister might have done.
+
+'Oh--thank you--I am ashamed,' gasped the still sobbing boy.
+
+'Ashamed!  No; I like you the better for it,' said the Doctor,
+earnestly.  'There is no need that we should not grieve together in
+this great affliction, and say out all that is in our hearts.'
+
+'All!' exclaimed Leonard.  'No--no words can say that!  Oh! was it
+for such as this that my poor mother made so much of me--and I got
+through the fever--and I hoped--and I strove-- Why--why should I be
+cut off--for a disgrace and a misery to all! and again came the
+heart-broken sobs, though less violently.
+
+'Not to those who look within, and honour you, Leonard.'
+
+'Within!  Why, how bad I have been, since _this_ is the reckoning!  I
+deserve it, I know--but--' and his voice again sank in tears.
+
+'Ethel says that your so feeling comforts her the most; to know that
+you have not the terrible struggle of faith disturbed by injustice.'
+
+'If--I have not,' said Leonard, 'it is her doing.  In those happy
+days when we read Marmion, and could not believe that God would not
+always show the right, she showed me how we only see bits and scraps
+of His Justice here, and it works round in the end!  Nay, if I had
+not done that thing to Henry, I should not be here now!  It is right!
+It is right!' he exclaimed between the heaving sobs that still
+recurred.  'I do try to keep before me what she said about Job--when
+it comes burning before me, why should that man be at large, and I
+here? or when I think how his serpent-eye fell under mine when I
+tried that one word about the receipt, that would save my life.  Oh!
+that receipt!'
+
+'Better to be here than in his place, after all!'
+
+'I'd rather be a street-sweeper!' bitterly began Leonard.--'Oh, Dr.
+May, do let me have that!' he cried, suddenly changing his tone, and
+holding out his hand, as he perceived in the Doctor's button-hole a
+dove-pink, presented at a cottage door by a grateful patient.  For a
+space he was entirely occupied with gazing into its crimson depths,
+inhaling the fragrance, and caressingly spreading the cool damask
+petals against his hot cheeks and eyelids.  'It is so long since I
+saw anything but walls!' he said.
+
+'Three weeks,' sadly replied the Doctor.
+
+'There was a gleam of sunshine when I got out of the van yesterday.
+I never knew before what sunshine was.  I hope it will be a sunny day
+when I go out for the last time!'
+
+'My dear boy, I have good hopes of saving you.  There's not a
+creature in Stoneborough, or round it, that is not going to petition
+for you--and at your age--'
+
+Leonard shook his head in dejection.  'It has all gone against me,'
+he said.  'They all say there's no chance.  The chaplain says it is
+of no use unsettling my mind.'
+
+'The chaplain is an old--' began Dr. May, catching himself up only
+just in time, and asking, 'How do you get on with him!'
+
+'I can hear him read,' said Leonard, with the look that had been
+thought sullen.
+
+'But you cannot talk to him?'
+
+'Not while he thinks me guilty.'  Then, at a sound of warm sympathy
+from his friend, he added, 'I suppose it is his duty; but I wish he
+would keep away.  I can't stand his aiming at making me confess, and
+I don't want to be disrespectful.'
+
+'I see, I see.  It cannot be otherwise.  But how would it be if
+Wilmot came to you?'
+
+'Would Mr. May?' said Leonard, with a beseeching look.
+
+'Richard?  He would with all his heart; but I think you would find
+more support and comfort in a man of Mr. Wilmot's age and experience,
+and that Mr. Reeve would have more trust in him; but it shall be
+exactly as will be most comforting to you.'
+
+'If Mr. Wilmot would be so good, then' said Leonard, meekly.
+'Indeed, I want help to bear it patiently!  I don't know how to die;
+and yet it seemed not near so hard a year ago, when they thought I
+did not notice, and I heard Ave go away crying, and my mother
+murmuring, again and again, "Thy will be done!"--the last time I
+heard her voice.  Oh, well that she has not to say it now!'
+
+'Well that her son can say it!'
+
+'I want to be able to say it,' said the boy, fervently; 'but this
+seems so hard--life is so sweet.'  Then, after a minute's thought:
+'Dr. May, that morning, when I awoke, and asked you for them--papa
+and mamma--you knelt down and said the Lord's Prayer.  Won't you
+now?'
+
+And when those words had been said, and they both stood up again,
+Leonard added: 'It always seems to mean more and more!  But oh, Dr.
+May! that forgiving--I can't ask any one but you if--' and he paused.
+
+'If you forgive, my poor boy!  Nay, are not your very silence and
+forbearance signs of practical forgiveness?  Besides, I have always
+observed that you have never used one of the epithets that I can't
+think of him without.'
+
+'Some feelings are too strong for common words of abuse,' said
+Leonard, almost smiling; 'but I hope I may be helped to put away what
+is wrong. --Oh, must you go?'
+
+'I fear I must, my dear; I have a patient to see again, on my way
+back, and one that will be the worse for waiting.'
+
+'Henry has not been able to practise.  I want to ask one thing, Dr.
+May, before you go.  Could not you persuade them, since home is
+poisoned to them, at any rate to go at once?  It would be better for
+my sisters than being here--when--and they would only remember that
+last Sunday at home.'
+
+'Do you shrink from another meeting with Averil?'
+
+His face was forced into calmness.  'I will do without it, if it
+would hurt her.'
+
+'It may for the time, but to be withheld would give her a worse
+heart-ache through life.'
+
+'Oh, thank you!' cried Leonard, his face lighting up; 'it is
+something still to hope for.'
+
+'Nay, I've not given you up yet,' said the Doctor, trying for a
+cheerful smile.  'I've got a prescription that will bring you through
+yet--London advice, you know.  I've great faith in the consulting
+surgeon at the Home Office.'
+
+By the help of that smile and augury, the Doctor got away, terribly
+beaten down, but living on his fragment of hope; though obliged to
+perceive that every one who merely saw the newspaper report in black
+and white, without coming into personal contact with the prisoner,
+could not understand how the slightest question of the justice of the
+verdict could arise.  Even Mr. Wilmot was so convinced by the papers,
+that the Doctor almost repented of the mission to which he had
+invited him, and would, if he could, have revoked what had been said.
+But the vicar of Stoneborough, painful as was the duty, felt his post
+to be by the side of his unhappy young parishioner, equally whether
+the gaol chaplain or Dr. May were right, and if he had to bring him
+to confession, or to strengthen him to 'endure grief, suffering
+wrongfully.'
+
+And after the first interview, no more doubts on that score were
+expressed; but the vicar's tone of pitying reverence in speaking of
+the prisoner was like that of his friends in the High Street.
+
+Tom May spared neither time nor pains in beating up for signatures
+for the petition, but he had a more defined hope, namely, that of
+detecting something that might throw the suspicion into the right
+quarter.  The least contradiction of the evidence might raise a doubt
+that would save Leonard's life, and bring the true criminal in peril
+of the fate he so richly deserved.  The Vintry Mill was the lion of
+the neighbourhood, and the crowds of visitors had been a reason for
+its new master's vacating it, and going into lodgings in Whitford; so
+that Tom, when he found it convenient to forget his contempt of the
+gazers and curiosity hunters who thronged there, and to march off on
+a secret expedition of investigation, found no obstacle in his way,
+and at the cost of a fee to Mrs. Giles, who was making a fortune, was
+free to roam and search wherever he pleased.  Even his careful
+examination of the cotton blind, and his scraping of the window-sill
+with a knife, were not remarked; for had not the great chair been
+hacked into fragmentary relics, and the loose paper of the walls of
+Leonard's room been made mincemeat of, as memorials of 'the murderer,
+Ward'?
+
+One long white hair picked out of a mat below the window, and these
+scrapings of the window-sill, Tom carried off, and also the scrapings
+of the top bar of a stile between the mill and the Three Goblets.
+That evening, all were submitted to the microscope.  Dr. May was
+waked from a doze by a very deferential 'I beg your pardon, sir,' and
+a sudden tweak, which abstracted a silver thread from his head; and
+Mab showed somewhat greater displeasure at a similar act of plunder
+upon her white chemisette.  But the spying was followed by a sigh;
+and, in dumb show, Ethel was made to perceive that the Vintry hair
+had more affinity with the canine than the human.  As to the
+scrapings of the window, nothing but vegetable fibre could there be
+detected; but on the stile, there was undoubtedly a mark containing
+human blood-disks; Tom proved that both by comparison with his books,
+and by pricking his own finger, and kept Ethel to see it after every
+one else was gone up to bed.  But as one person's blood was like
+another's, who could tell whether some one with a cut finger had not
+been through the stile?  Tom shook his head, there was not yet enough
+on which to commit himself.  'But I'll have him!--I'll have him yet!'
+said he.  'I'll never rest while that villain walks the earth
+unpunished!'
+
+Meantime, Harvey Anderson did yeoman's service by a really powerful
+article in a leading paper, written from the very heart of an able
+man, who had been strongly affected himself, and was well practised
+in feeling in pen and ink.  Every word rang home to the soul, and all
+the more because there was no defence nor declamation against the
+justice of the verdict, which was acknowledged to be unavoidable; it
+was merely a pathetic delineation of a terrible mystery, with a
+little meditative philosophy upon it, the moral of which was, that
+nothing is more delusive than fact, more untrue than truth.  However,
+it was copied everywhere, and had the great effect of making it the
+cue of more than half the press to mourn over, rather than condemn,
+'the unfortunate young gentleman.'
+
+Mrs. Pugh showed every one the article, and confided to most that she
+had absolutely ventured to suggest two or three of the sentences.
+But a great deal might be borne from Mrs. Pugh, in consideration of
+her indefatigable exertions with the ladies' petition, and it was a
+decided success.  The last census had rated Market Stoneborough at
+7561 inhabitants, and Mrs. Pugh's petition bore no less than 3024
+female names, in which she fairly beat that of the mayor; but then
+she had been less scrupulous as to the age at which people should be
+asked to sign; as long as the name could be written at all, she was
+not particular whose it was.
+
+Dr. May made his patients agree to accept as his substitute Dr.
+Spencer or Mr. Wright, to whom Henry Ward intended to resign practice
+and house.  He himself was to go to London for a couple of nights
+with George Rivers, who was exceedingly gratified at having the
+charge of him all to himself, and considered that the united
+influence of member and mayor must prevail.  Dr. Spencer, on the
+contrary, probably by way of warning, represented Mr. Mayor as
+ruining everything by his headlong way of setting about it, declaring
+that he would abuse everybody all round, and assure the Home
+Secretary, that, as sure as his name was Dick May, it was quite
+impossible the boy could have hurt a fly; though a strict sense of
+truth would lead him to add the next moment, that he was terribly
+passionate, and had nearly demolished his brother.
+
+Dr. May talked of his caution and good behaviour, which, maybe, were
+somewhat increased by this caricature, but he ended by very hearty
+wishes that these were the times of Jeanie Deans; if the pardon
+depended on our own good Queen, he should not doubt of it a moment.
+Why, was not the boy just the age of her own son?
+
+And verily there was no one in the whole world whom poor Averil
+envied like Jeanie Deans.
+
+So member and mayor went to London together, and intense were the
+prayers that speeded them and followed them.  The case was laid
+before the Home Secretary, the petitions presented, and Dr. May said
+all that man might say on ground where he felt as if over-
+partisanship might be perilous.  The matter was to have due
+consideration: nothing more definite or hopeful could be obtained;
+but there could be no doubt that this meant a real and calm re-
+weighing of the evidence, with a consideration of all the
+circumstances.  It was something for the Doctor that a second
+dispassionate study should be given to the case, but his heart sank
+as he thought of that cold, hard statement of evidence, without the
+counter testimony of the honest, tearless eyes and simple good faith
+of the voice and tone.
+
+And when he entered the railway carriage on his road home, the
+newspaper that George Rivers attentively pressed upon him bore the
+information that Wednesday, the 21st, would be the day, according to
+usage, for the execution of the condemned criminal, Leonard Axworthy
+Ward.  If it had been for the execution of Richard May, the Doctor
+could hardly have given a deeper groan.
+
+He left the train at the county town.  He had so arranged, that he
+might see the prisoner on his way home; but he had hardly the heart
+to go, except that he knew he was expected, and no disappointment
+that he could help must add to the pangs of these last days.
+
+Leonard was alone, but was not, as before, sitting unemployed; he
+carefully laid down his etching work ere he came forward to meet his
+fnend; and there was not the bowed and broken look about him, but a
+fixed calmness and resolution, as he claimed the fatherly embrace and
+blessing with which the Doctor now always met him.
+
+'I bring you no certainty, Leonard.  It is under consideration.'
+
+'Thank you.  You have done everything,' returned Leonard, quietly;
+'and--' then pausing, he added, 'I know the day now--the day after my
+birthday.'
+
+'Let us--let us hope,' said the Doctor, greatly agitated.
+
+'Thank you,' again said Leonard; and there was a pause, during which
+Dr. May anxiously studied the face, which had become as pale and
+almost as thin as when the lad had been sent off to Coombe, and
+infinitely older in the calm steadfastness of every feature.
+
+'You do not look well, Leonard.'
+
+'No; I am not quite well; but it matters very little,' he said, with
+a smile.  'I am well enough to make it hard to believe how soon all
+sense and motion will be gone out of these fingers!' and he held up
+his hand, and studied the minutiae of its movements with a strange
+grave sort of curiosity.
+
+'Don't--don't, Leonard!' exclaimed the Doctor.  'You may be able to
+bear it, but I cannot.'
+
+'I thought you would not mind, you have so often watched death.'
+
+'Yes; but--' and he covered his face with his hands.
+
+'I wish it did not pain you all so much,' said Leonard, quietly.
+'But for that, I can feel it to be better than if I had gone in the
+fever, when I had no sense to think or repent; or if I had--I hardly
+knew my own faults.'
+
+'You seem much happier now, my boy.'
+
+'Yes,' said Leonard.  'I am more used to the notion, and Mr. Wilmot
+has been so kind.  Then I am to see Ave to-morrow, if she is well
+enough.  Henry has promised to bring her, and leave her alone with
+me; and I do hope--that I shall be able to convince her that it is
+not so very bad for me--and then she may be able to take comfort.
+You know she would, if she were nursing me now in my bed at Bankside;
+so why should she not when she sees that I don't think this any
+worse, but rather better?'
+
+The Doctor was in no mood to think any comfort possible in thus
+losing one like Leonard, and he did not commit himself to an untruth.
+There was a silence again, and Leonard opened his book, and took out
+his etchings, one which he had already promised the Doctor, another
+for Aubrey, and at the third the Doctor exclaimed inarticulately with
+surprise and admiration.
+
+It was a copy of the well-known Cross-bearing Form in the Magdalen
+College Chapel Altar-piece, drawn in pen and ink on a half-sheet of
+thick note-paper; but somehow, into the entire Face and Figure there
+was infused such an expression as now and then comes direct from the
+soul of the draughtsman--an inspiration entirely independent of
+manual dexterity, and that copies, however exact, fail to render,
+nay, which the artist himself fails to renew.  The beauty, the
+meekness, the hidden Majesty of the Countenance, were conveyed in a
+marvellous manner, and were such as would bring a tear to the eye of
+the gazer, even had the drawing been there alone to speak for itself.
+
+'This is your doing, Leonard?'
+
+'I have just finished it.  It has been one of my greatest comforts--'
+
+'Ah!'
+
+'Doing those lines;' and he pointed to the thorny Crown, 'I seem to
+get ashamed of thinking this hardness.  Only think, Dr. May, from the
+very first moment the policeman took me in charge, nobody has said a
+rough word to me.  I have never felt otherwise than that they meant
+justice to have its way as far as they knew, but they were all
+consideration for me.  To think of that, and then go over the scoffs
+and scourgings!'--there was a bright glistening tear in Leonard's eye
+now--'it seems like child's play to go through such a trial as mine.'
+
+'Yes! you have found the secret of willingness.'
+
+'And,' added the boy, hesitating between the words, but feeling that
+he must speak them, as the best balm for the sorrow he was causing,
+'even my little touch of the shame and scorn of this does make me
+know better what it must have been, and yet--so thankful when I
+remember why it was--that I think I could gladly bear a great deal
+more than this is likely to be.'
+
+'Oh! my boy, I have no fears for you now.'
+
+'Yes, yes--have fears,' cried Leonard, hastily.  'Pray for me!  You
+don't know what it is to wake up at night, and know something is
+coming nearer and nearer--and then this--before one can remember all
+that blesses it--or the Night of that Agony--and that He knows what
+it is--'
+
+'Do we not pray for you?' said Dr. May, fervently, 'in church and at
+home? and is not this an answer?  Am I to take this drawing, Leonard,
+that speaks so much?'
+
+'If--if you think Miss May--would let me send it to her?  Thank you,
+it will be very kind of her.  And please tell her, if it had not been
+for that time at Coombe, I don't know how I could ever have felt the
+ground under my feet.  If I have one wish that never can be--'
+
+'What wish, my dear, dear boy?  Don't be afraid to say.  Is it to see
+her?'
+
+'It was,' said Leonard, 'but I did not mean to say it.  I know it
+cannot be.'
+
+'But, Leonard, she has said that if you wished it, she would come as
+if you were lying on your bed at home, and with more reverence.'
+
+Large tears of gratitude were swelling in Leonard's eyes, and he
+pressed the Doctor's hand, but still said, almost inarticulately,
+'Ought she?'
+
+'I will bring her, my boy.  It will do her good to see how--how her
+pupil, as they have always called you in joke, Leonard, can be
+willing to bear the Cross after his Master.  She has never let go for
+a moment the trust that it was well with you.'
+
+'Oh! Dr. May, it was the one thing--and when I had gone against all
+her wishes.  It is so good of her!  It is the one thing ' and there
+was no doubt from his face that he was indeed happy.
+
+And Dr. May went home that day softened and almost cheered, well-nigh
+as though he had had a promise of Leonard's life, and convinced that
+in the region to which the spirits of Ethel and her pupil could
+mount, resignation would silence the wailings of grief and sorrow;
+the things invisible were more than a remedy for the things visible.
+
+That Ethel should see Leonard before the last, he was quite resolved;
+and Ethel, finding that so it was, left the _when_ in his hands,
+knowing the concession to be so great, that it must be met by
+grateful patience on her own side, treasuring the drawing meanwhile
+with feelings beyond speech.  Dr. May did not wish the meeting to
+take place till he was really sure that all hope was at an end; he
+knew it would be a strong measure, and though he did not greatly care
+for the world in general, he did not want to offend Flora
+unnecessarily; in matters of propriety she was a little bit of a
+conscience to him, and though he would brave her or any one else when
+a thing was right, especially if it were to give one last moment of
+joy to Leonard, she was not to be set at naught till the utmost
+extremity.
+
+And for one day, the sight of Averil would be enough.  She had
+struggled into something sufficiently like recovery to be able to
+maintain her fitness for the exertion; and Henry had recognized that
+the unsatisfied pining was so preying on her as to hurt her more than
+the meeting and parting could do, since, little as he could
+understand how it was, he perceived that Leonard could be depended on
+for support and comfort.  With him, indeed, Leonard had ever shown
+himself cheerful and resolute, speaking of anything rather than of
+himself and never grieving him with the sight of those failings of
+flesh and heart that would break forth where there was more congenial
+sympathy, yet where they were not a reproach.
+
+So Averil, with many a promise to be 'good,' and strongly impressed
+with warnings that the chance of another meeting depended on the
+effects of this one, was laid back in the carriage, leaving poor
+little Minna to Mary's consolation.  Minna was longing to go too, but
+Henry had forbidden it, and not even an appeal to Dr. May had
+prevailed; so she was taken home by Mary, and with a child's touching
+patience, was helped through the weary hours, giving wandering though
+gentle attention to Ella's eager display of the cariosities of the
+place, and explanations of the curious games and puzzles taught by
+'Mr. Tom.'  Ethel, watching the sweet wistful face, and hearing the
+subdued voice, felt a reverence towards the child, as though somewhat
+of the shadow of her brother's cross had fallen on her.
+
+The elder brother and sister meanwhile arrived at the building now
+only too familiar to one of them, and, under her thick veil,
+unconscious of the pitying looks of the officials, Averil was led,
+leaning on Henry's arm, along the whitewashed passages, with their
+slate floors, and up the iron stairs, the clear, hard, light coldness
+chilling her heart with a sense of the stern, relentless, inevitable
+grasp in which the victim was held.  The narrow iron door flew open
+at the touch of the turnkey; a hand was on her arm, but all swam
+round with her, and she only knew it was the well-known voice; she
+did not follow the words between her brothers and the turnkey about
+the time she was to be left there, but she gave a start and shudder
+when the door sprung fast again behind her, and at the same instant
+she felt herself upheld by an arm round her waist.
+
+'Take off your bonnet, Ave; let me see you,' he said, himself undoing
+the strings, and removing it, then bending his face to hers for a
+long, almost insatiable kiss, as they stood strained in one intense
+embrace, all in perfect silence on the sister's part.
+
+'I have been making ready for you,' he said at length, partly
+releasing her; 'you are to sit here;' and he deposited her, still
+perfectly passive in his hands, upon his bed, her back against the
+wall.  'Put up your feet!  There!'  And having settled her to his
+satisfaction, he knelt down on the floor, one arm round her waist,
+one hand in hers, looking earnestly up into her face, with his soul
+in his eyes, her other hand resting on his shoulder.
+
+'How are the little ones, Ave?'
+
+'Very well.  Minna so longed to come.'
+
+'Better not' said Leonard; 'she is so little, and these white walls
+might distress her fancy.  They will remember our singing on the last
+Sunday evening instead.  Do you remember, Ave, how they begged to
+stay on and on till it grew so dark that we could not see a word or a
+note, and went on from memory?' and he very softly hummed the restful
+cadence, dying away into
+
+
+'Till in the ocean of Thy love
+ We lose ourselves in Heaven above.'
+
+
+'How can you bear to think of those dear happy days!'
+
+'Because you will be glad of them by and by, said Leonard; 'and I am
+very glad of them now, though they might have been so much better, if
+only we had known.'
+
+'They were the only happy days of all my life!'
+
+'I hope not--I trust not, dearest.  You may and ought to have much
+better and happier days to come.'
+
+She shook her head, with a look of inexpressible anguish, almost of
+reproach.
+
+'Indeed I mean it, Ave,' he said; 'I have thought it over many times,
+and I see that the discomfort and evil of our home was in the spirit
+of pride and rebellion that I helped you to nurse.  It was like a
+wedge, driving us farther and farther apart; and now that it is gone,
+and you will close up again, when you are kind and yielding to Henry-
+-what a happy peaceful home you may make out in the prairie land!'
+
+'As if we could ever--'
+
+'Nay, Averil, could not you recover it if I were dying now of
+sickness?  I know you would, though you might not think so at the
+time.  Believe me, then, when I say that I am quite willing to have
+it as it is--to be my own man to the last--to meet with such precious
+inestimable kindness from so many.  Of course I should like to live
+longer, and do something worth doing; but if I am to die young, there
+is so much blessing even in this way, that nothing really grieves me
+but the thought of you and Henry; and if it makes you one together,
+even that is made up.'
+
+Awe-struck, and as if dreaming, she did not answer, only smoothing
+caressingly the long waves of bright brown hair on his forehead.  She
+was surprised by his next question.
+
+'Ave! how has Mrs. Pugh behaved?'
+
+'Oh! the woman!  I have hardly thought of her!  She has been very
+active about the petition, somebody said; but I don't believe Henry
+can bear to hear of her any more than I can.  What made you think of
+her?'
+
+'Because I wanted to know how it was with Henry, and I could not ask
+him.  Poor fellow!  Well, Ave, you see he will depend on you entirely
+for comfort, and you must promise me that shall be your great
+business and care.'
+
+'How you do think of Henry!' she said, half jealously.
+
+'Of course, Ave.  You and I have no past to grieve over together, but
+poor Henry will never feel free of having left me to my self-willed
+obstinacy, and let me go to that place.  Besides, the disgrace in the
+sight of the world touches him more, and you can tread that down more
+easily than he.'  Then, in answer to a wondering look, 'Yes, you can,
+when you recollect that it is crime, not the appearance of it, that
+is shame.  I do not mean that I do not deserve all this--but--but--'
+and his eye glistened, 'Ave, dear, if I could only bring out the
+words to tell you how much peace and joy there is in knowing that--
+with that vast difference--it is like in some degree what was borne
+to save us, I really don't think you could go on grieving over me any
+more; at least not more than for the loss,' he added, tenderly; 'and
+you'll not miss me so much in a new country, you know, with Henry and
+the children to take care of.  Only promise me to be kind to Henry.'
+
+And having drawn forth a faint promise, that he knew would have more
+force by and by, Leonard went on, in his low quiet voice, into
+reminiscences that sounded like random, of the happy days of
+childhood and early youth, sometimes almost laughing over them,
+sometimes linking his memory as it were to tune or flower, sport or
+study, but always for joy, and never for pain; and thus passed the
+time, with long intervals of silent thought and recollection on his
+part, and of a sort of dreamy stupor on his sister's, during which
+the strange peaceful hush seemed to have taken away her power of
+recalling the bitter complaints of cruel injustice, and the broken-
+hearted lamentations she had imagined herself pouring out in sympathy
+with her victim brother.  Instead of being wrung with anguish, her
+heart was lulled and quelled by wondering reverence; and she seemed
+to herself scarcely awake, and only dimly conscious of the pale-
+cheeked bright-eyed face upturned to her, so calm and undaunted, yet
+so full of awe and love, the low steady tender voice, and the warm
+upholding arm.
+
+A great clock struck, and Leonard said, 'There! they were to come at
+four, and then the chaplain is coming.  He is grown so very kind now!
+Ave, if they would let you be with me at my last Communion!  Will
+you?  Could you bear it?  I think then you would know all the peace
+of it!'
+
+'Oh, yes! make them let me come.'
+
+'Then it is not good-bye,' he said, as he fetched her bonnet and
+cloak, and put them on with tender hands, as if she were a child, in
+readiness as steps approached, and her escort reappeared.
+
+'Here she is, Henry,' he said, with a smile.  'She has been very
+good; she may come again.'  And then, holding her in his arms once
+more, he resigned her to Henry, saying, 'Not good-bye, Ave; we will
+keep my birthday together.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+
+                       The captives went
+To their own places, to their separate glooms,
+Uncheered by glance, or hand, or hope, to brood
+On those impossible glories of the past,
+When they might touch the grass, and see the sky,
+And do the works of men.  But manly work
+Is sometimes in a prison.--S. M.  Queen Isabel
+
+
+'Commutation of punishment, to penal servitude for life.'
+
+Such were the tidings that ran through Stoneborough on Sunday
+morning, making all feel as if a heavy oppression had been taken from
+the air.  In gratitude to the merciful authorities, and thankfulness
+for the exemption from death, the first impressions were that Justice
+was at last speaking, that innocence could not suffer, and that right
+was reasserting itself.  Even when the more sober and sad remembered
+that leniency was not pardon, nor life liberty, they were hastily
+answered that life was everything--life was hope, life was time, and
+time would show truth.
+
+Averil's first tears dropped freely, as she laid her head on Mary's
+shoulder, and with her hand in Dr. May's, essayed to utter the words,
+'It is your doing--you have twice saved him for me,' and Minna stood
+calmly glad, but without surprise.  'I knew they could not hurt him;
+God would not let them.'
+
+The joy and relief were so great as to absorb all thought or
+realization of what this mercy was to the prisoner himself, until Dr.
+May was able to pay him a visit on Monday afternoon.  It was at a
+moment when the first effects of the tidings of life had subsided,
+and there had been time to look forth on the future with a spirit
+more steadfast than buoyant.  The strain of the previous weeks was
+reacting on the bodily frame, and indisposition unhinged the spirits;
+so that, when Dr. May entered, beaming with congratulations, he was
+met with the same patient glance of endurance, endeavouring at
+resignation, that he knew so well, but without the victorious peace
+that had of late gained the ascendant expression.  There was instead
+an almost painful endeavour to manifest gratitude by cheerfulness,
+and the smile was far less natural than those of the last interview,
+as fervently returning the pressure of the hand, he said, 'You were
+right, Dr. May, you have brought me past the crisis.'
+
+'A sure sign of ultimate recovery, my boy.  Remember, dum spiro
+spero.'
+
+Leonard attempted a responsive smile, but it was a hopeless business.
+From the moment when at the inquest he found himself entangled in the
+meshes of circumstance, his mind had braced itself to endure rather
+than hope, and his present depressed state, both mental and bodily,
+rendered even that endurance almost beyond his powers.  He could only
+say, 'You have been very good to me.'
+
+'My dear fellow, you are sadly knocked down; I wish--' and the Doctor
+looked at him anxiously.
+
+'I wish you had been here yesterday,' said Leonard; 'then you would
+not have found me so.  No, not thankless, indeed!'
+
+'No, indeed; but--yes, I see it was folly--nay, harshness, to expect
+you to be glad of what lies before you, my poor boy.'
+
+'I am--am thankful,' said Leonard, struggling to make the words
+truth.  'Wednesday is off my mind--yes, it is more than I deserve--I
+knew I was not fit to die, and those at home are spared.  But I am as
+much cut off from them--perhaps more--than by death.  And it is the
+same disgrace to them, the same exile.  I suppose Henry still goes--'
+
+'Yes, he does.'
+
+'Ah! then one thing, Dr. May--if you had a knife or scissors--I do
+not know how soon they may cut my hair, and I want to secure a bit
+for poor Ave.'
+
+Dr. May was too handless to have implements of the first order, but a
+knife he had, and was rather dismayed at Leonard's reckless hacking
+at his bright shining wavy hair, pulling out more than he cut, with
+perfect indifference to the pain.  The Doctor stroked the chestnut
+head as tenderly as if it had been Gertrude's sunny curls, but
+Leonard started aside, and dashing away the tears that were
+overflowing his eyes under the influence of the gentle action, asked
+vigorously, 'Have you heard what they will do with me?'
+
+'I do not know thoroughly.  A year or six months maybe at one of the
+great model establishments, then probably you will be sent to some of
+the public works,' said the Doctor, sadly.  'Yes, it is a small boon
+to give you life, and take away all that makes life happy.'
+
+'If it were only transportation!'
+
+'Yes.  In a new world you could live it down, and begin afresh.  And
+even here, Leonard, I look to finding you like Joseph in his prison.'
+
+'The iron entering into his soul!' said Leonard, with a mournful
+smile.
+
+'No; in the trustworthiness that made him honoured and blessed even
+there.  Leonard, Leonard, conduct _will_ tell.  Even there, you can
+live this down, and will!'
+
+'Eighteen to-morrow,' replied the boy.  'Fifty years of it, perhaps!
+I know God can help me through with it, but it is a long time to be
+patient!'
+
+By way of answer, the Doctor launched into brilliant auguries of the
+impression the prisoner's conduct would produce, uttering assurances,
+highly extravagant in his Worship the Mayor, of the charms of the
+modern system of prison discipline, but they fell flat; there could
+be no disguising that penal servitude for life was penal servitude
+for life, and might well be bitterer than death itself.  Sympathy
+might indeed be balm to the captive, but the good Doctor pierced his
+own breast to afford it, so that his heart sank even more than when
+he had left the young man under sentence of death.  His least
+unavailing consolations were his own promises of frequent visits, and
+Aubrey's of correspondence, but they produced more of dejected
+gratitude than of exhilaration.  Yet it was not in the way of murmur
+or repining, but rather of 'suffering and being strong,' and only to
+this one friend was the suffering permitted to be apparent.  To all
+the officials he was simply submissive and gravely resolute;
+impassive if he encountered sharpness or sternness, but alert and
+grateful towards kindliness, of which he met more and more as the
+difference between dealing with him and the ordinary prisoners made
+itself felt.
+
+To Dr. May alone was the depth of pain betrayed; but another
+comforter proved more efficient in cheering the prisoner, namely, Mr.
+Wilmot, who, learning from the Doctor the depression of their young
+friend, hastened to endeavour at imparting a new spring of life on
+this melancholy birthday.  Physically, the boy was better, and
+perhaps the new day had worn off somewhat of the burthen of
+anticipation, for Mr. Wilmot found him already less downcast, and
+open to consolation.  It might be, too, that the sense that the
+present was to have been his last day upon earth, had made him more
+conscious of the relief from the immediate shadow of death, for he
+expressed his thankfulness far more freely and without the effort of
+the previous day.
+
+'And, depend on it,' said Mr. Wilmot, 'you are spared because there
+is something for you to do.'
+
+'To bear,' said Leonard.
+
+'No, to do.  Perhaps not immediately; but try to look on whatever you
+have to bear, not only as carrying the cross, as I think you already
+feel it--'
+
+'Or there would be no standing it at all.'
+
+'True,' said Mr. Wilmot; 'and your so feeling it convinces me the
+more that whatever may follow is likewise to be looked upon as
+discipline to train you for something beyond.  Who knows what work
+may be in store, for which this fiery trial may be meant to prepare
+you?'
+
+The head was raised, and the eyes brightened with something like hope
+in their fixed interrogative glance.
+
+'Even as things are now, who knows what good may be done by the
+presence of a man educated, religious, unstained by crime, yet in the
+same case as those around him?  I do not mean by quitting your
+natural place, but by merely living as you must live.  You were
+willing to have followed your Master in His death.  You now have to
+follow Him by living as one under punishment; and be sure it is for
+some purpose for others as well as yourself.'
+
+'If there is any work to be done for Him, it is all right,' said
+Leonard, cheerily; and as Mr. Wilmot paused, he added, 'It would be
+like working for a friend--if I may dare say so--after the hours when
+this place has been made happy to me.  I should not mind anything if
+I might only feel it working for Him.'
+
+'Feel it.  Be certain of it.  As you have realized the support of
+that Friend in a way that is hardly granted, save in great troubles,
+so now realize that every task is for Him.  Do not look on the labour
+as hardship inflicted by mistaken authority--'
+
+'Oh, I only want to get to that!  I have been so long with nothing to
+do!'
+
+'And your hearty doing of it, be it what it may, as unto the Lord,
+can be as acceptable as Dr. May's labours of love among the poor--as
+entirely a note in the great concord in Heaven and earth as the work
+of the ministry itself--as completely in unison.  Nay, further, such
+obedient and hearty work will form you for whatever may yet be
+awaiting you, and what that may be will show itself in good time,
+when you are ready for it.
+
+'The right chord was touched, the spirit of energy was roused, and
+Leonard was content to be a prisoner of hope, not the restless hope
+of liberation, but the restful hope that he might yet render faithful
+service even in his present circumstances.
+
+Not much passed his lips in this interview, but its effect was
+apparent when Dr. May again saw him, and this time in company with
+Aubrey.  Most urgent had been the boy's entreaties to be taken to see
+his friend, and Dr. May had only hesitated because Leonard's
+depression had made himself so unhappy that he feared its effect on
+his susceptible son; whose health had already suffered from the long
+course of grief and suspense.  But it was plain that if Aubrey were
+to go at all, it must be at once, since the day was fixed for the
+prisoner's removal, and the still nearer and dearer claims must not
+clash with those of the friend.  Flora shook her head, and reminded
+her father that Leonard would not be out of reach in future, and that
+the meeting now might seriously damage Aubrey's already uncertain
+health.
+
+'I cannot help it, Flora,' said the Doctor; 'it may do him some
+temporary harm, but I had rather see him knocked down for a day or
+two, than breed him up to be such a poor creature as to sacrifice his
+friendship to his health.'
+
+And Mrs. Rivers, who knew what the neighbourhood thought of the good
+Doctor's infatuation, felt that there was not much use in suggesting
+how shocked the world would be at his encouragement of the intimacy
+between the convict and his young son.
+
+People did look surprised when the Doctor asked admission to the cell
+for his son as well as himself; and truly Aubrey, who in silence had
+worked himself into an agony of nervous agitation, looked far from
+fit for anything trying.  Dr. May saw that he must not ask to leave
+the young friends alone together, but in his reverence for the rights
+of their friendship, he withdrew himself as far as the limits of the
+cell would allow, turned his back, and endeavoured to read the
+Thirty-nine Articles in Leonard's Prayer-Book; but in spite of all
+his abstraction, he could not avoid a complete consciousness that the
+two lads sat on the bed, clinging with arms round one another like
+young children, and that it was Leonard's that was the upright
+sustaining figure, his own Aubrey's the prone and leaning one.  And
+of the low whispering murmurs that reached his would-be deafened ear,
+the gasping almost sobbing tones were Aubrey's.  The first distinct
+words that he could not help hearing were, 'No such thing!  There
+can't be slavery where one works with a will!' and again, in reply to
+something unheard, 'Yes, one can!  Why, how did one do one's Greek?'-
+-'Very different!'--'How?'--'Oh!'--'Yes; but you are a clever chap,
+and had her to teach you, but I only liked it because I'd got it to
+do.  Just the same with the desk-work down at the mill; so it may be
+the same now.'
+
+Then came fragments of what poor Aubrey had expressed more than once
+at home--that his interest in life, in study, in sport, was all gone
+with his friend.
+
+'Come, Aubrey, that's stuff.  You'd have had to go to Cambridge, you
+know, without me, after I doggedly put myself at that place.  There's
+just as much for you to do as ever there was.'
+
+'How you keep on with your _do_!' cried Ethel's spoilt child, with a
+touch of petulance.
+
+'Why, what are we come here for--into this world, I mean--but to
+_do_!' returned Leonard; 'and I take it, if we do it right, it does
+not much matter what or where it is.'
+
+'I shan't have any heart for it!' sighed Aubrey.
+
+'Nonsense!  Not with all your people at home? and though the voice
+fell again, the Doctor's ears distinguished the murmur, 'Why, just
+the little things she let drop are the greatest help to me here, and
+you always have her--'
+
+Then ensued much that was quite inaudible, and at last Leonard said,
+'No, old fellow; as long as you don't get ashamed of me, thinking
+about you, and knowing what you are about, will be one of the best
+pleasures I shall have.  And look here, Aubrey, if we only consider
+it right, you and I will be just as really working together, when you
+are at your books, and I am making mats, as if we were both at
+Cambridge side by side!  It is quite true, is it not, Dr. May?' he
+added, since the Doctor, finding it time to depart, had turned round
+to close the interview.
+
+'Quite true, my boy,' said the Doctor; 'and I hope Aubrey will try to
+take comfort and spirit from it.'
+
+'As if I could!' said Aubrey, impatiently, 'when it only makes me
+more mad to see what a fellow they have shut up in here!'
+
+'Not mad, I hope,' said Dr. May; 'but I'll tell you what it should do
+for both of us, Aubrey.  It should make us very careful to be worthy
+to remain his friends.'
+
+'0, Dr. May!' broke in Leonard, distressed.
+
+'Yes,' returned Dr. May, 'I mean what I say, however you break in,
+Master Leonard.  As long as this boy of mine is doing his best for
+the right motives, he will care for you as he does now--not quite in
+the same despairing way, of course, for holes in one's daily life do
+close themselves up with time--but if he slacks off in his respect or
+affection for you, then I shall begin to have fears of him.  Now come
+away, Aubrey, and remember for your comfort it is not the good-bye it
+might have been,' he added, as he watched the mute intensity of the
+boys' farewell clasp of the hands; but even then had some difficulty
+in getting Aubrey away from the friend so much stronger as the
+consoler than as the consoled, and unconsciously showing how in the
+last twenty-four hours his mind had acted on the topics presented to
+him by Mr. Wilmot.
+
+Changed as he was from the impetuous boyish lad of a few weeks since,
+a change even more noticeable when with his contemporary than in
+intercourse with elder men, yet the nature was the same.  Obstinacy
+had softened into constancy, pride into resolution, generosity made
+pardon less difficult, and elevation of temper bore him through many
+a humiliation that, through him, bitterly galled his brother.
+
+Whatever he might feel, prison regulations were accepted by him as
+matters of course, not worth being treated as separate grievances.
+He never showed any shrinking from the assumption of the convict
+dress, whilst Henry was fretting and wincing over the very notion of
+his wearing it, and trying to arrange that the farewell interview
+should precede its adoption.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+
+Scorn of me recoils on you.
+                 E. B. BROWNING
+
+
+After the first relief, the relaxation of his brother's sentence had
+by no means mitigated Henry Ward's sense of disgrace, but had rather
+deepened it by keeping poor Leonard a living, not a dead, sorrow.
+
+He was determined to leave England as soon as possible, that his
+sisters might never feel that they were the relative of a convict;
+and bringing Ella home, he promulgated a decree that Leonard was
+never to be mentioned; hoping that his existence might be forgotten
+by the little ones.
+
+To hurry from old scenes, and sever former connections, was his sole
+thought, as if he could thus break the tie of brotherhood.  There was
+a half-formed link that had more easily snapped.  His courtship had
+been one of prudence and convenience, and in the overwhelming period
+of horror and suspense had been almost forgotten.  The lady's
+attempts at sympathy had been rejected by Averil without obstruction
+from him, for he had no such love as could have prevented her good
+offices from becoming oppressive to his wounded spirit, and he had
+not sufficient energy or inclination to rouse himself to a response.
+
+And when the grant of life enabled him to raise his head and look
+around him, he felt the failure of his plans an aggravation of his
+calamity, though he did not perceive that his impatience to rid
+himself of an encumbrance, and clear the way for his marriage, had
+been the real origin of the misfortune.  Still he was glad that
+matters had gone no further, and that there was no involvement beyond
+what could be handsomely disposed of by a letter, resigning his
+pretensions, and rejoicing that innate delicacy and prudence had
+prevented what might have involved the lady's feelings more deeply in
+the misfortune of his family: representing himself in all good faith
+as having retreated from her proffered sympathy out of devoted
+consideration for her, and closing with elaborate thanks for her
+exertions on behalf of 'his unhappy brother.'
+
+The letter had the honour of being infinitely lauded by Mrs. Ledwich,
+who dwelt on its nobleness and tenderness in many a tete-a-tete, and
+declared her surprise and thankfulness at the immunity of her dear
+Matilda's heart.  In strict confidence, too, Dr. Spencer (among
+others) learnt that--though it was not to be breathed till the year
+was out, above all till the poor Wards were gone--the dear romantic
+girl had made her hand the guerdon for obtaining Leonard's life.
+
+'So there's your fate, Dick,' concluded his friend.
+
+'You forget the influence of the press,' returned Dr. May.  'People
+don't propose such guerdons without knowing who is to earn them.'
+
+'Yes, she has long believed in King John,' said Ethel.
+
+Meantime Averil Ward was acquiescing in all Henry's projects with
+calm desperate passiveness.  She told Mary that she had resolved that
+she would never again contend with Henry, but would let him do what
+he would with herself and her sisters.  Nor had his tenderness during
+her illness been in vain; it had inspired reliance and affection,
+such as to give her the instinct of adherence to him as the one stay
+left to her.  With Leonard shut up, all places were the same to her,
+except that she was in haste to escape from the scenes connected with
+her lost brother; and she looked forward with dull despairing
+acquiescence to the new life with which Henry hoped to shake off the
+past.
+
+A colony was not change enough for Henry's wishes; even there he made
+sure of being recognized as the convict's brother, and was resolved
+to seek his new home in the wide field of America, disguising his
+very name, as Warden, and keeping up no communication with the
+prisoner except under cover to Dr. May.
+
+To this unfailing friend was committed the charge of the brother.  He
+undertook to watch over the boy, visit him from time to time, take
+care of his health, and obtain for him any alleviations permitted by
+the prison rules; and as Henry reiterated to Averil, it was
+absolutely certain that everything possible from external kindness
+was thus secured.  What more could they themselves have done, but
+show him their faces at the permitted intervals? which would be mere
+wear and tear of feeling, very bad for both parties.
+
+Averil drooped, and disputed not--guessing, though not yet
+understanding, the heart hunger she should feel even for such a
+dreary glimpse.
+
+Every hour seemed to be another turn of the wheel that hurried on the
+departure.  The successor wished to take house and furniture as they
+stood, and to enter into possession as soon as possible, as he
+already had taken the practice.  This coincided with Henry's burning
+impatience to be quit of everything, and to try to drown the sense of
+his own identity in the crowds of London.  He was his sisters' only
+guardian, their property was entirely in his hands, and no one had
+the power of offering any obstacle, so that no delay could be
+interposed; and the vague design passed with startling suddenness to
+a fixed decision, to be carried into execution immediately.  It came
+in one burst upon the May household that Averil and her sisters were
+coming to spend a last evening before their absolute packing to go on
+the Saturday to London, where they would provide their outfit, and
+start in a month for America.
+
+The tidings were brought by Mary, who had, as usual, been spending
+part of the morning with Averil.  No one seemed to be so much taken
+by surprise as Tom, whose first movement was to fall on his sisters
+for not having made him aware of such a preposterous scheme.  They
+thought he knew.  He knew that all the five quarters of the world had
+been talked of in a wild sort of a way; but how could he suppose that
+any man could be crazed enough to prefer to be an American citizen,
+when he might remain a British subject?
+
+Repugnance to America was naturally strong in Tom, and had of late
+been enhanced by conversations with an Eton friend, who, while
+quartered in Canada, had made excursions into the States, and
+acquired such impressions as high-bred young officers were apt to
+bring home from a superficial view of them.  Thus fortified, he
+demanded whether any reasonable person had tried to bring Henry Ward
+to his senses.
+
+Ethel believed that papa had advised otherwise.
+
+'Advised!  It should have been enforced!  If he is fool enough to
+alter his name, and throw up all his certificates what is to become
+of him?  He will get no practice in any civilized place, and will
+have to betake himself to some pestilential swamp, will slave his
+sisters to death, spend their money, and destroy them with ague.  How
+can you sit still and look on, Ethel?'
+
+'But what could I do?'
+
+'Stir up my father to interfere.'
+
+'I thought you always warned us against interfering with Henry Ward.'
+
+He treated this speech as maliciously designed to enrage him.
+'Ethel!' he stammered, 'in a case like this--where the welfare--the
+very life--of one--of your dearest friend--of Mary's, I mean--I did
+think you would have been above--'
+
+'But, Tom, I would do my utmost, and so would papa, if it were
+possible to do anything; but it is quite in vain.  Henry is resolved
+against remaining under British rule, and America seems to be the
+only field for him.'
+
+'Much you know or care!' cried Tom.  'Well, if no one else will, I
+must!'
+
+With which words he departed, leaving his sister surprised at his
+solicitude, and dubious of the efficacy of his remonstrance, though
+she knew by experience that Tom was very different in a great matter
+from what he was in a small one.
+
+Tom betook himself to Bankside, and the first person he encountered
+there was his little friend Ella, who ran up to him at once.
+
+'Oh, Mr. Tom, we are going to America!  Shall you be sorry?'
+
+'Very sorry,' said Tom, as the little hand was confidingly thrust
+into his.
+
+'I should not mind it, if you were coming too, Mr. Tom!'
+
+'What, to play at French billiards?'
+
+'No, indeed!  To find objects for the microscope.  I shall save all
+the objects I meet, and send them home in a letter.'
+
+'An alligator or two, or a branch of the Mississippi,' said Tom, in a
+young man's absent way of half-answering a pet child; but the reply
+so struck Ella's fancy, that, springing through the open French
+window, she cried,  'Oh, Ave, Ave, here is Mr. Tom saying I am to
+send him a branch of the Mississippi in a letter, as an object for
+his microscope!'
+
+'I beg your pardon,' said Tom, shocked at Averil's nervous start, and
+still more shocked at her appearance.  She looked like one shattered
+by long and severe illness; her eyes were restless and distressed,
+her hair thrust back as if it oppressed her temples, her manner
+startled and over-wrought, her hand hot and unsteady--her whole air
+that of one totally unequal to the task before her.  He apologized
+for having taken her by surprise, and asked for her brother.  She
+answered, that he was busy at Mr. Bramshaw's, and she did not know
+when he would come in.  But still Tom lingered; he could not bear to
+leave her to exertions beyond her strength.  'You are tiring
+yourself,' he said; 'can I do nothing to help you?'
+
+'No, no, thank you; I am only looking over things.  Minna is helping
+me, and I am making an inventory.'
+
+'Then you must let me be of use to you.  You must be as quiet as
+possible.  You need rest.'
+
+'I can't rest; I'm better busy!' she said hastily, with quick,
+aimless, bustling movements.
+
+But Tom had his father's tone, as he gently arrested the trembling
+hand that was pulling open a drawer, and with his father's sweet,
+convincing smile, said, 'What's that for?' then drew up a large arm-
+chair, placed her in it, and, taking pen and list, began to write--
+sometimes at her suggestion, sometimes at his own--giving business-
+like and efficient aid.
+
+The work was so grave and regular, that Ella soon found the room
+tedious, and crept out, calling Minna to aid in some of their own
+personal matters.
+
+Slowly enumerating the articles they came to the piano.  Averil went
+up to it, leant fondly against it, and softly touched the keys.  'My
+own,' she said, 'bought for a surprise to me when I came home from
+school!  And oh, how he loved it!'
+
+'Every one had reason to love it,' said Tom, in a low voice; but she
+did not heed or hear.
+
+'I cannot--cannot part with it!  When I sit here, I can almost feel
+him leaning over me!  You must go--I will pay your expenses myself!
+I wonder if we should have such rough roads as would hurt you,' she
+added, caressingly toying with the notes, and bringing soft replies
+from them, as if she were conversing with a living thing.
+
+'Ah!' said Tom, coming nearer, 'you will, I hope, take care to what
+your brother's impetuosity might expose either this, or yourself.'
+
+'We shall all fare alike,' she said, carelessly.
+
+'But how?' said Tom.
+
+'Henry will take care of that.'
+
+'Do you know, Miss Ward, I came down here with the purpose of setting
+some matters before your brother that might dissuade him from making
+the United States his home.  You have justly more influence than I.
+Will you object to hear them from me?'
+
+Ave could not imagine why Tom May, of all people in the world, should
+thrust himself into the discussion of her plans; but she could only
+submit to listen, or more truly to lean back with wandering thoughts
+and mechanical signs of assent, as he urged his numerous objections.
+Finally, she uttered a meek 'Thank you,' in the trust that it was
+over.
+
+'And will you try to make your brother consider these things?'
+
+Poor Ave could not have stood an examination on 'these things,' and
+feeling inadequate to undertake the subject, merely said something of
+'very kind, but she feared it would be of no use.'
+
+'I assure you, if you would persuade him to talk it over with me,
+that I could show him that he would involve you all in what would be
+most distasteful.'
+
+'Thank you, but his mind is made up.  No other course is open.'
+
+'Could he not, at least, go and see what he thinks of it, before
+taking you and your sisters?'
+
+'Impossible!' said Averil.  'We must all keep together; we have no
+one else.'
+
+'No, indeed, you must not say that,' cried Tom, with a fire that
+startled Averil in the midst of her languid, dreary indifference.
+
+'I did not mean,' she said, 'to be ungrateful for the kindness of
+your family--the Doctor and dear Mary, above all; but you must know-'
+
+'I know,' he interrupted, 'that I cannot see you exiling yourself
+with your brother, because you think you have no one else to turn to-
+-you, who are so infinitely dear--'
+
+'This is no time for satire,' she said, drawing aside with offence,
+but still wearily, and as if she had not given attention enough to
+understand him.
+
+'You mistake me,' he exclaimed; 'I mean that no words can tell how
+strong the feeling is that--that-- No, I never knew its force till
+now; but, Averil, I cannot part with you--you who are all the world
+to me.'
+
+Lifting her heavy eyelids for a moment, she looked bewildered, and
+then, moving towards the door, said, 'I don't know whether this is
+jest or earnest--any way, it is equally unsuitable.'
+
+'What do you see in me,' cried Tom, throwing himself before her,
+'that you should suppose me capable of jesting on such a subject, at
+such a moment?'
+
+'I never saw anything but supercilious irony,' she answered, in the
+same dreamy, indifferent way, as if hardly aware what she was saying,
+and still moving on.
+
+'I cannot let you go thus.  You must hear me,' he cried, and he
+wheeled round an easy-chair, with a gesture of entreaty; which she
+obeyed, partly because she was hardly alive to understand his drift,
+partly because she could scarcely stand; and there she sat, in the
+same drowsy resignation with which she had listened to his former
+expostulation.
+
+Calm collected Tom was almost beside himself.  'Averil!  Averil!' he
+cried, as he sat down opposite and bent as close to her as possible,
+'if I could only make you listen or believe me!  What shall I say?
+It is only the honest truth that you are the dearest thing in the
+whole world to me!  The very things that have given you most offence
+arose from my struggles with my own feelings.  I tried to crush what
+would have its way in spite of me, and now you see its force.'  He
+saw greater life and comprehension in her eye as he spoke, but the
+look was not encouraging; and he continued: 'How can I make you
+understand!  Oh! if I had but more time!--but--but it was only the
+misery of those moments that showed me why it was that I was always
+irresistibly drawn to you, and yet made instinctive efforts to break
+the spell; and now you will not understand.'
+
+'I do understand,' said Averil, at length entirely roused, but
+chiefly by resentment.  'I understand how much a country surgeon's
+daughter is beneath an M. D.'s attention, and how needful it was to
+preserve the distance by marks of contempt.  As a convict's sister,
+the distance is so much widened, that it is well for both that we
+shall never meet again.'
+
+Therewith she had risen, and moved to the door.  'Nay, nay,' he
+cried; 'it is for that very reason that all my past absurdity is
+trampled on!  I should glory in a connection with such as Leonard!
+Yes, Averil,' as he fancied he saw her touched, 'you have never known
+me yet; but trust yourself and him to me, and you will give him a
+true brother, proud of his nobleness.  You shall see him constantly--
+you shall keep your sisters with you.  Only put yourself in my hands,
+and you shall know what devotion is.'
+
+He would have said more, but Averil recalled herself, and said: 'This
+is mere folly; you would be very sorry, were I to take you at your
+word.  It would be unworthy in me towards your father, towards Henry,
+towards you, for me to listen to you, even if I liked you, and that
+you have taken good care to prevent me from doing.'  And she opened
+the door, and made her way into the hall.
+
+'But, Averil!--Miss Ward!' he continued, pursuing her, 'if, as I
+swear I will, I track out the real offender, bring him to justice,
+proclaim Leonard's innocence?  Then--'
+
+She was half-way up the stairs.  He had no alternative but to take
+his hat and stride off in a tumult of dismay, first of all at the
+rejection, and next at his own betrayal of himself.  Had he guessed
+what it would come to, would he ever have trusted himself in that
+drawing-room?  This was the meaning of it all, was it?  He, the
+sensible man of the family, not only to be such an egregious ass, but
+to have made such a fool of himself!  For he was as furious at having
+committed himself to himself, as he was at his avowal to Averil--he,
+who had always been certain of loving so wisely and so well, choosing
+an example of the true feminine balance of excellence, well born, but
+not too grand for the May pretensions; soundly religious, but not
+philanthropically pious; of good sense and ability enough for his
+comfort, but not of overgrown genius for his discomfort; of good
+looks enough for satisfaction, but not for dangerous admiration; of
+useful, but not overwhelming wealth; of creditable and not
+troublesome kindred--that he should find himself plunged headlong
+into love by those brown eyes and straight features, by the musical
+genius, talents anything but domestic, ill-regulated enthusiasm, nay,
+dislike to himself, in the very girl whose station and family he
+contemned at the best, and at the very time when her brother was a
+convict, and her sisters dependent!  Was he crazed?  Was he
+transformed?  What frenzy had come over him to endear her the more
+for being the reverse of his ideal?  And, through all, his very heart
+was bursting at the thought of the wounds be had given her in his
+struggles against the net of fascination.  He had never imagined the
+extent of the provocation he gave; and in truth, his habitual manner
+was such, that it was hard to distinguish between irony and genuine
+interest.  And now it was too late!  What should he be henceforth to
+her?  What would Stoneborough and his future be to him?  He would, he
+believed, have taught himself to acquiesce, had he seen any chance of
+happiness before her; but the picture he drew of her prospects
+justified his misery, at being only able to goad her on, instead of
+drawing her back.  He was absolutely amazed at himself.  He had
+spoken only the literal truth, when he said that he had been
+unconscious of the true nature of the feelings that always drew him
+towards her, though only to assert his independence, and make
+experiments by teasing in his ironically courteous way.  Not until
+the desolate indifference of her tone had incited him to show her
+that Henry was not all that remained to her, had he arrived at the
+perception that, in the late weeks of anxiety, she had grown into his
+heart, and that it was of no use to argue the point with himself, or
+think what he would do, the fact was accomplished--his first love was
+a direct contradiction to his fixed opinions, he had offended her
+irrevocably and made a fool of himself, and she was going away to
+dreariness!
+
+At first he had rushed off into the melancholy meadows, among the
+sodden hay-cocks still standing among the green growth of grass; but
+a shower, increasing the damp forlornness of the ungenial day, made
+him turn homewards.  When, late in the afternoon, Ethel came into the
+schoolroom for some Cocksmoor stores, she found him leaning over his
+books on the table.  This was his usual place for study; and she did
+not at once perceive that the attitude was only assumed on her
+entrance, so kneeling in front of her cupboard, she asked, 'What
+success?'
+
+'I have not seen him.'
+
+'Oh! I thought I saw you going--'
+
+'Never mind!  I mean,' he added with some confusion, 'I wish for a
+little peace.  I have a horrid headache.'
+
+'You!' exclaimed Ethel; and turning round, she saw him leaning back
+in his chair, a defenceless animal without his spectacles, his eyes
+small and purpled ringed, his hair tossed about, his spruceness gone.
+'I am sure you are not well,' she said.
+
+'Quite well.  Nonsense, I only want quiet.'
+
+'Let me give you some of Aubrey's camphor liniment.'
+
+'Thank you,' submitting to a burning application to his brow; but as
+she lingered in anxiety, 'I really want nothing but quiet.'
+
+How like Norman he looks! thought Ethel, as she cast her last glance
+and departed.  Can he be going to be ill?  If he would only tell when
+anything is the matter!  I know papa says that some of us feel with
+our bodies, and some with our minds; but then I never knew Tom much
+affected any way, and what is all this to him?  And a sigh betrayed
+the suppressed heartache that underlaid all her sensations.  I am
+afraid it must be illness; but any way, he will neither tell nor bear
+to have it noticed, so I can only watch.
+
+Enter the two little Wards, with a message that Ave was sorry, but
+that she was too much tired to come that evening; and when Mary
+regretted not having been able to come and help her, Ella answered
+that 'Mr. Tom had come and helped her for a long time.'
+
+'Yes,' said Minna; 'but I think he must have done it all wrong, for,
+do you know, I found the list he had made torn up into little bits.
+
+Ethel almost visibly started, almost audibly exclaimed.  At tea-time
+Tom appeared, his trimness restored, but not his usual colouring; and
+Ella hailed him with reproaches for having gone away without telling
+her.  The soft attention of which the child had a monopoly did not
+fail, though he bent down, trying to keep her to himself, and prevent
+their colloquy from attracting notice; but they were so close behind
+Ethel's chair, that she could not help hearing: 'We were only gone to
+dig up the violets that you are to have, and if you had only stayed
+you would have seen Henry, for he came in by the little gate, and
+when I went to tell you, you were gone.'
+
+Ethel wondered whether the blushes she felt burning all over her face
+and neck would be remarked by those before her, or would reveal to
+Tom, behind her, that the child was giving her the key to his
+mystery.  Marvelling at the exemplary gentleness and patience of his
+replies to his little coquettish tormentor, she next set herself to
+relieve him by a summons to Ella to tea and cherries.  Fortunately
+the fruit suggested Dr. May's reminiscences of old raids on cherry
+orchards now a mere name, and he thus engrossed all the younger
+audience not entirely preoccupied.  He set himself to make the little
+guests forget all their sorrows, as if he could not help warming them
+for the last time in the magic of his own sunshine; but Ethel heard
+and saw little but one figure in the quietest corner of the room, a
+figure at which she scarcely dared to look.
+
+'And there you are!' so went her thoughts.  'It is true then!  Fairly
+caught!  Your lofty crest vailed at last--and at such a time!  0,
+Tom, generous and true-hearted, in spite of all your nonsense!  How
+could she help being touched?  In the net and against his will!  Oh,
+triumph of womanhood!  I am so glad!  No, I'm not, it is best this
+way, for what an awkward mess it would have been!  She is dear
+Leonard's sister, to be sure, and there is stuff in her, but papa
+does not take to her, and I don't know whether she would fit in with
+Tom himself!  But oh! the fun it would have been to see Flora's
+horror at finding her one prudent brother no better than the rest of
+us!  Dear old Tom!  The May heart has been too strong for the old
+Professor nature!  What a retribution for his high mightiness!  Harry
+and Richard to be guarded from making fools of themselves!  What a
+nice cloak for jealousy!  But it is no laughing matter!  How
+miserable, how thoroughly upset, he is!  Poor dear Tom!  If I could
+only go and kiss you, and tell you that I never loved you half so
+well; but you would rather die than let out one word, I know!  Why,
+any one of the others would have had it all out long ago!  And I
+don't know whether it is quite safe to screen the lamp from those
+aching eyes that are bearing it like a martyr!  There!  Well, maybe
+he will just stand the knowing that I know, provided I don't say a
+word; but I wish people would not be so "self-contained!"'
+
+Self-contained Tom still continued in the morning, though looking
+sallow and wan; but, in a political argument with his father, he was
+snappish and overbearing, and in the course of the day gave another
+indication of being thrown off his balance, which was even harder for
+Ethel to endure.
+
+Throughout the suspense on Leonard's account, Aubrey had been a
+source of anxiety to all, especially to Tom.  The boy's sensitive
+frame had been so much affected, that tender dealings with him were
+needful, and all compulsion had been avoided. His father had caused
+him to be put on the sick-list of the volunteers; and as for his
+studies, though the books were daily brought out, it was only to
+prevent the vacuum of idleness; and Tom had made it his business to
+nurse his brother's powers, avoid all strain on the attention, and
+occupy without exciting, bearing with his fitful moods of despondence
+or of hope, whether they took the form of talking or of dreaming.
+
+But now that all was over, every one knew that it was time to turn
+over a new leaf; and Tom, with his sore heart, did it with a
+vengeance, and on the first instance of carelessness, fell on the
+poor family pet, as a younger brother and legitimate souffre douleur,
+with vehemence proportioned to his own annoyance.  It was a fierce
+lecture upon general listlessness, want of manliness, spirit, and
+perseverance, indifference to duties he had assumed.  Nonsense about
+feelings--a fellow was not worth the snap of a finger who could not
+subdue his feelings--trash.
+
+The sisters heard the storm from the drawing-room, and Gertrude grew
+hotly indignant, and wanted Ethel to rush in to the rescue; but
+Ethel, though greatly moved, knew that female interposition only
+aggravated such matters, and restrained herself and her sister till
+she heard Tom stride off.  Then creeping in on tiptoe, she found the
+boy sitting stunned and confounded by the novelty of the thing.
+
+'What can it be all about, Ethel?  I never had such a slanging in my
+life?'
+
+'I don't think Tom is quite well.  He had a bad headache last night.'
+
+Then I hope--I mean, I think--he must have made it worse!  I know
+mine aches, as if I had been next door to the great bell;' and he
+leant against his sister.
+
+'I am afraid you really were inattentive.'
+
+'No worse than since the heart has gone out of everything.  But that
+was not all!  Ethel, can it really be a disgrace, and desertion, and
+all that, if I don't go on with those volunteers, when it makes me
+sick to think of touching my rifle?' and his eyes filled with tears.
+
+'It would be a great effort, I know,' said Ethel, smoothing his hair;
+'but after all, you volunteered not for pleasure, but because your
+country wanted defence.'
+
+'The country?  I don't care for it, since it condemned him, when he
+was serving it.'
+
+'He would not say that, Aubrey!  He would only be vexed to hear that
+you gave in, and were fickle to your undertaking.  Indeed, if I were
+the volunteer, I should think it due to him, not to shrink as if I
+were ashamed of what he was connected with.'
+
+Aubrey tried to answer her sweet high-spirited smile, but he had been
+greatly hurt and distressed, and the late reproach to his manhood
+embittered his tears without making it easier to repress them; and
+pushing away his chair, he darted up-stairs.
+
+'Poor dear fellow!  I've been very hard on him, and only blamed
+instead of comforting,' thought Ethel sadly, as she slowly entered
+the passage, 'what shall I think of, to make a break for both of
+those two?'
+
+'So you have been cockering your infant,' said Tom, meeting her.
+'You mean to keep him a baby all his life.'
+
+'Tom, I want to talk to you,' said she.
+
+In expectation of her displeasure, he met it half way, setting his
+back against the passage wall, and dogmatically declaring, 'You'll be
+the ruin of him if you go on in this way!  How is he ever to go
+through the world if you are to be always wiping his tears with an
+embroidered pocket-handkerchief, and cossetting him up like a blessed
+little sucking lamb?'
+
+'Of course he must rough it,' said Ethel, setting her back against
+the opposite wall; 'I only want him to be hardened; but after a shock
+like this, one cannot go on as if one was a stock or stake.  Even a
+machine would have its wheels out of order--'
+
+'Well, well, but it is time that should be over.'
+
+'So it is;' and as the sudden thought flashed on her, 'Tom, I want
+you to reconsider your journey, that you gave up in the spring, and
+take him--'
+
+'I don't want to go anywhere,' he wearily said.
+
+'Only it would be so good for him,' said Ethel earnestly; 'he really
+ought to see something taller than the Minster tower, and you are the
+only right person to take him, you are so kind to him.'
+
+'For instance?' he said, smiling.
+
+'Accidents will happen in the best regulated families; besides, he
+did want shaking up.  I dare say he will be the better for it.
+There's the dinner-bell.'
+
+To her surprise, she found his arm round her waist, and a kiss on her
+brow.  'I thought I should have caught it,' he said; 'you are not
+half a fool of a sister after all.'
+
+Aubrey was not in the dining-room; and after having carved, Tom, in
+some compunction, was going to look for him, when he made his
+appearance in his uniform.
+
+'Oho!' said the Doctor, surprised.
+
+'There's to be a grand parade with the Whitford division,' he
+answered; and no more was said.
+
+Not till the eight o'clock twilight of the dripping August evening
+did the family reassemble.  Ethel had been preparing for a journey
+that Mary and Gertrude were to make to Maplewood; and she did not
+come down till her father had returned, when following him into the
+drawing-room, she heard his exclamation, 'Winter again!'
+
+For the fire was burning, Tom was sitting crumpled over it, with his
+feet on the fender, and his elbows on his knees, and Aubrey in his
+father's arm-chair, his feet over the side, so fast asleep that
+neither entrance nor exclamation roused him; the room was pervaded
+with an odour of nutmeg and port wine, and a kettle, a decanter, and
+empty tumblers told tales.  Now the Doctor was a hardy and abstemious
+man, of a water-drinking generation; and his wife's influence had
+further tended to make him--indulgent as he was--scornful of whatever
+savoured of effeminacy or dissipation, so his look and tone were
+sharp, and disregardful of Aubrey's slumbers.
+
+'We got wet through,' said Tom; 'he was done up, had a shivering fit,
+and I tried to prevent mischief.'
+
+'Hm! said the Doctor, not mollified.  'Cold is always the excuse.
+But another time don't teach your brother to make this place like a
+fast man's rooms.'
+
+Ethel was amazed at Tom's bearing this so well.  With the slightest
+possible wrinkle of the skin of his forehead, he took up the decanter
+and carried it off to the cellaret.
+
+'How that boy sleeps!' said his father, looking at him.
+
+'He has had such bad nights!' said Ethel.  'Don't be hard on Tom, he
+is very good about such things, and would not have done it without
+need.  He is so careful of Aubrey!'
+
+'Too careful by half,' said the Doctor, smiling placably as his son
+returned.  'You are all in a league to spoil that youngster.  He
+would be better if you would not try your hand on his ailments, but
+would knock him about.'
+
+'I never do that without repenting it,' said Tom; then, after a
+pause, 'It is not spirit that is wanting, but you would have been
+frightened yourself at his state of exhaustion.'
+
+'Of collapse, don't you mean?' said the Doctor, with a little lurking
+smile.  'However, it is vexatious enough; he had been gaining ground
+all the year, and now he is regularly beaten down again.'
+
+'Suppose I was to take him for a run on the Continent?'
+
+'What, tired of the hospital?'
+
+'A run now and then is duty, not pleasure,' replied Tom, quietly;
+while Ethel burnt to avert from him these consequences of his
+peculiar preference for appearing selfish.
+
+'So much for railway days!  That will be a new doctrine at
+Stoneborough.  Well, where do you want to go?'
+
+'I don't want to go anywhere.'
+
+Ethel would not have wondered to see him more sullen than he looked
+at that moment.  It was lamentable that those two never could
+understand each other, and that either from Tom's childish faults,
+his resemblance to his grandfather, or his habitual reserve, Dr. May
+was never free from a certain suspicion of ulterior motives on his
+part.  She was relieved at the influx of the rest of the party,
+including Richard; and Aubrey wakening, was hailed with
+congratulations on the soundness of his sleep, whilst she looked at
+Tom with a meaning smile as she saw her father quietly feel the boy's
+hand and brow.  The whole family were always nursing the lad, and
+scolding one another for it.
+
+Tom had put himself beside Ethel, under the shade of her urn, and she
+perceived that he was ill at ease, probably uncertain whether any
+confidences had been bestowed on her or Mary from the other side.
+There was no hope that the topic would be avoided, for Richard began
+with inquiries for Averil.
+
+'She is working herself to death,' said Mary, sadly; 'but she says it
+suits her.'
+
+'And it does,' said the Doctor; 'she is stronger every day.  There is
+nothing really the matter with her.'
+
+'Contrary blasts keep a ship upright,' said Gertrude, 'and she has
+them in abundance.  We found her in the midst of six people, all
+giving diametrically opposite advice.'
+
+'Dr. Spencer was really helping, and Mr. Wright was there about his
+own affairs,' said Ethel, in a tone of repression.
+
+'And Mrs. Ledwich wanted her to settle on the Ohio to assist the
+runaway slaves,' continued Gertrude.
+
+'It does not tease her as if she heard it,' said Mary.
+
+'No,' said the Doctor, 'she moves about like one in a dream, and has
+no instinct but to obey her brother.'
+
+'Well, I am glad to be going,' said Daisy; 'it will be flat when all
+the excitement is over, and we have not the fun of seeing Tom getting
+rises out of Ave Ward.'
+
+This time Tom could not repress a sudden jerk, and Ethel silenced her
+sister by a hint that such references were not nice when people were
+in trouble.
+
+'By the bye,' said Aubrey, 'speaking of going away, what were you
+saying while I was asleep? or was it a dream that I was looking
+through Tom's microscope at a rifle bullet in the Tyrol?'
+
+'An inspiration from Tom's brew,' said the Doctor.
+
+'Weren't you saying anything?' said Aubrey, eagerly.  'I'm sure there
+was something about duty and pleasure.  Were you really talking of
+it?'
+
+'Tom was, and if it is to put some substance into those long useless
+legs, I don't care if you do start off.'
+
+Aubrey flashed into a fresh being.  He had just been reading a book
+about the Tyrol, and Tom not caring at all where they were to go,
+this gave the direction.  Aubrey rushed to borrow a continental
+Bradshaw from Dr. Spencer, and the plan rapidly took form; with eager
+suggestions thrown in by every one, ending with the determination to
+start on the next Monday morning.
+
+'That's settled,' said Tom, wearily, when he and Ethel, as often
+happened, had lingered behind the rest; 'only, Ethel, there's one
+thing.  You must keep your eye on the Vintry Mill, and fire off a
+letter to me if the fellow shows any disposition to bolt.'
+
+'If I can possibly find out--'
+
+'Keep your eyes open; and then Hazlitt has promised to let me know if
+that cheque of Bilson's is cashed.  If I am away, telegraph, and
+meantime set my father on the scent.  It may not hang that dog
+himself, but it may save Leonard.'
+
+'Oh, if it would come!'
+
+'And meantime--silence, you know--'
+
+'Very well;' then lingering, 'Tom, I am sure you did the right thing
+by Aubrey, and so was papa afterwards.'
+
+His brow darkened for a moment, but shaking it off he said, 'I'll do
+my best for your cosset lamb, and bring him back in condition.'
+
+'Thank you; I had rather trust him with you than any one.'
+
+'And how is it that no one proposes a lark for you, old Ethel?' said
+Tom, holding her so as to study her face.  'You look awfully elderly
+and ragged.'
+
+'Oh, I'm going to be left alone with the Doctor, and that will be the
+greatest holiday I ever had.'
+
+'I suppose it is to you,' said Tom, with a deep heavy sigh, perhaps
+glad to have some ostensible cause for sighing.
+
+'Dear Tom, when you are living here, and working with him--'
+
+'Ah--h!' he said almost with disgust, 'don't talk of slavery to me
+before my time.  How I hate it, and everything else!  Good night!'
+
+'Poor Tom!' thought Ethel.  'I wish papa knew him better and would
+not goad him.  Will Averil ever wake to see what she has done, and
+feel for him?  Though I don't know why I should wish two people to be
+unhappy instead of one, and there is weight enough already.  0,
+Leonard, I wonder if your one bitter affliction will shield you from
+the others that may be as trying, and more tempting!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+
+All bright hopes and hues of day
+Have faded into twilight gray.--Christian Year
+
+
+'No fear of Aubrey's failing,' said Tom; 'he has a better foundation
+than nine-tenths of the lads that go up, and he is working like a
+man.'
+
+'He always did work heartily,' said Ethel, 'and with pleasure in his
+work.'
+
+'Ay, like a woman.'
+
+'Like a scholar.'
+
+'A scholar is a kind of woman.  A man, when he's a boy, only works
+because he can't help it, and afterwards for what he can get by it.'
+
+'For what he can do with it would have a worthier sound.'
+
+'Sound or sense, it is all the same.'
+
+'Scaffolding granted, what is the building?'
+
+Tom apparently thought it would be working like a woman to give
+himself the trouble of answering; and Ethel went on in her own mind,
+'For the work's own sake--for what can be got by it--for what can be
+done with it--because it can't be helped--are--these all the springs
+of labour here?  Then how is work done in that solitary cell?  Is it
+because it can't be helped, or is it 'as the Lord's freeman'?  And
+when he can hear of Aubrey's change, will he take it as out of his
+love, or grieve for having been the cause?'
+
+For the change had been working in Aubrey ever since Leonard had
+altered his career.  The boy was at a sentimental age, and had the
+susceptibility inseparable from home breeding; his desire to become a
+clergyman had been closely connected with the bright visions of the
+happy days at Coombe, and had begun to wane with the first thwarting
+of Leonard's plans; and when the terrible catastrophe of the one
+friend's life occurred, the other became alienated from all that they
+had hoped to share together.  Nor could even Dr. May's household be
+so wholly exempt from the spirit of the age, that Aubrey was not
+aware of the strivings and trials of faith at the University.  He saw
+what Harvey Anderson was, and knew what was passing in the world; and
+while free from all doubts, shrank boyishly from the investigations
+that he fancied might excite them.  Or perhaps these fears of
+possible scruples were merely his self-justification for gratifying
+his reluctance.
+
+At any rate, he came home from his two months' tour, brown, robust,
+with revived spirits, but bent on standing an examination for the
+academy at Woolwich.  He had written about it several times before
+his return, and his letters were, as his father said, 'so appallingly
+sensible that perhaps he would change his mind.'  But it was not
+changed when he came home; and Ethel, though sorely disappointed, was
+convinced by her own sense as well as by Richard's prudence, that
+interference was dangerous.  No one in Israel was to go forth to the
+wars of the Lord save those who 'willingly offered themselves;' and
+though grieved that her own young knight should be one of the many
+champions unwilling to come forth in the Church's cause, she
+remembered the ordeal to Norman's faith, and felt that the exertion
+of her influence was too great a responsibility.
+
+'You don't like this,' said Tom, after a pause.  'It is not my doing,
+you know.'
+
+'No, I did not suppose it was,' said Ethel.  'You would not withhold
+any one in these days of exceeding want of able clergymen.'
+
+'I told him it would be a grief at home,' added Tom, 'but when a lad
+gets into that desperate mood, he always may be a worse grief if you
+thwart him; and I give you credit, Ethel, you have not pulled the
+curb.'
+
+'Richard told me not.'
+
+'Richard represents the common sense of the family when I am not at
+home.'
+
+Tom was going the next day to his course of study at the London
+hospitals, and this--the late afternoon--was the first time that he
+and his sister had been alone together.  He had been for some little
+time having these short jerks of conversation, beginning and breaking
+off rather absently.  At last he said, 'Do those people ever write?'
+
+'Prisoners, do you mean?  Not for three months.'
+
+'No--exiles.'
+
+'Mary has heard twice.'
+
+He held out Mary's little leathern writing-case to her.
+
+'O, Tom!'
+
+'It is only Mary.'
+
+Ethel accepted the plea, aware that there could be no treason between
+herself and Mary, and moreover that the letters had been read by all
+the family.  She turned the key, looked them out, and standing by the
+window to catch the light, began to read--
+
+'You need not be afraid, kind Mary,' wrote Averil, on the first days
+of her voyage; 'I am quite well, as well as a thing can be whose
+heart is dried up.  I am hardened past all feeling, and seem to be
+made of India-rubber.  Even my colour has returned--how I hate to see
+it, and to hear people say my roses will surprise the delicate
+Americans.  Fancy, in a shop in London I met an old school-fellow,
+who was delighted to see me, talked like old times, and insisted on
+knowing where we were staying.  I used to be very fond of her, but it
+was as if I had been dead and was afraid she would find out I was a
+ghost, yet I talked quite indifferently, and never faltered in my
+excuses.  When we embarked, it was no use to know it was the last of
+England, where _he_ and you and home and life were left.  How I
+envied the poor girl, who was crying as if her heart would break!'
+
+On those very words, broke the announcement of Mr. Cheviot.  Tom
+coolly held out his hand for the letters, so much as a matter of
+course, that Ethel complied with his gesture, and he composedly
+pocketed them, while she felt desperately guilty.  Mary's own
+entrance would have excited no compunction, Ethel would have said
+that Tom wanted to hear of the voyage; but in the present case, she
+could only blush, conscious that the guest recognized her sister's
+property, and was wondering what business she had with it, and she
+was unwilling to explain, not only on Tom's account, but because she
+knew that Mr. Cheviot greatly disapproved of petitioning against the
+remission of capital sentences, and thought her father under a
+delusion.
+
+After Tom's departure the next day, she found the letters in her
+work-basket, and restored them to Mary, laughing over Mr. Cheviot's
+evident resentment at the detection of her doings.
+
+'I think it looked rather funny,' said Mary.
+
+'I beg your pardon,' said Ethel, much astonished; 'but I thought, as
+every one else had seen them--'
+
+'Tom always laughed at poor Ave.'
+
+'He is very different now; but indeed, Mary, I am sorry, since you
+did not like it.'
+
+'Oh!' cried Mary, discomfited by Ethel's apology, 'indeed I did not
+mean that, I wish I had not said anything.  You know you are welcome
+to do what you please with all I have.  Only,' she recurred, 'you
+can't wonder that Mr. Cheviot thought it funny.'
+
+'If he had any call to think at all,' said Ethel, who was one of
+those who thought that Charles Cheviot had put a liberal
+interpretation on Dr. May's welcome to Stoneborough.  He had arrived
+after the summer holidays as second master of the school, and at
+Christmas was to succeed Dr. Hoxton, who had been absolutely
+frightened from his chair by the commissions of inquiry that had
+beset the Whichcote foundation; and in compensation was at present
+perched on the highest niche sacred to conservative martyrdom in Dr.
+May's loyal heart.
+
+Charles Cheviot was a very superior man, who had great influence with
+young boys, and was admirably fitted to bring about the much required
+reformation in the school.  He came frequently to discuss his
+intentions with Dr. May, and his conversation was well worth being
+listened to; but even the Doctor found three evenings in a week a
+large allowance for good sense and good behaviour--the evenings
+treated as inviolable even by old friends like Dr. Spencer and Mr.
+Wilmot, the fast waning evenings of Aubrey's home life.
+
+The rest were reduced to silence, chess, books, and mischief, except
+when a treat of facetious small talk was got up for their benefit.
+Any attempt of the ladies to join in the conversation was replied to
+with a condescending levity that reduced Ethel to her girlhood's
+awkward sense of forwardness and presumption; Mary was less
+disconcerted, because her remarks were never so aspiring, and Harry's
+wristbands sufficed her; but the never-daunted Daisy rebelled openly,
+related the day's events to her papa, fearless of any presence, and
+when she had grown tired of the guest's regular formula of expecting
+to meet Richard, she told him that the adult school always kept
+Richard away in the winter evenings; 'But if you want to see him, he
+is always to be found at Cocksmoor, and he would be very glad of
+help.'
+
+'Did he express any such wish?' said Mr. Cheviot, looking rather
+puzzled.
+
+'Oh dear, no; only I thought you had so much time on your hands.'
+
+'Oh no--oh no!' exclaimed Mary, in great confusion, 'Gertrude did not
+mean--I am sure I don't know what she was thinking of.'
+
+And at the first opportunity, Mary, for once in her life,
+administered to Gertrude a richly-deserved reproof for sauciness and
+contempt of improving conversation; but the consequence was a fancy
+of the idle younglings to make Mary accountable for the 'infesting of
+their evenings,' and as she was always ready to afford sport to the
+household, they thus obtained a happy outlet for their drollery and
+discontent, and the imputation was the more comical from his apparent
+indifference and her serene composure; until one evening when, as the
+bell rung, and mutterings passed between Aubrey and Gertrude, of 'Day
+set,' and 'Cheviot's mountains lone,' the head of the family, for the
+first time, showed cognizance of the joke, and wearily taking down
+his slippered feet from their repose, said, 'Lone! yes, there's the
+rub!  I shall have to fix days of reception if Mary will insist on
+being so attractive.'
+
+Mary, with an instinct that she was blamed, began to be very sorry,
+but broke off amid peals of merriment, and blushes that were less
+easily extinguished; and which caused Ethel to tell each of the young
+ones privately, that their sport was becoming boy and frog work, and
+she would have no more of it.  The Daisy was inclined to be restive;
+but Ethel told her that many people thought this kind of fun could
+never be safe or delicate.  'I have always said that it might be
+quite harmless, if people knew where to stop--now show me that I am
+right.'
+
+And to Aubrey she put the question, whether he would like to
+encourage Daisy in being a nineteenth-century young lady without
+reticence?
+
+However, as Mary heard no more of their mischievous wit, Ethel was
+quite willing to let them impute to herself a delusion that the
+schoolmaster was smitten with Mary, and to laugh with them in private
+over all the ridiculous things they chose to say.
+
+At last Flora insisted on Ethel's coming with her to make a distant
+call, and, as soon as they were in the carriage, said, 'It was not
+only for the sake of Mrs. Copeland, though it is highly necessary you
+should go, but it is the only way of ever speaking to you, and I want
+to know what all this is about Mary?'
+
+'The children have not been talking their nonsense to you!'
+
+'No one ever talks nonsense to me--intentionally, I mean--not even
+you, Ethel; I wish you did.  But I hear it is all over the town.
+George has been congratulated, and so have I, and one does not like
+contradicting only to eat it up again.'
+
+'You always did hear everything before it was true, Flora.'
+
+'Then is it going to be true?'
+
+'O, Flora, can it be possible?' said Ethel, with a startled,
+astonished look.
+
+'Possible!  Highly obvious and proper, as it seems to me.  The only
+doubt in my mind was whether it were not too obvious to happen.'
+
+'He is always coming in,' said Ethel, 'but I never thought it was
+really for that mischief!  The children only laugh about it as the
+most preposterous thing they can think of, for he never speaks to a
+woman if he can help it.'
+
+'That may not prevent him from wanting a good wife.'
+
+'Wanting a wife--ay, as he would want a housekeeper, just because he
+has got to the proper position for it; but is he to go and get our
+bonny Mary in that way, just for an appendage to the mastership?'
+
+'Well done, old Ethel!  I'm glad to see you so like yourself.  I
+remember when we thought Mrs. Hoxton's position very sublime.'
+
+'I never thought of positions!'
+
+'Never!  I know that very well; and I am not thinking of it now,
+except as an adjunct to a very worthy man, whom Mary will admire to
+the depths of her honest heart, and who will make her very happy.'
+
+'Yes, I suppose if she once begins to like him, that he will,' said
+Ethel, slowly; 'but I can't bring myself to swallow it yet.  She has
+never given in to his being a bore, but I thought that was her
+universal benevolence; and he says less to her than to any one.'
+
+'Depend upon it, he thinks he is proceeding selon les regles.'
+
+'Then he ought to be flogged!  Has he any business to think of my
+Mary, without falling red-hot in love with her?  Why, Hector was
+regularly crazy that last half-year; and dear old Polly is worth ever
+so much more than Blanche.'
+
+'I must say you have fulfilled my desire of hearing you talk
+nonsense, Ethel.  Mary would never think of those transports.'
+
+'She deserves them all the more.'
+
+'Well, she is the party most concerned, though she will be a cruel
+loss to all of us.'
+
+'She will not go far, if--'
+
+'Yes, but she will be the worse loss.  You simple Ethel, you don't
+think that Charles Cheviot will let her be the dear family fag we
+have always made of her?'
+
+'Oh no--that always was wrong.'
+
+'And living close by, she will not come on a visit, all festal, to
+resume home habits.  No, you must make up your mind, Ethel--_if,_ as
+you say, _if_--he will be a man for monopolies, and he will resent
+anything that he thinks management from you.  I suspect it is a real
+sign of the love that you deny, that he has ventured on the sister of
+a clever woman, living close by, and a good deal looked up to.'
+
+'Flora, Flora, you should not make one wicked.  If she is to be
+happy, why can't you let me rejoice freely, and only have her drawn
+off from me bit by bit, in the right way of nature?'
+
+'I did not tell you to make you dislike it--of course not.  Only I
+thought that a little tact, a little dexterity, might prevent Charles
+Cheviot from being so much afraid of you, as if he saw at once how
+really the head of the family you are.'
+
+'Nonsense, Flora, I am no such thing.  If I am domineering, the
+sooner any one sees it and takes me down the better.  If this does
+come, I will try to behave as I ought, and not to mind so Mary is
+happy; but I can't act, except just as the moment leads me.  I hope
+it will soon be over, now you have made me begin to believe in it.
+I am afraid it will spoil Harry's pleasure at home!  Poor dear Harry,
+what will he do?'
+
+'When does he come?'
+
+'Any day now; he could not quite tell when he could get away.
+
+When they came back, and Dr. May ran out to say, 'Can you come in.
+Flora? we want you,' the sisters doubted whether his excitement were
+due to the crisis, or to the arrival.  He hurried them into the
+study, and shut the door, exulting and perplexed.  'You girls leave
+one no rest,' he said.  'Here I have had this young Cheviot telling
+me that the object of his attentions has been apparent.  I'm sure I
+did not know if it were Mab or one of you.  I thought he avoided all
+alike; and poor Mary was so taken by surprise that she will do
+nothing but cry, and say, "No, never;" and when I tell her she shall
+do as she pleases, she cries the more; or if I ask her if I am to say
+Yes, she goes into ecstasies of crying!  I wish one of you would go
+up, and see if you can do anything with her.'
+
+'Is he about the house?' asked Flora, preparing to obey.
+
+'No--I was obliged to tell him that she must have time, and he is
+gone home.  I am glad he should have a little suspense--he seemed to
+make so certain of her.  Did he think he was making love all the time
+he was boring me with his gas in the dormitories?  I hope she will
+serve him out!'
+
+'He will not be the worse for not being a lady's man,' said Flora, at
+the door.
+
+But in ten minutes, Flora returned with the same report of nothing
+but tears; and she was obliged to leave the party to their
+perplexity, and drive home; while Ethel went in her turn to use all
+manner of pleas to her sister to cheer up, know her own mind, and be
+sure that they only wished to guess what would make her happiest.  To
+console or to scold were equally unsuccessful, and after attempting
+all varieties of treatment, bracing or tender, Ethel found that the
+only approach to calm was produced by the promise that she should be
+teased no more that evening, but be left quite alone to recover, and
+cool her burning eyes and aching head.  So, lighting her fire,
+shaking up a much-neglected easy-chair, bathing her eves, desiring
+her not to come down to tea, and engaging both that Gertrude should
+not behold her, and that papa would not be angry, provided that she
+tried to know what she really wished, and be wiser on the morrow,
+Ethel left her.  The present concern was absolutely more to persuade
+her to give an answer of some sort, than what that answer should be.
+Ethel would not wish; Dr. May had very little doubt; and Gertrude,
+from whom there was no concealing the state of affairs, observed, 'If
+she cries so much the first time she has to know her own mind, it
+shows she can't do without some one to do it for her.'
+
+The evening passed in expeditions of Ethel's to look after her
+patient, and in desultory talk on all that was probable and
+improbable between Dr. May and the younger ones, until just as Ethel
+was coming down at nine o'clock with the report that she had
+persuaded Mary to go to bed, she was startled by the street door
+being opened as far as the chain would allow, and a voice calling,
+'I say, is any one there to let me in?'
+
+'Harry!  0, Harry! I'm coming;' and she had scarcely had time to shut
+the door previous to taking down the chain, before the three others
+were in the hall, the tumult of greetings breaking forth.
+
+'But where's Polly?' he asked, as soon as he was free to look round
+them all.
+
+'Going to bed with a bad headache,' was the answer, with which Daisy
+had sense enough not to interfere; and the sailor had been brought
+into the drawing-room, examined on his journey, and offered supper,
+before he returned to the charge.
+
+'Nothing really the matter with Mary, I hope?'
+
+'Oh! no--nothing.'
+
+'Can't I go up and see her?'
+
+'Not just at present,' said Ethel.  'I will see how she is when she
+is in bed, but if she is going to sleep, we had better not disturb
+her.'
+
+'Harry thinks she must sleep better for the sight of him,' said the
+Doctor; 'but it is a melancholy business. --Harry, your nose is out
+of joint.'
+
+'Who is it?' said Harry, gravely.
+
+'Ah! you have chosen a bad time to come home.  We shall know no
+comfort till it is over.'
+
+'Who?' cried Harry; 'no nonsense, Gertrude, I can't stand guessing.'
+
+This was directed to Gertrude, who was only offending by pursed lips
+and twinkling eyes, because he could not fall foul of his father.
+Dr. May took pity, and answered at once.
+
+'Cheviot!' cried Harry.  'Excellent!  He always did know how to get
+the best of everything.  Polly turning into a Mrs. Hoxton.  Ha! ha!
+Well, that is a relief to my mind.'
+
+'You did look rather dismayed, certainly.  What were you afraid of?'
+
+'Why, when that poor young Leonard Ward's business was in the papers,
+a messmate of mine was asked if we were not all very much interested,
+because of some attachment between some of us.  I thought he must
+mean me or Tom, for I was tremendously smitten with that sweet pretty
+girl, and I used to be awfully jealous of Tom, but when I heard of
+Mary going to bed with a headache, and that style of thing, I began
+to doubt, and I couldn't stand her taking up with such a dirty little
+nigger as Henry Ward was at school.'
+
+'I think you might have known Mary better!' exclaimed Gertrude.
+
+'And it's not Tom either?' he asked.
+
+'Exactly the reverse,' laughed his father.
+
+'Well, Tom is a sly fellow, and he had a knack of turning up whenever
+one wanted to do a civil thing by that poor girl.  Where is she now?'
+
+'At New York.'
+
+'They'd better take care how they send me to watch the Yankees,
+then.'
+
+'Your passion does not alarm me greatly,' laughed the Doctor.  'I
+don't think it ever equalled that for the reigning ship.  I hope
+there's a vacancy in that department for the present, and that we may
+have you at home a little.'
+
+'Indeed, sir, I'm afraid not,' said Harry.  'I saw Captain Gordon at
+Portsmouth this morning, and he tells me he is to go out in the Clio
+to the Pacific station, and would apply for me as his first
+lieutenant, if I liked to look up the islands again.  So, if you have
+any commissions for Norman, I'm your man.
+
+'And how soon?'
+
+'Uncertain--but Cheviot and Mary must settle their affairs in good
+time; I've missed all the weddings in the family hitherto, and won't
+be balked of Polly's.  I say, Ethel, you can't mean me not to go and
+wish her joy.'
+
+'We are by no means come to joy yet,' said Ethel; 'poor Mary is
+overset by the suddenness of the thing.'
+
+'Why, I thought it was all fixed.'
+
+'Nothing less so,' said the Doctor.  'One would think it was a naiad
+that had had an offer from the mountains next, for she has been
+shedding a perfect river of tears ever since; and all that the united
+discernment of the family has yet gathered is, that she cries rather
+more when we tell her she is right to say No than when we tell her
+she is right to say Yes.'
+
+'I declare, Ethel, you must let me go up to her.'
+
+'But, Harry, I promised she should hear no more about it to-night.
+You must say nothing unless she begins.'
+
+And thinking a quiet night's rest, free from further excitement, the
+best chance of a rational day, Ethel was glad that her mission
+resulted in the report, 'Far too nearly asleep to be disturbed;' but
+on the way up to bed, soft as Harry's foot-falls always were, a voice
+came down the stairs, 'That's Harry!  Oh, come!' and with a face of
+triumph turned back to meet Ethel's glance of discomfited warning, he
+bounded up, to be met by Mary in her dressing-gown.  '0, Harry, why
+didn't you come?' as she threw her arms round his neck.
+
+'They wouldn't let me.'
+
+'I did think I heard you; but when no one came I thought it was only
+Richard, till I heard the dear old step, and then I knew.  0, Harry!'
+and still she gasped, with her head on his shoulder.
+
+'They said you must be quiet.'
+
+'0 Harry! did you hear?'
+
+'Yes, indeed,' holding her closer, 'and heartily glad I am; I know
+him as well as if I had sailed with him, and I could not wish you in
+better hands.'
+
+'But--0, Harry dear--' and there was a struggle with a sob between
+each word, 'indeed--I won't--mind if you had rather not.'
+
+'Do you mean that you don't like him?'
+
+'I should see him, you know, and perhaps he would not mind--he could
+always come and talk to papa in the evenings.'
+
+'And is that what you want to put a poor man off with, Mary?'
+
+'Only--only--if you don't want me to--'
+
+'I not want you to--?  Why, Mary, isn't it the very best thing I
+could want for you?  What are you thinking about?'
+
+'Don't you remember, when you came home after your wound, you said I-
+-I mustn't--' and she fell into such a paroxysm of crying that he had
+quite to hold her up in his arms, and though his voice was merry,
+there was a moisture on his eyelashes.  'Oh, you Polly!  You're a
+caution against deluding the infant mind!  Was that all?  Was that
+what made you distract them all?  Why not have said so?'
+
+'Oh, never!  They would have said you were foolish.'
+
+'As I was for not knowing that you wouldn't understand that I only
+meant you were to wait till the right one turned up.  Why, if I had
+been at Auckland, would you have cried till I came home?'
+
+'Oh, I'm sorry I was silly!  But I'm glad you didn't mean it, dear
+Harry!' squeezing him convulsively.
+
+'There!  And now you'll sleep sound, and meet them as fresh as a fair
+wind to-morrow.  Eh?'
+
+'Only please tell papa I'm sorry I worried him.'
+
+'And how about somebody else, Mary, whom you've kept on tenter-hooks
+ever so long?  Are you sure he is not walking up and down under the
+limes on the brink of despair?'
+
+'Oh, do you think--? But he would not be so foolish!'
+
+'There now, go to sleep.  I'll settle it all for you, and I shan't
+let any one say you are a goose but myself.  Only sleep, and get
+those horrid red spots away from under your eyes, or perhaps he'll
+repent his bargain, said Harry, kissing each red spot.  'Promise
+you'll go to bed the instant I'm gone.'
+
+'Well,' said Dr. May, looking out of his room, 'I augur that the
+spirit of the flood has something to say to the spirit of the fell.'
+
+'I should think so!  Genuine article--no mistake.'
+
+'Then what was all this about?'
+
+'All my fault.  Some rhodomontade of mine about not letting her marry
+had cast anchor in her dear little ridiculous heart, and it is well I
+turned up before she had quite dissolved herself away.'
+
+'Is that really all?'
+
+'The sum total of the whole, as sure as--' said Harry, pausing for an
+asseveration, and ending with 'as sure as your name is Dick May;'
+whereat they both fell a-laughing, though they were hardly drops of
+laughter that Harry brushed from the weather-marked pucker in the
+comer of his eyes; and Dr. May gave a sigh of relief, and said,
+'Well, that's right!'
+
+'Where's the latch-key?  I must run down and put Cheviot out of his
+misery.'
+
+'It is eleven o'clock, he'll be gone to bed.'
+
+'Then I would forbid the banns.  Where does he hang out?  Has he got
+into old Hoxton's?'
+
+'No, it is being revivified.  He is at Davis's lodgings.  But I
+advise you not, a little suspense will do him good.'
+
+'One would think you had never been in love,' said Harry,
+indignantly.  'At least, I can't sleep till I've shaken hands with
+the old fellow.  Good night, father.  I'll not be long.'
+
+He kept his word, and the same voice greeted him out of the dressing-
+room: 'How was the spirit of the fell?  Sleep'st thou, brother?'
+
+'Brother, nay,' answered Harry, 'he was only looking over Latin
+verses!  He always was a cool hand.'
+
+'The spirit of the Fell--Dr. Fell, with a vengeance,' said Dr. May.
+'I say, Harry, is this going to be a mere business transaction on his
+part?  Young folks have not a bit of romance in these days, and one
+does not know where to have them; but if I thought--'
+
+'You may be sure of him, sir,' said Harry, speaking the more eagerly
+because he suspected the impression his own manner had made; 'he is
+thoroughly worthy, and feels Mary's merits pretty nearly as much as I
+do.  More, perhaps, I ought to say.  There's more warmth in him than
+shows.  I don't know that Norman ever could have gone through that
+terrible time after the accident, but for the care he took of him.
+And that little brother of his that sailed with me in the Eurydice,
+and died at Singapore--I know how he looked to his brother Charles,
+and I do assure you, father, you could not put the dear Mary into
+safer, sounder hands, or where she could be more prized or happier.
+He is coming up to-morrow morning, and you'll see he is in earnest in
+spite of all his set speeches.  Good night, father; I am glad to be
+in time for the last of my Polly.'
+
+This was almost the only moment at which Harry betrayed a
+consciousness that his Polly was less completely his own.  And yet it
+seemed as if it must have been borne in on him again and again, for
+Mary awoke the next morning as thoroughly, foolishly, deeply in love
+as woman could be, and went about comporting herself in the most
+comically commonplace style, forgetting and neglecting everything,
+not hearing nor seeing, making absurd mistakes, restless whenever Mr.
+Cheviot was not present, and then perfectly content if he came to sit
+by her, as he always did; for his courtship--now it had fairly begun-
+-was equally exclusive and determined.  Every day they walked or rode
+together, almost every evening he came and sat by her, and on each
+holiday they engrossed the drawing-room, Mary looking prettier than
+she had ever been seen before; Aubrey and Gertrude both bored and
+critical; Harry treating the whole as a pantomime got up for his
+special delectation, and never betokening any sense that Mary was
+neglecting him.  It was the greatest help to Ethel in keeping up the
+like spirit, under the same innocent unconscious neglect from the
+hitherto devoted Mary, who was only helpful in an occasional revival
+of mechanical instinct in lucid intervals, and then could not be
+depended on.  To laugh good-naturedly and not bitterly, to think the
+love-making pretty and not foolish, to repress Gertrude's saucy
+scorn, instead of encouraging it, would have been far harder without
+the bright face of the brother who generously surrendered instead of
+repining.
+
+She never told herself that there was no proportion between the
+trials, not only because her spirits still suffered from the ever-
+present load of pity at her heart, nor because the loss would be
+hourly to her, but also because Charles Cheviot drew Harry towards
+him, but kept her at a distance, or more truly laughed her down.  She
+was used to be laughed at; her ways had always been a matter of
+amusement to her brothers, and perhaps it was the natural assumption
+of brotherhood to reply to any suggestion or remark of hers with
+something intended for drollery, and followed with a laugh, which,
+instead of as usual stirring her up to good-humoured repartee,
+suppressed her, and made her feel foolish and awkward.  As to Flora's
+advice, to behave with tact, she could not if she would, she would
+not if she could; in principle she tried to acquiesce in a man's
+desire to show that he meant to have his wife to himself, and in
+practice she accepted his extinguisher because she could not help it.
+
+Mr. Cheviot was uneasy about the chances of Aubrey's success in the
+examination at Woolwich, and offered assistance in the final
+preparation; but though Aubrey willingly accepted the proposal, two
+or three violent headaches from over-study and anxiety made Dr. May
+insist on his old regimen of entire holiday and absence of work for
+the last week; to secure which repose, Aubrey was sent to London with
+Harry for a week's idleness and the society of Tom, who professed to
+be too busy to come home even for Christmas.  Mr. Cheviot's opinion
+transpired through Mary, that it was throwing away Aubrey's only
+chance.
+
+In due time came the tidings that Aubrey had the second largest
+number of marks, and had been highly commended for the thoroughness
+of his knowledge, so different from what had been only crammed for
+the occasion.  He had been asked who had been his tutor, and had
+answered, 'His brother,' fully meaning to spare Ethel publicity; and
+she was genuinely thankful for having been shielded under Tom's six
+months of teaching.  She heartily wished the same shield would have
+availed at home, when Charles Cheviot gave that horrible laugh, and
+asked her if she meant to stand for a professor's chair.  She
+faltered something about Tom and mathematics.  'Ay, ay,' said
+Charles; 'and these military examinations are in nothing but foreign
+languages and trash;' and again he laughed his laugh, and Mary
+followed his example.  Ethel would fain have seen the fun.
+
+'Eh, Cheviot, what two of a trade never agree?' asked Dr. May, in
+high glory and glee.
+
+'Not my trade, papa,' said Ethel, restored by his face and voice,
+'only the peculiarity of examiners, so long ago remarked by Norman,
+of only setting questions that one can answer.'
+
+'Not your trade, but your amateur work!' said Mr. Cheviot, again
+exploding, and leaving Ethel to feel demolished.  Why, she wondered
+presently, had she not held up her knitting, and merrily owned it for
+her trade--why, but because those laughs took away all merriment, all
+presence of mind, all but the endeavour not to be as cross as she
+felt.  Was this systematic, or was it only bad taste?
+
+The wedding was fixed for Whitsuntide; the repairs and drainage
+necessitating early and long holidays; and the arrangements gave full
+occupation.  Mary was the first daughter who had needed a portion,
+since Mr. Cheviot was one of a large family, and had little of his
+own.  Dr. May had inherited a fair private competence, chiefly in
+land in and about the town, and his professional gains, under his
+wife's prudent management, had been for the most part invested in the
+like property.  The chief of his accumulation of ready money had been
+made over to establish Richard at Cocksmoor; and though living in an
+inexpensive style, such as that none of the family knew what it was
+to find means lacking for aught that was right or reasonable, there
+was no large amount of capital available.  The May custom had always
+been that the physician should inherit the landed estate; and though
+this was disproportionately increased by the Doctor's own
+acquisitions, yet the hold it gave over the town was so important,
+that he was unwilling it should be broken up at his death, and wished
+to provide for his other children by charges on the rents, instead of
+by sale and division.  All this he caused Richard to write to Tom,
+for though there was no absolute need of the young man's concurrence
+in arranging Mary's settlements, it was a good opportunity for
+distinctly stating his prospects, and a compliment to consult him.
+
+Feeling that Tom had thus been handsomely dealt with, his letter to
+his father was the greater shock, when, after saying that he doubted
+whether he could come home for the wedding, he expressed gratitude
+for the opening held out to him, but begged that precedents
+applicable to very different circumstances might not be regarded as
+binding.  He was distressed at supplanting Richard, and would greatly
+prefer the property taking its natural course.  It would be so many
+years, he trusted, before there would be room for his services, even
+as an assistant, at Stoneborough, that he thought it would be far
+more advisable to seek some other field; and his own desire would be
+at once to receive a younger son's share, if it were but a few
+hundreds, and be free to cut out his own line.
+
+'What is he driving at, Ethel?' asked the Doctor, much vexed.  'I
+offer him what any lad should jump at; and he only says, "Give me the
+portion of goods that falleth to me."  What does that mean?'
+
+'Not prodigality,' said Ethel.  'Remember what Sir Matthew Fleet said
+to Dr. Spencer--"Dick's ability and common sense besides."'
+
+'Exactly what makes me suspicious of his coming the disinterested
+over me.  There's something behind!  He is running into debt and
+destruction among that precious crew about the hospitals.'
+
+'Harry saw nothing wrong, and thought his friends in good style.'
+
+'Every one is in good style with Harry, happy fellow!  He is no more
+a judge than a child of six years old--carries too much sunshine to
+see shades.'
+
+'A lieutenant in the navy can hardly be the capital officer that our
+Harry is without some knowledge of men and discipline.'
+
+'I grant you, on his own element; but on shore he goes about in his
+holiday spectacles, and sees a bird of paradise in every cock-
+sparrow.'
+
+'Isn't _there_ a glass house that can sometimes make a swan?' said
+Ethel, slyly touching her father's spectacles; 'but with you both,
+there's always a something to attract the embellishing process; and
+between Harry and Aubrey, Dr. Spencer and Sir Matthew, we could
+hardly fail to have heard of anything amiss.'
+
+'I don't like it.'
+
+'Then it is hard,' said Ethel, with spirit.  'So steady as he has
+always been, he ought to have the benefit of a little trust.'
+
+'He was never like the others; I don't know what to be at with him!
+I should not have minded but for that palaver about elder brothers.'
+
+Defend as Ethel might, it was still with a misgiving lest
+disappointment should have taken a wrong course.  It was hard to
+trust where correspondence was the merest business scrap, and neither
+Christmas nor the sister's marriage availed to call Tom home; and
+though she had few fears as to dissipation, she did dread hardening
+and ambition, all the more since she had learnt that Sir Matthew
+Fleet was affording to him a patronage unprecedented from that
+quarter.
+
+No year of Etheldred May's life had been so trying as this last.  It
+seemed like her first step away from the aspirations of youth, into
+the graver fears of womanhood.  With all the self-restraint that she
+had striven to exercise at Coombe, it had been a time of glorious
+dreams over the two young spirits who seemed to be growing up by her
+side to be faithful workers, destined to carry out her highest
+visions; and the boyish devotion of the one, the fraternal reverence
+of the other, had made her very happy.  And now?  The first
+disappointment in Leonard had led--not indeed to less esteem for him,
+but to that pitying veneration that could only be yielded by a
+sharing in spirit of the like martyrdom; a continued thankfulness and
+admiration, but a continual wringing of the heart.  And her own child
+and pupil, Aubrey, had turned aside from the highest path; and in the
+unavowed consciousness that he was failing in the course he had so
+often traced out with her, and that all her aid and ready
+participation in his present interests were but from her outward not
+her inward heart, he had never argued the point with her, never
+consulted her on his destination.  He had talked only to his father
+of his alteration of purpose, and had at least paid her the
+compliment of not trying to make her profess that she was gratified
+by the change.  In minor matters, he depended on her as much as ever;
+but Harry was naturally his chief companion, and the prime of his
+full and perfect confidence had departed, partly in the step from boy
+to man, but more from the sense that he was not fulfilling the
+soldiership he had dreamt of with her, and that he had once led her
+to think his talents otherwise dedicated.  She had few fears for his
+steadiness, but she had some for his health, and he was something
+taken away from her--a brightness had faded from his image.
+
+And this marriage--with every effort at rejoicing and certainty of
+Mary's present bliss and probability of future happiness, it was the
+loss of a sister, and not the gain of a brother, and Mr. Cheviot did
+his utmost to render the absence of repining a great effort of
+unselfishness.  And even with her father, her possession of Tom's
+half-revealed secret seemed an impairing of absolute confidence; she
+could not but hope that her father did her brother injustice, and in
+her tenderness towards them both this was a new and painful
+sensation.  Her manner was bright and quaint as ever, her sayings
+perhaps less edged than usual, because the pain at her heart made her
+guard her tongue; but she had begun to feel middle-aged, and
+strangely lonely.  Richard, though always a comfort, would not have
+entered into her troubles; Harry, in his atmosphere of sailor on
+shore, had nothing of the confidant, and engrossed his father; Mary
+and Aubrey were both gone from her, and Gertrude was still a child.
+She had never so longed after Margaret or Norman.  But at least her
+corner in the Minster, her table at home with her Bible and Prayer-
+Book, were still the same, and witnessed many an outpouring of her
+anxiety, many a confession of the words or gestures that she had felt
+to have been petulant, whether others had so viewed them or not.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+
+Long among them was seen a maiden, who waited and wondered,
+Lowly and meek in spirit, and patiently suffering all things;
+Fair was she, and young, but alas! before her extended,
+Dreary and vast and silent, the desert of life.--Evangeline.
+                                                    LONGFELLOW
+
+
+'Sister, sister! who is it?  Going to be married!  Oh, do tell us!'
+cried Ella Warden--as she now was called--capering round her elder
+sister, who stood beneath a gas-burner, in a well-furnished bed-room,
+reading a letter, its enclosure clasped within a very trembling hand.
+
+'Mary May, dear Mary,' answered Averil, still half absently.
+
+'And who?'
+
+'Mr. Cheviot,' said Averil, thoroughly rousing herself, and, with a
+quick movement, concealing the enclosure in her bosom.  'I remember
+him; he was very good, when--'
+
+And there she paused; while Ella chattered on: 'Oh, sister, if you
+were but at home, you would be a bridesmaid now, and perhaps we
+should.  Little Miss Rivers was Mrs. Ernescliffe's bridesmaid.  Don't
+you remember, Minna, how we saw her in her little cashmere cloak?'
+
+'Oh, don't, Ella!' escaped from Minna, like a cry of pain, as she
+leant back in a rocking-chair, and recollected who had held her up in
+his arms to watch Blanche May's wedding procession.
+
+'And how soon will she be married, sister, and where will she live?'
+asked the much-excited Ella.
+
+'She will be married in Whitsun week, and as he is headmaster, they
+will live in Dr. Hoxton's house.  Dear, good Mary, how glad I am that
+she is so full of happiness--her letter quite brims over with it!  I
+wonder if I may work anything to send her.'
+
+'I should like to send her some very beautiful thing indeed,' cried
+Ella, with emphasis, and eyes dilating at some visionary
+magnificence.
+
+'Ah, I have nothing to send her but my love!  And I may send _her_
+that still,' said Minna, looking up wistfully at Averil, who bent
+down and kissed her.
+
+'And Ave won't let me send mine to Mr. Tom, though I'm sure I do love
+him the best of them all,' said Ella.
+
+'That wasn't--' half whispered Minna, but turned her head away, with
+a sigh of oppression and look of resignation, sad in so young a
+child, though, indeed, the infantine form was fast shooting into
+tall, lank girlhood.  Ella went on: 'I shall send him the objects for
+his microscope, when I get into the country; for I promised, so
+sister can't prevent me.'
+
+'Oh, the country!--when shall we go there?' sighed Minna.
+
+'Your head aches to-night, my dear,' said Averil, looking anxiously
+at her listless attitude, half-opened eyes, and the deep hollows
+above her collar-bones.
+
+'It always does after the gas is lighted,' said the child, patiently,
+'it is always so hot here.'
+
+'It is just like being always in the conservatory at the Grange,'
+added Ella.  'I do hate this boarding-house.  It is very unkind of
+Henry to keep us here--fifteen weeks now.'
+
+'Oh, Ella,' remonstrated Minna, 'you mustn't say that!'
+
+'But I shall say it,' retorted Ella. 'Rosa Willis says what she
+pleases, and so shall I.  I don't see the sense of being made a baby
+of, when every one else of our age eats all they like, and is
+consulted about arrangements, and attends classes.  And sister owns
+she does not know half so much as Cora!'
+
+This regular declaration of American independence confounded the two
+sisters, and made Averil recall the thoughts that had been wandering:
+'No, Ella, in some things I have not learnt so much as Cora; but I
+believe I know enough to teach you, and it has been a comfort to me
+to keep my two little sisters with me, and not send them to be mixed
+up among strange girls.  Besides, I have constantly hoped that our
+present way of life would soon be over, and that we should have a
+home of our own again.'
+
+'And why can't we!' asked Ella, in a much more humble and subdued
+voice.
+
+'Because Henry cannot hear of anything to do.  He thought he should
+soon find an opening in this new country; but there seem to be so
+many medical men everywhere that no one will employ or take into
+partnership a man that nothing is known about; and he cannot produce
+any of his testimonials, because they are all made out in his old
+name, except one letter that Dr. May gave him.  It is worse for Henry
+than for us, Ella. and all we can do for him is not to vex him with
+our grievances.
+
+Poor Averil! her dejected, patient voice, sad soft eyes, and gentle
+persuasive manner, were greatly changed from those of the handsome,
+accomplished girl, who had come home to be the family pride and pet;
+still more, perhaps, from the wilful mistress of the house and the
+wayward sufferer of last summer.
+
+'And shan't we go to live in the dear beautiful forest, as Cora
+Muller wishes?'
+
+There was a tap at the door, and the children's faces brightened,
+though a shade passed over Averil's face, as if everything at that
+moment were oppressive; but she recovered a smile of greeting for the
+pretty creature who flew up to her with a fervent embrace--a girl a
+few years her junior, with a fair, delicate face and figure, in a
+hot-house rose style of beauty.
+
+'Father's come!' she cried.
+
+'How glad you must be!'
+
+'And now,' whispered the children, 'we shall know about going to
+Indiana.'
+
+'He says Mordaunt is as tall as he is, and that the house is quite
+fixed for me; but I told him I must have one more term, and then I
+will take you with me.  Ah! I am glad to see the children in white.
+If you would only change that plain black silk, you would receive so
+much more consideration.'
+
+'I don't want it, Cora, thank you,' said Averil, indifferently; and,
+indeed, the simple mourning she still wore was a contrast to her
+friend's delicate, expensive silk.
+
+'But I want it for you,' pleaded Cora.  'I don't want to hear my
+Averil censured for English hauteur, and offend my country's
+feelings, so that she keeps herself from seeing the best side.'
+
+'I see a very good, very dear side of one,' said Averil, pressing the
+eager hand that was held out to her, 'and that is enough for me.  I
+was not a favourite in my own town, and I have not spirits to make
+friends here.'
+
+'Ah! you will have spirits in our woods,' she said.  'You shall show
+me how you go gipsying in England.'
+
+'The dear, dear woods!  Oh, we must go!' cried the little girls.
+
+'But it is going to be a town,' said Minna, gravely.
+
+Cora laughed.  'Ah, there will be plenty of bush this many a day,
+Minna!  No lack of butternuts and hickories, I promise you, nor of
+maples to paint the woods gloriously.'
+
+'You have never been there?' said Averil, anxiously.
+
+'No; I have been boarding here these two years, since father and
+brothers located there, but we had such a good time when we lived at
+my grandfather's farm, in Ohio, while father was off on the railway
+business.'
+
+A gong resounded through the house, and Averil, suppressing a
+disappointed sigh, allowed Cora to take possession of her arm, and,
+followed by the two children, became parts of a cataract of people
+who descended the great staircase, and flowed into a saloon, where
+the dinner was prepared.
+
+Henry, with a tall, thin, wiry-looking gentleman, was entering at the
+same time, and Averil found herself shaking hands with her brother's
+companion, and hearing him say, 'Good evening, Miss Warden; I'm glad
+to meet my daughter's friend.  I hope you feel at home in our great
+country.'
+
+It was so exactly the ordinary second-rate American style, that
+Averil, who had expected something more in accordance with the
+refinement of everything about Cora, except a few of her tones, was a
+little disappointed, and responded with difficulty; then, while Mr.
+Muller greeted her sisters, she hastily laid her hand on Henry's arm,
+and said, under her breath, 'I've a letter from him.'
+
+'Hush!' Henry looked about with a startled eye and repressing
+gesture.  Averil drew back, and, one hand on her bosom, pressing the
+letter, and almost holding down a sob, she took her accustomed seat
+at the meal.  Minna, too languid for the rapidity of the movements,
+hardly made the exertion of tasting food.  Ella, alert and brisk,
+took care of herself as effectually as did Rosa Willis, on the
+opposite side of the table.  Averil, all one throb of agitation, with
+the unread letter lying at her heart, directed all her efforts to
+look, eat, and drink, as usual; happily, talking was the last thing
+that was needed.
+
+Averil had been greatly indebted to Miss Muller, who had taken pity
+on the helpless strangers--interested, partly by her own romance
+about England, partly by their mourning dresses, dark melancholy
+eyes, and retiring, bewildered manner.  A beautiful motherless girl,
+under seventeen--left, to all intents and purposes, alone in New
+York--attending a great educational establishment, far more
+independent and irresponsible than a young man at an English
+University, yet perfectly trustworthy--never subject to the bevues of
+the 'unprotected female,' but self-reliant, modest, and graceful, in
+the heterogeneous society of the boarding-house--she was a constant
+marvel to Averil, and a warm friendship soon sprang up.  The advances
+were, indeed, all on one side; for Ave was too sad, and oppressed
+with too heavy a secret, to be readily accessible; but there was an
+attraction to the younger, fresher, freer nature, even in the mystery
+of her mournful reserve; and the two drew nearer together from
+gratitude, and many congenial feelings, that rendered Cora the one
+element of comfort in the boarding-house life; while Henry in vain
+sought for occupation.
+
+Cora had been left under the charge of the lady of the boarding-
+house, a distant connection, while her father, who had been engaged
+in more various professions than Averil could ever conceive of or
+remember, had been founding a new city in Indiana, at once as farmer
+and land-agent, and he had stolen a little time, in the dead season,
+to hurry up to New York, partly on business, and partly to see his
+daughter, who had communicated to him her earnest desire that her new
+friends might be induced to settle near their future abode.
+
+American meals were too serious affairs for conversation; but such as
+there was, was political, in all the fervid heat of the first
+commencements of disunion and threatenings of civil war.  After the
+ladies had repaired to their saloon, with its grand ottomans, sofas,
+rocking-chairs, and piano, the discussion continued among them; Cora
+talking with the utmost eagerness of the tariff and of slavery, and
+the other topics of the day, intensely interesting, and of terrible
+moment, to her country; but that country Averil had not yet learnt to
+feel her own, and to her all was one dreary whirl of words, in which
+she longed to escape to her room, and read her letter.  Ella had
+joined Rosa Willis, and the other children; but Minna, as usual, kept
+under her sister's wing, and Averil could not bear to shake herself
+free of the gentle child.  The ladies of the boarding-house--some
+resident in order to avoid the arduous duties of housekeeping, others
+temporarily brought thither in an interregnum of servants, others
+spending a winter in the city--had grown tired of asking questions
+that met with the scantiest response, took melancholy for disdain,
+and were all neglectful, some uncivil, to the grave, silent English
+girl, and she was sitting alone, with Minna's hand in hers, as she
+had sat for many a weary evening, when her brother and Mr. Muller
+came up together, and, sitting down on either side of her, began to
+talk of the rising city of Massissauga--admirably situated--excellent
+water privilege, communicating with Lake Michigan--glorious primeval
+forest--healthy situation--fertile land--where a colossal fortune
+might be realized in maize, eighties, sections, speculations.  It was
+all addressed to her, and it was a hard task to give attention, so as
+to return a rational answer, while her soul would fain have been
+clairvoyante, to read the letter in her breast.  She did perceive, at
+last, though not till long after the children had gone to bed, that
+the project was, that the family should become the purchasers of
+shares, which would give them a right to a portion of the soil,
+excellent at present for growing corn, and certain hereafter to be
+multiplied in value for building; that Henry might, in the meantime,
+find an opening for practice, but might speedily be independent of
+it.  It sounded promising, and it was escape--escape from forced
+inaction, from an uncongenial life, from injury to the children, and
+it would be with Cora, her one friend.  What was the demur, and why
+were they consulting her, who, as Henry knew, was ready to follow him
+wherever he chose to carry her?  At last came a gleam of
+understanding: 'Then, Doctor, you will talk it over with your sister,
+and give me your ultimatum;' and therewith Mr. Muller walked away to
+mingle in other conversation, and Henry coming closer to his sister,
+she again eagerly said, 'I have it here; you shall see it to-morrow,
+when I have read it.'
+
+'It--'
+
+'The letter.'
+
+'How can you be so unguarded?  You have not let the children know?
+Take care then, I will not have the subject revived with them.'
+
+'But Minna--'
+
+'It is this heated stove atmosphere.  She will soon forget if you
+don't keep it up, and she will be herself when we leave this place,
+and it depends on you when we do that, Ave.'
+
+'On me!' she said, with bewildered face.
+
+And Henry, marvelling at her slowness of comprehension, made her
+understand that the advance of money, for the purchase at
+Massissauga, must come from her means.  His own had been heavily
+drained by the removal, the long period of inaction, and moreover
+what remained had been embarked in shares in a company, absolutely
+certain to succeed, but where they were not at once available for
+sale.  Averil was now of age, her property was in her own power, and
+could not, her brother assured her, be better invested, than on
+ground certain to increase in value.  She looked at him, confused and
+distressed, aware that it was too important a step to be taken
+without consideration, yet unable to compose her thoughts, or
+recollect objections.
+
+'Must I answer to-night?' she said.
+
+'No, there is no need for that.  But we must close to-morrow with
+Muller, for it is not a chance that will long go begging.'
+
+'Then let me go, please, Henry,' she said, imploringly.  'I will tell
+you to-morrow, but I can't now.  I don't seem to understand
+anything.'
+
+It was late, and he released her, with a kind good night, though
+still with a sign of caution.  Cora, however, hastened to join her,
+and walk up the stairs with her, eagerly inquiring into the success
+of the negotiation, and detailing what she had gathered from her
+father as to the improvements he had been making.  She would fain
+have made Averil come into her bedroom to build castles there; but
+this was more than could be borne, and breaking from her at last,
+Averil reached her own room, not to think of Mr. Muller's project,
+but to cast an anxious glance at each of the little beds, to judge
+whether the moment had come when that famishing hunger might be
+appeased by the crumb which for these mortal hours had lain upon her
+craving heart--the very first since the one on the arrival at
+Milbank.
+
+Each brown head was shrouded in the coverings, the long dark fringes
+rested safely on the cheeks, and Averil at length drew out the
+treasure, and laid it on her hand to dwell on its very sight.  The
+address needed to be looked at with lingering earnestness, as if it
+had indeed been a missive from another world; she looked, and was
+tardy to unfold it, as though, now the moment was come, the sense of
+being in communication with her brother must be tasted to the utmost,
+ere entering on the utterances that must give pain; and when she did
+open the envelope, perhaps the first sensation was disappointment--
+the lines were not near enough together, the writing not small
+enough, to satisfy even the first glance of the yearning eye.  It was
+cheerful, it spoke of good health, and full occupation, with the use
+of books, daily exercise, the chaplain's visits, schooling and
+attendance at chapel, and of the great pleasure of having heard from
+her.  'And that good Dr. May inclosed your letter in one written to
+me with his own hand, a kindness I never dared to think of as
+possible, but which he promises to repeat.  Your letter and his are
+the continual food of my thoughts, and are valued beyond all power of
+words.  I only hope you knew that I have not been allowed to write
+sooner, and have not expected letters.'  Then came a few brief
+comments on her last inquiries, and entreaties that she would give
+him full information of all details of their present life: 'It will
+carry me along with you, and I shall live with you, both as I read,
+and as I dwell on it afterwards.  Do not indulge in a moment's
+uneasiness about me, for I am well, and busy; every one is as kind to
+me as duty permits, and Dr. May is always ready to do all in his
+power for me.'  There were a few affectionate words for Henry, and 'I
+long to send a message to the children, but I know it is better for
+them to let me drop from their minds, only you must tell me all about
+them; I want to know that the dear little Minna is bright and happy
+again.'
+
+No confidences, only generalities; not even any reference to the one
+unbroken bond of union, the one support, except in the three scanty
+final words, the simplest of blessings.  It was not satisfying; but
+Averil recalled, with a start, that no wonder the letter was meagre,
+since it was necessarily subject to inspection; and how could the
+inner soul be expressed when all must pass under strangers' eyes, who
+would think such feelings plausible hypocrisy in a convicted felon.
+Again she took it up, to suck to the utmost all that might be
+conveyed in the short commonplace sentences, and to gaze at them as
+if intensity of study could reveal whether the cheerfulness were real
+or only assumed.  Be they what they might, the words had only three
+weeks back been formed by Leonard's hand, and she pressed her lips
+upon them in a fervent agony of affection.
+
+When she roused herself and turned her head, she perceived on Minna's
+pillow two eyes above the bed-clothes, intently fixed on her.  Should
+she see, or should she not see?  She believed that the loving heart
+was suffering a cruel wrong, she yearned to share all with the child,
+but she was chained by the command of one brother, and by that
+acquiescence of the other which to her was more than a command.  She
+would not see, she turned away, and made her preparations for the
+night without betraying that she knew that the little one was awake,
+resuming the tedious guard on the expression of her face.  But when
+her long kneeling had ended, and with it that which was scarcely so
+much conscious intercession as the resting an intolerable load on One
+who alone knew its weight, just as she darkened the room for the
+night, the low voice whispered, 'Ave, is it?'--
+
+And Averil crept up to the little bed: 'Yes, Minna; he is well!  He
+hopes you are bright and happy, but he says it is best you should
+forget him.'  The brow was cold and clammy, the little frame chill
+and trembling, the arms clasped her neck convulsively.  She lifted
+the child into her own bed, pressed tight to her own bosom, and
+though no other word passed between the sisters, that contact seemed
+to soothe away the worst bitterness; and Averil slept from the
+stillness enforced on her by the heed of not disturbing Minna's
+sleep.
+
+Little that night had she recked of the plan needing so much
+deliberation!  When she awoke it was to the consciousness that
+besides the arrival of Leonard's letter, something had happened--
+there was some perplexity--what was it?  And when it came back she
+was bewildered.  Her own fortune had always appeared to her something
+to fall back on in case of want of success, and to expend it thus was
+binding the whole family down at a perilous moment, to judge by the
+rumours of battle and resistance.  And all she had ever heard at
+home, much that she daily heard at New York, inclined her to distrust
+and dislike of American speculations.  It was Cora's father!  Her
+heart smote her for including him in English prejudice, when Henry
+liked and trusted him!  And she had disobeyed and struggled against
+Henry too long.  She had promised to be submissive and yielding.  But
+was this the time?  And the boarding-house life--proverbially the
+worst for children--was fast Americanizing Ella, while Minna drooped
+like a snowdrop in a hot-house, and idleness might be mischievous to
+Henry.
+
+Oh, for some one to consult! for some one to tell her whether the
+risk was a foolish venture, or if the terms were safe!  But not a
+creature did she know well enough to seek advice from!  Even the
+clergyman, whose church she attended, was personally unknown to her;
+Cora Muller was her sole intimate; there was a mutual repulsion
+between her and the other ladies, and still more with the gentlemen.
+A boarding-house was not the scene in which to find such as would
+inspire confidence, and they had no introductions.  There was no one
+to turn to; and in the dreary indifference that had grown over her,
+she did not even feel capable of exerting her own judgment to the
+utmost, even if she had been able to gather certain facts, or to know
+prudent caution from blind prejudice--often woman's grievous
+difficulty.  What could a helpless girl of one-and-twenty, in a land
+of strangers, do, but try to think that by laying aside the use of
+her own judgment she was trusting all to Providence, and that by
+leaving all to her brother she was proving her repentance for her
+former conduct.
+
+There, too, were her sisters, clamorous with hopes of the forest
+life; and there was Cora, urging the scheme with all the fervour of
+girlish friendship, and in herself no small element in its favour,
+engaging for everything, adducing precedents for every kind of
+comfort and success, and making Ave's consent a test of her love.
+One question Averil asked of her--whether they should be utterly out
+of reach of their Church?  Cora herself had been bred up to liberal
+religious ways, and was ready to attend whatever denomination of
+public worship came first to hand, though that which had descended
+from the Pilgrim Fathers came most naturally.  She had been at
+various Sunday schools, and was a good conscientious girl, but had
+never gone through the process of conversion, so that Rosa Willis had
+horrified Ella by pronouncing her 'not a Christian.'  She had no
+objection to show her English friends the way to the favourite
+Episcopal Church, especially as it was esteemed fashionable; and her
+passion for Averil had retained her there, with growing interest,
+drawn on by Averil's greater precision of religious knowledge, and
+the beauty of the Church system, displayed to her as the one joy and
+relief left to one evidently crushed with suffering.  The use of
+Averil's books, conversations with her, and the teaching she heard,
+disposed her more and more to profess herself a member of the
+Episcopal Church, and she was unable to enter into Averil's scruples
+at leading her to so decided a step without her father's sanction.
+'Father would be satisfied whatever profession she made.  Did people
+in England try to force their children's consciences?'  Cora, at
+Averil's desire, ascertained that Massissauga had as yet no place of
+worship of its own; but there was a choice of chapels within a
+circuit of five miles, and an Episcopal Church seven miles off, at
+the chief town of the county.  Moreover, her father declared that the
+city of Massissauga would soon be considerable enough to invite every
+variety of minister to please every denomination of inhabitant.
+Averil felt that the seven miles off church was all she could
+reasonably hope for, and her mind was clear on that score, when Henry
+came to take her out walking for the sake of being able to talk more
+freely.
+
+No longer afraid of being overheard, he gave kind attention to
+Leonard's letter; and though he turned away from the subject sooner
+than she wished, she was not exacting.  Again he laid before her the
+advantages of their migration, and assured her that if there were the
+slightest risk he would be the last to make the proposal.  She asked
+if it were safe to invest money in a country apparently on the eve of
+civil war?
+
+He laughed the idea to scorn.  How could the rebel states make war,
+with a population of negroes sure to rise against their masters?
+Where should their forces come from?  Faction would soon be put down,
+and the union be stronger than ever.  It was what Averil had been
+hearing morning, noon, and night, so no wonder she believed it, and
+was ashamed of a futile girlish fear.
+
+And was Henry sure it was a healthy place?  Had she not heard of
+feverish swamps in Indiana?
+
+Oh yes, in new unsettled places; but there had hardly been an ailment
+in the Muller family since they had settled at Massissauga.
+
+And Averil's last murmur was--Could he find out anything about other
+people's opinion of the speculation? did they know enough about Mr.
+Muller to trust themselves entirely in his hands?
+
+Henry was almost angry--Could not his sister trust him to take all
+reasonable precaution?  It was the old story of prejudice against
+whatever he took up.
+
+Poor Averil was disarmed directly.  The combats of will and their
+consequences rose up before her, and with them Leonard's charges to
+devote herself to Henry.  She could but avow herself willing to do
+whatever he pleased.  She only hoped he would be careful.
+
+All thenceforth was pleasant anticipation and hope.  Averil's
+property had to be transferred to America, and invested in shares of
+the land at Massissauga; but this was to cause no delay in arranging
+for the removal, they were only to wait until the winter had broken
+up, and the roads become passable after the melting of the snows; and
+meantime Mr. Muller was to have their house prepared.  Cora would
+remain and accompany them, and in the intervening time promised to
+assist Averil with her judgment in making the necessary purchases for
+'stepping westward.'
+
+When Averil wrote their plans to her English friends, she felt the
+difficulty of pleading for them.  She was sensible that at
+Stoneborough the risking of her property would be regarded as folly
+on her part, and something worse on that of her brother; and she
+therefore wrote with every effort to make the whole appear her own
+voluntary act--though the very effort made her doubly conscious that
+the sole cause for her passive acquiescence was, that her past self-
+will in trifles had left her no power to contend for her own opinion
+in greater matters--the common retribution on an opinionative woman
+of principle.
+
+Moreover, it was always with an effort that she wrote to Mary May.  A
+rejected offer from a brother is a rock in a correspondence with a
+sister, and Averil had begun to feel greatly ashamed of the manner of
+her own response.  Acceptance would have been impossible; but
+irritating as had been Tom May's behaviour, insulting as had been his
+explanation, and provoking, his pertinacity, she had begun to feel
+that the impulse had been too generous and disinterested to deserve
+such treatment, and that bitterness and ill-temper had made her lose
+all softness and dignity, so that he must think that his pitying
+affection had been bestowed on an ungrateful vixen, and be as much
+disgusted with the interview as she was herself.  She did not wish
+him to love her; but she regretted the form of the antidote, above
+all, since he was of the few who appreciated Leonard; and the more
+she heard of Ella's narrations of his kindness, the more ashamed she
+grew.  Every letter to or from Mary renewed the uncomfortable sense,
+and she would have dropped the correspondence had it not been her
+sole medium of communication with her imprisoned brother, since Henry
+would not permit letters to be posted with the Milbank address.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+
+ A little hint to solace woe,
+ A hint, a whisper breathing low,
+'I may not speak of what I know.'--TENNYSON
+
+
+At the pace at which rapid people walk alone, when they wish to
+devour both the way and their own sensations, Ethel May was mounting
+the hill out of the town in the premature heat assumed by May in
+compliment to Whitsun week, when a prolonged shout made her turn.  At
+first she thought it was her father, but her glass showed her that it
+was the brother so like him in figure that the London-made coat, and
+the hair partaking of the sand instead of the salt, were often said
+to be the chief distinction.  Moreover, the dainty steps over the
+puddles were little like the strides of the Doctor, and left no doubt
+that it was the one wedding guest who had been despaired of.
+
+'O, Tom, I am glad you are come!'
+
+'What a rate you were running away at!  I thought you had done with
+your hurricane pace.'
+
+'Hurricane because of desperate hurry.  I'm afraid I can't turn back
+with you.'
+
+'Where is all the world?'
+
+'Blanche is helping Mary arrange the Hoxton--I mean her own drawing-
+room.  Hector has brought a dog-cart to drive papa about in; Daisy is
+gone with Harry and Aubrey to the Grange for some camellias.'
+
+'And Ethel rushing to Cocksmoor!'
+
+'I can't help it, Tom,' she said, humbly; 'I wish I could.'
+
+'What's this immense pannier you are carrying?'
+
+'It is quite light.  It is twelve of the hats for the children
+tomorrow.  Mary was bent on trimming them all as usual, and I was
+deluded enough to believe she would, till last evening I found just
+one and a half done!  I did as many as I could at night, till papa
+heard me rustling about and thumped.  Those went early this morning;
+and these are the rest, which I have just finished.'
+
+'Was there no one to send?'
+
+'My dear Tom, is your experience of weddings so slight as to suppose
+there is an available being in the family the day before?'
+
+'I'm sure I don't desire such experience.  Why could not they be
+content without ferreting me down?'
+
+'I am very glad you have come.  It would have been a great
+mortification if you had stayed away.  I never quite believed you
+would.'
+
+'I had much rather see the operation I shall miss to-morrow morning.
+I shall go back by the two o'clock train.'
+
+'To study their happiness all the way up to town?'
+
+'Then by the mail--'
+
+'I won't torment you to stay; but I think papa will want a talk with
+you.'
+
+'The very thing I don't want.  Why can't he dispose of his property
+like other people, and give Richard his rights?'
+
+'You know Richard would only be encumbered.'
+
+'No such thing; Richard is a reasonable being--he will marry some of
+these days--get the living after Wilmot, and--'
+
+'But you know how papa would be grieved to separate the practice from
+the house.'
+
+'Because he and his fathers were content to bury themselves in a
+hole, he expects me to do the same.  Why, what should I do?  The
+place is over-doctored already.  Every third person is a pet patient
+sending for him for a gnat-bite, gratis, taking the bread out of
+Wright's mouth.  No wonder Henry Ward kicked!  If I came here, I must
+practise on the lap-dogs!  Here's my father, stronger than any of us,
+with fifteen good years' work in him at the least!  He would be
+wretched at giving up to me a tenth part of his lambs, and that tenth
+would keep us always in hot water.  His old-world practice would not
+go down with me, and he would think everything murder that was
+fresher than the year 1830.'
+
+'I thought he was remarkable for having gone on with the world,' said
+Ethel, repressing some indignation.
+
+'So he has in a way, but always against the grain.  He has a tough
+lot of prejudices; and you may depend upon it, they would be more
+obstinate against me than any one else, and I should be looked on as
+an undutiful dog for questioning them, besides getting the whole
+credit of every case that went wrong.'
+
+'I think you are unjust,' said Ethel, flushing with displeasure.
+
+'I wish I were not, Ethel; but when there is one son in a family who
+can do nothing that is not taken amiss, it is hard that he should be
+the one picked out to be pinned down, and, maybe, goaded into doing
+something to be really sorry for.'
+
+There was truth enough in this to seal Ethel's lips from replying
+that it was Tom's own fault, since his whole nature and constitution
+were far more the cause than his conduct, and she answered, 'You
+might get some appointment for the present, till he really wants
+you.'
+
+'To be ordered home just as I am making something of it, and see as
+many cases in ten years as I could in a month in town.  Things are
+altered since his time, if he could only see it.  What was the use of
+giving me a first-rate education, if he meant to stick me down here?'
+
+'At least I hope you will think long before you inflict the cruel
+disappointment of knowing that not one of his five sons will succeed
+to the old practice.'
+
+'The throne, you mean, Ethel.  Pish!'
+
+The 'Pish' was as injurious to her hereditary love for 'the old
+practice,' and for the old town, as to her reverence for her father.
+One angry 'Tom!' burst from her lips, and only the experience that
+scolding made him worse, restrained her from desiring him to turn
+back if this was the best he had to say.  Indeed she wondered to find
+him still by her side, holding the gate of the plantation open for
+her.  He peered under her hat as she went through--
+
+'How hot you look!' he said, laying hold of the handles of the
+basket.
+
+'Thank you; but it is more cumbrous than heavy,' she said, not
+letting go; 'it is not _that_--'
+
+An elision which answered better than words, to show that his speech,
+rather than hill or load, had made her cheeks flame; but he only drew
+the great basket more decisively from her hand, put his stick into
+the handle, and threw it over his shoulder; and no doubt it was a
+much greater act of good-nature from him than it would have been from
+Richard or Harry.
+
+'This path always reminds me of this very matter,' he said; 'I talked
+it over with Meta here, on the way to lay the foundation-stone at
+Cocksmoor, till Norman overtook us and monopolized her for good, poor
+little thing.  She was all in the high romantic strain, making a sort
+of knight hospitaller of my father.  I wonder what she is like by
+this time, and how much of _that_ she has left.'
+
+'Of the high romantic strain?  I should think it was as much as ever
+the salt of life to her.  Her last letter described her contrivances
+to make a knapsack for Norman on his visitation tour.  Oh, fancy old
+June a venerable archdeacon!'
+
+'You don't think a colonial archdeacon is like one of your great
+portly swells in a shovel hat.'
+
+'It must be something remarkable that made Norman portly.  But as for
+the shovel hat, Mrs. Meta has insisted on having it sent out.  I was
+going to tell you that she says, "I do like such a good tough bit of
+stitchery, to fit my knight out for the cause.
+
+'Marriage and distance have not frozen up her effusions.'
+
+'No; when people carry souls in their pens, they are worth a great
+deal more, if they are to go to a distance.'
+
+Ah! by the bye, I suppose Cheviot has put a fresh lock on Mary's
+writing-case.'
+
+'I suspect some of Mary's correspondence will devolve on me.  Harry
+has asked me already.'
+
+'I wished you had mentioned more about the letters of late.  Leonard
+wanted to know more than I could tell him.'
+
+'You don't mean that you have seen him?  0, Tom, how kind of you!
+Papa has been trying hard to get a day now that these first six
+months are up; but there are two or three cases that wanted so much
+watching that he has not been able to stir.'
+
+'I know how he lets himself be made a prisoner, and that it was a
+chance whether any one saw the poor fellow at all.'
+
+'I am so glad'--and Ethel turned on him a face still flushed, but now
+with gratitude.  'How was he looking?'
+
+'The costume is not becoming, and he has lost colour and grown
+hollow-eyed; but I saw no reason for being uneasy about him; he
+looked clear and in health, and has not got to slouch yet.  It is
+shocking to see such a grand face and head behind a grating.'
+
+'Could he talk'?
+
+'Why, the presence of a warder is against conversation, and six
+months of shoe-making in a cell does not give much range of ideas.
+There was nothing to be done but to talk on right ahead and judge by
+his eyes if he liked it.'
+
+'I suppose you could find out nothing about himself?'
+
+'He said he got on very well; but one does not know that means.  I
+asked if he got books; and he said there was a very good library, and
+he could get what gave him something to think of; and he says they
+give interesting lectures in school.'
+
+'You could not gather what is thought of him?'
+
+'No; I saw but a couple of officers of the place, and could only get
+out of them "good health and good conduct."  I do not expect even his
+conduct makes much impression as to his innocence, for I saw it
+stated the other day that the worst prisoners are those that are
+always getting convicted for petty offences; those that have
+committed one great crime are not so depraved, and are much more
+amenable.  However, he has only three months more at Pentonville, and
+then be will go to Portland, Chatham, or Gibraltar.'
+
+'Oh, I hope it will not be Gibraltar!  But at least that terrible
+solitude will be over.'
+
+'At any rate, his spirit is not broken.  I could see his eye light up
+after I had talked a little while, and he fell into his natural tone
+again.  He would not try to put out his hand to me when he came down;
+but when I went away, he put it through and we had a good hearty
+shake.  Somehow it made one feel quite small.'
+
+Ethel could have pledged herself for the soundness of Tom's nature
+after those words; but all she did was in an unwonted tone to utter
+the unwonted exclamation--'Dear Tom.'
+
+'If my father does not come up, I shall see him once more before he
+leaves Pentonville,' added Tom; 'and so you must mind and let me know
+all about his people in America.  I found he had no notion of the row
+that is beginning there, so I said not a word of it.  But what is all
+this about going to Indiana?'
+
+'They are going at the end of April to settle in a place called
+Massissauga, where Henry is to farm till practice comes to him.  It
+is towards the north of the State, in the county of Pulaski.'
+
+'Ay, in one of the pestilential swamps that run up out of Lake
+Michigan.  All the fertile ground there breeds as many fevers and
+agues as it does stalks of corn.'
+
+'Indeed! how did you hear that?'
+
+'I looked up the place after Leonard told me of it.  It is as unlucky
+a location as the ill luck of that fellow Henry could have pitched
+on.  Some friend Leonard spoke of--a Yankee, I suppose, meaning to
+make a prey of them.'
+
+'The father of their young lady friend at the boarding-house.'
+
+'Oh! a Yankee edition of Mrs. Pugh!'
+
+'And the worst of it is that this is to be done with poor Averil's
+fortune.  She has written to Mr. Bramshaw to sell out for her, and
+send her the amount, and he is terribly vexed; but she is of age, and
+there are no trustees nor any one to stop it.'
+
+'All of a piece,' muttered Tom; then presently he swung the basket
+round on the ground with a vehement exclamation--'If any man on this
+earth deserved to be among the robbers and murderers, I know who it
+is.'  Then he shouldered his load again, and walked on in silence by
+his sister's side to the school door.
+
+Richard had been obliged to go to a benefit club entertainment; and
+Ethel, knowing the limited literary resources of the parsonage, was
+surprised to find Tom still waiting for her, when the distribution
+and fitting of the blue-ribboned hats was over, and matters arranged
+for the march of the children to see the wedding, and to dine
+afterwards at the Grammar-school hall.
+
+'0, Tom, I did not expect to find you here.'
+
+'It is not fit for you to be walking about alone on a Whit Monday.'
+
+'I am very glad to have you, but I am past that.'
+
+'Don't talk nonsense; girls are girls till long past your age,' said
+Tom.
+
+'It is not so much age, as living past things,' said Ethel.
+
+'It was not only that, added Tom; 'but I've more to say to you, while
+one can be sure of a quiet moment.  Have you heard anything about
+that place?' and he pointed in the direction of the Vintry Mill.
+
+'I heard something of an intention to part with it, and have been
+watching for an advertisement; but I can see none in the Courant, or
+on the walls.'
+
+'Mind he does not slip off unawares.'
+
+'I don't know what to do now that old Hardy is cut off from us.  I
+tried to stir up Dr. Spencer to go and investigate, but I could not
+tell him why, and he has not the same interest in going questing
+about as he used to have.  People never will do the one thing one
+wants particularly!'
+
+Tom's look and gesture made her ask if he knew of anything wrong with
+their old friend; and in return, she was told that Dr. Spencer's
+recent visit to London had been to consult Sir Matthew Fleet.  The
+foundations of mortal disease had been laid in India, and though it
+might long remain in abeyance, there were from time to time symptoms
+of activity; and tedious lingering infirmity was likely to commence
+long before the end.
+
+'And what do you think the strange old fellow charged me as we walked
+away from dining at Fleet's?'
+
+'Secrecy, of course,' returned the much-shocked Ethel.
+
+'One does keep a secret by telling you.  It was to have my eye on
+some lodging with a decent landlady, where, when it is coming to
+that, he can go up to be alone, out of the way of troubling Dick, and
+of all of you.'
+
+'Tom, how dreadful!'
+
+'I fancy it is something of the animal instinct of creeping away
+alone, and partly his law to himself not to trouble Dick.'
+
+'An odd idea of what would trouble Dick!'
+
+'So I told him; but he said, after seeing what it cost my father to
+watch dear Margaret's long decay, he would never entail the like on
+him.  It is queer, and it is beautiful, the tender way he has about
+my father, treating him like a pet to be shielded and guarded--a man
+that has five times the force and vigour of body and mind that he has
+now, whatever they may have been.'
+
+'Very beautiful, and I cannot help telling you how beautiful,' said
+Ethel, greatly moved; 'only remember, it is not to be mentioned.'
+
+'Ha! did he ever make you an offer?  I have sometimes suspected it.'
+
+'No indeed!  It was much--much more beautiful than that!'
+
+'Our mother then?  I had thought of that too, and it accounts for his
+having always taken to you the most of us.'
+
+'Why, I'm the least like her of us all!'
+
+'So they say, I know, and I can't recollect enough to judge, except
+that'--and Tom's voice was less clear for a moment--'there was
+something in being with her that I've never found again, except now
+and then with you, Ethel.  Well, he never got over it, I suppose.'
+
+And Ethel briefly told of the rash resolution, the unsettled life,
+the neglect of the father's wishes, the grievous remorse, the broken
+health, and restless aimless wanderings, ending at last in loving
+tendance of the bereaved rival.  It had been a life never wanting in
+generosity or benevolence, yet falling far short of what it might
+have been--a gallant voyage made by a wreck--and yet the injury had
+been less from the disappointment than from the manner of bearing it.
+Suddenly it struck her that Tom might suspect her of intending a
+personal application of the history, and she faltered; but he kept
+her to it by his warm interest and many questions.
+
+'And oh, Tom, he must not be allowed to go away in this manner!
+Nothing would so cut papa to the heart!'
+
+'I don't believe he ever will, Ethel.  He may go on for years as he
+is; and he said in the midst that he meant to live to carry out the
+drainage.  Besides, if it comes gradually on him, he may feel
+dependent and lose the energy to move.'
+
+'Oh! what a sorrow for papa!  But I know that not to watch over him
+would make it all the worse.'
+
+They walked on gravely till, on the top of the hill, Tom exclaimed,
+'They've mounted the flag on the Minster steeple already.'
+
+'It went up yesterday for Harvey Anderson and Mrs. Pugh.  There was a
+proposal to join forces, and have a double wedding--so interesting,
+the two school-fellows and two young friends.  The Cheviot girls much
+regretted it was not to be.'
+
+'Cheviot girls!  Heavens and earth!  At home?'
+
+'Not sleeping; but we shall have them all day to-morrow, for they
+cannot get home the same day by setting off after the wedding.  There
+will be no one else, for even our own people are going, for Harry is
+to go to Maplewood with Blanche, and Aubrey has to be at Woolwich;
+but we shall all be at home to-night.'
+
+'Last time was in the volunteer days, two or three centuries ago.'
+
+It was strange how, with this naturally least congenial of all the
+family, Ethel had a certain understanding and fellow-feeling that
+gave her a sense of rest and relief in his company, only impaired by
+the dread of rubs between him and his father.  None, however,
+happened; Dr. May had been too much hurt to press the question of the
+inheritance, and took little notice of Tom, being much occupied with
+the final business about the wedding, and engrossed by Hector and
+Harry, who always absorbed him in their short intervals of his
+company.  Tom went to see Dr. Spencer, and brought him in, so
+cheerful and full of life, that what Ethel had been hearing seemed
+like a dream, excepting when she recognized Tom's unobtrusive
+gentleness and attention towards him.
+
+She was surprised and touched through all the harass and hurry of
+that evening and morning, to find the 'must be dones' that had of
+late devolved on her alone, now lightened and aided by Tom, who
+appeared to have come for the sole purpose of being always ready to
+give a helping hand where she wanted it, with all Richard's manual
+dexterity, and more resource and quickness.  The refreshment of
+spirits was the more valuable as this was a very unexciting wedding.
+Even Gertrude, not yet fourteen, had been surfeited with weddings,
+and replied to Harry's old wit of 'three times a bridesmaid and never
+a bride,' that she hoped so, her experience of married life was
+extremely flat; and a glance at Blanche's monotonous dignity, and
+Flora's worn face, showed what that experience was.
+
+Harry was the only one to whom there was the freshness of novelty,
+and he was the great element of animation; but as the time came near,
+honest Harry had been seized with a mortal dread of the tears he
+imagined an indispensable adjunct of the ceremony, and went about
+privately consulting every one how much weeping was inevitable.
+Flora told him she saw no reason for any tears, and Ethel that when
+people felt very much they couldn't cry; but on the other hand,
+Blanche said she felt extremely nervous, and knew she should be
+overcome; Gertrude assured him that on all former occasions Mary did
+all the crying herself; and Aubrey told him that each bridesmaid
+carried six handkerchiefs, half for herself and half for the bride.
+
+The result was, that the last speech made by Harry to his favourite
+sister in her maiden days was thus:--'Well, Mary, you do look
+uncommonly nice and pretty; but now'--most persuasively--'you'll be a
+good girl and not cry, will you?' and as Mary fluttered, tried to
+smile, and looked out through very moist eyes, he continued, 'I feel
+horribly soft-hearted to-day, and if you howl I must, you know; so
+mind, if I see you beginning, I shall come out with my father's old
+story of the spirit of the flood and the spirit of the fell, and that
+will stop it, if anything can.'
+
+The comicality of Harry's alarm was nearly enough to 'stop it,'
+coupled with the great desire of Daisy that he should be betrayed
+into tears; and Mary did behave extremely well, and looked all that a
+bride should look.  Admirable daughter and sister, she would be still
+more in her place as wife; hers was the truly feminine nature that,
+happily for mankind, is the most commonplace, and that she was a
+thoroughly generic bride is perhaps a testimony to her perfection in
+the part, as in all others where quiet unselfish womanhood was the
+essential.  Never had she been so sweet in every tone, word, and
+caress; never had Ethel so fully felt how much she loved her, or how
+entirely they had been one, from a time almost too far back for
+memory.  There had not been intellectual equality; but perhaps it was
+better, fuller affection, than if there had been; for Mary had filled
+up a part that had been in some measure wanting in Ethel.  She had
+been a sort of wife to her sister, and thus was the better prepared
+for her new life, but was all the sorer loss at home.
+
+The bridegroom!  How many times had Ethel to remind herself of her
+esteem, and security of Mary's happiness, besides frowning down
+Gertrude's saucy comments, and trying to laugh away Tom's low growl
+that good things always fell to the share of poor hearts and narrow
+minds.  Mr. Cheviot did in fact cut a worse figure than George Rivers
+of old, having a great fund of natural bashfulness and self-
+consciousness, which did not much damage his dignity, but made his
+attempts at gaiety and ease extremely awkward, not to say sheepish.
+Perhaps the most trying moment was the last, when hearing a few words
+between Ethel and Mary about posting a mere scrap, if only an empty
+envelope, from the first resting-place, he turned round, with his
+laugh, to object to rash promises, and remind his dear sister Ethel
+that post-offices were not always near at hand!  After that, when
+Mary in her bright tenderness hung round her sister, it was as if
+that was the last fond grasp from the substance--as if only the
+shadow would come back and live in Minster Street.
+
+Perhaps it was because Ethel had tried to rule it otherwise, Mr.
+Cheviot had insisted that the Cocksmoor children's share in the
+festivity should be a dinner in the Whichcote hall, early in the day,
+after which they had to be sent home, since no one chose to have the
+responsibility of turning them loose to play in the Grammar-school
+precincts, even in the absence of the boys.  Richard was much afraid
+of their getting into mischief, and was off immediately after church
+to superintend the dinner, and marshal them home; and the rest of the
+world lost the resource that entertaining them generally afforded the
+survivors after a marriage, and which was specially needed with the
+two Cheviot sisters to be disposed of.  By the time the Riverses were
+gone home, and the Ernescliffes and Harry off by the train, there
+were still four mortal hours of daylight, and oh! for Mary's power of
+making every one happy!
+
+Caroline and Annie Cheviot were ladylike, nice-looking girls; but
+when they found no croquet mallets in the garden, they seemed at a
+loss what life had to offer at Stoneborough!  Gertrude pronounced
+that 'she played at it sometimes at Maplewood, where she had nothing
+better to do,' and then retreated to her own devices.  Ethel's heart
+sank both with dread of the afternoon, and with self-reproach at her
+spoilt child's discourtesy, whence she knew there would be no rousing
+her without an incapacitating discussion; and on she wandered in the
+garden with the guests, receiving instruction where the hoops might
+be planted, and hearing how nice it would be for her sister to have
+such an object, such a pleasant opportunity of meeting one's friends-
+-an interest for every day.  'No wonder they think I want an object
+in life,' thought Ethel; 'how awfully tiresome I must be!  Poor
+things, what can I say to make it pleasanter?--Do you know this
+Dielytra?  I think it is the prettiest of modern flowers, but I wish
+we might call it Japan fumitory, or by some English name.'
+
+'I used to garden once, but we have no flower-beds now, they spoilt
+the lawn for croquet.'
+
+'And here comes Tom,' thought Ethel; 'poor Tom, he will certainly be
+off to London this evening.'
+
+Tom, however, joined the listless promenade; and the first time
+croquet was again mentioned, observed that he had seen the Andersons
+knocking about the balls in the new gardens by the river; and
+proposed to go down and try to get up a match.  There was an instant
+brightening, and Tom stepped into the drawing-room, and told Daisy to
+come with them.
+
+'To play at croquet with the Andersons in the tea-gardens!' she
+exclaimed.  'No, I thank you, Thomas!'
+
+He laid his hand on her shoulder--'Gertrude,' he said, 'it is time to
+have done being a spoilt baby.  If you let Ethel fag herself ill, you
+will rue it all your life.'
+
+Frightened, but without clear comprehension, she turned two scared
+eyes on him, and replaced the hat that she had thrown on the table,
+just as Ethel and the others came in.
+
+'Not you, Ethel,' said Tom; 'you don't know the game.'
+
+'I can learn,' said Ethel, desperately bent on her duty.
+
+'We would teach you,' volunteered the Cheviots.
+
+'You would not undertake it if you knew better,' said Tom, smiling.
+'Ethel's hands are not her strong point.'
+
+'Ethel would just have to be croqued all through by her partner,'
+said Gertrude.
+
+'Besides, my father will be coming in and wanting you,' added Tom;
+'he is only at the hospital or somewhere about the town.  I'll look
+after this child.'
+
+And the two sisters, delighted that poor little Gertrude should have
+such a holiday treat as croquet in the public gardens, away from her
+governess elder sister, walked off glorious; while Ethel, breathing
+forth a heavy sigh, let herself sink into a chair, feeling as if the
+silence were in itself invaluable, and as if Tom could not be enough
+thanked for having gained it for her.
+
+She was first roused by the inquiry, 'Shall I take in this letter,
+ma'am? it is charged four shillings over-weight.  And it is for Mr.
+Thomas, ma'am,' impressively concluded the parlour-maid, as one
+penetrated by Mr. Thomas's regard to small economies.
+
+Ethel beheld a letter bloated beyond the capacities of the two
+bewigged Washingtons that kept guard in its corner, and addressed in
+a cramped hand unknown to her; but while she hesitated, her eye fell
+on another American letter directed to Miss Mary May, in Averil
+Ward's well-known writing, and turning both round, she found they had
+the same post-mark, and thereupon paid the extra charge, and placed
+the letter where Tom was most likely to light naturally on it without
+public comment.  The other letter renewed the pang at common property
+being at an end.  'No, Mab,' she said, taking the little dog into her
+lap, 'we shall none of us hear a bit of it!  But at least it is a
+comfort that this business is over!  You needn't creep under sofas
+now, there's nobody to tread upon your dainty little paws.  What is
+to be done, Mab, to get out of a savage humour--except thinking how
+good-natured poor Tom is!'
+
+There was not much sign of savage humour in the face that was lifted
+up as Dr. May came in from the hospital, and sitting down by his
+daughter, put his arm round her.  'So there's another bird flown,' he
+said.  'We shall soon have the old nest to ourselves, Ethel.'
+
+'The Daisy is not going just yet,' said Ethel, stroking back the thin
+flying flakes over his temples.  'If we may believe her, never!'
+
+'Ah! she will be off before we can look round,' said the Doctor;
+'when once the trick of marrying gets among one's girls, there's no
+end to it, as long as they last out.'
+
+'Nor to one's boys going out into the world,' said Ethel: both of
+them talking as if she had been his wife, rather than one of these
+fly-away younglings herself.
+
+'Ah! well,' he said, 'it's very pretty while it lasts, and one keeps
+the creatures; but after all, one doesn't rear them for one's own
+pleasure.  That only comes by the way of their chance good-will to
+one.'
+
+'For shame, Doctor!' said Ethel, pretending to shake him by the
+collar.
+
+'I was thinking,' he added, 'that we must not require too much.
+People must have their day, and in their own fashion; and I wish you
+would tell Tom--I've no patience to do it myself--that I don't mean
+to hamper him.  As long as it is a right line, he may take whichever
+he pleases, and I'll do my best to set him forward in it; but it is a
+pity--'
+
+'Perhaps a few years of travelling, or of a professorship, might give
+him time to think differently,' said Ethel.
+
+'Not he,' said the Doctor; 'the more a man lives in the world, the
+more he depends on it.  Where is the boy? is he gone without
+vouchsafing a good-bye?'
+
+'Oh no, he has taken pity on Annie and Caroline Cheviot's famine of
+croquet, and gone with them to the gardens.'
+
+'A spice of flirtation never comes amiss to him.'
+
+'There, that's the way!' said Ethel, half-saucily, half-caressingly;
+'that poor fellow never can do right!  Isn't it the very thing to
+keep him away from home, that we all may steal a horse, and he can't
+look over the wall, no, not with a telescope?'
+
+'I can't help it, Ethel.  It may be very wrong and unkind of me--
+Heaven forgive me if it is, and prevent me from doing the boy any
+harm! but I never can rid myself of a feeling of there being
+something behind when he seems the most straightforward.  If he had
+only not got his grandfather's mouth and nose!  And,' smiling after
+all--'I dont know what I said to be so scolded; all lads flirt, and
+you can't deny that Master Tom divided his attentions pretty freely
+last year between Mrs. Pugh and poor Ave Ward.'
+
+'This time, I believe, it was out of pure kindness to me,' said
+Ethel, 'so I am bound to his defence.  He dragged off poor Daisy to
+chaperon them, that I might have a little peace.'
+
+'Ah! he came down on us this morning,' said the Doctor, 'on Richard
+and Flora and me, and gave us a lecture on letting you grow old,
+Ethel--said you were getting over-tasked, and no one heeding it; and
+looking--let's look'--and he took off his spectacles, put his hand on
+her shoulder, and studied her face.
+
+'Old enough to be a respectable lady of the house, I hope,' said
+Ethel.
+
+'Wiry enough for most things,' said the Doctor, patting her shoulder,
+reassured; 'but we must take care, Ethel; if you don't fatten
+yourself up, we shall have Flora coming and carrying you off to
+London for a change, and for Tom to practise on.
+
+'That is a threat!  I expected he had been prescribing for me
+already, never to go near Cocksmoor, for that's what people always
+begin by--'
+
+'Nothing worse than pale ale.'  At which Ethel made one of her faces.
+'And to make a Mary of that chit of a Daisy.  Well, you may do as you
+please--only take care, or Flora will be down upon us.'
+
+'Tom has been very helpful and kind to me,' said Ethel.  'And, papa,
+he has seen Leonard, and he says he looked so noble that to shake
+hands with him made him feel quite small.'
+
+'I never heard anything so much to Tom's credit!  Well, and what did
+he say of the dear lad?'
+
+The next step was to mention Averil's letter to Mary, which could not
+be sent on till tidings had been permitted by Mr. Cheviot.
+
+'Let us see it,' said the Doctor.
+
+'Do you think Charles Cheviot would like it?'
+
+'Cheviot is a man of sense,' said the open-hearted Doctor, 'and there
+may be something to authorize preventing this unlucky transfer of her
+fortune.'
+
+Nothing could be further from it; but it was a long and interesting
+letter, written in evidently exhilarated spirits, and with a hopeful
+description of the new scenes.  Ethel read it to her father, and he
+told every one about it when they came in.  Tom manifested no
+particular interest; but he did not go by the mail train that night,
+and was not visible all the morning.  He caught Ethel alone however
+at noon, and said, 'Ethel, I owe you this,' offering the amount she
+had paid for the letter.
+
+'Thank you,' she said, wondering if this was to be all she should
+hear about it.
+
+'I am going by the afternoon train,' he added; 'I have been over to
+Blewer.  It is true, Ethel, the fellow can't stand it! he has sent
+down a manager, and is always in London!  Most likely to dispose of
+it by private contract there, they say.'
+
+'And what has become of old Hardy?'
+
+'Poor old fellow, he has struck work, looks terribly shaky.  He took
+me for my father at first sight, and began to apologize most
+plaintively--said no one else had ever done him any good.  I advised
+him to come in and see my father, though he is too far gone to do
+much for him.'
+
+'Poor old man, can he afford to come in now?'
+
+'Why, I helped him with the cart hire.  It is no use any way, he
+knows no more than we do, and his case is confirmed; but he thinks he
+has offended my father, and he'll die more in peace for having had
+him again.  Look here, what a place they have got to.'
+
+And without further explanation of the 'they,' Tom placed a letter in
+Ethel's hands.
+
+'My Dear Mr. Thomas,
+
+'I send you the objects I promised for your microscope; I could not
+get any before because we were in the city; but if you like these I
+can get plenty more at Massissauga, where we are now.  We came here
+last week, and the journey was very nice, only we went bump bump so
+often, and once we stuck in a marsh, and were splashed all over.  We
+are staying with Mr. Muller and Cora till our own house is quite
+ready; it was only begun a fortnight ago, and we are to get in next
+week.  I thought this would have been a town, it looked so big and so
+square in the plan; but it is all trees still, and there are only
+thirteen houses built yet.  Ours is all by itself in River Street,
+and all the trees near it have been killed, and stand up all dead and
+white, because nobody has time to cut them down.  It looks very
+dismal, but Ave says it will be very nice by and by, and, Rufus
+Muller says it has mammoth privileges.  I send you a bit of
+rattlesnake skin.  They found fifteen of them asleep under a stone,
+just where our house is built, and sometimes they come into the
+kitchen.  I do not know the names of the other things I send; and I
+could not ask Ave, for she said you would not want to be bothered
+with a little girl's letter, and I was not to ask for an answer.
+Rosa Willis says no young lady of my age would ask her sister's
+permission, and not even her mother's, unless her mamma was very
+intellectual and highly educated, and always saw the justice of her
+arguments; but Minna and I do not mean to be like that.  I would tell
+Ave if you did write to me, but she need not read it unless she
+liked.
+                       'I am, your affectionate little friend,
+                                                           'ELLA.'
+
+
+'Well!' said Tom, holding out his hand for more when she had restored
+this epistle.  'You have heard all there was in it, except--'
+
+'Except what I want to see.'
+
+And Ethel, as she had more or less intended all along, let him have
+Averil's letter, since the exception was merely a few tender words of
+congratulation to Mary.  The worst had been done already by her
+father; and it may here be mentioned that though nothing was said in
+answer to her explanation of the opening of the letter, the head-
+master never recovered the fact, and always attributed it to his dear
+sister Ethel.
+
+'For the future,' said Tom, as he gave back the thin sheets, 'they
+will all be for the Cheviots' private delectation.'
+
+'I shall begin on my own score,' said Ethel.  'You know if you answer
+this letter, you must not mention that visit of yours, or you will be
+prohibited, and one would not wish to excite a domestic secession.'
+
+'It would serve the unnatural scoundrel right,' said Tom.  'Well, I
+must go and put up my things.  You'll keep me up to what goes on at
+home, and if there's anything out there to tell Leonard--'
+
+'Wait a moment, Tom!'--and she told him what the Doctor had said
+about his plans.
+
+'Highly educated and intellectual,' was all the answer that Tom
+vouchsafed; and whether he were touched or not she could not gather.
+
+Yet her spirit felt less weary and burdened, and more full of hope
+than it had been for a long time past.  Averil's letter showed the
+exhilaration of the change, and of increasing confidence and comfort
+in her friend Cora Muller.  Cora's Confirmation had brought the girls
+into contact with the New York clergy, and had procured them an
+introduction to the clergyman of Winiamac, the nearest church, so
+that there was much less sense of loneliness, moreover, the fuller
+and more systematic doctrine, and the development of the beauty and
+daily guidance of the Church, had softened the bright American girl,
+so as to render her infinitely dearer to her English friend, and they
+were as much united as they could be, where the great leading event
+of the life of one remained a mystery to the other.  Yet perhaps it
+helped to begin a fresh life, that the intimate companion of that new
+course should be entirely disconnected with the past.
+
+Averil threw herself into the present with as resolute a will as she
+could muster.  With much spirit she described the arrival at the
+Winiamac station, and the unconcealed contempt with which the mass of
+luggage was regarded by the Western world, who 'reckoned it would be
+fittest to make kindlings with.'  Heavy country wagons were to bring
+the furniture; the party themselves were provided for by a light
+wagon and a large cart, driven by Cora's brother, Mordaunt, and by
+the farming-man, Philetus, a gentleman who took every occasion of
+asserting his equality, if not his superiority to the new-comers;,
+demanded all the Christian names, and used them without prefix; and
+when Henry impressively mentioned his eldest sister as Miss Warden,
+stared and said, 'Why, Doctor, I thought she was not your old
+woman!'--the Western epithet of a wife.  But as Cora was quite
+content to leave Miss behind her in civilized society, and as they
+were assured that to stand upon ceremony would leave them without
+domestic assistance, the sisters had implored Henry to waive all
+preference for a polite address.
+
+The loveliness of the way was enchanting--the roads running straight
+as an arrow through glorious forest lands of pine, beech, maple, and
+oak, in the full glory of spring, and the perspective before and
+behind making a long narrowing green bower of meeting branches; the
+whole of the borders of the road covered with lovely flowers--May-
+wings, a butterfly-like milkwort, pitcher-plant, convolvulus; new
+insects danced in the shade--golden orioles, blue birds, the great
+American robin, the field officer, with his orange epaulettes,
+glanced before them.  Cora was in ecstasy at the return to forest
+scenery, the Wards at its novelty, and the escape from town.  Too
+happy were they at first to care for the shaking and bumping of the
+road, and the first mud-hole into which they plunged was almost a
+joke, under Mordaunt Muller's assurances that it was easy fording,
+though the splashes flew far and wide.  Then there was what Philetus
+called 'a mash with a real handsome bridge over it,' i. e. a
+succession of tree trunks laid side by side for about a quarter of a
+mile.  Here the female passengers insisted on walking--even Cora,
+though her brother and Philetus both laughed her to scorn; and more
+especially for her foot-gear, delicate kid boots, without which no
+city damsel stirred.  Averil and her sisters, in the English boots
+scorned at New York, had their share in the laugh, while picking
+their way from log to log, hand in hand, and exciting Philetus's
+further disdain by their rapture with the glorious flowers of the
+bog.
+
+But where was Massissauga?  Several settlements had been passed, the
+houses looking clean and white in forest openings, with fields where
+the lovely spring green of young maize charmed the eye.
+
+At last the road grew desolate.  There were a few patches of corn, a
+few squalid-looking log or frame houses, a tract of horrible dreary
+blackness; and still more horrible, beyond it was a region of
+spectres--trees white and stripped bare, lifting their dead arms like
+things blasted.  Averil cried out in indignant horror, 'Who has done
+this?'
+
+'We have,' answered Mordaunt.  'This is Maclellan Square, Miss
+Warden, and there's River Street,' pointing down an avenue of
+skeletons.  'If you could go to sleep for a couple of years, you
+would wake up to find yourself in a city such as I would not fear to
+compare with any in Europe.  Your exhausted civilization is not as
+energetic as ours, I calculate.'
+
+The energetic young colonist turned his horse's head up a slight
+rising ground, where something rather more like habitation appeared;
+a great brick-built hotel, and some log houses, with windows
+displaying the wares needed for daily consumption, and a few farm
+buildings.  It was backed by corn-fields; and this was the great
+Maclellan Street, the chief ornament of Massissauga.  Not one house
+had the semblance of a garden; the wilderness came up to the very
+door, except where cattle rendered some sort of enclosure necessary.
+
+Cora exclaimed, 'Oh, Mordaunt, I thought you would have had a garden
+for me!'
+
+'I can fix it any time you like,' said he; 'but you'll be the
+laughing-stock of the place, and never keep a flower.'
+
+The Mullers' abode was a sound substantial log house, neatly
+whitened, and with green shutters, bearing a festal appearance, full
+of welcome, as Mr. Muller, his tall bearded son Rufus, and a thin but
+motherly-looking elderly woman, came forth to meet the travellers;
+and in the front, full stare, stood a trollopy-looking girl, every
+bar of her enormous hoop plainly visible through her washed-out
+flimsy muslin.  This was Miss Ianthe, who condescended to favour the
+family with her assistance till she should have made up dollars
+enough to buy a new dress!  The elder woman, who went by the name of
+Cousin Deborah, would have been a housekeeper in England--here she
+was one of the family--welcomed Cora with an exchange of kisses, and
+received the strangers with very substantial hospitality, though with
+pity at their unfitness for their new home, and utter incredulity as
+to their success.
+
+Here the Wards had been since their arrival.  Their frame-house, near
+the verdant bank of the river, was being finished for them; and a
+great brass plate, with Henry's new name and his profession, had
+already adorned the door.  The furniture was coming; Cousin Deborah
+had hunted up a Cleopatra Betsy, who might perhaps stay with them if
+she were treated on terms of equality, a field was to be brought into
+cultivation as soon as any labour could be had.  Minna was looking
+infinitely better already, and Averil and Cora were full of designs
+for rival housewifery, Averil taking lessons meantime in ironing,
+dusting, and the arts of the kitchen, and trusting that in the two
+years' time, the skeletons would have given place--if not indeed to
+houses, to well-kept fields.  Such was her account.
+
+How much was reserved for fear of causing anxiety?  Who could guess?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+
+                 Quanto si fende
+La rocca per dar via a chi va suso
+N'andai 'nfino ove'l cerchiar si prende
+Com'io nel quinto giro fui dischiuso
+Vidi gente per esso che piangea
+Glacendo a terra tutta volta in giuso
+Adhaesit pavimento anima mia
+Sentia dir loro con si alti sospiri
+Che la parola appena s'intendea.
+'0 eletti di Deo, i cui soffriri
+E giustizia e speranza fan men duri--'
+                               DANTE. Purgatorio
+
+
+
+Ah, sir, we have learnt the way to get your company,' said Hector
+Ernescliffe, as he welcomed his father-in-law at Maplewood; 'we have
+only to get under sentence.'
+
+'Sick or sorry, Hector; that's the attraction to an old doctor.'
+
+'And,' added Hector, with the importance of his youthful magisterial
+dignity, 'I hope I have arranged matters for you to see him.  I wrote
+about it; but I am afraid you will not be able to see him alone.'
+
+Great was the satisfaction with which Hector took the conduct of the
+expedition to Portland Island; though he was inclined to encumber it
+with more lionizing than the good Doctor's full heart was ready for.
+Few words could he obtain, as in the bright August sunshine they
+steamed out from the pier at Weymouth, and beheld the gray sides of
+the island, scarred with stone quarries, stretching its lengthening
+breakwater out on one side, and on the other connected with the land
+by the pale dim outline of the Chesill Bank.  The water was dancing
+in golden light; white-sailed or red-sailed craft plied across it; a
+ship of the line lay under the lee of the island, practising gunnery,
+the three bounds of her balls marked by white columns of spray each
+time of touching the water, pleasure parties crowded the steamer; but
+to Dr. May the cheerfulness of the scene made a depressing contrast
+to the purpose of his visit, as he fixed his eyes on the squared
+outline of the crest of the island, and the precipitous slope from
+thence to the breakwater, where trains of loaded trucks rushed forth
+to the end, discharged themselves, and hurried back.
+
+Landing at the quay, in the midst of confusion, Hector smiled at the
+Doctor's innocent proposal of walking, and bestowed him in a little
+carriage, with a horse whose hard-worked patience was soon called
+out, as up and up they went, through the narrow, but lively street,
+past the old-fashioned inn, made memorable by a dinner of George
+III.; past the fossil tree, clamped against a house like a vine; past
+heaps of slabs ready for transport, a church perched up high on the
+slope, and a parsonage in a place that looked only accessible to
+goats.  Lines of fortification began to reveal themselves, and the
+Doctor thought himself arrived, but he was to wind further on, and be
+more struck with the dreariness and inhospitality of the rugged rock,
+almost bare of vegetation, the very trees of stone, and older than
+our creation; the melancholy late ripening harvest within stone
+walls, the whole surface furrowed by stern rents and crevices riven
+by nature, or cut into greater harshness by the quarries hewn by man.
+The grave strangeness of the region almost marked it out for a place
+of expiation, like the mountain rising desolate from the sea, where
+Dante placed his prisoners of hope.
+
+The walls of a vast enclosure became visible; and over them might be
+seen the tops of great cranes, looking like the denuded ribs of
+umbrellas.  Buildings rose beyond, with deep arched gateways; and a
+small town was to be seen further off.  Mr. Ernescliffe sent in his
+card at the governor's house, and found that the facilities he had
+asked for had been granted.  They were told that the prisoner they
+wished to see was at work at some distance; and while he was
+summoned, they were to see the buildings.  Dr. May had little heart
+for making a sight of them, except so far as to judge of Leonard's
+situation; and he was passively conducted across a gravelled court,
+turfed in the centre, and containing a few flower-beds, fenced in by
+Portland's most natural productions, zamias and ammonites, together
+with a few stone coffins, which had once inclosed corpses of soldiers
+of the Roman garrison.  Large piles of building inclosed the
+quadrangle; and passing into the first of these, the Doctor began to
+realize something of Leonard's present existence.  There lay before
+him the broad airy passage, and either side the empty cells of this
+strange hive, as closely packed, and as chary of space, as the
+compartments of the workers of the honeycomb.
+
+'Just twice as wide as a coffin,' said Hector, doing the honours of
+one, where there was exactly width to stand up between the bed and
+the wall of corrugated iron; 'though, happily, there is more
+liberality of height.'
+
+There was a ground glass window opposite to the door, and a shelf,
+holding a Bible, Prayer and hymn book, and two others, one religious,
+and one secular, from the library.  A rust-coloured jacket, with a
+black patch marked with white numbers, and a tarpaulin hat, crossed
+with two lines of red paint on the crown, hung on the wall.  The
+Doctor asked for Leonard's cell, but it was in a distant gallery, and
+he was told that when he had seen one, he had seen all.  He asked if
+these were like those that Leonard had previously inhabited at
+Milbank and Pentonville, and hearing that they were on the same
+model, he almost gasped at the thought of the young enterprising
+spirit thus caged for nine weary months, and to whom this bare
+confined space was still the only resting-place.  He could not look
+by any means delighted with the excellence of the arrangements, grant
+it though he might; and he was hurried on to the vast kitchens, their
+ranges of coppers full of savoury steaming contents, and their racks
+of loaves looking all that was substantial and wholesome; but his
+eyes were wandering after the figures engaged in cooking, to whom he
+was told such work was a reward; he was trying to judge how far they
+could still enjoy life; but he turned from their stolid low stamp of
+face with a sigh, thinking how little their condition could tell him
+of that of a cultivated nature.
+
+He was shown the chapel, unfortunately serving likewise for a
+schoolroom; the centre space fitted for the officials and their
+families, the rest with plain wooden benches.  But it was not an hour
+for schooling, and he went restlessly on to the library, to gather
+all the consolation he could from seeing that the privation did not
+extend to that of sound and interesting literature.  He had yet to
+see the court, where the prisoners were mustered at half-past five in
+the morning, thence to be marched off in their various companies to
+work.  He stood on the terrace from which the officials marshalled
+them, and he was called on to look at the wide and magnificent view
+of sea and land; but all he would observe to Hector was, 'That boy's
+throat has always been tender since the fever.'  He was next
+conducted to the great court, the quarry of the stones of the present
+St. Paul's, and where the depression of the surface since work began
+there, was marked by the present height of what had become a steep
+conical edifice, surmounted by a sort of watch-tower.  There he grew
+quite restive, and hearing a proposal of taking him to the Verne Hill
+works half a mile off, he declared that Hector was welcome to go; he
+should wait for his boy.
+
+Just then the guide pointed out at some distance a convict
+approaching under charge of a warder; and in a few seconds more, the
+Doctor had stepped back to a small room, where, by special favour, he
+was allowed to be with the prisoner, instead of seeing him through a
+grating, but only in the presence of a warder, who was within
+hearing, though not obtrusively so.  Looking, to recognize, not to
+examine, he drew the young man into his fatherly embrace.
+
+'You have hurt your hands,' was his first word, at the touch of the
+bruised fingers and broken skin.
+
+'They are getting hardened,' was the answer, in an alert tone, that
+gave the Doctor courage to look up and meet an unquenched glance;
+though there was the hollow look round the eyes that Tom had noticed,
+the face had grown older, the expression more concentrated, the
+shoulders had rounded; the coarse blue shirt and heavy boots were
+dusty with the morning's toil, and the heat and labour of the day had
+left their tokens, but the brow was as open, the mouth as ingenuous
+as ever, the complexion had regained a hue of health, and the air of
+alacrity and exhilaration surprised as much as it gratified the
+visitor.
+
+'What is your work?' he asked.
+
+'Filling barrows with stones, and wheeling them to the trucks for the
+breakwater,' answered Leonard, in a tone like satisfaction.  'But
+pray, if you are so kind, tell me,' he continued, with anxiety that
+he could not suppress, 'what is this about war in America?'
+
+'Not near Indiana; no fear of that, I trust.  But how did you know,
+Leonard?'
+
+'I saw, for one moment at a time, in great letters on a placard of
+the contents of newspapers, at the stations as we came down here, the
+words, 'Civil War in America;' and it has seemed to be in the air
+here ever since.  But Averil has said nothing in her letters.  Will
+it affect them?'
+
+The Doctor gave a brief sketch of what was passing, up to the battle
+of Bull Run; and his words were listened to with such exceeding
+avidity, that he was obliged to spend more minutes than he desired on
+the chances of the war, and the Massissauga tidings, which he wished
+to make sound more favourable than he could in conscience feel that
+they were; but when at last he had detailed all he knew from Averil's
+letters, and it had been drunk in with glistening eyes, and manner
+growing constantly less constrained, he led back to Leonard himself:
+'Ethel will write at once to your sister when I get home; and I think
+I may tell her the work agrees with you.'
+
+'Yes; and this is man's work; and it is for the defences,' he added,
+with a sparkle of the eye.
+
+'Very hard and rough,' returned the Doctor, looking again at the
+wounded hands and hard-worked air.
+
+'Oh, but to put out one's strength again, and have room!' cried the
+boy, eagerly.
+
+'Was it not rather a trying change at first?'
+
+'To be sure I was stiff, and didn't know how to move in the morning,
+but that went off fast enough; and I fill as many barrows a day as
+any one in our gang.'
+
+'Then I may tell your sister you rejoice in the change?'
+
+'Why, it's work one does not get deadly sick of, as if there was no
+making one's self do it,' said Leonard, eagerly; 'it is work! and
+besides, here is sunshine and sea.  I can get a sight of that every
+day; and now and then I can get a look into the bay, and Weymouth--
+looking like the old time.'  That was his first sorrowful intonation;
+but the next had the freshness of his age, 'And there are thistles!'
+
+'Thistles?'
+
+'I thought you cared for thistles; for Miss May showed me one at
+Coombe; but it was not like what they are here--the spikes pointing
+out and pointing in along the edges of the leaves, and the scales
+lapping over so wonderfully in the bud.'
+
+'Picciola!' said the Doctor to himself; and aloud,  'Then you have
+time to enjoy them?'
+
+'When we are at work at a distance, dinner is brought out, and there
+is an hour and a half of rest; and on Sunday we may walk about the
+yards.  You should have seen one of our gang, when I got him to look
+at the chevaux de frise round a bud, how he owned it was a regular
+patent invention; it just answered to Paley's illustration.'
+
+'What, the watch?' said the Doctor, seeing that the argument had been
+far from trite to his young friend.  'So you read Paley?'
+
+'I read all such books as I could get up there ' he answered; 'they
+gave one something to think about.'
+
+'Have you no time for reading here?'
+
+'Oh, no!  I am too sleepy to read except on school days and Sundays,'
+he said, as if this were a great achievement.
+
+'And your acquaintance--is he a reader of Paley too?'
+
+'I believe the chaplain set him on it.  He is a clerk, like me, and
+not much older.  He is a regular Londoner, and can hardly stand the
+work; but he won't give in if he can help it, or we might not be
+together.'
+
+Much the Doctor longed to ask what sort of a friend this might be,
+but the warder's presence forbade him; and he could only ask what
+they saw of each other.
+
+'We were near one another in school at Pentonville, and knew each
+other's faces quite well, so that we were right glad to be put into
+the same gang.  We may walk about the yard together on Sunday evening
+too.'
+
+The Doctor had other questions on his lips that he again restrained,
+and only asked whether the Sundays were comfortable days.
+
+'Oh, yes,' said Leonard, eagerly; but then he too recollected the
+official, and merely said something commonplace about excellent
+sermons, adding, 'And the singing is admirable.  Poor Averil would
+envy such a choir as we have!  We sing so many of the old Bankside
+hymns.'
+
+'To make your resemblance to Dante's hill of penitence complete, as
+Ethel says,' returned the Doctor.
+
+'I should like it to be a hill of purification!' said Leonard,
+understanding him better than he had expected.
+
+'It will, I think,' said the Doctor, 'to one at least.  I am
+comforted to see you so brave.  I longed to come sooner, but--'
+
+'I am glad you did not.'
+
+'How?'  But he did not pursue the question, catching from look and
+gesture, that Leonard could hardly have then met him with self-
+possession; and as the first bulletin of recovery is often the first
+disclosure of the severity of an illness, so the Doctor was more
+impressed by the prisoner's evident satisfaction in his change of
+circumstances, than he would have been by mere patient resignation;
+and he let the conversation be led away to Aubrey's prospects, in
+which Leonard took full and eager interest.
+
+'Tell Aubrey I am working at fortifications too,' he said, smiling.
+
+'He could not go to Cambridge without you.'
+
+'I don't like to believe that,' said Leonard, gravely; 'it is
+carrying the damage I have done further: but it can't be.  He always
+was fond of mathematics, and of soldiering.  How is it at the old
+mill?' he added, suddenly.
+
+'It is sold.'
+
+'Sold?' and his eyes were intently fixed on the Doctor.
+
+'Yes, he is said to have been much in debt long before; but it was
+managed quietly--not advertised in the county papers.  He went to
+London, and arranged it all.  I saw great renovations going on at the
+mill, when I went to see old Hardy.'
+
+'Good old Hardy! how is he?'
+
+'Much broken.  He never got over the shock; and as long as that
+fellow stayed at the mill, he would not let me attend him.'
+
+'Ha!' exclaimed Leonard, but caught himself up.
+
+A message came that Mr. Ernescliffe feared to miss the boat; and the
+Doctor could only give one tender grasp and murmured blessing, and
+hurry away, so much agitated that he could hardly join in Hector's
+civilities to the officials, and all the evening seemed quite struck
+down and overwhelmed by the sight of the bright brave boy, and his
+patience in his dreary lot.
+
+After this, at all the three months' intervals at which Leonard might
+be seen, a visit was contrived to him, either by Dr. May or Mr.
+Wilmot; and Aubrey devoted his first leave of absence to staying at
+Maplewood, that Hector might take him to his friend; but he came home
+expatiating so much on the red hair of the infant hope of Maplewood,
+and the fuss that Blanche made about this new possession, that Ethel
+detected an unavowed shade of disappointment.  Light and whitewash,
+abundant fare, garments sufficient, but eminently unbecoming, were
+less impressive than dungeons, rags, and bread and water; when,
+moreover, the prisoner claimed no pity, but rather congratulation on
+his badge of merit, improved Sunday dinner, and promotion to the
+carpenter's shop, so as absolutely to excite a sense of wasted
+commiseration and uninteresting prosperity.  Conversation constrained
+both by the grating and the presence of the warder, and Aubrey, more
+tenderly sensitive than his brother, and devoid of his father's
+experienced tact, was too much embarrassed to take the initiative,
+was afraid of giving pain by dwelling on his present occupations and
+future hopes, and confused Leonard by his embarrassment.  Hector
+Ernescliffe discoursed about Charleston Harbour and New Orleans; and
+Aubrey stood with downcast eyes, afraid to seem to be scanning the
+convict garb, and thus rendering Leonard unusually conscious of
+wearing it.  Then when in parting, Aubrey, a little less embarrassed,
+began eagerly and in much emotion to beg Leonard to say if there was
+anything he could get for him, anything he could do for him, anything
+he would like to have sent him, and began to promise a photograph of
+his father, Leonard checked him, by answering that it would be an
+irregularity--nothing of personal property was allowed to be retained
+by a prisoner.
+
+Aubrey forgot all but the hardship, and began an outburst about the
+tyranny.
+
+'It is quite right,' said Leonard, gravely; 'there is nothing that
+might not be used for mischief if one chose.'
+
+And the warder here interfered, and said he was quite right, and it
+always turned out best in the end for a prisoner to conform himself,
+and his friends did him no good by any other attempt, as Mr.
+Ernescliffe could tell the young gentleman.  The man's tone, though
+neither insolent nor tyrannical, but rather commendatory of his
+charge, contrasting with his natural deference to the two gentlemen,
+irritated poor Aubrey beyond measure, so that Hector was really glad
+to have him safe away, without his having said anything treasonable
+to the authorities.  The meeting, so constrained and uncomfortable,
+had but made the friends more vividly conscious of the interval
+between the cadet and the convict, and, moreover, tended to remove
+the aureole of romance with which the unseen captive had been
+invested by youthful fancy.
+
+To make the best of a prolonged misfortune does absolutely lessen
+sympathy, by diminishing the interest of the situation; and even the
+good Doctor himself was the less concerned at any hindrance to his
+visits to Portland, as he uniformly found his prisoner cheerful,
+approved by officials, and always making some small advance in the
+scale of his own world, and not, as his friends without expected of
+him, showing that he felt himself injured instead of elated by such
+rewards as improved diet, or increased gratuities to be set to his
+account against the time when, after eight years, he might hope for
+exportation with a ticket of leave to Western Australia.
+
+The halo of approaching death no longer lighted him up, and after the
+effusion of the first meeting, his inner self had closed up, he was
+more ready to talk of American news than of his own feelings, and
+seemed to look little beyond the petty encouragements devised to suit
+the animal natures of ordinary prisoners, and his visitors sometimes
+feared lest his character were not resisting the deadening, hardening
+influence of the unvaried round of manual labour among such
+associates.  He had been soon advanced from the quarry to the
+carpenter's shop, and was in favour there from his activity and
+skill; but his very promotions were sad--and it was more sad, as some
+thought, for him to be gratified by them.  But, as Dr. May always
+ended, what did they know about him?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+
+Oh, Bessie Bell and Mary Grey,
+They were twa bonnie lasses;
+They bigged a bower on yon burn side,
+And theekt it over wi' rashes.
+
+
+The early glory of autumn was painting the woods of Indiana--crimson,
+orange, purple, as though a rainbow of intensified tints had been
+broken into fragments, and then scattered broadcast upon the forest.
+But though ripe nuts hung on many a bough, the gipsyings had not yet
+taken place, except at home--when Minna, in her desperate attempts at
+making the best of things, observed, 'Now we have to make the fire
+ourselves, let us think it is all play, and such fun.'
+
+But 'such fun' was hard when one or other of the inmates of the house
+was lying on the bed shaking with ague, and the others creeping
+wearily about, even on their intermediate days.  They had been
+deluded into imprudent exposure in the lovely evenings of summer, and
+had never shaken off the results.
+
+'Come, Ella,' said Minna, one afternoon, as she descended the bare
+rickety stairs, 'Ave is getting better; and if we can get the fire
+up, and make some coffee and boil some eggs, it will be comfortable
+for her when she comes down and Henry comes in.'
+
+Ella, with a book in her hand, was curled up in a corner of a sofa
+standing awry among various other articles of furniture that seemed
+to have tumbled together by chance within the barn-like room.  Minna
+began moving first one and then the other, daintily wiping off the
+dust, and restoring an air of comfort.
+
+'Oh dear!' said Ella, unfolding herself; 'I am so tired.  Where's
+Hetta Mary?'
+
+'Oh, don't you know, Hetta Mary went home this morning because Henry
+asked her where his boots were, and she thought he wanted her to
+clean them.'
+
+'Can't Mrs. Shillabeer come in!'
+
+'Mrs. Shillabeer said she would never come in again, because Averil
+asked her not to hold the ham by the bone and cut it with her own
+knife when Henry was there!  Come, Ella it is of no use.  We had
+better do things ourselves, like Cora and Ave, and then we shall not
+hear people say disagreeable things.'
+
+The once soft, round, kitten-like Minna, whom Leonard used to roll
+about on the floor, had become a lank, sallow girl, much too tall for
+her ten years, and with a care-stricken, thoughtful expression on her
+face, even more in advance of her age than was her height.  She moved
+into the kitchen, a room with an iron stove, a rough table, and a few
+shelves, looking very desolate. The hands of both little girls had
+become expert in filling the stove with wood, and they had not far to
+seek before both it and the hearth in the sitting-room were
+replenished, and the flame beginning to glow.
+
+'Where's the coffee-mill?' said Minna, presently, looking round in
+blank despair.
+
+'Oh dear!' said Ella, 'I remember now; that dirty little Polly Mason
+came to borrow it this morning.  I said we wanted it every day: but
+she guessed we could do without it, for they had got a tea-party, and
+her little brother had put in a stone and spoilt Cora Muller's; and
+she snatched it up and carried it off.'
+
+'He will serve ours the same, I suppose,' said Minna.  'It is too far
+off to go for it; let us make some tea.'
+
+'There's no tea,' said Ella; 'a week ago or more that great Irene
+Brown walked in and reckoned we could lend her 'ma some tea and
+sugar, 'cause we had plenty.  And we have used up our own since; and
+if we did ask her to return the loan, hers is such nasty stuff that
+nobody could drink it. What shall we do, Minna?' and she began to
+cry.
+
+'We must take some coffee up to the hotel,' said Minna, after a
+moment's reflection; 'Black Joe is very good-natured, and he'll grind
+it.'
+
+'But I don't like to go ail by myself,' said Ella; 'into the kitchen
+too, and hear them say things about Britishers.'
+
+'I'll go, dear,' said Minna, gently, 'if you will just keep the fire
+up, and boil the eggs, and make the toast, and listen if Ave calls.'
+
+Poor Minna, her sensitive little heart trembled within her at the
+rough contemptuous words that the exclusive, refined tone of the
+family always provoked, and bodily languor and weariness made the
+walk trying; but she was thinking of Ave's need, and resolutely took
+down her cloak and hat.  But at that moment the latch was raised, and
+the bright graceful figure of Cora stood among them, her feathered
+hat and delicate muslin looking as fresh as at New York.
+
+'What, all alone!' she said; 'I know it is poor Ave's sick day.  Is
+she better?'
+
+'Yes, going to get up and come down; but--' and all the troubles were
+poured out.
+
+'True enough, the little wretch did spoil our mill, but Rufus mended
+it; and as I thought Polly had been marauding on you, I brought some
+down.'
+
+'Ah!  I thought I smelt it most deliciously as you came in, but I was
+afraid I only fancied it because I was thinking about it.  Dear Cora,
+how good you are!'
+
+'And have you anything for her to eat?'
+
+'I was going to make some toast.'
+
+'Of that dry stuff!  Come, we'll manage something better:' and off
+came the dainty embroidered cambric sleeves, up went the coloured
+ones, a white apron came out of a pocket, and the pretty hands were
+busy among the flour; the children assisting, learning, laughing a
+childlike laugh.
+
+'Ah!' cried Cora, turning round, and making a comic threatening
+gesture with her floury fingers; 'you ought not to have come till we
+were fixed.  Go and sit in your chair by the fire.'
+
+'Dear Cora!'
+
+But Cora ran at her, and the wan trembling creature put on a smile,
+and was very glad to comply; being totally unequal to resist or even
+to stand long enough to own her dread of Henry's finding all desolate
+and nothing to eat.
+
+Presently Cora tripped in, all besleeved and smartened, to set
+cushions behind the tired back and head, and caress the long thin
+fingers.  'I've left Minna, like King Alfred, to watch the cakes,'
+she said; 'and Ella is getting the cups.  So your fifth girl is
+gone.'
+
+'The fifth in five months!  And we let her sit at table, and poor
+dear Minna has almost worn out her life in trying to hinder her from
+getting affronted.'
+
+'I've thought what to do for you, Ave.  There's the Irish woman,
+Katty Blake--her husband has been killed.  She is rough enough, but
+tender in her way; and she must do something for herself and her
+child.'
+
+'Her husband killed!'
+
+'Yes, at Summerville.  I thought you had heard it.  Mordaunt wrote to
+me to tell her; and I shall never forget her wailing at his dying
+away from his country.  It was not lamentation for herself, but that
+he should have died far away from his own people.'
+
+'She is not long from the old country; I should like to have her if--
+if we can afford it.  For if the dividends don't come soon from that
+building company, Cora, I don't know where to turn--'
+
+'Oh, they must come.  Father has been writing to Rufus about the
+arrangements.  Besides, those Irish expect less, and understand old
+country manners better, if you can put up with their breakages.'
+
+'I could put up with anything to please Henry, and save Minna's
+little hard-worked bones.'
+
+'I will send her to-morrow.  Is it not Minna's day of ague?'
+
+'Yes, poor dear.  That is always the day we get into trouble.'
+
+'I never saw a child with such an instinct for preventing variance,
+or so full of tact and pretty ways; yet I have seen her tremble under
+her coaxing smile, that even Mis' Shillabeer can't resist.'
+
+'See, see!' cried Ella, hurrying in, 'surely our contingent is not
+coming home!'
+
+'No,' said Cora, hastening to the door, 'these must be a
+reinforcement marching to take the train at Winiamac.'
+
+'Marching?' said Ella, looking up archly at her.  'We didn't let our
+volunteers march in that way.'
+
+They were sturdy bearded backwoodsmen, rifle on shoulder, and with
+grave earnest faces; but walking rather than marching, irregularly
+keeping together, or straggling, as they chose.
+
+'Your volunteers!' cried Cora, her eyes flashing; 'theirs was toy
+work!  These are bound for real patriotic war!' and she clasped her
+hands together, then waved her handkerchief.
+
+'It is sad,' said Averil, who had moved to the window, 'to see so
+many elderly faces--men who must be the prop of their families.'
+
+'It is because ours is a fight of men, not of children; not one of
+your European wars of paltry ambition, but a war of principle!' cried
+Cora, with that intensity of enthusiasm that has shed so much blood
+in the break-up of the Great Republic.
+
+'They do look as Cromwell's Ironsides may have done,' said Averil;
+'as full of stern purpose.'
+
+And verily Averil noted the difference.  Had a number of European
+soldiers been passing so near in an equally undisciplined manner,
+young women could not have stood forth as Cora was doing,
+unprotected, yet perfectly safe from rudeness or remark; making ready
+answer to the inquiry for the nearest inn--nay, only wishing she were
+in her own house, to evince her patriotism by setting refreshment
+before the defenders of her cause.  Her ardour had dragged Averil up
+with her a little way, so as to feel personally every vicissitude
+that befell the North, and to be utterly unaware of any argument in
+favour of the Confederates; but still Averil was, in Cora's words,
+'too English;' she could not, for the life of her, feel as she did
+when equipping her brother against possible French invasions, and
+when Mordaunt Muller had been enrolled in the Federal army, she had
+almost offended the exultant sister by condolence instead of
+congratulation.
+
+Five months had elapsed since the arrival of Averil in Massissauga--
+months of anxiety and disappointment, which had sickened Henry of
+plans of farming, and lessened his hopes of practice.  The same
+causes that affected him at New York told in Indiana; and even if he
+had been employed, the fees would have been too small to support the
+expense of horses.  As to farming, labour was scarce, and could only
+be obtained at the cost of a considerable outlay, and, moreover, of
+enduring rude self-assertions that were more intolerable to Henry
+than even to his sisters.  The chief hope of the family lay in the
+speculation in which Averil's means had been embarked, which gave
+them a right to their present domicile, and to a part of the
+uncleared waste around them; and would, when Massissauga should begin
+to flourish, place them in affluence.  The interest of the portions
+of the two younger girls was all that was secure, since these were
+fortunately still invested at home.  Inhabitants did not come, lots
+of land were not taken; and the Mullers evidently profited more by
+the magnificent harvest produced by their land than by the adventure
+of city founding.  Still, plenty and comfort reigned in their house,
+and Cora had imported a good deal of refinement and elegance, which
+she could make respected where Averil's attempts were only sneered
+down.  Nor had sickness tried her household.  Owing partly to
+situation--considerably above the level of River Street--partly to
+the freer, more cleared and cultivated surroundings--partly likewise
+to experience, and Cousin Deborah's motherly watchfulness--the summer
+had passed without a visitation of ague, though it seemed to be
+regarded as an adjunct of spring, as inevitable as winter frost.
+Averil trembled at the thought, but there was no escape; there were
+absolutely no means of leaving the spot, or of finding maintenance
+elsewhere.  Indeed, Cora's constant kindness and sympathy were too
+precious to be parted with, even had it been possible to move.  After
+the boarding-house, Massissauga was a kind of home; and the more
+spirits and energy failed, the more she clung to it.
+
+Mr. Muller had lately left home to arrange for the sale of his corn,
+and had announced that he might perhaps pay a visit to his son
+Mordaunt in the camp at Lexington.  Cora was expecting a letter from
+him, and the hope that 'Dr. Warden' might bring one from the post-
+office at Winiamac had been one cause of her visit on this afternoon;
+for the mammoth privileges of Massissauga did not include a post-
+office, nor the sight of letters more than once a week.
+
+The table had just been covered with preparations for a meal, and the
+glow of the fire was beginning to brighten the twilight, when the
+sound of a horse's feet came near, and Henry rode past the window,
+but did not appear for a considerable space, having of late been
+reduced to become his own groom.  But even in the noise of the hoofs,
+even in the wave of the hand, the girls had detected gratified
+excitement.
+
+'Charleston has surrendered!  The rebels have submitted!' cried Cora.
+
+And Averil's heart throbbed with its one desperate hope.  No!  _That_
+would have brought him in at once.
+
+After all, both were in a state to feel it a little flat when he came
+in presenting a letter to Miss Muller, and announcing, 'I have had a
+proposal, ladies; what would you say to seeing me a surgeon to the
+Federal forces?--Do you bid me go, Miss Muller?'
+
+'I bid every one go who can be useful to my country,' said Cora.
+
+'Don't look alarmed, Averil,' said Henry, affectionately, as he met
+her startled eyes; 'there is no danger.  A surgeon need never expose
+himself.'
+
+'But how--what has made you think of it?' asked Averil, faintly.
+
+'A letter from Mr. Muller--a very kind letter.  He tells me that
+medical men are much wanted, and that an examination by a Board is
+all that is required, the remuneration is good, and it will be an
+introduction that will avail me after the termination of the war,
+which will end with the winter at latest.'
+
+'And father has accepted an office in the commissariat department!'
+exclaimed Cora, from her letter.
+
+'Yes,' answered Henry; 'he tells me that, pending more progression
+here, it is wiser for us both to launch into the current of public
+events, and be floated upwards by the stream.'
+
+'Does he want you to come to him, Cora?' was all that Averil
+contrived to say.
+
+'Oh no, he will be in constant locomotion,' said Cora.  'I shall stay
+to keep house for Rufus.  And here are some directions for him that I
+must carry home.  Don't come, Dr. Warden; I shall never cure you of
+thinking we cannot stir without an escort.  You will want to put a
+little public spirit into this dear Ave.  That's her one defect; and
+when you are one of us, she will be forced to give us her heart.'
+
+And away ran the bright girl, giving her caresses to each sister as
+she went.
+
+The little ones broke out, '0, Henry, Henry, you must not go away to
+the wars!' and Averil's pleading eyes spoke the same.
+
+Then Henry sat down and betook himself to argument.  It would be
+folly to lose the first opening to employment that had presented
+itself.  He grieved indeed to leave his sisters in this desolate,
+unhealthy place; but they were as essentially safe as at
+Stoneborough; their living alone for a few weeks, or at most months,
+would be far less remarkable here than there; and he would be likely
+to be able to improve or to alter their present situation, whereas
+they were now sinking deeper and more hopelessly into poverty every
+day.  Then, too, he read aloud piteous accounts of the want of
+medical attendance, showing that it was absolutely a cruelty to
+detain such assistance from the sick and wounded.  This argument was
+the one most appreciated by Averil and Minna.  The rest were but
+questions of prudence; this touched their hearts.  Men lying in close
+tents, or in crowded holds of ships, with festering wounds and
+fevered lips, without a hand to help them--some, too, whom they had
+seen at New York, and whose exulting departure they had witnessed--
+sufferers among whom their own Cora's favourite brother might at any
+moment be numbered--the thought brought a glow of indignation against
+themselves for having wished to withhold him.
+
+'Yes, go, Henry; it is right, and you shall hear not another word of
+objection,' said Averil.
+
+'You can write or telegraph the instant you want me.  And it will be
+for a short time,' said Henry, half repenting when the opposition had
+given way.
+
+'Oh, we shall get on very well,' said Minna, cheerfully; 'better,
+perhaps for you know we don't mind Far West manners; and I'll have
+learnt to do all sorts of things as well as Cora when you come home!'
+
+And Henry, after a year's famine of practice, was in better spirits
+than since that fatal summer morning.  Averil felt how different a
+man is in his vocation, and deprived of it.
+
+'Oh yes,' she said to herself, 'if I had let ourselves be a drag on
+him when he is so much needed, I could never have had the face to
+write to our dear sufferer at home in his noble patience.  It is
+better that we should be desolate than that he should be a wreck, or
+than that mass of sickness should be left untended!  And the more
+desolate, the more sure of One Protector.'
+
+There was true heroism in the spirit in which this young girl braced
+herself to uncomplaining acceptance of desertion in this unwholesome
+swamp, with her two little ailing sisters, beside the sluggish
+stream, amid the skeleton trees--heroism the greater because there
+was no enthusiastic patriotism to uphold her--it was only the land of
+her captivity, whence she looked towards home like Judah to
+Jerusalem.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+
+Prisoner of hope thou art; look up and sing,
+In hope of promised spring.
+                       Christian Year
+
+
+In the summer of 1862, Tom May was to go up for his examination at
+the College of Physicians, but only a day or two before it he made
+his appearance at home, in as much excitement as it was in him to
+betray.  Hazlitt, the banker's clerk at Whitford, had written to him
+tidings of the presentation of the missing cheque for £25, which
+Bilson had paid to old Axworthy shortly before the murder, and which
+Leonard had mentioned as in the pocket-book containing his receipt
+for the sum that had been found upon him.  Tom had made a halt at
+Whitford, and seen the cheque, which had been backed by the word
+Axworthy, with an initial that, like all such signatures of the
+nephew, might stand either for S. or F., and the stiff office hand of
+both the elder and younger Axworthy was so much alike, that no one
+could feel certain whose writing it was.  The long concealment, after
+the prisoner's pointed reference to it, was, however, so remarkable,
+that the home conclave regarded the cause as won; and the father and
+son hastened triumphantly to the attorneys' office.
+
+Messrs. Bramshaw and Anderson were greatly struck, and owned that
+their own minds were satisfied as to the truth of their client's
+assertion; but they demurred as to the possibility of further steps.
+An action for forgery, Tom's first hope, he saw to be clearly
+impossible; Samuel Axworthy appeared to have signed the cheque in his
+own name, and he had every right to it as his uncle's heir; and
+though the long withholding of it, as well as his own departure, were
+both suspicious circumstances, they were not evidence.  Where was
+there any certainty that the cheque had ever been in the pocket-book
+or even if it had, how did it prove the existence of young Ward's
+acknowledgment?  Might it not have been in some receptacle of papers
+hitherto not opened?  There was no sufficient case to carry to the
+police, after a conviction like Leonard's, to set them on tracing the
+cheque either to an unknown robber, or to Sam Axworthy, its rightful
+owner.
+
+Mr. Bramshaw likewise dissuaded Dr. May from laying the case before
+the Secretary of State, as importunity without due grounds would only
+tell against him if any really important discovery should be made:
+and the Doctor walked away, with blood boiling at people's coolness
+to other folk's tribulations, and greatly annoyed with Tom for having
+acceded to the representations of the men of law, and declining all
+co-operation in drawing up a representation for the Home Office, on
+the plea that he had no time to lose in preparing for his own
+examination, and must return to town by the next train, which he did
+without a syllable of real converse with any one at home.
+
+The Doctor set to work with his home helpers, assisted by Dr.
+Spencer; but the work of composition seemed to make the ground give
+way under their feet, and a few adroit remarks from Dr. Spencer
+finally showed him and Ethel that they had not yet attained the prop
+for the lever that was to move the world.  He gave it up, but still
+he did not quite forgive Tom for having been so easily convinced, and
+ready to be dismissed to his own affairs.
+
+However, Dr. May was gratified by the great credit with which his son
+passed his examination, and took his degree; and Sir Matthew Fleet
+himself wrote in high terms of his talent, diligence, and steadiness,
+volunteering hopes of being able to put him forward in town in his
+own line, for which Tom had always had a preference; and adding, that
+it was in concurrence with his own recommendation that the young man
+wished to pursue his studies at Paris--he had given him introductions
+that would enable him to do so to the greatest advantage, and he
+hoped his father would consent.  The letter was followed up by one
+from Tom himself, as usual too reasonable and authoritative to be
+gainsaid, with the same representation of advantages to be derived
+from a course of the Parisian hospitals.
+
+'Ah, well! he is after old Fleet's own heart,' said Dr. May, between
+pride and mortification.  'I should not grudge poor Fleet some one to
+take interest in his old age, and I did not look to see him so warm
+about anything.  He has not forgotten Calton Hill!  But the boy must
+have done very well!  I say, shall we see him Sir Thomas some of
+these days, Ethel, and laugh at ourselves for having wanted, to make
+him go round in a mill after our old fashion?'
+
+'You were contented to run round in your mill,' said Ethel, fondly,
+'and maybe he will too.'
+
+'No, no, Ethel, I'll not have him persuaded.  Easy-going folk, too
+lazy for ambition, have no right to prescribe for others.  Ambition
+turned sour is a very dangerous dose!  Much better let it fly off!
+I mean to look out of my mill yet, and see Sir Thomas win the stakes.
+Only I wish he would come and see us; tell him he shall not hear a
+word to bother him about the old practice.  People have lived and
+died at Stoneborough without a May to help them, and so they will
+again, I suppose.'
+
+Ethel was very glad to see how her father had made up his mind to
+what was perhaps the most real disappointment of his life, but she
+was grieved that Tom did not respond to the invitation, and next
+wrote from Paris.  It was one of his hurried notes, great contrasts
+to such elaborate performances as his recent letter.  'Thanks, many
+thanks to my father,' he said; 'I knew you would make him see reason,
+and he always yields generously.  I was too much hurried to come
+home; could not afford to miss the trail.  I had not time to say
+before that the Bank that sent the cheque to Whitford had it from a
+lodging-house in town.  Landlord had a writ served on S. A.; as he
+was embarking at Folkestone, he took out the draft and paid.  He knew
+its import, if Bramshaw did not.  I hope my father was not vexed at
+my not staying.  There are things I cannot stand, namely, discussions
+and Gertrude.'
+
+Gertrude was one of the chief cares upon Ethel's mind.  She spent
+many thoughts upon the child, and even talked her over with Flora.
+
+'What is it, Flora? is it my bad management?  She is a good girl, and
+a dear girl; but there is such a want of softness about her.'
+
+'There is a want of softness about all the young ladies of the day,'
+returned Flora.
+
+'I have heard you say so, but--'
+
+'We have made girls sensible and clear-headed, till they have grown
+hard.  They have been taught to despise little fears and illusions,
+and it is certainly not becoming.'
+
+'We had not fears, we were taught to be sensible.'
+
+'Yes, but it is in the influence of the time!  It all tends to make
+girls independent.'
+
+'That's very well for the fine folks you meet in your visits, but it
+does not account for my Daisy--always at home, under papa's eye--
+having turned nineteenth century-- What is it, Flora?  She is
+reverent in great things, but not respectful except to papa, and that
+would not have been respect in one of us--only he likes her
+sauciness.'
+
+'That is it, partly.'
+
+'No, I won't have that said,' exclaimed Ethel.  'Papa is the only
+softening influence in the house--the only one that is tender.  You
+see it is unlucky that Gertrude has so few that she really does love,
+with anything either reverend or softening about them.  She is always
+at war with Charles Cheviot, and he has not fun enough, is too
+lumbering altogether, to understand her, or set her down in the right
+way; and she domineers over Hector like the rest of us.  I did hope
+the babies might have found out her heart, but, unluckily, she does
+not take to them.  She is only bored by the fuss that Mary and
+Blanche make about them.
+
+'You know we are all jealous of both Charles Cheviots, elder and
+younger.'
+
+'I often question whether I should not have taken her down and made
+her ashamed of all the quizzing and teasing at the time of Mary's
+marriage.  But one cannot be always spoiling bright merry mischief,
+and I am only elder sister after all.  It is a wonder she is as good
+to me as she is.'
+
+'She never remembered our mother, poor dear.'
+
+'Ah! that is the real mischief,' said Ethel.  'Mamma would have given
+the atmosphere of gentleness and discretion, and so would Margaret.
+How often I have been made, by the merest pained look, to know when
+what I said was saucy or in bad taste, and I--I can only look
+forbidding, or else blurt out a reproof that _will_ not come softly.'
+
+'The youngest _must_ be spoilt,' said Flora, 'that's an ordinance of
+nature.  It ends when a boy goes to school, and when a girl--'
+
+'When?'
+
+'When she marries--or when she finds out what trouble is,' said
+Flora.
+
+'Is that all you can hold out to my poor Daisy?'
+
+'Well, it is the way of the world.  There is just now a reaction from
+sentiment, and it is the less feminine variety.  The softness will
+come when there is a call for it.  Never mind when the foundation is
+safe.'
+
+'If I could only see that child heartily admiring and looking up!  I
+don't mean love--there used to be a higher, nobler reverence!'
+
+'Such as you and Norman used to bestow on Shakespeare and Scott, and-
+-the vision of Cocksmoor.'
+
+'Not only _used_,' said Ethel.
+
+'Yes, it is your soft side,' said Flora; 'it is what answers the
+purpose of sentiment in people like you.  It is what I should have
+thought living with you would have put into any girl; but Gertrude
+has a satirical side, and she follows the age.'
+
+'I wish you would tell her so--it is what she especially wants not to
+do!  But the spirit of opposition is not the thing to cause
+tenderness.'
+
+'No, you must wait for something to bring it out.  She is very kind
+to my poor little Margaret, and I won't ask how she talks _of_ her.'
+
+'Tenderly; oh yes, that she always would do.'
+
+'There, then, Ethel, if she can talk tenderly of Margaret, there
+can't be much amiss at the root.'
+
+'No; and you don't overwhelm the naughty girl with baby talk.'
+
+'Like our happy, proud young mothers,' sighed Flora; and then letting
+herself out--'but indeed, Ethel, Margaret is very much improved.  She
+has really begun to wish to be good.  I think she is struggling with
+herself.'
+
+'Something to love tenderly, something to reverence highly.'  So
+meditated Ethel, as she watched her sunny-haired, open-faced Daisy,
+so unconquerably gay and joyous that she gave the impression of
+sunshine without shade.  There are stages of youth that are in
+themselves unpleasing, and yet that are nobody's fault, nay, which
+may have within them seeds of strength.  Tom's satire had fostered
+Daisy's too congenial spirit, and he reaped the consequence in the
+want of repose and sympathy that were driving him from home, and
+shutting him up within himself.  Would he ever forgive that flippant
+saying, which Ethel had recollected with shame ever since--shame more
+for herself than for the child, who probably had forgotten, long ago,
+her 'shaft at random sent'?
+
+Then Ethel would wonder whether, after all, her discontent with
+Gertrude's speeches was only from feeling older and graver, and
+perhaps from a certain resentment at finding how the course of time
+was wearing down the sharp edge of compassion towards Leonard.
+
+A little more about Leonard was gathered when the time came of
+release for his friend the clerk Brown.  This young man had an uncle
+at Paris, engaged in one of the many departments connected with steam
+that carry Englishmen all over the world, and Leonard obtained
+permission to write to Dr. Thomas May, begging him to call upon the
+uncle, and try if he could be induced to employ the penitent and
+reformed nephew under his own eye.  It had been wise in Leonard to
+write direct, for if the request had been made through any one at
+home, Tom would have considered it as impossible; but he could not
+resist the entreaty, and his mission was successful.  The uncle was
+ready to be merciful, and undertook all the necessary arrangements
+for, and even the responsibility of, bringing the ticket-of-leave man
+to Paris, where he found him a desk in his office.  One of Tom's few
+detailed epistles was sent to Ethel after this arrival, when the
+uncle had told him how the nephew had spoken of his fellow-prisoner.
+It was to Leonard Ward that the young man had owed the inclination to
+open his heart to religious instruction, hitherto merely endured as a
+portion of the general infliction of the penalty, a supposed engine
+for dealing with the superstitious, but entirely beneath his
+attention.  The sight of the educated face had at first attracted
+him, but when he observed the reverential manner in chapel, he
+thought it mere acting the ''umble prisoner,' till he observed how
+unobtrusive, unconscious, and retiring was every token of devotion,
+and watched the eyes, brightened or softened in praise or in prayer,
+till he owned the genuineness and guessed the depth of both, then
+perceived in school how far removed his unknown comrade was from the
+mere superstitious boor.  This was the beginning.  The rest had been
+worked out by the instruction and discipline of the place, enforced
+by the example, and latterly by the conversation, of his fellow-
+prisoner, until he had come forth sincerely repenting, and with the
+better hope for the future that his sins had not been against full
+light.
+
+He declared himself convinced that Ward far better merited to be at
+large than he did, and told of the regard that uniform good conduct
+was obtaining at last, though not till after considerable
+persecution, almost amounting to personal danger from the worse sort
+of convicts, who regarded him as a spy, because he would not connive
+at the introduction of forbidden indulgences, and always stood by the
+authorities.  Once his fearless interposition had saved the life of a
+warder, and this had procured him trust, and promotion to a class
+where his companions were better conducted, and more susceptible to
+good influences, and among them Brown was sure that his ready
+submission and constant resolution to do his work were producing an
+effect.  As to his spirits, Brown had never known him break down but
+once, and that was when he had come upon a curious fossil in the
+stone.  Otherwise he was grave and contented, but never laughed or
+joked as even some gentlemen prisoners of more rank and age had been
+known to do.  The music in the chapel was his greatest pleasure, and
+he had come to be regarded as an important element in the singing.
+
+Very grateful was Dr. May to Tom for having learnt, and still more
+for having transmitted, all these details, and Ethel was not the less
+touched, because she knew they were to travel beyond Minster Street.
+Those words of Mr. Wilmot's seemed to be working out their
+accomplishment; and she thought so the more, when in early spring one
+of Leonard's severe throat attacks led to his being sent after his
+recovery to assist the schoolmaster, instead of returning to the
+carpenter's shed; and he was found so valuable in the school that the
+master begged to retain his services.
+
+That spring was a grievous one in Indiana.  The war, which eighteen
+months previously was to have come to an immediate end, was still
+raging, and the successes that had once buoyed up the Northern States
+with hope had long since been chequered by terrible reverses.  On,
+on, still fought either side, as though nothing could close the
+strife but exhaustion or extinction; and still ardent, still
+constant, through bereavement and privation, were either party to
+their blood-stained flag.  Mordaunt Muller had fallen in one of the
+terrible battles on the Rappahannock; and Cora, while, sobbing in
+Averil's arms, had still confessed herself thankful that it had been
+a glorious death for his country's cause!  And even in her fresh
+grief, she had not endeavoured to withhold her other brother, when,
+at the urgent summons of Government, he too had gone forth to join
+the army.
+
+Cora was advised to return to her friends at New York, but she
+declared her intention of remaining to keep house with Cousin
+Deborah.  Unless Averil would come with her, nothing should induce
+her to leave Massissauga, certainly not while Ella and Averil were
+alternately laid low by the spring intermittent fever.  Perhaps the
+fact was that, besides her strong affection for Averil, she felt that
+in her ignorance she had assisted her father in unscrupulously
+involving them in a hazardous and unsuccessful speculation, and that
+she was the more bound, in justice as well as in love and pity, to do
+her best for their assistance.  At any rate, Rufus had no sooner left
+home, than she insisted on the three sisters coming to relieve her
+loneliness--in other words, in removing them from the thin ill-built
+frame house, gaping in every seam with the effects of weather, and
+with damp oozing up between every board of the floor, the pestiferous
+river-fog, the close air of the forest, and the view of the phantom
+trees, now decaying and falling one against another.
+
+Cousin Deborah, who had learnt to love and pity the forlorn English
+girls, heartily concurred; and Averil consented, knowing that the dry
+house and pure air were the best hope of restoring Ella's health.
+
+Averil and Ella quickly improved, grew stronger in the intervals, and
+suffered less during the atacks; but Minna, who in their own house
+had been less ill, had waited on both, and supplied the endless
+deficiencies of the kindly and faithful, but two-fisted Katty; Minna,
+whose wise and simple little head had never failed in sensible
+counsels, or tender comfort; Minna, whom the rudest and most self-
+important far-wester never disobliged, Minna, the peace-maker, the
+comfort and blessing--was laid low by fever, and fever that, as the
+experienced eyes of Cousin Deborah at once perceived, 'meant
+mischief.'  Then it was that the real kindliness of heart of the
+rough people of the West showed itself.  The five wild young ladies,
+whose successive domestic services had been such trouble, and whose
+answer to a summons from the parlour had been, 'Did yer holler, Avy?
+I thort I heerd a scritch,' each, from Cleopatra Betsy to Hetta Mary,
+were constantly rushing in to inquire, or to present questionable
+dainties and nostrums from their respective 'Mas'; the charwomen,
+whom Minna had coaxed in her blandest manner to save trouble to
+Averil and disgust to Henry, were officious in volunteers of nursing
+and sitting up, the black cook at the hotel sent choice fabrics of
+jelly and fragrant ice; and even Henry's rival, who had been so
+strong against the insolence of a practitioner showing no
+testimonials, no sooner came under the influence of the yearning,
+entreating, but ever-patient eyes, than his attendance became
+assiduous, his interest in the case ardent.
+
+Henry himself was in the camp, before Vicksburg, with his hands too
+full of piteous cases of wounds and fever to attempt the most hurried
+visit.
+
+'Sister, dear,' said the soft slow voice, one day when Averil had
+been hoping her patient was asleep, 'are you writing to Henry?'
+
+'Yes, my darling.  Do you want to say anything?'
+
+'Oh yes! so much;' and the eyes grew bright, and the breath gasping;
+'please beg Henry--tell Henry--that I must--I can't bear it any
+longer if I don't--'
+
+'You must what, dear child?  Henry would let you do anything he
+could.'
+
+'Oh, then, would he let me speak about dear Leonard?' and the child
+grew deadly white when the words were spoken; but her eyes still
+sought Averil's face, and grew terrified at the sight of the gush of
+tears.  '0, Ave, Ave, tell me only--he is not dead!' and as Averil
+could only make a sign, 'I do have such dreadful fancies about him,
+and I think I could sleep if I only knew what was really true.'
+
+'You shall, dear child, you shall, without waiting to hear from
+Henry; I know he would let you.'
+
+And only then did Averil know the full misery that Henry's decision
+had inflicted on the gentle little heart, in childish ignorance,
+imagining fetters and dungeons, even in her sober waking moods, and a
+prey to untold horrors in every dream, exaggerated by feverishness
+and ailment--horrors that, for aught she knew, might be veritable,
+and made more awful by the treatment of his name as that of one dead.
+
+To hear of him as enjoying the open air and light of day, going to
+church, singing their own favourite hymn tunes, and often visited by
+Dr. May, was to her almost as great a joy as if she had heard of him
+at liberty.  And Averil had a more than usually cheerful letter to
+read to her, one written in the infirmary during his recovery.  His
+letters to her were always cheerful, but this one was particularly
+so, having been written while exhilarated by the relaxations
+permitted to convalescents, and by enjoying an unwonted amount of
+conversation with the chaplain and the doctor.
+
+'So glad, so glad,' Minna was heard murmuring to herself again and
+again; her rest was calmer than it had been for weeks, and the doctor
+found her so much better that he trusted that a favourable change had
+begun.
+
+But it was only a gleam of hope.  The weary fever held its prey, and
+many as were the fluctuations, they always resulted in greater
+weakness; and the wandering mind was not always able to keep fast
+hold of the new comfort.  Sometimes she would piteously clasp her
+sister's hand, and entreat, 'Tell me again;' and sometimes the
+haunting delirious fancies of chains and bars would drop forth from
+the tongue that had lost its self-control; yet even at the worst came
+the dear old recurring note, 'God will not let them hurt him, for he
+has not done it!'  Sometimes, more trying to Averil than all, she
+would live over again the happy games with him, or sing their
+favourite hymns and chants, or she would be heard pleading, '0,
+Henry, don't be cross to Leonard.'
+
+Cora could not fail to remark the new name that mingled in the
+unconscious talk; but she had learnt to respect Averil's reserve, and
+she forbore from all questioning, trying even to warn Cousin Deborah,
+who, with the experience of an elderly woman, remarked, 'That she had
+too much to do to mind what a sick child rambled about.  When Cora
+had lived to her age, she would know how unaccountably they talked.'
+
+But Averil felt the more impelled to an outpouring by this delicate
+forbearance, and the next time she and Cora were sent out together to
+breathe the air, while Cousin Deborah watched the patient, she told
+the history, and to a sympathizing listener, without a moment's doubt
+of Leonard's innocence, nor that American law would have managed
+matters better.
+
+'And now, Cora, you know why I told you there were bitterer sorrows
+than yours.'
+
+'Ah!  Averil, I could have believed you once; but to know that he
+never can come again!  Now you always have hope.'
+
+'My hope has all but gone,' said Averil.  'There is only one thing
+left to look to.  If I only can live till he is sent out to a colony,
+then nothing shall keep me back from him!'
+
+'And what would I give for even such a hope?'
+
+'We have a better hope, both of us,' murmured Averil.
+
+'It won't seem so long when it is over.'
+
+Well was it for Averil that this fresh link of sympathy was riveted,
+for day by day she saw the little patient wasting more hopelessly
+away, and the fever only burning lower for want of strength to feed
+on.  Utterly exhausted and half torpid, there was not life or power
+enough left in the child for them to know whether she was aware of
+her condition.  When they read Prayers, her lips always moved for the
+Lord's Prayer and Doxology; and when the clergyman came out from
+Winiamac, prayed by her and blessed her, she opened her eyes with a
+look of comprehension; and if, according to the custom from the
+beginning of her illness, the Psalms and Lessons were not read in her
+room, she was uneasy, though she could hardly listen.  So came Easter
+Eve; and towards evening she was a little revived, and asked Averil
+what day it was, then answered, 'I thought it would have been nice to
+have died yesterday,'--it was the first time she mentioned death.
+Averil told her she was better, but half repented, as the child sank
+into torpor again; and Averil, no longer the bewildered girl who had
+been so easily led from the death scene, knew the fitful breath and
+fluttering pulse, and felt the blank dread stealing over her heart.
+
+Again, however, the child looked up, and murmured, 'You have not read
+to-day.'  Cora, who had the Bible on her knee, gently obeyed, and
+read on, where she was, the morning First Lesson, the same in the
+American Church as in our own.  Averil, dull with watching and
+suffering, sat on dreamily, with the scent of primroses wafted to
+her, as it were, by the association of the words, though her power to
+attend to them was gone.  Before the chapter was over, the doze had
+overshadowed the little girl again; and yet, more than once, as the
+night drew on, they heard her muttering what seemed like the echo of
+one of its verses, 'Turn you, turn you--'
+
+At last, after hours of watching, and more than one vain endeavour of
+good Cousin Deborah to lead away the worn but absorbed nurses, the
+dread messenger came.  Minna turned suddenly in her sister's arms,
+with more strength than Averil had thought was left in her, and
+eagerly stretched out her arms, while the words so long trembling on
+her lips found utterance.  'Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners
+of hope!  0, Leonard dear! it does not hurt!'  But that last word was
+almost lost in the gasp--the last gasp.  What 'did not hurt' was
+death without his sting.
+
+'0, Cora!  Was he with her?  Is he gone too?' was Averil's cry at the
+first moment, as she strained the form of her little comforter for
+the last time in her arms.
+
+'And if he is, they are in joy together,' said Cousin Deborah,
+tenderly but firmly unloosing Averil's arms, though with the tears
+running down her cheeks.  'Take her away, Cora, and both of you
+sleep.  This dear lamb is in better keeping than yours.'
+
+Heavy, grievous, was the loss, crushing the grief; but it was such as
+to be at its softest and sweetest at Easter, amid the Resurrection
+joys, and the budding flowers, though Ella's bitterest fit of weeping
+was excited by there being no primroses--the primroses that Minna
+loved so much; and her first pleasurable thought was to sit down and
+write to her dear 'Mr. Tom' to send her some primrose seed, for
+Minna's grave.
+
+Minna's grave!  Alas! Massissauga had but an untidy desolate-looking
+region, with a rude snake fence, all unconsecrated!  Cora wanted to
+choose a shaded corner in her father's ground, where they might daily
+tend the child's earthly resting-place; but Averil shrank from this
+with horror; and finally, on one of the Easter holidays, the little
+wasted form in its coffin was reverently driven by Philetus to
+Winiamac, while the sisters and Cora slowly followed, thinking--the
+one of the nameless blood-stained graves of a battle-field; the other
+whether an equally nameless grave-yard, but one looked on with a
+shudder unmixed with exultation, had opened for the other being she
+loved best.  'The Resurrection and the Life.--Yes, had not He made
+His grave with the wicked, and been numbered with the transgressors!'
+
+Somehow, the present sorrow was more abundant in such comforts as
+these than all the pangs which her heart, grown old in sorrow, had
+yet endured.
+
+Yet if her soul had bowed itself to meet sorrow more patiently and
+peacefully, it was at the expense of the bodily frame.  Already
+weakened by the intermittent fever, the long strain of nursing had
+told on her; and that hysteric affection that had been so distressing
+at the time of her brother's trial recurred, and grew on her with
+every occasion for self-restraint.  The suspense in which she lived--
+with one brother in the camp, in daily peril from battle and disease,
+the other in his convict prison--wore her down, and made every
+passing effect of climate or fatigue seize on her frame like a
+serious disorder; and the more she resigned her spirit, the more her
+body gave way.  Yet she was infinitely happier.  The repentance and
+submission were bearing fruit, and the ceasing to struggle had
+brought a strange calm and acceptance of all that might be sent; nay,
+her own decay was perhaps the sweetest solace and healing of the
+wearied spirit; and as to Ella, she would trust, and she did trust,
+that in some way or other all would be well.
+
+She felt as if even Leonard's death could be accepted thankfully as
+the captive's release.  But that sorrow was spared her.
+
+The account of Leonard came from Mr. Wilmot, who had carried him the
+tidings.  The prisoner had calmly met him with the words, 'I know
+what you are come to tell me;' and he heard all in perfect calmness
+and resignation, saying little, but accepting all that the clergyman
+said, exactly as could most be desired.
+
+From the chaplain, likewise, Mr. Wilmot learnt that Leonard, though
+still only in the second stage of his penalty, stood morally in a
+very different position, and was relied on as a valuable assistant in
+all that was good, more effective among his fellow-prisoners than was
+possible to any one not in the same situation with themselves, and
+fully accepting that position when in contact either with convicts or
+officials.  'He has never referred to what brought him here,' said
+the chaplain, 'nor would I press him to do so; but his whole tone is
+of repentance, and acceptance of the penalty, without, like most of
+them, regarding it as expiation.  It is this that renders his example
+so valuable among the men.'
+
+After such a report as this, it was disappointing, on Dr. May's next
+visit to Portland, at two months' end, to find Leonard drooping and
+downcast.  The Doctor was dismayed at his pale, dejected, stooping
+appearance, and the silence and indifference with which he met their
+ordinary topics of conversation, till the Doctor began anxiously--
+
+'You are not well?'
+
+'Quite well, thank you.'
+
+'You are looking out of condition.  Do you sleep?'
+
+'Some part of the night.'
+
+'You want more exercise.  You should apply to go back to the
+carpenter's shop--or shall I speak to the governor?'
+
+'No, thank you. I believe they want me in school.'
+
+'And you prefer school work?'
+
+'I dont know, but it helps the master.'
+
+'Do you think you make any progress with the men?  We heard you were
+very effective with them.'
+
+'I don't see that much can be done any way, certainly not by me.'
+
+Then the Doctor tried to talk of Henry and the sisters; but soon saw
+that Leonard had no power to dwell upon them.  The brief answers were
+given with a stern compression and contraction of face; as if the
+manhood that had grown on him in these three years was no longer
+capable of the softening effusion of grief; and Dr. May, with all his
+tenderness, felt that it must be respected, and turned the
+conversation.
+
+'I have been calling at the Castle,' he said, 'with Ernescliffe, and
+the governor showed me a curious thing, a volume of Archbishop Usher,
+which had been the Duke of Lauderdale's study after he was taken at
+Worcester.  He has made a note in the fly-leaf, "I began this book at
+Windsor, and finished it during my imprisonment here;" and below are
+mottoes in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.  I can't construe the Hebrew.
+The Greek is oisteon kai elpisteon (one must bear and hope), the
+Latin is durate.  Will you accept your predecessor's legacy?'
+
+'I think I read about him in an account of the island,' said Leonard,
+with a moment's awakened intelligence; 'was he not the L. of the
+Cabal, the persecutor in "Old Mortality?"'
+
+'I am afraid you are right.  Prosperity must have been worse for him
+than adversity.'
+
+'Endure' repeated Leonard, gravely.  'I will think of that, and what
+he would mean by hope now.'
+
+The Doctor came home much distressed; he had been unable to penetrate
+the dreary, resolute self-command that covered so much anguish; he
+had failed in probing or in healing, and feared that the apathy he
+had witnessed was a sign that the sustaining spring of vigour was
+failing in the monotonous life.  The strong endurance had been a
+strain that the additional grief was rendering beyond his power; and
+the crushed resignation, and air of extinguished hope, together with
+the indications of failing health, filled the Doctor with misgivings.
+
+'It will not last much longer,' he said.  'I do not mean that he is
+ill; but to hold up in this way takes it out of a man, especially at
+his age.  The first thing that lays hold of him, he will have no
+strength nor will to resist, and then-- Well, I did hope to live to
+see God show the right.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+
+We twa hae wandered o'er the braes,
+  And pu'ed the gowans fine;
+I've wandered many a weary foot
+  Sin auld lang syne.
+
+
+These years had passed quietly at Stoneborough, with little change
+since Mary's marriage.  She was the happy excellent wife that she was
+made to be; and perhaps it was better for Ethel that the first
+severance had been so decisive that Mary's attentions to her old home
+were received as favours, instead of as the mere scanty relics of her
+former attachment.
+
+Mr. Cheviot, as the family shook down together, became less afraid of
+Ethel, and did not think it so needful to snub her either by his
+dignity or jocularity; though she still knew that she was only on
+terms of sufferance, and had been, more than once, made to repent of
+unguarded observations.  He was admirable; and the school was so
+rapidly improving that Norman had put his father into ecstasies by
+proposing to send home little Dickie to begin his education there.
+Moreover, the one element wanting, to accomplish the town
+improvements, had been supplied by a head-master on the side of
+progress, and Dr. Spencer's victory had been won at last.  There was
+a chance that Stoneborough might yet be clean, thanks to his
+reiteration of plans for purification, apropos to everything.  Baths
+and wash-houses were adroitly carried as a monument to Prince Albert;
+and on the Prince of Wales's marriage, his perseverance actually
+induced the committee to finish up the drains with all the
+contributions that were neither eaten up nor fired away!  Never had
+he been more happy and triumphant; and Dr. May used to accuse him of
+perambulating the lower streets snuffing the deodorized air.
+
+One autumn evening, contrary to his wont, he allowed himself to be
+drawn into the May drawing-room, and there fell into one of the
+bright bantering talks in which the two old friends delighted,
+quizzing each other, and bringing up stories of their life; while
+Ethel and Gertrude listened to and laughed at the traditions of a
+sunnier, gayer, and more reckless age than their own; and Ethel
+thought how insufficient are those pictures of life that close with
+the fever-dream of youthful passion, and leave untold those years of
+the real burthen of manhood, and still more the tranquil brightness
+when toil has been overlived, and the setting sun gilds the clouds
+that are drifting away.
+
+Ethel's first knowledge of outer life the next morning was the sound
+of voices in her father's adjoining room, which made her call out,
+'Are you sent for, papa?'
+
+'Yes,' he answered, and in an agitated tone, 'Spencer; I'll send
+word.'
+
+Should she mention what she had two years ago heard from Tom?  There
+was no time, for the next moment she heard him hurrying down-stairs,
+she saw him speeding up the garden.  There was nothing for her to do
+but to dress as fast as possible, and as she was finishing she heard
+his tread slowly mounting, the very footfall warning her what to
+expect.  She opened the door and met him.  'Thank God,' he said, as
+he took her hand into his own, 'it has been very merciful.'
+
+'Is it--?'
+
+'Yes.  It must have been soon after he lay down at night.  As calm as
+sleep.  The heart.  I am very thankful.  I had thought he would have
+had much to suffer.'
+
+And then it appeared that his own observations had made him sure of
+what Ethel had learnt from Tom; but as long as it was unavowed by his
+friend, he had thought himself bound to ignore it, and had so dreaded
+the protracted suffering, that the actual stroke was accepted as a
+loving dispensation.
+
+Still, as the close of a life-long friendship, the end of a daily
+refreshing and sustaining intimacy, the loss was very great, and
+would be increasingly felt after the first stimulus was over.  It
+would make Tom's defection a daily grievance, since much detail of
+hospital care, and, above all, town work, his chief fatigue, would
+now again fall upon him.  But this was not his present thought.  His
+first care was, that his friend's remains should rest with those with
+whom his lot in life had been cast, in the cloister of the old
+Grammar-school; but here Mr. Cheviot looked concerned, and with
+reluctance, but decision, declared it to be his duty not to consent,
+cited the funeral of one of his scholars at the cemetery, and
+referred to recent sanatory measures.
+
+Dr. May quickly exclaimed that he had looked into the matter, and
+that the cloister did not come under the Act.
+
+'Not technically, sir,' said Mr. Cheviot; 'but I am equally convinced
+of my duty, however much I may regret it.'  And then, with a few
+words about Mary's presently coming up, he departed; while 'That is
+too bad,' was the general indignant outburst, even from Richard; from
+all but Dr. May himself.
+
+'He is quite right,' he said.  'Dear Spencer would he the first to
+say so.  Richard, your church is his best monument, and you'll not
+shut him out of your churchyard nor me either.'
+
+'Cheviot could not have meant--' began Richard.
+
+'Yes, he did, I understood him, and I am glad you should have had it
+out now,' said Dr. May, though not without a quivering lip.  'Your
+mother has _one_ by her side, and we'll find each other out just as
+well as if we were in the cloister.  I'll walk over to Cocksmoor with
+you, Ritchie, and mark the place.'
+
+Thus sweetly did he put aside what might have been so severe a shock;
+and he took extra pains to show his son-in-law his complete
+acquiescence both for the present and the future.  Charles Cheviot
+expressed to Richard his great satisfaction in finding sentiment thus
+surmounted by sense, not perceiving that it was faith and love
+surmounting both.
+
+Dr. Spencer's only surviving relation was a brother's son, who, on
+his arrival, proved to be an underbred, shrewd-looking man, evidently
+with strong prepossessions against the May family, whose hospitality
+he did not accept, consorting chiefly with 'Bramshaw and Anderson.'
+His disposition to reverse the arrangement for burying his uncle in
+'an obscure village churchyard,' occasioned a reference to the will,
+drawn up two years previously.  The executors were Thomas and
+Etheldred May, and it was marked on the outside that they were to
+have the sole direction of the funeral.  Ethel, greatly astonished,
+but as much bewildered as touched, was infinitely relieved that this
+same day had brought a hurried note from Paris, announcing Tom's
+intention of coming to attend the funeral.  He would be able to talk
+to the angry and suspicious nephew, without, like his father,
+betraying either indignation or disgust.
+
+Another person was extremely anxious for Tom's arrival, namely, Sir
+Matthew Fleet, who, not a little to Dr. May's gratification, came to
+show his respect to his old fellow-student; and arriving the evening
+before Tom, was urgent to know the probabilities of his appearance.
+An appointment in London was about to be vacant, so desirable in
+itself, and so valuable an introduction, that there was sure to be a
+great competition; but Sir Matthew was persuaded that with his own
+support, and an early canvass, Tom might be certain of success.  Dr.
+May could not help being grateful and gratified, declaring that the
+boy deserved it, and that dear Spencer would have been very much
+pleased; and then he told Ethel that it was wonderful to see the
+blessing upon Maggie's children; and went back, as usual, to his dear
+old Tate and Brady, with--
+
+
+'His house the seat of wealth shall be,
+ An inexhausted treasury;
+ His justice, free from all decay,
+ Shall blessings to his heirs convey.'
+
+
+And Ethel, within herself, hoped it was no disrespect to smile at his
+having so unconsciously turned away the blessing from the father's to
+the mother's side.
+
+It was his great pride and pleasure that so many of Maggie's children
+were round him to do honour to her old friend's burial--three sons,
+and four daughters, and three sons-in-law.  They all stood round the
+grave, as near as might be to the stone that Gertrude, as a child,
+had laid under his care, when his silver hair had mingled with her
+golden locks; and with them was a concourse that evidently impressed
+the nephew with a new idea of the estimation in which his uncle had
+been held.
+
+Tom had travelled all night, and had arrived only just in time.
+Nobody was able to say a word to him before setting off; and almost
+immediately after the return, Sir Matthew Fleet seized upon him to
+walk up to the station with him, and, to the infinite disgust of the
+nephew, the reading of the will was thus delayed until the executor
+came back, extremely grave and thoughtful.
+
+After all, Mr. Spencer had no available grievance.  His uncle's
+property was very little altogether, amounting scarcely to a thousand
+pounds, but the bulk was bequeathed to the nephew; to Aubrey May was
+left his watch, and a piece of plate presented to him on his leaving
+India; to Dr. May a few books; to Tom the chief of his library, his
+papers, notes, and instruments, and the manuscript of a work upon
+diseases connected with climate, on which he had been engaged for
+many years, but had never succeeded in polishing to his own
+fastidious satisfaction, or in coming to the end of new discoveries.
+To Etheldred, his only legacy was his writing-desk, with all its
+contents.  And Mr. Spencer looked so suspicious of those contents,
+that Tom made her open it before him, and show that they were nothing
+but letters.
+
+It had been a morning of the mixture of feelings and restless bustle,
+so apt to take place where the affection is not explained by
+relationship; and when the strangers were gone, and the family were
+once again alone, there was a drawing of freer breath, and the Doctor
+threw himself back in his chair, and indulged in a long, heavy sigh,
+with a weary sound in it.
+
+'Can I go anywhere for you, father?' said Tom, turning to him with a
+kind and respectful manner.
+
+'Oh no--no, thank you,' he said, rousing himself, and laying his hand
+on the bell, 'I must go over to Overfield; but I shall be glad of the
+drive.  Well, Dr. Tom, what did you say to Fleet's proposal?'
+
+'I said I would come up to town and settle about it when I had got
+through this executor business.'
+
+'You always were a lucky fellow, Tom,' said Dr. May, trying to be
+interested and sympathetic.  'You would not wish for anything
+better.'
+
+'I don't know, I have not had time to think about it yet,' said Tom,
+pulling off his spectacles and pushing back his hair, with an action
+of sadness and fatigue.
+
+'Ah! it was not the best of times to choose for the communication;
+but it was kindly meant.  I never expected to see Fleet take so much
+trouble for any one.  But you are done up, Tom, with your night
+journey.'
+
+'Not at all,' he answered, briskly, 'if I can do anything for you.
+Could not I go down to the hospital?'
+
+'Why, if I were not to be back till five,' began Dr. May,
+considering, and calling him into the hall to receive directions,
+from which he came back, saying, 'There! now then, Ethel, we had
+better look over things, and get them in train.'
+
+'You are so tired, Tom.'
+
+'Not too much for that,' he said.  But it was a vain boast; he was
+too much fatigued to turn his mind to business requiring thought,
+though capable of slow, languid reading and sorting of papers.
+
+Aubrey's legacy was discovered with much difficulty.  In fact, it had
+never been heard of, nor seen the light, since its presentation, and
+was at last found in a lumber closet, in a strong box, in Indian
+packing.  It was a compromise between an epergne and a candelabrum,
+growing out of the howdah of an unfortunate elephant, pinning one
+tiger to the ground, and with another hanging on behind, in the midst
+of a jungle of palm-trees and cobras; and beneath was an elaborate
+inscription, so laudatory of Aubrey Spencer, M. D., that nobody
+wondered he had never unpacked it, and that it was yellow with
+tarnish--the only marvel was, that he had never disposed of it; but
+that it was likely to wait for the days when Aubrey might be a
+general and own a side-board.
+
+The other bequests were far more appreciated.  Tom had known of the
+book in hand, was certain of its value to the faculty, and was much
+gratified by the charge of it, both as a matter of feeling and of
+interest.  But while he looked over and sorted the mass of curious
+notes, his attention was far more set on the desk, that reverently,
+almost timidly, Ethel examined, well knowing why she had been
+selected as the depositary of these relics.  There they were, some
+embrowned by a burn in the corner, as though there had been an
+attempt to destroy them, in which there had been no heart to
+persevere.  It was but little, after all, two formal notes in which
+Professor Norman Mackenzie asked the honour of Mr. Spencer's company
+to dinner, but in handwriting that was none of the professor's--
+writing better known to Ethel than to Tom--and a series of their
+father's letters, from their first separation till the traveller's
+own silence had caused their correspondence to drop.  Charming
+letters they were, such as people wrote before the penny-post had
+spoilt the epistolary art--long, minute, and overflowing with
+brilliant happiness.  Several of them were urgent invitations to
+Stoneborough, and one of these was finished in that other hand--the
+delicate, well-rounded writing that would not be inherited--
+entreating Dr. Spencer to give a few days to Stoneborough, 'it would
+be such a pleasure to Richard to show him the children.'
+
+Ethel did not feel sure whether to see these would give pain or
+pleasure to her father.  He would certainly be grieved to see how
+much suffering he must have inflicted in the innocence of his heart,
+and in the glory of his happiness; and Tom, with a sort of shudder,
+advised her to keep them to herself, he was sure they would give
+nothing but pain.
+
+She had no choice just then, for it was a time of unusual occupation,
+and the difference made by their loss told immediately--the more,
+perhaps, because it was the beginning of November, and there was much
+municipal business to be attended to.
+
+However it might be for the future, during the ensuing week Dr. May
+never came in for a meal with the rest of the family; was too much
+fagged for anything but sleep when he came home at night; and on the
+Sunday morning, when they all had reckoned on going to Cocksmoor
+together, he was obliged to give it up, and only come into the
+Minster at the end of the prayers.  Every one knew that he was not a
+good manager of his time, and this made things worse; and he declared
+that he should make arrangements for being less taken up; but it was
+sad to see him overburthened, and Tom, as only a casual visitor,
+could do little to lessen his toil, though that little was done
+readily and attentively.  There were no rubs between the two, and
+scarcely any conversation.  Tom would not discuss his prospects; and
+it was not clear whether he meant to avail himself of Sir Matthew's
+patronage; he committed himself to nothing but his wish that it were
+possible to stay in Paris; and he avoided even talking to his sister.
+
+Not till a week after he had left home for London came a letter
+
+
+'Dear Ethel,
+
+'I have told Fleet that I am convinced of my only right course.  I
+could never get the book finished properly if I got into his line,
+and I must have peaceable evenings for it at home.  I suppose my
+father would not like to let Dr. Spencer's house.  If I might have
+it, and keep my own hours and habits, I think it would conduce to our
+working better together.  I am afraid I kept you in needless distress
+about him, but I wanted to judge for myself of the necessity, and to
+think over the resignation of that quest.  I must commit it to Brown.
+I hope it is not too great a risk; but it can't be helped.  It is a
+matter of course that I should come home now the helper is gone; I
+always knew it would come to that.  Manage it as quietly as you can.
+I must go to Paris for a fortnight, to bring home my things, and by
+that time my father had better get me appointed to the hospital.
+
+'Yours ever,
+'TH. MAY.'
+
+
+Ethel was not so much surprised as her father, who thought she must
+have been working upon Tom's feelings; but this she disavowed, except
+that it had been impossible not to growl at patients sending at
+unreasonable hours.  Then he hoped that Fleet had not been
+disappointing the lad; but this notion was nullified by a
+remonstrance from the knight, on the impolicy of burying such talents
+for the sake of present help; and even proposing to send a promising
+young man in Tom's stead.  'Not too good for poor Stoneborough,' said
+Dr. May, smiling.  'No, no, I'm not so decrepit as that, whatever he
+and Tom may have thought me; I fancy I could tire out both of them.
+I can't have the poor boy giving up all his prospects for my sake,
+Ethel.  I never looked for it, and I shall write and tell him so!
+Mind, Ethel, I shall write, not you!  I know you would only stroke
+him down, and bring him home to regret it.  No, no, I won't always be
+treated like Karl, in "Debit and Credit", who the old giant thought
+could neither write nor be written to, because his finger was off.'
+
+And Dr. May's letter was the first which this son had ever had from
+him.
+
+
+'My Dear Tom,
+
+'I feel your kind intentions to the heart; it is like all the rest of
+your dear mother's children; but the young ought not to be sacrificed
+to the old, and I won't have it done.  The whole tone of practice has
+altered since my time, and I do not want to bind you down to the
+routine.  I had left off thinking of it since I knew of your
+distaste.  I have some years of work in me yet, that will see out
+most of my old patients; and for the rest, Wright is a great advance
+on poor Ward, and I will leave more to him as I grow older.  I mean
+to see you a great man yet, and I think you will be the greater and
+happier for the sacrifice you have been willing to make.  His
+blessing on you.
+
+'Your loving father,
+'R. M.'
+
+
+What was Tom's answer, but one of his cool 'good letters,' a
+demonstration that he was actuated by the calmest motives of
+convenience and self-interest, in preferring the certainties of
+Stoneborough to the contingencies of London, and that he only wanted
+time for study and the completion of Dr. Spencer's book, enforcing
+his request for the house.
+
+His resolution was, as usual, too evident to be combated, and it was
+also plain that he chose to keep on the mask of prudent selfishness,
+which he wore so naturally that it was hard to give him credit for
+any other features; but this time Dr. May was not deceived.  He fully
+estimated the sacrifice, and would have prevented it if he could; but
+he never questioned the sincerity of the motive, as it was not upon
+the surface; and the token of dutiful affection, as coming from the
+least likely quarter of his family, touched and comforted him.  He
+dwelt on it with increasing satisfaction, and answered all hurries
+and worries with, 'I shall have time when Tome is come;' re-opened
+old schemes that had died away when he feared to have no successor,
+and now and then showed a certain comical dread of being drilled into
+conformity with Tom's orderly habits.
+
+There was less danger of their clashing, as the son had outgrown the
+presumptions of early youth, and a change had passed over his nature
+which Ethel had felt, rather than seen, during his fleeting visits at
+home, more marked by negatives than positives, and untraced by
+confidences.  The bitterness and self-assertion had ceased to tinge
+his words, the uncomfortable doubt that they were underlaid by satire
+had passed away, and methodical and self-possessed as he always was,
+the atmosphere of 'number one' was no longer apparent round all his
+doings.  He could be out of spirits and reserved without being either
+ill-tempered or ironical; and Ethel, with this as the upshot of her
+week's observations, was reassured as to the hopes of the father and
+son working together without collisions.  As soon as the die was
+cast, and there was no danger of undue persuasion in 'stroking him
+down,' she indulged herself by a warmly-grateful letter, and after
+she had sent it, was tormented by the fear that it would be a great
+offence.  The answer was much longer than she had dared to expect,
+and alarmed her lest it should be one of his careful ways of making
+the worst of himself; but there was a large 'Private,' scored in
+almost menacing letters on the top of the first sheet, and so much
+blotted in the folding, that it was plain that he had taken alarm at
+the unreserve of his own letter.
+
+
+'My Dear Ethel,
+
+'I have been to Portland.  Really my father ought to make a stir and
+get Ward's health attended to; he looks very much altered, but will
+not own to anything being amiss.  They say he has been depressed ever
+since he heard of Minna's death.  I should say he ought to be doing
+out-of-doors work--perhaps at Gibraltar, but then he would be out of
+our reach.  I could not get much from him, but that patient,
+contented look is almost more than one can bear.  It laid hold of me
+when I saw him the first time, and has haunted me ever since.  Verily
+I believe it is what is bringing me home!  You need not thank me, for
+it is sober calculation that convinces me that no success on earth
+would compensate for the perpetual sense that my father was wearing
+himself out, and you pining over the sight.  Except just at first, I
+always meant to come and see how the land lay before pledging myself
+to anything; and nothing can be clearer than that, in the state of
+things my father has allowed to spring up, he must have help.  I am
+glad you have got me the old house, for I can be at peace there till
+I have learnt to stand his unmethodical ways.  Don't let him expect
+too much of me, as I see he is going to do.  It is not in me to be
+like Norman or Harry, and he must not look for it, least of all now.
+If you did not understand, and know when to hold your tongue, I do
+not think I could come home at all; as it is, you are all the comfort
+I look for.  I cross to Paris to-morrow.  That is a page I am very
+sorry to close.  I had a confidence that I should nave hunted down
+that fellow, and the sight of Portland and the accounts from
+Massissauga alike make one long to have one's hands on his throat;
+but that hope is ended now, and to loiter about Paris in search of
+him, when it it a plain duty to come away, would be one of the
+presumptuous acts that come to no good.  Let them discuss what they
+will, there's nothing so hard to believe in as Divine Justice!  And
+yet that uncomplaining face accepts it!  You need say nothing about
+this letter.  I will talk about Leonard with my father when I get
+home.
+
+'Ever yours,
+'Thomas May.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+
+But soon as once the genial plain
+Has drunk the life-blood of the slain,
+Indelible the spots remain;
+   And aye for vengeance call,
+Till racking pangs of piercing pain
+   Upon the guilty fall.
+                   AEschylus.
+                    (Translated by Professor Anstice.)
+
+
+If Tom May's arrival at home was eagerly anticipated there, it was
+with a heavy heart that he prepared for what he had never ceased to
+look on as a treadmill life.  He had enjoyed Paris, both from the
+society and the abstract study, since he still retained that taste
+for theory rather than practice, which made him prefer diseases to
+sick people, and all sick people to those of Stoneborough.  The
+student life, in the freedom of a foreign capital, was, even while
+devoid of license and irregularity, much pleasanter than what he
+foresaw at home, even though he had obtained a separate
+establishment.  His residence at Paris, with the vague hope it
+afforded, cost him more in the resignation than his prospects in
+London.  It was the week when he would have been canvassing for the
+appointment, and he was glad to linger abroad out of reach of Sir
+Matthew's remonstrances, and his father's compunction, while he was
+engaged in arranging for a French translation of Dr. Spencer's book,
+and likewise in watching an interesting case, esteemed a great
+medical curiosity, at the Hotel Dieu.
+
+He was waiting in the lecture-room, when one of the house surgeons
+came in, saying, 'Ah! I am glad to see you here.  A compatriot of
+yours has been brought in, mortally injured in a gambling fray.  You
+may perhaps assist in getting him identified.'
+
+Tom followed him to the accident ward, and beheld a senseless figure,
+with bloated and discoloured features, distorted by the effects of
+the injury, a blow upon the temple, which had caused a fall backwards
+on the sharp edge of a stove, occasioning fatal injury to the spine.
+Albeit well accustomed to gaze critically upon the tokens of mortal
+agony, Tom felt an unusual shudder of horror and repugnance as he
+glanced on the countenance, so disfigured and contorted that there
+was no chance of recognition, and turned his attention to the
+clothes, which lay in a heap on the floor.  The contents of the
+pockets had been taken out, and consisted only of some pawnbroker's
+duplicates, a cigar-case, and a memorandum-book, which last he took
+in his hand, and began to unfasten, without looking at it, while he
+took part in the conversation of the surgeons on the technical nature
+of the injuries.  Thus he stood for some seconds, before, on the
+house surgeon asking if he had found any address, he cast his eyes on
+the pages which lay open in his hand.
+
+'Ha!  What have you found?--He does not hear!  Is it the portrait of
+the beloved object?  Is it a brother--an enemy--or a debt?  But he is
+truly transfixed!  It is an effect of the Gorgon's head!'
+
+
+'July 15th, 1860.  Received £120.
+                              'L. A. WARD.'
+
+
+There stood Tom May, like one petrified, deaf to the words around,
+his dazzled eyes fixed on the letters, his faculties concentrated in
+the endeavour to ascertain whether they were sight or imagination.
+Yes, there they were, the very words in the well-known writing, the
+school-boy's forming into the clerk's, there was the blot in the top
+of the L!  Tom's heart gave one wild bound, then all sensation,
+except the sight of the writing, ceased, the exclamations of those
+around him came surging gradually on his ear, as if from a distance,
+and he did not yet hear them distinctly when he replied alertly,
+almost lightly, 'Here is a name that surprises me.  Let me look at
+the patient again.'
+
+'No dear friend?' asked his chief intimate, in a tone ready to become
+gaiety or sympathy.
+
+'No, indeed,' said Tom, shuddering as he stood over the insensible
+wretch, and perceived what it had been which had thrilled him with
+such unwonted horror, for, fixed by the paralyzing convulsion of the
+fatal blow, he saw the scowl and grin of deadly malevolence that had
+been the terror of his childhood, and that had fascinated his eyes at
+the moment of Leonard's sentence.  Changed by debauchery, defaced by
+violence, contorted by the injured brain, the features would scarcely
+have been recalled to him but for the frightful expression stamped on
+his memory by the miseries of his timid boyhood.
+
+'Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.'  The
+awful thought, answering his own struggle for faith in Divine
+Justice, crossed him, as he heard the injury on the head defined, in
+almost the same scientific terms that had so often rung on his ears
+as the causes of Francis Axworthy's death; but this was no society
+where he could give vent to his feelings, and mastering himself with
+difficulty he answered,  'I know Him.  He is from my own town.'
+
+'Has he friends or relations?'
+
+'Relations, yes,' said Tom, hardly able to restrain a trembling of
+the lip, half horror, half irony.  'None here, none near.  They shall
+know.'
+
+'And means?'
+
+'Once he had.  Probably none now.'
+
+To Tom's great relief, a new case drew off general attention.  There
+only remained the surgeon who had called him at first, and with whom
+he was particularly intimate.
+
+'Gaspard,' he said, 'shall you have charge of this case?'
+
+'Brief charge it will be, apparently!  I will volunteer to watch it,
+if it is your desire!  Is it friendship, or enmity, or simple
+humanity?'
+
+'All!' said Tom, hastily.  'It is the clearing up of a horrible
+mystery--freedom for an innocent prisoner--I must tell you the rest
+at leisure.  There is much to be done now in case of his reviving.'
+
+This was remotely possible, but very doubtful; and Tom impressed on
+both Gaspard and the nursing sister the most stringent entreaties to
+summon him on the first symptom.  He then gave the name of the
+unhappy man, and, though unwilling to separate himself from that
+invaluable pocket-book, perceived the necessity of leaving it as a
+deposit with the authorities of the hospital, after he had fully
+examined it, recognizing Leonard's description in each particular,
+the cipher F. A. on the tarnished silver clasp, the shagreen cover,
+and the receipt on a page a little past the middle.  On the other
+half of the leaf was the entry of some sums due to the house; and it
+contained other papers which the guilty wretch had been evidently
+eager to secure, yet afraid to employ, and that, no doubt, were the
+cause that, like so many other murderers on record, he had preserved
+that which was the most fatal proof against himself.  Or could it be
+with some notion of future relenting, that he had refrained from its
+destruction?
+
+With brain still seeming to reel at the discovery, and limbs actually
+trembling with the shock, Tom managed to preserve sufficient coolness
+and discretion to bring back to mind the measures he had so often
+planned for any such contingency.  Calling a cabriolet, he repaired
+to the police-station nearest to the scene of the contest, and there
+learnt that Axworthy had long been watched as a dangerous subject,
+full of turbulence, and with no visible means of maintenance.  The
+officials had taken charge of the few personal effects in his
+miserable lodgings, and were endeavouring to secure the person who
+had struck the fatal blow.
+
+His next measure was to go to the British Embassy, where, through his
+sister Flora's introductions, and his own Eton connections, he was
+already well known; and telling his story there, without any attempt
+to conceal his breathless agitation, he had no difficulty in bringing
+with him a companion who would authenticate the discovery of the
+receipt, and certify to any confession that might be obtained.
+
+A confession!  That was the one matter of the most intense interest.
+Tom considered whether to secure the presence of a clergyman, but
+suspected that this would put Axworthy on his guard rather than
+soften him, and therefore only wrote to the chaplain, begging him to
+hold himself in readiness for a summons to the Hotel Dieu, whither he
+drove rapidly back with his diplomatic friend, whom he wrought up
+well-nigh to his own pitch of expectation.  He had already decided on
+his own first address--pitying, but manifesting that nothing, not
+even vengeance, could be gained by concealment; and then, according
+to the effect, would he try either softening or threatening to extort
+the truth.
+
+Gaspard was eagerly awaiting them.  'I had already sent for you,' he
+said.  'The agony is commencing; he has spoken, but he has not his
+full consciousness.'
+
+Tom hurried on, drawing after him the young diplomate, who would have
+hung back, questioning if there were any use in his witnessing the
+dying struggles of a delirious man.
+
+'Come, come,' peremptorily repeated Tom, 'there must be some last
+words.  Every moment is of importance.'
+
+Yet his trust was shaken by the perception of the progress that death
+had made in the miserable frame during his absence.  The fixed
+expression of malignity had been forced to yield to exhaustion and
+anguish, the lips moved, but the murmurs between the moans were
+scarcely articulate.
+
+'He is almost past it,' said Tom, 'but there is the one chance that
+he may be roused by my voice.'
+
+And having placed his friend conveniently, both for listening and
+making notes, he came close to the bed, and spoke in a tone of
+compassion. 'Axworthy, I say, Axworthy, is there anything I can do
+for you?'
+
+There was a motion of the lid of the fast-glazing eye; but the
+terrible face of hatred came back, with the audible words, 'I tell
+you, you old fool, none of the Mays are to come prying about my
+place.'
+
+Appalled by the deadly malice of the imprecation and the look that
+accompanied this partial recognition of his voice, Tom was nerving
+himself to speak again, when the dying man, as if roused by the echo
+of his own thought, burst out, 'Who?  What is it?  I say Dr. May
+shall not be called in!  He never attended the old man!  Let him mind
+his own business!  I was all night at the Three Goblets.  Yes, I was!
+The new darling will catch it--going off with the money upon him--'
+and the laugh made their blood run cold.  'I've got the receipt;' and
+he made an attempt at thrusting his hand under the pillow, but
+failing, swore, shouted, howled with his last strength, that he had
+been robbed--the pocket-book--it would hang him! and with one of the
+most fearful shrieks of despair that had perhaps ever rung through
+that asylum of pain, woe, and death, the wretched spirit departed.
+
+Tom May turned aside, made a few steps, and, to the infinite surprise
+of every one, fell helplessly down in a swoon.  A nature of deep and
+real sensibility, though repressed by external reserve and prudence,
+could not with entire impunity undergo such a scene.  The sudden
+discovery, the vehement excitement forced down, the intense strain of
+expectation, and finally, the closing horror of such a death,
+betraying the crime without repenting of it, passing to the other
+world with imprecations on the lips, and hatred in the glare of the
+eye, all the frightfulness enhanced by the familiarity of the
+allusions, and the ghastly association of the tones that had tempted
+and tyrannized over his childhood, altogether crushed and annihilated
+his faculties, mental and bodily.
+
+Oh, when our very hearts burn for justice, how little do we know how
+intolerable would be the sight of it!  Tom's caution and readiness
+returned as soon as--after a somewhat long interval--he began to
+distinguish the voices round him, and perceive the amazement he had
+created.  Before he was able to sit up on the couch, where he had
+been laid out of sight of the scene which had affected him so
+strongly, he was urging his friend to set down all that had been
+spoken, and on Gaspard's writing a separate deposition.  The pocket-
+book, and other effects, were readily ceded to the British authority,
+and were carried away with them.
+
+How Tom got through the remaining hours of the day and the night he
+never recollected, though he knew it must have been in the bustle of
+preparation, and that he had imparted the tidings to Leonard's friend
+Brown, for when he and his friend had attended that which answered to
+an inquest on the body, and had obtained a report of the proceedings,
+he was ready to start by the night train, bearing with him the
+attestations of the death-bed scene at the Hotel Dieu, and the long-
+lost memorandum-book, and was assured that the next mail would carry
+an official letter to the Home Office, detailing the circumstances of
+Samuel Axworthy's decease.  Brown came to bid him farewell, full of
+gladness and warm congratulation, which he longed to send to his
+friend, but which Tom only received with hasty, half-comprehending
+assents.
+
+Late in the afternoon he reached Stoneborough, found no one come in,
+and sat down in the fire-light, where, for all his impatience,
+fatigue had made him drop asleep, when he was roused by Gertrude's
+voice, exclaiming, 'Here really is Tom come, as you said he would,
+without writing.  Here are all his goods in the hall.'
+
+'Is it you, Tom!' cried Ethel.  'Notice or no notice, we are glad of
+you.  But what is the matter?'
+
+'Where's my father?'
+
+'Coming.  Charles Cheviot took him down to look at one of the boys.
+Is there anything the matter?' she added, after a pause.
+
+'No, nothing.'
+
+'You look very odd,' added Gertrude.
+
+He gave a nervous laugh.  'You would look odd, if you had travelled
+all night.'
+
+They commented, and began to tell home news; but Ethel noted that he
+neither spoke nor heard, only listened for his father.  Gertrude grew
+tired of inattentive answers, and said she should go and dress.
+Ethel was turning to follow, when he caught hold of her cloak, and
+drew her close to him.  'Ethel,' he said, in a husky, stifled voice,
+'do you know this?'
+
+On her knees, by the red fire-light, she saw the 'L. A. Ward,' and
+looked up.  'Is it?' she said.  He bowed his head.
+
+And then Ethel put her arm round his neck, as he knelt down by her;
+and he found that her tears, her rare tears, were streaming down,
+silent but irrepressible.  She had not spoken, had asked no question,
+made no remark, when Dr. Mays entrance was heard, and she loosed her
+hold on her brother, out without rising from the floor, looked up
+from under the shade of her hat, and said, '0, papa! it is found, and
+he has done it!  Look there!'
+
+Her choked voice, and tokens of emotion, startled the Doctor; but
+Tom, in a matter-of-fact tone, took up the word: 'How are you,
+father?--Yes.  I have only met with this little memorandum.'
+
+Dr. May recognized it with a burst of incoherent inquiry and
+exclamation, wringing Tom's hand, and giving no time for an answer;
+and, indeed, his son attempted none--till, calming himself, the
+Doctor subsided into his arm-chair, and with a deep sigh, exclaimed,
+'Now then, Tom, let us hear.  Where does this come from?'
+
+'From the casualty ward at the Hotel Dieu.'
+
+'And from--'
+
+'He is dead,' said Tom, answering the unspoken question.  'You will
+find it all here.  Ethel, do I sleep here to-night?  My old room?'
+As he spoke, he bent to light a spill at the fire, and then the two
+candles on the side-table; but his hand shook nervously, and though
+he turned away his face, his father and sister saw the paleness of
+his cheek, and knew that he must have received a great shock.
+Neither spoke, while he put one candle conveniently for his father,
+took up the other, and went away with it.  With one inquisitive
+glance at each other, they turned to the papers, and with eager eyes
+devoured the written narratives of Tom himself and of the attache,
+then, with no less avidity, the French reports accompanying them.
+Hardly a word was spoken while Ethel leant against her father's knee,
+and he almost singed his hair in the candle, as they helped one
+another out in the difficulties of the crooked foreign writing.
+
+'Will it be enough?' asked Ethel, at last, holding her breath for the
+answer.
+
+'If there is justice in England!' said Dr. May.  'Heaven forgive me,
+Ethel, this business has tried my trust more than anything that ever
+befell me; but it will all be right now, and righter than right, if
+that boy comes out what I think him.'
+
+'And oh, how soon?'
+
+'Not a moment longer than can be helped.  I'd go up by the mail train
+this very night if it would do any good.'
+
+Tom, who reappeared as soon as he had spared himself the necessity of
+the narration, was willing and eager to set out; but Dr. May, who by
+this time had gathered some idea of what he had gone through, and saw
+that he was restless, nervous, and unhinged, began to reconsider the
+expedience of another night journey, and was, for once in his life,
+the person cool enough to see that it would be wisest to call
+Bramshaw into their counsels, and only that night to send up a note
+mentioning that they would do themselves the honour of calling at the
+Home Office the next day, on matters connected with the intelligence
+received that morning from the British Embassy at Paris.
+
+Tom was disappointed; he was in no mood for sitting still, and far
+less for talking.  As a matter of business, he would elucidate any
+question, but conversation on what he had witnessed was impossible to
+him; and when Gertrude, with a girl's lightness, lamented over being
+balked of a confession and explanation, he gravely answered, that she
+did not know what she was talking of; and his father led away from
+the subject.  Indeed, Dr. May was full of kindness and consideration,
+being evidently not only grateful for the discovery, but touched by
+his entire absence of exulting triumph, and his strong sense of awe
+in the retribution.
+
+That changed and awe-struck manner impressed both the sisters, so
+that all the evening Ethel felt subdued as by a strange shock, and
+even through the night and morning could hardly realize that it was
+intense relief--joy, not sorrow--that made her feel so unlike
+herself, and that the burthen was taken away from her heart.  Even
+then, there was a trembling of anxiety.  The prisoner might be set
+free; but who could give back to him the sister who had pined away in
+exile, or the three years of his youthful brightness?  There might be
+better things in store; but she knew she must not look again for the
+boy of ingenuous countenance, whose chivalrous devotion to herself
+had had such a charm, even while she tried to prize it at its
+lightest worth.  It was foolish to recollect it with a pang, but
+there was no helping it.  In the great tragedy, she had forgotten
+that the pretty comedy was over, but she regretted it, rather as she
+did the pleasant baby-days of Aubrey and Gertrude.
+
+Indeed, during the day of suspense, while the two physicians were
+gone to London, taking with them the papers, and a minute detail of
+the evidence at the trial, Gertrude's high spirits, triumph over
+Charles Cheviot, and desire to trumpet forth the good news, were
+oppressive.  How many times that day was Mab stroked, and assured
+that her master would come back!  And how often did the two sisters
+endeavour to persuade themselves that she was not grown broader in
+the back!  Mary was, of course, told early in the day, but Gertrude
+got less sympathy from her than answered to that damsel's
+extortionate expectations, for, according to her wicked account,
+Mary's little Charlie had sneezed three times, and his mamma must
+regret what sent all the medical science of Stoneborough away by the
+early train.
+
+However, Tom came home at night.  The interview had been
+satisfactory.  The letters received in the morning had prepared the
+way, and revived the recollection of the unsatisfactory case of
+Leonard Axworthy Ward, and of the representations of the then Mayor
+of Market Stoneborough.  After all the new lights upon the matter had
+been looked into, the father and son had been assured that, as soon
+as possible, a free pardon should be issued, so drawn up as to imply
+a declaration of innocence--the nearest possible approach to a
+reversal of the sentence; and they further were told of a mention of
+his exemplary conduct in a late report from Portland, containing a
+request that he might be promoted to a post of greater influence and
+trust before the ordinary time of probation had passed.  Dr. May was
+eager to be at Portland at the same time as the pardon, so to give
+Leonard the first intelligence, and to bring him home; and he had
+warmly closed with Tom's offer to look after the work, while he
+himself waited till the necessary forms had been complied with.  He
+had absolutely begged Tom's pardon for going in his stead.  'It is
+your right,' he said; 'but, somehow, I think, as I have been more
+with him, I might do better.'  To which Tom had assented with all his
+heart, and had added that he would not go if he were paid for it.  He
+had further taken care that the Doctor should take with him a suit of
+clothes for Leonard to come home in, and had himself made the
+selection; then came back with the tidings that filled the house with
+the certainty of joy, and the uncertainty of expectation.
+
+Nobody was, however, in such a fever as Tom himself.  He was
+marvellously restless all the morning.  Gertrude asserted it was
+because he was miserable at not venturing to set his father's study
+to rights; and to be sure he was seen looking round at the litter
+with a face of great disgust, and declaring that he was ashamed to
+see a patient in a room in such a mess.  But this did not fully
+account for his being in and out, backwards and forwards, all the
+morning, looking wistfully at Ethel, and then asking some trivial
+question about messages left for his father, or matters respecting
+his own new abode, where he kept on Dr. Spencer's old housekeeper,
+and was about to turn in paperers and painters.  He had actually
+brought a drawing-room paper from Paris, a most delicate and graceful
+affair, much too lady-like for the old house, as Daisy told him, when
+she pursued him and her sister down to a consultation.
+
+Late in the afternoon, as the sisters were coming up the High Street,
+they met him setting out in Hector's dog-cart.  'Oh, I say, Ethel,'
+he said, drawing up, 'do you like a drive out to Chilford?  Here's a
+note come to ask my father to see the old lady there, and I want some
+one to give me courage to be looked at, like the curate in the pulpit
+instead of the crack preacher.'
+
+It was an offer not to be despised, though Ethel knew what a waiting
+there would be, and what a dark drive home.  Up she jumped, and Tom
+showed his usual thoughtfulness by ordering Gertrude to run home and
+fetch her muff and an additional cloak, tucking her up himself with
+the carriage rug.  That affection of Tom's had been slow in coming,
+but always gave her a sense of gratitude and enjoyment.
+
+They drove all the seven miles to Chilford without twenty words
+passing between them; and when there, she sat in the road, and
+watched one constellation after another fill up its complement of
+stars as well as the moon permitted, wondering whether Tom's near-
+sighted driving would be safe in the dark; but her heart was so
+light, so glad, that she could not be afraid, she did not care how
+long she waited, it was only sitting still to recollect that
+deliverance had come to the captive--Leonard was free--'free as heart
+can think or eye can see,' as would keep ringing in her ears like a
+joy-bell; and some better things, too.  'Until the time came that his
+cause was known, the Word of the Lord tried him.'
+
+Whether she were really too happy to note time, or that gossipry was
+deducted from the visit, Tom certainly returned sooner than her
+experience had led her to expect, made an exclamation of dismay at
+finding the machine was innocent of lamps, and remounted to his seat,
+prepared to be extremely careful.
+
+'I could not get them to take me for my father in a new wig,' he
+said; 'but it was a very easy-going rheumatic case, and I think I
+satisfied her.'
+
+Then on he drove for a mile, till he was out of the bad cross-country
+road, and at last he said, 'Ethel, I have made up my mind.  There's
+no press of work just now, and I find it is advisable I should go to
+America before I get into harness here.'
+
+'To America!'
+
+'Yes, about this book of dear old Spencer's.  It is a thing that must
+be complete, and I find he was in correspondence with some men of
+science there.  I could satisfy my mind on a few points, which would
+make it infinitely more valuable, you see--and get it published there
+too.  I know my father would wish every justice to be done to it.'
+
+'I know he would; and,' continued Ethel, as innocently as she could,
+'shall you see the Wards?'
+
+'Why,' said Tom, in his deliberate voice, 'that is just one thing; I
+want particularly to see Henry.  I had a talk with Wright this
+morning, and he tells me that young Baines, at Whitford, is going to
+the dogs, and the practice coming in to him.  He thinks of having a
+partner, and I put out a feeler in case Henry Ward should choose to
+come back, and found it might do very well.  But the proposal must
+come from him, and there's no time to be lost, so I thought of
+setting out as soon as I hear my father is on his way back.'
+
+'Not waiting to see Leonard?'
+
+'I did see him not a month ago.  Besides--' and his voice came to a
+sudden end.
+
+'Yes, the first news,' said Ethel.  'Indeed it is due to you, Tom.'
+
+Ten minutes more of silence.
+
+'Ethel, did she ever tell you?'
+
+'Never,' said Ethel, her heart beating.
+
+'Then how did you know all about it?'
+
+'I didn't know.  I only saw--'
+
+'Saw what?'
+
+'That you were very much distressed.'
+
+'And very kind and rational you were about it,' said Tom, warmly; 'I
+never thought any woman could have guessed so much, without making
+mischief.  But you must not put any misconstruction on my present
+intention.  All I mean to do as yet is to induce Henry to remove them
+out of that dismal swamp, and bring them home to comfort and
+civilization.  Then it may be time to--'
+
+He became silent; and Ethel longed ardently to ask further, but still
+she durst not, and he presently began again.
+
+'Ethel, was I very intolerable that winter of the volunteers, when
+Harry was at home?'
+
+'You are very much improved since,' she answered.
+
+'That's just like Flora.  Answer like yourself.'
+
+'Well, you were!  You were terribly rampant in Eton refinement, and
+very anxious to hinder all the others from making fools of
+themselves.'
+
+'I remember!  I thought you had all got into intimacies that were for
+nobody's good, and I still think it was foolish.  I know it has done
+for me!  Well,' hastily catching up this last admission, as if it had
+dropped out at unawares, 'you think I made myself disagreeable?'
+
+'On principle.'
+
+'Ah! then you would not wonder at what she said--that she had never
+seen anything in me but contemptuous irony.'
+
+'I think, sometimes feeling that you were satirical, she took all
+your courtesy for irony--whatever you meant.  I have heard other
+people say the same.  But when--was this on the day--the day you went
+to remonstrate?'
+
+'Yes.  I declare to you, Ethel, that I had no conception of what I
+was going to do!  I never dreamt that I was in for it.  I knew she
+was--was attractive--and that made me hate to see Harry with her, and
+I could not bear her being carried off to this horrible place--but as
+to myself, I never thought of it till I saw her--white and broken--'
+and then came that old action Ethel knew so well in her father, of
+clearing the dew from the glasses, and his voice was half sob, 'and
+with no creature but that selfish brother to take care of her.  I
+couldn't help it, Ethel--no one could--and this--this was her answer.
+I don't wonder.  I had been a supercilious prig, and I ought to have
+known better than to think I could comfort her.'
+
+'I think the remembrance must have comforted her since.'
+
+'What--what, has she said anything?'
+
+'Oh no, she could not, you know.  But I am sure, if it did anger her
+at the moment, there must have been comfort in recollecting that even
+such a terrible trouble had not alienated you.  And now--'
+
+'Now that's just what I don't want!  I don't want to stalk in and say
+here's the hero of romance that has saved your brother!  I want to
+get her home, and show her that I can be civil without being
+satirical, and then, perhaps, she would forgive me.'
+
+'Forgive you--'
+
+'I mean forgiveness won, not purchased.  And after all, you know it
+was mere accident--Providence if you please--that brought me to that
+poor wretch; all my plans of tracking him had come to an end; any one
+else could have done what I did.'
+
+'She will not feel that,' said Ethel; 'but indeed, Tom, I see what
+you mean, and like it.  It is yourself, and not the conferrer of the
+benefit, that you want her to care for.'
+
+'Exactly,' said Tom.  'And, Ethel, I must have seen her and judged of
+my chance before I can be good for anything.  I tried to forget it--
+own it as a lucky escape--a mere passing matter, like Harry's
+affairs--but I could not do it.  Perhaps I could if things had gone
+well; but that dear face of misery, that I only stung by my attempts
+to comfort, would stick fast with me, and to go and see Leonard only
+brought it more home.  It is a horrid bad speculation, and Flora and
+Cheviot and Blanche will scout it; but, Ethel, you'll help me
+through, and my father will not mind, I know.'
+
+'Papa will feel as I do, Tom--that it has been your great blessing,
+turn out as it may.'
+
+'H'm! has it?  A blessing on the wrong side of one's mouth--to go
+about with a barb one knew one was a fool for, and yet couldn't
+forget!  Well, I know what you mean, and I believe it was.  I would
+not have had it annihilated, when the first mood was over.'
+
+'It was that which made it so hard to you to come home, was it not?'
+
+'Yes; but it was odd enough, however hard it was to think of coming,
+you always sent me away more at peace, Ethel.  I can't think how you
+did it, knowing nothing.'
+
+'I think you came at the right time.'
+
+'You see, I did think that while Spencer lived, I might follow up the
+track, and see a little of the world--try if that would put out that
+face and voice.  But it won't do.  If this hadn't happened, I would
+have tied myself down, and done my best to get comfort out of you,
+and the hospital, and these 'Diseases of Climate'--I suppose one
+might in time, if things went well with her; but, as it is, I can't
+rest till I have seen if they can be got home again.  So, Ethel,
+don't mind if I go before my father comes home.  I can't stand
+explanations with him, and I had rather you did not proclaim this.
+You see the book, and getting Henry home, are really the reasons, and
+I shan't molest her again--no--not till she has learnt to know what
+is irony.'
+
+'I think if you did talk it over with papa, you would feel the
+comfort, and know him better.'
+
+'Well, well, I dare say, but I can't do it, Ethel.  Either he shuts
+me up at first, with some joke, or--' and Tom stopped; but Ethel knew
+what he meant.  There was on her father's side an involuntary absence
+of perfect trust in this son, and on Tom's there was a character so
+sensitive that her father's playfulness grated, and so reserved that
+his demonstrative feelings were a still greater trial to one who
+could not endure outward emotion.  'Besides,' added Tom, 'there is
+really nothing--nothing to tell.  I'm not going to commit myself.  I
+don't know whether I ever shall.  I was mad that day, and I want to
+satisfy my mind whether I think the same now I am sane, and if I do,
+I shall have enough to do to make her forget the winter when I made
+myself such an ass.  When I have done that, it may be time to speak
+to my father.  I really am going out about the book.  When did you
+hear last?'
+
+'That is what makes me anxious.  I have not heard for two months, and
+that is longer than she ever was before without writing, except when
+Minna was ill.'
+
+'We shall know if Leonard has heard.'
+
+'No, she always writes under cover to us.'
+
+The course that the conversation then took did not look much like
+Tom's doubt whether his own views would be the same.  All the long-
+repressed discussion of Averil's merits, her beautiful eyes, her
+sweet voice, her refinement, her real worth, the wonder that she and
+Leonard should be so superior to the rest of the family, were freely
+indulged at last, and Ethel could give far heartier sympathy than if
+this had come to her three years ago.  Averil had been for two years
+her correspondent, and the patient sweetness and cheerfulness of
+those letters had given a far higher estimate of her nature than the
+passing intercourse of the town life had left.  The terrible
+discipline of these years of exile and sorrow had, Ethel could well
+believe, worked out something very different from the well-
+intentioned wilful girl whose spirit of partisanship had been so
+fatal an element of discord.  Distance had, in truth, made them
+acquainted, and won their love to one another.
+
+Tom's last words, as he drew up under the lime-trees before the door,
+were, 'Mind, I am only going about the 'Diseases of Climate'.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+
+  And Bishop Gawain as he rose,
+Said, 'Wilton, grieve not for thy woes,
+       Disgrace and trouble;
+For He who honour best bestows,
+       Can give thee double.'--Marmion
+
+
+Dr. May had written to Portland, entreating that no communication
+might be made to Leonard Ward before his arrival; and the good
+physician's affection for the prisoner had been so much observed,
+that no one would have felt it fair to anticipate him.  Indeed, he
+presented himself at the prison gates only two hours after the
+arrival of the documents, when no one but the governor was aware of
+their contents.
+
+Leonard was as usual at his business in the schoolmaster's
+department; and thither a summons was sent for him, while Dr. May and
+the governor alone awaited his arrival.  Tom's visit was still very
+recent; and Leonard entered with anxious eyes, brow drawn together,
+and compressed lips, as though braced to meet another blow; and the
+unusual room, the presence of the governor instead of the warder, and
+Dr. May's irrepressible emotion, so confirmed the impression, that
+his face at once assumed a resolute look of painful expectation.
+
+'My boy,' said Dr. May, clasping both his hands in his own, 'you have
+borne much of ill.  Can you bear to hear good news?'
+
+'Am I to be sent out to Australia already?' said Leonard--for a
+shortening of the eight years before his ticket-of-leave was the sole
+hope that had presented itself.
+
+'Sent out, yes; out to go wherever you please, Leonard.  The right is
+come round.  The truth is out.  You are a free man!  Do you know what
+that is?  It is a pardon.  Your pardon.  All that can be done to
+right you, my boy--but it is as good as a reversal of the sentence.'
+
+The Doctor had spoken this with pauses; going on, as Leonard, instead
+of answering, stood like one in a dream, and at last said with
+difficulty, 'Who did it then?'
+
+'It was as you always believed.'
+
+'Has he told?' said Leonard, drawing his brows together with the
+effort to understand.
+
+'No, Leonard.  The vengeance he had brought on himself did not give
+space for repentance; but the pocket-book, with your receipt, was
+upon him, and your innocence is established.'
+
+'And let me congratulate you,' added the governor, shaking hands with
+him; 'and add, that all I have known of you has been as complete an
+exculpation as any discovery can be.'
+
+Leonard's hand was passive, his cheek had become white, his forehead
+still knit.  'Axworthy!' he said, still as in a trance.
+
+'Yes.  Hurt in a brawl at Paris.  He was brought to the Hotel Dieu;
+and my son Tom was called to see him.'
+
+'Sam Axworthy! repeated Leonard, putting his hand over his eyes, as
+if one sensation overpowered everything else; and thus he stood for
+some seconds, to the perplexity of both.
+
+They showed him the papers: he gazed, but without comprehension; and
+then putting the bag, provided by Tom, into his hand, they sent him,
+moving in a sort of mechanical obedience, into the room of one of the
+officials to change his dress.
+
+Dr. May poured out to the governor and chaplain, who by this time had
+joined them, the history of Leonard's generous behaviour at the time
+of the trial, and listened in return to their account of the growing
+impression he had created--a belief, almost reluctant, that instead
+of being their prime specimen, he could only be in their hands by
+mistake.  He was too sincere not to have confessed had he been really
+guilty; and in the long run, such behaviour as his would have been
+impossible in one unrepentant.  He had been the more believed from
+the absence of complaint, demonstration, or assertion; and the
+constant endeavour to avoid notice, coupled with the quiet thorough
+execution of whatever was set before him with all his might.
+
+This was a theme to occupy the Doctor for a long time; but at last he
+grew eager for Leonard's return, and went to hasten him.  He started
+up, still in the convict garb, the bag untouched.
+
+'I beg your pardon,' he said, when his friend's exclamation had
+reminded him of what had been desired of him; and in a few minutes he
+reappeared in the ordinary dress of a gentleman, but the change did
+not seem to have made him realize his freedom--there was the same
+submissive manner, the same conventional gesture of respect in reply
+to the chaplain's warm congratulation.
+
+'Come, Leonard, I am always missing the boat, but I don't want to do
+so now.  We must get home to-night.  Have you anything to take with
+you?'
+
+'My Bible and Prayer-Book.  They are my own, sir;' as he turned to
+the governor.  'May I go to my cell for them?'
+
+Again they tarried long for him, and became afraid that he had fallen
+into another reverie; but going to fetch him, found that the delay
+was caused by the farewells of all who had come in his way.  The
+tidings of his full justification had spread, and each official was
+eager to wish him good speed, and thank him for the aid of his
+example and support.  The schoolmaster, who had of late treated him
+as a friend, kept close to him, rejoicing in his liberation, but
+expecting to miss him sorely; and such of the convicts as were within
+reach, were not without their share in the general exultation.  He
+had never galled them by his superiority; and though Brown, the
+clerk, had been his only friend, he had done many an act of kindness;
+and when writing letters for the unlearned, had spoken many a
+wholesome simple word that had gone home to the heart.  His hand was
+as ready for a parting grasp from a fellow-prisoner as from a warder;
+and his thought and voice were recalled to leave messages for men out
+of reach; his eyes moistened at the kindly felicitations; but when he
+was past the oft-trodden precincts of the inner court and long
+galleries, the passiveness returned, and he received the last good-
+byes of the governor and superior officers, as if only half alive to
+their import.  And thus, silent, calm, and grave, his composure like
+that of a man walking in his sleep, did Leonard Ward pass the arched
+gateway, enter on the outer world, and end his three and a half years
+of penal servitude.
+
+'I'm less like an angel than he is like St. Peter,' thought Dr. May,
+as he watched the fixed dreamy gaze, 'but this is like "yet wist he
+not that it was true, but thought he saw a vision."  When will he
+realize liberty, and enjoy it?  I shall do him a greater kindness by
+leaving him to himself.'
+
+And in spite of his impatience, Dr. May refrained from disturbing
+that open-eyed trance all the way down the long hill, trusting to the
+crowd in the steamer for rousing him to perceive that he was no
+longer among russet coats and blue shirts; but he stood motionless,
+gazing, or at least his face turned, towards the Dorset coast,
+uttering no word, making no movement, save when summoned by his
+guide--then obeying as implicitly as though it were his jailor.
+
+So they came to the pier; and so they walked the length of Weymouth,
+paced the platform, and took their places in the train.  Just as they
+had shot beyond the town, and come into the little wooded valleys
+beyond, Leonard turned round, and with the first sparkle in his eye,
+exclaimed, 'Trees!  Oh, noble trees and hedges!' then turned again to
+look in enchantment at the passing groups--far from noble, though
+bright with autumn tints--that alternated with the chalk downs.
+
+Dr. May was pleased at this revival, and entertained at the start and
+glance of inquiring alarm from an old gentleman in the other corner.
+Presently, in the darkness of a cutting, again Leonard spoke: 'Where
+are you taking me, Dr. May?'
+
+'Home, of course.'
+
+Whatever the word might imply to the poor lad, he was satisfied, and
+again became absorbed in the sight of fields, trees, and hedgerows;
+while Dr. May watched the tokens of secret dismay in their fellow-
+traveller, who had no doubt understood 'home' to mean his private
+asylum.  Indeed, though the steady full dark eyes showed no
+aberration, there was a strange deep cave between the lid and the
+eyebrow, which gave a haggard look; the spare, worn, grave features
+had an expression--not indeed weak, nor wandering, but half
+bewildered, half absorbed, moreover, in spite of Tom's minute
+selection of apparel, it had been too hasty a toilette for the
+garments to look perfectly natural; and the cropped head was so
+suspicious, that it was no wonder that at the first station, the old
+gentleman gathered up his umbrella, with intense courtesy squeezed
+gingerly to the door, carefully avoiding any stumble over perilous
+toes, and made his escape--entering another carriage, whence he no
+doubt signed cautions against the lunatic and his keeper, since no
+one again invaded their privacy.
+
+Perhaps this incident most fully revealed to the Doctor, how unlike
+other people his charge was, how much changed from the handsome
+spirited lad on whom the trouble had fallen; and he looked again and
+again at the profile turned to the window, as fixed and set as though
+it had been carved.
+
+'Ah, patience is an exhausting virtue!' said he to himself.  'Verily
+it is bearing--bearing up under the full weight; and the long bent
+spring is the slower in rebounding in proportion to its inherent
+strength.  Poor lad, what protracted endurance it has been!  There is
+health and force in his face; no line of sin, nor sickness, nor
+worldly care, such as it makes one's heart ache to see aging young
+faces; yet how utterly unlike the face of one and-twenty!  I had
+rather see it sadder than so strangely settled and sedate!  Shall I
+speak to him again?  Not yet: those green hill-sides, those fields
+and cattle, must refresh him better than my clavers, after his grim
+stony mount of purgatory.  I wish it were a brighter day to greet
+him, instead of this gray damp fog.'
+
+The said fog prevented any semblance of sunset; but through the gray
+moonlit haze, Leonard kept his face to the window, pertinaciously
+clearing openings in the bedewed glass, as though the varying outline
+of the horizon had a fascination for him.  At last, after ten minutes
+of glaring gas at a junction had by contrast rendered the mist
+impenetrable, and reduced the view to brightened clouds of steam, and
+to white telegraphic posts, erecting themselves every moment, with
+their wires changing their perspective in incessant monotony, he
+ceased his gaze, and sat upright in his place, with the same strange
+rigid somnambulist air.
+
+Dr. May resolved to rouse him.
+
+'Well, Leonard,' he said, 'this has been a very long fever; but we
+are well through it at last--with the young doctor from Paris to our
+aid.'
+
+Probably Leonard only heard the voice, not the words, for he passed
+his hand over his face, and looked up to the Doctor, saying dreamily,
+'Let me see!  Is it all true?' and then, with a grave wistful look,
+'It was not I who did that thing, then?'
+
+'My dear!' exclaimed the Doctor, starting forward, and catching hold
+of his hand, 'have they brought you to this?'
+
+'I always meant to ask you, if I ever saw you alone again,' said
+Leonard.
+
+'But you don't mean that you have imagined it!'
+
+'Not constantly--not when any one was with me,' said Leonard, roused
+by Dr. May's evident dismay; and drawn on by his face of anxious
+inquiry.  'At Milbank, I generally thought I remembered it just as
+they described it in court, and that it was some miserable ruinous
+delusion that hindered my confessing; but the odd thing was, that the
+moment any one opened my door, I forgot all about it, resolutions and
+all, and was myself again.'
+
+'Then surely--surely you left that horror with the solitude?'
+
+'Yes, till lately; but when it did come back, I could not be sure
+what was recollection of fact, and what of my own fancy;' and he drew
+his brows together in painful effort.  'Did I know who did it, or did
+I only guess?'
+
+'You came to a right conclusion, and would not let me act on it.'
+
+'And I really did write the receipt, and not dream it?'
+
+'That receipt has been in my hand.  It was what has brought you
+here.'  And now to hearing ears, Dr. May went over the narrative; and
+Leonard stood up under the little lamp in the roof of the carriage to
+read the papers.
+
+'I recollect--I understand,' he said, presently, and sat down, grave
+and meditative--no longer dreamy, but going over events, which had at
+last acquired assurance to his memory from external circumstances.
+Presently his fingers were clasped together over his face, his head
+bent, and then he looked up, and said, 'Do they know it--my sister
+and brother?'
+
+'No.  We would not write till you were free.  You must date the first
+letter from Stoneborough.'
+
+The thought had brought a bitter pang.  'One half year sooner--' and
+he leant back in his seat, with fingers tightly pressed together, and
+trembling with emotion.
+
+'Nay, Leonard; may not the dear child be the first to rejoice in the
+fulfilment of her own sweet note of comfort?  They could not harm the
+innocent.'
+
+'Not innocent,' he said, 'not innocent of causing all the discord
+that has ended in their exile, and the dear child's death.'
+
+'Then this is what has preyed on you, and changed you so much more of
+late,' said Dr. May.
+
+'When I knew that I was indeed guilty of _her_ death,' said Leonard,
+in a calm full conviction of too long standing to be accompanied with
+agitation, though permanently bowing him down.
+
+'And you never spoke of this: not to the chaplain?'
+
+'I never could.  It would have implied all the rest that he could not
+believe.  And it would not have changed the fact.'
+
+'The aspect of it may change, Leonard.  You know yourself how many
+immediate causes combined, of which you cannot accuse yourself--your
+brother's wrongheadedness, and all the rest.  And,' added the Doctor,
+recovering himself, 'you do see it in other aspects, I know.  Think
+of the spirit set free to be near you--free from the world that has
+gone so hard with you!'
+
+'I can't keep that thought long; I'm not worthy of it.'
+
+Again he was silent; but presently said, as with a sudden thought,
+'You would have told me if there were any news of Ave.'
+
+'No, there has been no letter since her last inclosure for you,' and
+then Dr. May gave the details from the papers on the doings of
+Henry's division of the army.
+
+'Will Henry let me be with them?' said Leonard, musingly.
+
+'They will come home, depend upon it.  You must wait till you hear.'
+
+Leonard thought a little while, then said, 'Where did you say I was
+to go, Dr. May?'
+
+'Where, indeed?  Home, Leonard--home.  Ethel is waiting for us.  To
+the High Street.'
+
+Leonard looked up again with his bewildered face, then said, 'I know
+what you do with me will be right, but--'
+
+'Had you rather not?' said the Doctor, startled.
+
+'Rather!' and the Doctor, to his exceeding joy, saw the fingers over
+his eyes moist with the tears they tried to hide; 'I only meant--' he
+added, with an effort, 'you must think and judge--I can't think--
+whether I ought.'
+
+'If you ask me that,' said Dr. May, earnestly, 'all I have to say is,
+that I don't know what palace is worthy of you.'
+
+There was not much said after that; and the Doctor fell asleep,
+waking only at the halts at stations to ask where he was.
+
+At last came 'Blewer!' and as the light shone on the clock, Leonard
+said, 'A quarter past twelve!  It is the very train I went by!  Is it
+a dream?'
+
+Ten minutes more, and 'Stoneborough' was the cry.  Hastily springing
+out, shuffling the tickets into the porter's hand, and grappling
+Leonard's arm as if he feared an escape, Dr. May hurried him into the
+empty streets, and strode on in silence.
+
+The pull at the door-bell was answered instantly by Ethel herself.
+She held out her hand, and grasped that which Leonard had almost
+withheld, shrinking as from too sudden a vision; and then she
+ardently exchanged kisses with her father.
+
+'Where's Tom?  Gone to bed?' said Dr. May, stepping into the bright
+drawing-room.
+
+'No,' said Ethel, demurely; 'he is gone--he is gone to America.'
+
+The Doctor gave a prodigious start, and looked at her again.
+
+'He went this afternoon ' she said.  'There is some matter about the
+'Diseases of Climate' that he must settle before the book is
+published; and he thought he could best be spared now.  He has left
+messages that I will give you by and by; but you must both be
+famished.'
+
+Her looks indicated that all was right, and both turned to welcome
+the guest, who stood where the first impulse had left him, in the
+hall, not moving forward, till he was invited in to the fire, and the
+meal already spread.  He then obeyed, and took the place pointed out;
+while the Doctor nervously expatiated on the cold, damp, and changes
+of train; and Ethel, in the active bashfulness of hidden agitation,
+made tea, cut bread, carved chicken, and waited on them with double
+assiduity, as Leonard, though eating as a man who had fasted since
+early morning, was passive as a little child, merely accepting what
+was offered to him, and not even passing his cup till she held out
+her hand for it.
+
+She did not even dare to look at him; she could not bear that he
+should see her do so; it was enough to know that he was free--that he
+was there--that it was over.  She did not want to see how it had
+changed him; and, half to set him at ease, half to work off her own
+excitement, she talked to her father, and told him of the little
+events of his absence till the meal was over; and, at half-past one,
+good nights were exchanged with Leonard, and the Doctor saw him to
+his room, then returned to his daughter on her own threshold.
+
+'That's a thing to have lived for,' he said.
+
+Ethel locked her hands together, and looked up.
+
+'And now, how about this other denouement?  I might have guessed that
+the wind sat in that quarter.'
+
+'But you're not to guess it, papa.  It is really and truly about the
+'Diseases of Climate'.'
+
+'Swamp fevers, eh! and agues!'
+
+The 'if you can help it,' was a great comfort now; Ethel could
+venture on saying, 'Of course that has something to do with it; but
+he really does make the book his object; and please--please don't
+give any hint that you suspect anything else.'
+
+'I suppose you are in his confidence; and I must ask no questions.'
+
+'I hated not telling you, and letting you tease him; but he trusted
+me just enough not to make me dare to say a word; though I never was
+sure there was a word to say.  Now do just once own, papa, that Tom
+is the romantic one after all, to have done as he did in the height
+of the trouble.'
+
+'Well in his place so should I,' said the Doctor, with the
+perverseness of not satisfying expectations of amazement.
+
+'_You_ would,' said Ethel; 'but Tom! would you have thought it of
+Tom?'
+
+'Tom has more in him than shows through his spectacles,' answered Dr.
+May.  'So!  That's the key to his restless fit.  Poor fellow!  How
+did it go with him?  They have not been carrying it on all this time,
+surely!'
+
+'Oh, no, no, papa!  She cut him to the heart, poor boy! thought he
+was laughing at her--told him it had all been irony.  He has no
+notion whether she will ever forgive him.'
+
+'A very good lesson, Master Doctor Thomas,' said Dr. May, with a
+twinkle in his eye; 'and turn out as it will, it has done him good--
+tided him over a dangerous time of life.  Well, you must tell me all
+about it to-morrow; I'm too sleepy to know what I'm talking of.'
+
+The sleepiness that always finished off the Doctor's senses at the
+right moment, was a great preservative of his freshness and vigour;
+but Ethel was far from sharing it, and was very glad when the clock
+sounded a legitimate hour for getting up, and dressing by candle-
+light, briefly answering Gertrude's eager questions on the arrival.
+It was a pouring wet morning, and she forbade Daisy to go to church--
+indeed, it would have been too bad for herself on any morning but
+this--any but this, as she repeated, smiling at her own spring of
+thankfulness, as she fortified herself with a weight of waterproof,
+and came forth in the darkness of 7.45, on a grim November day.
+
+A few steps before her, pacing on, umbrellaless, was a figure which
+made her hurry to overtake him.
+
+'0, Leonard! after your journey, and in this rain!'
+
+He made a gesture of courtesy, but moved as if to follow, not join
+her.  Did he not know whether he were within the pale of humanity?
+
+'Here is half an umbrella.  Won't you hold it for me?' she said; and
+as he followed his instinct of obedience, she put it into his hand,
+and took his arm, thinking that this familiarity would best restore
+him to a sense of his regained position; and, moreover, feeling glad
+and triumphant to be thus leaning, and to have that strong arm to
+contend with the driving blast that came howling round the corner of
+Minster Street, and fighting for their shelter.  They were both out
+of breath when they paused to recover in the deep porch of the
+Minster.
+
+'Is Dr. May come home?'
+
+'Yes--and--'
+
+Ethel signed, and Mr. Wilmot held out an earnest hand, with, 'This is
+well.  I am glad to see you.'
+
+'Thank you, sir,' said Leonard, heartily; 'and for all--'
+
+'This is your new beginning of life, Leonard.  God bless you in it.'
+
+As Mr. Wilmot passed on, Ethel for the first time ventured to look up
+into the eyes--and saw their hollow setting, their loss of sparkle,
+but their added steadfastness and resolution.  She could not help
+repeating the long-treasured lines: 'And, Leonard,
+
+
+                         "--grieve not for thy woes,
+                    Disgrace and trouble;
+                    For He who honour best bestows,
+                       Shall give thee double."'
+
+
+'I've never ceased to be glad you read Marmion with me,' he hastily
+said, as they turned into church on hearing a clattering of
+choristers behind them.
+
+Clara might have had such sensations when she bound the spurs on her
+knight's heels, yet even she could hardly have had so pure,
+unselfish, and exquisite a joy as Ethel's, in receiving the pupil who
+had been in a far different school from hers.
+
+The gray dawn through the gloom, the depths of shadow in the twilight
+church, softening and rendering all more solemn and mysterious, were
+more in accordance than bright and beamy sunshine with her subdued
+grave thankfulness; and there was something suitable in the fewness
+of the congregation that had gathered in the Lady Chapel--so few,
+that there was no room for shyness, either in, or for, him who was
+again taking his place there, with steady composed demeanour, its
+stillness concealing so much.
+
+Ethel had reckoned on the verse--'That He might hear the mournings of
+such as are in captivity, and deliver the children appointed unto
+death.'  But she had not reckoned on its falling on her ears in the
+deep full-toned melodious bass, that came in, giving body to the
+young notes of the choristers--a voice so altered and mellowed since
+she last had heard it, that it made her look across in doubt, and
+recognize in the uplifted face, that here indeed the freed captive
+was at home, and lifted above himself.
+
+When the clause, in the Litany, for all prisoners and captives
+brought to her the thrill that she had only to look up to see the
+fulfilment of many and many a prayer for one captive, for once she
+did not hear the response, only saw the bent head, as though there
+were thoughts went too deep to find voice.  And again, there was the
+special thanksgiving that Mr. Wilmot could not refrain from
+introducing for one to whom a great mercy had been vouchsafed.
+If Ethel had had to swim home, she would not but have been there!
+
+Charles Cheviot addressed them as they came out of church: 'Good
+morning--Mr. Ward, I hope to do myself the honour of calling on you--
+I shall see you again, Ethel.
+
+And off he went over the glazy stones to his own house, Ethel knowing
+that this cordial salutation and intended call were meant to be
+honourable amends for his suspicions; but Leonard, unconscious of the
+import, and scarcely knowing indeed that he was addressed, made his
+mechanical gesture of respect, and looked up, down, and round,
+absorbed in the scene.  'How exactly the same it all looks,' he said;
+'the cloister gate, and the Swan, and the postman in the very same
+waterproof cape.'
+
+'Do you not feel like being just awake?'
+
+'No; it is more like being a ghost, or somebody else.'
+
+Then the wind drove them on too fast for speech, till as they crossed
+the High Street, Ethel pointed through the plane-trees to two round
+black eyes, and a shining black nose, at the dining-room window.
+
+'My Mab, my poor little Mab!--You have kept her all this time!  I was
+afraid to ask for her.  I could not hope it.'
+
+'I could not get my spoilt child, Gertrude, to bed without taking
+Mab, that she might see the meeting.'
+
+Perhaps it served Daisy right that the meeting did not answer her
+expectations.  Mab and her master had both grown older; she smelt
+round him long before she was sure of him, and then their content in
+one another was less shown by fervent rapture, than by the quiet hand
+smoothing her silken coat; and, in return, by her wistful eye,
+nestling gesture, gently waving tail.
+
+And Leonard!  How was it with him?  It was not easy to tell in his
+absolute passiveness.  He seemed to have neither will nor impulse to
+speak, move, or act, though whatever was desired of him, he did with
+the implicit obedience that no one could bear to see.  They put books
+near him, but he did not voluntarily touch one: they asked if he
+would write to his sister, and he took the pen in his hand, but did
+not accomplish a commencement.  Ethel asked him if he were tired, or
+had a headache.
+
+'Thank you, no,' he said; 'I'll write,' and made a dip in the ink.
+
+'I did not mean to tease you,' she said; 'the mail is not going just
+yet, and there is no need for haste.  I was only afraid something was
+wrong.'
+
+'Thank you,' he said, submissively; 'I will--when I can think; but it
+is all too strange.  I have not seen a lady, nor a room like this,
+since July three years.'
+
+After that Ethel let him alone, satisfied that peace was the best
+means of recovering the exhaustion of his long-suffering.
+
+The difficulty was that this was no house for quiet, especially the
+day after the master's return: the door-bell kept on ringing, and
+each time he looked startled and nervous, though assured that it was
+only patients.  But at twelve o'clock in rushed Mr. Cheviot's little
+brother, with a note from Mary, lamenting that it was too wet for
+herself, but saying that Charles was coming in the afternoon, and
+that he intended to have a dinner-party of old Stoneborough scholars
+to welcome Leonard back.
+
+Meanwhile, Martin Cheviot, wanting to see, and not to stare, and to
+unite cordiality and unconsciousness, made an awkward mixture of all,
+and did not know how to get away; and before he had accomplished it,
+Mr. Edward Anderson was announced.  He heartily shook hands with
+Leonard, eagerly welcomed him, and talked volubly, and his last
+communication was, 'If it clears, you will see Matilda this
+afternoon.'
+
+'I did not know she was here.'
+
+'Yes; she and Harvey are come to Mrs. Ledwich's, to stay over
+Sunday;' and there was a laugh in the corner of his eye, that
+convinced Ethel that the torrents of rain would be no protection.
+
+'Papa,' said she, darting out to meet her father in the hall, 'you
+must take Leonard out in your brougham this afternoon, if you don't
+want him driven distracted.  If he is in the house, ropes won't hold
+Mrs. Harvey Anderson from him!'
+
+So Dr. May invited his guest to share his drive; and the excitement
+began to seem unreal when the Doctor returned alone.
+
+'I dropped him at Cocksmoor,' he said.  'It was Richard's notion that
+he would be quieter there--able to get out, and go to church, without
+being stared at.'
+
+'Did he like it?' asked Gertrude, disappointed.
+
+'If one told him to chop off his finger, he would do it, and never
+show whether he liked it.  Richard asked him, and he said, "Thank
+you."  I never could get an opening to show him that we did not want
+to suppress him; I never saw spirit so quenched.'
+
+Charles Cheviot thought it was a mistake to do what gave the
+appearance of suppression--he said that it was due to Leonard to
+welcome him as heartily as possible, and not to encourage false
+shame, where there was no disgrace; so he set his wife to fill up her
+cards for his dinner-party, and included in it Mr. and Mrs. Harvey
+Anderson, for the sake of their warm interest in the liberated
+prisoner.
+
+'However, Leonard was out of the scrape,' as the Doctor expressed it,
+for he had one of his severe sore throats, and was laid up at
+Cocksmoor.  Richard was dismayed by his passive obedience--a novelty
+to the gentle eldest, who had all his life been submitting, and now
+was puzzled by his guest's unfailing acquiescence without a token of
+preference or independence: and comically amazed at the implicit
+fulfilment of his recommendation to keep the throat in bed--a wise
+suggestion, but one that the whole house of May, in their own
+persons, would have scouted.  Nothing short of the highest authority
+ever kept them there.
+
+The semblance of illness was perhaps a good starting-point for a
+return to the ways of the world; and on the day week of his going to
+Cocksmoor, Ethel found him by the fire, beginning his letters to his
+brother and sister, and looking brighter and more cheery, but so
+devoid of voice, that speech could not be expected of him.
+
+She had just looked in again after some parish visiting, when a quick
+soldierly step was heard, and in walked Aubrey.
+
+'No; I'm not come to you, Ethel; I'm only come to this fellow;' and
+he ardently grasped his hand.  'I've got leave till Monday, and I
+shall stay here and see nobody else.--What, a sore throat?  Couldn't
+you get wrapped up enough between the two doctors?'
+
+Leonard's eyes lighted as he muttered his hoarse 'Thank you,' and
+Ethel lingered for a little desultory talk to her brother,
+contrasting the changes that the three years had made in the two
+friends.  Aubrey, drilled out of his home scholarly dreaminess by
+military and practical discipline, had exchanged his native languor
+for prompt upright alertness of bearing and speech; his eye had grown
+more steady, his mouth had lost its vague pensive expression, and was
+rendered sterner by the dark moustache; definite thought, purpose,
+and action, had moulded his whole countenance and person into hopeful
+manhood, instead of visionary boyhood.  The other face, naturally the
+most full of fire and resolution, looked strangely different in its
+serious unsmiling gravity, the deeply worn stamp of patient endurance
+and utter isolation.  There was much of rest and calm, and even of
+content--but withal a quenched look, as if the lustre of youth and
+hope had been extinguished, and the soul had been so driven in upon
+itself, that there was no opening to receive external sympathy--a
+settled expression, all the stranger on a face with the clear
+smoothness of early youth.  One thing at least was unchanged--the
+firm friendship and affection--that kept the two constantly casting
+glances over one another, to assure themselves of the presence before
+them.
+
+Ethel left them together; and her father, who made out that he should
+save time by going to Cocksmoor Church on Sunday morning, reported
+that the boys seemed very happy together in their own way; but that
+Richard reported himself to have been at the sole expense of
+conversation in the evening--the only time such an event could ever
+have occurred!
+
+Aubrey returned home late on the Sunday evening; and Leonard set off
+to walk part of the way with him in the dusk, but ended by coming the
+whole distance, for the twilight opened their lips in this renewal of
+old habits.
+
+'It is all right to be walking together again,' said Aubrey, warmly;
+'though it is not like those spring days.'
+
+'I've thought of them every Sunday.'
+
+'And what are you going to do now, old fellow?'
+
+'I don't know.'
+
+'I hear Bramshaw is going to offer you to come into his office.  Now,
+don't do that, Leonard, whatever you do!'
+
+'I don't know.'
+
+'You are to have all your property back, you know, and you could do
+much better for yourself than that.'
+
+'I can't tell till I have heard from my brother.'
+
+'But, Leonard, promise me now--you'll not go out and make a Yankee of
+yourself.'
+
+'I can't tell; I shall do what he wishes.'
+
+Aubrey presently found that Leonard seemed to have no capacity to
+think or speak of the future or the past.  He set Aubrey off on his
+own concerns, and listened with interest, asking questions that
+showed him perfectly alive to what regarded his friend, but the
+passive inaction of will and spirits still continued, and made him
+almost a disappointment.
+
+On Monday morning there was a squabble between the young engineer and
+the Daisy, who was a profound believer in the scientific object of
+Tom's journey, and greatly resented the far too obvious construction
+thereof.
+
+'You must read lots of bad novels at Chatham, Aubrey; it is like the
+fag end of the most trumpery of them all!'
+
+'You haven't gone far enough in your mathematics, you see, Daisy.
+You think one and one--'
+
+'Make two.  So I say.'
+
+'I've gone into the higher branches.'
+
+'I didn't think you were so simple and commonplace.  It would be so
+stupid to think he must--just because he could not help making this
+discovery.'
+
+'All for want of the higher branches of mathematics!  One plus one--
+equals one.'
+
+'One minus common sense, plus folly, plus romance, minus anything to
+do.  Your equation is worthy of Mrs. Harvey Anderson.  I gave her a
+good dose of the 'Diseases of Climate!''
+
+Aubrey was looking at Ethel all the time Gertrude was triumphing; and
+finally he said, 'I've no absolute faith in disinterested
+philanthropy to a younger brother--whatever I had before I went to
+the Tyrol.'
+
+'What has that to do with it?' asked Gertrude.  'Everybody was cut
+up, and wanted a change--and you more than all.  I do believe the
+possibility of a love affair absolutely drives people mad: and now
+they must needs saddle it upon poor Tom--just the one of the family
+who is not so stupid, but has plenty of other things to think about.'
+
+'So you think it a stupid pastime?'
+
+'Of course it is.  Why, just look.  Hasn't everybody in the family
+turned stupid, and of no use, as soon at they went and fell in love!
+Only good old Ethel here has too much sense, and that's what makes
+her such a dear old gurgoyle.  And Harry--he is twice the fun after
+he comes home, before he gets his fit of love.  And all the story
+books that begin pleasantly, the instant that love gets in, they are
+just alike--so stupid!  And now, if you haven't done it yourself, you
+want to lug poor innocent Tom in for it.'
+
+'When your time comes, may I be there to see!'
+
+He retreated from her evident designs of clapper-clawing him; and she
+turned round to Ethel with, 'Now, isn't it stupid, Ethel!'
+
+'Very stupid to think all the zest of life resides in one particular
+feeling,' said Ethel; 'but more stupid to talk of what you know
+nothing about.'
+
+Aubrey put in his head for a hurried farewell, and, 'Telegraph to me
+when Mrs. Thomas May comes home.'
+
+'If Mrs. Thomas May comes home, I'll--'
+
+'Give her that chair cover,' said Ethel; and her idle needlewoman,
+having been eight months working one corner of it, went off into fits
+of laughter, regarding its completion as an equally monstrous feat
+with an act of cannibalism on the impossible Mrs. Thomas May.
+
+How different were these young things, with their rhodomontade and
+exuberant animation and spirits, from him in whom all the sparkle and
+aspiration of life seemed extinguished!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+
+A cup was at my lips: it pass'd
+As passes the wild desert blast!
+           *****
+I woke--around me was a gloom
+And silence of the tomb;
+But in that awful solitude
+That little spirit by me stood--
+But oh, how changed!
+            --Thoughts in Past Years
+
+
+Under Richard's kind let-alone system, Leonard was slowly recovering
+tone.  First he took to ruling lines in the Cocksmoor account-books,
+then he helped in their audit; and with occupation came the sense of
+the power of voluntary exertion.  He went and came freely, and began
+to take long rambles in the loneliest parts of the heath and
+plantations, while Richard left him scrupulously to his own devices,
+and rejoiced to see them more defined and vigorous every day.  The
+next stop was to assist in the night-school where Richard had
+hitherto toiled single-handed among very rough subjects.  The
+technical training and experience derived from Leonard's work under
+the schoolmaster at Portland were invaluable; and though taking the
+lead was the last thing he would have thought of, he no sooner
+entered the school than attention and authority were there, and
+Richard found that what had to him been a vain and patient struggle
+was becoming both effective and agreeable.  Interest in his work was
+making Leonard cheerful and alert, though still grave, and shrinking
+from notice--avoiding the town by daylight, and only coming to Dr.
+May's in the dark evenings.
+
+On the last Sunday in Advent, Richard was engaged to preach at his
+original curacy, and that the days before and after it should
+likewise be spent away from home was insisted on after the manner of
+the friends of hard-working clergy.  He had the less dislike to going
+that he could leave his school-work to Leonard, who was to be housed
+at his father's, and there was soon perceived to have become a much
+more ordinary member of society than on his first arrival.
+
+One evening, there was a loud peal at the door-bell, and the maid--
+one of Ethel's experiments of training--came in.
+
+'Please, sir, a gentleman has brought a cockatoo and a letter and a
+little boy from the archdeacon.'
+
+'Archdeacon!' cried Dr. May, catching sight of the handwriting on the
+letter and starting up.  'Archdeacon Norman--'
+
+'One of Norman's stray missionaries and a Maori newly caught; oh,
+what fun!' cried Daisy, in ecstasy.
+
+At that moment, through the still open door, walking as if he had
+lived there all his life, there entered the prettiest little boy that
+ever was seen--a little knickerbocker boy, with floating rich dark
+ringlets, like a miniature cavalier coming forth from a picture, with
+a white cockatoo on his wrist.  Not in the least confused, he went
+straight towards Dr. May and said, 'Good-morning, grandpapa.'
+
+'Ha!  And who may you be, my elfin prince?' said the Doctor.
+
+'I'm Dickie--Richard Rivers May--I'm not an elfin prince,' said the
+boy, with a moment's hurt feeling.  'Papa sent me.'  By that time the
+boy was fast in his grandfather's embrace, and was only enough
+released to give him space to answer the eager question, 'Papa--papa
+here?'
+
+'Oh no; I came with Mr. Seaford.'
+
+The Doctor hastily turned Dickie over to the two aunts, and hastened
+forth to the stranger, whose name he well knew as a colonist's son, a
+favourite and devoted clerical pupil of Norman's.
+
+'Aunt Ethel,' said little Richard, with instant recognition; 'mamma
+said you would be like her, but I don't think you will.'
+
+'Nor I, Dickie, but we'll try.  And who's that!'
+
+'Yes, what am I to be like?' asked Gertrude.
+
+'You're not Aunt Daisy--Aunt Daisy is a little girl.'
+
+Gertrude made him the lowest of curtseys; for not to be taken for a
+little girl was the compliment she esteemed above all others.
+Dickie's next speech was, 'And is that Uncle Aubrey?'
+
+'No, that's Leonard.'
+
+Dickie shook hands with him very prettily; but then returning upon
+Ethel, observed, 'I thought it was Uncle Aubrey, because soldiers
+always cut their hair so close.'
+
+The other guest was so thoroughly a colonist, and had so little idea
+of anything but primitive hospitality, that he had had no notion of
+writing beforehand to announce his coming, and accident had delayed
+the letters by which Norman and Meta had announced their decision of
+sending home their eldest boy under his care.
+
+'Papa had no time to teach me alone,' said Dickie, who seemed to have
+been taken into the family councils; 'and mamma is always busy, and I
+wasn't getting any good with some of the boys that come to school to
+papa.'
+
+'Indeed, Mr. Dickie!' said the Doctor, full of suppressed laughter.
+
+'It is quite true,' said Mr. Seaford; 'there are some boys that the
+archdeacon feels bound to educate, but who are not desirable
+companions for his son.'
+
+'It is a great sacrifice,' remarked the young gentleman.
+
+'Oh, Dickie, Dickie,' cried Gertrude, in fits, 'don't you be a
+prig--'
+
+'Mamma said it,' defiantly answered Dickie.
+
+'Only a parrot,' said Ethel, behind her handkerchief; but Dickie, who
+heard whatever he was not meant to hear, answered--
+
+'It is not a parrot, it is a white cockatoo, that the chief of
+(something unutterable) brought down on his wrist like a hawk to the
+mission-ship; and that mamma sent as a present to Uncle George.'
+
+'I prefer the parrot that has fallen to my share,' observed the
+Doctor.
+
+It was by this time perched beside him, looking perfectly at ease and
+thoroughly at home.  There was something very amusing in the aspect
+of the little man; he so completely recalled his mother's humming-
+bird title by the perfect look of finished porcelain perfection that
+even a journey from the Antipodes with only gentleman nursemaids had
+not destroyed.  The ringleted rich brown hair shone like glossy silk,
+the cheeks were like painting, the trim well-made legs and small
+hands and feet looked dainty and fairy-like, yet not at all
+effeminate; hands and face were a healthy brown, and contrasted with
+the little white collar, the set of which made Ethel exclaim, 'Just
+look, Daisy, that's what I always told you about Meta's doings.  Only
+I can't understand it.--Dickie, have the fairies kept you in repair
+ever since mamma dressed you last?'
+
+'We haven't any fairies in New Zealand,' he replied; 'and mamma never
+dressed me since I was a baby!'
+
+'And what are you now?' said the Doctor.
+
+'I am eight years old,' said this piece of independence, perfectly
+well mannered, and au fait in all the customs of the tea-table; and
+when the meal was over, he confidentially said to his aunt, 'Shall I
+come and help you wash up?  I never break anything.'
+
+Ethel declined this kind ofier; but he hung on her hand and asked if
+he might go and see the schoolroom, where papa and Uncle Harry used
+to blow soap-bubbles.  She lighted a candle, and the little gentleman
+showed himself minutely acquainted with the whole geography of the
+house, knew all the rooms and the pictures, and where everything had
+happened, even to adventures that Ethel had forgotten.
+
+'It is of no use to say there are no fairies in New Zealand,' said
+Dr. May, taking him on his knee, and looking into the blue depths of
+Norman's eyes.  'You have been head-waiter to Queen Mab, and
+perpetually here when she made you put a girdle round the earth in
+forty minutes.'
+
+'Papa read that to the boys, and they said it was stupid and no use,'
+said Dickie; 'but papa said that the electric telegraph would do it.'
+
+The little cavalier appeared not to know what it was to be at a loss
+for an answer, and the joint letter from his parents explained that
+his precocious quickness was one of their causes for sending him
+home.  He was so deft and useful as to be important in the household,
+and necessarily always living with his father and mother, he took
+constant part in their conversation, and was far more learned in
+things than in books.  In the place where they were settled,
+trustworthy boy society was unattainable, and they had felt their
+little son, in danger of being spoilt and made forward from his very
+goodness and brightness--wrote Meta, 'If you find him a forward imp,
+recollect it is my fault for having depended so much on him.'
+
+His escort was a specimen of the work Norman had done, not actual
+mission-work, but preparation and inspiriting of those who went forth
+on the actual task.  He was a simple-minded, single-hearted man, one
+of the first pupils in Norman's college, and the one who had most
+fully imbibed his spirit.  He had been for some years a clergyman,
+and latterly had each winter joined the mission voyage among the
+Melanesian Isles, returning to their homes the lads brought for the
+summer for education to the mission college in New Zealand, and
+spending some time at a station upon one or other of the islands.  He
+had come back from the last voyage much out of health, and had been
+for weeks nursed by Meta, until a long rest having been declared
+necessary, he had been sent to England as the only place where he
+would not be tempted to work, and was to visit his only remaining
+relation, a sister, who had married an officer and was in Ireland.
+He was burning to go back again, and eagerly explained--sagely
+corroborated by the testimony of the tiny archdeacon--that his
+illness was to be laid to the blame of his own imprudence, not to the
+climate; and he dwelt upon the delights of the yearly voyage among
+the lovely islands, beautiful beyond imagination, fenced in by coral
+breakwaters, within which the limpid water displayed exquisite sea-
+flowers, shells, and fishes of magical gorgeousness of hue; of the
+brilliant white beach, fringing the glorious vegetation, cocoa-nut,
+bread-fruit, banana, and banyan, growing on the sloping sides of
+volcanic rocks; of mysterious red-glowing volcano lights seen far out
+at sea at night, of glades opening to show high-roofed huts covered
+with mats: of canoes decorated with the shining white shells
+resembling a poached egg; of natives clustering round, eager and
+excited, seldom otherwise than friendly; though in hitherto unvisited
+places, or in those where the wanton outrages of sandal-wood traders
+had excited distrust, caution was necessary, and there was peril
+enough to give the voyage a full character of heroism and adventure.
+Bows and poisoned arrows were sometimes brought down--and Dickie
+insisted that they had been used--but in general the mission was
+recognized, and an eager welcome given; presents of fish-hooks, or of
+braid and handkerchiefs, established a friendly feeling; and
+readiness--in which the Hand of the Maker must be recognized--was
+manifested to intrust lads to the mission for the summer's training
+at the college in New Zealand--wild lads, innocent of all clothing,
+except marvellous adornments of their woolly locks, wigged out
+sometimes into huge cauliflowers whitened with coral lime, or
+arranged quarterly red and white, and their noses decorated with
+rings, which were their nearest approach to a pocket, as they served
+for the suspension of fish-hooks, or any small article.  A radiate
+arrangement of skewers from the nose, in unwitting imitation of a
+cat's whiskers, had even been known.  A few days taught dressing and
+eating in a civilized fashion; and time, example, and the wonderful
+influence of the head of the mission, trained these naturally
+intelligent boys into much that was hopeful.  Dickie, who had been
+often at the college, had much to tell of familiarity with the light
+canoes that some cut out and launched; of the teaching them English
+games, of their orderly ways in school and in hall; of the prayers in
+their many tongues, and of the baptism of some, after full probation,
+and at least one winter's return to their own isles, as a test of
+their sincerity and constancy.  Much as the May family had already
+heard of this wonderful work, it came all the closer and nearer now.
+The isle of Alan Ernescliffe's burial-place had now many Christians
+in it.  Harry's friend, the young chief David, was dead; but his
+people were some of them already teachers and examples, and the whole
+region was full to overflowing of the harvest, calling out for
+labourers to gather it in.
+
+Silent as usual, Leonard nevertheless was listening with all his
+heart, and with parted lips and kindling eyes that gave back somewhat
+of his former countenance.  Suddenly his face struck Mr. Seaford, and
+turning on him with a smile, he said, 'You should be with us
+yourself, you look cut out for mission work.'
+
+Leonard murmured something, blushed up to the ears, and subsided, but
+the simple, single-hearted Mr. Seaford, his soul all on one object,
+his experience only in one groove, by no means laid aside the
+thought, and the moment he was out of Leonard's presence, eagerly
+asked who that young man was.
+
+'Leonard Ward? he is--he is the son of an old friend,' replied Dr.
+May, a little perplexed to explain his connection.
+
+'What is he doing?  I never saw any one looking more suited for our
+work.'
+
+'Tell him so again,' said Dr. May; 'I know no one that would be
+fitter.'
+
+They were all taken up with the small grandson the next day.  He was
+ready in his fairy-page trimness to go to the early service at the
+Minster; but he was full of the colonial nil admirari principle, and
+was quite above being struck by the grand old building, or allowing
+its superiority--either to papa's own church or Auckland Cathedral.
+They took him to present to Mary on their way back from church, when
+he was the occasion of a great commotion by carrying the precious
+Master Charlie all across the hall to his mamma, and quietly
+observing in resentment at the outcry, that of course he always
+carried little Ethel about when mamma and nurse were busy.  After
+breakfast, when he had finished his investigations of all Dr. May's
+domains, and much entertained Gertrude by his knowledge of them,
+Ethel set him down to write a letter to his father, and her own to
+Meta being engrossing, she did not look much more after him till Dr.
+May came in, and said, 'I want you to sketch off a portrait of her
+dicky-bird for Meta;' and he put before her a natural history with a
+figure of that tiny humming-bird which is endowed with swansdown
+knickerbockers.
+
+'By the bye, where is the sprite?'
+
+He was not to be found; and when dinner-time, and much calling and
+searching, failed to produce him, his grandfather declared that he
+was gone back to Elf-land; but Leonard recollected certain particular
+inquiries about the situation of the Grange and of Cocksmoor, and it
+was concluded that he had anticipated the Doctor's intentions of
+taking him and Mr. Seaford there in the afternoon.  The notion was
+confirmed by the cockatoo having likewise disappeared; but there was
+no great anxiety, since the little New Zealander appeared as capable
+of taking care of himself as any gentleman in Her Majesty's
+dominions; and a note had already been sent to his aunt informing her
+of his arrival.  Still, a summons to the Doctor in an opposite
+direction was inopportune, the more so as the guest was to remain at
+Stoneborough only this one day, and had letters and messages for Mr.
+and Mrs. Rivers, while it was also desirable to see whether the boy
+had gone to Cocksmoor.
+
+Leonard proposed to become Mr. Seaford's guide to the Grange, learn
+whether Dickie were there, and meet the two ladies at Cocksmoor with
+the tidings, leaving Mr. Seaford and the boy to be picked up by the
+Doctor on his return.  It was his first voluntary offer to go
+anywhere, though he had more than once been vainly invited to the
+Grange with Richard.
+
+Much conversation on the mission took place during the walk, and
+resulted in Mr. Seaford's asking Leonard if his profession were
+settled.  'No,' he said; and not at all aware that his companion did
+not know what every other person round him knew, he added, 'I have
+been thrown out of everything--I am waiting to hear from my brother.'
+
+'Then you are not at a University?'
+
+'Oh no, I was a clerk.'
+
+'Then if nothing is decided, is it impossible that you should turn
+your eyes to our work?'
+
+'Stay,' said Leonard, standing still ; 'I must ask whether you know
+all about me.  Would it be possible to admit to such work as yours
+one who, by a terrible mistake, has been under sentence of death and
+in confinement for three years?'
+
+'I must think!  Let us talk of this another time.  Is that the
+Grange?' hastily exclaimed the missionary, rather breathlessly.
+Leonard with perfect composure replied that it was, pointed out the
+different matters of interest, and, though a little more silent,
+showed no other change of manner.  He was asking the servant at the
+door if Master May were there, when Mr. Rivers came out and conducted
+both into the drawing room, where little Dickie was, sure enough.  It
+appeared that, cockatoo on wrist, he had put his pretty face up to
+the glass of Mrs Rivers's morning-room, and had asked her, 'Is this
+mamma's room, Aunt Flora?  Where's Margaret?'
+
+Uncle, aunt, and cousin had all been captivated by him, and he was at
+present looking at the display of all Margaret's treasures, keenly
+appreciating the useful and ingenious, but condemning the merely
+ornamental as only fit for his baby sister.  Margaret was wonderfully
+gracious and child-like; but perhaps she rather oppressed him; for
+when Leonard explained that he must go on to meet Miss May at
+Cocksmoor, the little fellow sprang up, declaring that he wanted to
+go thither; and though told that his grandfather was coming for him,
+and that the walk was long, he insisted that he was not tired; and
+Mr. Seaford, finding him not to be dissuaded, broke off his
+conversation in the midst, and insisted on accompanying him, leaving
+Mr. and Mrs. Rivers rather amazed at colonial breeding.
+
+The first time Mr. Seaford could accomplish being alone with Dr. May,
+he mysteriously shut the door, and began, 'I am afraid Mrs. Rivers
+thought me very rude; but though no doubt he is quite harmless, I
+could not let the child or the ladies be alone with him.'
+
+'With whom?'
+
+'With your patient.'
+
+'What patient of mine have you been seeing to-day?' asked Dr. May,
+much puzzled.
+
+'Oh, then you consider him as convalescent, and certainly he does
+seem rational on every other point; but is this one altogether an
+hallucination?'
+
+'I have not made out either the hallucination or the convalescent.  I
+beg your pardon,' said the courteous Doctor; 'but I cannot understand
+whom you have seen.'
+
+'Then is not that young Ward a patient of yours?  He gave me to
+understand to-day that he has been under confinement for three
+years--'
+
+'My poor Leonard!' exclaimed the Doctor; 'I wish his hair would grow!
+This is the second time!  And did you really never hear of the Blewer
+murder, and of Leonard Ward?'
+
+Mr. Seaford had some compound edifice of various murders in his mind,
+and required full enlightenment.  Having heard the whole, he was
+ardent to repair his mistake, both for Leonard's own sake, and that
+of his cause.  The young man was indeed looking ill and haggard; but
+there was something in the steady eyes, hollow though they still
+were, and in the determined cast of features, that strangely
+impressed the missionary with a sense of his being moulded for the
+work; and on the first opportunity a simple straightforward
+explanation of the error was laid before Leonard, with an entreaty
+that if he had no duties to bind him at home, he would consider the
+need of labourers in the great harvest of the Southern Seas.
+
+Leonard made no answer save 'Thank you' and that he would think.  The
+grave set features did not light up as they had done unconsciously
+when listening without personal thought; he only looked considering,
+and accepted Mr. Seaford's address in Ireland, promising to write
+after hearing from his brother.
+
+Next morning, Dr. May gave notice that an old patient was coming to
+see him, and must be asked to luncheon.  Leonard soon after told
+Ethel that he should not be at home till the evening, and she thought
+he was going to Cocksmoor, by way of avoiding the stranger.  In the
+twilight, however, Dr. May, going up to the station to see his
+patient off, was astonished to see Leonard emerge from a second-class
+carriage.
+
+'You here! the last person I expected.'
+
+'I have only been to W-- about my teeth.'
+
+'What, have you been having tooth-ache?'
+
+'At times, but I have had two out, so I hope there is an end of it.'
+
+'And you never mentioned it, you Stoic!'
+
+'It was only at night.'
+
+'And how long has this been?'
+
+'Since I had that cold; but it was no matter.'
+
+'No matter, except that it kept you looking like Count Ugolino, and
+me always wondering what was the matter with you.  And'--detaining
+him for a moment under the lights of the station--'this extraction
+must have been a pretty business, to judge by your looks!  What did
+the dentist do to you?'
+
+'It is not so much that' said Leonard, low and sadly; 'but I began to
+have a hope, and I see it won't do.'
+
+'What do you mean, my dear boy? what have you been doing?'
+
+'I have been into my old cell again,' said he, under his breath; and
+Dr. May, leaning on his arm, felt his nervous tremor.
+
+'Prisoner of the Bastille, eh, Leonard!'
+
+'I had long been thinking that I ought to go and call on Mr. Reeve
+and thank him.'
+
+'But he does not receive calls there.'
+
+'No,' said Leonard, as if the old impulse to confidence had returned;
+'but I have never been so happy since, as I was in that cell, and I
+wanted to see it again.  Not only for that reason,' he added, 'but
+something that Mr. Seaford said brought back a remembrance of what
+Mr. Wilmot told me when my life was granted--something about the
+whole being preparation for future work--something that made me feel
+ready for anything.  It had all gone from me--all but the remembrance
+of the sense of a blessed Presence and support in that condemned
+cell, and I thought perhaps ten minutes in the same place would bring
+it back to me.'
+
+'And did they?'
+
+'No, indeed.  As soon as the door was locked, it all went back to
+July 1860, and worse.  Things that were mercifully kept from me then,
+mere abject terror of death, and of that kind of death--the disgrace-
+-the crowds--all came on me, and with them, the misery all in one of
+those nine months; the loathing of those eternal narrow waved white
+walls, the sense of their closing in, the sickening of their
+sameness, the longing for a voice, the other horror of thinking
+myself guilty.  The warder said it was ten minutes--I thought it
+hours!  I was quite done for, and could hardly get down-stairs.  I
+knew the spirit was being crushed out of me by the solitary period,
+and it is plain that I must think of nothing that needs nerve or
+presence of mind!' he added, in a tone of quiet dejection.
+
+'You are hardly in a state to judge of your nerve, after sleepless
+nights and the loss of your teeth.  Besides, there is a difference
+between the real and imaginary, as you have found; you who, in the
+terrible time of real anticipation, were a marvel in that very point
+of physical resolution.'
+
+'I could keep thoughts out _then_,' he said; 'I was master of
+myself.'
+
+'You mean that the solitude unhinged you?  Yet I always found you
+brave and cheerful.'
+
+'The sight of you made me so.  Nay, the very sight or sound of any
+human being made a difference!  And now you all treat me as if I had
+borne it well, but I did not.  It was all that was left me to do, but
+indeed I did not.'
+
+'What do you mean by bearing it well?' said the Doctor, in the tone
+in which he would have questioned a patient.
+
+'Living--as--as I thought I should when I made up my mind to life
+instead of death,' said Leonard; 'but all that went away.  I let it
+slip, and instead came everything possible of cowardice, and hatred,
+and bitterness.  I lost my hold of certainty what I had done or what
+I had not, and the horror, the malice, the rebellion that used to
+come on me in that frightful light white silent place, were
+unutterable!  I wish you would not have me among you all, when I know
+there can hardly be a wicked thought that did not surge over me.'
+
+'To be conquered.'
+
+'To conquer me,' he said, in utter lassitude.
+
+'Stay.  Did they ever make you offend wilfully?'
+
+'There was nothing I could offend in.'
+
+'Your tasks of work, for instance.'
+
+'I often had a savage frantic abhorrence of it, but I always brought
+myself to do it, and it did me good; it would have done more if it
+had been less mechanical.  But it often was only the instinct of not
+degrading myself like the lowest prisoners.'
+
+'Well, there was your conduct to the officials.'
+
+'Oh! one could not help being amenable to them, they were so kind.
+Besides, these demons never came over me except when I was alone.'
+
+'And one thing more, Leonard; did these demons, as you well call
+them, invade your devotions?'
+
+'Never,' he answered readily; then recalling himself--'not at the set
+times I mean, though they often made me think the comfort I had there
+mere hypocrisy and delusion, and be nearly ready to give over what
+depended on myself.  Chapel was always joy; it brought change and the
+presence of others, if nothing else; and that would in itself have
+been enough to banish the hauntings.'
+
+'And they did not interfere with your own readings?' said the Doctor,
+preferring this to the word that he meant.
+
+'I could not let them,' said Leonard.  'There was always refreshment;
+it was only before and after that all would seem mockery,
+profanation, or worse still, delusion and superstition--as if my very
+condition proved that there was none to hear.'
+
+'The hobgoblin had all but struck the book out of Christian's hand,'
+said Dr. May, pressing his grasp on Leonard's shuddering arm.  'You
+are only telling me that you have been in the valley of the shadow of
+death; you have not told me that you lost the rod and staff.'
+
+'No, I must have been helped, or I should not have my senses now.'
+
+And perhaps it was the repressed tremor of voice and frame rather
+than the actual words that induced the Doctor to reply--'That is the
+very point, Leonard.  It is the temptation to us doctors to ascribe
+too much to the physical and too little to the moral; and perhaps you
+would be more convinced by Mr. Wilmot than by me; but I do verily
+believe that all the anguish you describe could and would have been
+insanity if grace had not been given you to conquer it.  It was a
+tottering of the mind upon its balance; and, humanly speaking, it was
+the self-control that enabled you to force yourself to your duties,
+and find relief in them, which saved you.  I should just as soon call
+David conquered because the "deep waters had come in over his soul."'
+
+'You can never know how true those verses are,' said Leonard, with
+another shiver.
+
+'At least I know to what kind of verses they all lead,' said the
+Doctor; 'and I am sure they led you, and that you had more and
+brighter hours than you now remember.'
+
+'Yes, it was not all darkness.  I believe there were more spaces than
+I can think of now, when I was very fairly happy, even at
+Pentonville; and at Portland all did well with me, till last spring,
+and then the news from Massissauga brought back all the sense of
+blood-guiltiness, and it was worse than ever.'
+
+'And that sense was just as morbid as your other horrible doubt,
+about which you asked me when we were coming home.'
+
+'I see it was now, but that was the worst time of all--the monotony
+of school, and the sense of hypocrisy and delusion in teaching--the
+craving to confess, if only for the sake of the excitement, and the
+absolute inability to certify myself whether there was any crime to
+confess--I can't talk about it.  And even chapel was not the same
+refreshment, when one was always teaching a class in it, as coming in
+fresh only for the service.  Even that was failing me, or I thought
+it was!  No, I do not know how I could have borne it much longer.'
+
+'No, Leonard, you could not; Tom and I both saw that in your looks,
+and quite expected to hear of your being ill; but, you see, we are
+never tried above what we can bear!'
+
+'No,' said Leonard, very low, as if he had been much struck; and then
+he added, after an interval, 'It is over now, and there's no need to
+recollect it except in the way of thanks.  The question is what it
+has left me fit for.  You know, Dr. May,' and his voice trembled, 'my
+first and best design in the happy time of Coombe, the very crown of
+my life, was this very thing--to be a missionary.  But for myself, I
+might be in training now.  If I had only conquered my temper, and
+accepted that kind offer of Mr. Cheviot's, all this would never have
+been, and I should have had my youth, my strength, and spirit, my
+best, to devote.  I turned aside because of my obstinacy, against
+warning, and now how can I offer?--one who has stood at the bar,
+lived among felons, thought such thoughts--the released convict with
+a disgraced name!  It would just be an insult to the ministry!  No, I
+know how prisoners feel.  I can deal with them.  Let me go back to
+what I am trained for.  My nerve and spirit have been crushed out; I
+am fit for nothing else.  The worst thing that has remained with me
+is this nervousness--cowardice is its right name--starting at the
+sound of a door, or at a fresh face--a pretty notion that I should
+land among savages!'
+
+Dr. May had begun an answer about the remains of the terrible ordeal
+that might in itself have been part of Leonard's training, when they
+reached the house door.
+
+These nerves, or whatever they were, did indeed seem disposed to have
+no mercy on their owner; for no sooner had he sat down in the warm
+drawing-room, than such severe pain attacked his face as surpassed
+even his powers of concealment.  Dr. May declared it was all
+retribution for his unfriendliness in never seeking sympathy or
+advice, which might have proved the evil to be neuralgia and saved
+the teeth, instead of aggravating the evil by their extraction.
+
+'I suspect he has been living on nothing,' said Dr. May, when, in a
+lull of the pain, Leonard had gone to bed.
+
+'Papa!' exclaimed Gertrude, 'don't you know what Richard's
+housekeeping is?  Don't you recollect his taking that widow for a
+cook because she was such a good woman?'
+
+'I don't think it was greatly Richard's fault,' said Ethel.  'I can
+hardly get Leonard to make a sparrow's meal here, and most likely his
+mouth has been too uncomfortable.'
+
+'Ay, that never seeking sympathy is to me one of the saddest parts of
+all.  He has been so long shut within himself, that be can hardly
+feel that any one cares for him.'
+
+'He does so more than at first,' said Ethel.
+
+'Much more.  I have heard things from him to-night that are a
+revelation to me.  Well, he has come through, and I believe he is
+recovering it; but the three threads of our being have all had a
+terrible wrench, and if body and mind come out unscathed, it is the
+soundness of the spirit that has brought them through.'
+
+A sleepless night and morning of violent pain ensued; but, at least
+thus much had been gained--that there was no refusal of sympathy, but
+a grateful acceptance of kindness, so that it almost seemed a
+recurrence to the Coombe days; and as the pain lessened, the
+enjoyment of Ethel's attendance seemed to grow upon Leonard in the
+gentle languor of relief; and when, as she was going out for the
+afternoon, she came back to see if he was comfortable in his easy-
+chair by the drawing-room fire, and put a screen before his face, he
+looked up and thanked her with a smile--the first she had seen.
+
+When she returned, the winter twilight had closed in, and he was
+leaning back in the same attitude, but started up, so that she asked
+if he had been asleep.
+
+'I don't know--I have seen her again.'
+
+'Seen whom?'
+
+'Minna, my dear little Minna!'
+
+'Dreamt of her?'
+
+'I cannot tell,' he said; 'I only know she was there; and then rising
+and standing beside Ethel, he continued--'Miss May, you remember the
+night of her death?'
+
+'Easter Eve?'
+
+'Well,' continued he, 'that night I saw her.'
+
+'I remember,' said Ethel, 'that Mr. Wilmot told us you knew at once
+what he was come to tell you.'
+
+'It was soon after I was in bed, the lights were out, and I do not
+think I was asleep, when she was by me--not the plump rosy thing she
+used to be, but tall and white, her hair short and waving back, her
+eyes--oh! so sad and wistful, but glad too--and her hands held out--
+and she said, "Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope.  0
+Leonard, dear, it does not hurt."'
+
+'It was the last thing she did say.'
+
+'Yes, so Ave's letter said.  And observe, one o'clock in Indiana is
+half-past nine with us.  Then her hair--I wrote to ask, for you know
+it used to be in long curls, but it had been cut short, like what I
+saw.  Surely, surely, it was the dear loving spirit allowed to show
+itself to me before going quite away to her home!'
+
+'And you have seen her again?'
+
+'Just now'--his voice was even lower than before--'since it grew
+dark, as I sat there.  I had left off reading, and had been thinking,
+when there she was, all white but not wistful now; "Leonard, dear,"
+she said, "it has not hurt;" and then, "He brought me forth, He
+brought me forth even to a place of liberty, because He had a favour
+unto me."'
+
+'0, Leonard, it must have made you very happy.'
+
+'I am very thankful for it,' he said.  Then after a pause, 'You will
+not speak of it--you will not tell me to think it the action of my
+own mind upon itself.'
+
+'I can only believe it a great blessing come to comfort you and cheer
+you,' said Ethel: 'cheer you as with the robin-note, as papa called
+it, that sung all through the worst of times!  Leonard, I am afraid
+you will think it unkind of me to have withheld it so long, but papa
+told me you could not yet bear to hear of Minna.  I have her last
+present for you in charge--the slippers she was working for that
+eighteenth birthday of yours.  She would go on, and we never knew
+whether she fully understood your danger; it was always "they could
+not hurt you," and at last, when they were finished, and I had to
+make her understand that you could not have them, she only looked up
+to me and said, "Please keep them, and give them to him when he comes
+home."  She never doubted, first or last.'
+
+Ethel, who had daily been watching for the moment, took out the
+parcel from the drawer, with the address in the childish writing, the
+date in her own.
+
+Large tears came dropping from Leonard's eyes, as he undid the paper,
+and looked at the work, then said, 'Last time I saw that pattern, my
+mother was working it!  Dear child!  Yes, Miss May, I am glad you did
+not give them to me before.  I always felt as if my blow had glanced
+aside and fallen on Minna; but somehow I feel more fully how happy
+she is!'
+
+'She was the messenger of comfort throughout to Ave and to Ella,'
+said Ethel, 'and well she may be to you still.'
+
+'I have dreaded to ask,' said Leonard; 'but there was a line in one
+letter I was shown that made me believe that climate was not the
+whole cause.'
+
+'No,' said Ethel; 'at least the force to resist it had been lost, as
+far as we can see.  It was a grievous error of your brother's to
+think her a child who could forget.  She pined to hear of you, and
+that one constant effort of faith and love was too much, and wasted
+away the little tender body.  But oh, Leonard, how truly she can say
+that her captivity is over, and that it has not hurt!'
+
+'It has not hurt,' musingly repeated Leonard.  'No, she is beyond the
+reach of distracting temptations and sorrows; it has only made her
+brighter to have suffered what it breaks one's heart to think of.  It
+has not hurt.'
+
+'Nothing from without does hurt!' said Ethel, 'unless one lets it.'
+
+'Hurt what?' he asked.
+
+'The soul,' returned Ethel.  'Mind and body may be hurt, and it is
+not possible to know one's mind from one's soul while one is alive,
+but as long as the will and faith are right, to think the soul can be
+hurt seems to me like doubting our Protector.'
+
+'But if the will have been astray?'
+
+'Then while we repent, we must not doubt our Redeemer.'
+
+Dickie ran in at the moment, calling for Aunt Ethel.  She had dropped
+her muff.  Leonard picked it up, and as she took it, he wrung her
+hand with an earnestness that showed his gratitude.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+
+Tender as woman; manliness and meekness
+       In him were so allied,
+That those who judged him by his strength or weakness,
+       Knew but a single side.--J. WHITTLER
+
+
+It promised to be a brilliant Christmas at Stoneborough, though
+little Dickie regarded the feast coming in winter as a perverse
+English innovation, and was grand on the superiority of supple jack
+above holly.  Decorations had been gradually making their way into
+the Minster, and had advanced from being just tolerated to being
+absolutely delighted in; but Dr. Spencer, with his knack of doing
+everything, was sorely missed as a head, and Mr. Wilmot insisted that
+the May forces should come down and work the Minster, on the 23rd,
+leaving the Eve for the adornment of Cocksmoor, after the return of
+its incumbent.  Mary, always highly efficient in that line, joined
+them; and Leonard's handiness and dexterity in the arts relating to
+carpentry were as quietly useful as little Dickie's bright readiness
+in always handing whatever was wanting.
+
+The work was pretty well over, when Aubrey, who had just arrived with
+leave for a week, came down, and made it desultory.  Dickie, whose
+imagination had been a good deal occupied by his soldier uncle,
+wanted to study him, and Gertrude was never steady when Aubrey was
+near.  Presently it was discovered that the door to the tower stair
+was open.  The ascent of the tower was a feat performed two or three
+times in a lifetime at Stoneborough.  Harry had once beguiled Ethel
+and Mary up, but Gertrude had never gone, and was crazy to go, as was
+likewise Dickie.  Moreover, Aubrey and Gertrude insisted that it was
+only proper that Ethel should pay her respects to her prototype the
+gurgoyle, they wanted to compare her with him, and ordered her up; in
+fact their spirits were too high for them to be at ease within the
+church, and Ethel, maugre her thirty years, partook of the
+exhilaration enough to delight in an extraordinary enterprise, and as
+nothing remained but a little sweeping up, they left this to the
+superintendence of Mary and Mr. Wilmot, and embarked upon the narrow
+crumbling steps of the spiral stair, that led up within an unnatural
+thickening of one of the great piers that supported the tower, at the
+intersection of nave and transepts.  After a long period of dust and
+darkness, and the monotony of always going with the same leg
+foremost, came a narrow door, leading to the ringers' region, with
+all their ropes hanging down.  Ethel was thankful when she had got
+her youngsters past without an essay on them; she doubted if she
+should have succeeded, but for Leonard's being an element of
+soberness.  Other little doors ensued, leading out to the various
+elevations of roof, which were at all sorts of different heights, the
+chancel lower than the nave, and one transept than the other; besides
+that the nave had both triforium and clerestory.  It was a sort of
+labyrinth, and they wondered whether any one, except perhaps the
+plumber's foreman knew his way among all the doors.  Then there was
+one leading inwards to the eight bells--from whose fascinations Ethel
+thought Dickie never would be taken away--and still more charming, to
+the clock, which clanged a tremendous three, as they were in the act
+of looking at it, causing Leonard to make a great start, and then
+colour painfully.  It was hard to believe, as Daisy said, that the
+old tower, that looked so short and squat below, could be so very
+high when you came to go up it; but the glimpses of the country,
+through the little loop-hole windows, were most inviting.  At last,
+Aubrey, who was foremost, pushed up the trap-door, and emerged; but,
+as Dickie followed him, exclaimed, 'Here we are; but you ladies in
+crinolines will never follow!  You'll stick fast for ever, and
+Leonard can't pass, so there you'll all have to stay.'
+
+'Aunt Daisy will sail away like a balloon,' added Dickie, roguishly,
+looking back at her, and holding on his cap.
+
+But Gertrude vigorously compressed her hoop, and squeezed through,
+followed by Ethel and Leonard.  There was a considerable space,
+square, leaded and protected by the battlemented parapet, with a deep
+moulding round, and a gutter resulting in the pipe smoked by Ethel's
+likeness, the gurgoyle.  Of course the first thing Dickie and Aubrey
+did was to look for the letters that commemorated the ascent of H.
+M., E. M., M. M., in 1852; and it was equally needful that R. R. M.,
+if nobody else, should likewise leave a record on the leads.  There
+was an R. M. of 1820, that made it impossible to gainsay him.  The
+view was not grand in itself, but there was a considerable charm in
+looking down on the rooks in their leafless trees, cawing over their
+old nests, and in seeing the roofs of the town; far away, too, the
+gray Welsh hills, and between, the country lying like a map, with
+rivers traced in light instead of black.  Leonard stood still, his
+face turned towards the greenest of the meadows, and the river where
+it dashed over the wheel of a mill.
+
+'Have you seen it again?' asked Ethel, as she stood by him, and
+watched his eye.
+
+'No.  I am rather glad to see it first from so far off,' he answered,
+'I mean to walk over some day.'
+
+'Ethel,' called Gertrude, 'is this your gurgoyle?  His profile, as
+seen from above, isn't flattering.'
+
+'0, Daisy, don't lean over so far.'
+
+'Quite safe;' but at that instant a gust of wind caught her hat, she
+grasped at it, but only saved it from whirling away, and made it fall
+short.  'There, Ethel, your image has put on my hat; and henceforth
+will appear to the wondering city in a black hat and feather!'
+
+'I'll get it,' exclaimed the ever ready Dickie; and in another moment
+he had mounted the parapet and was reaching for it.  Whether it were
+Gertrude's shriek, or the natural recoil away from the grasping hand,
+or that his hold on the side of the adjoining pinnacle was insecure,
+he lost his balance, and with a sudden cry, vanished from their eyes.
+
+The frightful consternation of that moment none of those four could
+ever bear to recall; the next, they remembered that he could only
+fall as far as the roof, but it was Ethel and Leonard alone who durst
+press to the parapet, and at the same moment a cry came up--
+
+'Oh, come!  I'm holding on, but it cuts!  Oh, come!'
+
+Ethel saw, some five-and-twenty feet below, the little boy upon the
+transept roof, a smooth slope of lead, only broken by a skylight, a
+bit of churchwarden's architecture still remaining.  The child had
+gone crashing against the window, and now lay back clinging to its
+iron frame.  Behind him was the entire height within to the church
+floor, before him a rapid slope, ended by a course of stone, wide
+enough indeed to walk on, but too narrow to check the impetus from
+slipping down the inclination above.  Ethel's brain swam; she just
+perceived that both Aubrey and Leonard had disappeared, and then had
+barely power to support Gertrude, who reeled against her, giddy with
+horror.  'Oh look, look, Ethel,' she cried; 'I can't.  Where is he?'
+
+'There!  Yes, hold on, Dickie, they are coming.  Look up--not down--
+hold on!'
+
+A door opened, and out dashed Aubrey!  Alas! it was on the nave
+clerestory; he might as well have been a hundred, miles off.  Another
+door, and Leonard appeared, and on the right level, but with a giddy
+unguarded ridge on which to pass round the angle of the tower. She
+saw his head pass safely round, but, even then, the horror was not
+over.  Could he steady himself sufficiently to reach the child, or
+might not Dickie lose hold too soon?  It was too close below for
+sight, the moulding and gurgoyle impeded her agonized view, but she
+saw the child's look of joyful relief, she heard the steady voice,
+'Wait, don't let go yet.  There,' and after a few more sounds, came
+up a shout, 'all right!' Infinitely relieved, she had to give her
+whole attention to poor Gertrude, who, overset by the accident, giddy
+with the attempt to look over, horrified by the danger, confused and
+distressed by the hair that came wildly flapping about her head and
+face, and by the puffs of wind at her hoop, had sunk down in the
+centre of the little leaden square, clinging with all her might to
+the staff of the weathercock, and feeling as if the whole tower were
+rocking with her, absolutely seeing the battlements dance.  How was
+she ever to be safely got down the rickety ladder leading to the
+crumbling stone stair?  Ethel knelt by her, twisted up the fluttering
+hair, bade her shut her eyes and compose her thoughts, and then
+called over the battlements to Aubrey, who, confused by the shock,
+continued to emerge at wrong doors and lose himself on the roofs, and
+was like one in a bad dream, nearly as much dizzied as his sister, to
+whose help he came the more readily, as the way up was the only one
+plain before him.
+
+The detention would have been more dreadful to Ethel had she known
+all that was passing below, and that when the little boy, at
+Leonard's sign, lowered himself towards the out-reaching arms of the
+young man, who was steadying himself against the wall of the tower,
+it was with a look of great pain, and leaving a trail of blood behind
+him.  When, at length, he stood at the angle, Leonard calmly said,
+'Now go before me, round that corner, in at the door.  Hold by the
+wall, I'll hold your shoulder.'  The boy implicitly obeyed, the
+notion of giddiness never seemed to occur to him, and both safely
+came to the little door, on the threshold of which Leonard sat down,
+and lifting him on his knee, asked where he was hurt?  'My leg,' said
+Dickie, 'the glass was running in all the time, and I could not move;
+but it does not hurt so much now.'
+
+Perhaps not; but a large piece of glass had broken into the slender
+little calf, and Leonard steadied himself to withdraw it, as,
+happily, the fragment was large enough to give a hold for his hand.
+The sensible little fellow, without a word, held up the limb across
+Leonard's knee, and threw an arm round his neck, to hold himself
+still, just saying, 'Thank you,' when it was over.
+
+'Did it hurt much, Dickie?'
+
+'Not very much,' he answered; 'but how it bleeds!  Where's Aunt
+Ethel?'
+
+'On the tower.  She will come in a moment,' said Leonard, startled by
+the exceeding flow of blood, and binding the gash round with his
+handkerchief.  'Now, I'll carry you down.'
+
+The boy did not speak all the weary winding way down the dark stairs;
+but Leonard heard gasps of oppression, and felt the head lean on his
+shoulder; moreover, a touch convinced him that the handkerchief was
+soaking, nay dripping, and when he issued at length into the free air
+of the church, the face was deadly white.  No one was near, and
+Leonard laid him on a bench.  He was still conscious, and looked up
+with languid eyes. 'Mayn't I go home?' he said, faintly; 'Aunt
+Ethel!'
+
+'Let me try to stop this bleeding first,' said Leonard.  'My dear
+little man, if you will only be quiet, I think I can.'
+
+Leonard took the handkerchief from his throat, and wound it to its
+tightest just above the hurt, Dickie remonstrating for a moment with,
+'That's not the place.  It is too tight.'
+
+'It will cut off the blood from coming,' said Leonard; and in the
+same understanding way, the child submitted, feebly asking, 'Shall I
+bleed to death?  Mamma will be so sorry!'
+
+'I trust--I hope not,' said Leonard; he durst utter no encouragement,
+for the life-blood continued to pour forth unchecked, and the next
+murmur was, 'I'm so sick.  I can't say my prayers.  Papa!  Mamma!'
+Already, however, Leonard had torn down a holly bough, and twisted
+off (he would have given worlds for a knife) a short stout stick,
+which he thrust into one of the folds of the ligature, and pulled it
+much tighter, so that his answer was, 'Thank God, Dickie, that will
+do! the bleeding has stopped.  You must not mind if it hurts for a
+little while.'
+
+An ejaculation of 'Poor little dear,' here made him aware of the
+presence of the sexton's wife; but in reply to her offer to carry him
+in to Mrs. Cheviot's, Dickie faintly answered, 'Please let me go
+home;' and Leonard, 'Yes, I will take him home.  Tell Miss May it is
+a cut from the glass, I am taking him to have it dressed, and will
+bring him home.  Now, my dear little patient fellow, can you put your
+arms round my neck?'
+
+Sensible, according to both meanings of the word, Dickie clasped his
+friend's neck, and laid his head on his shoulder, not speaking again
+till he found Leonard was not turning towards the High Street, when
+he said, 'That is not the way home.'
+
+'No, Dickie, but we must get your leg bound up directly, and the
+hospital is the only place where we can be sure of finding any one to
+do it.  I will take you home directly afterwards.'
+
+'Thank you,' said the courteous little gentleman; and in a few
+minutes more Leonard had rung the bell, and begged the house surgeon
+would come at once to Dr. May's grandson.  A few drops of stimulant
+much revived Dickie, and he showed perfect trust and composure, only
+holding Leonard's hands, and now and then begging to know what they
+were doing, while he was turned over on his face for the dressing of
+the wound, bearing all without a sound, except an occasional sobbing
+gasp, accompanied by a squeeze of Leonard's finger.  Just as this
+business had been completed, the surgeon exclaimed, 'There's Dr.
+May's step,' and Dickie at once sat up, as his grandfather hurried
+in, nearly as pale as the boy himself.  '0, grandpapa, never mind, it
+is almost well now; and has Aunt Daisy got her hat?'
+
+'What is it, my dear? what have you been doing?' said the Doctor,
+looking in amazement from the boy to Leonard, who was covered with
+blood.  'They told me you had fallen off the Minster tower!'
+
+'Yes I did,' said Dickie; 'I reached after Aunt Daisy's hat, but I
+fell on the roof, and I was sliding, sliding down to the wall, but
+there was a window, and the glass broke and cut me, but I got my feet
+against the bottom of it, and held on by the iron bar, till Leonard
+came and took me down;' and he lay back on the pillow, quiet and
+exhausted, but bright-eyed and attentive as ever, listening to
+Leonard's equally brief version of the adventure.
+
+'Didn't he save my life, grandpapa?' said the boy, at the close.
+
+'Twice over, you may say,' added the surgeon, and his words as to the
+nature of the injury manifested that all had depended on the
+immediate stoppage of the haemorrhage.  With so young a child, delay
+from indecision or want of resource would probably have been fatal.
+
+'There would have been no doing anything, if this little man had not
+been so good and sensible,' said Leonard, leaning over him.
+
+'And I did not cry.  You will tell papa I did not cry,' said Dickie,
+eagerly, but only half gratified by such girlish treatment as that
+agitated kiss of his grandfather, after being a little bit of a hero;
+but then Dickie's wondering eyes really beheld such another kiss
+bestowed over his head upon Leonard, and quite thought there were
+tears on grandpapa's cheeks.  Perhaps old gentlemen could do what was
+childish in little boys.
+
+Dickie was to be transported home.  He wished to be carried by
+Leonard, but the brougham was at the door, and he had to content
+himself with being laid on the seat, with his friend to watch over
+him, the Doctor pointing out that Leonard was a savage spectacle for
+the eyes of Stoneborough, and hurrying home by the short cut.  Ethel
+met him in extreme alarm.  Gertrude's half-restored senses had been
+totally scattered by the sight of the crimson traces on the spot of
+Leonard's operations, and she had been left to Mary's care; while
+Ethel and Aubrey had hastened home, and not finding any one there,
+the latter had dashed off to Bankside, whilst Ethel waited, arranging
+the little fellow's bed, and trying to trust to Leonard's message,
+and not let her mind go back to that fearful day of like waiting,
+sixteen years ago, nor on to what she might have to write to Norman
+and Meta of the charge they had sent to her.  Her father's cheerful
+face at first was a pang, and then came the rebound of gladness at
+the words.  'He is coming.  No fear for him, gallant little man--
+thanks for God's mercy, and to that noble fellow, Leonard.'
+
+At the same moment Aubrey burst in--'No one at Wright's--won't be in
+no one knows how long!  What is to become of us?'  And he sank down
+on a chair.
+
+'Ay, what would become of any of us, if no one had a better pate than
+yours, sir?' said Dr. May.  'You have one single perfection, and you
+had better make the most of it--that of knowing how to choose your
+friends.  There's the carriage.'
+
+After a moment's delay, the cushion was lifted out with the little
+wounded cavalier, still like a picture; for, true to his humming-bird
+nature, a few scarcely-conscious movements of his hands had done away
+with looks of disarray--the rich glossy curls were scarcely
+disordered, and no stains of blood had adhered to the upper part of
+his small person, whereas Leonard was a ghastly spectacle from head
+to foot.
+
+'So, Master Dicky-bird,' said Dr. May, as they rested him a moment on
+the hall-table, 'give me that claw of yours.  Yes, you'll do very
+well, only you must go to bed now; and, mind, whatever you did when
+you were in Fairy-land, we don't fly here in Stoneborough--and it
+does not answer.'
+
+'I am not to go to bed for being naughty, am I?' said Dickie, his
+brave white lip for the first time quivering; 'indeed, I did not know
+it was wrong.'
+
+The poor little man's spirits were so exhausted, that the reassurance
+on this head absolutely brought the much-dreaded tears into his eyes;
+and he could only be carried up gently to his bed, and left to be
+undressed by his aunt, so great an aggravation to the troubles of
+this small fragment of independence, that it had almost overset his
+courtesy and self-command.  There was no contenting him till he had
+had all traces of the disaster washed from face and hands, and the
+other foot; and then, over his tea, though his little clear chirrup
+was weak, he must needs give a lucid description of Leonard's
+bandaging, in the midst of which came a knock at the door, and a
+gasping voice--'I'll be quite quiet--indeed I will!  Only just let me
+come in and kiss him, and see that he is safe.'
+
+'0, Auntie Daisy, have you got your hat?'
+
+Wan, tear-stained, dishevelled, Gertrude bit her lip to save an
+outburst, gave the stipulated kiss, and retreated to Mary, who stood
+in the doorway like a dragon.
+
+'Auntie Daisy has been crying,' said Dickie, turning his eyes back to
+Ethel.  'Please tell her I shall be well very soon, and then I'll go
+up again and try to get her hat, if I may have a hook and line--I'll
+tell you how.'
+
+'My dear Dickie, you had better lie down, and settle it as you go to
+sleep,' said Ethel, her flesh creeping at the notion of his going up
+again.
+
+'But if I go to sleep now, I shall not know when to say my prayers.'
+
+'Had you not better do so now, Dickie?'
+
+Next came the child's scruple about not kneeling; but at last he was
+satisfied, if Aunt Ethel would give him his little book out of the
+drawer--that little delicately-illuminated book with the pointed
+writing and the twisted cipher, Meta's hand in every touch.
+Presently he looked up, and said: 'Aunt Ethel, isn't there a verse
+somewhere about giving the angels charge?  I want you to find it for
+me, for I think they helped me to hold on, and helped Leonard upon
+the narrow place.  You know they are sure to be flying about the
+church.'
+
+Ethel read the ninety-first Psalm to him.  He listened all through,
+and thanked her; but in a few minutes more he was fast asleep.  As
+she left the room she met Leonard coming down and held out her hands
+to him with a mute intensity of thanks, telling him, in a low voice,
+what Dickie had said of the angels' care.
+
+'I am sure it was true,' said Leonard.  'What else could have saved
+the brave child from dizziness?'
+
+Down-stairs Leonard's reception from Dr. May was, 'Pretty well for a
+nervous man!'
+
+'Anybody can do what comes to hand.'
+
+'I beg your pardon.  Some bodies lose their wits, like your friend
+Aubrey, who tells me, if he had stood still, he would have fainted
+away.  As long as nerves can do what comes to hand, they need not be
+blamed, even if they play troublesome tricks at other times, as I
+suspect they are doing now.'
+
+'Yes; my face is aching a little.'
+
+'Not to say a great deal,' said the Doctor.  'Well, I am not going to
+pity you; for I think you can feel to-day that most of us would be
+glad to be in your place!'
+
+'I am very glad,' said Leonard.
+
+'You remember that child's parents?  No, you have grown so old, that
+I am always forgetting what a boy you ought to be; but if you had
+ever seen the tenderness of his father, and that sunbeam of a Meta,
+you would know all the more how we bless you for what you have spared
+them.  Leonard, if anything had been needed to do so, you have won to
+yourself such a brother in Norman as you have in Aubrey!'
+
+Meantime Ethel was soothing Gertrude, to whom the shock had been in
+proportion to the triumphal heights of her careless gaiety.  Charles
+Cheviot had come in while his wife was restoring her; and he had
+plainly said what no one else would have intimated to the spoilt
+darling--that the whole accident had been owing to her recklessness,
+and that he had always expected some fatal consequences to give her a
+lesson!
+
+Gertrude had been fairly cowed by such unwonted treatment; and when
+he would only take her home on condition of composure and self-
+command, her trembling limbs obliged her to accept his arm, and he
+subdued her into meek silence, and repression of all agitation, till
+she was safe in her room, when she took a little bit of revenge upon
+Mary by crying her heart out, and declaring it was very cruel of
+Charles, when she did not mean it.
+
+And Mary, on her side, varied between assurances that Charles did not
+mean it, and that he was quite right--the sister now predominating in
+her, and now the wife.
+
+'Mean what?' said Ethel, sitting down among them before they were
+aware.
+
+'That--that it was all my fault!' burst out Gertrude.  'If it was, I
+don't see what concern it is of his!'
+
+'But, Daisy dear, he is your brother!'
+
+'I've got plenty of brothers of my own!  I don't count those people-
+in-law--'
+
+'She's past reasoning with, Mary,' said Ethel.  'Leave her to me; she
+will come to her senses by and by!'
+
+'But indeed, Ethel, you won't be hard on her?  I am sure dear Charles
+never thought what he said would have been taken in this way.'
+
+'Why did he say it then?' cried Gertrude, firing up.
+
+'My dear Mary, do please go down, before we get into the pitiable
+last-word condition!'
+
+That condition was reached already; but in Ethel's own bed-room
+Mary's implicit obedience revived, and away she went, carrying off
+with her most of what was naughtiness in Gertrude.
+
+'Ethel--Ethel dear!' cried she at once, 'I know you are coming down
+on me.  I deserve it all, only Charles had no business to say it.
+And wasn't it very cruel and unkind when he saw the state I was in?'
+
+'I suppose Charles thought it was the only chance of giving a lesson,
+and therefore true kindness.  Come, Daisy, is this terrible fit of
+pride a proper return for such a mercy as we have had to-day?'
+
+'If I didn't say so to myself a dozen times on the way home!--only
+Mary came and made me so intolerably angry, by expecting me to take
+it as if it had come from you or papa.'
+
+'Ah, Daisy, that is the evil!  If I had done my duty by you all, this
+would not have been!'
+
+'Now, Ethel, when you want to be worse, and more cutting than
+anything, you go and tell me my faults are yours!  For pity's sake,
+don't come to that!'
+
+'But I must, Daisy, for it is true.  Oh, if you had only been a
+naughty little girl!'
+
+'What--and had it out then?' said Daisy, who was lying across the
+bed, and put her golden head caressingly on Ethel's knee.  'If I had
+plagued you then, you would have broken me in out of self-defence.'
+
+'Something like it,' said Ethel.  'But you know, Daisy, the little
+last treasure that mamma left did always seem something we could not
+make enough of, and it didn't make you fractious or tiresome--at
+least not to us--till we thought you could not be spoilt.  And then I
+didn't see the little faults so soon as I ought; and I'm only an
+elder sister, after all, without any authority.'
+
+'No, you're not to say that, Ethel, I mind your authority, and always
+will.  You are never a bother.'
+
+'Ah, that's it, Daisy!  If I had only been a bother, you might never
+have got ahead of yourself.'
+
+'Then you really think, like Charles Cheviot, that it was my doing,
+Ethel?'
+
+'What do you think yourself?'
+
+Great tears gathered in the corners of the blue eyes.  Was it weak in
+Ethel not to bear the sight?
+
+'My poor Daisy,' she said, 'yours is not all the burden!  I ought not
+to have taken up such a giddy company, or else I should have kept the
+boy under my hand.  But he is so discreet and independent, that it is
+more like having a gentleman staying in the house, than a child under
+one's charge; and one forgets how little he is; and I was as much off
+my balance with spirits as you.  It was the flightiness of us all;
+and we have only to be thankful, and to be sobered for another time.
+I am afraid the pride about being reproved is really the worse
+fault.'
+
+'And what do you want me to do?--to go and tell papa all about it?
+I mean to do that, of course; it is the only way to get comforted.'
+
+'Of course it is; but--'
+
+'You horrid creature, Ethel!  I'll never say you aren't a bother
+again.  You really do want me to go and tell Charles Cheviot that he
+was quite right, and Mary that I'm ready to be trampled on by all my
+brothers-in-law in a row!  Well, there won't be any more.  You'll
+never give me one--that's one comfort!' said Gertrude, wriggling
+herself up, and flinging an arm round Ethel's neck.  'As long as you
+don't do that, I'll do anything for you.'
+
+'Not for me.'
+
+'Well, you know that, you old thing! only you might take it as a
+personal compliment.  I really will do it; for, of course, one could
+not keep one's Christmas otherwise!'  It was rather too business-
+like; but elders are often surprised to find what was a hard
+achievement in their time a matter of course to their pupils--almost
+lightly passed over.
+
+Dickie slept till morning, when he was found very pale, but lively
+and good-humoured as ever.  Mr. Wright, coming up to see him, found
+the hurt going on well, and told Ethel, that if she could keep him in
+bed and undisturbed for the day, it would be better and safer; but
+that if he became restless and fretful, there would be no great risk
+in taking him to a sofa.  Restless and fretful!  Mr. Wright little
+knew the discretion, or the happy power of accommodation to
+circumstances, that had descended to Meta's firstborn.
+
+He was quite resigned as soon as the explanation had been made--
+perhaps, indeed, there was an instinctive sense, that to be dressed
+and moved would be fatiguing; but he had plenty of smiles and
+animation for his visitors, and, when propped up in bed, was full of
+devices for occupation.  Moreover he acquired a slave; he made a
+regular appropriation of Leonard, whom he quickly perceived to be the
+most likely person to assist in his great design of constructing a
+model of the clock in the Minster tower, for the edification of his
+little brother Harry.  Leonard worked away at the table by the bed-
+side with interest nearly equal to the child's; and when wire and
+cardboard were wanting, he put aside all his dislike to facing the
+Stoneborough streets and tradesmen in open day, and, at Dickie's
+request, sallied forth in quest of the materials.  And when the
+bookseller made inquiries after the boy, Leonard, in the fulness of
+his heart, replied freely and in detail--nay, he was so happy in the
+little man's well-doing, that he was by no means disconcerted even by
+a full encounter of Mrs. Harvey Anderson in the street, but answered
+all her inquiries, in entire oblivion of all but the general
+rejoicing in little Dickie's wonderful escape.
+
+'Well,' said Aubrey to his sisters, after a visit to his nephew's
+room, 'Dickie has the best right to him, certainly, to-day.  It is an
+absolute appropriation!  They were talking away with all their might
+when I came up, but came to a stop when I went in, and Master Dick
+sent me to the right-about.'
+
+The truth was, that Dickie, who, with eyes and ears all alive, had
+gathered up some fragments of Leonard's history, had taken this
+opportunity of catechizing him upon it in a manner that it was
+impossible to elude, and which the child's pretty tact carried off,
+as it did many things which would not have been tolerated if done
+rudely and abruptly.  Step by step, in the way of question and
+remark, he led Leonard to tell him all that had happened; and when
+once fairly embarked in the reminiscence, there was in it a kind of
+peace and pleasure.  The fresh, loving, wondering sympathy of the
+little boy was unspeakably comforting; and besides, the bringing the
+facts in their simple form to the grasp of the childish mind,
+restored their proportion, which their terrible consequences had a
+good deal disturbed.  They seemed to pass from the present to the
+historical, and to assume the balance that they took in the child's
+mind, coming newly upon them.  It was like bathing in a clear limpid
+stream, that washed away the remains of morbid oppression.
+
+'I wish mamma was here,' said the little friend, at last.
+
+'Do you want her?  Are you missing her, my dear?'
+
+'I miss her always,' said Dickie.  'But it was not that--only mamma
+always makes everybody so happy; and she would be so fond of you,
+because you have had so much trouble.'
+
+'But, Dickie, don't you think I am happy to be with your grandfather
+and aunt, and hoping to see my own sisters very soon--your aunt, who
+taught me what bore me through it all?'
+
+'Aunt Ethel?' cried Dickie, considering.  'I like Aunt Ethel very
+much; but then she is not like mamma!'
+
+There could be no doubt that Leonard was much better and happier
+after this adventure.  Reluctantly, Dickie let him go back to
+Cocksmoor, where his services in church-decking and in singing had
+been too much depended on to be dispensed with; but he was to come
+back with Richard for the family assembly on Christmas evening.
+
+Moreover, Gertrude, who was quite herself again, having made her
+peace with the Cheviots, and endured the reception of her apologies,
+seized on him to lay plots for a Christmas-tree, for the delectation
+of Dickie on his sofa, and likewise of Margaret Rivers, and of the
+elite of the Cocksmoor schools.  He gave in to it heartily, and on
+the appointed day worked with great spirit at the arrangements in the
+dining-room, where Gertrude, favoured by the captive state of the
+little boy, conducted her preparations, relegating the family meals
+to the schoolroom.
+
+This tree was made the occasion for furnishing Leonard with all the
+little appliances of personal property that had been swept away from
+him; and, after all, he was the most delighted of the party.  The
+small Charlie Cheviot had to be carried off shrieking; Margaret
+Rivers was critical; even Cocksmoor was experienced in Christmas-
+trees; and Dickie, when placed in the best situation, and asked if
+such trees grew in New Zealand, made answer that he helped mamma to
+make one every year for the Maori children.  It was very kind in Aunt
+Daisy, he added, with unfailing courtesy; but he was too zealous for
+his colony to be dazzled--too utilitarian to be much gratified by any
+of his gifts, excepting a knife of perilous excellence, which Aubrey,
+in contempt of Stoneborough productions, had sacrificed from his own
+pocket at the last moment.
+
+Leonard and Dickie together were in a state of great delight at the
+little packets handed to the former; studs, purse, pencil-case,
+writing materials; from Hector Ernescliffe, a watch, with the
+entreaty that his gifts might not be regarded as unlucky; from Ethel,
+a photographic book, with the cartes of his own family, whose old
+negatives had been hunted up for the purpose; also a recent one of
+Dr. May with his grandson on his knee, the duplicate of which was
+gone to New Zealand, with the Doctor's inscription, 'The modern
+Cyropaedia, Astyages confounded.'  There was Richard, very good,
+young and pretty; there was Ethel, exactly like the Doctor, 'only
+more so;' there was Gertrude, like nobody, not even herself, and her
+brothers much in the same predicament, there was the latest of Mr.
+Rivers's many likenesses, with the cockatoo on his wrist, and there
+was the least truculent and witchlike of the numerous attempts on
+Flora; there was Mrs. Cheviot, broad-faced and smiling over her son,
+and Mr. and Mrs. Ernescliffe, pinioning the limbs of their offspring,
+as in preparation for a family holocaust; there was Dickie's mamma,
+unspoilable in her loveliness even by photography, and his papa grown
+very bald and archidiaconal; there was Ethel's great achievement of
+influence, Dr. Spencer, beautiful in his white hair; there were the
+vicar and the late and present head-masters.  The pleasure excited by
+all these gifts far exceeded the anticipations of their donors, it
+seemed as if they had fallen on the very moment when they would
+convey a sense of home, welcome, and restoration.  He did not say
+much, but looked up with liquid lustrous eyes, and earnest 'thank
+you's,' and caressingly handled and examined the treasures over and
+over again, as they lay round him on Dickie's couch.  'I suppose,'
+said the child to him, 'it is like Job, when all his friends came to
+see him, and every one gave him a piece of money.'
+
+'He could hardly have enjoyed it more,' murmured Leonard, feeling the
+restful capacity of happiness in the new possession of the child's
+ardent love, and of the kind looks of all around, above all, of the
+one presence that still gave him his chief sense of sunshine.  The
+boyish and romantic touch of passion had, as Ethel had long seen,
+been burnt and seared away, and yet there was something left,
+something that, as on this evening she felt, made his voice softer,
+his eye more deferential, to her than to any one else.  Perhaps she
+had once been his guiding star; and if in the wild tempests of the
+night he had learnt instead to direct his course by the "Brightest
+and best of the sons of the morning," still the star would be prized
+and distinguished, as the first and most honoured among inferior
+constellations.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+
+Till now the dark was worn, and overhead
+The lights of sunset and of sunrise mixed.--TENNYSON
+
+
+At New York, Tom wrote a short letter to announce his safe arrival,
+and then pushed on by railway into Indiana.  Winter had completely
+set in; and when he at length arrived at Winiamac, he found that a
+sleigh was a far readier mode of conveyance to Massissauga than the
+wagons used in summer.  His drive, through the white cathedral-like
+arcades of forest, hung with transparent icicles, and with the deep
+blue sky above, becoming orange towards the west, was enjoyable; and
+even Massissauga itself, when its skeleton trees were like their
+neighbours, embellished by the pure snowy covering, looked less
+forlorn than when their death contrasted with the exuberant life
+around.  He stopped at the hotel, left his baggage there, and after
+undergoing a catechism on his personal affairs, was directed to Mr.
+Muller's house, and made his way up its hard-trodden path of snow,
+towards the green door, at which he knocked two or three times before
+it was opened by a woman, whose hair and freckled skin were tinted
+nowhere but in Ireland.
+
+He made a step forward out of the cutting blast into the narrow
+entry, and began to ask, 'Is Miss Ward here?  I mean, can I see Miss
+Warden?' when, as if at the sound of his voice, there rang from
+within the door close by a shriek--one of the hoarse hysterical cries
+he had heard upon the day of the inquest.  Without a moment's
+hesitation, he pushed open the door, and beheld a young lady in
+speechless terror hanging over the stiffened figure on the couch--the
+eyes wide open, the limbs straight and rigid.  He sprang forward, and
+lifted her into a more favourable posture, hastily asking for simple
+remedies likely to be at hand, and producing a certain amount of
+revival for a few moments, though the stiffness was not passing--nor
+was there evidence of consciousness.
+
+'Are you Leonard?' said Cora Muller, under her breath, in this brief
+interval, gazing into his face with frightened puzzled eyes.
+
+'No; but I am come to tell her that he is free!'  But the words were
+cut short by another terrible access, of that most distressing kind
+that stimulates convulsion; and again the terrified women
+instinctively rendered obedience to the stranger in the measures he
+rapidly took, and his words, 'hysteria--a form of hysteria,' were
+forced from him by the necessity of lessening Cora's intense alarm,
+so as to enable her to be effective.  'We must send for Dr. Laidlaw,'
+she began in the first breathing moment, and again he looked up and
+said, 'I am a physician!'
+
+'Mr. Tom?' she asked with the faintest shadow of a smile; he bent his
+head, and that was their introduction, broken again by another
+frightful attack; and when quiescence, if not consciousness, was
+regained, Tom knelt by the sofa, gazing with a sense of heart-rending
+despair at the wasted features and thin hands, the waxen whiteness of
+the cheek, and the tokens in which he clearly read long and consuming
+illness as well as the overthrow of the sudden shock.
+
+'What is this?' he asked, looking up to Cora's beautiful anxious
+face.
+
+'Oh, she has been very sick, very sick,' she answered; 'it was an
+attack of pleurisy; but she is getting better at last, though she
+will not think so, and this news will make all well.  Does she hear?
+Say it again!'
+
+Tom shook his head, afraid of the sound of the name as yet, and
+scarcely durst even utter the word 'Ella' above his breath.
+
+'She is gone out with Cousin Deborah to an apple bee,' was the
+reassuring answer.  'She wanted change, poor child!  Is she getting
+better?'
+
+Averil was roused by a cough, the sound which tore Tom's heart by its
+import, but he drew back out of her sight, and let Cora raise her,
+and give her drink, in a soothing tender manner, that was evident
+restoration.  'Cora dear, is it you?' she said, faintly; 'didn't I
+hear some one else's voice?  Didn't they say--?' and the shiver that
+crept over her was almost a return of the hysteric fit.
+
+'We said he was free,' said Cora, holding her in her arms.
+
+'Free--yes, I know what that means--free among the dead,' said
+Averil, calmly, smoothing Cora's hair, and looking in her face.
+'Don't be afraid to let me hear.  I shall be there with him and Minna
+soon.  Didn't somebody come to tell me?  Please let him in, I'll be
+quiet now.'
+
+And as she made gestures of arranging her hair and dress, Tom
+guardedly presented himself, saying in a voice that trembled with his
+endeavour to render it calm, 'Did you think I should have come if I
+had nothing better to tell you?' and as she put out her hand in
+greeting, he took it in both his own, and met her eyes looking at him
+wide open, in the first dawning of the hope of an impossible
+gladness.  'Yes,' he said, 'the truth is come out--he is cleared--he
+is at home--at Stoneborongh!'
+
+The hot fingers closed convulsively on his own, then she raised
+herself, pressed her hands together, and gasped and struggled
+fearfully for breath.  The joy and effort for self-command were more
+than the enfeebled frame could support, and there was a terrible and
+prolonged renewal of those agonizing paroxysms, driving away every
+thought from the other two except of the immediate needs.  At last,
+when the violence of the attack had subsided, and left what was
+either fainting or stupor, they judged it best to carry her to her
+bed, and trust that, reviving without the associations of the other
+room, the agitation would be less likely to return, and that she
+might sleep under the influence of an anodyne.  Poor Tom! it was not
+the reception he had figured to himself, and after he had laid her
+down, and left her to Cora and to Katty to be undressed, he returned
+to the parlour, and stood over the sinking wood-fire in dejection and
+dreariness of heart--wrung by the sufferings he had witnessed, with
+the bitter words (too late) echoing in his brain, and with the still
+more cruel thought--had it been his father or one of his brothers--
+any one to whose kindness she could trust, the shock had not been so
+great, and there would have been more sense of soothing and comfort!
+And then he tried to collect his impressions of her condition, and
+judge what would serve for her relief, but all his senses seemed to
+be scattered; dismay, compassion, and sympathy, had driven away all
+power of forming a conclusion--he was no longer the doctor--he was
+only the anxious listener for the faintest sound from the room above,
+but none reached him save the creaking of the floor under Katty's
+heavy tread.
+
+The gay tinkle of sleigh-bells was the next noise he heard, and
+presently the door was opened, and two muffled hooded figures looked
+into the room, now only lighted by the red embers of the fire.
+
+'Where's Cora? where's Ave?' said the bright tone of the lesser.  'It
+is all dark!' and she was raising her voice to call, when Tom
+instinctively uttered a 'Hush,' and moved forward; 'hush, Ella, your
+sister has been ill.'
+
+The little muffled figure started at the first sound of his voice,
+but as he stepped nearer recoiled for a second, then with a low cry,
+almost a sob of recognition, exclaimed, 'Mr. Tom!  Oh, Mr. Tom!  I
+knew you would come!  Cousin Deborah, it's Mr. Tom!' and she flew
+into his arms, and clung with an ecstasy of joy, unknowing the why or
+how, but with a sense that light had shone, and that her troubles
+were over.  She asked no questions, she only leant against him with,
+'Mr. Tom!  Mr. Tom!' under her breath.
+
+'But what is it, stranger?  Do tell!  Where are the girls?  What's
+this about Avy's being sick?  Do you know the stranger, Ella?'
+
+'It's Mr. Tom,' she cried, holding his arm round her neck, looking up
+in a rapturous restfulness.
+
+'I brought Miss Ward-en some good news that I fear has been too much
+for her,' said he; 'I am--only waiting to--hear how she is.'
+
+By way of answer, Deborah opened another door which threw more light
+on the scene from the cooking stove in the kitchen, and at the same
+moment Cora with a candle came down the stairs.
+
+'0, Dr. May,' she said, 'you have been too long left alone in the
+dark.  I think she is asleep now.  You will stay.  We will have tea
+directly.'
+
+Tom faltered something about the hotel, and began to look at Cousin
+Deborah, and to consider the proprieties of life; but Cousin Deborah,
+Cora, and Ella began declaring with one voice that he must remain for
+the evening meal, and a bustle of cheerful preparation commenced,
+while Ella still hung on his hand.
+
+'But, Ella, you've never asked my good news.'
+
+'Oh dear!  I was too glad!  Are we going home then?'
+
+'Yes, I trust so, I hope so, my dear; for Leonard's innocence has
+come to light, and he is free.'
+
+'Then Henry won't mind--and we may be called by our proper name
+again--and Ave will be well,' cried the child, as the ideas came more
+fully on her comprehension.  '0, Cora!  0, Cousin Deborah, do you
+hear?  Does Ave know?  May I run up and tell Ave?'
+
+This of course was checked, but next Ella impetuously tore off her
+wraps for the convenience of spinning up and down wildly about the
+kitchen and parlour.  Leonard himself did not seem to have great part
+in her joy; Henry's policy had really nearly rooted out the thought
+of him personally, and there was a veil of confusion over the painful
+period of his trial, which at the time she had only partially
+comprehended.  But she did understand that his liberation would be
+the term of exile; and though his name was to her connected with a
+mysterious shudder that made her shrink from uttering or hearing
+details, she had a security that Mr. Tom would set all right, and she
+loved him so heartily, that his presence was sunshine enough for her.
+
+A little discomfited at the trouble he was causing, Tom was obliged
+to wait while not only Cousin Deborah, but Cora busied herself in the
+kitchen, and Ella in her restless joy came backwards and forwards to
+report their preparations, and at times to tarry a short space by his
+side, and tell of the recent troubles.  Ave had been very ill, she
+said, very ill indeed about a month ago, and Henry had come home to
+see her, but had been obliged to go away to the seige of Charleston
+when she was better.  They had all been ill ever since they came
+there, but now Mr. Tom was come, should not they all go home to dear
+Stoneborough, away from this miserable place?  If they could only
+take Cora with them!
+
+It was still a childish tongue; but Ella had outgrown all her plump
+roundness, and was so tall and pale that Tom would hardly have known
+her.  Her welcome was relief and comfort, and she almost inspired her
+own belief that now all would be well.  His English ideas were rather
+set at rest by finding that Mrs. Deborah was to preside at the tea-
+table, and that he was not to be almost tete-a-tete with Miss Muller.
+Deborah having concluded her hospitable cares, catechized him to her
+full content, and satisfied herself on the mystery of the Wardens'
+life.
+
+And now what brought himself out?  She guessed he could not find an
+opening in the old country.  Tom smiled, explained his opening at
+home, and mentioned his charge of his late friend's book.
+
+'So you are come out about the book, and just come a few hundred
+miles out of the way to bring this bit of news, that you could have
+telegraphed,' said the Yankee dame, looking at him with her keen
+eyes.  'Well, if you were coming, it was a pity you were not sooner.
+She has pined away ever since she came here; and to such a worn-down
+condition as hers, poor child, I doubt joy's kinder more upsetting
+than trouble, when one is used to it.  There; I'll fix the things,
+and go up and sit with Avy.  She'll be less likely to work herself
+into a flight again if she sees me than one of you.'
+
+So Tom--less embarrassed now--found himself sitting by the fire, with
+Ella roasting her favourite nuts for him, and Miss Muller opposite.
+He was taken by surprise by her beautiful face, elegant figure, and
+lady-like manner, and far more by her evidently earnest affection for
+Averil.
+
+She told him that ever since the fatal turn of little Minna's
+illness, Averil had been subject to distressing attacks of gasping
+and rigidity, often passing into faintness; and though at the moment
+of emotion she often showed composure and self-command, yet that
+nature always thus revenged herself.  Suspense--letters from home or
+from Henry--even verses, or times connected with the past, would
+almost certainly bring on the affection; and the heat of the summer
+had relaxed her frame, so as to render it even more unable to resist.
+There had been hope in the bracing of winter, but the first frosts
+had brought a chill, and a terrible attack of pleurisy, so dangerous
+that her brother had been summoned; she had struggled through,
+however, and recovered to a certain point, but there had stopped
+short, often suffering pain in the side, and never without panting
+breath and recurring cough.  This had been a slightly better day, and
+she had been lying on the sofa, counting the days to Leonard's next
+letter, when the well-known voice fell on her ears, and the one
+strong effort to control herself had resulted in the frightful
+spasms, which had been worse than any Cora had yet witnessed.
+
+'But she will get well, and we shall go home,' said Ella, looking up
+wistfully into Tom's mournful face.
+
+'And I shall lose you,' said Cora; 'but indeed I have long seen it
+was the only thing.  If I had only known, she never should have come
+here.'
+
+'No, indeed, I feel that you would have led her to nothing that was
+not for her good and comfort.'
+
+'Ah! but I did not know,' said Cora; 'I had not been here--and I only
+thought of my own pleasure in having her.  But if there is any way of
+freeing her from this unfortunate speculation without a dead loss, I
+will make father tell me.'
+
+This--from Cora's pretty mouth--though only honest and prudent,
+rather jarred upon Tom in the midst of his present fears; and he
+began to prepare for his departure to the inn, after having sent up
+Ella to ask for her sister, and hearing that she still slept soundly
+under the influence of the opiate.
+
+When Averil awoke it was already morning, and Cora was standing by
+her bed, with her eyes smiling with congratulation, like veronicas on
+a sunny day.
+
+'Cora, is it true?' she said, looking up.
+
+Cora bent down and kissed her, and whispered, 'I wish you joy, my
+dear.'
+
+'Then it is,' she said; 'it is not all a dream?'
+
+'No dream, dearest.'
+
+'Who said it?' she asked.  '0, Cora, that could not be true!' and the
+colour rose in her cheek.
+
+'That! yes, Averil, if you mean that we had a visitor last evening.
+I took him for Leonard, do you know!  Only I thought his eyes and
+hair did not quite answer the description.'
+
+'He is a very gentleman-like person.  Did you not think so?' said
+Averil.
+
+'Ah! Ave, I've heard a great deal.  Don't you think you had better
+tell me some more?'
+
+'No, no!' exclaimed Averil; 'you are not to think of folly,' as
+coughing cut her short.
+
+'I'll not think of any more than I can help, except what you tell
+me.'
+
+'Never think at all, Cora.  Oh! what has brought him here?  I don't
+know how I can dare to see him again; and yet he is not gone, is he?'
+
+'Oh no, he is only at the inn.  He is coming back again.'
+
+'I must be up.  Let me get up,' said Averil, raising herself, but
+pausing from weakness and breathlessness.
+
+And when they had forced some food upon her, she carried out her
+resolution, though twice absolutely fainting in the course of
+dressing; and at length crept softly, leaning on Cora's arm, into the
+parlour.  Though Tom was waiting there, he neither spoke nor came
+forward till she was safely placed upon the sofa, and then gathering
+breath, she sought him with her eager eyes, shining, large, lustrous,
+and wistful, as they looked out of the white thin face, where the
+once glowing colour had dwindled to two burning carnation spots.  It
+was so piteous a change that as he took her hand he was silent, from
+sheer inability to speak calmly.
+
+'You have come to tell me,' she said.  'I am afraid I could not thank
+you last night.'  How different that soft pleading languid voice from
+the old half defiant tone!
+
+'I did not know you had been so unwell,' he forced himself to say,
+'or I would not have come so suddenly.'
+
+'I am grown so silly' she said, trying to smile.  'I hardly even
+understood last night;' and the voice died away in the intense desire
+to hear.
+
+'I--I was coming on business, and I thought you would not turn from
+the good tidings, though I was the bearer,' he said, in a broken,
+agitated, apologetic way.
+
+'Only let me hear it again,' she said.  'Did you say he was free?'
+
+'Yes, free as you are, or I.  At home.  My father was gone to fetch
+him.'
+
+She put her hands over her face, and looked up with the sweetest
+smile he had ever seen, and whispered, 'Now I can sing my Nunc
+dimittis.'
+
+He could not at once speak; and before he had done more than make one
+deprecatory gesture, she asked, 'You have seen him?'
+
+'Not since this--not since September.'
+
+'I know.  You have been very good; and he is at home--ah! not home--
+but Dr. May's.  Was he well?  Was he very glad?'
+
+'I have not seen him; I have not heard; you will hear soon.  I came
+at once with the tidings.'
+
+'Thank you;' and she clasped her hands together.  'Have you seen
+Henry? does he know?'
+
+'Could I?  Had not you the first right?'
+
+'Leonard!  Oh, dear Leonard!'  She lay back for a few moments,
+panting under the gust of exceeding joy; while he was silent, and
+tried not to seem to observe her with his anxious eyes.  Then she
+recovered a little and said, 'The truth come out!  Did you say so?
+What was the truth?'
+
+'He paused a moment, afraid of the shock, and remembering that the
+suspicion had been all unknown to her.  She recalled probabilities,
+and said,
+
+'Was it from a confession?  Is it known who--who was the real unhappy
+person?'
+
+'Yes.  Had you no suspicion?'
+
+'No--none,' said Averil, shuddering, 'unless it was some robber.  Who
+was it?'
+
+'You had never thought of the other nephew?'
+
+'You don't mean Samuel Axworthy!  Oh! no.  Why the last thing Leonard
+bade me, was always to pray for him.'
+
+'Ah!' said Tom, with bent head, and colouring cheeks; 'but who are
+those for whom such as Leonard would feel bound to pray?'
+
+There was a moment's silence, and then she said, 'His enemy!  Is that
+what you mean?  But then he would have known it was he.'
+
+'He was entirely convinced that so it must have been, but there was
+no proof, and an unsupported accusation would only have made his own
+case worse.'
+
+'And has he confessed? has he been touched and cleared Leonard at
+last?'
+
+'No; he had no space granted him.  It was the receipt in your
+brother's writing that was found upon him.'
+
+'The receipt?  Yes, Leonard always said the receipt would clear him!
+But oh, how dreadful!  He must have had it all the time.  How could
+he be so cruel!  Oh!  I never felt before that such wickedness could
+be;' and she lay, looking appalled and overpowered.
+
+'Think of your brother knowing it all, and bidding--and giving you
+that injunction--' said Tom, feeling the necessity of overcoming evil
+with good.
+
+'Oh! if I had known it, I could not--I could not have been like
+Leonard!  And where--what has become of him?' she asked,
+breathlessly.  'You speak as if he was dead.'
+
+'Yes.  He was killed in a fray at a gaming-house!'
+
+There was a long silence, first of awe, then of thankfulness plainly
+beaming in her upraised eyes and transparent countenance, which Tom
+watched, filled with sensations, mournful but not wholly wretched.
+Shattered as she was, sinking away from her new-found happiness, it
+was a precious privilege to be holding to her the longed--for draught
+of joy.
+
+'Tell me about it, please,' she presently said.  'Where--how did the
+receipt come to light?  Were the police told to watch for it?  I want
+to know whom I have to thank.'
+
+His heart beat high, but there was a spirit within him that could not
+brook any attempt to recall the promise he had pursued her with, the
+promise that he would not rest till he had proved her brother's
+innocence.  He dreaded her even guessing any allusion to it, or
+fancying he had brought the proffered price in his hand; and when he
+began with, 'Can you bear to hear of the most shocking scene I ever
+witnessed?' he gave no hint of his true motive in residing at Paris,
+of the clue that Bilson's draft had given him in thither pursuing
+Axworthy, nor of his severe struggle in relinquishing the quest.  He
+threw over all the completest accidental air, and scarcely made it
+evident that it was he who had recognized the writing, and all that
+turned on it.  Averil listened to the narration, was silent for some
+space, then having gone over it in her own mind, looked up and said--
+
+'Then all this came of your being at that hospital;' and a burning
+blush spread over the pale cheek, and made Tom shrink, start, and
+feel guilty of having touched the chord of obligation, connected with
+that obtrusive pledge of his.  Above all, however, to repress emotion
+was his prime object; and he calmly answered, 'It was a good
+Providence that brought any one there who knew the circumstances.'
+
+She was silent; and he was about to rise and relieve her from the
+sense of his presuming on her gratitude, when a cough, accompanied
+with a pressure of her hand on her side, betrayed an access of
+suffering, that drew him on to his other purpose of endeavouring to
+learn her condition, and to do what he could for her relief.  His
+manner, curiously like his father's, and all the home associations
+connected with it, easily drew from her what he wanted to ascertain,
+and she perfectly understood its purport, and was calm and even
+bright.
+
+'I was glad to be better when Henry went away,' she said; 'he had so
+much to do, and we thought I was getting well then.  You must not
+frighten him and hurry him here, if you please,' she said, earnestly,
+'for he must not be wasting his time here, and you think it will last
+a month or two, don't you?'
+
+'I want to persuade Henry to bring you all home, and enter into
+partnership with Mr. Wright,' said Tom.  'The voyage would--might--it
+would be the best thing for you.'
+
+'Could I ever be well enough again?  Oh, don't tell me to think about
+it!  The one thing I asked for before I die has been given me, and
+now I know he is free, I will--will not set my mind on anything
+else.'
+
+There was a look so near heaven on her face, as she spoke, that Tom
+durst not say any more of home, or earthly schemes; but, quiet,
+grave, and awe-stricken, left her to the repose she needed, and
+betook himself to the other room, where Ella, of course, flew on him,
+having been hardly detained by Cora from breaking in before.  His
+object was to go to see the medical man who had been attending
+Averil; and Cora assuring him the horse had nothing to do in the
+frost, and telling him the times of the day when he would be most
+likely to find Dr. Laidlaw, he set forth.
+
+Averil meantime lay on her sofa calmly happy, and thankful, the worn
+and wearied spirit full of rest and gladness unspeakable, in the
+fulness of gratitude for the answered prayer that she might know her
+brother free before her death.  If she had ever doubted of her own
+state, she had read full confirmation in her physician's saddened
+eyes, and the absence of all hopeful auguries, except the single hint
+that she might survive a voyage to England; and that she wished
+unsaid.  Life, for the last five years, had been mournful work; there
+had been one year of blind self-will, discord, and bitterness, then a
+crushing stroke, and the rest exhausted submission and hopeless
+bending to sorrow after sorrow, with self-reproach running through
+all.  Wearied out, she was glad to lay down the burthen, and accept
+the evening gleam as sunset radiance, without energy to believe it as
+the dawn of a brighter day.  She shrank from being made even to wish
+to see Leonard.  If once she began to think it possible, it would be
+a hard sacrifice to give it up; and on one point her resolution was
+fixed, that she would not be made a cause for bringing him to share
+their wretchedness in America.  Life and things of life were over
+with her, and she would only be thankful for the softening blessings
+that came at its close, without stirring up vain longings for more.
+That kindness of Tom May, for instance, how soothing it was after her
+long self-reproach for her petulant and cutting unjust reply to his
+generous affection--generous above all at such a moment!
+
+And after all, it was he--it was he and no other who had cleared
+Leonard--he had fulfilled the pledge he had given when he did not
+know what he was talking of.  How she hated the blush that the sudden
+remembrance had called up on her face!  It was quite plain that he
+had been disgusted by her unkind, undignified, improper tone of
+rejection; and though out of humanity he had brought her the tidings,
+he would not let her approach to thanking him, she was ashamed that
+he should have traced an allusion, the most distant, to the scene he
+had, doubtless, loathed in remembrance.  He would, no doubt, go away
+to-day or to-morrow, and then these foolish thoughts would subside,
+and she should be left alone with Cora and her thankfulness, to think
+again of the great change before her!
+
+But Tom was not gone.  Indeed Averil was much more ill before the
+next morning, partly from hysteria, the reaction of the morning's
+excitement, and partly from an aggravation of the more serious
+pulmonary affection.  It was a temporary matter, and one that made
+his remaining the merest act of common humanity, since he had found
+Dr. Laidlaw a very third-rate specimen, and her brother was too far
+off to have arrived in time to be of use.  The fresh science and
+skill of the young physician were indeed of the highest value, and
+under his care Averil rallied after a few days of prostration and
+suffering, during which she had watched and observed a good deal, and
+especially the good understanding between her doctor and Cora Muller.
+When Cousin Deborah was sitting with her, they always seemed to be
+talking in the drawing-room; nay, there were reports of his joining
+in the fabrication of some of the delicacies that were triumphantly
+brought to her room; and Ella was in a state of impatient pique at
+being slighted by 'Mr. Tom,' who, she complained, was always fighting
+with Cora about their politics; and Cora herself used to bring what
+Dr. May had said, as the choicest entertainment to her sick friend;
+while to herself he was merely the physician, kind and gentle to the
+utmost degree; but keeping his distance so scrupulously, that the
+pang awoke that he absolutely disliked her, and only attended her
+from common compassion; and, it might be, found consolation in being
+thus brought in contact with Cora.  Oh, if it were only possible to
+own her wrongs, and ask his pardon without a compromise of
+maidenliness!  Perhaps--perhaps she might, when she was still nearer
+death, and when she was supposed to know how it was between him and
+Cora.  Dear Cora, it would be a beautiful reward for them both, and
+they would take care of Ella.  Cora would be happier than ever yet
+among the Mays--and--Oh! why, why was there so much unkind selfish
+jealousy left, that instead of being glad, the notion left her so
+very miserable?  Why did the prospect of such happiness for her self-
+devoted friend and nurse make her feel full of bitterness, and hardly
+able to bear it patiently, when she heard her speak the name of Dr.
+May?
+
+Averil had again left her bed, and resumed her place on the sofa
+before letters arrived.  There was Leonard's from Cocksmoor
+Parsonage, the first real letter she had had from him since his term
+of servitude had begun.  It was a grave and thankful letter, very
+short, doing little more than mention every one's kindness, and
+express a hope of soon meeting her and Ella, however and wherever
+Henry should think best.  Brief as it was, it made her more
+thoroughly realize his liberty, and feel that the yearning towards
+him in her heart was growing more and more ardent, in spite of her
+strivings not to let it awaken.
+
+The same post brought Henry's answer to Tom May's representation. It
+was decisive.  He had broken off his whole connection with England,
+and did not wish to return to a neighbourhood so full of painful
+recollections.  He was making his way rapidly upwards in his present
+position, and it would be folly to give up the advantages it offered;
+moreover, he had no fears of the future well-doing of the Massissauga
+Company.  As soon as the weather permitted it, he hoped to remove his
+sister to a healthier locality for change of air, but she could not
+be fit for a journey in the winter.  There were plenty of
+acknowledgments to the Mays for their kindness to Leonard, from whom
+Henry said he had heard, as well as from Dr. May, and others at
+Stoneborough.  He should advise Leonard by all means to close with
+Mr. Bramshaw's offer, for he saw no opening for him in the United
+States at present, although the ultimate triumph over rebellion, &c.
+&c. &c.--in the most inflated style of Henry's truly adopted country.
+No one who had not known the whole affair would ever enter into
+Leonard's entire innocence, the stigma of conviction would cleave to
+him, and create an impression against him and his family among
+strangers, and it was highly desirable that he should remain among
+friends.  In fact, it was plain that Henry was still ashamed of him,
+and wished to be free of a dangerous appendage.  Tom was so savagely
+angry at this letter that he could only work off his wrath by a wild
+expedition in the snow, in the course of which he lost his way,
+wandered till the adventure began to grow perilous, came at last upon
+a squatter, with great difficulty induced him to indicate the track
+sufficiently for his English density, and arrived at Massissauga at
+nine o'clock at night.  Averil was still on her sofa, quite calm and
+quiet, all but her two red spots; but afterwards, in her own room,
+she had one of her worst fits of spasms.
+
+However, she was up and dressed by the middle of the next day, and,
+contrary to her wont since the first time, she sent Ella out of the
+room when her doctor came to see her.
+
+'I wanted to speak to you,' she said, 'I have a great favour to ask
+of you.  You will soon be going home.  Would you, could you take Ella
+with you?  I know it is a great, a too great thing to ask.  But I
+would not have her in any one's way.  I am going to write to Mrs.
+Wills, at the school where I was, and Ella's means are quite enough
+to keep her there, holidays and all, till Leonard can give her a
+home.  It will be much better for her, and a relief to Henry; and it
+will be giving back one--one to Leonard!  It will be one thing more
+that I shall be happy about.'
+
+Tom had let her go on with her short gentle sentences, because he
+knew not how to answer; but at last she said, 'Forgive me, and do not
+think of it, if I have asked what I ought not, or would be
+troublesome.'
+
+Troublesome! no, indeed!  I was only thinking--if it might not be
+better managed,' he answered, rather by way of giving himself time to
+debate whether the utterance of the one thought in his heart would
+lead to his being driven away.
+
+'Pray do not propose Leonard's coming for her!  He must come to this
+feverish place in spring.  And if he came, and I were not here, and
+Henry not wanting him!  Oh no, no; do not let me think of his
+coming!'
+
+'Averil,' he said, kneeling on one knee so as to be nearer, and to be
+able to speak lower, 'you are so unearthly in your unselfishness,
+that I dare the less to put before you the one way in which I could
+take Ella home to him.  It is if you would overlook the past, and
+give me a brother's right in them both.'
+
+She turned in amazement to see if she had heard aright.  He had
+removed his glasses, and the deep blue expressive eyes so seldom
+plainly visible were wistfully, pleadingly, fixed on her, brimming
+over with the dew of eamestness.  Her face of inquiry gave him
+courage to go on, 'If you would only let me, I think I could bring
+you home to see him; and if you would believe it and try, I believe I
+could make you happier,' and with an uncontrollable shake in his
+voice he ceased--and only looked.
+
+She sat upright, her hands clasped in her lap, her eyes shut, trying
+to collect her thoughts; and the silence lasted for several seconds.
+At last she said, opening her eyes, but gazing straight before her,
+not at him, 'I do not think I ought.  Do you really know what you are
+saying?  You know I cannot get well.'
+
+'I know,' he said.  'All I ask is, to tend and watch over you while I
+may, to bring you home to Leonard, and to be Ella's brother.'
+
+His voice was still and low, and he laid his hand on her folded ones
+with reverent solemnity; but though it did not tremble, its touch was
+cold as marble, and conveyed to Averil an instant sense of the force
+of his repressed emotion.  She started under it, and exclaimed with
+the first agitation she had shown, 'No, no; it would cost you too
+much.  You, young, beginning life--you must not take a sorrow upon
+you.'
+
+'Is it not there already?' he said, almost inaudibly.  'Would it
+lessen it to be kept away from you?'
+
+'Oh, do not go on, do not tempt me,' she cried.  'Think of your
+father.'
+
+'Nay, think what he is yourself.  Or rather look here,' and he took
+out a part of a letter from Ethel, and laid it before her.
+
+'As to papa not guessing your object,' she said, 'that was a vain
+delusion if you ever entertained it, so you must not mind my having
+explained.  He said if he had been you, it was just what he should
+have done himself, and he is quite ready to throw his heart into it
+if you will only trust to his kindness.  I do so want you really to
+try what that is.'
+
+'And you came for this,' faltered Averil, leaning back, almost
+overcome.
+
+'I did not come meaning to hurry the subject on you.  I hoped to have
+induced Henry to have brought you all home, and then, when I had done
+my best to efface the recollection of that unpardonable behaviour, to
+have tried whether you could look on me differently.'
+
+'I don't like you to say that,' said Averil, simply but earnestly; 'I
+have felt over and over again how wrong I was--how ungrateful--to
+have utterly missed all the nobleness and generosity of your
+behaviour, and answered in that unjust, ill-tempered way.'
+
+'Nothing was ever more deserved,' he answered; 'I have hated myself
+ever since, and I hope I am not as obnoxious now.'
+
+'It was I!' she said; 'I have lived every bit of the winter over
+again, and seen that I was always ready to be offended, and somehow I
+could not help caring so much for what you said, that lesser things
+from you hurt and cut as other people's did not.'
+
+'Do you know what that proves?' said Tom, with an arch subsmile
+lighting on his eyes and mouth; and as a glow awoke on her pale
+cheek, he added, 'and won't you believe, too, that my propensity to
+"contemptuous irony" was all from my instinctive fear of what you
+could do to me!'
+
+'Oh, don't repeat that!  I have been so bitterly ashamed of it!'
+
+'I am sure I have.'
+
+'And I have longed so to ask your pardon.  I thought I would leave a
+letter or message with Ella that you would understand.'
+
+'You can do better than that now.  You can forgive me.'
+
+'Oh!' said Averil, her hands suddenly joined over her face, 'this is
+one joy more!  I cannot think why it is all growing so bright just at
+last--at last.  It is all come now!  How good it is!'
+
+He saw that she could bear no more.  He pressed no more for a
+decisive answer; he did not return to the subject; but from that time
+he treated her as what belonged to him, as if it was his business to
+think, act, and judge for her, and to watch over her; and her
+acquiescence was absolute.
+
+There was not much speaking between them; there were chiefly
+skirmishes between him and Cora, to which she listened in smiling
+passive amusement; and even when alone together they said little--
+actually nothing at all about the future.  He had written to Ethel on
+his first arrival, and on the reply, as well as on Averil's state,
+all must depend.  Meanwhile such a look of satisfied repose and peace
+shone upon Averil's face as was most sweet to look upon; and though
+extremely feeble, and not essentially better, she was less suffering,
+and could in great languor, but in calm enjoyment, pass through day
+by day of the precious present that had come to crown her long trial.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+
+
+Oh, when its flower seems fain to die,
+The full heart grudges smile or sigh
+To aught beside, though fair and dear;
+Like a bruised leaf, at touch of fear,
+Its hidden fragrance love gives out.--Lyra Innocentum
+
+
+'The letters at last!  One to Ethel, and three to Leonard!  Now for
+it, Ethel!'
+
+Ethel opened--read--ran out of the room without a word, and sought
+her father in his study, where she laid before him Tom's letter,
+written from Massissauga the day after his arrival.
+
+
+'Dear Ethel,
+
+'I have found my darling, but too late to arrest the disease--the
+work of her brother's perverseness and wrong-headedness.  I have no
+hope of saving her; though it will probably be a matter of several
+months--that is, with care, and removal from this vile spot.
+
+'I am writing to Henry, but I imagine that he is too much charmed
+with his present prospects to give them up; and in her angelic self-
+sacrifice she insists on Leonard's not coming out.  Indeed, there
+would be no use in his doing so unless she leaves this place; but
+should no unforeseen complication supervene, it is my full persuasion
+that she could be removed, safely make the voyage, and even be spared
+for this summer among us.  Surely my father will not object!  It will
+be but a short time; and she has suffered so much, so piteously needs
+love and cherishing, that it is not in him to refuse.  He, who
+consented to Margaret's engagement, cannot but feel for us.  I would
+work for him all my life!  I would never cast a thought beyond home,
+if only once hallowed by this dear presence for ever so short a time.
+Only let the answers be so cordial as to remove all doubts or
+scruples; and when they are sent prepare for her.  I would bring her
+as quickly as her health permits.  No time must be lost in taking her
+from hence; and I wait only for the letters to obtain her consent to
+an immediate marriage.  Furnish the house at once; I will repay you
+on my return.  There is L200 for the first floor, sitting, and
+bedrooms; for the rest the old will do.  Only regard the making these
+perfect; colouring pink--all as cheerful and pleasant as money can
+accomplish.  If Flora will bear with me, get her to help you; or else
+Mary, if Cheviot forgives me.  Only don't spare cost.  I will make it
+up some way, if you find more wanted.  I saw an invalid sofa, an
+improvement on Margaret's, which I will write to Gaspard to send from
+Paris.  If you could only see the desolateness of the house where she
+has wasted away these three years, you would long to make a bower of
+bliss for her.  I trust to you.  I find I must trust everything to
+you.  I cannot write to my father; I have made nine beginnings, and
+must leave it to you.  He has comforted her, he knows her sorrows; he
+could not see her and bid me leave her.  Only there must be no
+hesitation.  That, or even remonstrance, would prevent her from
+consenting; and as to the objections, I cannot know them better than
+I do.  Indeed, all this may be in vain; she is so near Heaven, that I
+dare not talk to her of this; but I have written to Leonard, dwelling
+chiefly on the chance of bringing her to him.  Her desire to keep him
+from attempting to come out will I trust be an inducement; but if you
+could only see her, you would know how irreverent it seems to
+persecute one so nearly an angel with such matters.  If I may only
+tend her to the last!  I trust to you.  This is for my father.
+
+                                          'Ever yours,
+                                              'THOMAS MAY.'
+
+
+The last sentence referred to a brief medical summary of her
+symptoms, on a separate paper.
+
+'Can this be Tom?' was the Doctor's exclamation.  'Poor boy! it is
+going very hard with him!'
+
+'This would soften it more than anything else could,' said Ethel.
+
+'Oh yes!  You write.  Yes, and I'll write, and tell him he is free to
+take his own way.  Poor child! she would have been a good girl if she
+had known how.  Well, of all my eleven children that Tom should be
+the one to go on in this way!'
+
+'Poor dear Tom!  What do you think of his statement of her case?  Is
+she so very ill?'
+
+Dr. May screwed up his face.  'A sad variety of mischief,' he said;
+'if all be as he thinks, I doubt his getting her home; but he is
+young, and has his heart in it.  I have seen her mother in a state
+like this--only without the diseased lungs.  You can't remember it;
+but poor Ward never thought he could be grateful enough after she was
+pulled through.  However, this is an aggravated case, and looks bad--
+very bad!  It is a mournful ending for that poor boy's patience--it
+will sink very deep, and he will be a sadder man all his days, but I
+would not hinder his laying up a treasure that will brighten as he
+grows older.'
+
+'Thank you, papa.  I shall tell him what you say.'
+
+'I shall write--to her I think.  I owe him something for not proving
+that it is all as a study of pneumonia.  I say, Ethel, what is become
+of the "Diseases of Climate?"' he added, with a twinkle in his eye.
+
+'In the nine beginnings.'
+
+'And how about the Massissauga Company?'
+
+'You heartless old worldly-minded father!' said Ethel.  'When you
+take to prudence for Tom, what is the world coming to?'
+
+'Into order,' said the Doctor, shaking himself into the coat she held
+for him.  'Tom surrendered to a pet patient of mine.  Now for poor
+Leonard!  Good-bye, young people!  I am off to Cocksmoor!'
+
+'Please take me, grandpapa,' cried Dickie, hopping into the hall.
+
+'You, you one-legged manikin!  I'm going over all the world; and how
+are you to get home?'
+
+'On Leonard's back,' said the undaunted Dickie.
+
+'Not so, master: poor Leonard has news here that will take the taste
+of nonsense out of his mouth.'
+
+'I am his friend,' said Dickie, with dignity.
+
+'Then your friendship must not disturb him over his letters.  And can
+you sit in the carriage and twirl your thumbs while I am at Fordham?'
+
+'I shall not twirl my thumbs.  I shall make out a problem on my ship
+chess-board.'
+
+'That's the boy who was sent from the Antipodes, that he might not be
+spoilt!' quoth Aubrey, as the Doctor followed the child into the
+carriage.
+
+'Granting reasonable wishes is not spoiling,' said Ethel.
+
+'May the system succeed as well with Dickie as with--' and Aubrey in
+one flourish indicated Gertrude and himself.
+
+'Ay, we shall judge by the reception of Ethel's tidings!' cried
+Gertrude.  'Now for it, Ethel.  Read us Tom's letter, confute the
+engineer, hoist with his own petard.'
+
+'Now, Ethel, confute the Daisy, the green field daisy--the simple
+innocent daisy, deluded by "Diseases of Climate."'
+
+'Ethel looks as concerned as if it were fatal truth,' added Gertrude.
+
+'What is it?' asked Aubrey.  'If Henry Ward has gone down in a
+monitor at Charleston, I'll forgive him.'
+
+'Not that,' said Ethel; 'but we little thought how ill poor Ave is.'
+
+'Dangerously?' said Aubrey, gravely.
+
+'Not perhaps immediately so; but Tom means to marry at once, that he
+may have a chance of bringing her home to see Leonard.'
+
+'Another shock for Leonard,' said Aubrey, quite subdued, 'why can't
+he have a little respite?'
+
+'May they at least meet once more!' said Ethel; 'there will be some
+comfort in looking to that!'
+
+'And what a fellow Tom is to have thought of it,' added Aubrey.
+'Nobody will ever dare to say again that he is not the best of the
+kit of us!  I must be off now to the meet: but if you are writing,
+Ethel, I wish you would give her my love, or whatever he would like,
+and tell him he is a credit to the family.  I say, may I tell George
+Rivers?'
+
+'Oh yes; it will soon be in the air; and Charles Cheviot will be down
+on us!'
+
+Away went Aubrey to mount the hunter that George Rivers placed at his
+service.
+
+Gertrude, who had been struck dumb, looked up to ask, 'Then it is
+really so?'
+
+'Indeed it is.'
+
+'Then,' cried Gertrude, vehemently, 'you and he have been deceiving
+us all this time!'
+
+'No, Gertrude, there was nothing to tell.  I did not really know, and
+I could not gossip about him.'
+
+'You might have hinted.'
+
+'I tried, but I was clumsy.'
+
+'I hate hints!' exclaimed the impetuous young lady; 'one can't
+understand them, and gets the credit of neglecting them.  If people
+have a secret attachment, they ought to let all their family know!'
+
+'Perhaps they do in Ireland.'
+
+'You don't feel one grain for me, Ethel,' said Gertrude, with tears
+in her eyes.  'Only think how Tom led me on to say horrid things
+about the Wards; and now to recollect them, when she is so ill too--
+and he--' She burst into sobs.
+
+'My poor Daisy!  I dare say it was half my fault.'
+
+Gertrude gave an impatient leap.  'There you go again! calling it
+your fault is worse than Charles's improving the circumstance.  It
+was my fault, and it shall be my fault, and nobody else's fault,
+except Tom's, and he will hate me, and never let me come near her to
+show that I am not a nasty spiteful thing!'
+
+'I think that if you are quiet and kind, and not flighty, he will
+forget all that, and be glad to let you be a sister to her.'
+
+'A sister to Ave Ward!  Pretty preferment!' muttered Gertrude.
+
+'Poor Ave!  After the way she has borne her troubles, we shall feel
+it an honour to be sisters to her.'
+
+'And that chair!' broke out Gertrude.  '0, Ethel, you did out of
+malice prepense make me vow it should be for Mrs. Thomas May.'
+
+'Well, Daisy, if you won't suspect me of improving the circumstance,
+I should say that finishing it for her would be capital discipline.'
+
+'Horrid mockery, I should say,' returned Gertrude, sadly; 'a gaudy
+rose-coloured chair, all over white fox-gloves, for a person in that
+state--'
+
+'Poor Tom's great wish is to have her drawing-room made as charming
+as possible; and it would be a real welcome to her.'
+
+'Luckily,' said Gertrude, breaking into laughter again, 'they don't
+know when it began; how in a weak moment I admired the pattern, and
+Blanche inflicted it and all its appurtenances on me, hoping to
+convert me to a fancy-work-woman!  Dear me, pride has a fall!  I
+loved to answer "Three stitches," when Mrs. Blanche asked after my
+progress.'
+
+'Ah, Daisy, if you did but respect any one!'
+
+'If they would not all be tiresome!  Seriously, I know I must finish
+the thing, because of my word.'
+
+'Yes, and I believe keeping a light word that has turned out heavy,
+is the best help in bridling the tongue.'
+
+'And, Ethel, I will really try to be seen and not heard while I am
+about the work,' said Gertrude, with an earnestness which proved that
+she was more sorry than her manner conveyed.
+
+Her resolution stood the trying test of a visit from the elder
+married sisters; for, as Ethel said, the scent of the tidings
+attracted both Flora and the Cheviots; and the head-master
+endeavoured to institute a kind of family committee, to represent to
+the Doctor how undesirable the match would be, entailing
+inconveniences that would not end with the poor bride's life, and
+bringing at once upon Tom a crushing anxiety and sorrow.  Ethel's
+opinion was of course set aside by Mr. Cheviot, but he did expect
+concurrence from Mrs. Rivers and from Richard, and Flora assented to
+all his objections, but she was not to be induced to say she would
+remonstrate with her father or with Tom; and she intimated the
+uselessness thereof so plainly, that she almost hoped that Charles
+Cheviot would be less eager to assail the Doctor with his arguments.
+
+'No hope of that,' said Ethel, when he had taken leave.  'He will
+disburthen his conscience; but then papa is well able to take care of
+himself!  Flora, I am so thankful you don't object.'
+
+'No indeed,' said Flora.  'We all know it is a pity; but it would be
+a far greater pity to break it off now--and do Tom an infinity of
+harm.  Now tell me all.'
+
+And she threw herself into the subject in the homelike manner that
+had grown on her, almost in proportion to Mary's guest-like ways and
+absorption in her own affairs.
+
+Six weeks from that time, another hasty note announced that Dr. and
+Mrs. Thomas May and Ella were at Liverpool; adding that Averil had
+been exceedingly ill throughout the voyage, though on being carried
+ashore, she had so far revived, that Tom hoped to bring her home the
+next day; but emotion was so dangerous, that he begged not to be met
+at the station, and above all, that Leonard would not show himself
+till summoned.
+
+Dr. May being unavoidably absent, Ethel alone repaired to the newly-
+furnished house for this strange sad bridal welcome.
+
+The first person to appear when the carriage door was opened was a
+young girl, pale, tall, thin, only to be recognized by her black
+eyes.  With a rapid kiss and greeting, Ethel handed her on to the
+further door, where she might satisfy the eager embrace of the
+brother who there awaited her; while Tom almost lifted out the veiled
+muffled figure of his bride, and led her up-stairs to the sitting-
+room, where, divesting her of hat, cloak, muff, and respirator, he
+laid her on the sofa, and looked anxiously for her reassuring smile
+before he even seemed to perceive his sister or left room for her
+greeting.
+
+The squarely-made, high-complexioned, handsome Averil Ward was
+entirely gone.  In Averil May, Ethel saw delicately refined and
+sharpened features, dark beautiful eyes, enlarged, softened, and
+beaming with perilous lustre, a transparently white blue-veined skin,
+with a lovely roseate tint, deepening or fading with every word,
+look, or movement, and a smile painfully sweet and touching, as first
+of the three, the invalid found voice for thanks and inquiries for
+all.
+
+'Quite well,' said Ethel.  'But papa has been most unluckily sent for
+to Whitford, and can't get home till the last train.'
+
+'It may be as well,' said Tom: 'we must have perfect quiet till after
+the night's rest.'
+
+'May I see one else to-night?' she wistfully asked.
+
+'Let us see how you are when you have had some coffee and are
+rested.'
+
+'Very well,' she said, with a gentle submission, that was as new a
+sight as Tom's tenderness; 'but indeed I am not tired; and it is so
+pretty and pleasant.  Is this really Dr. Spencer's old house?  Can
+there be such a charming room in it?'
+
+'I did not think so,' said Tom, looking in amazement at the effect
+produced by the bright modern grate with its cheerful fire, the warm
+delicate tints of the furniture, the appliances for comfort and
+ornament already giving a home look.
+
+'I know this is in the main your doing, Ethel; but who was the hand?'
+
+'All of us were hands,' said Ethel; 'but Flora was the moving spring.
+She went to London for a week about it.'
+
+'Mrs. Rivers!  Oh, how good!' said Averil, flushing with surprise;
+then raising herself, as her coffee was brought in a dainty little
+service, she exclaimed, 'And oh, if it were possible, I should say
+that was my dear old piano!'
+
+'Yes,' said Ethel, 'we thought you would like it; and Hector
+Ernescliffe gave Mrs. Wright a new one for it.'
+
+This was almost too much.  Averil's lip trembled, but she looked up
+into her husband's face, and made an answer, which would have been
+odd had she not been speaking to his thought.
+
+'Never mind! It is only happiness and the kindness.'  And she drank
+the coffee with an effort, and smiled at him again, as she asked,
+'Where is Ella?'
+
+'At our house,' said Ethel; 'we mean her to be there for the
+present.'
+
+Knowing with whom Ella must be, and fearing to show discontent with
+the mandate of patience, Averil again began to admire.  'What a
+beautiful chair!  Look, Tom! is it not exquisite?  Whose work is it?'
+
+'Gertrude's.'
+
+'That is the most fabulous thing of all,' said Tom, walking round it.
+'Daisy!  Her present, not her work?'
+
+'Her work, every stitch.  It has been a race with time.' The
+gratification of Averil's flush and smile was laid up by Ethel for
+Gertrude's reward; but it was plain that Tom wanted complete rest for
+his wife, and Ethel only waited to install her in the adjoining bed-
+room, which was as delightfully fitted up as the first apartment.
+Averil clung to her for the instant they were alone together, and
+whispered, 'Oh, it is all so sweet!  Don't think I don't feel it!
+But you see it is all I can do for him to be as quiet as I can!  Say
+so, please!'
+
+Ethel felt the throb of the heart, and knew to whom she was to say
+so; but Tom's restless approaching step made Averil detach herself,
+and sink into an arm-chair.  Ethel left her, feeling that the short
+clasp of their arms had sealed their sisterhood here and for ever.
+
+'It is too sad, too beautiful to be talked about,' she said to
+Gertrude, who was anxiously on the watch for tidings.
+
+Obedient as Averil was, she had not understood her husband's desire
+that she should seek her pillow at once.  She was feeling brisk and
+fresh, and by no means ready for captivity, and she presently came
+forth again with her soft, feeble, noiseless step; but she had nearly
+retreated again, feeling herself mistaken and bewildered, for in the
+drawing-room stood neither Tom nor his sisters, but a stranger--a
+dark, grave, thoughtful man of a singularly resolute and settled cast
+of countenance.  The rustle of her dress made him look up as she
+turned.  'Ave!' he exclaimed; and as their eyes met, the light in
+those brown depths restored the whole past.  She durst not trust
+herself to speak, as her head rested on his shoulder, his arms were
+round her; only as her husband came on the scene with a gesture of
+surprise, she said, 'Indeed, I did not mean it!  I did not know he
+was here.'
+
+'I might have known you could not be kept apart if I once let Leonard
+in,' he said, as he arranged her on the sofa, and satisfied himself
+that there were no tokens of the repressed agitation that left such
+dangerous effects.  'Will you both be very good if I leave you to be
+happy together?' he presently added, after a few indifferent words
+had passed.
+
+Averil looked wistfully after him, as if he were wanted to complete
+full felicity even in Leonard's presence.  How little would they once
+have thought that her first words to her brother would be,  'Oh, was
+there ever any one like him?'
+
+'We owe it all to him,' said Leonard.
+
+'So kind,' added Averil, 'not to be vexed, though he dreaded our
+meeting so much; and you see I could not grieve him by making a fuss.
+But this is nice!' she added, with a sigh going far beyond the effect
+of the homely word.
+
+'You are better.  Ella said so.'
+
+'I am feeling well to-night.  Come, let me look at you, and learn
+your face.'
+
+He knelt down beside her, and she stroked back the hair, which had
+fulfilled his wish that she should find it as long, though much
+darker than of old.  Posture and action recalled that meeting, when
+her couch had been his prison bed, and the cold white prison walls
+had frowned on them; yet even in the rosy light of the cheerful room
+there was on them the solemnity of an approaching doom.
+
+'Where is the old face?' Averil said.  'You look as you did in the
+fever.  Your smile brings back something of yourself.  But, oh, those
+hollow eyes!'
+
+'Count Ugolino is Dr. May's name for me: but, indeed, Ave, I have
+tried to fatten for your inspection.'
+
+'It is not thinness,' she said, 'but I had carried about with me the
+bright daring open face of my own boy.  I shall learn to like this
+better now.'
+
+'Nay, it is you and Ella that are changed.  0, Ave, you never let me
+know what a place you were in.'
+
+'There were many things better than you fancy,' she answered; 'and it
+is over--it is all gladness now.'
+
+'I see that in your face,' he said, gazing his fill.  'You do look
+ill indeed; but, Ave, I never saw you so content.'
+
+'I can't help it,' she said, smiling.  'Every moment comes some fresh
+kindness from him.  The more trouble I give him the kinder he is.  Is
+it not as if the tempest was over, and we had been driven into the
+smoothest little sunshiny bay?'
+
+'To rest and refit,' he said, thoughtfully.
+
+'For me, "the last long wave;" and a most gentle smooth one it is,'
+said Averil; 'for you to refit for a fresh voyage.  Dear Leonard, I
+have often guessed what you would do.'
+
+'What have you guessed?'
+
+'Only what we used to plan, in the old times after you had been at
+Coombe, Leonard.'
+
+'Dear sister!  And you would let me go!'
+
+'Our parting is near, any way,' she said, her eye turning to the
+print from Ary Scheffer's St. Augustine and Monica.  'Whoever gave us
+that, divined how we ought to feel in these last days together.'
+
+'It was Richard May's gift,' said Leonard.  'Ave, there was nothing
+wanting but your liking this.'
+
+'Then so it is?' she asked.
+
+'Unless the past disqualifies me,' he said.  'I have spoken to no one
+yet, except little Dickie.  When I thought I ought to find some
+present employment, and wanted to take a clerkship at Bramshaw's, Dr.
+May made me promise to wait till I had seen you before I fixed on
+anything; but my mind is made up, and I shall speak now--with your
+blessing on it, Ave.'
+
+'I knew it!' she said.
+
+He saw it was safer to quit this subject, and asked for Henry.
+
+'He sent his love.  He met us at New York.  He is grown so soldierly,
+with such a black beard, that he is more grown out of knowledge than
+any of us, but I scarcely saw him, for he was quite overset at my
+appearance, and Tom thought it did me harm.  I wish our new sister
+would have come to see me.
+
+'Sister!'
+
+'Oh, did you not know?  I thought Tom had written!  She is a
+Virginian lady, whose first husband was a doctor, who died of camp-
+fever early in the war.  A Federal, of course.  And they are to be
+married as soon as Charleston has fallen.'
+
+Leonard smiled.  And Averil expressed her certainty that it had
+fallen by that time.
+
+'And he is quite Americanized?' asked Leonard.  'Does he return to
+our own name!  No?  Then I do not wonder he did not wish for me.
+Perhaps he may yet bear to meet me, some day when we are grown old.'
+
+'At least we can pray to be altogether, where one is gone already'
+said Averil.  'That was the one comfort in parting with the dear
+Cora--my blessing through all the worst!  Leonard, she would not go
+to live in the fine house her father has taken at New York, but she
+is gone to be one of the nurses in the midst of all the hospital
+miseries.  And, oh, what comfort she will carry with her!'
+
+Here Tom returned, but made no objection to her brother's stay,
+perceiving that his aspect and voice were like fulness to the hungry
+heart that had pined so long--but keeping all the others away; and
+they meanwhile were much entertained by Ella, who was in joyous
+spirits; a little subdued, indeed, by the unknown brother, but in his
+absence very communicative.  Gertrude was greatly amused with her
+account of the marriage, in the sitting-room at Massissauga, and of
+Tom's being so unprepared for the brevity of the American form, that
+he never knew where he was in the Service, and completed it with a
+puzzled 'Is that all?'
+
+Averil had, according to Ella, been infinitely more calm and
+composed.  'She does nothing but watch his eyes,' said Ella; 'and
+ever since we parted from Cora, I have had no one to speak to!  In
+the cabin he never stirred from sitting by her; and if she could
+speak at all, it was so low that I could not hear.  School will be
+quite lively.'
+
+'Are you going to school?'
+
+'Oh yes! where Ave was.  That is quite fixed; and I have had enough
+of playing third person,' said Ella, with her precocious Western
+manner.  'You know I have all my own property, so I shall be on no
+one's hands!  Oh, and Cora made her father buy all Ave's Massissauga
+shares--at a dead loss to us of course.'
+
+'Well,' said Gertrude, 'I am sorry Tom is not an American share-
+holder.  It was such fun!'
+
+'He wanted to have made them all over to Henry; but Cora was
+determined; and her father is making heaps of money as a commissary,
+so I am sure he could afford it.  Some day, when the rebellion is
+subdued, I mean to go and see Cora and Henry and his wife,' added
+Ella, whose tinge of Americanism formed an amusing contrast with
+Dickie's colonial ease--especially when she began to detail the
+discomforts of Massissauga, and he made practical suggestions for the
+remedies of each--describing how mamma and he himself managed.
+
+The younger ones had all gone to bed, Richard had returned home, and
+Ethel was waiting to let her father in, when Leonard came back with
+the new arrivals.
+
+'I did not think you would be allowed to stay so late,' said Ethel.
+
+'We did not talk much.  I was playing chants most of the time; and
+after she went to bed, I stayed with Tom.'
+
+'What do you think of her?'
+
+'I cannot think.  I can only feel a sort of awe.  End as it may, it
+will have been a blessed thing to have had her among us like this.'
+
+'Yes, it ought to do us all good.  And I think she is full of
+enjoyment.'
+
+'Perfect enjoyment!' repeated Leonard.  'Thank God for that!'
+
+After some pause, during which he turned over his pocket-book, as if
+seeking for something, he came to her, and said, 'Miss May, Averil
+has assented to a purpose that has long been growing up within me--
+and that I had rather consult you about than any one, because you
+first inspired it.'
+
+'I think I know the purpose you mean,' said Ethel, her heart beating
+high.
+
+'The first best purpose of my boyhood,' he said.  'If only it may be
+given back to me!  Will you be kind enough to look over this rough
+copy?'
+
+It was the draught of a letter to the Missionary Bishop, Mr.
+Seaford's diocesan, briefly setting forth Leonard's early history,
+his conviction, and his pardon, referring to Archdeacon May as a
+witness to the truth of his narrative.
+
+'After this statement,' he proceeded, 'it appears to me little short
+of effrontery to offer myself for any share of the sacred labour in
+which your Lordship is engaged; and though it had been the wish of
+the best days of my youth, I should not have ventured on the thought
+but for the encouragement I received from Mr. Seaford, your
+Lordship's chaplain.  I have a small income of my own, so that I
+should not be a burthen on the mission, and understanding that
+mechanical arts are found useful, I will mention that I learnt
+shoemaking at Milbank, and carpentry at Portland, and I would gladly
+undertake any manual occupation needed in a mission.  Latterly I was
+employed in the schoolmaster's department; and I have some knowledge
+of music.  My education is of course, imperfect, but I am
+endeavouring to improve myself.  My age is twenty-one; I have good
+health, and I believe I can bring power of endurance and willingness
+to be employed in any manner that may be serviceable, whether as
+artisan or catechist.'
+
+'I don't think they will make a shoemaker of you,' said Ethel, with
+her heart full.
+
+'Will they have me at all?  There will always be a sort of ticket-of-
+leave flavour about me,' said Leonard, speaking simply, straight-
+forwardly, but without dejection; 'and I might be doubtful material
+for a mission.'
+
+'Your brother put that in your head.'
+
+'He implied that my case half known would be a discredit to him, and
+I am prepared for others thinking so.  If so, I can get a situation
+at Portland, and I know I can be useful there; but when such a hope
+as this was opened to me again, I could not help making an attempt.
+Do you think I may show that letter to Dr. May?'
+
+'0, Leonard, this is one of the best days of one's life!'
+
+'But what,' he asked, as she looked over the letter, 'what shall I
+alter?'
+
+'I do not know, only you are so business-like; you do not seem to
+care enough.'
+
+'If I let myself out, it would look like unbecoming pressing of
+myself, considering what I am; but if you think I ought, I will say
+more.  I have become so much used to writing letters under
+constraint, that I know I am very dry.'
+
+'Let papa see it first,' said Ethel.  'After all, earnestness is best
+out of sight.'
+
+'Mr. Wilmot and he shall decide whether I may send it,' he said; 'and
+in the meantime I would go to St. Augustine's, if they will have me.'
+
+'I see you have thought it all over.'
+
+'Yes.  I only waited to have spoken with my sister, and she--dear,
+dear Ave--had separately thought of such a destination for me.  It
+was more than acquiescence, more than I dared to hope!'
+
+'Her spirit will be with you, wherever she is!  And,' with a sudden
+smile, 'Leonard, was not this the secret between you and Dickie?'
+
+'Yes,' said Leonard, smiling too; 'the dear little fellow is so fresh
+and loving, as well as so wise and discreet, that he draws out all
+that is in one's heart.  It has been a new life to me ever since he
+took to me!  Do you know, I believe he has been writing a letter of
+recommendation of me on his own account to the Bishop; I told him he
+must enclose it to his father if he presumed to send it, though he
+claims the Bishop as his intimate friend.'
+
+'Ah,' said Ethel, 'papa is always telling him that they can't get on
+in New Zealand for want of the small archdeacon, and that, I really
+think, abashes him more than anything else.'
+
+'He is not forward, he is only sensible,' said Leonard, on whose
+heart Dickie had far too fast a hold for even this slight
+disparagement not to be rebutted.  'I had forgotten what a child
+could be till I was with him; I felt like a stock or a stone among
+you all.'
+
+Ethel smiled.  'I was nearly giving you "Marmion", in remembrance of
+old times, on the night of the Christmas-tree,' she said; 'but I did
+not then feel as if the "giving double" for all your care and trouble
+had begun.'
+
+'The heart to feel it so was not come,' said Leonard; 'now since I
+have grasped this hope of making known to others the way to that
+Grace that held me up,'--he paused with excess of feeling--'all has
+been joy, even in the recollection of the darkest days.  Mr. Wilmot's
+words come back now, that it may all have been training for my
+Master's work.  Even the manual labour may have been my preparation!'
+His eyes brightened, and he was indeed more like the eager, hopeful
+youth she remembered than she had ever hoped to see him; but this
+brightness was the flash of steel, tried, strengthened, and refined
+in the fire--a brightness that might well be trusted.
+
+'One knew it must be so,' was all she could say.
+
+'Yes, yes,' he said, eagerly.  'You sent me words of greeting that
+held up my faith; and, above all, when we read those books at Coombe,
+you put the key of comfort in my hand, and I never quite lost it.
+Miss May,' he added, as Dr. May's latch-key was heard in the front
+door, 'if ever I come to any good, I owe it to you!'
+
+And that was the result of the boy's romance.  The first tidings of
+the travellers next morning were brought near the end of breakfast by
+Tom, who came in looking thin, worn, and anxious, saying that Averil
+had called herself too happy to sleep till morning, when a short doze
+had only rendered her feeble, exhausted, and depressed.
+
+'I shall go and see her,' said Dr. May; 'I like my patients best in
+that mood.'
+
+Nor would the Doctor let his restless, anxious son do more than make
+the introduction, but despatched him to the Hospital; whence
+returning to find himself still excluded, he could endure nothing but
+pacing up and down the lawn in sight of his father's head in the
+window, and seeking as usual Ethel's sympathy.
+
+There was some truth in what Charles Cheviot had said.  Wedlock did
+enhance the grief and loss, and Tom found the privilege of these
+months of tendance more heart-wringing than he had anticipated,
+though of course more precious and inestimable.  Moreover, Averil's
+depression had been a phase of her illness which had not before
+revealed itself in such a degree.
+
+'Generally,' he said, 'she has talked as if what she looks to were
+all such pure hope and joy, that though it broke one's heart to hear
+it, one saw it made her happy, and could stand it.  Fancy, Ethel, not
+an hour after we were married, I found her trying the ring on this
+finger, and saying I should be able to wear it like my father!  It
+seemed as if she would regret nothing but my sorrow, and that my
+keeping it out of sight was all that was needful to her happiness.
+But to-day she has been blaming herself for--for grieving to leave
+all so soon, just as her happiness might have been beginning!  Think,
+Ethel!  Reproaching herself for unthankfulness even to tears!  It
+might have been more for her peace to have remained with her where
+she had no revival of these associations, if they are only pain to
+her.'
+
+'Oh no, no, Tom.  It only proves the pleasure they do give her.  You
+know, better than I do, that there must be ups and downs, failures of
+spirits from fatigue when the will is peaceful and resigned.'
+
+'I know it.  I know it with my understanding, Ethel, but as to
+reasoning about her as if she was anybody else, the thing is mere
+mockery.  What can my father be about?' he added, for the twentieth
+time.  'Talking to her in the morning always knocks her up.  If he
+had only let me warn him; but he hurried me off in his inconsiderate
+way.'
+
+At last, however, the head disappeared, and Tom rushed indoors.
+
+'So, Tom, you have made shorter work of twenty-five patients than I
+of one.'
+
+'I'll go again,' said poor Tom, in the desperation of resolute
+meekness, 'only let me see how she is.'
+
+'Let Ethel go up now.  She is very cheery except for a little
+headache.'
+
+While Ethel obeyed, Dr. May began a minute interrogation of his son,
+so lengthened that Tom could hardly restrain sharp impatient replies
+to such apparent trifling with his agony to learn how long his father
+thought he could keep his treasure, and how much suffering might be
+spared to her.
+
+At last Dr. May said, 'I may be wrong.  Your science is fresher than
+mine; but to me there seem indications that the organic disease is in
+the way of being arrested.  Good health of course she cannot have;
+but if she weathers another winter, I think you may look for as many
+years of happiness with her as in an ordinary case.'
+
+It was the first accent of hope since the hysteric scream that had
+been his greeting, and all his reserve and dread of emotion: could
+not prevent his covering his face with his hands, and sobbing aloud.
+'Father, father,' he said, 'you cannot tell what this is to me!'
+
+'I can in part, my boy,' said the Doctor, sadly.
+
+'And,' he started up and walked about the room, 'you shall have the
+whole treatment.  I will only follow your measures.  No one at New
+York saw the slightest hope of checking it.'
+
+'They had your account, and you hardly allowed enough for the
+hysterical affection.  I do not say it is certainty--far less,
+health.'
+
+'Any way, any way, if I may only have her to lie and look at me, it
+is happiness unlooked for!  You don't think I could have treated her
+otherwise?'
+
+'No.  Under His blessing you saved her yourself.  You would have
+perceived the change if she had been an indifferent person.'
+
+Tom made another turn to the door, and came back still half wild, and
+laid his face on his arms upon the table.  'You tell her,' he said,
+'I shall never be able--'
+
+Knocking at Averil's door, Dr. May was answered by a call of 'Tom.'
+
+'Not this time, my dear.  He is coming, but we have been talking you
+over.  Ave, you have a very young doctor, and rather too much
+interested.'
+
+'Indeed!' she said, indignantly; 'he has made me much better.'
+
+'Exactly so, my dear; so much better that he agrees with me that he
+expressed a strong opinion prematurely.'
+
+'They thought the same at New York,' she said, still resolved on his
+defence.
+
+'My dear, unless you are bent on growing worse in order to justify
+his first opinion, I think you will prove that which he now holds.
+And, Ave, it was, under Providence, skill that we may be proud of by
+which he has subdued the really fatal disorder.  You may have much to
+undergo, and must submit to a sofa life and much nursing, but I think
+you will not leave him so soon.'
+
+There was a long pause; at last she said, '0, Dr. May, I beg your
+pardon.  If I had known, I would never--'
+
+'Never what, my dear?'
+
+'Never have consented!  It is such a grievous thing for a
+professional man to have a sick wife.'
+
+'It is exactly what he wanted, my dear, if you will not fly at me for
+saying so.  Nothing else could teach him that patients are not cases
+but persons; and here he comes to tell you what he thinks of the
+trouble of a sick wife.'
+
+'Well,' said Dr. May, as he and Ethel walked away together, 'poor
+young things, they have a chequered time before them.  Pretty well
+for the doctor who hated sick people, Wards, and Stoneborough; but,
+after all, I have liked none of our weddings better.  I like people
+to rub one another brighter.'
+
+'And I am proud when the least unselfish nature has from first to
+last done the most unselfish things.  No one of us has ever given up
+so much as Tom, and I am sure he will be happy in it.'
+
+More can hardly be said without straying into the realms of
+prediction; yet such of our readers as are bent on carrying on their
+knowledge of the Daisies beyond the last sentence, may be told that,
+to the best of our belief, Leonard's shoemaking is not his foremost
+office in the mission, where he finds that fulness of hopeful
+gladness which experience shows is literally often vouchsafed to
+those who have given up home, land, and friends, for the Gospel's
+sake.  His letters are the delight of more than one at Stoneborough;
+and his sister, upon her sofa, is that home member of a mission
+without whom nothing can be done--the copier of letters, the depot of
+gifts, the purveyor of commissions, the maker of clothes, the
+collector of books, the keeper of accounts--so that the house still
+merits the name of the S. P. G. office, as it used to be called in
+the Spenserian era.  But Mrs. Thomas May is a good deal more than
+this.  Her sofa is almost a renewal of the family centre that once
+Margaret's was; the region where all tidings are brought fresh for
+discussion, all joys and sorrows poured out, the external influence
+that above all has tended to soften Gertrude into the bright grace of
+womanhood.  Mary Cheviot and Blanche Ernescliffe cannot be cured of a
+pitying 'poor Tom'--as they speak of 'the Professor'--in which title
+the awkward sound of Dr. Tom has been merged since an appointment
+subsequent to the appearance of the "Diseases of Climate".  But every
+one else holds that not his honours as a scientific physician, his
+discoveries, and ably-written  papers--not even his father's full and
+loving confidence and gratitude, give Professor May as much happiness
+as that bright-eyed delicate wife, with whom all his thoughts seem to
+begin and end.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Trial, by Charlotte M. Yonge
+